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M
-

'

SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS
OF

UNIVERSAL HISTORY,
tfje

Creation to

tij*

PRESENTING A

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY, CHRONOLOGY, GEOGRAPHY, AND GENEALOGY.

WHEREIN
16

EXHIBITED

A GENERAL VIEW
OF

EVERY COUNTRY, KINGDOM, EMPIRE, AND STATE, OF WHICH ANY RECORDS REMAIN,
(

UNUIvR THE VARIOUS HEADS OF

Geographical Situation, Extent, Boundaries, and Divisions. Natural History and Curiosities. Original Inhabitants and Modern Population. Manners, Customs, Laws, and Government. Sovereigns, and Distinguished Characters. Language, Literature, Arts, and Commerce. Religion.

METHODICALLY ARRANGED, AND ILLUSTRATED WITH

EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL REMARKS;

Cableg of Comparative Cbronologg, anD (Seograpfcical

Sap&

ancient anD

monern;

HISTORIC AJL CM ARTS 5

AND

ACCURATE GENEALOGICAL TABLES

Of all
the illustrious Families of ancient

and modem Times. )

AN INTRODUCTORY
ON THE NATURE,
DEFINITIONS,

TO WHICH

IS

PREFIXED,

ESSAY,

AND CLASSIFICATIONS OF HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY, AND THE SYSTEMS

OF VARIOUS WRITERS.

BY JEHOSHAPHAT

ASPIN.

VOL.
|f{^eo-9i

I.
a.vt

xa.ra.tatt,

avru.^ yaj iu^o-si; ixowiuf,

in^ot

<rvtrit-o.i

lyxairuf.

Basil. Imper. ad Leon.

fil.

odi^i; >jji' i{ fcrjre fa. yttoptia, i% aiOguirun Tu rt xal %$o>tjl il-trn^a. yttmo-t, pvTS egyat ftfyaXa fa, JE Herodot. Lib. I. C. 1. BajCagoieriii awoJ^9sTa, ixAsa yinra.t.

JLifcerpool:

PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY NUTTALL, FISHER, AND DIXON,

And
Printers in Ordinary to His Majesty; Sold at their Warehouse, 87, Bartholomew Close, London, and by their Booksellers in Dublbi, Edinburgh, and the principal

Towns of the United Kingdom.

PREFACE.

and the concomitant sciences of Geography and Genealogy, the moderate size and price of which might render it accessible to all classes of readers, has long been a desideratum in the English language: for though we have abundance
History, Chronology,

STANDARD work upon

of compilations made with this professed object, there is not one that embraces, in a sufficient of the science: for instance, abridgments of Universal History degree, the various parts

contain only a hasty account of the rise and fall of the principal kingdoms and empires, interspersed with a few anecdotes of intervening events ; but they are rarely accompanied

with any adequate geographical description and as each state is described by itself, from first In compento last, the comparative chronology of contemporary nations is totally omitted.
;

diums of chronology, also, the want of a chain of connection in the events, renders the work tedious and unedifying to the reader. As to Genealogy, it seems never to have occurred to the class of writers here alluded to, that without it History is deprived of one of its most essential
powers. And this omission, or neglect, will appear the more surprising, when it is known that the Continent is not destitute of works combining all these objects, from which alone the student,
or even the cursory reader, can obtain a competent knowledge of the history of the world this in a very small compass.
;

and

with these ideas of the insufficiency of the mass of publications, styled Abridgments of Universal History," (most of which are designed for the use of Schools, where perspicuity and conciseness are equally desirable,) and grateful for the patronage and

Impressed

"

approbation with which his late labours have been honoured, the Author is encouraged to send the present Undertaking into the world, which will be found to be merely an enlarged view of the same subjects, treated precisely in a similar manner, and with the like elucidations: and as the one has been approved as an elementary introduction for the use of juvenile readers,
so he trusts the present Work will prove equal to its high pretensions, of being a standard book of reference in this very useful department of literature.

begins with an Introductory Essay, intended to familiarize the reader's mind with such subjects, the acquaintance with which is indispensable, prior to his entering on a course of history; as the Divisions and Classifications of the subject at large; a Review

The Work

of the Writings of the earliest historians, and the credit due to their performances; the best A 2

iv

PREFACE.

of studying History; Nature and Utility of Historical Charts; Objects and Divisions of Chronology: tin- Dhision of Time among various Nations; Calculations by Months, Years,

Mode

and ('\cles; Auxiliaries to Chronological Computations, as the testimonies of Authors, Eclipses, M. d:ds. Coins, ancient Inscriptions ; Systems, or Hypotheses of various Writers Division of Time by Eras and Epochas ; Nature and Use of Chronological and Genealogical Tables Origin of religious Worship, and its division into true and false; Progress and Objects of
; ;

of absolute Monarchies, and their Idolatry; Opinions of the heathen Philosophers; Origin Declension into the Republican and Mixed Forms all which are so intimately connected with the general subject, that as a system, the Work would be incomplete without them; and they
:

are rather thrown together as a preliminary discourse, than dispersed through the body of the Work, that they might not interrupt the course of the narrative. And though the Introduction
necessarily runs to

some

length,

it

must be deemed concise with respect

to the objects

it

embraces, and cannot but prove of primary consequence, not merely to such as are about to commence their studies, but to those also who, having formerly read the page of history in a cursory manner, are now desirous of entering more extensively and usefully into the subject.

The

convey instruction, by giving the Reader an outline of the difficulties attendant upon the history, and more especially the chronology, of the first ages; and, without bewildering his imagination amid the intricacies of hypothetical contentions, to
intention of this

Essay

is

to

enable him to form a general idea of the respective merits of theorists, and to prevent his placing implicit confidence in any.

Having

settled these preliminaries, the

Work

opens with an account of the creation of the

world, as related by Moses, contrasted with the cosmogonies of ancient heathen, and modem Next follows the creation of our first parents, Adam and Eve, with infidel philosophers. which is connected the theories of those who pretend that the race of mankind is of older date

than
the

Adam, and .le\\s: The

that he
first

was merely selected by Moses from the rest, as being the progenitor of man's transgression, and its consequent punishment, next arrests the

Reader's attention;

these are followed

by a short

disquisition

on the nature, powers, and

closes this
first

employment of angels; and an inquiry into the situation of the di\isi<>n of the history of the world.
After the
i

Garden of Eden,

fall

of

Adam,

the

Work
:

embraces, as

far as the

scanty materials will admit, a

<iH In 'transactions of the antediluvians, their religion, government, laws, arts, sciences, the population of the world; the murder of Abel; the manner-, language, and longevity
ie\v

v\

punishment of Cain

departure from the paternal abode, and the distinction made between his offspring and that of his brother his progeny, and the progeny of Seth ; the former being denominated .w.v of men; the latter, sons of God.
;

his

In the account of the general Deluge, the various conjectures of ancient

a

to the niiniiH'r of that dreadful catastrophe, are duly noticed: the construction of the ark are discn-sed; as \\cll as the alterations to which the earth has
f

and modern writers and dimensions

been subject in

of this e\ent: the whole- closing with an inquiry as to the situation of the mountains of Ararat, and a review of the several opinions relative thereto.
(MIS, <|in !,(,.

PREFACE.
After the general Deluge, the limits of history become considerably enlarged ; the repeoconfusion of pling of the earth, the building of the first cities, with the tower of Babel, the languages, the dispersion of mankind, and the division of the earth among the posterity of

Noah, are

all

interesting topics; particularly the latter, which, as

it

includes the migrations of

the children of Shem, are described

Ham, and

Japheth, the founders of the

first

nations,

whose genealogies

in elucidatory diagrams, leads naturally to a geographical description of the

ancient world, where the

that the

Reader may

are coupled with those they originally bore, be always able to identify a place, though spoken of under a variety of

modern names of places

denominations.

The Work now proceeds

Israelites,

to the histories of particular nations

and kingdoms;

as of the

Egyptians, Babylonians and Assyrians, Canaanites, Gomerians, or Celtes, Grecians, &c. according to their order in chronology: in which the following method is observed: the true name of each people is first ascertained, according to the best authorities; a geographical
description of the country where
divisions, climate, fertility, animal
cities,
it

settled is then given, expressive of its situation, extent,

artificial curiosities,

and vegetable productions, natural and

is

towns, mountains, rivers, then follow the origin and antiquity of the inhabitants, their laws, government, genealogy of their rulers, religion, customs, institutions, languages, literature, learned men, commerce,
navigation, &c. the whole closing with the chronological series of their kings or governors, which naturally includes the history of their wars, treaties, revolutions, and other memorable
events.

lakes, with whatever else

worthy of notice in each province;

And,

to preserve, as

much

as possible, the unity of action, the chronology of each

country is divided into certain epochas; and only so much of it is presented at a time, as may leave the recollection of the Reader free to combine the general state of the whole world at any
given period.

Thus, having brought the history of the Patriarchs down to the vocation of Abraham, that
of Israel occupies our attention till the time of the Exodus, which introduces the Egyptian monarchy, and the overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea. The early Babylonians and Assy-

with the Aramaeans, or first Syrians, next appear; and they are followed by the Canaanites, and their neighbours the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Midianites, Edomites, Amalekites, and Phoenicians who are all intimately connected with the country destined for the Israelites.
rians,
;

The

history of the last-named people is then resumed, and carried forward to the Babylonish captivity. By this time several other nations, as the Celtes, or Gomerians, the Scythians, and Grecians, become of importance; and the affairs of the latter, the Trojan war, are

including

brought forward to the return of the Heraclidae to the Peloponnesus. The kingdoms of Media, Lydia, Tyre, and Latium, the Babylonish monarchy, and its overthrow by the Medes and
Persians
;

the empire of the latter, and

its

extinction

by the Macedonian conqueror,

all

suc-

ceed
ns

in their appropriate order,

and

call

back the Reader's

attention to the affairs of Greece,

introductory to the empire of Alexander the Great. After the death of that conqueror, and the division of his acquisitions, the history of Rome begins, and is continued to the battle of Actiurn, where a pause is made to take a survey of the various kingdoms and states which
.successively contributed to enlarge the boundaries,

and swell the triumphs, of that republican

ri

PREFACE.
first

empire; the account of which concludes the

portion of the

Work, or what

is

usually deno-

minated ancient

history.

second part continues the history of Rome to its destruction by the barbarians, about A. D. 1440; when the comprising what are usually termed the middle ages, ending invention of the art of printing, the improvements in navigation, the subsequent discovery of

The

America, and the consequent extended intercourse among mankind, laid the foundations of tlmse arts, sciences, and civil polity, which are enjoyed in so high a degree by the present This period presents the beginnings of most of the establishments now in existence. generation.
begins with a geographical description of the modern world; and as the history of these times is of infinitely more importance than any that preceded and in the distribution of the it, so a much greater space is appropriated to its consideration; allotments of that space to the respective countries, our own island has received the largest

The

third

and

last part

of the

Work

portion.

In the course of compilation, the Author has confined his narrative to a brief statement of the most prominent traits of such facts as have a tendency to induce discussion; and in the notes he has collected, as far as he could, the opinions of the most celebrated writers on controverted
In the more interesting subjects; from which the Reader will make his own conclusions. events of battles, sieges, encampments, treaties, (either of peace, alliance, or commerce,) he has been circumstantial and elaborate, without being diffuse ; while such as are of minor conse-

quence, have been only glanced

It

at.

has been usual to exclude Ecclesiastical History from works of this nature, or, at most, only to speak of it incidentally, as connected with political affairs; but as the want of this branch of universal history must render any system incomplete, a chapter is devoted to it, in the
course of the modern division of the

Work

in

which the

rise

and progress of

Christianity, the

assumptions and usurpations of the popes, the schisms and heresies, general councils and decrees, with the Reformation by Luther, are all noticed, in their chronological order with the addition of the history of Mohammedism.
:

this combination it is presumed that, in the present Work, the Reader will find a course of political, military, and ecclesiastical history; where every one may discover complete MMiiewhat to amuse ami instruct, whatever be the peculiar bias of his genius, or the nature of

From

his pursuits.

The
its

politician,

each

state, of

relations with

will learn the difficulties

from the knowledge he will acquire of the interior constitution of its neighbours, and the causes of its prosperity or declension, of the art of governing, of concluding alliances, defensive or offensive,

of managing a negociation skilfully, and of conducting it to an advantageous conclusion : the from the history of the Greeks and Romans, a knowledge of their military tactics ; and the Christian philosopher will perceive, and with humble reverence acknowledge,
soldier will derive

that in the course arid connection of

of Providence

that

God

every thing depends on the secret counsels holds the reins of the universe, and prepares effects from the most
affairs,

human

PREFACE.
remote causes; either by giving efficiency to human wisdom, or by confounding its projects, it to foolishness in a word, that He only, as righteous Governor of the world, knows how to reduce all things to the obedience of His own will ; and that all the powers of

and turning

the earth, or rather of

all

creation,

do but subserve His great designs.

With respect to the chronology of the early ages, it must be acknowledged as a mystery, which has puzzled many, but has been unravelled by none. The labours of Julius Africanus,
Dionysius the Younger, Eusebius, Scaliger, Petau, Usher, Marsham, Pagi, Pezron, Newton, Freret, and many more that might be enumerated, however ingenious, elaborate, or disinterested, have been all unavailing; and only demonstrate that they were perplexed by difficulties
It would therefore be vain, in a work of this they had no power to overcome. to affect a discovery which has baffled all research, or to assume the description, computation here adopted, as more free from objection than many others. In the second chapter of the Introduction, (Sect. IV.) the Reader will find the most generally received calculations; the

}*'hich

choice: yet as it was necessary that some uniform should be observed throughout the Work, the computation of system Archbishop Usher, as corrected by Dr. Blair, has been adopted their calculations being, upon the whole,

preference of either being

left

to his

own

o-enerally

admitted as sufficient for most purposes of sacred and profane history. In modern history, the dates given in a French work, compiled by the Benedictines of St. Maur, intitled, L'Art de
Verifier les Dates,

have been preferred, that work being considered as the most accurate

historical compilation extant.

INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER

I.

OF HISTORY.
SECTION
I.

NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY. ITS CLASSIFICATIONS AND DEFINITIONS. ELUCIDATED BY CHRONOLOGY, GEOGRAPHY, AND GENEALOGY.
strongly indicated in its Name, borrowed from the Greek, .Yopi*, historia, literally denoting a search after curious or even a rehearthings, or a desire of knowing, In a more sal of things which we have seen. whatever is the extended sense, it embraces subject of narration, whether the relater speaks from his own knowledge, or from accounts obFrom this concise view, it tained from others. must appear that history, being in itself the fountain of knowledge, is the first and most important branch of polite literature. The study of history has been pursued and recommended by the wisest men in all civilized ages and countries. Cicero has declared, that " with is the man who is

THE

nature of History

is

by the perusal of historic records, that we are enabled to appreciate the transactions which are daily exhibited to our notice, by comparing them with the deeds of past ages ; and from prudential deductions, guided by the example of former consequences, to anticipate future results a species of foreknowledge, not only lawful in itself, but to which it is the fault and folly of
It is
:

every

man

not to attain.
too harsh, unlettered

Nor will this censure be thought when it is remembered that even the
tribes of savages

unacquainted history, a state of childhood." And in another " carries our knowplace, he observes, that it the vast and devouring space of ledge"beyond numberless years, enables us to triumph over time itself, and makes us, though living at an immense distance, as it were, eye-witnesses to all the events and revolutions which have occasioned such astonishing revolutionsin the world." VOL. I.
still in

have discovered the importance of preserving the recollection of past events, and of using them to inspire their youth with an emulation of transcending the valorous deeds of their forefathers hence the national songs, and traditional lore, which are to be discovered among the most benighted nations, and which indeed form, as we shall have occasion hereafter to remark, the only basis of the early history of all the nations on the earth, with the exception of what is contained in holy writ. " The first and lowest use of history," says Dr. Priestley, " is, that it agreeably amuses the imagination, and interests the passions; its next, and higher use, to improve the understanding, strengthen the judgment, and thus fit us for In some entering upon life with advantage. " it will continues the same writer, respects," prove a better guide than experience ; because. B
:

INTRODUCTION.
the examples which rally complete, and
partial
is

[CHAP.

i.

presents to us are genewe behold them through a

it

History only to the advancement of political knowledge, but to that of knowledge in general; because the most exalted BBdentanailig is merely a power of drawing conclusions, and forming maxims of conduct, from known facts and
experiments." The ancients were so convinced of the importance of history, that.they deified, and raised altars to it; gave it the first place among the sciences, and esteemed it before all others, because, they said, the study of it required a combination of them all: Clio, the first of the nine

medium than that of experience. therefore of great importance, not

house; the study of history will be found most generally indispensable, always useful, and never In a word, to adopt the language of irksome. " Histhe Roman writer, already twice quoted, tory is the mistress of life, as it teaches what to
pursue, and what to avoid. "(a) Having thus briefly stated the general nature and utility of history, we shall proceed to the

Muses, whom their inventive imaginations had created, presided over history; they considered those who devoted themselves to this charming study, who were possessed of the necessary talents for writing history, to be men privileged above their fellows, worthy of the most unlimited

recompence and of the highest honours. In the more remote periods. they were looked upon as beings more than human, a kind of demigods: their works were read at the public festivals, and listened to with rapture; the people testified their approbation by unbounded applauses, while they adorned the heads of the writers with crowns; kings and rulers of states admitted them to their councils, and into their most intimate society in short, the historian held the
:

object more immediately in view, viz. a definiand general classification of the subject. The facts which constitute the subject of history have been transmitted to us either by TRADITION, or in WRITING. TRADITIONAL HISTORY comprises the recitals made by the first men to their children, of whatever happened worthy of notice during their lifetime ; and these recitals, multiplied in every generation, have been transmitted to our times, without the assistance of writing, or any equivalent means of enabling us to trace the facts to their real source, or of determining upon their authenticity: hence, amidst a multitude of events, we find nothing but uncertainty ; and therefore traditional history and fabulous history may be considered as almost synonymous. WRITTEN HISTORY, on the other hand, records facts, of which the remembrance having been preserved by some unequivocal signs, the
tion
truth cannot be doubted, because in general they are related with little or no variation by
different writers of various countries,

who must

first

rank among his fellow-citizens. Incredible may appear in the present day, it is no exaggeration; Herodotus, Thucydides, and many others, were loaded with honours similar
as this

have been guided by some authentic original, to have fallen into such a coincidence in their
narrations.

Such being the sources from which the

his-

those conferred upon the most renowned generals of their day. The enlightened age in which our lot is east, added to the succession of wonders almost daily presented to our view; of the rise, declension, and fall of empires, kingdoms, and states, imperiously demand an attentive cultivation of this branch of literature neither can any education lie denned liberal or complete, in which it does not form a For whether the principal feature. individual be intended for a public or private
to
:

torian of the present day has to derive his information, it will readily occur to the reader, that
in treating of culties must
;

the early ages of mankind, diffibe encountered, of no ordinary magnitude and that amidst the variety of opinions, or systems of chronologers, the best can only be entitled to the praise of being least im-

probable or absurd.

station;

his capacity, inclination, or }<- \,\ |,i j,, circumstances, umpire to the honours
l

whether

The classification of history may be taken generally according to the TIME in which events have occurred ; the MODE in which they are related the SPECIES of facts described; and the KOIJM under which they are presented to the reader.
;

of

court, or the intrigues of a cabinet; or whether to be content in the more recluse situation of independent competency, the bustle of

With respect

to the
is

occurred, history
(a)

TIME in which events have divided into ANCIENT and

De
Orat.

the exchange, or the plodding of the counting-

Cicero,

SECT.

I.]

IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY.

ITS DIVISIONS.

plan pursued, either

bo, according to the UNIVERSAL, GENERAL or PARTICULAR, COMPLETE Or ABRIDGED. This division being- arbitrary and artificial, writers have not adopted any uniform plan in making it: the more general division between ancient and modern history is placed at the Nativity of Christ; but some "writers include under the head of ancient history, all the events prior to the invasion and overthrow of the Western Empire by the Barbarians and others do not begin what they term modern history, till
;

MODERN, and these may

of all nations, as concentrated in a single piclure; in the latter, every nation occupies a <li.<linct place

by

itself.

The MODE
actions
it

in

which history presents the

n|>|>el!ations

the epocha of Clovis' victory over the Romans, and the foundation of the French monarchy. There are also others, who bring down their calculation of ancient history so far as the reign of Charlemagne; while they designate the period between that epocha and the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, under Mahomet II. the middle age ; (b) whence to the present time

procures it the various of annals, where the events are classed year by year; chronicles, in which events are ranged in the order of their dates; memoirs, or commentaries, consisting of portions of history, to which the writers were eye-witnesses, or in which they bore a part in the action recorded ; revolutions, or a detail of remarkable epochas, set down in the order of time in which they succeeded each other; fasti, consisting of cerrecords,
tain

Roman

historical compilations according to the calendar, in which the names of the

days and of the magistrates, with the remarkable events of the year, are placed together; historical journals, a species of memoirs, in

they reckon their modern history. Under the head of TIME as a classification of history, it may be proper to observe that both ancient and modern history are divided into
epochas, periods, or intervals ; but as these more properly belong to another part of this Introduction, (c) where they are particularly and
largely treated of, here, that history
it

which the events are rather deposited for preservation, than related for amusement: fragments, consisting of detached pieces of history; essays, in which particular portions of history are examined and descanted on; researches,

may be

is

periods, viz.

1.

From
is

sufficient to say divided into three great the Creation to the De-

luge

which age

reckoned uncertain, because

:

we have

only the abridged account given of it in the writings of Moses 2. From the Deluge to the first Olympiad ; which from the multitude of feigned stories related of it in profane history, is called the fabulous age: 3. From the first to our own times ; this period is deOlympiad nominated historical ; because the actions performed in it are recorded by writers of strict
veracity. In this

memorials, and letters, containing disquisitions, and various other matters connected with the illustration of historical facts, or of such as pretend to be so; finally, miscellaneous or mixed portions, partaking less or more of the nature of the preceding. The SPECIES of historic facts are, in ancient history, sacred or profane; in modern history, ecclesiastic, descriptive, ciril or political; military, philosophical or scientific ; literary, bio~
graphical, critical,
dic,

natural, numismatic,

heral-

&c.

SACRED HISTORY is that recorded in the Holy Scriptures, and must be considered as
proceeding from the Almighty himself, being written under his direction, and byhis immediate
It relates chiefly to the Israelites inspiration. or Jews, and primitive Christians, and is the It repository of all divine and moral precepts. commences with a brief account of the creation, and, after the fall of man, having noticed the

Work all the events prior to the Christian aera are included under the division of ANCIENT HISTORY; and those subsequent to that epocha, under the head of MODERN
HISTORY.
lar

Universal history is either general or particu; in the former case, it presents a hasty view
we

ages of the patriarchs, the general deluge, and the division of the earth among the children of
history: perhaps the reason
is,

are frequently necessary the reader should understand, is an historical collection relative to the Eastern Empire, compiled by various oriental Greek writers. Although the most authentic collection extant, it
it is

(b) 111 the history of the middle ages referred to the Byzantine History; which,

that

it is

written in the

Greek

language,

with
It
is

meddle.
ancient

which modern historians do not care to denominated Byzanlitir, from Byzantium, the
capital

name of Constantinople,
II.

of the

Eastern

is

now

rarely consulted, except

by writers on ecclesiastical

Empire. (c) Chap.

Sect. VIII.

C 2

INTRODUCTION.
Noah,
(.lie

[CHAP.

i.

it

hastens to record the establishment of

en\eii;ilit

between Jehovah

;ili(l

his

Church,

Scriptures. of men; so
societies

in tlic

after

person of its representative Abraham; it only glances obliquely at other ueiv occasionally concerned nation.-., as they with llie Hebrews. The genealogy of our Saviour Jesus Christ is likewise traced from Adam, through the line of Seth, Noah, 8hem,

object is the transactions presents a picture of all known events, general and particular, of the various
its
it

As

which

into

themselves.

which mankind have formed This branch of history is divided

into fabulous, heroic,

and

true.

David, &c.; his life, sufferand ascension to hea\en. with tlie establishment of the t.'hristian church, and the transactions of the apostles, are also recorded; with these are connected biographical accounts of some remarkable persons, both in the Jewish commonwealth and the ( and even the prophecies are hristian church intermixed with historical details. These writing are of the utmost importance to the historian; as without them, we must have remained in utter ignorance of the origin of the universe; and it should be remembered, that however concise the Mosaic account is of the creation and of the first ages of the world, it is the only document on which we can rely. This history, with the writings to which it appertains, has been most wonderfully preserved amidst the revolutions of a changing world, during a period of upwards of three thousand years, by the continued operation of a miracle which hath upheld it against all the opposition of men, and their endeavours to destroy it; while many excellent human compositions, of far more recent date, have sunk into oblh ion. and have left little more than a memento of their names. Under the head of PROFANE HISTORY are included all events not recorded in the Sacred

Abraham,

.ludah,

ings, death, resurrection,

ages extend to about the time of Moses, and include many important events; but they are so distorted by fabulous inventions, that the features of truth are notto be discerned. The heathens supposed that during this period, the gods dwelt upon the earth, and laid the foundations of the earliest empires and kingdoms; as the Assyrian or Babylonian, Egypas tian, Chinese, and most of the Grecian, more largely treated of in the subsequent part of this work. To the fabulous, succeeded the hemic a<fcs, of which we have scarcely any other than tradiThis portion of profane history tional records. be considered as ending only with the may commencement of the Olympiads, f A.M. 32-28. during which the government of the ( B.C. 77. earth devolved upon the children of the godx, better known by the name of (/cin/^ai/s, and
heroes, who settled many new slates, destroyed wild beasts, put to death robbers and tyrants,

The fabulous

after their decease were honoured by the ignorant and da/./led multitude, as beings more than human. The heroic actions of these re-

and

adventurers, have been celebrated by the poets, who have so bedecked the plain matter of fact with the imagery of a

nowned conquerors and

warm

imagination, that

it

becomes,

in

modern

times, extremely difficult to reconcile their accounts, in any degree, to common sense. (d)
authors, who scrupled not to mix truth with fiction; and thai therefore vtc oiifjlil not to credit any tiling they relate. This argument, were it to l>e admitted, would cut us off from
all

Varro divide., tin- whole Aeries of time into three period* from tin- beginning of the world to tin Deluge of \. M. which he calls an HI/,- <>f 17lit 2-1(1; I',. ( 0;.'v:.'s ;/(/ ini-i'i-litiii'i' ; and indeed we (hid nothing in profane historian- n-lative to it, which has any appearance of truth, with the exceptions of two or three quotations by Joseil
;

In- first,

plin

that Ihe authors of Iheni, in their .icconnt.s

of Ihe uenend

dchii;.',

and of

llie

time

)irec<

ding

it,

agree

in

many

The second period of particulars with that of MOM-*. .\ divi.iou is jViiin the Delude of Ogyircs lo the first
\

Olympiad faktl

!!.('.

77ii>:

and

ibis lie

call.

//

-on nt the numerous failles with which the Milts of it are interv oven. lli> last period, which reach* from (he lir^l OKmpiad to his own day, he denominates li'asil. Diodiirns Si( nhis extends the fabulous age no farther ihan tlw Trojan war finished A. M. 'Jti-JH !?.(.'. HI! and indeed from thai time the (ruth lupins lo break lhr.ii<:h the
1

knowledge of the ancient world, except such as could b<: derived from the Sacred Scripture-, which is chiefly confined lint even if the poets were (lie first histo Jewish affairs, torians after the invention of letters, and even if they did emliellish llieir verse with various fictions, no doulit can For inhe entertained thai their groundwork was truth. stance, Homer's poe.ins, notwithstanding ;J1 that has In en said lo the contrary, must not be looked upon as the mere but as the most anpoetical cilusioii of an inventive souius cient hi-l:.i-\ of (ireece, in which the writer discovers lo us llie state of that country at thai time, with an account of its
;

kind's

winch
is

and ueneiaU, its slates, cities, and governments; all \ow what is continued by other credible historians. here adduced wilh r-v.pi'ct to Homer, may he equally applied
for
I

rni-t

uliich oli-ctire.

llie
-.1

It ha. been obpreecdint; ages. written histories, that pools were their

lo others;

hough

their works, like his,

a.;d

be interspersed

with

many

fabulous

tales,

decked with much of mytho-

SECT.

1.]

CLASSIFICATION OF HISTORY.
Descriptive history, or topography, is rather applied to places than to events. Civil, or political history, whose objects are
laws, customs, commerce, navigation, industry, public economy, &c. and in this view, it often obtains the title of statistics but in a more unli:

the Olympiads, however, or rather before, truth, plain and unsoa preference in the phisticated, began to obtain above the marvellous legends with minds of men

About the commencement of

which

their ancestors

had been amused and

misled ; it is therefore from this period that we may date the next division of our subject, rh. TRUE HISTORY, which, as already observed, descends to modern times, and is substantially the object of the present work. The divisions of MODERN HISTORY are the
Ecclesiastical history, which represents men as acting, or pretending to act, in obedience to what they believe to be the will of God: though too frequently it discovers them opposing that will with all their might, and craftily perverting the laws of the Almighty, to their own profit, and the destruction of their fellow-creatures.

mited sense,
versal history,

civil

history
it

is

denominated

uni-

and then

details the causes of

following:

In this branch of history, we have an account of the rise and establishment of the several religions and churches, of the birth and growth of various opinions, sects, &c. Though not less important and interesting than civil history, it is, upon the whole, less fertile of great events, presents fewer revolutions, and is much more uniform in the detail.
logical blandishment, yet they may have furnished a judicious historian, who could distinguish between truth and fiction, have here admitted the witii good historical documents.

the rise, existence, preservation, or extinction, of empires and states. Military history, which relates only to the details of war; as battles, sieges, stratagems, the marching and maneuvering of armies, tactics, discipline, &c. Philosophical history, or an account of the progress and discoveries of science. L/tcmry history, which also embraces all improvements in the arts, and describes the various productions of genius, with the name and country of authors, and the period when they flou;'>hed, their opinions, and the controversies that subsisted between them. Btograp/ttcttl or personal history, which describes the actions of a single person, includes an account of all the remarkable characters who have ever appeared in the drama of public life, whether as rulers, legislators, divines, conThe nearest objects appear differently, according to the different views of the spectators: imagination, prejudice, and partiality, often bias men's understandings; and hence ari-c tho-e variations in the writings which have served a.- memoirs
of particular nations. We therefore conclude that the fragments of the mo,t early annalists, which have reached us, were not mere copies from the fictions of the poets but that they were drawn from sources as well authenticated as the circumstances under which they wrote would admit of: and that both they and the poets are worthy of credit, so far as they do not exceed the bounds of probaAnd here, should it be asked how we would fix those bility. bounds, which are liable to be contracted or enlarged in different countries and various ages, causing that at one time to be extremely well received, and taken as an indubitable fact, which at another, would not only be doubted, but absolutely denied as an impossibility: we reply, that some events are iij themselves of so simple a nature, that no doubt cari be entertained of them, though it may as to the attendant circumstances: thus the building of a city, or fortress, by certain persons, is in itself what few will cavil at; but that the walls should be raised by the sound of a lyre, that its first warriors should have sprung from the teeth of a dragon, that the gods should have contested for its patronage, and a hundred other similar conceits, is what could only be believed in the darkest periods of ignorance and superstition and we conceive that we now possess a sufficiency of the light of literature to enable us to detect such very ancient and arrant fables, as well as of Chris tianiu to prove their falsehood consequently, the boundaries alluded to, are such as reason, enlightened by religion, and improved by education, would alone prescribe.
to the first historians
;
:

We

.apposition as true, that poets were the first and only historians, in order to shew that, were such the fact, it could form no reasonable ground of objection against the validity of the but we are not prepared to go events which they record so far in our concessions; for it is not to be doubted, <l\iitc that ever since the use of written characters was first introduced, men have left behind them some monuments of such
:

might concern their posterity as princes and magisof what related to the public fathers, of what regarded their domestic concerns. These, indeed, were the first histories of mankind, and the most ancient historians have only In most nations, the priests digested them into a better form.
tilings as
:

trates,

appear to have been the first annalists and though they mieht conceive it to be for their interest, to scalier false prodigies up and down in their relations, and to deceive the people, by
;

making their gods interpose in the principal actions; yet, as to the substance of their narrations in matters of war, politics,
settlements, treaties, deaths of princes, i\c. what motive could they have to be guilty of forgeries? Credulity has crowded even into the pages of modern history, a thousand and yet the history itself has not been deemed less prodigie^,; Neither is the discredible with respect to the great events. agreement of authors among themselves any rational ground for their rejection altogether: for, even in our own times, we find a dilference in the accounts give, by those who were eyev/itiicv-.es of what The particulars of a battle are they relate. indeed rarely told in the same way by all who bore a distin1

new

guished part

iu

it,

especially if engaged

on opposite

sides.

INTRODUCTION.
commanders, authors, physicians, phi\c. This branch lo>ophers. mathematicians, is in mans respect- allied to literary history. ac( 'nticnt history, by which the various
qiierors,

[CHAP.

i.

Tent writers are brought together, compared, and made to elucidate each other in the support of truth; or to detect and confute

counts of

difii

spurious inventions.

Natural history, which describes the general and extraordinary operations and productions of nature, with the alterations it undergoes in the birth, progress, end, and use of things. Numismatic history, which relates to the coins and medals of a nation, is more resorted to for the elucidation of doubtful facts, than for mere amusement. Heraldic history, which treats of armorial distinctions, begins with the

should beguile the reader to approve of actions, which, deprived of the agreeable manner in which they are related, would demand his censure. This kind of history pretends to discover the secret springs and mo\ements of events; enters into the very thoughts, and penetrates the breasts of the persons concerned in them; and by the result of enterprises and undertakings, decides upon the prudence or weakness with which they were projected, conducted, &c. in all which, it is evident, conjecture and a fervent imagination must have a greater share than can be consistent with plain truth. Mixed history, besides the ornaments of the last-named division, embraces the proofs and authorities of simple history; and by quoting
authentic memoirs, original letters, manifestoes, declarations, &c. is enabled to vouch for the truth of what it details. This may, therefore, be deemed the most profitable, and not the

emperor Henry

I.

sur-

named
is

the Fowler, about the 10th century;

and

useful in tracing family lineages and connections, and sometimes furnishes matter of curious

research to the antiquary; serving to ascertain the dates of particular facts, not otherwise determinable.

The FORM underwhich

is

historical facts present

either simple, figurative, or mixed. themselves, Simple history is such as appears without art

or extraneous ornament; consisting of a naked and faithful recital of things, just in the manner and order wherein they took place. 1'iv-nratire. history is enriched by the wit, ingenuity, and address of the historian, and should !)( read with caution, lest the floridness of the style, or the beauty of the composition,

of writing history. of the various divisions of history, the annexed Diagram has been drawn. It will prove of essential service to young persons who are about to enter upon the study of this most entertaining and instructive branch of literature, as it lays down a plan for the classification of their ideas, without which extensive reading and a good memory will avail little. This Diagram is but the precursor of others, in which every branch of history and chronology will be perspicuously but concisely laid down, with its various bearings and ramileast agreeable,

mode

For the

farther

illustration

fications.

SECT.

I.]

ANALYTICAL DIAGRAM
OF THE VARIOUS DENOMINATIONS OP HISTORY;
According
to

the

Time

it

represents;

the

Mode of its Relation; the Species of Facts; and the Form adopted in Description.

The TIME
red, is

in

which ( Ancient, ent,

or,

"i

.-.

the Events occur- <

Modern ernj

Or, according | Genera , to lts Plan (Particular

( Universal,

"i

Complete, 1 .-,, ( Chronolog.cally

.

J Abridged, j

d'v.ded into.

( Interva , 3

'History, properly so called; as of England,

Germany, France, &c.

5
5

TlieMoDE in which
the

Annals. Chronicles. Memoirs, or Commentaries. Revolutions.

Fasti.

Events

are

asrepresented, sumes the various

Journals.

Titles of

Fragments, or detached Pieces of History. Essays, on particular Parts of Universal History. Researches . . 1 Memorials. . > on particular Nations.
.

Letters

Miscellaneous, or Mixed.

i
The SPECIES of the
o

"In ancient History.

( Sacred, as contained in the holy Scriptures. I Fabulous. ^Profane, consisting of < Heroic.
(.True.
Ecclesiastical.

Facts treated of,<

is

either

Descriptive, or Topographical. Civil, or Political.

Military.

In

modern History.,

Philosophical, or Scientific. Literary. Biographical, or Personal.

Critical.

Natural.

Numismatical.
Heraldic.

The FORM under which e .nt^ oitW sented, either.

the Matter

is

repre- f
'

| mple;.
l
.

^Figurative. ^ Mixed.

INTRODUCTION.

[CHAP.

i.

The elucidations required by history are CHRONOLOGY, GI.OC.H AIMIY, and GKNKALOGY:
the former of these decides the time in which an event occurred, ;is the second does ihcp/nre; \\hile the third exhibits the persons who were tlie chief actors, with their relative and kindred tie-: and from all the three, the reader is en aliled to realize the scenes recorded on the historic page, and to enter into the merits or demerit- of the parties concerned, as familiarly as if he had been personally acquainted with them, or had participated in their successes or
rever-<

right of succession in regal and other families; for which purpose GENEALOGICAL TABLES are

&

of the utmost use, and have accordingly been largely introduced into this work; so that at a single glance the ties of blood between sovereign princes may be discovered as well as their rights to the thrones which they occupy, the grounds of the pretensions of others to the same thrones; the secret motives of their wars and alliances, with many other matters, that can only be appreciated by means of a thorough knowledge of the family connections of the parties by whom they are transacted.
;

exact distribution of time is the very light of history, which, without it, would be only a chaos of facts rudely heaped together; an exact CHRONOLOGY is like Ariadne's clue, which conducts our steps through all the windings of the considerable portion therefore of labyrinth. this Introductory Essay is devoted to a general view of Chronology, the various systems that have been invented, and the epochas by which our calculations should be governed ; illustrated

An

cannot better conclude this preliminary Section on the Importance of History, than by quoting the declaration of that elegant writer, " before referred to, Dr. Priestley, that the study of history can neither be begun too early in life, nor continued too late." " If history amuse the imagination, exercise and improve the passions, inspire a taste for true glory, just sentiments of, and a love for, virtue; and thereby form the temper, and prepare man for converse with the
world; what can be more proper for young persons? And since the mind cannot be too well furnished in these respects, and men cannot have too large a stock of this anticipated experience, the study of it must be useful while there remains any thing of the part we have to act on the theatre of the world. In fine, since history furnishes materials for the finest speculations, and the most important sciences, it cannot but be of service while we make any use of our
intellectual faculties."

We

by proper chronological tables, (e) Without a knowledge of GEOGRAPHY, the reader will gain little more advantage from history than from the perusal of romance; pleasing images may occupy his imagination, but he wifl be unable to grasp them as realities, till he can assign to them a locality. Thus, when he reads
in ancient history, of such places as Gaul, Iberia,

Apulia, &c. unless he is prepared to identify them with France, Spain, Naples, &c. places which are rendered familiar to his understanding by daily occurrences, he will derive but
little

satisfaction,

and much

less real

from his study.

ter to the

And

advantage

with a view to assist the

reader in this respect, in the introductory chapgeography of the ancient world, the ancient and modern names of countries, places, mountains, rivers, &c. are exhibited together. And in farther illustration of this subject, the history of every country, in the progress of the work, is introduced with a geographical description. In addition to the lights afforded

SECTION

II.

ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF HISTORY. OF HISTORICAL WRITERS. (f)

REVIEW

logy and Geography, which ha\e very aptly been designated "the eyes of History," much of the perspicuity of history depends on a clear conception of the order of generations, and the
(e)

by Chrono-

IT has been seen that the most early mode of transmitting the achievements of heroes and great men to posterity was by oral traditions, or national ballads; the teaching of which to her children, formed an important part of the mother's duty. But in proportion as civilization advanced in different nations, and the use of letters became known, these traditions, as well as the current transactions of the times, were
preceding, is borrowed from the preface to the History, fol. 1744.

SIT

C|r.i|i.

II.

S,.,-t.

I.

II.

IV. VIII. IX. X.

Universal

(0 The substance of

this Section, as well as

part of the

SECT.

II.]

ORIGIN

AND PROGRESS OF HISTORY.

people

9
lived
all

committed to writing; together with the legendary additions they had acquired in passing from one to another, during a succession of years,
perhaps ages, of ignorance. Hence the early fabuhistory of every nation is obscured by lous additions, and distorted by extravagant
conceits.

among whom they

which have

had a material influence upon

their productions.

The modern historian of the early ages finds himself entangled among difficulties, without any clue that may assist in extricating him ;
and after many perplexing calculations, vague conjectures, and intricate research, with a view to reconcile the most discordant documents, he
still

The most
appears to

ancient

mode

of writing history
:

have been in the manner of annals events being simply recorded in the order of time in which they occurred, destitute of comment, or of connection with each other. This mode may be deemed the parent of both history and chroiiology; indeed the latter is little better than a continuation of it; and, while it characterizes the artless

work without satisfaction in

finds himself bewildered, and rises his labours.

from his

These

manners of the early ages of mankind, it is the only source from which we can derive a knowledge of their actions during

many

centuries.

however readily occur to the reader, that this remark applies only to the affairs of the heathen world; for the writings of the sacred historian, Moses, after the very earliest
It will

much more of detail; and, with the continuations by his successors in the government of Israel, form the only authentic historical records down to the days of David.
ages, possess

As knowledge became more widely

diffused,

history became an object of proportionate interest; and the inquisitive turn of the human mind naturally lexl to a more elaborate and cir-

cumstantial detail of events, which was quickly followed by reasonings on their causes and consequences: these were received with so much avidity by the vulgar, who rarely take the trouble to think for themselves, that the historians, in their double capacity of annalists and philologists, scrupled not to veil their ignorance of the motives from which the actions of
princes and great men proceeded, by
substitut-

difficulties, though various in their nature, are uniform in effect; defying the skill of human ingenuity and industry to unravel them. They arise either from the neglect of keeping proper records in the first kingdoms and states; or, where any records were kept, from their having been lost; or from the number of forged and spurious histories of ancient times ; or the fictions of the poets ; as also from the contradictions and partialities of authors ; the different computations of time, as well among the same people, as among various nations ; the want of fixed aeras among some, and the multiplicity of them among others the variety of proper names given to the same persons and places; (g) not to mention the corruption of them, either through the ignorance, negligence, or design of transcribers from the originals. The history of the Jews, as preserved in the holy Scriptures, is the only original work of the kind, among those of all the nations styled Barbarians by the Greeks, written by the natives, or extracted immediately from their records, which has come to our hands; nothing remaining of others, but a few fragments, preserved in more recent writers, which, while they make us lament their loss, demonstrate the inaccuracy of the Greek historians, with
;

respect to foreign nations; though it is to them that we are almost exclusively indebted for

ing conjecture, or probability, in the place of Considerable caution is therefore requitruth. site in reading the works of ancient writers, which can never be done with any real advantage without due attention to the age and country when they flourished, and the character of the
names that the Assyrians, Egyptians, (i;) The different Persians, and Greeks, have given to the same prince, arc among the most formidable embarrassments of modern inquirers into ancient history. Three or four sovereigns of Persia have borne the name OtAstuenu, or Ahasue.rus, (corrupted

what we actually possess of ancient profane

history.

There were probably some nations, who never kept any records; and such as did keep them, could not possibly do so from the beginning, not only from want of letters and other conof the same individual, or rather varieties of one name, we should scarcely believe it. Some of the following are still more likely to mislead the, unwary reader: Sargon is Sennacherib; Ozias, Azarias; Sedccins, MalUmias ; Joac has is frequently called Scllvm; Asaraddon, Esarhaddon, or Asarhaddon, is called Asennphar by the Girth-jeans and by an unaccountable whimsicality, the Chaldaic name of Sardauapalus has been changed by the Greeks into Tonnsconcoleros.
;

from the Persian Ardshir) though they had likewise other names: and did we not know that Nabuchodnosor, Nabucodrosor, Nebuchadnezzar, and Nabucolassar, were diverse names

VOL.

I.

10
\eui< 'iicies.

INTRODUCTION.

[CM \i.

r.

because, tor a longtime, l)iit also could have had nothing worthy of record. they In tin- vi i\ lirst ages, they must have been eiuin providing tor the necessities of life;
ji|o-,fd

ami when they IK came more populous, and MI to accumulate wealth, we may naturally
MippoM- that they were
i.

from the beginning, have communicated their records to each other; and in every country they should have been indefatigable in collecting and arranging, not only what belonged to themselves, but also whatever related to neighbouring states.

I-

\\ith their

neighbours,

quickly involved in quareither for the preserall

But the interposition of that national \anity, which, more or less, may be said to have been born with the tirst establishments, and will
probably cease to exist only when time shall end, operated so forcibly in those unenlightened ages of which we are speaking, that the writers of different countries seemed rather anxious to suppress even the recollection of the existence of any nation besides their own. Many glaring instances of this absurdity might be pointed out; but we shall only mention the Greeks, who, if not more infected, had at least as great a share of it as any people that ever It is evident that they despised all existed. foreign history, from their never adverting to it in their own, farther than is unavoidable for the elucidation of their subject and even then, it seems rather introduced to adorn, and operate as a foil to their own character, than to transmit useful information to posterity: their conduct to the Persian records, when they hecame masters of that empire, is a clear demonstration, that they rather chose to consign the
;

vation of what they already possessed, or for

which must ha\e the Acquirement of more; from objects not immediverted their attention
diately

connected with their present welfare. Hence, before any truly great historical works could lie taken in hand, we must suppose the world, or so much of it as included the earliest ci\ili/ed people, to have enjoyed a profound peace, and some nations to have made a progress in literature. But in the antecedent period of warfare and ignorance, the traditions concerning the origin of the world, and of their own descents, must have been quite perverted
truth, or wholly lost: leaving, in either case, the historian destitute of the documents requisite for the compilation of true history.

from the

w hen we also consider, that after regular histories were begun to be written, there were

And

no means of multiply ing copies but by the laborious and uncertain mode of transcribing; and that every nation has, in its turn, undergone many revolutions, of the most violent and exterminating kind we may rather be surprised that any of these ancient records should
;

remembrance of

that once powerful

monarchy

to oblivion, than to have it stand as a competitor with themselves in the annals of fame.

No

than that we possess so few. Babylonians, or Chaldeans, are allowed to have once possessed a regular body of genuine history, from the creation, which, if we

have reached

us,

The

may

belie\e .loseplms, was greatly to IXM allied; and from the remaining fragments we still understand it to have been consonant to the writings of Moses, of which, indeed, it may have been

Grecian historian, that we know of, ever consulted these records with a view to their continuation and completion; but after being suffered for a time to lie neglected, they were finally destroyed. The Greeks, indeed, were a little solicitous about the Egyptians; but here their
curiosity was repulsed by the same spirit in those people, which operated in themselves with respect to other nations, and they obtained scarcely any of the information which

the foundation; the progenitors of the Israelites having long resided amoii'j; the Chaldeans. There were likewise el iier obstacles, arising out of the characters of the historians themselves, and the temper of the times in which they wrote, that prevented their works from obtaining so extensive an elucidation, or so general a knowledge of them, as under more fa\ourable circumstances they might have had. To have transmitted any tolerable account of the origin

they sought

after.

From

this general

censure of the Greeks,

v\e

must except Eratosthenes, Hecata-us the Abderite, and Menander the Ephesian, whose good sense got the better of their national prejudices; certain foreigners also, as Berosus of I'abylon, .Manetho the Egyptian, &c. Mere at different periods encouraged to write the histories of their respective countries,

and to have preed in M>me countries what might be destroyed in others, the various writers should
<.f

and remote history

.

nations,

of the Greeks; but

it

is

for the use certain that they were

very little esteemed, for not one of them has been handed down to modern times; all that

SECT.

II.]

ANCIENT HISTORIANS.
tians,

11

remains of them consisting of a few extracts preserved by Josephus, Julius Africanus, Eusel)ius,

among whom he was educated, and

in

and Syncellns.
this brief
it

whose wisdom he was sessed of histories and

review of the origin and early appear that much caution and discrimination are requisite in exploring the works of the ancient writers. That so few documents should have reached us, respecting the transactions of the first men, is much to be regretted; and the more so on account of the small degree of reliance to be placed on such as remain. By the light of just criticism, however, we are enabled to discern truth from fic-

From

state of history,

will

learned, (h) historians prior to his time; but their records are either lost, or impenetrably veiled under their hieroglyphics: consequently, we must admit Moses to be the oldest

were pos-

And whether writer whose works are extant. he was contemporary with Inachns, as some (i)
is

tion
\ve

and by a careful attention to its guidance, may, upon the whole, not only get considerable amusement from the perusal of ancient
;

with Cecrops, as others (j) assert; it certain that his history was written, not only antecedent to all the histories of the Greeks, but even before their fables : for, according to the calculation of the former opinion, he lived 675 years, and according to the latter, 275 years,
affirm, or

history, but may even accumulate a stock of useful knowledge, without being greatly in dan-

Besides the Pentaprior to the siege of Troy. teuch, or five first books of the Old Testament, some other works have been attributed
to

ger of having the understanding bewildered, or the judgment perverted. Having just introduced several of the writers of antiquity to the notice of the reader; it now devolves upon us, as part of our plan, to take a succinct survey of the writings and remains of those from whom we chiefly draw the originals of nations, with their early antiquities. The first writer, in point of chronological
A.M. 2433.
B.C. 1571.
)

order, whom we meet with, as stated in a former page.

it

is

MOSES,
Egyp-

We may,

Moses, but without sufficient authority: such as the History of Job; the 90th to the 100th Psalm; an Apocalypse, from which St. Paul is supposed to have quoted the 15th verse of the 6th of Galatians; a book intitled The lesser Genesis; another, called his Ascension; one denominated his Assumption; and another, called his Testament; besides certain mysterious books, or Discourses: but only the History of Job and the Psalms above alluded to, have ever been received by the Church; and the rest have fallen into oblivion in proportion as the light of Christianity has pre vailed. (k)
lated

indeed, assume
(h) Acts, vii. 22.
(i)

as a certainty, that the

Just. Martyr; Tertullian

Julius Africanus; Josephus;

Tatian; Clemens of Alexandria; Porphyry, &c. (j) Eusebius. (k) That Moses was the author of the Pentateuch, we need no better testimony than what is furnished by the succeeding sacred books, which bear internal evidence of having been written in different ages, and consequently could not be forged, unless we could admit that there was a succession of impostors among the Jews, who combined together in perpetuating a fraud, in which was included all the civil, political, and religious concerns of that nation a position too absurd to be for
:

by Ezra. In proof of this, it is to be observed, that the Samaritan Pentateuch is written in old Hebrew characters, the use of which was discontinued during the captivity, and must consequently be anterior to the days of Ezra. To this may be added, the animosities which arc well known to have existed between the Samaritans and Jews after the return of
the latter from Babylon, were such as to have effectually precluded an intercourse between them that should have led one The nation to receive and adopt the books of the other. .Samaritans must therefore have received the Pentateuch at some period previous to the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity ; and there is none so probable as that which is usually supposed, namely, at their first settlement in the land of Israel, full 260 years before Ezra's reformation among the Jews: and, indeed, both Ezra and Nehemiah ascribe the book of the law to Moses, (see Ezra, iii. 2. vi. 13. vii. (J.

entertained. The Jews were certainly best qualified to judge of the authenticity of their own books; they could judge of the truth of the facts recorded, and had no interest in adopting a Moses as forgery.
a
their lawgiver,

moment

They always acknowledged and carefully preserved his books. And when the nation was divided into two kingdoms, both of them preserved their former respect for his writings. The Samaritans, Slialmaneser in the desolated kingdom of Israel, in settled^Jty the room of the ten tribes, whom he had sent into

'

captivity

itish priests

Euphrates, received these writings from the Israefsent by that prince to teach them in the law of God, and copies are preserved to this very day among their When tin: Jews went into captivity at Babylon, posterity. they carried with them copies of the writings of Moses, which

beyond

the.

were brought back, on

their restoration,

and revised and

col-

Neh. viii. 14. i\. 14. \. 2!t. xiii. 1.) which they would hardly have done, had Ezra been indeed the author of it. Besides, the Pentateuch is known to have existed in the reign of Ainaxiv (j. 2 Chron. ssiah, king of Judah, B.C. 83K; (2 Ki nt/s, xxv. 4); was in public use in the reign of Jehoshaphat, B. C. 1)12, when the priests and Levites were appointed by that virtuous prince to take the book of the law with them throughout the cities of Judah, that they might teach the people in his dying (2 Chron. xvii. 7 !>;; is referred to by David, admonitions to Solomon, (1 Kings, ii. 3.) by whom, also, it is in the Psalms. frequently adverted to, and sometimes quoted
.

c 2

12

INTRODUCTION.
suestia, treating of the

[CHAP.

i.

Next to IVlosrs, inny be mentioned ZOROASTER the Bactnan, though the pt-riod in which he
flourished
.'t

Magic of the Persians, produces Zoroaster's hypothesis, admitting two

There principles. buted to Zoroaster,
spurious.

By difby no iur;i:>> a^rivd upon. authors, he lias ecu taken for Adam, (1)
is
I

ein,

ni)

A!inihain,(n) Moses, (o) &c.

.i-

Some

are also certain Oracles attricollected by Proclus, in verses ; but they are accounted 280 hexameter

contemporary with Nimrod,(p) oth i> \\itii Srmiramis,(q) and while some asM-ii that4ie lited five thousand years before the Trojan war,(r) others place him coeval with Cyrus and ('ambyses.(s) Wry few fragments
his writings remain, though Hennippus a->ure> us he composed two millions of verses. Snidas has recapitulated the titles of some of his Murks, as four books Of Nature, one book Of precious Stones, and five Of astronomical Predic<il

Eusebius quotes a passage from his Sacred Pcrttit, containing a description of i] nj the diuiu' attributes; and Theodosius of Moptions.
'

J list ni

MOCHUS, or MOSCHUS, the Sidonian, lived before the Trojan war,(t) and wrote a History of Phoenicia; which was translated into Greek, by Chaetus, or Lastus; but we have only a few fragments remaining in quotations by Josephus,(u) Athenaeus, and Tatian; the latter of whom speaks of two other PhxEnician writers, viz. Theodotus and Isicrates, or Hisicrates. ORPHEUS, of Thrace, or of Bceotia, surnamed the Librethian, is celebrated among f A.M. 2720. the ancients, as a poet, musician, and \ B.C. 1284. He is said to have first taught the theologist.
From Abraham of two persons, viz. Methuselah and Shem. to Moses, the interval was less than 300 years ; during which period, the splendid promises made to that patriarch would concertainly be communicated to each generation, with the comitant facts and thus the history might be conveyed to
:

And

that

it

was

in existence in the

days of Joshua, no one can

doubt " Do

after reading the charge of God himself to that general, servant, rnmaccording to the law which Moses, ntanded thee. This book of the law shall not depart out of

my

i. 7, 8. compared with viii. 31-35. From these quotations, proofs, .amounting to demonstration, may be drawn, that Moses, and none other, was the writer of the Pentateuch, and that at least so much

thy month," &c. (Josh.

xxiii. fi.)

and

Moses by the most distinguished persons, through very few hands. The history of Jacob and his son Joseph might be given to Moses by his grandfather Kohath, who being born
long before the descent into Egypt, might have heard
facts relative to
all

it as pertains to the law, was written by the immediate And to confirm this sentiment, it is only inspiration of God. necessary to refer to the numerous allusions made to the

of

the

law efMote*, and the writings of Moses, by Christ and his apostles, as subjects with which the Jews of their days were well acquainted, and of whose divine original no doubt existed
in their

minds.
to the writings themselves,
is
it

1.

the only person who has given a plain and historical account of the origin of the world, or who has continued that history uniformly, and without interruption to his

With respect That Moses

may be remarked,

time: all that others have written on this subject being, themselves confess, mere conjecture. 2. That Moses wrote at a time when, ev-n it' not assisted by divine inspiration, lie could be positive of the truth of what he asserted; and when, had he resorted to fables, it would have been easy for the Israelites to convict him of falsehood, and they, without doubt, would have M> done, had there been room, among the rest of their provocations and rebellions against him: but nothing of the kind appears, though they do not scruple roundly to charge him with duplicity and "deception in perIt has been Miadiug them l<> I. uvc Egypt. already observed, " learned in tln.t Mi'-cr, was all the wisdom of the Egyptians," the movt enlightened nation of his time and w hile he had the best opportunities of obtaining accurate information, no man MI- better qualified, from other circumstances, to write tli>luxury of his ancestors. The short account of the antediluvian world could easily be remem bered by Abraham, who .[.temporary with Shem, to whom it might have been ii\ Mitiiu-flah, who was :)4(> years old when \<lam vlaiii to Abraham, therefore, the history of the il "t' man, the deluge, the dispersion of Noah's posterity, witli tiic other particulars related in the first chap<.v>i,v, might be transmitted with only Uie intervention 1
as
;

own

from Jacob himself. Thus the whole history of mankind, from Adam to Moses, may have been communicated to the latter, through the channel of only six persons, viz. Methuselah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Kohath; and indeed the process of the book of Genesis seems to indicate some such mode of communithe more distant part of the history is slightly touched cation upon, as if the writer were tenacious of committing himself by any assertion for which he had not sufficient warrant but as he advances towards his own time, he enlarges his description, though he narrows the limits of his subject, and slides imperceptibly from a general history to that of a particular family, all which appears quite consonant with the nature of the materials he could derive from the authorities above referred to. 3. We have nothing in ancient history, nor in fable, to PROVE the world to be older than Moses represents it, as we shall have occasion to remark in a subsequent Section of this Intro4. His history agrees with the profane histories of duction. and we find in it the originals of several several nations nations, and their ancient names, which many of them are thought to have preserved. Thus reason and religion combine to assure us of the truth of the history of Moses a coincidence not to be paralleled in any other compositions, except those which constitute the remainder of the inspired volume. (m) Gregory of Tours. (1) Cluver.
Isaac,
:

Abraham and

(u)

(p) Epiphanius.

Procopius Gazeus; Epiphanius. (q) Eusebius.

(o)

Huetius.

Plato also culls him (r). Eudoxus ; Pliny ; Hermippus. " the most ancient of the Persimi sages." (s)Apuleius. According to the testimony of Laertius,\anthiis of Lydia reckoned (500 years from Zoroaster to Xerxes, which
calculation
(t)

makes him contemporary with Saul and David,

(u) Autiq. lib.
i.

Strabo.

SECT.

II.]

ANCIENT HISTORIANS.

13

Greeks the Egyptian mysteries, and is supposed to have flourished about a century before the destruction of Troy, and to have been contemporary with Deborah the prophetess.(v)

Among

Egypt; all of which were translated into the the Greek language by Philo Biblius, who flourished from the rc-igri of Vespasian to that of Adrian; but we have only some fragments remaining, (b)

pieces attributed to him by later writers, the following only are extant The Argonautics, an epic poem; eighty-six Hymns ; (\v) apoemOw Precious Stones and their Virtues ; with several fragments of other works, quoted by Proclus, Tzetzes, &c. There is also a book called The

many

Testament of Orpheus, from which Clement of Alexandria, Justin Martyr, Eusebius, and Theodoret, have made quotations ; but they are evidently the performance of some more modern Homer is said (x) to have borrowed" writer. several passages from the poems of Orpheus. SANCHONIATHO, aTyrian, according to some, and according to others, a native of Berytus, is said to have flourished about the time of the Trojan war; though there is great reason to

HEUODOTUS, of Halicarnassus, is the most ancient Greek writer, whose works f A.M. 3500. have reached the present time. He { B.C. 444. wrote his history(c) in the first year of the 84th Olympiad, 310 years after the foundation of Rome. His chief design was, to give a detail of the wars of the Persians against the Greeks, from the reign of Cyrus to that of Xerxes ; but he also wrote the history of the Lydians, Egyptians, and Scythians'; for which purpose he first travelled all over Greece, Italy, and Egypt, to inquire into the origin, traditions, and records

doubt

this, (y)

Porphyry says he compiled the

from
to

Phoenician history

and memoirs imparted

balus, a priest, whom others, take to be Gideon, he being in the book of Judges sometimes called Jerubbaal: but this conjecture is refuted by others. He is

ancient monuments him by one HieromBochart, Huetius, and

made use of the registers of the of Phoenicia, and to have carefully sought out the writings of Tanut,(i) the inventor of letters, called by the Egyptians, Thoth, by the Greeks, Hermes, and by the Latins, Mercury, (si) He also wrote a book of the cosmogony and theogony of the Phoenicians, and a history of
also said to have
cities
(v) Blair.

of the nations, of which he was to write. This history, according to Lucian, he read on the public theatre at Olympia, to a crowded auditory of the chief men of all Greece, met to celebrate the Olympic games ; and was even more admired than those who carried the prizes. Eusebius, however, says, this happened, not at Olympia, but at Athens, on the festival of the Panathenaea. The best judges of antiquity (d) have recommended the writings of Herodotus as a pattern for all historians yet the truth of
:

his accounts has

been called

in question

of no

mean

celebrity, (e)

by men These objections,

however, appear to have but little weight, when compared with the approbation which all Greece concurred in bestowing on his treatises, at a time, too, when most of the transactions,
concerning the Medes and Assyrians ; but he was himself still worthy of credit. Manetho censures him for advancing many untruths with respect to Egypt which charge he himself in some measure admits, in owning that what he relate* prior to the reign of Psammitichus, B. C. 660, is upon the testimony of persons whose credit is uncertain: with this obBut none ever servation, Manetho should have been satisfied. attacked the credit of Herodotus with more virulence tlian Plutarch, whose judgment would have great weight, had he not declared that the reputation of his country had engaged him in the dispute. Herodotus relates, that in the expedition of Xerxes, the Thebaus, consulting their own safety, abandoned the common cause, and joined the Persians. This was indeed the fact, and Demosthenes afterwards reproached tin- Thebaus with their treachery but Plutarch, who was a native of the Theban city of Chseronsea, could not bear to have the baseness of his countrymen transmitted to posterity, but vented his resentment against the historian, in a book the Malignity of Herodotus. But his exceptions intitled, Of are trifling, or turn upon subjects which the author himself speaks of as doubtful and throughout the whole work he betrays too much of prejudice and ill-will.
less
; : ;

Stoboeus and Suidas ascribe these hymns to Onomacritus; and Clement of Alexandria attributes them to Pythagoras. (x) Clem. Alex.
(vv)

Eusebius; Theodoret. Hence Bochart, (y) Porphyry; Huetius, and others, make him contemporary with Gideon. But as lie speaks of Tyre, (which was built only 91 years before the destruction of Troy) as a very ancient city, they must be mistaken in their Chronology. He is said to have dedicated his book to Abibal, king of Tyre, and father to Hiram, the ally of Solomon ; and if this be true, he must have flourished about the time of David. (z) Philo Biblius. (a) Some critics suppose this Thoth to have been no other than Moes. Others suppose him to be the patriarch Joseph. (b) Philo has been accused of forging both the history, and even the name of this author: but the arguments in support of this charge are so frivolous as scarcely to merit an answrr.
Pliny, lib. XII. cap. 4. ; Hortcnsiiis; Quintilian, (e) Ctesias doubts the truth of what
(c)

(d)

Tully

<Xrc.

Herodotus has written

14

INTRODUCTION.
lir

[CHAP.

i.

\\liicli

describes, were currently known. Indeed there is an air of sincerity throughout his \\hole work, which even his enemies have lie not only to acknowledge. l>ei n obliged what he relates, and examiiK > tin' truth of his readers with what others have

public games, he was heard by

THUCYDIDES,

who was
historian.
to the

thereby

fired

with zeal to become an

He was a native of command of an army

Athens, and rose sent by that re-

acquaints said on the same subject; but when he relates that extraordinary events, he declares frankly from other writers, and points he copied them out those which he belies es, and those which he suspects. Though his history of Lydia has been looked upon as more fabulous than the
rest

of his works, it must be remembered that he was well acquainted with the affairs of that nation, which bordered on the Asiatic Greek cities, in one of which he Mas born, not above

(i()

of that kingdom. years after the destruction

In his Egyptian history, he ingenuously confesses that all he relates prior to the reign of Psanuni-

tichus,

is uncertain, he having reported the early transactions of that nation, merely on the credit of the priests, to which he attached very little His history of the Assyrians and credit. (f) IVIedes, does not agree with that which modern chronologers ha\e usually followed; yet most of In his the ancients preferred it to all others.

public to establish a colony at Thurimn, in Italy. Soon afterwards he was banished, and during his exile, he wrote a history of the lirst twentyone years of the Peloponnesian war, which was afterwards continued by Theopoinpus and Xenophon, down to the period of the demolition of the walls of Athens. Thucydides is generally thought to excel Herodotus in the energy and conciseness of his narration. CTESIAS, was a native of Cnidos, and, having cured Artaxerxes Memnon of y A.M. 3*503. a wound received in the battle of I B.C. 401. Cunaxa, he became a great favourite in the Persian court, where he wrote the history of Persia, including that of the Assyrians and Medea, and a history of the Indies; but as the originals are now lost, we must be content with abridgments of the first and last by Photius, and of the history of the Assyrians and IVIedes, by Diodorus Sicu1ns; the names of the kings, omitted by the latter

history of Persia, also, lie differs in many particulars from the Cm0p&dia of Xenophon; but we must agree with Cicero, that the latter is rather

an instructive piece, than real history. (g) When Herodotus recited his history at the
from being exact, (f) The chronology of Herodotus is far extravaespecially with respect to Egyptian affairs, in which, as well as upon g-anl number* have been imposed upon him,

been carefully set down by Eusebius and Syncellus. The most judicious among the ancients, have always considered Ctesias as unworthy of credit, on account of the fables he has interwoven with the few facts, if any, that he records, (h) Notwithstanding this, several of the ancient historians, and many
historian, having
declares him to be unworthy of credit; Antigonus Caristius, who lived in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphia, (B. C. 280,)
gives him the
relates
in direct terms, and says that he frequently Plutarch, in his Life of altogether incredible. " a vain " a notorious liar." man," and Artaxerxes, calls him Luciin accuses him of relating in his Indica what he had neither seen nor heard: indeed whoever peruses that performance
lie

Diodorus Siculus and Plato, by the priests, who piqued themselves on the antiquity of their nation. Herodotus is supposed to have written other books,
besides the history
Aiiiniti,

what

is

now

extant:

for Aristotle (lib.

viii.

De

cap. 1H.) reprehends him for saying that an eagle drank during the siege of Nineveh; whereas no bird \vith hooked talons, as that philosopher elsewhere affirms, ever drinks. This passage is not to be. found in his works now extant,

must conclude him to have been destitute of common honesty and integrity. His Hhtory of Assyria, likewise, is calculated to amaze the reader, and to strain his credulity beyond all
bounds. His list of Assyrian kings can only be considered as a forgery of the grossest kind; it being a medley of Greek, And in all his long lists 1'ersian, Egyptian, and other names. of kings, the same names, or some bearing a close resemblance to them, are often observed to recur. Nor do the names alone prompt us to pronounce Ctesias guilty of forgery; for the extra vagant length of the reigns of his princes, three-fourths of whom must have lived when the life of man was reduced to its present standard, furnish a very presumptive evidence that he was either too weak to be able to discriminate between truth and falsehood in the narratives, if any such lie had, from which he copied or that he scrupled not to give scope to his inventive genius, and preferred rather to astonish his reader with incredible fictions, than to inform him by the simple relation of matters of fact.
;

whence some
from

writers have concluded that

his history

of Assyria, which

in
is

\ristotlc's time than it or even that Aristotle, through mistake, quoted Herodoliis instead of some oilier author, of which similar instances abound in ancient writrr.s; than that Ilcroilolus should have
in

But it book he promised to write. ,it history was more complete

is;

quoted it two places of his first mere probable that his

Vristo tie

now

puhli-lied a history of Assyria which none of the ancients have I' ,1nun tinned. To most of t lie editions of Herodotus,

but the diversity of style, and between this piece and the rest of the writings (( Herodotus, with which we are acquainted, plainly; evince il lo be the production of some oilier hand. \ristotle, who was almost contemporary with Ctesias,
!i

Lip-

f'l

Jfmni'i-

is

iiuncxed;

iiruts,

SECT.

II.]

ANCIENT HISTORIANS.

15

modern

Christian writers, lune Mindly followed him, in opposition to scripture, Herodotus, and other more undoubted authorities. (i)

MANETHO, by
A.M. 3744.
B.C.
)

birth an Egyptian,

priest

and high and keeper of the sacred re-

cords of that nation, flourished in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphia, by whose order he translated the history of his own country, from the sacred registers, into the Greek tongue. The first part of this work, contained the history of the gods; the second, that of the A.M. 3654. ) demigods; and the third, that of the B.C. 350.) dynasties, ending with Nectanebtis, who was driven out by Artaxerxes Ochus, eighteen years before the conquest of Persia by Alexander. Manetho wrote, besides, a book on the theology of the Egyptians, commonly styled, The Holy Hook; another, on the ancient and religious ceremonies of the Egyptians, called by
-2o. ^

speaks of the taking and burning of Jerusalem, by his son Nebuchadonosor, the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and their restoration by He is supposed lo have been a very Cvrtis." respectable writer; but the piece published under his name, by Attains of Viterbo, is, beyond
all

doubt, spurious.

flourished some time after BeroHe sus, and follows him in many respects. of the Chaldean empire, whereof wrote a history a few portions are preserved in Eusebius, Cyril, and Syncellus; the remainder is lost. In one of these fragments, he speaks of the tower of

ABYDENUS

Porphyry, The Hook of Antiquity and Piety; one Of Physic, and another, Concerning the mamtei
of' preparing

J accuse to be

jWtesfe.(j) Jeu-s, which fables. (k) Of all

He

-used by the Egypt inn also published a book Of t/ic Joseph us refutes, as filled with

Babel, and confusion of languages, agreeably the scriptural account, (n) This writer is sometimes mistaken for, or confounded with, PAL.EPHATUS, surnamed Abydenus, from the The latcity of Abydus, where he was born. ter was a favourite disciple of Aristotle, and wrote histories of Cyprus, Delos, and Arabia. ERATOSTHENES, of Gyrene, was keeper of the celebrated library at Alexandria, f A.M. 3749. and wrote the history of the Theban ( B.C. -20.3. kings of Egypt, by order of Ptolemy Euergetes I.
to
Avith

these, only a few fragments ha\e been preserved in quotations by Julius His six Africamis, Eusebius, arid Syncellus. books, in verse, On I lie Influence and Poicei of flic Slam, which he dedicated to Ptolemy

whom

he was greatly

in favour.

His cata-

logue of these princes is still extant, and has met with a very favourable reception. He also wrote a great number of books, of which a list may be seen in Fabricius, (ialeus, Vossius, &c. but the
only piece remaining entire, is his description and fabulous account of the stars. He is supposed to have been the inventor of the armillary sphere, and has been called a second Plato, the cosmograplier and geometer of the world. APOLLODORUS, of Athens, lived in the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes II. or Physcon. OA..M. 3<><>. He was a grammarian by profession, {B.C. iaa. but gave himself to the study of history. His

Philadelphia, is still extant. (1) BE-ROSUS, the Chaldean, flourished under A.M. 3736. } Antiochus Soter, or his son AntiB.C. 268. 5 ochus Theos and not in the time of Moses, as some pretend. (in) He wrote the
;

Chaldean and Babylonish history, in three -books, which also included that of the Medes: but we have only a few ((notations from this work preserved in the writings of Josephus and Alexander
says, Berosus agreed accounts of the fall of man, the ark, the deluge, kc. and traces the descendants of Noah, with their respective ages, down to Nabnlassar, king of Babylon: " In relating the " actions of this prince," continues he Josephus,

Polyhistor.

The former

with Moses

in his

of the Gods, is, according to Scali" a very judicious performance; for though ger, mostly fabulous, the fables being founded on historical truth, and the persons such as have
Jii/j/iol/ieque

existed,

a more certain and better grounded chronology may be extracted from Apollodorus,

(i) Cephaleon, Castor, Trogiis, and Velleius Paterenhis, have copied .several accounts from him; Julius Africanus, Rusehiu*, and S\iieelhis, have partly adopted his Assyrian chronoftlgy, wherein they have la-en followed Inmost modern

writers.
(j) The two latter are ascribed by Suidas to another Manctho, of Mendesia but his authority is not much to be depended upon. (k) Lib. i. Contra Apian (I) A more detailed account of Manetho's history of
;
.

under the gods, demigods, and dynasties, will be found in Chap. VI. of this work. (m)Tat ian informs us, hat he dedicated his work to Antiochus, third king after Alexander, which must be Antiochus Theos; and he says, himself, in his first book of the History of Baliylon, that lie was born during the minority of Alexander the
t

Great.
(n) In the chapter on Cosmogony, we shall have particular occasion to notice the writings of both Abydeuus and

Egypt,

Berosus.

INTRODUCTION.
than from
tin

[CHAP.

i.

>in>. also, is

rhapsodies of Beroaldus." Vosof opinion, that, by separating tin-

fabulous >tnries from real events,

we may from
and

Of twenty-four his writings form a true history. of his books, quoted by various authors, only
three are extant; beginning with Inachus, reaching down to the reign of Theseus.
lost

The

books extended to the 1040th year after the Trojan \\.ir. or to the 258th Olympiad. ALEXANDER POLYHISTOR, a celebrated writer A.M. 3916. ) in the reign of Ptolemy Lathurus,
B.C.
88. j

Rome by and among histories, Sylla. the rest, those of India and Egypt. Clement of Alexandria quotes a book of his, concerning the Jews, which contained the letters that had passed between Solomon and the Egyptian and
was carried captive
to

teen books of geography alone have reached us. In these, he not only describes the situation of the places, (most of which he actually visited) but very often treats on the manners, customs, With the laws, and religion of the inhabitants. of Germany, in the history of which he exception relied too mucli on the relations of other writers, liis descriptions are very accurate. DIONYSIUS PEHIEGETES, a native of Charax, a town on the Arabic Gulf, flourished c A.M. 4002. 2. under Augustus, who sent him to i B.C. the countries of Armenia, Parthia, and survey

He

wrote several

Arabia, (p)

He

wrote a geographical descrip-

tion of the world, in Greek verse, which has since been translated into Latin verse by Rufus

learned comFestus, Avienus, and Priscian. in Greek, was also written on this work, mentary,

Eusebius also cites a fragJews. DIODORUS SICULUS, a native of Argyrium, a A.M. 3959. ? town of Sicily, (whence his surname,
Phoenician kings.

ment from him,

relative to the

B.C.

45. }

Sicul-us,) flourished in

the times of

Julius Cajsar

Having travelled over great part of Europe, Asia, and all Egypt,

and Augustus.

by Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica. JOSEPHUS, the Jewish historian, wrote several works, viz. A History oj the Jewish War, [A.D. 71. and Destruction oj Jerusalem by the Romans; (q) twenty books of Jewish Antiquities, in which he traces the history of the Jews from their origin, to
the 12th year of Nero, when they first attempted to throw off the Roman yoke (r) two books
;

as well to get acquainted with the geography of the places, as to study the customs and manners of the inhabitants, he compiled a general history,

The Hibliotheque, or Library, commencwith the earliest times, and ending with ing Julius Caesar's war with the Gauls, (o) This work consisted, originally, of forty books, of which fifteen only remain, viz. the five first, the eleHe venth, and the following, to the twentieth. is not so exact in his as could computations be wished, particularly with respect to Roman affairs; and in the history of Egypt, he suffered his credulity to be greatly imposed upon by the priests of that country, as to the age of the world. STRABO, who flourished during the reigns of
intitled

against Apion, who, in his Egyptian history, had traduced the Jews ; a History of his own Life ; a discourse on the Empire of Reason, in commendation of the seven Maccabees ; and a book against the Greeks, or rather against Plato, (s) The veracity of this writer, especially in his books of antiquities, is of a very doubtful nature; for notwithstanding that he solemnly protests his design to be only to transcribe faithfully what he found in the sacred records of his nation, without any additions of his own, his accounts not only vary from those in Holy Writ, but are

A.M. 3974.
B.C.

so. j

Augustus and Tiberius, published several works, of which his sevenof

sometimes diametrically in opposition to what is contained in the books of Moses and the proIn his chronology, also, he differs as phets. well from the Septuagint as from the writers of other nations and not unfrequently is at variance
;

Co) In this history he ha, copied from former writers, different nations; viz. in his account of the Egyptians,

Assyrians, Medes. Persian*. Greeks, Carthaginians,' Sicilians, and he follows Herodotus, Ctesias, tlh(.lians, Berosus, Thucy-

dides,

Theopoinpus, Chius, of the Macedonians, he depends on Carand in liis history of Crete, lie quotes Kpiincnidcs, DoM-.ulas, Sosicrates, and Laosthenides. Bioal notice, <,t" these writers will be found in j.T.iplm the history >! the countries of which natives. they were
Ac.
In
tin- affairs,

Xenophon,

Philistus, Callisthcnes,

liaiius

and Massias

respectively

(p) Pliny,

lib. v.

cap. 27.

Josephus wrote this first in Hebrew, or Syro-Chaldaic, countrymen, the Jews and afterwards translated it into Greek, about the seventh year of the emperor Vespuiu, to whom he dedicated it, and by whose order it was deposited in the public library at Rome. Kusebins and Jerom farther relate, that he was honoured with a statue. (r) This work, the author informs us, was completed in the thirteenth year of Domitian, viz. A. D. 93. It was dedicated to Epaphroditus, his great patron. (s) It is uncertain whether Josephus were really the author of the two latter some writers affirming that he was, and others as strenuously contending that he was not.
(q)

for the use of his

SliCT. III.]

MODE OF STUDYING

HISTORY.

with himself: the latter circumstance, however may have arisen from the ignorance or carelessness of his transcribers for, in the last ten book of his Antiquities, there is so great a difference
;

primitive times and the origin of particular nations. All that can be done, is to collate the various fragments that have reached us, and

between the ancient manuscripts and the modern printed editions, as to have induced some persons to conclude that he must have written two different copies. Nevertheless, his erudition was great; and Jerom observes, that in his two books against Apion, he has shewn himseli
conversant not only with the history of his own nation, but of all other countries, and to have read all the libraries of the Greeks, (t)

by filling up the chasms of one writer from (lie remains of another, consolidate the most precious relics of antiquity into a new body, which though deficient of some particular members, or distorted through the incongruity of the materials, will at least present an agreeable whole; and be useful as an introduction to the affairs of the more important age in which

we

live.

The last writer whom we shall mention

Pelusium in Egypt, who flourished in the reign of M. Aurelius Antoninus, and was contemporary with Marinus Tyrius, whose geography he has followed. His Mathematical Canon, which commences B. C. 747, is so exactly agreeable to scripture history, that if the latter could possibly stand in need of confirmation, so far as relates to the history of
in this place, is PTOLEMY, of

SECTION

III.

MODE OF STUDY RECOMMENDED.

HISTORICAL CHARTS.

UTILITY

Ob'

the two great empires of the Assyrians and This Babylonians, it would be found here. which proves the kingdom of Babylon Canon, to have been immediately of Assyrian origin, (u) has given birth to the sera of Nabonassar, one of the most celebrated of profane history, and will be farther noticed in the section of Epochas, &c. in this Introduction. With respect to the geography of Ptolemy, he is often mistaken as to the degrees of latitude and longitude, and sometimes speaks of cities as still extant, which had been destroyed many years, if not ages, before his time.(v) With such materials, it is obvious, not only that a modern compiler of ancient history labours under the greatest disadvantages, but that it is altogether impossible to collect satisfactory and detailed accounts of the history of

IN pursuing the study of history, the most regular, as well as the most successful mode is, to begin with an epitome of universal history, and after having thereby obtained a pretty general acquaintance with the state of the world
at large in all its ages, then to apply to the histories of particular nations: for the study of particular histories is nothing more than an

extension of a general knowledge, of which the reader is presumed to be in the previous possession. When this is done, a third step may be taken, and the genius and disposition of the various nations, with the characters of their princes and governors, may be made the subject of disquisition, in the course of which, the student will frequently be surprised by the discovery of some secret springs of action, which otherwise he would not have suspected. The latent causes of revolutions, of the rise and fall of thrones and powers, will thus be laid open to his view, and in proportion to the diligence with which he pursues his inquiries, he will
a work -would not have been worthy of notice, but for the merit which the Jews attach to it; and as it is before us, we may farther remark, that it is chiefly composed of apocryphal and talmudical fables while the little it contains of real history is borrowed from the true Josephus, yet not from the Greek original, but from the Latin translation of Ruffinus, which has led the compiler into many and gross errors. Scalig. in Elcncho Trihetr. Nichol. Serrarii, cap. iv. Prideaux's Connections, 8vo. vol. ii. part. i. Preface, p. 16,
;

(t)

the

The Jews disown Josephus's history in Greek, and prefer Hebrew writings of one Josippon Ben (iorion, whom they

pretend to be the authentic Josephus, while they reject the This book, however, was never heard of, till mentioned by Solomon Jarchi, a French Jew, A. D. 1140. It was afterwards quoted by Aben Ezra, Abraham
true one as spurious.
all lived in the same century; the Jews as one of their chief books, Tininferior only to the writings of the inspired penmen. work, however, bears internal marks, by which alone the ini position of its pretensions to antiquity may be detected ; for

Ben Dior^ and Uabbi David, who

is

and

now accounted by

et seq.
(u)

speaks frequently of Lombardy, France, England, Hungary, Turkey, c. names unheard of, till several centuries after the
it

See the Prophecy of Isaiah, chap,

xxiii.

ver. 13.

period in which

it is

pretended to have been written.

Such

(v) Most of these errors have been corrected by Ortelius, tiherardus Mercator, Cluver, Velserius, &c.

VOL.

I.

18
(MM! his

INTRODUCTION.
admiration called forth, and his curio-

[CHAP.

i.

Mt\ gratified. The celebrated epitome of universal his-

mot

in Latin, is Tursalin's, which is most of the foreign universities and mis i'.fiitoHU- is mvatlv and deservedly admired in France, but it brings the history no The most lov,. Tthan the time of Charlemagne. MM fill and ingenious contrivance to facilitate the study of history, and to assist the imagination

tor\.
r.-a'd

\\rittcn

in

it in a few hours' attentive inspeche could acquire by the reading of tion, than many weeks or months. A chart of this description must answer, in the completes! manner possible, almost every purpose of a compendium of history, proper to be read before a larger and fuller course be entered upon; and will prevent, any confusion that might arise from reading particular histories, without a regard to their proper order of time and place, better

more from

in conceiving distinctly, and comprehending the whole course of it in all its parts, co-existent

a CHART OF HISTORY. This is properly a picture of history, and is formed by such natural methods of expression, that it ere \isibleto the eye, without reading, the A\hole figure and dimensions of all history, ge-

and consecutive,

is

than any abstract of universal history whatever. Convinced of the utility, not to say the necessity, of these charts to every person desirous of acquiring well-arranged ideas of history, we shall, in the course of this work, introduce not only an HISTORICAL CHART, but also CHRONO-

LOGICAL and GENEALOGICAL TABLES,

tive of the various parts of severally arise, (w)

illustra-

neral and
-.

particular.

As

geographical maps

our subject, as they

the figure, situation, boundaries, cities, &c. of the various parts of the world, so the historical chart shews the origin, progress, exnt

tent,

and duration of
(

all

kingdoms and

states

thai

er existed, at one view, with every cir-

cumstance of time and place, combining chronology and geography; so that it not only
refreshes the memory without the fatigue of reading, but enables a novice in history to learn
charts which have been published in this have ranked so high for reputation as Dr. Priest\\liich lias been eulogized and recommended by most '.-dins; writers on the .subject, down to the present day: vw\ xct. excellent as the plan and design of that performance

The annexed Chart is intended as a miniature exhibition of what will be found more in detail in the several tables prefixed to the epochas of It shews the Section on Tabular Chronology. the relative condition of the principal nations and governments, from the Flood to the present time: the names of the sovereigns will be found in the Tables just alluded to, Chap. II. Sect. X.
Of foreign publications, of this nature, the most perfect appears in the production of Frederick Strass, in the year liiOO, translated into English in 1810, and continued down to that time by Mr. W. Bell, under the title of The Stream of Time.
This is really an epitome of history and chronology, combining whatever could be expected from Dr. Priestley's chart, or from Archbishop Usher's or Dr. Blair's tables, and conveying information to the mind of the reader under the impressive waters sometimes flow togefigure of a mighty flood, w hose ther in a vast body, at others, diverge into small branches, which increase in magnitude, or dwindle into trifling brooks, till they merge in the collected abyss of some more potent The most recent attempts at this state, or mighty empire. kind of historical compendium are to be found in the new edition of Lavoi site's Historical Allan, published towards the close of the \car 1813, partly under the superintendence of the Author of this Work, in which a considerable quantity of
useful information is compressed into a \cry small compass, and cannot but prove of the first importance to young slu-

(w)

Of the historical

connt.'v. few

execution is astonishingly deficient, notwithstanding the doctor lived to see many impressions of it come from the pre-s. Not milv is the arrangement of the countries objectionable, but the whole plan declares it to have been sent lulu lii' world in a slovenly and unfinished state. The
rt-aSK were,
its
1

dr-c-riptioi,

also,

which accompanies

it,

abounds

in errors,

misrepresentations, and omissions. Subsequent to Dr. PrieatimbLc.itioii, several minor charts of history have made their appearance; but none of them, with the exception of

ha\c any claim to originality of design. In the .Mr. Francis Bailey published a new historical chart, professedly with a view to correct the errors of Dr. iej's, and it may be pronounced the most complete of unt as, however, it cannot admit the names of the 'igns and rulers of tin: several nations, in their chronological order, it must be confessed to fall short of its design.
(Juy's,
Iltr2,
\>.ir
:

Mr.

dents in history.

SECT.

I.]

OKIGTN OF CHRONOLOGY.

1.0

CHAPTER II. OF CHRONOLOGY.

-#-

SECTION
SCIENCE.

I.

NATURE, ORIGIN, AND PROGRESS OF THE

or the science of computas the ing and adjusting the periods of time, and of comrevolution of the sun and moon; event to i's puting time past, and referring each is, comparatively speaking, but of

CHRONOLOGY,

When time first began to be reckoned, its measures appear to have been very indeterminate; and the real length of the year not being perfectly known, must have rendered it very
difficult for the ancients to transmit any thing like a true chronology to succeeding ages. Hel-

proper year,

modern

date.

The ancient

poets appear to have

lanicus of Mitylene, who flourished about the 83d Olympiad, regulated his narra- c A.M. 3 r,:,n. tive by the succession of the B.C. 448. priest- I esses of Juno, at Argos; while Ephorus of Cumae,(x)

been wholly unacquainted with it; for Homer, the most celebrated of them all, mentions nohis thing like a formal calendar throughout In the most early periods, the only writings. measurement of time was by the seasons, and the revolutions of the sun and moon and many the mode of ages seem to have elapsed before
;

who flourished, under Philip of Maabout the 107th Olympiad, (A.M. 3052. cedon, reckoned by generations. And in \ B.C. 353. the histories of Herodotus and Thucydidcs, who wrote between those periods, we find no
regular dates, (y) The first attempts at establishing a fixed aera, appear to have been made by TIM/EUS, of Sicily,

computation by dating events, came into general use. Several centuries intervened between the
aera of the

under Ptolemy Philadelphus,

order, in the 129th

A.M. 3740.

rians
first

Olympic games and the first histoand many more between these and the

by whose

authors of chronology.

piad, the Olympiads, the reigns of the Spartan kings,

lation of which, published at

Olym- ( B.C. 264. he corrected and composed the dates of

the

was Polybius (lib. v. sect. 33.) is of opinion that Ephorus who attempted to reduce chronology into a regular science, under the form of an universal history.
(x)
first

Rome

si\ years afterwards,

it

a proneness, as Sir Isaac Newton observes, (y) There was in all nations, before they began to keep exact accounts of Thus Herodotus informs time, to advance their antiquity.

reckoned from the reign of Menes, who put Sennacherib to many priests of Vulcan, and as many kings of Egypt and as three generations were computed to amount to 100 years, the whole interval between The Chalthose two princes is no less than 11,340 years. deans were not less vain of their antiquity for Callisthenes, the disciple of Aristotle, sent astronomical observations from Babylon to Greece, which were said to comprehend an interval of 1903 years before the taking of that city by Alexander the Great: and, as if this antiquity of their astronomical knowledge were insufficient, the priests boasted that they had There were others, observed the stars during 473,000 years
us, that the priests of Egypt their founder, to that of Sethon, of men, as flight, 341 generations
:
'

also,

antiquity than the Chinese; though they have few, if any, authentic records beyond the period of five A chronological table of centuries before the Christian ara. Chinese history was brought to Europe in the year 1724, by favour of the Tartar viceroy of Canton ; from a Latin trans-

or boasted

who made the kingdoms of Assyria, Media, and Syria Damascus, much older than the truth. But no nation has
more of
its

appears that the most remote epocha of the Chinese chronology does not go beyond the first year of a prince, named This is conGuei-lie-wang, who began to reign B. C. 420. firmed by two of the most approved historians of China, who admit nothing into their works prior to that period. The basis of the Chinese chronology consists of a cycle of 60 years, called Kiatse, from the name of its first year: each jear of this cycle is distinguished from all others, by two letters, and all the years of the emperors, for above two thousand years, have names in history common to them with the corresponding M. Freret says the Chinese date the years of the cycle.t epocha of Yao, or Yu, one of their first emperors, about B. C. 2145; others say, B. C. 2067; or, according to Du Halde, B. C. 2357 and that they reckon their first astronomical observations, and the composition of their celebrated hence it has calendar, to have preceded Yao 150 years been inferred, that the astronomical observations of the Chinese and those of the Chaldeans coincide; and Mr. Whiston maintains that the Chinese chronology, when rightly under; :

stood, is exactly agreeable to that which he has deduced from the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. | More recent writers date the rise and progress of the sciences in China from the grand dynasty of Tcheou, about B. C. 1200, or rather 1110, and insist that all events prior to the reign of Yao are fabulous.;

M.
vol.
i.

Gibert, in a letter published at

I'H'utoirt del Sciences,
<j-c.

Amsterdam, 1743, has

by the Missionaries of I'ekiR,

* Lib.

ii. t Phil. Tram. abr. vol. viii. part 4. page 13, cap. 43. Testament. t Short View of tht Chronology of the

et

DM

uq.

Mem. de

Chinoii,

'20

INTRODUCTION*.
From

[(HAP.

II.

archons of Athens, and the succession of the priestesses of Juno at Argos; and 1>\ adaptlest ing them to each other, according to the he made the first approacfi of his judgment, towards the fixing of an a>ra. ERATOSTHENES, of Cyrene, the second libranan of Alexandria, who has been )
Hit-

the guardianship of Lycurgus to the year 108 years. next preceding the first Olympiad From that year to the invasion of Xerxes . . . .297 From the invasion of Xerxes to the beginning

From From

A.M.3749. B.C. 255.5 called the father of chronology, flourished under Ptolemy Euergetes I. and was and enabled by the multitude of historical

48 of the Peloponnesian war the beginning to the end of that war. ... 27 the end of the Peloponnesian war to the battle of Leuctra 34 From the battle of Leuctra to the death of

From

Philip the death of Philip to that of Alexander

3.5

12

gave him to determine the dates of many remote access, his records were digested according to facts the succession of the Olympiads and of the of Halicarnasl.i.iL'.s of Sparta; and Dionysius
to

prompted memoirs
:

which

his situation

These numbers are fortunately confirmed by

a passage of Dionysius of Halicarnassus,

from

which we learn that the 432d year from the taking of Troy, was, according to the canons of Eratosthenes, the first of the 7th Olympiad, which agrees with the numbers of Clemens. POLYBIUS, of Megalopolis, in Ar- ( A.M. 3840. cadia, who wrote about the 154th (B.C. KM.

sus declares, that certain chronological canons, which he had laid down to himself, were accuThe treatise written by rate and uncornipled. this subject is lost; but the Dionysius upon of chronographic canons, or general principles of Eratosthenes, are to be found the chronology in the Stroinuta of Clemens Alexandrinus, as
follow
:

Olympiad, took up the history of Timaeus, and brought it down to his own time.

From From
From

the taking of

Troy
.'

to the return of the

APOLLODORUS, of Athens, who flourished in the reigns of Ptolemy Physcon and ( A.M. 3888. Ptolemy Lathurus, a'bout' the 166th (B.C. lie. Olympiad, pursued the plan laid down by Eratosthenes and both have been followed by all
;

Ileraclidu:

80 years.

succeeding chronologers.
the

the return of the Heraclidae to the settle-

ment of Ionia
the settlement of Ionia to the guardian-

CO
159

ship of Lycurgus

these writers, therefore, are to be ascribed regular and systematic attempts at true chronology: and it is obvious, that prior to their
first

To

and Egyptian annaN to our attempted to reduce the Chaldean chronology in order to which, he endeavours to prove from the authorities of Macrobius, Eudoxus, Varro, Diodorus
:

Siculus, Pliny, Plutarch, St. Augustin, txc. tiuit the ancients iiifant by the term i/rar nothing more than the revolution of any

sometimes consisted of only the solar day was the astronomical year of the Chaldeans; and the boasted period of 17:!, Olio year> as-ii^ucd to their observations, is reduced to
planet
in

the heavens; so that

it

a single day.

Thus,

lie

asserts,

I2!7 ytars !i months; the number of years, according to 1'ii-rhius. which elapsed between the first astronomical disn\rrir> by Atlas, in the :tiillli year after the birth of Abraliam, to the march of Alexander into Asia, in the year 1682

The 17,000 year.- added by Berosus, to if the same a-ra. llie observations of the Chaldean*, when reduced in like manor 7 monllis; being (he precise ner, will gi\e Hi years
interval

doos, with the chronology of the Septuagint version of the the latter of these people, according to Mr. holy Scriptures Rallied, carrying back their chronology upwards of seven M. Bailly informs us, that the Hindoos, as millions of years. well as the Chaldeans and Egyptians, had years of arbitrary determination. They had months of fifteen days, and years of sixty days. A month is a night and day of the patriarchs ; a year a night and day of the gods ; four thousand y ears of the gods are as many hundred years of men, &c. By attending to such modes of computation, he says, the age of the world will be found very nearly the same in the writings of Moses and of the Brahmins. Among the latter we also have a sinand M. Bailly gular coincidence with the Persian chronology has established these remarkable epochas from the creation to the deluge
;
:

between \le\ander's march and the

the time

first

123d Olympiad,

Bcrosus carried his history. the same principle, M. dibert reduces the 720,000 I'pon to the observations preserved at years attributed by Lpiirciiins 3 months which differs from CallUllabyloii, to 1!)71 years ihciies' period of 1903 years, allotted to the same observa;

towlmh

year of the

The The The The The The

Septuagint gives

22">6 years.

Chaldeans
Egyptians
Persians

Hindoos
Chinese

2222 2340 2000 2000 2300

tions,

by only (><! years, which include the lapse between the Liking of llabyloii by Alexander, (which terminates Callislliem -s account and the reign of Ptolemy l'hiladelj)lius, to
1
i

The same writer has likewise shewn the singular coincidence of the age of the world, as given by four distinct and distantlysituated people:

vhich

Kpiiiciiius

extended

his calculation.

M. llailiy, to celebrated during mayor t,f Paris, has also attempted

of the Chaldean-,
II
I

the

French revolution as

'.L:\ptians,

to reconcile the magnified Chinese, and Iliu-

ancient Egyptians he Hindoos The Persians

'I

The

make

it

.1544 years.

5502
5">01

The

Jews, according to Josephus, 6553i

SECT.

1.]

ORJG?N OF CHRONOLOGY.
Greek tongue,

2J

lime, nothing; satisfactory on the subject could have appeared. For, before the conquests ot

Alexander, the Greeks had very scanty materials for such a work, their knowledge being confined to a very narrow tract of country, and to the annals of a very short period of time.
ties

But general wars, notwithstanding the calamiattending them, have always afforded op-

portunities for observing the situation, nature, and improvements, of other countries, and thus the progress and circulation as well of learning

as an universal language, was exlended o\cr Asia and Egypt; a most favourable opportunity was afforded to several eminent men to write the histories of different nations. Berosus compiled a history of Chaldaea, from the Babylonish records; as did Manetho of Egypt, from those of Memphis and Thebes; and the Arundelian Marbles gave a series of the events of Greece from the earliest times: all which were composed in that age, by contem-

porary writers, (a)

at Alexandria,

And when

to this is

added
37-20.

geography, from the conquests of Alexander, by whose means they became more perfectly acquainted with the larger tracts of Asia, and all the north of Europe, to the river Ister;(z) and he might have added, the whole extent of Egypt: so that they obtained, almost iu the same moment

as of other useful arts, were the more easily propagated to distant parts of the earth. Strabo declares, that the Greeks derhed great advantages, even in their knowledge of

the formation of the great library

(A.M.

under Ptolemy Phi^ Olymp.i-Jt. 284. ladelphus, into which the writings (.B.C. of all nations were collected ; we may well conclude that it could only be at the period alluded
to,

that chronology

became a

science.

And

be farther confirmed from the consideration of the state of the world at that
this opinion will
:

of time, the full possession of the two great fountains of ancient learning, Babylon and they improved no better upon Egypt. this accession of knowledge, is to be attributed to their absurd pride, as already remarked. In like manner, continues Strabo, the Romans diffused the same light over the western parts of Europe, to the river Elbe, which divided Germany into two parts; and they went beyond the Ister, even to the Tyra; as to the countries about the lake Maeotis, and the sea-coast to Cold) is, they were undiscovered till the days

Why

period for, till there was a collection of proper materials brought together, such as the manuscripts of all nations must contain, it was impossible to separate the truth of history from the dross of fable; because facts are only to be canvassed from a multitude of circumstances,

which combine together to throw light upon each other; in proportion as the contemporary history of one country corresponds to the contemporary state of another.
fore

library there-

was necessary

to furnish the materials for

this purpose.

of Mithridates Eupator, king of Pontus; and the invasion of the Parthian empire made Hyrcania, Bactria, and the Scythians better known. AV e may therefore take it for granted, that no general history could be properly composed, till the geography of these countries was sufficiently known, in order to describe the strength of each particular kingdom, the number of its inhabitants, the progress of its armies, or the provinces lost or acquired in its contests with other states. When, however, the access to all these countries was laid open by the conquests of Alexander; when so many new kingdoms were established under the Macedonian government, into which the citizens of all the
7

But notwithstanding these advantages, and the improvements made in chronological computation by the writers alluded to, we find
all

the ancient historians very inattentive to dates

seras, and consequently erroneous in their computations; even the Greeks, among whom the science of chronology took its rise, were doubtful of its accuracy, as appears from many of their writings; (b) and the circumstance of the reras and years of which they wrote being frequently reckoned differently, without the authors having been conscious of it, or without their having informed the reader, has rendered

and

the fragments of their of very little use.

works now remaining

r <

Greek
(z) (a)

states

were freely admitted; when

lib.j.

the,

As Cambyses destroyed all the records of Egypt, we have no accounts of its inhabitants, that can
(b)

A.M. 3470.

OKmp.

<;:$.

'B.C.

&23.

Strabo, Geog.

Among others,

see several passages in Plutarch's Li/<

"/'

That
:

is,

supposing the Arundelian marbles not to be

iu

Lycurym,

as also his Life

of Solon.

f >rgcrios

a consideration which is largely treated on succeeding part of this Introduction.

INTRODUCTION.
]<

IMP.

it.

tin-

with -prndrd upon, prior tot heir intercourse which M;IS not before the reign of on A.M.iwit ) I'sammiticus; who was placed ' the throne of Egypt by the loniaus :io. OUuip.
(I.

Having thus taken a general view of the

nature, birth, and growth of Chronology, its general divisions come next to be considered :
in the
iisrlf;

C.r.rks,

course of which

its utility

will manifest
it

1U <;i;u. ) .,,,<! C'arians; for which service they were suffered to inhabit the sea-coasts below llubastis, on the lYlusiac branch of the Nile; till, in succeeding times, king Amasis caused thrin to remo\e to Memphis, to defend him against the natives: from these times, says Herodotus, the Egyptians had so constant a communication with the Greeks, that we may be justly said to know all that passed in Egypt, since the reign of Psammiticus: but prior to
princes reign, the venerable historian acknowledges that what he relates, he received from the priests, and that it should be heard and read with caution. In turning to the chronology of the Latins, we find it still more uncertain ; which is not to be wondered at, when we consider that their old records were destroyed with the city of A.M.3fii4. ) Rome by the Gauls, in the 364th B.C. 390. 5 year of its foundation, 04 years before the death of Alexander the Great; so that Eabius Pictor, the most ancient of their histoA.M.3780. ) rians, but who did not write till B.C. 224. 5 about the 530th year of Rome, or a century after Alexander, was obliged to borrow most of his information from the Greeks, to whom the early affairs of the Roman state could have been at the best but very inadethis

an account of the assistances

derives

from various sources, will follow; and a view of the systems created and adopted by different
writers will close the

w hole.
r

SECTION
CHRONOLOGY has been

II.

DIVISION OF CHRONOLOGY. OBJECTS TO WHICH IT IS APPLICABLE.

divided by Sturmius
into five distinct branches, according to the various relations or habitudes in which time is considered, viz. 1. Metaphysical, as it is in it-

Physical, as connected with, and subthe affections, states, and alterations jected of natural things; 3. Political, as accommodated to civil uses; 4. Historical, as matched with events that pass in the world ; 5. Ecclesiastical, as it relates to the celebration of Easter.
self;

2.

to,

utility of this science, the distribution of time into comprehends its subordinate parts, and the arrangement of historical events, by means of these several divisions, in the order according to which they occurred, so that their respective dates

The importance and

it

as

may be

quately known. In other nations of Europe, the chronology is still more recent, and, if possible, more imand even in modern times a considerperfect; able confusion is discoverable, from the inattention of historians to ascertain dates and epochas with precision. Scythia, beyond the

accurately fixed, must be universally acknowledged but as its use is extensive, so the difficulty of acquiring it is not inconsiderable. more general division of chronology than
:

that
tical,

quoted from Sturmius

is into, 1.

which

treats of the division of time

Danube, had no

letters

till its

bishop, Ulphilas,

AH on J introduced them about 600 years after the death of Alexander the Great. < Germany also was without letters till it received them fr IU tne Romans of the western
AD
3801 '*
530

days, months, years, and cycles, application of these divisions to the purposes of civil life; 2. Historical, which treats of the aeras and epochas fixed upon by different nations, for determining the order of dates and

Mathemaby and of the

AD
and

empire, above 700 years after that conoi ueror s death ; in the days of Procopius, 850 years after that event, the
still

Huns

\\ere

without them: and Sweden

Norway received them at a still later period. And it must be allowed, that things said to be done above one or two hundred years before the use of letters, can deserve but little
credit.

Comparative, which of different aeras; 4. comparison Tabular, by which all the leading events recorded in history, are arranged in the order of time in which they happened. Besides these, there are other more minute ramifications of chronological division, a detail of which it would be tedious to enter upon. But which, for the information of the curious reader, are arranged in their relative order in the annexed Diagram.
events in their annals;
3.

treats of the

SECT.

II.]

23

DIAGRAM
OF THE

DIVISIONS

AND ELEMENTS OF CHRONOLOGY.

"Sun-rise. fS

i. /'Variously J Sun-set. \ beginning at \ Mid-day, or Noon. Days. / (.Midnight.

Divided into

f Lunar, Months < or

(Solar.

The number of days of which they consist. Their denomination among different nationsDecades. Weeks. To which must be added their several denominaTheir division into< Calends. tions, the number of days they contain, and the Nones. nations among whom they are respectively used.
<

Ides.

"

3.3
fc,

O V

ti

Their differences regard

to

I
^

eir duration.

'Lunar
Years.
or
,Solar.

r ....._,.
V bvf..f...'i

The epocha, from which they Lunar ) Including

Cvcles

"I Solar.. $

when andbywhomtheywereinvented, and the use to be made of them.

'

are reckoned. a knowledge of

'=1

o s
8
si

2
=

11
/i

Reconciled / \TheReformedCalendar, by and adapt- \ ed to . . . . / Fcricc, orHolu- f The Golden Number. ~\ n,,
(.

F P e f g ry -VTTT Ore XI ",

H
ft'

day, by

. .

i.

j TAe /nrfic^on

The " a

<

T/ie .Epaoi
.

( must f

ure a " d se of , be sfudled as wel1 a

>

a a v > -d

(Dominical Letters. j
H'
Chaldcean,
called
. .

the raetl ' d

f findin S theln

'

f Neri.~\ I Sarus, subdivided into 1 y

.

CHRONOLOGICAL,
.

distribut.

SaMa<ic,distinguishedasthe
Called^Julian..

ed into

Jubilee period

(Olympiad..

/Their respective and relative dura> ""' / tion.andbywhom must be

I

Mf I > P
O o

{Lustrum
\Century.

Copied, knOWn
'

ij

.$o o

sl
POINTS, agreed upon, by

r of settling dates;

conv nience whence } $

Mas, with

their origin

and

use.
I

Anl on S the se such are t be to

.

'Historians, for regulating the 7 Epochas, which .', order ot events ; whence are either j

in
|

ancient history.

generally

Imost

C.iril,

used in both

adopted: their
chronological ordermust also

[ancient and

mo-

dern history.

be

8-8 o *'

tended

strictly to.

at-

The ORDER of Sue-/" Genealogies CESSION among the\ Generations

of< Dynasties, Houses Nations, distinguished by Races.
different

/ Remembering

= OS'S

Chiefs

direct, or collateral.

V
i

severally adopted,

the historians by whom they are and the method of reckoning

a: &,

by them.

j
theC Calculation

'Astronomical, as

qfEcRpes.
f Fasti.
< Charters.

\ Precession of the Equinoxes.

Archives.
. .

HISTORICAL Docu-' MENTS, which may

be
referred
to,

in<
re-

Transferable, as

support of facts
lated.
either.

These

tMedals.
I

(Public

registers,

&c.

'

Their use to the historian will be found under the

respective head,.

are]

Pyramids.

Fixed, as

<?

(Triumphal. Columns. ..... \ Commemorative.

(Marbles, &c.

I***-* **

[CHAP.

ir.

DIAGRAM
OF THE

KLKMKNTS AND DIVISIONS OF MATHEMATICAL CHRONOLOGY.

e
} as
f

more

Beginning,

among

dinerent nations, at different seasons,

bun-set
or
,

particularly
in
,
*.

Y Mid-day,
.1
I

Noon.. (

explained

the

(Midnight

KM.

UallC

Among

almost

all

nations into 24 hours.

C First hour,
Jews ....
the
I

by day, at the.

<>

V Ninth hour
Divided

^^
Third hour
.

beginning at Six

in the

morning.

Nine in the morning. Mi(, (Jay Three in the afternoon.

~)

Among

<

and

C First watch
Romans
'5

Each
.

I^ by night, J

Second watch at the < ,, , Ikird watch

J

\
i

of three consisting hours, and reckoned from

.

six in tlie

.,

evening to

six in

-o

2
=
tr
r;

_According to the new

the morning. {Fourth watch} system introduced by the French Revolutionists into 10 parts, sub-

divided into 10 others.

f

Lunar, of 29 or 30 days, adopted by

The ancients Some moderns,

,-,

'

as the

Mohammedans, and

some Asiatic nations

I
Months*
rDecades
,
. .
. .

formerly among; the Greeks J ., "., Y . ^ Recently among the French Revolutionists
4

.-

A
}-

particular account

of their nomentla.

rTu

o
'S

ture

is

given pages

Solar, subdivided into<

Weeks,

among

( Tlie Egyptians < The Jews .

27

to 32.

(The

Christians,

&c
Romans.
Melon, or Cycle of the Moon, a period of

Calends, Nones, Ides,

"1.

among

the

By
19

the Cycle of

O o o z o X
_

See page 40. years, called the Golden Number. See page 35. 2. By the Solar Cycle, a period of 28 years.

Lunar, of" 354 days

Differing

'Civil

purpose

3.

By
By

the Julian calendar

years, called

Common, of 365
(

days,

See

p.

whence the
11 days, from each other, but
reconciled for...
Ffrice, or
.

[ Bissextile,

of 36G days,
7

j 2!t,

33.
'

whence

the Gregorian calendar; arise the

Old

Stvle,

Years

Solar,
:$(>..")

of

(New Style,

c See pagC 3

days, hours,

4H minutes 45 sec 'ils.

'The Indiction, a period of 15 years, invented by Constantino the Great, and reckoned from three years prior to the
Christian a>ra.
I

Holydays, by

See page 43.

the solar above the lunar year.

The Epact, or excess of

page 44.
.SV//-I,
'

See

H <
UJ

of 3000 years,
of
<)()()

X H

'Chaldtran, distinguished as
[

'A'erf,

years,

Sori,

of

60

years,
;
"'

rather days; page 33.

see

Sabbatic, distinguished as a j
(^

Jubilee, or 7

e ek
, ,

/ M"

*'?' ^/ weeks ot years;

t. e.

49

years.

of

whch
Denominated

or period of 100 years. (Century, V Olympiad, or period of four years

Olympic games, celebrated

\
V.

in

so called from the Greece every fourth

;

year.
in

I Lustrum,

See page 28. or period of five years, adopted by the Romans, the reign of Servius Tullius, A. U. C. 175. See p. 30.
scale, or

Used by Chronologers as a general

Julian

measure.

combination of

the cycles, fit. the

Supposed

to

have commenced with the year 4714 B. C.

SECT. HI.]

MATHEMATICAL CHRONOLOGY. -DAYS, WEEKS.

SECTION
III.

OF MATHEMATICAL CHRONOLOGY. DIVISION OF TIME AMONG VARIOUS NATIONS. DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS, YEARS, CYCLES, JULIAN
PERIOD.
IN a general sense, this branch of the science belongs rather to astronomy than to history; yet in a more particular point of view, it will appear to include some of the fundamental parts of history, and so far becomes an indispensable branch of the plan of this Introduction. DAYS. The most obvious division of time is derived from the apparent revolutions of the
celestial bodies, particularly the sun, which by the vicissitudes of day and night becomes evident to the most barbarous and ignorant nations. In strict propriety, the word DAY signifies only that portion of time, during which the sun is above the horizon; but in a more comprehensive sense, it includes the night also. The inhabitants of every country have agreed in adopting the mean solar day as the unit of the scale for the admeasurement of time; but they have differed from each other in fixing its

Babylonians; and this practice was ultimately adopted by the Romans. Among almost all modern nations, the natural day is divided into 24 hours, twice reckoned from 1 to 12, except

among the Italians, Bohemians, and Poles, who reckon direct from 1 to 24. The Araucanians divide the natural day into 12 parts, each of which has a particular name. The Turks have adopted the practice of the ancient Jews; and the Chinese divide the natural day into 12 hours, each of which is equal to two of our's. In the decimal system adopted by the French republicans, the day w as divided into ten hours.
r

commencement; some beginning it at sun-rise, others at sun-set some at mid-day, but more at
;

midnight; as exemplified in the following

The

list

ancient Babylonians, Indians, Persians, Syrians, and Jews;(c) with almost(d)al\ Eastern nations of the present day, the inhabitants of Majorca, Minorca, and Ivica ; with the Greeks, and inhabitants of the islands of the

Archipelago; begin their

civil

day

at

The Athenians and

inhabitants of Attica

SUN-RISE. the Marco;

manui, Austrians, Bohemians, Gauls, Silesians, Italians, and Turks, at SUN-SET. The ancient Umbrians, ancient and modern Arabians, with astronomers of all nations, at MID-DAY.

The

English, French,

Germans, Dutch, Russians, SpaSwedes, Laplanders,

niards, Switz, Portuguese, Danes,

Americans,

Araucaniaiis,

and

modern Chinese,

at

MIDNIGHT.

The subdivision of the day into particular parts has also varied among different nations. The Chaldaeans, Syrians, Persians, Indians,
Jews, and Romans, divided day and night each into four parts. The Greeks divided the natural day into 12 hours, in imitation of the
(c) The Jews to the present time, begin their sacred or ecclesiastical iay from SUN-SET; being guided by the expression,
sis,

WEEKS. Next to days, which naturally divide themselves, we come to WEEKS, consisting of seven days, which is the most ancient artificial division, being coeval with the creation itself, (e) and having been repeatedly enforced upon the Jews by proclamation from heaven, with denunciations of the severest punishments in case of their disregarding it. Besides the Jews, this division of time was observed by almost all nations, even the most rude and barbarous, except the Greeks, (f ) who divided their time by intervals of ten days, three of which made their months; and it was not till after the lapse of many ages, that the use of the week of seven days was received into Greece- from the Egyptians. The other nations, among whom this mode of dividing time was unknown, or not used, were, 1. The ancient Persians, who had a different name for every day of the month, and consequently no subdivision of that period. 2. The inhabitants of Cathay, in the northern part of the Chinese empire, who divide their year into six portions, of sixty days each. 3. The Mexicans, who made use of a cycle of thirteen days. The week of seven days was almost all other nations: and it is adopted by remarkable that one day in the seven has been regarded as sacred by most people: as the seventh, or Saturday, by the Jews; the first, or Sunday, by the Christians; the sixth, or Friday, by the Turks; and the third, or Tuesday, by the Africans of Guinea, (g) The names of the days origi(e)

Gen.
xv.

ii.

2, 3.

Exod. xx. 10, 11. xxxi. 14, 15. Lev.

xxiii. 3.

Numb.
(f)

32

36.

frequently repeated in the course of the first chapter of Gene" the evening and the morning made the [first, second,

Goguet.

&c.] day." (d) The Chinese, Turks, and Arabians, with some others, are exceptions to this general rule.

(g) Hence also the origin offeria, or holidays, iu frequent use in systems of Chronology.

VOL.

I.

INTRODUCTION.
nated \\ith (lie ancient Chaldeans, or Egyptians, w ho -a\ the name of one of the seven planets to hour of the day, and designated each day
i

[CHAP.

ii.

l,\

the

name

<>(

the'planct

which

preside*!

o\er

To understand this, the order its first hour.(h) of the planets must be. viewed according to the s\Mem of Ptolemy, the Egyptian astronomer: Thus, I.Saturn. 2. Jupiter. 3. Mars. 4. The 7. The Moon. (i. Mercury. o. \e:m-. Sun.
Hence we ha\e
1

the following arrangement:

. .

*\

day of the week, Saturn (Saxon, Scater).

. .
'.

Saturday.

3d
:$,|

The Sun The Moon

Sunday.
. .

4lh
.-,il,

Monday. Mars (Saxon, Tuisco) . .Tuesday. Mercury (Saxon, Woden).. Wedoesd.

upiterY Saxon, Tlior). Venus (Saxon, Friga)
.

6th
-.ill

. .

Thursday.
Friday.
is

month is that portion of time occuthe sun in moving through one sign of pied by the ecliptic, and is on an average equal to 30 5 seconds. days, 10 hours, 29 minutes, The civil month, formed for the purposes of civil life, consists of a certain number of whole days, and approaches, as nearly as possible, to the astronomical, or to the solar month. When this month approaches to the lunar one, it is denominated the civil lunar month, and generally contains in a series, 29 and 30 days alternately, with some corrections, as among the Mohammedans, and ancient Jews and Greeks. The division of the year into twelve months, founded upon the number of full revolutions of the moon in that time, has been very general. (i) The months generally contained 30 days, or 29

The

solar

and 30

MONTHS.
i'

The

next division of time

that

of MONTHS, which appears to have been in use I., ire the flood, though perhaps not so ancient
as the creation. It is a natural division, pointed out li\ the revolution of the moon; by which months of all nations were regulated, till tin
after

alternately though this rule is very far from being without exception. The custom of giving names to the differ:

ent months

is
it

very ancient, but

it

is

uncertain

some considerable advances were made in ,iee, and the motions of that planet were compared with the sun, by means of which the limits of the month were more accurately fixed. Mouths are therefore either astronomical, or sofur,

or

i-iril.

The
b\ the
tion

astronomical month

moon

in

the time taken up a complete revoluperforming

is is

originated. Various nations have names, and arranged the months acadopted cording to their fancy, whence arises the diversity in the dates of the months for as the year has been reckoned from different signs in the eclipnor the tic, neither the number of months, days they comprise, have been the same; and their situation has likewise been altered by the intercalations, rendered necessary by the excess of the solar above the lunar year.

with

whom

round the earth, and

either periodical,

or synodicnl. in which the

The periodical month is the time moon moves from one point of the

heau-ns round to the same point again, and is eipial to '27 da\s, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 4.7 seen ids: the synodical month, or Intuition, as it is sometimes called, is the time between two successive conjunctions of the moon with the sun, usually denominated new moons, and is equal to 2!) da\s, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 3 se-

The months containing the intercalary days are called embolism ic, and are either natural, or ciril. By the former, the solar and lunar years are adjusted to each other; the latter arises from the deficiency of the civil year itself. The Ve-udar of the Jews, which always consists of 30 days, is an example of the natural embolismic month.
following tables contain the method of dividing the year into months, among various nations, and will be found of very essential service in the study of chronology.
the year into 24 months and the Mexicans into 18 months, of 20 days each: but such unnatural divisions do not deserve The months of the Latins, also, consisted the title of months. of Hi, 18, 22, or 36 days; and Romulus gave his subjects a The Kamtschadales divide year often months, or 304 days. lie year into ten months; reckoning the time proper for la;
l

The

conds,
(h) Tin-

1 1

thirds.

Jews denominated the days of the week, frxt, <Ye. to the seventh, to which they applied the tTin Stilibtith (reslj; the early Christian churches pursued a
-

</,

similar practice, except that

they called the

first

day,

Tin'

honour of the resurrection of our Saviour. It is from the heathens that (lie names in modern use, of Sunday, Alondny, <Vc. have been borrowed. (i) Sir John Chardin, however, says, the Persians divided
ford's
ilny,
in

bour to be nine months, and the winter season, obliged to remain inactive, as only one month.

when

they are

SECT.

III.]

MONTHS OF VARIOUS NATIONS.

No.
Order. Ecclai- Civil Year. astical. 1.

27

7.

2. 3.

8.
9.

4. 5. 6.
7.

10. 11. 12.

1.

8.
9.

2. 3.

10. 11. 12.

4.
5. 6.

INTRODUCTION.
callt

[CHAP. n.

d
I

/>'/,vsi

iiis,
\\

to

\\

icii
.

it

as
it

///

H:it

and gave occasion to the year, added, to be denominated Siswas not till the reign of Agustns

hat the Egyptians had fixed and complete years, commencing on the 29th of August.

No. HI.
Amo
Names.

GRECIAN MONTHS.

Hecatombicon.

. .

SECT.

III.]

ROMAN MONTHS.
calendar,

When Romulus first gave a calendar to liis subjects, the Roman year consisted of only ten
months, as follow
1. 2. 3.
:

the

order and

succession

of the

months appointed by
tilis,

Numa

was preserved;

but Januarius, Martins, Maius, Quintilis, Sex0. Sextilis...

7.

Martins
Aprilis

Maius

31 days 30 31

8. 9.

4. Junius
5. Quintilis ....

30
31

10.

30 days September 30 October 31 November 30 December 30

. .

October, and December, had each 31 days; Aprilis, Junius, September, and November, 30 each; and February in common years, 28, but 29 every fourth year, or bissextile.

deficiency of this distribution, which contained no more than 304 days, was soon discovered, and Numa Pompilius endeavoured to correct the error, by deducting from the se-

The

Quintilis was called Julius, in compliment to Julius Ca3sar, who was born in that month; and

cond, fourth, sixth, seventh, ninth, and tenth months, one day each, and to the six days thus obtained, he added 51 new days, which he supposed to be the number wanted to perfect the year of Romulus. These 57 days Numa divided into two new months, which he denominated Jauuarius and Febnutrius; the former consisting of 29, the latter of 28 days and he placed them at the head of the calendar: his year therefore consisted of 355 days; finding, however, a deficiency, as was supposed, of 1 1 days 6 hours, to bring it up to the solar year, he intercalated an additional month, called
;

Murcedonius, or the Intercalary February, at the end of every two years, consisting alternately of 22 and 23 days ; or 45 in four years. This intercalation was ill observed by the pontiffs, to whose care it was committed, and the Roman calendar had become so confused by the time of Julius Caesar, that the beginning of the year differed from its true time no less than 67 days. To correct this, Julius, in his capacity of sovereign pontiff, ordered the 67 days
to

honour of Augustus, received the of Augustus. Before this reformation, the Roman months were divided into kalendte, nonte, and ides; all of which were reckoned backwards. The first of these names was derived from the old verb calo, to call, and was applied to the first day of every month, from the pontiff, before the fasti were published, assembling the people in the capitol, and there proclaiming aloud the number of the kalends, or the days on which the nones would happen. The term nonce, applied to the 5th day of those months that had 29 days, and to the 7th of such as had 31, is derived from nonus, ninth, because they always The ides fell on the fell 9 days before the ides. 13th of the months having 29 days, and on the 15th of such as had 31 ; the word is derived from iduare, to divide, because they divided the month into two nearly equal parts, (n) Hence there were,
Sextilis, in

name

In months of 29 days, 1 day of kalends.

4 days of nones. 8 days of ides. 16 called the kalends of the

on

be intercalated cember, so that the year U. C. 708, which also contained the embolismic Marcedonius of 23 days, consisted of 445 days, whence it has been

between November and De-

W
1

following month.

In months of 30 days,

day of kalends.

4 days of nones.
8 days of ides. 17 kalends of the following month. 30 In months of 31 days,
1 day of kalends.

called the year of confusion: and farther to prevent the recurrence of this perplexity, he ordained, with the advice of the astronomer Sosigenes, that the year should in future consist

of 365 days 6 hours, which was then supposed to be the real time of the sun's annual course. This reformation is called the Julian correction : but after twelve years it was discovered
that tfte priests had ignorantly intercalated 12 days, instead of nine; wherefore Augustus ordered 12 years to pass without any intercalary days, to bring them back to the comIn this reformed Roman putation of Julius.
(n) These remarks are only to be understood of Numa's computation: after the reformation of the calendar by Julius Caesar, the nones fell on the seventh, and the ides on the

6 days of nones.
8 days of ides.

16 kalends of the following month. 31

This method of naming the days will be more perspicuously understood from the following
table,

which is made for January, a month of 29 days, according to Numa's calendar:

15th of March, May, July, and October; but in all the other months, the nones were on the 5th, and the ides on the 13th, as may be seen in the annexed table.

INTRODUCTION.
No.
1. 2. 3. 4.
ft,

[CHAP. n.

Name*.

On-noni! dm.-ion.
. .

Kalendus Januarii.

.One day of Kalends.

4 Nonas 3 * na ' _ Pndie Nonas Nonas Januarii

n Idus Idas
Idut.
.

>4 days of nones. 1

1

6.
7.

8. 9.

10.

days of

ides.

11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29.

Idus ; . Pridic Idus. . . . Idus Januarii. . . 17 Kal. Feb. . . 16 Kal. Feb. . 15 Kal. Feb. . . 14 Kal. Feb. . . 13 Kal. Feb. . . 12 Kal. Feb. . . 11 Kal. Feb. . . 10 Kal. Feb. . . 9 Kal. Feb. 8 Kal. Feb. 7 Kal. Feb. 6 Kal. Feb. 5 Kal. Feb 4 Kal. Feb 3 Kal. Feb. . . Pridie Kal, Feb
. .

16 days of Kalends
of the succeeding

month.

From this illustration, the following Table of the reformed calendar, for all the months, will
be readily understood
No.
:

SECT.

III.]

MONTHS OF VARIOUS NATIONS.

MONTHS
Name.

31

No.VI.
Order.

OF THE

ARMENIANS.
No. of days
in each.

Order.

Names.

Corresponding months, in our calendar.

No. of days,
in each.

Corresponding months, in our calendar.

8. 9.

Aprile

April

Maye
Joune
Jioule

May
June
July

1.

2.
3. 4. 5.

Navasardi Huerri

6.
7. 8. 9.
10.

Sahmi Ore Khaguets A rats

Mieliieki

Arieki

Anki
Maricri

11.
12.

Margats
Huetits

llth 10th 10th 9th Oth 8th 7th 9th 8th 8th 7th 7th

August September October

.30. .30. .30.

10. 11. 12.

Avhouste

August
Total number of days

30. 31. 30. 31. 31.

November December
January February

30. 30. 30. 30. 30. 30.

30. 30. 30.

305.

March
April
TVIay

In bissextile, February receives an additional

day.

June
July

360.

Epagomenes, or supplementary days

Total number of days
>

5.

Every fourth year, the supplementary days are increased to six.

No. VII.

RUSSIAN MONTHS,
Corresponding months. in our calendar.

before the

Reign of Peter the Great. (USED LIKEWISE AMONG THE SCLAVONIANS.)

Order. 1.

Names.

No. of days
in each.

2.
3.

Sentiabre Octiabre

September October

30. 31. 30.

4. 6. 6. 7.

Noiabre Dekabre Henvare

Fevrale

November December
January February

Marte

March ....

31. 31. 28. 31.

The Russians received the Julian year, with the Christian religion, from the Romans of Constantinople, in the tenth century; but began their calendar with the month of September, till about A. D. 1700, when Peter the Great ordered the first of January to be deemed the first day of the new year, and that all computations should be made by the Christian aera, as in the rest of Europe: for in all the ancient Sclavonian and Russian books, the chronology is reckoned from the first of September, and by the year of the creation: a method still observed among the Greek Christians, who reckon 5508 years from the creation to the nativity of Jesus Christ, which they place in the year of the world 5509. The Russians never having adopted the New Style, it is necessary to add 1 2 days to their dates, in order to make them coincide with our's: thus, their first of January, or New Year's Day, is the 13th of the same month with other European nations.

No. VIII.
ARABIAN
Orde.
1.
2. 3.

MONTHS OF THE MOHAMMEDANS.

TURKISH
Signmcation.

Names.

Names.

Corresponding months of our calendar.

No. of daji
in each.

Muharrem
Saphar Rabia I. Rabia II.
I

........ Sacred month

Muharam
Sepher Rabiul-Euvel Rabiul-Achir Gimaasil-Euvel Gimaasil-Achir

4. 5.
6. 7.

Month of study Honoured month,

)

Giumada I. Giumada II.

Months ofP'W
<

,.

> >

8.
9.

10. 11. 12.

Regieb, or Rajab Sahaban, or Shasban. .Month of hope Ramadhan Month of heat Schewal, or Shawal Dulkaiadath Month repose

Regeb
Sahaaban

Ramazan
Scherrail

of

Zilkaade
Zilkigge (q)

Dulkagiadath

Month of ceremonies.

16th 15th 13th 13th llth llth 9th 8th 9th 8th 7th 6th

July

30.

29. August September .... 30. October 29.

November December
January February

.... 30.
... 29.

March
April

May
June

30. 29. 30. 29. 30. 29.

354.

(q)

This monfli sometimes contains 30 days.

32

INTRODUCTION.
ing

[CHAP.

ii.

Tin- Arabians add eleven days to the end of between every year, to preserve a coincidence and the seasons; but the Turks their months never correct their calendar, and suffer the iirst day of their year to glide insensibly through all the twelve signs of the zodiac, (r)

all religion among the French people, than which nothing could have a greater tendency

No. IX.

FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY
MONTHS.

than the abolition of the Christian sabbath. This mode of computation continued till the first of January 1806, when the Gregorian calendar was restored by a decree of Napoleou Buonaparte, issued on the 9th of the preceding
,

September.
Order.

Names.

Signification.

Corresponding months in our

calendar.

No. of days in
each.
. .

other effects of the zeal for innovation was that displayed by the French revolutionists, of a change of the calendar, in 1792, soon after the abolition of royalty, when the Convention decreed that in all civil concerns the French aera, or epocha of the revolution, should be used in lieu of the Christian aera, and that a new series of months and distribution of days should be made, to commence from midnight between the

Among

1.

Vindemiaire,

Vintage month,

2.
3.

Brumaire
Frimaire

Fog month
Sleet

month

4.
5.

Nivose
Pluviose

6. 7. 8. 9.

Ventose Germinal ....

Floreal
Prairial

Snow month Rain month Wind month

22d September 22d October .... 21st November. 21st December

Bud month
. . . . .

10.

11. 12.

21st

and 22d of September. Pursuant to this decree, the year was divided into 12 months, of 30 days each, as in the subjoined table; to
the number of 365. Every fourth had an additional intercalary day; to this year year the term Olympic was applied, and the day itself was devoted to the celebration of Olympic games, and the renewal of the national oath, " To live The months were subfree, or die." divided into three decades, or periods of ten
to

Flower month Pasture month Messidor .... Harvest month Heat month Thermidor Fructidor .... Fruit month
. .
.

30. 30. . 30. . . 30. 20th January .... 30. 19th February ... 30. 21st March 30. 20th April 30. 20th May 30.
.

19th June 19th July 18th August

30. 30. 30.

360.

which, in common years, five supplementary days, denominated Sansculottides,(s) were added

SUPPLEMENTARY DAYS.
1. 2.
3.

Les Vertues

The

Virtues-

make up

Le Genie Le Travail

Genius Labour

4.
6.

Opinion L'Opiuion Les Recompenses Rewards

-17th September } 18th Ditto / > 19th Ditto > 20th Ditto 21st Ditto

Total number of days

365.

days each; and each day, from midnight

to

midnight, into 10 parts, each part into 10 others, and so on, to the last measurable portion of time. The names of the months were expressive of their respective relations, either to the season of the year, the temperature of the air, or the state of vegetation. The days of each decade were denominated from their order, Primidi, Diiodi, Tridi, Quatridi, Quintidi, Sextidi, Septidi, Octidi, Nonidi, Decadi (viz. First day,

foregoing table will suit every year exour bissextile, or leap-year, when, through cept the intervention of the 29th of February, the first of Germinal fell upon the 20th of March, and every day after one day later than is stated in the table, till a 6th supplementary day, on the 21st of September, brought the French calendar to its usual equation with the Gregorian.

The

Second day, &c.)

In the annual calendar, each

anifruit,

day was designated by the name of some

mal, utensil, flower, vegetable,

work, &c.

which were substituted in lieu of the names of saints, with which the Popish calendars are so Indeed, the whole plan of this calenreplete. la r seems to have been to promote the favourite scheme of the faction of that day, of destroy<

next and highest natural divithe YEAR, which is either solar, sidereal, lunar, or civil. The solar year, sometimes also called the tropical year, is a period corresponding to the sun's revolution in the ecliptic, from any equinox or solstice to the same again, and consists of 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 54 seconds. The sidereal year corresponds to the revolution of the sun from any fixed star, to the same

YEARS.

The
is

sion of time

(r) A ii easy and expeditious method of reducing the years of the Hej'ra to the .standard of the Christian aera, will be found in Section IX. of this Chapter, OF COMPARATIVE CHRO-

NOLOGY.

In honour of the sans culottes,oi inferior orders of society, RABBLE) who took so activea partin the overthrow of the ancient order of things in that country. This ridiculous after the revolution of July 1794. appellation was laid aside
(s) ( Ainjlice,

SECT.

III.]

YEARS OF VARIOUS NATIONS.

33

and is equal to 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, 15 seconds; that is, 20 minutes, 21 seconds, more than the solar year. The lunar year is equal to twelve revolutions of the moon around the earth, reckoning- from one conjunction with the sun to another, and contains 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, 36 seconds; so that it is 10 days, 21 hours, 18 seconds, shorter than the solar year. The civil year, more frequently called the Julian year, is that which is applied to the ordinary purposes of civil life; and consists of 365 days, 6 hours; being, in fact, the solar year
star again,

This luni-solar year of 360 days was in use long before any intercalations were attempted, or even thought of: but as it was exceeded by the true solar year, of 365 days, 48 minutes, 54 seconds, by about 5i days, the seasons could rapidly deviate from the months to which they at first corresponded; so that in the space of only thirty-four years, the winter could fall in

months which had originally been fixed for This enormous aberration. was observed by all nations; but how long they suffered the inconvenience to remain unthe the

summer season.

expressed in

round numbers.

these kinds of years have been, or are, adopted by different nations, a strict attention to them is required in the chronologer, in order that he may be able to reduce any or all of them to some common standard, for the purposes of
all

As

comparison. In the earliest periods of Egyptian history, it has been ascertained, that the year among those people originally consisted of only a single lunation, or one month: but afterwards it included two or three months, and was determined by the stated return of the seasons. As the eastern nations, however, particularly the Chaldaeans, Indians, and Egyptians, very early applied themselves to astronomical observations, they found, by comparing the motions of the sun and moon together, that one revolution of the former was equal to about twelve of the latter, and as they could not but observe that one revolution of the sun completed the course of the seasons, a year of twelve lunations would be formed, each consisting of 30 days; hence the formation of what is termed the luni-soJar year; and hence the division of
the ecliptic into 360 portions, or degrees, (t)

corrected, it is impossible to ascertain; we only know that a few intercalary days were added at certain intervals. The Thebans (Egyptian) claim the honour of having first corrected the Egyptian year, by adding 5 days to it, and making it consist of 365. The old Chaldaean year was reformed by the Medes and Persians; and we learn from some of the Chinese missionaries, that the solar year was discovered in China, to very considerable exactness, and In a the luni-solar year was corrected by it. word, the civil year of 365 days, the discovery of which, the Thebaic priests ascribe to their Thoth, or Mercury, seems to have been known in many nations, so early as the 12th or 13th century before the Christian aera, about which time reigned the celebrated Osymandyas,(u) who ordered a golden circle to be made, 365 cubits in circumference, and on every cubit was inscribed a day of the year, with the heliacal risings and settings of the stars. This Egyptian reformed, or solar year, of 365 days, being nearly six hours shorter than the true one, produced in the course of time a necessity for another correction; and, in examining the circumstances attending it, we are enabled to fix the date of the discovery of the

;/, Berosus, the Chaldaean historian, computed by aosi; which were without (loul)t well understood when he wrote, as ancient measures of time: hut cither himself, or some later writer, through ignorance or design, hus magnified them beyond all credibility; telling us that the sarux contained a period of 3000 years, the ttents of GOO, and the SHSII.I of (jO. These jears have been taken by other writers to bedajw only, and with much apparent reason; for besides the incredible length of the reigns of the Chalihcan princes, (t) fi,

it is inferred, that before the deluge, not only the but also the tropical, solar, and lunar years, consisted of twelve months, comprising 30 days in each, or 300 days in

whence
civil,

the whole.''
writers place his reign so far back as the 21st before the Christian rera, and make him contempocentury SynceHus informs rary with Terah, the father of Abraham. 1000 years us.'that the five additional days were introduced alter the Deluge, but were never considered as integral parts either of the year, or of any of its months ; but as days beof whom Plulonging to the birth of five Egyptian deities, " to be tarch relates a celebrated tradition, that they were month." born neither in any year, nor in any
(u)

Some

according to the first mode of calculation, it plainly appears from the reign of the sixth king, that they were really days, as will he more fully shewn in the history of their reigns. The woid sum.,, deprived of its termination, is no other than the Chaldee or Syriac sar, " ten:" it therefore contained ten old Chalduir if'tirs, of 360 days each, amounting to 3600 days:

* Allin's Disc, on the Ancient Year,

ill

Whislon's Theory, book

xi. p.

14*.

VOL.

I.

34

INTRODUCTION.
:

[CHAP.

ii.

\\ liich, from the foregoing length of the \ear of tin- golden circle, may well description fBOOgn lit- supposed to ha\e been made in the

which proves that the know ledge of this form of the year was then recent, and confined to a few learned men: neither does it appear to ha\ e
adjustment of the civil to the time of Numa Pompilius, the solar year whose reformation has been already noticed. The Jews have a tradition, that Abraham preserved in his family, and transmitted to his posterity, the Chaldaean form of the year, consisting of 360 days; which con- rA.M. 3257. tinned the same till the aera of < Olymp. VIII. 2. 747. Nabonassar. After their return (B.C. from the Babylonish captivity, the Jews adopted the solaryear; butontheirsubjectiontothekings of Syria, they were obliged to admit the lunar year; and in order to adjust this to the course of the sun, they composed a cycle of 19 years, in seven of which they inserted the intercalary month Ve-Adar. (w) This correction was intended to keep the 15th of Nisan as nearly as possible to the equinoctial point, and so to regulate the courses of the seasons and festivals, that the corn might be ripe at the feast of pentecost, fifty days after that of the passover, as their law required. (x) The Roman year, as instituted by Romulus, amended by Numa, corrected by Julius Caesar

reign

ot'

OsyinamUas.

been employed

for the

AN tin- inundation of the Nile was annually announced by the heliacal rising of Sirius, to which the reformers of the calendar adjusted the beginning of the year, it could not but be obsem-d in the course of a few years, that the heliacal rising of this star, and the inundation of the Nile, had advanced upon the day of their new year, in the proportion of one day in
every four years: so that in the space of 1461 Egyptian years (equal to 1460 Julian years) it would complete an entire revolution ; that is, the heliacal rising of Sirius, and the inundation of the Nile would have happened upon every day of the year, and have come back to the point whence the reckoning was first begun. This period was called the great Egyptian year, or Canicular cycle. Now, from the accounts which have reached us of the time when this cycle was renewed, the period of its original commencement may be calculated with tolerable precision. According to Censorinus, the renewal of this cycle took place on the 20th of July, A. D. 136: therefore, A M 9R701 by reckoning back ward for 1460 years, -J we come to B. C. 1325, (v) when the sun was in Cancer, about 15 days after the summer solstice, which then occurred on the 5th of July; consequently, the commencement of the canicular year is fixed to the 20th of that month. The Egyptians used no intercalation till the iime of Augustus, when the corrected .Julian calendar was introduced at Alexandria, by his order; but it \\asonly obsencd by the resident
'

till

and Augustus, and reformed by Pope Gregory XIII. has been treated of in a former page; as has also the republican year of the French
:

only remains to close this part of the subject with a list of the various times at which different nations have begun their year.
it

The

The

Egyptians, ChaMteant, Persians, Syrians, Phienician.s, and Carthaginians, began their civil year with the AUTUMNAL KOUINOX. Jews began their cii-ilyrar at the AUTUMNAL, and

(Greeks, the superstitious natives to add to the length of a year, that had refusing been so long established among them.
It is quite uncertain when the true solar year wa discovered to consist of nearly six hours
:!(!"> da\s the priests of Thebes (in Kgypt) claimed the merit of the discovery, and Plato and Kudoxus, who introduced it into < -recce, are said to have obtained A.M. 3(;:(i.-j (III. it as a great secret from them, Olvmp. B.C. 808.J about 80 jean after Herodotus:
;

Romans and

The Greeks, The

more than

year *\ the VF.UNAL EQUINOX. before the time of Melon, (B. C. 432) began their year at the WINTER SOLSTICE; but afterwards at the SUMMER SOLSTICE. Romans, in the days of Romulus, began their year with the VERNAL EQUINOX; which was changed by Numa Pompilius to the WINTER SOLSTICE.
their eccleriastical
at the

The Scandinavians and Araucanians(y)

WINTER SOLSTICE.
the

begin their year

The

new moon
Aquarius;

Chinese, ancient and modern, begin with the first after the sun is in the first degree of
i.

e.

WINTER SOLSTICE.

'.

The

Dutch, Germans, Russians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Siamese, modern Peruvians,

English,
(z),

French

(v)

Alioul the time of Ehud, second judge of Israel.

Se<- tin-

(/)

The French
;

year has had various periods for

the
;

its

com-

(w)
(x)

Jewish months, page 27.

xxxiv. 22. Lev. xxiii. 15.

mencement
xxviii.

thus, at a very early period,

monks began
;

Exod.

\\iii. i<;.

Numb,

16. Di-ut. xvi.o.

(y)

On

the 22d of December.

under the iirst under the second race, at the WINTER SOLSTICE; under the third race, it was changed to the vernal equinox ; and by an orST.
it

their year from the nice of their kings,

FEAST OF

MARTIN

began on the 1st OF

MAY

15

SECT.

III.]

YEARS OF VARIOUS NATIONS. CYCLES.

first

and Americans, begin (heir year with the January following the WINTER SOLSTICE.

of

begin with

Sunday, the dominical

letter for

The

Venetians, Florentines, Pisans, anil inhabitants of Treves, with the Mexicans, begin their year with

the VERNAL EQUINOX. The American Indians begin their year with the first new moon after the VERNAL EQUINOX. The Turks and Arabians begin their year on the 16th OF JULY. The Japanese begin tlieir's with the new moon nearest to

and as the next year must begin on Monday, Sunday will then become the seventh day, and the letter G will be its
the year will be
;

the

WINTER SOLSTICE.

CYCLES. Besides the natural divisions of time into days, months, and years, there are others, formed of the less obvious consequences of the planetary revolutions, which are called CYCLES, from the Greek wxxo a circle, because they contain a circulating period, at the expiration of which, certain celestial phenomena return to the point whence they originally set The most remarkable of these modes of out.
;,

proper characteristic. The third year beginning on a Tuesday, the first Sunday will be the sixth day, consequently the dominical letter will be F. And thus in a series of common will the Sunday letters succeed each other years, in a retrograde order, viz. G, F, E, D, C, B, ; so that were it not for the intervention of the leap-years, they would return to the same days every seven years. But as a leap-year contains

weeks and two days, it follows, that if it begin on a Sunday, it must end on Monday, and the following year will commence on Tuesday, which will cause the first Sunday to fall on the sixth of January, to which the letter F
ri

corresponds

so that

will in this instance fol-

computation are the following 1. The cycle of the sun; consisting of a revolution of 28 years, in which time the days of the months return again to the same days of the week ; as does likewise the sun's place to the same signs and degrees of the ecliptic, in the same months, and on the same days of the months, so as not to vary one degree in a cen:

low A, instead of G, as

in

common

years.

By

tury : the leap-years also begin their course over again, with respect to the days of the week on which those of the month fall. The first seven letters of the alphabet, A B, C, D, E, F, G, have been employed by chronologers to mark the several days of the week ; the first letter standing for the first day of January, and so on ; and as one of them must in course stand against Sunday, it is called the Dominical, or Sunday letter for the year, and is distinguished from the rest by being a capital, while those which designate the other days of As the the week are in small characters. Julian year of 365 days contains 52 weeks and one day, it is obvious, that it must begin and end on the same day of the week (except in the case of leap-year) and consequently the next year must commence on the day following. Suppose, therefore, the month of January to
, ;

the return of the leap-year, therefore, every fourth year, the regular succession of the dominical letter is interrupted, and prevented from regaining its original position, till after a revolution of 28 years; when the same days of the week correspond with the same days of the month as at first, (a) The chief vise of this cycle is to find the dominical letters, or the days of the year on which Sunday falls, whence its name, from the Latin dies solis. Had the contrivers of this cycle consulted simplicity and convenience, they would have made the series of cycles to commence with the Christian aera; for want of which, the first year of that aera corresponds with the tenth of the solar cycle therefore, to find the rank of any proposed year in the current cycle of 28, it is necessary to add 9 to the given year, and to divide the sum by 28 ; the remainder, if any, being the year of the solar cycle but should there be no remainder, the year given will be the 28th of the cycle. It is also to be remarked that the first year of every cycle is a bissextile,except in the cases of those centurial years, as 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, &c. when the intercalary day is omitted.
:

donnanco of Charles IX. in the year 15<!4, it was referred where it has ever since again to the WINTER SOLSTICE, continued, with the exception of the interruption occasioned by the revolutionary calendar, from 17U2to 1805, in which the \ear commenced at the AUTUMNAL EQUINOX.

Leap years have always two Sunday-letters, viz, one for the rest of the year. January and February, and another This is occasioned by the supplementary day being intercalated at the end of February instead of after the last day of
(a)

for

the preceding

December.

F2

INTRODUCTION.

[CHAP.

ir.

TABLE

I.

DISPOSITION OP THE I.KTTF.RS IN THE SOLAR CYCLE FOR 100 MCAKS, FROM 1800.

1ED

SECT.

III.]

MATHEMATICAL CHRONOLOGY. CYCLES.

37

nial years 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2:500, when, for the correction of the calendar, the inis omitted. foregoing rules apply to cases when the dominical letter and the day of the month to which it belongs are alike unknown the following rule is for finding the dominical letter when the day of the month on which a Sunday

tercalary (lay

The

known. RULE. Divide by 7 the number of days that have elapsed between the first of January and the given Sunday, inclusively if there be no
falls is
;

remainder, the letter required is G; but if there be a remainder, it indicates the letter sought for, reckoning according to the order of the
alphabet, as follows
:

A
1

38

INTRODUCTION.
Having thus obtained
tin-

[CHAP, n.

(\tli-,

the dominical letter

I.

nuiuber of the solar \vill be found by

Table

In historical chronology it is frequently neas well as cessary to reduce ancient dates, Old Style, to computations, by what, is termed
tin-

modern method,

lov\iii- tables will

which purpose the folfound essentially useful. be

for
III.

TABLE
B. C.

DOMINICAL LETTERS FOE 4200 YEARS BEFOEE THE CHRISTIAN *RA, OLD STYLE.

SECT.

III.]

MATHEMATICAL CHRONOLOGY. CYCLES.

39

Required the dominical letters A. D. 10(i({. The angle of coincidence of 1000 among the centenary years, with 66 in the side column, is A which is the dominical

EXAMPLE.

for

letter for that year. The utility of this table

will farther

and the preceding appear in the examples given for

Table VI.
V. DOMINICAL LETTERS FOR 4000 YEARS OF THE CHRISTIAN ;ERA, NEW STYLE.
A. D.

TABLE

40
said to have

INTRODUCTION.
happened oa the 28th May, B. C. desired to know on what clay of the

[CHAP.

ii.

585;
\\(
<

it is
it

took place.

letters for the year 585 B. C. have been ascertained by Table I. to be F E, the former of which serving only to the 24th of February, E must therefore be made use of for

The dominical

this question.

Under E,
is

therefore, against the

found 25, the nearest number to 28; the 25th of May was therefore on a Sunday, in common with all the rest of the (lavs under the dominical letter for the given

month of May

year; consequently, the 28th, which is three days after, must have been on a Wednesday. between the (2.) The battle of Hastings, Anglo-Saxons and Normans, took place on the 1 iih of October, A. 1). 1066, Old Style; it is required to shew on what day of the week it

so that although this cycle is useful when the golden numbers are rightly placed against the days of the month in the calendar, for finding the mean conjunctions or oppositions of the sun and moon, and consequently the time of Easter, it will serve for only 310 years, Old For as the new and full moons anticiStyle. a day in that time, the golden numbers pate ought to be placed one day earlier in the calendar for the next 310; and so of the rest. These numbers were rightly placed by the Nicene council, A. D. 325 ; but as the anticipation has been ever since neglected, it has grown now
into almost five days,
in the
It

which

will

be complete

year 1875.
in

was

consequence of

this defect,

which
lived
to cut

was soon observed,

that Calippus,

who
;

happened. The dominical letter, found by Table IV. is A, and the nearest day to the 14th, in the division of October, under the letter A, in Table VI. is 15; consequently the battle was fought on a Saturday; all the figures under A, in this instance, representing Sundays. (3.) A contract is to expire on the Saturday nearest to Christmas-day, 1816; it is required
to
for A. D. 1810, are G F. Now by Table VI. the nearest Sunday to Christinas day for that year is December 22 consequently the contract will expire on the 21st.
letters
;

about a century after Meton, proposed and for off a day in four periods of 6940 days this purpose he contrived a new cycle of 27,759 days, containing 76 solar years, and 940 months, or lunations. This new cycle, which supposes the tropical year to consist of 365t days, anticipates the full moons only 5 hours 53 minutes in 76 years.
according to the calendars use, entirely regulated by the motion of the sun but certain festivals of the Christian church, such as that of Easter, still depend
civil year,
is
;

The now in

know on what day of the month that will be. By the example for Table V, the dominical

variety of other useful problems in chro-

nology
tables,

may be worked by means

which the
intelligent reader
profit by.

of these
will

no

doubt know how to

2.

of the Moon, called also the Metoinventor .VI eton of Athens) and //irri/r/c (from the :>-ul(lfii a in her ;(c) consists of a revolution of ]'.) years, or <i!MO days, at the end of which, the conjunctions, oppo>itions, and other aspects of the moon, are \\ithin an hour and a half of lieinii' the same as they were at the commencement of the cycle. This deficiency of an hour and a half in I!) years, though apparently inconsiderable, heroines so sensible in a course of time, as to make a whole day in .310 years
ri/c/c
its
it
;

The,

full moons that happen at determinate seasons of the year. The celebration of Easter, as laid down by the council of Nice, A. D. 325, is fixed for the first Sunday after the next full moon following the 21st of March; and thus our calendars, as well as those of ancient Greece, require a method of reconciling the motions of the sun and moon. At the time this rule was established, the vernal equinox really happened on the 21st of March, and the framers of it seem to have imagined that this would always continue to be the case. The fathers of the council of Nice made no change in the civil year, which continned to be regulated by the Julian calendar, as before. All that was then thought to be for introducing into the church an necessary uniform practice in regard to the times for celebrating the festivals was, to lay down a general rule for determining the Paschal full moon, and

upon the

for

the council of Nice (A. D. iwr,) (i\,.,| t|, ti,,,,. the feut of Eutar to the Sunday afier the l>askeeping hal full moon, the numbers of the lunar cycle were inserted
.

Wlwn

in the calendar, and out of a superstitious reverence of the use they were designed for, they were set in golden numerals, whence they have obtained the name of yolden numbers.

SECT.

III.]

MATHEMATICAL CHRONOLOGY. CYCLES.

;

41

of course Easter Sunday and for this purpose the ancient cycle of Meton was adopted. If it be supposed that '230 lunations are precisely

Paschal full moons would happen on the same days of the month in the corresponding years of every cycle. According to this supposition, it was only necessary to determine the Easter Sundays for one complete cycle, in order to have a perpetual table for all succeeding ages. But, in process of time, two things happened, which had not been provided for by the council of Nice; and which introduced confusion into the calendar, and a departure from the
rule laid

equal to 19 Julian years,

it

is

plain that the

as regarded the civil year, the undertaking was neither very difficult nor very complicated. In order to bring the 21st of March to the equinox, as it was at the time of the council of Nice, 10

days were cut oft', by calling the 5th day of October, 1582, the 15th of that month and,, in order to fix the equinox for the 21st of March in all time coming, three days were directed to be left out in every period of 400 Julian years,
;

by making three consecutive centenary years common years, and the fourth a bissextile year;
whereas, according to the old calendar, every centenary year was a bissextile year. This is
equivalent to the supposition that 400 tropical revolutions of the sun are performed in 146,097 days; which, although it is not perfectly exact, is very near the truth. The error is in excess, and it amounts to a day in 36 centuries and, on this account, a day extraordinary must be left out in that period of years. The first correction for this error will fall in the year 5200, which must be made a common year, although, in the general tenor of the calendar, it should
:

down

for the celebration of Easter.

The

first of these was the separation of the In the vernal equinox from the 21st of March. 16th century the first full moon after the 21st of March was frequently not the first full moon after the vernal equinox, which it ought to be, according to the intention and spirit of the Nicene decree. In fact, the vernal equinox, which in 325 fell on the 21st of March, in the 16th century actually happened on the 10th of

be a bissextile year.

the same month. This anticipation was owing to the excess of the Julian year, of 365 days 6 hours, above the actual time of a tropical revolution of the sun, which is only 365d 5h 48' 48". In an interval of 1300 years the sun had anticipated the Julian calendar 10 complete days.

The second thing that happened was owing to the inaccuracy of the supposition, on which the scheme for determining the Paschal full moons xvas founded; namely, that 235 lunations are exactly equal to 19 Julian years. The error of this supposition was precisely the same as that of the ancient period of Calippus, introduced to correct the cycle of Meton ; and it amounted to something less than a day in 304 In 1300 years, that elapsed between the years. council of Nice and the end of the 16th century, the full moons, calculated by the rules of the church, were later than the true full moons by nearly four days: and hence arose a distinction between the ecclesiastical full moons and the true ones. The defects of the calendar, both in regard to the seasons and to the full moons, had been .frequently the subject of discussion before the 16th century, and many plans of reformation had been proposed at different times. At last, Pope Gregory XIII. in 1582, accomplished the As far great work of reforming- the calendar.
VOL.
I.

more difficult part of the reformation of the calendar, was to connect the motions of the moon with the solar year, so as to lay down a rule sufficiently simple for determining the Paschal full moons. The scheme, to which the was given, is still founded on the preference Metonic cycle of 19 years, although a new set of numbers, called epacts, was introduced, which will be noticed in their appropriate
order.

the council of Nice adopted the lunar of 19 years, it would have been most concycle venient had they made the series of cycles to commence with the Christian aera; in which case the golden number of any given year, or its place in the current cycle, would have been the remainder left on dividing that year by 19. But this consideration was neglected in preparing the table of Paschal full moons, and on reckoning backwards, it appears that the first year of the series of cycles corresponds to the second year before the vulgar Christian aera. RULE. To obtain the golden number for any proposed year, therefore, it becomes necessary to add 1 to the dale of the year, and then the remainder left on a division of the sum by 19 is the golden number required or should there be no remainder, 19 is the number sought
;

When

for.

INTRODUCTION.
EXAMPLE 1816 + 1 =
1.

[CHAP.
2. i2!?
f

ii.

1817

For the year 1816. - leaves a remainder of

EXAMPLE
12, the
1

823 +

For the year 1823. leaves no remainder

will

there-

golden number.

fore the golden

number

be

19.

TABLE

VII.

TO FIND THE GOLDEN NUMBER, OR CURRENT YEAR OF THE LUNAR CYCLE, FOR ANY YEAR OF EITHER OLD OR NEW STYLE, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN JERA TO A.D. 5600.

Yean by which

the

given year is more or less than a Ctn-\

tury.

SECT.

III.]

MATHEMATICAL CHRONOLOGY. CYCLES.

TABLE
V1I1.

43

TO FIND THE TIME OF NEW MOON BY THE GOLDEN NUMBER, TO A. D. 1900, NEW STYLE.

ji'

44
their hulls.

INTRODUCTION.
in

[CHAP,

rr-

This cycle is said to have origithe following circumstances: In the year :>\-2, the emperor Constantine the ("Jreat authorised the exercise of the Christian religion
nated
a public edict: some years after, the counof IS" ice was assembled, which, in 328, condemned the heresy of Arius. In the space, therefore, of 15 years, Christianity triumphed over persecution and heresy; and to preserve the remembrance of so memorable a victory, the cycle of infliction was established, and its commencement fixed on the 1st of January, 3 1 3, in order that it might commence with the solar year; though, according to the institution of Constautine, its epocha had been fixed for the month of September 312, the date of his edict in favour of the Christians, (d) But it was the Justinian who first ordered the compuemperor tation by indictions to be introduced into public acts. Hence it appears that the year 313 of the Christian aera corresponded with the first of the cycle of indiction; and, by a retrograde calculation of the years which had previously

by

cil

lated by the excess of the solar year above twelve lunations, which are completed in it. It has been seen, that the Julian solar year consists of 305 days, hours; and the Julian lunar year of 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, 38 seconds ; the difference between which, or the epact for the year, is 10 days, 21 hours, 11 minutes, 22 seconds; or nearly 11 days; so that in 19 solar years, the moon completes 20 times 12 lunations, or gets up one whole lunar

= 20-) it will be elapsed of the former aera ( lo ' via seen that, had this cycle been so long in use, the Christian aera would have begun in the 12th year of the 21st Roman indiction consequently, this cycle must have begun three years before the vulgar aera of the birth of Christ ; or, in other words, the first year of the Christian aera would have corresponded with the fourth of the cycle of indiction. To find the number of the Roman indiction answering to any given year of our Lord. RULE. Add 3 to the given year, divide the sum by 15; and the remainder will indicate the current year of the cycle. Should there be no remainder, the number will be 15, the last of the series. EXAMPLE. Required the number of the cycle of indiction for A. D. 1816.
:
-

year; and having finished that circuit, begins again with the sun ; and so on from 19 to 19 ; the epact and golden number expiring together. This last observation, however, applies only to the Julian calendar; for in the Gregorian, which differs from it exactly 1 1 days, the epact for a given year is always the same with the thereJulian epact for the preceding year. fore find in our almanacs, a difference of 1 between the epact and the golden number ; and hence we meet with two cases in the calculation of the epact the first, when the proposed year is prior to the reformation of the calendar, in 1582; the second, when the year is posterior to that epooha; as more fully exhibited in the following tables.

We

TABLE
NICE, A.
Golden

X.

JULIAN EPACTS, AS ESTABLISHED BY THE COUNCIL OF

D. 325.

\ umber.

leaves a remainder of 4, the

for.

number

sought

Cycle of Epacts. By the epact of any understood the age of the moon on the first day of January of that year; or, it is the number of days elapsed since the last new moon. The epacts, it is evident, will be regu-

4.

The
is

year

(1) Retail considers this arcount of the origin of the cycle of infliction as very doubtful : it is however certain,

SECT.

III.]

MATHEMATICAL CHRONOLOGY. CYCLES.

45

where the new style, or Gregorian reformation, has not been adopted, as in Russia. EXAMPLE. Required the epact for the year 1810, old style. The golden number for 1810
.

e.

is

12;

therefore
12,

12

x 11
is

1'i l *

leaves a re-

mainder of

the Julian epact for the year, according to the old style.

which

TABLE XI. CREGOHIAN EPACTS, AS ESTABLISHED AT THE-REFORMATION OF THE CALENDAR, A. D. 1582, WHICH WILL
LAST UNTIL
Number.

A. D.

lfi!l!t.

46
In the lanijuairo of
is

INTRODUCTION.
tin-

[CHAP. n.

calendar, the first correction called ieteij>tosis,(e) or solar eqtia~ and the latter the proeinj>tu.sis,(f) or lunar lion, that for almost It thus happens, ei/mition.
tin'
t

thirty sets of epacts are arranged in a table,

and

distinguished by as many letters of the alphabet as may serve for indexes ; while another table exhibits the centenary years, each with
its
,

'\ry century a new set of epaots is required; lionsometimes the same set will continue in
It

appropriate letter annexed to

;

it,

which is the

use for two, or even three centuries together. In the scheme of the Gregorian calendar, the

index of the set of epacts to be used for the following century as may be seen in the subjoined copies. XIII.
A. D.

TABLE

INDEX LETTERS FOR THE GREGORIAN EPACTS, FROM

1700 TO

A. D. 5500.

Iiidcx.

SECT.

III.]

MATHEMATICAL CHRONOLOGY. CYCLES.

If the epact of

47

RULE.
first

any year be required,

year,

find the golden

in the

number of the given

Table of Index Letters, the letter corresponding to the century: then look for the same letter, in the side column of the Table

and

of Epacts, as also for the golden number at the table; and on a line with the index letter, in the column of the golden number, will appear the epact required. EXAMPLE. Requh'ed the epact for the year 1816. The golden number for 1816, it has already been shewn, is 12; the index letter for 1800 is C; in the angle of coincidence between C and 12, in the Table of Epacts, is I. the

head of that

number

required.

In a former page, in treating of the lunar cycle, a table has been given for finding the time of the moon's change, or new moon, by means of the golden number and the following scale and rules will shew how to ascertain the moon's age in any given month from the number of the epact.
:

TABLE
YEAR.

XV.

TO DISCOVER THE MOON'S AGE IN ANY GIVEN MONTH, BY MEANS OF THE NUMBER OF THE EPACT FOR THE

Months.

INTRODUCTION.
Sunday
after
tinlull

[CHAP.

ii.

moon which

first

suc-

TABLE

XVI.

led the \ernal equinox, the iMetonic c\ele, or golden number, which reckoned :!'>> lunations to !< precisely c<|ii:il to 19 solar years, wa> supposed to be correct: but, as before obser\ed. it was really one hour and a half defi-

TO FIND ON WHAT DAYS OF THE MONTH THE PASCHAL II I.I. MOON, AND EASTER SUNDAY, WILL TALL FROM THE YEAR 1700 TO IflOO, INCLUSIVE.

happened, that in 304 years the new moons retrograded a w hole day towards the commencement, of the four days in 1216 r, and consequently lost
cient of that
it

amount; whence

Golden

>'o.

was, therefore, on this account, that the middle of the sixteenth century, towards the new and full moons had anticipated their ancient places by four days; so that Easter was frequently celebrated contrary to the disposiTo remedy this tion of the Nicene council. an invariable rule, Pope Greirregularity by gory X1I1. proposed the problem to all the mathematicians of Europe ; but it was an Italian who best succeeded in solving it, by a new disposition of the epacts. This new arrangement forms what is now called the Gregorian Calendar: in Italy, France, Spain, and other Catholic countries, it was adopted in the year 1582 ; and soon afterwards, at least so far as regarded the solar year, it was received by the German Protestants, though they would not admit it with respect to the lunar year, preferring to find the day of the Paschal full moon by astronomical calculation: the Roman Catholics therefore do not always celebrate Easter at the same time as the Protestants in Germany. The English, as elsewhere observed, did not re< i\e t he Gregorian year till 1752, and the Russians still adhere to the ancient Julian calendar. By this reformation of the calendar, the 14th day of the Paschal moon was brought back to the same season in which it was found at the time of the INicene council, from which it had receded upwards of four days. According to the decree of that council, Easter ought to be celebrated on the first Sunday after the 14th day of the moon, should that day occur upon or after the 21st of March: and hence, as has been already observed, Easter cannot happen sooner than (he 22d of that month, nor later than the tMth of April; which are therefore called the /'axr/Hi/ liin-ils, ati exhibited in the following
years.
It

table.

SECT.

III.]

MATHEMATICAL CHRONOLOGY. CYCLES.

TABLE
XVII.

49

TO FIND EASTER BY THE DOMINICAL LETTER AND NUMBER OF THE EPACT, TILL THE YEAR 1900.

50

INTRODUCTION.
added month
to the 21st
for

[CHAP,

ii

RULE. Having found the dominical letter and golden number for the year required, look
in

March, gives the 26th of that Easter Sunday, as before.

one
for the

the the angle formed by the with the horizontal dominical letter at the top, line hearing the golden number at the side; the
tliis

table for

tin-

number standing in vertical column having

In bissextiles, or leap-years, there are

dominical

letters;

two months of January

number so found, is the number of direction, \\ liich being added to the 21st of March, gives the day of March or April on which Easter Sunday falls. EXAMPLE. The dominical letter for the year 1815 is A, and the golden number 11 in the
;

and February; the other for the remainder of the year, as already explained. In making use of the foregoing table, the last of these letters is to be used, as in the following example. The dominical letters for the year 1816 are F, and the golden number 1 2 look into the table for the coincidence of F and 12,

which
21,
is

is

24

this

number added

to

March

angle of their coincidence the figure 5 appears, as the number of direction for the year; which

equal to the 14th of April, the day on which Easter Sunday will fall.

TABLE

XIX.
1000.

TO FIND EASTER SUNDAY BY THE DOMINICAL LETTER AND GOLDEN NUMBER, TILL THE YEAR

S-s

gfe;

SECT.

III.]

MATHEMATICAL CHRONOLOGY. CYCLES.

TABLE XX.

51

M. GAUSS'S

NEW METHOD OF FINDING EASTER, WITH-

OUT REFERENCE TO THE LUNAR MOTIONS.

This curious method of finding Easter without reference to the lunar motions, is the invention of M. Gauss, a celebrated German mathematician, and is applicable to both the Julian and Gregorian calendars.
In the Julian Calendar, the values of the assumed centenary constant: quantities A and B, are

INTRODUCTION.

[CHAP. n.

TABLE

XXI.

MOVEABI.E FEASTS, ACCORDING TO THE SEVERAL DAYS ON WHICH EASTER CAN

POSSIBLY FALL.

r
5

y 1 4

SECT.

III.]

MATHEMATICAL CHRONOLOGY. CYCLES.

thus, to find what year of the period any given year of the Christian aera corresponds to add to the given year, 4713, (i. e. 1 less than the sum of 4714 above stated, because 4713 years of the Julian period, were actually expired in the year 1 of the Christian aera:) so that the year of our Lord 1816 + 4713 = 6529 of the Julian period. On the contrary, having the year of the Julian period given, to find the corresponding year of our Lord, subtract 4713 from the given year: thus the year of the Julian period 6529 4713 = 1816 of the Christian aera. The reverse of this rule must be observed for computations prior to the birth of Christ. To find the cycles of the sun, moon, and indiction, for any given year of the Julian period, divide by 28, 19, and 15; the three remainders will be the cycles sought, and the quotients the number of cycles run since the beginning of the Thus we find that in the year of the period. Julian period 4714, or the first of the Christian aera, the cycle of the sun was 10 ; that of the moon, 2 ; and the Roman indiction, 4 the solar cycle having run through 168 courses ; the lunar, 248 ; and the indiction, 314.

consists of a revolu7980 years, and includes all other cycles, the multiperiods, and aeras, being formed by of the solar and lunar cycles and the plication Roman indiction into each other thus, 28
6.

The Julian Period

or subtraction

tion of

J ulian

x 19 (the lunar cycle) x 15 (the solar cycle) 7980 (the Julian pe(the Roman indiction)

In this whole period, no two years have the same numbers for the three cycles, of which
riod.)
it

is

made up

therefore,

had

historians re-

marked in their writings the cycles of each year, the precise period of the events recorded by them might now be accurately demonstrated. This period was invented by Joseph Scaliger, A. 13. 1580: it begins 4714 years before the vulgar Christian aera, running 710 years beyond the creation, according to the Hebrew computation, and will not expire till A. D. 3260, when the three cycles, of which it is constitogether, and will every succeeding year present the same numbers that they did 7980 years before. As the first year of the Christian aera, according to the usual mode of calculation, is the 4714th of the Julian period, the years of the two
tuted, will all

recommence

aeras

maybe adjusted to each

other by additio

54

[CHAP. n.

DIAGRAM
OF THE

ELEMENTS AND DIVISIONS OF HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY.

/ General, as, the Creation, the

Olympiads, the Foundation of Rome,

H
/-

Nations, for the con- ^ venience of settlii tling V JEVcw, which are. dates; whence
-s

\ .<
i

Anno Domini, &c.

or,

Particular, as, of Callisthenes, Nabonassar,

clesian,

the Seleucidac, Dio-

\
Historians, forregulat- 1 ing the order of > Epochas

&c.
in

o
s-

f Sacred, used only

{_

ancient history, and explained page 78, et seq.

events; whence .. )

Civil,

or, used in

both ancient and modern history.

Genealogies

. .

The ORDER of SUCCESSION among the different Chiefs

of Nations,
distinguished by, or distributed into. . . .

Generations

. .

Dynasties *

<
)

Houses
.Races .............

Traced by means of a succession of Generations, as exemplified in the various Genealogical Tables of this Work. Each containing a period of 30 years. the most ancient are those of the Egyptians Di rect ) ( , and Chinese. ", > of which-? Collateral \ ral ... ,, 4l .., ( the most known are those of the Califs. A denomination adopted to designate the successional Order of
, .-,

e 2
_a
41

Used only

the Potentates of Europe. in the history of the French Kings.

> o o o
!Z

ASTRONOMICAL, founded on
o
O.

in which, to TThe cpocha. obtain the coincidence of time, it The place of observation. is^ requisite to observe ............ ( The duration. The Precession of the Equinoxes: a retrograde movement of the equinoctial points, of 50 seconds in a year, or a degree in 72 years.

The Calculation of Eclipses,

or -

u
-3

-8
-

< u

=
s-3

under "Archives, the several titles

of
.
'

\
V.

Athens, the names of the Archons. At Argos, the names of the !At Priestesses of Juno. the names of the Consuls. ^ omans ' r, ? 'gaming Chronicles, among the Jews, containing the series of their Kin^s

and High

Priests.

TRANSFERRABLE,

as

/ Charters,

a term generally used collection of public acts.

among

the moderns, to signify a

( Considered as current coins, or money. ^Medals ........ 1 Commemorative struck in honour of some achievement remembrance of some remarkable event. (^
;

or in

H-S

r Pyramids,

u
o H

<

( Pyramids, properly so called, such as those of Egypt. which, I Obelisks, which differ from pyramids, in being of a conical form, and according to their I generally surmounted by a globe; sucli arc those two attributed to Sesostris and Rhampses, transported from shape, have ob-./ Egypt to Rome. tained the several 1 Gnomons, or Needles; a kind of narrow pyramids, erected for denominations of I measuring time by the motion of their shadows such was CleoV. patra's Needle.
:

Columns, properly so called

at

as those of Trajan

and Antoninus,

Rome.

^ERECTED,

as

Milliary, placed on the highways, to indicate distances. Columns, designat- Legal, on which the laws were engraved in tables of brass. ed according to< Rostree, erected at Rome, on which were hung the prows of ships their use taken from the enemy. Lacteal, at the base of which mothers exposed their illegitimate
offspring. \^Cypce, or Funeral Columns, erected over graves.

Ruins

As

those of Palmyra and Persepolis ; from which historians have derived a vast number of useful hints.

fOfParos,
Marbles
'

or Arundelian, supposed to be an authentic monument of early Grecian history. See page 61, et seq. Capitoline, so called from their being kept in the Capitol, on which were inscribed the names of the Consuls.

SECT, iv.]

HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY. SYSTEMS OF VARIOUS WRITERS.

SECTION
IV.
agree among themselves in several circumstances, nor with ancient historians, who are to be regarded as original sources. These be

OF HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY. TESTIMONIES OF AUTHORS. SYSTEMS OF VARIOUS WRITERS. IN

this to consider

may

upon

branch of the science, we are called such historical documents as

;

are used for the purpose of establishing the truth of events, and the order in which they occurred such as eclipses, public registers, medals,

compared to splendid portraits, drawn at pleasure by painters who never saw the persons they are intended to represent, but who had been removed from this world several centuries
before their pictures were thought of. The most pure and fruitful source of ancient history is doubtless in the holy Scriptures, which furnish an accurate and almost uninterrupted history of the world, from the creation, through the line of patriarchs, judges, kings, and princes of the Hebrews, to the time of Augustus, comprehending a space of about 4000 years, some small interruptions excepted,

columns, obelisks, pyramids, marbles, and inscriptions ; together with the a>ras and epoclras,

upon by different nations for determining the order of dates and of facts in their annals. To all these, the testimonies of authors form an antecedent principle in the foundation of
fixed
historical chronology.

Though no man

can, or ought to assume in-

which may be
history.

easily supplied

from profane

fallibility to himself, nor ought to as a sacred oracle, yet it would

be regarded be making a

very unjust judgment of mankind, to treat them and it would be an all as dupes or impostors offered to public integrity, were we to injury impugn the veracity of writers universally esteemed, or to doubt of the existence of facts which in themselves are worthy of credit.
:

When

an historian is allowed to be completely able to judge of an event, and to have no intent But to to deceive, his testimony is irrecusable. avoid the danger of adopting error for truth, and to be satisfied of a fact that appears doubtful in history, the four following rules will be
found useful
1
.

SYSTEMS OF VARIOUS WRITERS. That the systems of sacred chronology should have been various, is not to be wondered at, when it is considered that our three biblical copies, of principal importance, give very different accounts of the first ages of the world. The Hebrew text reckons about 4000 years from Adam to Jesus Christ, and to the Flood 1656 years; the Samaritan reckons in the former interval 4305 years, but in the latter only 1307 ; while the Septuagint version removes the creation of the world
to nearly 6000 years before Christ, and states the interval of the Deluge at about 2260 years.

A particular regard is due to the testimony

This disagreement
ing
to

may be attributed either to corruptions, interpolations, or errors, resultfrom frequent transcribing or rather want of computing from some fixed epocha, and digesting the history, as its several parts were written, into a chronological method, (h)
;

of those who wrote at the moment when the events occurred, and who have not been contradicted by any contemporary writer of credit
authority. Next to contemporary authors, more credit should be given to such as lived near the a ra of the events, than to those who wrote at a
2.

the

and

more
3.
little

distant period.

Doubtful histories, related by authors but known, can have no weight, if at variance

So great a diversity of computations has afforded an ample field for the genius of chronologers to exercise itself in enlarging or contracting the space of time between the creation and
flood, and between the flood and Christian sera and as the disagreement among the heathen writers is also great, and every modern author
:

with reason, or established tradition. 4. The truth of a history related by modern writers, is to be distrusted, when they do not

has followed the historian of his

own

choice, a

the great disagreement among the various with respect particularly to the ages of the patriarchs, then is a difference (at least an apparent one) between the whole numbers of several intervals in the same copies: c. the intenal from the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, ij. to the foundation of Solomon's temple, is expressly stated,
cupii-s,
1

(h) Besides

1 KiHifs, vi.l. at 480 years; whereas the sum of the years of the Judges, in the book named after them, with that of the \arious servitudes, amount to about 592 years ; which not

being adjusted to some certain a-ra, we are at a loss for a gtandard by \\hich to measure the true distance of time in
the intervals.

M
niuluiitt
.11
;

INTRODUCTION.
of computations (i) have been prosome of which state the interval becreation and the nativity of Christ at
;5<>16;

[CHAP. n.

(I.

tin-

at only years, others

and

all

pre-

merits of these various schemes, from which indeed the reader would derive little gratification, we shall only notice one or two of the most celebrated, as well for the the several

t.

ndiiiu tin- authority of the Scriptures, (j)

As

it

\\ould too

much
upon

essay, to enter

increase the bulk of this a minute examination of

purpose of general elucidation, as to assist the reader in the perusal of such historians as adopt one or other of them.

TABLE

I.

Formed of the whole Numbers of

the Intervals.

SECT, rv.]

HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY. SYSTEMS OF VARIOUS >YRITERS.

57

TABLE
Formed of the

II.

Particulars.

IvrRODUCTION.
lai-s.

[CHAP.

it.

ohsi T\e-

-omewhat of a mean between the

third
is

The tin- Septuagint. of Father Pe/ron, and consists of an enlargement of the Septttagmt aad Greek computlie sacred to tation, in order to accommodate
Samaritan and
Iliat

the profane history The occasion of tliis difference

the several arises chiefly from the copies of (lie Scriptures, therein attributed to the patriarchs, as 9
in

have occasion more particular!) to " )n -Eras and Epodescribe in the Section, snilice it here to remark, that the whole <-ha>: diflerence between the Hebrew and Samarilies in the interval between tan(m) computation, and the Vocation of Abraham the Creation but the S.-plnagint (Table I.) carries the difference forward to the Foundation of the Temple, which, however, it places in the 440th year of the Exodus of Israel, forty years short of the

we

shall

<

year after the escape of Israel from the Egypbut whoever shall calculate the years of tians their sojourning in the wilderness, with the terms of the governments of the respective judges, after their settlement in the promised land, and the years of their servitudes under their oppressors, adding to the sum thus produced the years of the reigns of Saul and David, will discover, upon the most moderate computation, aconsiderabh greater number of years than And here the Samaritan, the prescribed 480. which in other respects extends the calculation beyond the Hebrew, instead of assisting, rather increases the difficulty, by shortening the interFor the satisfaction of the val to 440 years. reader, the following abstract of six various modes of calculating this interval, by writers of celebrity, is inserted, as demonstrative of the
:

spects

The interval it so greatly exceeds it. between the Foundation of the Temple, and its Destruction by INebnchadnezzar, is limited to 430 \ears, during which God bore with the rebellion of the Israelites, (o) and is collected

Hebrew computational) though

in

other re-

out of the years of the reigns of the kings of Israel and'.ludah, as collated and adjusted by judicious chronologers: there is, therefore, no room for allowing more than 40 years for the him in all the reign of Solomon, as assigned the Scripture affording means for copies extant, reconciling the apparent inconsistencies relative to the ages of himself and his son Rehoboam at. their respective accessions to the throne.
intergreatest di Hi cullies, however, the E\odus to the Foundation of the (from Temple) are met with in the chronology of the judges, about vvhich many conjectures have been formed, and many hypotheses laid down;
\al

The

in this

foregoing remark, that learning is baffled, and science confounded in the scrutiny ; as exemplified in the following remark of Pezron, who seems to have bewildered himself more than " The " in the Jews," says he, ordinary " vanity of their minds, pass by in silence the " times of their affliction and adversity, the " consequence of their rebellion against God, " and even seek to hide the remembrance of " them from themselves. They therefore only " set down the years of their prosperity, which " agree pretty well with the 480 years men" tioned in the Scriptures ; but if to these be " added the days of their servitude and oppres" sion by their enemies, we shall have an over" plus of more than a century." Surely the reverend father forgot that he was speaking of
:

a history, whose compilers were divinely inspired and in which the crimes and virtues of the people of God generally, with the failings
;

but so completely are they enveloped in unfathomable mystery, that they set the most learned at defiance, and compel them to admit, that no clue can be found tacitly or avowedly,
to
It has been so inextricable a labyrinth. seen that the Hebrew text (Table I.) places the Foundation of the Temple in the 480th

and repentance of the saints particularly, are set down with an impartiality, scarcely equalled, most certainly never exceeded, in any other It will also be seen by the subjoined writings.
abstract, that instead of about one century, he has carried his calculations to almost 500 years

beyond the computation sought

for.

(m)

We

have only the Pentateuch

in this character.

(u) 1

Kings,

vi. I.

(o)

Ezek.

iv.

-1-0.

SECT. IV.]

HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY. VARIOUS COMPUTATIONS.

VARIOUS MODES OF CALCULATING THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL AND THE FOUNDATION OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE: (I A7//\v, vi. 1. -480 Years.)

TOURNEMINE.
Years.

Deliverance from

Egypt. Israel Desert - 40 Partition of the

in the

Land of Promise, after warfare of

a
-

6
8

Joshua, Judge The Elders -

10

1st Servitude, to

Cushan
Othniel, Judge

40

2d Servitude, to the Moabites - 18 Ehud governs - 80

3d Servitude,
Jabin

-----

to

20

INTRODUCTION.
After tin- destruction of Jerusalem, and the overthrow of the kingdom of Judah, the Babylonish captivity interrupts the course of the

[CHAP. n.

Jewish history, and we should be at a great loss, were it not for the opportunity afforded of connecting this epocha with the Nabonassarian, or Babylonian aera, by means of Ptolemy's celebrated astronomical canon; which

return of Sesostris after his ( A.M. 3033. Thracian expedition, at the period (B.C. 971. when Shishak, or Sesac, (whom Sir Isaac identifies with Sesostris) is mentioned in the scriptures
;

The

about four years after Solomon's reign,

after the usual period assigned

and 520 or 640

to him.

enables us with certainty to bring the account of time down to the nativity of Jesus Christ, which, according to the supputation of Archbishop Usher, exhibited in Table III. falls in the year of the world 4004, and of the flood 2348. In turning to the chronology of profane historians, we must remember the extreme fondnrss of the ancients for affecting a great antiSir Isaac Newton took considerable quity. pains not only to detect the errors of their computations, but also to correct them by arguments drawn from reason, and confirmed by astronomical calculations ; he did not live to

The Argonautic expedition, about r A.M. 3072. 43 years after Solomon's decease; (B.C. 932. 273, or 331 years after the aera commonly assigned to it. The destruction of Troy, about r A.M. 3104. the 76th year after the death of | B.C. 900. Solomon or 284 years later than usually reckoned. The return of the Heraclidae, r A.M. 3188. about the 159th year after the death | B.C. sio. of Solomon ; or 288 years after the generally received epocha. With respect to the chronology of the Roman kings, Mr. Hook has shewn, by several independent arguments, deduced from the connection of events in the history of their reigns,
;

complete his hypothesis, and what he had begun was long afterwards continued by Bi-

shop Horsley; and though never established as

fundamental principle of chronology, his theory is of importance to all who wish to be
a

that to suppose them to have reigned, one with another, 19 or 20 years each, makes a more consistent series of facts, than to imagine them to have reigned 35 years apiece, according to

well grounded in the science. After a general account of the defects and obscurity of the

ancient chronology, Sir Isaac observes, that though many of the ancients reckoned by generations and successions, the Egyptians, Greeks, and Latins, computed the reigns of kings equal to generations of men, and three of them to a hundred, and sometimes to a hundred and twenty years ; which was the foundation of their technical chronology. He then proceeds to infer, from the ordinary course of nature, and a detail of historical facts, the difference
reigns and generations ; and that the latter, from father to son, may on though an average be reckoned at about 33 years, or three of them equal to a century (though when computed from their eldest sons, three of them cannot amount to more than 75 or 80 years) and as the reigns of kings are still shorter, 18 or 20 \cars may be allowed as a just medium. Sir Isaac then fixes on the fourepochas of the return of Sesostris to Egypt, after his wars in Thrace; the Argonaut ic expedition; the destruction of Troy; and, the return of the Heraclidae to the Peloponnesus; each of which he settles by the true value of a generation, as follows
:

net ween

the common hypothesis. The chief inconveniences attending the old chronology in the Roman history are, that we are obliged to admit an interval of 63 years of peace in that most restless of all people, prior to the accession of Tullus Hostilius ; that it makes the reign of Servius Tullius so long in proportion to the few censuses taken in his reign; as would argue a most unaccountable, and indeed incredible neglect of his own favourite institution ; that it obliges us to suppose Tarquinius Superbus not to have been the son of Tarquinius Priscus, Dido not to have been contemporary with .<Eneas, or Numa with Pythagoras, or Solon with Croesus, in the Grecian history : all which have the unanimous voice of tradition in their favour,

Halicarnassus,

and what Dionysius of Livy, and Plutarch, express

their unwillingness to relinquish, but that they were compelled to it by a regard to a chrono-

logy unquestioned in their times. The latter indeed declares his determination not to give up the congress of Solon and Croesus, notwithstanding his general attachment to a theory that would not admit of it, but of which he does not seem to have suspected the fallacy. If the

SECT, iv.]

HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY. VARIOUS COMPUTATIONS.

at

number of kings who reigned

Alba be joined

37.

44'

(u)

and

as

it is

known

to recede

one

to those who reigned at Rome, and they be allowed to have reigned 19 or 20 years apiece, they will place the arrival of ^Eneas in Italy, and the siege of Troy, exactly at the period in

degree in 72 years, it must have occupied 2645 years in retrograding the whole 36. 44'. which

which arguments, drawn from generations and successions in Greece, as well as from astronomical calculations, place those events; which is a reciprocal confirmation of the just computation of both the Greek and Latin chronology. This computation likewise agrees, as Sir Isaac has shewn, with what Appian, in his History of t lie Punic Wars, relates from the Carthaginian archives, which fell into the hands of the Romans ; that Carthage had stood 700 years,
round nummore particular ber, Solinus has added sum of37,(q) making together 737 years, which

when destroyed by

Scipio

to this

the

places Dido, foundress of Carthage, abovit 76 A.M. 3105.7 years after the death of Solomon. B.C. 899. J It likewise agrees with the Arundelian marbles, (r) which describe Teucer's arrival in Cyprus seven years after the destruction of Troy, where he built Salamis in the days

counted back from A. D. 1690, will place the event in question about 25 years subsequent to the death of Solomon, "(v) But as there is no necessity for allowing that the middle of the constellations, according to the general accounts of the ancients, should be precisely the middle between the prima Arietis and the ultima Cauda, Sir Isaac proceeds to inquire more minutely what those stars were, through which Eudoxus (w) made the colures to pass in the primitive sphere, and in this way to fix the position of the cardinal points. From the mean of five places, he finds that the great circle, which in the primitive sphere described by Eudoxus, or at the time of the Argonautic expedition, was the equinoctial colure, did in the end of A. D. cut the ecliptic in 6. 29/ 15''; (x) he likewise, in the same manner, determines the mean place of the solstitial colure
.

to

6. 28'. 46"; (y) and as it is at right to the other, concludes it to be accuangles

be 8

of Dido.
astronomical reasoning by which Sir Isaac endeavours to establish the epocha of the " The Argonautic expedition is as follows sphere was formed by Chiron and Musaeus for the use of the Argonauts in their intended expedition to Colchis, as several of the asterisms, spoken of by Aretus, and referring to this
:

The

drawn. From all this, he infers, that the cardinal points, in the interval between the Argonautic expedition and A. D. 1689, had receded from these colures 1 sign, 6. 2l>'. which,
rately

shew: at this time, according to the testimony of several ancient writers, the cardinal points of the equinoxes and solstices were in the middle of the constellations Aries, Cancer, Chelae, (s) and Capricorn. Now, in the end of A. D. 1689, the star Prima Arietis was in T 28. 51'. N. lat. 7. 8'. 58". and the star Ultima Caudce Arietis was in 19. 3'. 42/'. N. lat. 2. 34'. 5" the equinoctial consequently colure cut the ecliptic in 6. 44';(t) so that the equinox had gone back, since the formation of the sphere at the period above alluded to,
event, plainly
'.

allowing 72 years to a degree, amounts to 2627 years; and these counted back, will place the expedition 43 years posterior to the death of Solomon, as described in the foregoing statement ; or about 37 after his decease, as placed by Petavius. It is an argument much in favour of Sir

computations, that they agree very nearly with all the most ancient monuments, the most correct traditions, and the oldest historians,
Isaac's

Herodotus and Thucydides, who wrote before chronology had been corrupted by the vanity of their countrymen, or the systems of
particularly
later writers of other countries.
It

likewise con-

duces very much to the credibility of the Old

Testament
and 22d

history, that the courses of descents

"
(q)

Carthago post annos 737 quam fuerat extructas exciSolin.

xxvii.

ditur."
(r)

Arund. Marb. epoch,

Chela, the claws of the scorpion, now Libra. 6. 50'. 20". according to Bishop Horsley. (t) (a) Horsley, 30. 50'. 20". (v) According to Dr. Horsley's calculations, the equinoctial points recede 36. 50'. in 2642 years : from the end of the year 1689, i. e. of the Julian period 6402, count back 2642,
(s)

discover the year of the Julian period 3760, the Solomon's demise, according to Petavius. (w) Eudoxus introduced the celestial sphere into Greece, from Egypt, about A. M. 3630, B. C. 368. in 6. 30'. 5"; and (x) Or, according to Dr. Horsley according to Raper's copy of Newton's chronology, written with his own hand in the margin, }< 6. 30'. 17".
it

will

after

(y)

& 6.

28'. 48".

Horsley.

INTRODUCTION.
therein mentioned, parallel to those of the fabulous period of Grecian history, fall within

[CHAP.

ii.

noy, Prideaux, Blair, Playfair, Baillee, Priestley, Hales, Chantreau, Strass, &c.

same intervals of time with those which have been measured since history lias been authentic. Why a system which seems, of all others, best calculated to dispel the clouds
the

SECTION

V.

which enwrap the chronology of the heroic

ages, should be suffered to lie dormant, while the old supputatious, confessedly doubtful, contradictory, and frequently palpably erroneous, are continued to be used, can only be accounted for by the vast change that would be induced in all our ancient historical works, by the adop-

OF ECLIPSES, SO FAR AS THEY SUBSERVE THE PURPOSES OK CHRONOLOGY. ECLIPSES of the sun and moon, with the aspects of the other planets, (z) have been denominated " public and celestial characters of the times ;" because their calculations afford infalliin

ble proofs to chronologers of the precise periods whichagreatnumberof the most signal events
in history

tion of the improved hypothesis, ami which, after all, it is to be feared, could never be made

have occurred. The ancientsregarded

general.

From what has

reader will

here been said, the be able to form his own conclu-

sions, and to correct the ancient his judgment may direct.

chronology as

The more eminent among the ancients,

writers on chronology are, Julius Africanus, Diony-

eclipses as indications of the approaching ruin of empires, the loss of battles, the death of monarchs, &c. and to this superstition we owe the vast labour that historians have taken to record so great a number of them; and the most able chronologers have collected them

sius Exiguus, Eusebius,

and Cyril

among

the

moderns, Bede, G. Syncellus, Funccius, John ofAntioch, Mercator, Lilius, Dennis, Clavius,
Scaliger, Vieta, Varro, Petavius, Cassini, Munster, Cluviar, Calvisius, Hardouin, Capellus,

with still greater pains. Calvisius, for example, founds his chronology on 144 eclipses of the sun and 127 of the moon, which he affirms he calculated. The following list is confined to such eclipses as mark the more extraordinary events of ancient history, and of the modern
to

Usher, Newton, Simson, Marsham, Helvicus,

J.

Vossius, Des Vignoles, Tournemiue, Pagi, Strauchius, Tallants, Pezron, Lenglet Dufres-

A. D. 1133; after which period, historical documents are sufficiently multiplied and au-

thenticated without them.

TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL ECLIPSES NOTICED BY HISTORIANS, AS HAVING PRECEDED, ACCOMPANIED, OR FOLLOWED, SOME IMPORTANT EVENT, (a)
Luminary
eclipsed.

SECT, vi.]

ASSISTANTS TO CHRONOLOGY.

MEDALS AND

COINS.

03

Luminary
eclipsed.

INTRODUCTION.
dais are also used, selected from the coins struck on the celebration of the secular games, in which are preserved the figures of various
desty; VIRTUS Virtue, &c.

CHAP.

II.

AUGUSTI, round an image of

determined whether such or such animals were known to the ancients. On many of the Greek medals are several uncommon plants and animals: on most of those of Gyrene is the figure of the ceanimals,
it

whence

may

often be

The principal symbols of the divine attributes, to be met with on the Greek medals, are
the following :
coins of Alexander the Great, is but when his figure thunderbolts occurs only on the obverses of coins, he is distinguished by a laurel crown and placid countenance, with a bushy beard. Jupiter Amman is known by the rani's horn twisting round his ear ; a symbol of power and strength, assumed by some of the successors of Alexander, particularly by Lysiinachus. 2. Juno is represented as a beautiful but majestic woman, sometimes wearing a diadem, but more frequently without any distinctive badge, (which is deemed a sufficient distinction in itself, as all the other goddesses have badges.) When she appears as the patroness of the nuptial state, she She is known is veiled to the middle, or even to her feet. by the peacock, from the fable of Argus. 3. Minerva, or Pallas, is described as a young woman, armed with a breastplate, a spear in her right hand, and the with Medusa's head, in her left an aegis or shield covered owl, the symbol of wisdom, commonly appears near her. 4. Neptune, is recognized by his trident and dolphin ; or He is rarely met with ou his being drawn by sea-horses. by
1. Jupiter, on the his eagle and

known by

lebrated sylphium ; and on those of Tyre, the from which the renowned Tyrian was procured. The exact delineations purple
shell-fish

many noble edifices, long ago levelled with the ground, are likewise frequently obtained from medals, so that architecture stands indebted to them, in common witli other sciences; and to the connoisseur they are of indispensable necessity, since by them alone he is enabled to ascribe ancient busts and statues to their proper originals; with multitudes of other points of knowledge, not otherwise to be determined. And to all this may be added, the numerous and well-known elucidations of obscure passages in ancient authors, drawn from this source. The most ancient medals extant are those f Alexander I. of Macedon, with A.M. 3507.^ Olympiad ( whom the series of a collection LXX. 4. f should begin, and be succeeded 97 -J by those of Sicily, Caria, Cyprus, Heraclea, and Pontus; then follow Egypt,
Syria, Cimmerian Bosphorus, Thrace, Bithynia, Parthia, Armenia, Damascus, Cappado-

of

Grecian coins.
5. Apollo is distinguished by a harp, branch of laurel, In the chaor tripod : sometimes by a bow and arrows. racter of the Sun, his head is surrounded with rays ; but when the bust only occurs, he has a fair young face, and is crowned with laurel. He is frequent on the coins of the

Syrian princes.
6. Diana of Ephesus is commonly represented on the Greek imperial coins with many breasts whence she is supposed to be symbolic of universal nature. She is supported by two deer, and carries a pannier of fruit upon her head. As Luna, she appears with a crescent on her forehead, and is sometimes represented with a bow and quiver, as goddess of
;

Paphlagonia, Pergamus, Galatia, Cilicia, Sparta, Paeonia, Epirus, Illyricum, Gaul, and the Alps ; including the period between Alexander the Great, and the Christian aera. The next series goes down to the fourth century, including some of the monarchs of
cia,

hunting.
7. Mars is distinguished by his armour, and sometimes by a trophy on his shoulders. His head is armed with a helmet, and his countenance is rather ferocious than fierce. 8. Venus is known by her nakedness, the extraordinary symmetry of her form, and the golden apple, the prize of

Thrace, Bosphorus, and Parthia, with those of Comagene, Edessa, or Osrhcene, Mauri-

She is sometimes adorned with pearls beauty, in her hand. about her neck, and generally accompanied by Cupid. Her

and Judaea. A most distinct series is formed by the Roman emperors, from Julius Caesar to the destruction of the Western And Empire by the Heruli and Goths. modern potentates, many series may among be formed. The names of deities represented on the retania,

emblem
9.

is

a pair of doves.

Cupid is sometimes met with on the Syrian coins, and is known by his infancy, wings, bow and quiver. 10. Mercury is represented as a naked youth, with a small cap on his head, wings behind his ears, or on his cap,

verses of Grecian coins are never expressed ; perhaps, out of piety but the Romans always express the name, and frequently with an adjunct; as VENERI VICTRICI, &c. in some the
:

He is also distinguished by the caduceus, his feet. or rod entwined with serpents, and the marsupium, or purse, which he holds in his hand. 11. Cybele is known by her crown of turrets, and a lion : sometimes she is drawn in a chariot by two lions. 12. Ceres is common on the Sicilian coins, and is recognized by a garland of wheat on her head. She sometimes has two serpents her, or is drawn in a chariot by
and on
by
In her hands she carries the torches with which dragons. she sought for her daughter Proserpine. 13. Proserpine is sometimes met with on coins, with the name of KOPH, or the girl.

name

of the emperor or empress is added, as PUDICITI*; AUGUSTS, round an image of Mo-

SECT, vi.]
14.
leaves,

AUXILIARIES TO CHRONOLOGY. MEDALS

known by his crown of ivy, or of commonly attended by satyrs and a tiger.
is
:

AND COINS.

Bacchus
is

vine-

and

15. Hercules appears sometimes as a youth, and somethe club, lion's skin, and remarkable times with a beard apparent strength, are his peculiar attributes. He sometimes has a cup in his hand; and a poplar-tree, the symbol of
is

Bee, for Aristceus, the son of Apollo. Bull, supposed to mean a river. 7. Ditto, Apis, the Egyptian deity, put for strength, or
5.

A
A

6.

security.
8. Q.

then added to the portrait. This figure the coins of Alexander the Great; so that Hercules has frequently been mistaken for that prince himself.
vigour,
is

now and

Bull's Head, for the country of Beeotia. The Caduceus, indicative of peace and concord. 10. A small Chest, or Hamper, with a terpent leaping
out, signifies the mystic rites

common on

of Bacchut.

16. JE&culapius is described with a bushy beard, leanSometimes in? on a club, with a serpent writhed about it. he occurs with his wife Hi/gcia, or Health, with their son Telcsphorus, or Convalescence, between them.

Serapis is known by his bushy beard, and the Nile measure on his head. 18. Isis has a bud, or flower, on her head ; symbolic of the perpetual bloom of the inhabitants of heaven. She also carries a sistrum(b) in her hand. li). Apis appears under the form of a bull, with a flower
17.

The Egyptian

11. Corn, symbolical of the goddess Cere. 12. A Cornucopia, for abundance. 13. The Crescent, the city of Byzantium. 14. A Dolphin, emblematic of Apollo. 15. Dove, the symbol of Venus. 10. An Eagle, for the consecration of an Emperor. 17. An Ensign, with the letters COL. for a colony drawn from one legion.

of the lotus, (c)

20. Canopus, appears under the symbol of a human head rising out of a kind of pitcher. 21. Harpocrates, the god of silence, appears with his finger on his lips; sometimes with the sistrttm in his left hand. 22. The Sidonian Astarte appears on a globe, supported on a two-wheeled chariot, drawn by two horses. 23. The Holy Senate, and Holy People, frequently on Greek imperial coins sometimes represented as old men with
:

Fort and Gate, to indicate security. 18. Globe on an Altar, with three Stars, emblemati19. cal of the world preserved for the three sons of Constantine the Great. of Thessaly; and a Horse's 20. Horse, the

A A
A

symbol

Head, of Pharsalia.
21. Ivy and Grapes, sacred to Bacchus. 22. Laurel, consecrated to Apollo. 23. Lectisternia, festivals among the Romans, in which the statues of their gods were laid on beds in their temples, and treated with the greatest magnificence. 24. Three Legs joined, (as in the Isle-of-Man money,) are indicative of the island of Trinacria (Sicily.) 25. Lion, the emblem of Marseilles. 20. The Lituus, or twisted wand, the symbol of augury. 27. The Minotaur's Head and Labi/riiitk, for the island

beards; at others, as youths.

These are the deities most commonly to be found on the Greek coins the more unusual
;

are,
Saturn, with his scythe, or with a hook; on the Heraclean coins. 2. Vulcan, with his tongs, at work in the presence of Minerva ; on the reverse of a coin of Thyatira. 3. Adranus, a Sicilian god, is sometimes represented on medals with a dog. 4. Anubis, an Egyptian deity, with a dog's head. 5. Atis, known by his Phrygian bonnet. 6. Castor and Pollux, known by a star on each of their heads.
1. 7. Pluto, recognized by his old face, dishevelled hair and beard, and a trident in his hand. 8. Flora, distinguished by her chaplet of flowers. 9. Ncmesii, known by her wheel. 10. Pan, known by the ears, horns, and feet of a goat.

of Crete.
28. Mudnis, a conic stone, for the sun, or Belus, or

Venus.
29. An Owl, for the city of Athens ; and an Owl and Olive, for its patroness, Minerva. 30. Parazonium, for the baton of a commander in chief. 31. Peacock, indicative of the consecration of an

empress.

coins, various symbols are found themselves, of which the following list, with by their significations, may be useful to the reader in the course of his historical researches.
1.
2.

On many

Pegasus, the emblem of Corinth. Pomegranate Flowers, the island of Rhodes. The pontifical Hat, for the priesthood. The Poppy, consecrated to Ceres, or Proserpine. 3(5. Reeds, indicative of a river. 37. The Sphinx, emblematic of the island of Scios; also of Egypt. 38. The Thensa, or Chariot employed to carry images, a symbol of the consecration of an empress. 39. A Torch, emblematical of Diana, or Ceres, or
3-2.

33. 34. 35.

Proserpine.
.

AH An

Altar, or a tripod, signifies piety. Anchor, on Seleucian medals, indicates a coin

40. A Tortoise, for the Peloponnesus. 41 Tribuli, a kind of chevaux-de-frize, uncertain. 42. Vases, irith Sprigs, for solemn games. 43. Wolfs Head, for the city of Argos.

struck at Antioch, where an anchor was dug up. 3. An Apex, or cap with strings, denotes the pontificate. 4. Apollo, on an inverted hamper, on Syrian coins, indicates o covered tripod.
(b)
Isis

science of Numismatography,(d) for so is the study of coins and medals denominated, none of the classic is not of very ancient date writers give any account of collections of this

The

kind of musical instrument, used by the priests of

Osiris.

to be a

and

(c)

The

water-lily of the
I.

NHe.

Macrobius supposes

this

that Osiris symbol of creation; and Jamblichus says was thought to have his throne in it. " a piece of money," and the (d) From the Latin numisma, Greek y(*<pv, " to describe."

VOL.

INTRODUCTION.
kind,

[CHAP n.

notwithstanding that the coins of the

Greeks were of excellent workmanship, and were admired and imitated by the Romans. Among the moderns, Petrarch appears to have been the first who began to study this science, and he made a present to the emperor Charles IV. of a collection of gold and silver
'"

most countries of Europe, in search of coins and medals, in order to publish books concern(Italy excepted) have furnished more largely to the stock of ancient medals, than Great Britain ; though the time when the study of them began is not precisely Camden was among the first, if ascertained. not himself the very first, who published medals in his works. Speed's Chronicle, published in the 17th century, is illustrated with coins from Sir Robert Cotton's cabinet. Since this period, a number of fine cabinets have been formed in England, of which the most remarkable is that of the late Dr. Hunter; and many treatises have been written on the subject. To the celebrated Spanheim, the world owes the greatest obligations for the progress he has made in the application of this study to his-

ing them. Few countries,

coins.

In the next age, a collection

was made by Alfonso the Wise, King of Arragon but though he collected all that could be found throughout Italy, his whole stock was contained in an ivory cabinet, which he always carried about with him. Anthony Cardinal St. Mark, nephew to Eugene IV. (Pope in 1431) made a very considerable collection, and soon after the grand museum at Florence was begun by Cosmo de Medicis, in which a collection of ancient coins and medals had a place among other curiosities about the same period, Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, formed a noble collection of coins, along with
;
:

ancient manuscripts, and other valuable relics of antiquity. The first writer who adduced medals as vouchers of ancient orthography is supposed to be Agnolo Poliziano, who wrote about 1490. About 1512, William Bude, a French author, wrote a treatise on coins, though it was not

Prcestanthe cele; brated Mr. Addison, also, has left a treatise on this most important use of ancient coins: and it is evident, upon the whole, that these monuments are the most authentic witnesses that can be produced.
tory, in his excellent publication, tia et Usu Nitmismatum nntiquorum

De

many years afterwards; in 1517, Fulvius published a work, intitled, lUusfrium Imagines, in which he gave portraits of the emperors from medals. He was followed,
printed
till

Andrew

SECTION

VII.

OF ANCIENT INSCRIPTIONS.

about 1525, by John Huttichius, who, by means of a cabinet of medals, collected by the emperor Maximilian I. was enabled to publish a history of the lives of the emperors, enriched with their portraits, delineated from ancient coins and, from the high patronage with which lie was honoured, he so eclipsed his predecessor Andrew Fulvius, that his work has been reck:

oned the first of its kind. M. Grollier, treasurer of the French armies in Italy, during part of the 16th century, had a considerable collection of coins, most of which, after his death, were purchased by the king of France.
Contemporary with Grollier, was William de Clioul, a man of rank and fortune, who, in
1557, published many coins in his Treatise on the Religion of the ancient Romans. In the

ANTIQUARIES are very curious in examining ancient inscriptions found on stones and other monuments of antiquity ; and their labours are frequently rewarded by some important historical discovery. Sanchoniatho, who is said to have flourished about the time of Gideon, but more probably in the age of David, (e) drew most of the memoirs, whereof his history was
composed, from inscriptions, which he found in temples and on columns, as well among the Hebrews, as among the Heathen and it appears that the ancients engraved upon pillars the principles and discoveries of science, as
:

Netherlands, the study of medals was begun about lu- beginning of the 16th century; and about the middle of that century, Hubert Goltl

well as the history of the world. Those mentioned by Herodotus shew that this was the primitive mode of instructing the people, and of transmitting histories and sciences to posPlato also, in his Hippias, says, that terity. " Pisistratus engraved precepts useful for hus(e)

zius,

a printer and engraver, travelled over

See page

1 3,

of this Introduction.

SECT, vii.j

ANCIENT INSCRIPTIONS. ARUNDELIAN MARBLES.

pillars

07
to

:" and Pliny aspublic monuments consisted of plates of lead ; and that the treaties of confederacy between the Romans and the Jews were engraven on tables of brass. The Greeks and Romans were much addicted to the use of inscriptions, and were extremely fond of being mentioned in them; whence we find so many in those countries of ancient learning, that large

bandmen upon

of stone

real or pretended.

They were brought

Eng-

sures us, that the

first

volumes have been composed on them. of these form very important documents guidance of the historian.

Most
for the

OF THE ARUNDELIAN MARBLES.

These

marbles, sometimes called the Parian Chronicle, from the island of Paros, one of the Cyclades, in which they were discovered, are supposed to be ancient stones inscribed with a chronicle of the Athenian state, in Greek capital letters, from the arrival of Cecrops in Attica, B. C..1582, to the archonship of Diognetes, B. C. 264, containing the vast period of

1318 years: the chronicle of the last 90 years however, now lost; so that in their present state, they end with the archonship of Diotiand in this fragment the innius, B. C. 354 is so much corroded and effaced, that scription the sense can only be discovered by very learned and industrious antiquaries or, more prois,
:

perly speaking, supplied by

They, nevertheless, object of chronology to those who are disposed to admit of their authenticity. They derive their name of Arundelian, from Thomas Earl of Arundel, who procured them from the East, or from his grandson, Henry, who presented them to the University of Oxford. The history of these marbles is shortly as follows In the year 1624, Thomas Earl of Arundel sent Mr. William Petty into the East, for the pur:

their conjectures. constitute an important

land about the beginning of the year 1627, and placed in the gardens of Arundel House, London, where they some time afterwards excited a general curiosity, and were viewed by many inquisitive and learned men; among others, by Sir Robert Cotton, who prevailed on the celebrated Selden to endeavour at explaining the Greek inscriptions, and he, the following year, published a small volume in quarto, inDuring the cluding about 39 inscriptions. troubles of the reign of Charles I. Arundel House was often deserted by its illustrious owners; and in their absence, some of the marbles were defaced or broken, and others either stolen, or used for the ordinary purposes of architecture. The chronological marble, in particular, was broken, and the upper part, containing 31 epochas, is said to have been worked up in repairing a chimney belonging to In 1667, the Hon. Henry Arundel House. Howard, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, grandson of the first collector, presented the remains of these supposed antique annals to the univerSelsity of Oxford, where they still remain. den 's work becoming very scarce, Dr. Prideaux published a new edition of the inscriptions in 1676, from which time they began to be used by chronologers. In 1732, Mr. Mattaire gave the public a more comprehensive view of these marbles than either of his predecessors had done; and in 1763, Dr. Chandler published a new and improved copy, in which he corrected the mistakes j)f former editors. Although these marbles have generally been regarded as a curious monument of antiquity ;

they have been discovered, in some instances, to be inconsistent with the most authentic historical accounts, and some modern writers have not hesitated to pronounce them downright
It is certain, that Sir Isaac Newton or no regard to them, and their aupaid thenticity has lately been very severely questioned in an express dissertation upon the subject, intitled, The Parian Chronicle;(f) and

pose of making collections of ancient monuments and, either in Asia Minor, or in Greece,
;

forgeries.

little

or in the islands of the Archipelago, (for it is quite uncertain in which) he procured these marbles, with many other relics of antiquity,
(f ) In this dissertation much ingenuity, as well as judgment, and a great extent of ancient learning, are displayed in the course of which the author states his doubts to arise from
;

these considerations " The characters have no certain or 1. unequivocal marks of antiquity." " The n and z, which frequently occur in the form supposed to be the most ancient (viz. the vertical line on the right side of the P only half the length of that on
:

the left hand, and the Z in the form of a prostrate a ) are so well known, that any modern fabricator of a Greek inon the world as a scription, which he purposes to impose relic of antiquity, would most probably use them, in prefe-

rence to the more common and ordinary forms. With the exception of this very equivocal sign, the letters in these marbles have no appearance of antiquity : they do not resemble the Sigzean, the Nemzean, or the Deliau inscriptions.

K2

INTRODUCTION.
although
it might ho hasty to pronounce tlecithat this so long respected chronicle is

[CHAP. n.

no better than an imposition,

it may at least be safely affirmed that the suspicions against it (as

which are supposed

from the
letters

more ancient date: they differ Sandeiceiixv, which ac( ord ins to the learned editor of that inscription was engraved Pi. (' :V7-l: ihey bear no rescinhlancc to tlie characters on the
to In1 of a

opinion

on the

Marmnr

is, that inscriptions of that kind usually begin with a as "The senate and the people;" or, " It particular form the senate and the people," Ac. but the Parian pleased
:

chronicle begins
his

in

the

manner of a private man, speaking of

Farne-ian pillars, to those of the Alexandrian manuscript, but they seem to resemble, more or to others of litter dale than anv other, the letters of the alphabet, taken by Montfaucon from the Marmor Ciiziccimiii, at Venice. They arc
:

argument

plain

and simple in their form, and such as an ordinary stonecutter of the present age might make, were lie employed to engrave a Greek inscription according to the alphabet now in use." The small letters intermixed among the larger, have, in the opinion of our author, an air of
and affectation and artifice, rather than of genuine antiquity he is persuaded that the antiquity of an inscription can never be proved by the mere form of the letters because the most
:

person singular: nor is this affected by the circumstance that the beginning of the chronicle is obliterated; for it is necessarily implied from what remain.-. Secondly, the facts and dates do not appear to have been extracted irom public records,
in the first at
all

own performance,

any

neither are they calculated to answer the purpose of authen-

documents; because many eminent princes and magispassed by without notice, the transactions ofw 'hole. centuries are omitted, and the facts which are chiefly specified
tic

trates, are

are not always of general or national importance. Thirdly, the Parian inscription is such an one, as the magistrates or people of Paroscan scarcely be supposed to have ordered to be en-

ancient characters can be as easily counterfeited as those which compose our present alphabets. In order to give the learned reader a competent notion of the characters of the Arundelian marbles, the author has compared them with those of other inscriptions, and given what is usually called a fac-simile. He next proceeds to notice several obsolete but contends that no conclusion can be drawn expressions from them in favour of the antiquity of this pretended chro" What " could there be for intronicle. reason," he asks, ducing these? They do not usually appear in Greek writers of the same age, nor even in those of the most early date. The reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, with the 21st year of which this chronicle coincides, was not an age of rude antiquity with respect to the Greek language, being 130 years after the time of Xenophon and Plato, when the Greek was spoken and written in its utmost purity and elegance and it can hardly be supposed, that in so refined an age a stonecutter would have been permitted to disgrace a superb and learned monument with barbarisms such as occur in this chronicle." But these archaisms, he farther remarks, are not uniformly observed; and he adduces six instances of deviation, from which, he says, he is almost inclined to decide that they are mere affectations of antiquity, or that they arise from a cor;
:

graved.

It contains no encomiums on any of the patriots, the heroes, or the demigods of the country, no decrees of the magistrates, no public records, nor laws of state: on the contrary, it is a work of mere speculation and learning, in which the

inhabitants of that island had not the least interest. The words at the beginning, Af^ox TO; ip. Tlafa, would naturally lead the reader to suppose that the inscription related to the
island of Paros; in
rally

which case the compiler would as natuhave mentioned some of the most important occurrences in the history of that island but instead of this, he rambles from place to place, records the transactions of
;

rupted dialect and pronunciation in later ages he, however, acknowledges that the same archaisms appear on other marbles, but then he says the authenticity of such inscriptions must be established before they can be urged in opposition to his argument; and when established, he thinks they would, for that very reason, have been adopted by the fabricator of a spurious inscription. " It is not 2. probable that the chronicle was engraved for private use:" for, says our author, it is impossible to suppose that such an expensive and cumbersome work could have been executed by a private citixen, for his own amusement, or for the benefit of his felluw-citi/ens, as all the contents ot the inscription might have been published more commodiously and effectually by the common modi' of writing, in iisc> at that time; and he adduces much evidence from ancient history, to prove that the common mode of writing in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, was not on stones. " The chronicle does not 3. appear to have been engraved by public authority." The first argument in support of this
:

Athens, Corinth, Macedon, Lydia, Crete, Cyprus, Sicily, Persia, and other countries, with which Paros had no connection. Even the poet Archilochus, a native of Paros, who was honoured by his countrymen, and distinguished in a general assembly of the Greeks, is unnoticed in this Parian " So chronicle. extraordinary a circumstance," says our author, as the silence of this chronicle with respect to the affairs of Paros, can only be accounted for upon the supposition that it is a forgery, in the fabrication of which, it was felt, that a few chronological circumstances, such as the history of Paros could furnish, would not prove so interesting to the generality of readers, so valuable in the estimation of every lover of antiquities, nor in short so prof table to the compiler,' as a general system of Grecian chronology." " The Greek and Roman 4. writers, for a long time after the date of this work, complain that they had no chronoloThis position is congical account of the affairs of Greece." firmed by the testimonies of Julius Africanus, Justin Martyr,
Plutarch, Josephus, Varro, Uiodorus Siculus, cvc. to which " Thuour author adds the following series of questions; 1 know, lived 1 40 chronicle is said cydides, years before the to have been written; but if Thucydides, as well as other writers, complained that there was nothing but uncertainty
the earlier period of the Grecian history, whence can we suppose the author of this inscription collected such a clear, If determinate, and comprehensive system of chronology? he had any sources of information, unknown to succeeding writers, how does it happen that they should, all of them, overlook this most considerable, most exact, most creditable author? Why did they not admit this ancient account of
in

their early

ages?

Why
;

did they not copy his most memora-

be the motive of the compiler, profit seems in h;ne been for JVirey, who sold these marbles to Lord Annulet's agent, Mr. 1'itty, bought them of the previous possessor, and supposed fat
ini^lit

WlnterST
ilic
i|

onto!

'(-li.iii.

briivmir, fi>r fifty irinnras sive a \\ork: and this has

a sum <]uile inadequate to so laborious and extenbeen deemed by many a very strong presumption

of their authenticity.

SECT. VII.]

ARUNDELIAN MARBLES.
be removed neither has any satisfactory attempt yet been made with that vi \\
ficult to
;
.

exhibited in the subjoined note) are extremely strong, and the objections of a nature very dif-

Why not produce his authority? Or, at least, why did they not mention his opinion ? Surely nothing, to all appearance, could be more elaborate, more important, or of higher authority, than a chronological table that was thought worthy of being engraved upon tallies of marble." " The chronicle is not once mentioned 5. by any writer of This is indeed a strong argument; or rather it antiquity." confirms the former. Apolhodorus, an Athenian, the disciple of Aristarchus the grammarian and Panxtius the philosopher, wrote a genealogical-historical work on the early ages of Greece but, though composed 120 years after the date of the Parian chronicle, it does not contain any trace of systematical chronnlogy. This work of Apollodorus, it is also to be remarked, is quoted by Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Plutarch, A. Gellius, Lucian, and many other writers of antiquity: while the Parian chronicle, which comprehends a more extensive It \\as so common a practice period, is entirely unnoticed. among the ancients, for a writer to mention the works of his predecessors, that in many books we find from three to seven hundred authors of every denomination quoted but among them all, no notice of the Parian chronicle, by either poet or historian, geographer or chronologer, mythologist or scholiast notwithstanding that it contains such wonderful discoveries in ancient history, as must have attracted a general attention, had it actually existed 264 years before the Chrisble epochas?
; ; ;

of public notoriety ? Would a private citizen, or a magistrate of Paros, order a crude and inaccurate scries of epochas to be engraved, at a great expense, and transmitted to posterity on a marble monument? It is hardly
rians, in events

is

tian a'ra.

" Some of the facts mentioned in the 6. chronicle seem to have been taken from writers of a later date." Here our inquirer has collated several passages in the Parian chronicle

with parallel passages in Greek writers, to prove an appearance of imitation in the former. There are likewise some improbabilities attending the account of Deucalion in the Parian chronicle. And the names of six (or if the lacuna: be properly supplied, of twelve) cities appear to have been

engraved on the marble exactly as they appear in ./Elian's Various History; though no reason imaginable can be assigned for this particular arrangement in preference to any other; it corresponds neither with the time of their foundation, their situation in Ionia, their relative importance, nor with the order in which they are placed by other eminent historians. To strengthen this argument, our author observes, that six names maybe transposed 720 different ways; and that twelve names admit of 479,001,000 different trans-

supposing no particular reason to arrangement to another, the chance of two authors placing six names in the same order is as 1 to 720; or, in the instance of twelve names, as 1 to 479,001 ,000. And should the converse of this position be urged, that vfclian copied his list of towns from the Parian chronicle, the answer is, that it is highly improbable that he should have done so without mentioning it; and that, therefore, such a supposition only gets rid of one difficulty by creating another and a greater. " Parachronisms* 7. appear in some of the epochas, which we can scarcely suppose a Greek chronologer, in the 129th Olympiad, would he liable to commit." After particulariz" Would a writer of reputation ing these, t our author asks: and learning, in one of the most polished and enlightened aeras of ancient Greece, commit such mistakes, in opposition to the most positive attestations of the most accurate bistopositions; consequently, exist for preferring one
*
Errors in the computation of time; from vafct, beside, aud

history of the discovery of the Parian chronicle obscure and unsatisfactory." It is, adds our author, " attended with xoiiif suspicious circumstances, without any of those clear and unequivocal evidences which always discriminate truth from falsehood." There are no data in the inscription, by which to discover the place where the marble was erected neither is the place where it was found ascertained though the generality of writers, who have had occasion to speak of it, have supposed it to be found in the isle of Paros. If, as some imagine, it was erected at Smyrna, why does the author mention Astyanax, the archon of Paros, and not one circumstance relative to Smyrna ? Or, if it was erected at Paros, why does he not speak of more archons than one? Or how can we account for his profound silence with respect to all the events and revolutions, which must have occurred in that island in the course of so many ages, and which would have been infinitely more interesting to the natives than the transactions of any foreign nation whatever? The train of circumstances which brought the Parian chronicle into the possession of Lord ArundePs agent, as well as the subsequent conduct of " a Peiresc, its former owner, affords strong PRESUMPTION that the inscription was actually fabricated, with a view to obtain for it a high price,! upon the pretence that it was a It is CERTAIN, that there is somerelic of great antiquity. thing mysterious in the conduct of the first ostensible proThese marlilfs had been totally unknown, or unprietors. noticed, for almost 1900 years, and at last are dug out of the ground nobody can tell when, or where!" " The 9. literary world has been most frequently imposed upon by spurious books and inscriptions and therefore e should be extremely cautious with regard to what we receive under the venerable name of antiquity." This proposition is illustrated by a variety of examples, and very properly exposes the forgeries which have disgraced the republic of letand in endeavouring, towards the end ters in different ages of his dissertation, to investigate the period of this supposed " The lo'th fabrication, our author observes, century, aud of the 17th century, produced a multitude of the prior part grammarians, critics, and commentators, deeply versed in Grecian literature, and amply qualified for the compilation of such a chronological system as that of the Arundelian Above all, the science of chronology was particumarbles. about that time. Innumerable larly studied and investigated of chronology had been published before the year systems (>!"), from which it was easy to extract a series of memora;
:

probable." " The 8.

and give the compilation a Greek dress. The aridity with which all relics of antiquity were then vollcctrd, and the high price at which they were jntrduued, vt ere sufficient inducements to anyone, whose avarice, or whose necesthan his integrity, to engrave his labours sity, was stronger
ble events,

on marble, and transmit them to Smyrna, as a commodious emporium for such rarities." Some of the foregoing objections, it must be confessed, and eighth, are very particularly the third, fourth, fifth, but still the precise period of the forgery, if such strong
:

n the chrono t The reader will readily discover them, the Murbles with Ihut which is generalK n of price. J See note on the 1'oregoiug page on the sulyexx
<

70

INTRODUCTION.

[CHAP.

ii.

For the gratification of such readers as may have no other opportunity of becoming acquainted with the contents of these marbles, the following translation is given; in which it is to be observed, that the words, or sentences, between [crotchets] have been supplied by the learned who have examined them, in order to complete or connect the sense.
Since Cecrops [first] reigned at Athens, and gave the name of Ceto all the country, which before had cropia borne that of Attica, from Actaeus a native of it, 1318 years have elapsed [to Diognetus, archon of Athens, 263 years before the vulgar
A.M. 2424.
1 3

A.D. 1582.

VI. Since Hellen, son of Deucalion, C A.M. 2483. B.C. 1521. reigned at Phthiosis, and gave the 1 name of Hellenists to the inhabitants, who before were called Greeks; and [at Athens] the Parthenian games or combats were instituted, in the reign of Amphictyon, king of Athens ; 1257 years have elapsed. VII. Since Cadmus, son of Agenor, f A.M 248o. came to Thebes, pursuant to the 1 B c 1519 oracle, and built Cadmaea, during the reign of Amphictyon, king of Athens, 1255 years have
-

elapsed.

aera.l

II.

Since Deucalion began to reign in Lycoria, near Mount Parnassus, the reign of Cecrops at Athens, 1310 during years have elapsed.
A.M. 2430. | B.C. 1674. 3
III.

VIII. Since Eurotas and Lacedasmon (A.M. 2480. B began to reign [jointly] in Laconia, I c 1516 during the reign of Amphictyon, king of Athens, 1252 years have elapsed. IX. Since the first ship, called Pente- f A.M. 2493. contorus, was conducted from Egypt t B c 1511
-

A.M. 2472.

B.C. 1532. j

Since Mars and Neptune pleaded Athens on the subject of the death of Hallirrothius, son of Neptune [whom
?

at

killed] and from his Greek name Arius the council of the Areopagites was so called, 1268 years have elapsed; Cranaus being king of Athens [namely, the first year of his

Mars had

Greece [by Danaiis] who arrived first in the of Rhodes, where [his 50 daughters] built [a kind of] temple, and sacrificed [to Minerva] on the shores of Lindus, by the hands of Helice and Archedice, whom they had appointed to that office from among themselves ; Erichthonius being king of Athens; 1247 years have
to
isle

reign.]

^
1

elapsed.

X.
( A.M. 2498. celebrated the first Panathenian i A D 15 6games, introduced the use of war-chariots, and gave the Athenians their name since the statue of the mother of the gods was found on mount Cybele since Hyagnis of Phrygia invented the flute at Cylena?, and was the first author of Phrygian harmony, as well as of the hymns to the mother of the gods, 'to Bacchus, Pan, and other deities of the country, and heroes ; Erichthonius being king of Athens ; 1242 years have elapsed.
-

Since the deluge, which happenB.C. 1529. 3 ed in the days of Deucalion, who, to escape from the waters, retired from Lycoria to Athens, where he built a temple, and sacriA.M. 2475.
ficed to Jupiter,

Since Erichthonius [king of Athens]

who had

preserved his

life,

1265 years have elapsed; Cranaus reigning at Athens. V. Since Amphictyon, son of DeucaA.M. 2482. 1 B.C. 1522. 3 lion, reigned at Thermopylae, where, collected the neighbouring people, he having gave them the name of Amphictyons, and called
the place Pylcea, in which the Amphictyons constantly sacrifice, 1258 years have elapsed; during the reign of Amphictyon, king of Athens, [that is, in the second year of his reign.]
indeed this chronicle really
is, must be reckoned apocryphal and the sum of fifty guineas, for which

Since Minos the Elder began to f A.M. 2572. B c 1432 reign [in Crete] where he built the t of Cydonia, and iron was discovered on city
-

mount

Ida,

by the Dactyls, Celmi, and Damna-

and uncertain

was one of the most celebrated antiquaries of the French school in his day, or even Mr. Petty himself, had any par-

Peiresc bought it of the supposed fabricator, is, as already remarked, too inconsiderable a remuneration for so laborious a task as that of engraving so long a series of events upon hard marble. If, however, this fabricator, or Peiresc, who

making this chronicle pass for genuine, they would not neglect an expedient so well adapted to their purpose, as that of making the world believe it to have
ticular object in view, in

been obtained

at

an inadequate price.

SECT. VII.]

ARUNDELIAN MARBLES.
;

71

neo ; during the reign of Pandion [the First] at Athens 1 1 68 years have elapsed. XII. Since Ceres came to Athens, to A.M. 2595. ?
;

in the reign of according to his demands JEseus at Athens; 1031 years have elapsed.

XXI.
SinceTheseus collected the twelve J A.M. 2745. B townships of Attica into one city, ( -C. 1259. or community, and introduced at Athens, of which he was king, [a species of] popular government, and instituted the Isthmian games, after Scinis was killed 995 years have
;

teach agriculture, and sent Triptolemus, son of Celeus and Neaeraea, into other countries to teach the same art ; during the reign of Erechtheus, king of Athens; 1145 years have elapsed.
B.C.
1409. j

XIII.
A.M. 2598.7
B.C. 1406-3

elapsed.

Since

sowed corn

Triptolemus [the same] at Raria, since called

XXII.
Since during the f A.M. of Theseus at Athens, (B.C. reign 992 years have elapsed.
2748. 1256.

Eleusis, during the reign of Erechtheus at Athens 1142 years have elapsed.
;

the rape of A.M. 2605.1 B.C. 1399. j the search made after [Proserpine], her by Ceres, her mother, and on the fables relative to those who received corn of her; during 1135 years the reign of Erechtheus at Athens

Since the

XIV. poems on

XXIII.
Adrastus, and f A.M. 2753. Amphiaraus, reigned at Argos, and I B c 1251 instituted the Nemaean games ; Theseus being king of Athens; 987 years have elapsed.

Since

Eteoclus,

XXIV.
Since the Greeks undertook their f A.M. 2788. Bc B.C. 1218 lirexpedition against Troy, in the thir- 1 teenth year of Menestheus, king of Athens, 954
-

have elapsed.

XV.
Since Eumolpus, son of Musaeus, 7 obliterated, j instituted the mysteries of Eleusis, and published the verses of his father Musaeus during the reign of Erechtheus, son of Pandion,
Date
;

years have elapsed.

XXV.
-

at

Athens

XVI.
A.M. 2678.
B.C. 1326.
7
3

Since the
fication]

first

was made

lustration [or puriat Athens, for the

Since the Greeks took the city of ( A.M. 2795. B Troy, at the end of the seventh [or 1 c 1209 24th] day of the month Thargelion, in the twenty-second year of Menestheus, king of
-

Athens, 945 years have elapsed.

murder of
dion
[II.]

during the reign of Panson of Cecrops [II.] 1062 years have

XXVI.
Since Orestes [after having killed C A.M. 2798. his mother Clytemnestra] with her I B c 1206 paramour jEgisth us, was cured of his madness,
-

elapsed.

XVII.
Since the [first] establishment of \ obliterated. 5 the gymnastic combats at Eleusis, during the reign of Pandion [II.] son of Cecrops
Date

Scythia, and, being accused by Erigone, daughter of ^Egisthus, was acquitted by the Areopagus, the votes being equal Demophou reigning at Athens 942 years have elapsed.
in
; ;

XVIII.

XXVII.
sacrifices

and the obliterated. ) Lyeaean games [Lupercalia] were established in Arcadia; during the reign of Pandion [II.] son of Cecrops [II.] at Athens
Date
)

Since

human

Since Teucer built Salamis, in ( A.M. 2802. the isle of Cyprus; in the reign of i B c 1202 Demophon, king of Athens 938 years have
-

elapsed.

XIX.
7 [Since] a lustration was made at obliterated. 3 Athens, and Hercules was initiated in the [Eleusynian mysteries], and a small temple was built; during the reign of JEgeus at

XXVIII.
Since Neleus [leaving Greece] f A.M. 2927. dwelt at Miletus, in Caria, where I B -C. 1077. the lonians [who had followed him] assembled, and built Ephesus, Erythrae, Clazomenae, Teos, Lebedos, Colophon, Myuntis, Phocaee, Priene, Samos, Chios and the Panionia were instituted in the thirteenth year of the reign [or archonship,] of Neleus, [or of Medon,] at Athens; 813 years have elapsed.
;

Date

Athens

XX.
Athens, B.C. 1-295. 3 when the oracle of Apollo, beingconsulted, replied that Minos must be satisfied
?

A,M. 2709.

Since the great

sterility at

72

INTRODUCTION.
XXIX.
victors
;

[CHAP.

ii.

A.M. 3060.

Since the poet Hesiod flourishB.C. 944. 3 e(j Megacles [perpetual archon] at Athens 680 years have elapsed. reigning
)
>

Cimon being archon at Athens have elapsed. years

327

XXXIX.

XXX.

A.M. 3097.
B.C.

Since the poet

Homer

flourished;

Since the [Pythian] games were f AM. 3422. renewed, and the victors rewarded 1 B.C. 582. with a crown of laurel [there being no longer

Diognetus [perpetual archon] reignat Athens ; 043 years have elapsed. ing

907. \

any spoils for that purpose ;] Damasias being a second time archon at Athens; 318 years have
elapsed.

XXXI.

A.M. 3109.

Since Phidon of Argos, the 1 1th B.C. 895. 3 from Hercules, was the legislator of the Argives, invented weights and measures,
7

XL.
Since the first comedy was repre- C Date sented on a moveable theatre upon 1 obliterated, four wheels at Athens, by Susarion and Dolon of Icaria, who were rewarded with a basket of figs and a tun of wine ; being archon at Athens, 25. .. .years have elapsed. Since Pisistratus
;

and had
;

silver

money stamped

in [the isle of]

jEgina Diognetus [perpetual archon] reigning at Athens; 631 years have elapsed.

XXXII.
A.M. 3246.
B.C.
)

Since Archias, son of Evagetes,

an(j tenth from Temenes, conducted a colony from Corinth to Syracuse, in the 21st year of the reign of ^Eschylus [perpetual archon] at Athens; 494 years have elapsed.
758. 3

tyrant at Athens chon ; 297 years have elapsed.

XLI. made himself If rComias being ar

XLI1.

f A.M. S443. IB.C. 561.

f.

XXXIII.
A.M. 3320.
B.C.
)

Since the annual archons were

Since Crcesus reigned in Asia, and consulted the Delphian oracle

A.M. 3448.
B.C.
556.

t
;

684. 3
first,

the

established [at Athens] Creon being 420 years have elapsed.

XXXIV.

Since [the poet] T yrtrcus served B.C. 682. 3 t ne Lacedaemonian army; Lysias being archon at Athens; 418 years have
A.M. 3322.
)

Eutydemus being archon at Athens have elapsed. XLIII. Since Cyrus, king of Persia, took
the city of Sardis,
his prisoner,

292 years

A.M.

346:>.

and made Crresus

;

1 B.C.

542.

whom

the Pythia [or Delphian

elapsed.

XXXV.
1
3

A.M. 3359.
B.C.
645.

Since Terpander, son of Derde-

being archon have elapsed. At this time flourished Hipponax, the Iambic poet.

priestess] had deceived at Athens ; 278 years

neus, of [the isle of] Lesbos, performed the Lyric nomes [or airs] upon the flute, and was accused [at Lacedaemon] before the

XLIV.
Since the poet Thespis [of Icaria] C A.M. 3468. B.C. 536. performed thefirst [tragedy, namely,] 1 Alcestis, on a cart, and was rewarded with a goat ; Alcaeus being archon at Athens, for the first time 272 years have elapsed.
;

people,

who
at

acquitted
;

archon

Athens
1

XXXVI.
A.M. 3399.

him Dropilus being 381 years have elapsed.

; ; ;

Since Alyattes reigned in Lydia B.C. 605. 3 Aristocles being archon at Athens 341 years have elapsed.

XLV.
Since Darius ascended the throne
of Persia, after having killed the 1 B.C.
|

34ft4

520.
;

XXXVII.
Mytilene, and B.C. 594.3 embarked for Sicily; Syracuse having then the dominion in that island ; and Critias being archon at Athens for the first time; 330
A.M. 3410.
)

Since Sappho

left

being archon at Athens have elapsed. years

Magi

256

XLVI

years have elapsed.

XXXVIII.
Since the Amphictyons obtained A.M. 3413. ) B.C. 591. 3 the victory, and captured Cyrrhmn [in consequence of a sacrilegious war] and the Pythian] games were celebrated [at Delphi] in
j

Since Harmodius and Aristogiton murdered Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, and tyrant of Athens;
[252 years have elapsed.]

5
i

A.M. 3488. B>c 516

-

which the

spoils

were distributed among the

i

Athenians expelled the C A.M. 3492. from Pelasgia [or Attica;] I B.C. 512. Clysthenes being archon at Athens ; 248 years have elapsed.
vSince the

Pisitratidae

SECT. VII.]

ARUNDELIAN MARBLES.
XLVII.
LV.

73

Since [vocal] choirs were first B.C. 508. 3 used, and prizes were disputed for, the first prize being gained by Hyppodicus of Chalcis; Isagoras being archon at Athens; 244 years have elapsed.
A.M. 3496.
7

Since Simonides, son of Leopre- f A.M. 3527. 477. pus, of the isle ofCeos, inventor of (.B.C. the art of memory, gained the prize at Athens for teaching that art ; and since the statues of

XLVIII.
Since Hippias [a descendant of who had been expelled the Athenians, excited the Persians against by them]. Pythocritus being archon at Athens; 231 years have elapsed.
A.M. 3509.
B.C.
1

Harmodius and Aristogiton were pulled down Adimantus being archon at Athens 213 years
;

have elapsed.

495. } Pisistratus,

LVI.
Since Hiero seized the tyranny of f A.M. 3532. Syracuse; Chares being archon at I B.C. 472. Athens ; 208 years have elapsed. In his days
the [comic] poet Epicharmus lived.

XLIX.
A.M. 3513.
B.C.
*)

Since the Athenians and Persians

LVII.
Since Sophocles, son of Sophillus, f A.M. 3534. of Colon, gained the prize for tra- (.B.C. 470. gedy, at the age of 28; Apsephion being archon at Athens 206 years have elapsed.
;

fought at Marathon, where the satrap Artaphernes, nephew and general of Darius, was defeated by the Athenians ; Phrenippus being a second time archon at Athens; 227
491. }

years have elapsed. The poet ./Eschylus present in this battle, aged 35 years.
J_j.

was

LVI1I.
Since certain stones
fell

into the

("A.M. 3535.

Since the poet Simonides, grandanother Simonides, also a flourished at Athens; since Darius died, poet, and was succeeded in the kingdom of Persia by his son Xerxes Aristides being archon at Athens ; 225 years have elapsed.
A.M. 3515.
B.C.
1

489. } father to

river JEgos, and the poet Simoni- (.B.C. 469. des died, at the age of 90; Theagenidas being archon at Athens ; 205 years have elapsed.

LIX.
Since the death of Alexander, and f A.M. 3541. the accession of his son Perdiccas 1 B.C. 463to the kingdom of Macedon; Euthippus being archon at Athens ; 199 (g) years have elapsed.

JU1.

A.M. 3518.
B.C.

Since the

poet

jEschylus

first

LX.
Since the poet ^Eschylus died at f A.M. 3547. Gela, in Sicily, aged 69; Calliasbe- I B.C. 457. ing archon at Athens, for the first time; 193 years have elapsed.

gained the prize for tragedy ; since the poet Euripides was born ; and since Stesichorus the poet passed [from Sicily] into

486. 5

Greece

Philocrates being archon at Athens ; 222 years have elapsed. LII. A.M. 3523.1 Since Xerxes, having passed the B.C. 481. J Hellespont, by a bridge of boats, at Thermopylae, and was defeated at sea fought by the Greeks, near the isle of Salamis Calliades being archon at Athens; 217 years have
; ;

LXI.
Since the poet Euripides, at the f A.M. 3501. B.C. 443. age of 43, gained his first prize for c tragedy; Diphilus being archon at Athens; 179 years have elapsed. Socrates and Anaxagoras were contemporary with Euripides.
Since Archelaiis reigned in Mace- f A.M. 354. B.C. 420. donia, Perdiccas being dead Asty- 1 at Athens ; philus [or Aristophylus] being archon 156 years have elapsed.
;

elapsed.

LIII.

Since the Athenians gave battle, B.C. 480. j near Plataea, to Mardonius, general of Xerxes, and gained the victory [over the Persians] Mardonius being slain in the action; and since ^Etna, in Sicily, vomited flames; Xantippus
A.M. 3524. 1

LXIII.
Since Dionysius [the elder] be- f A.M.35f>3. came tyrant of Syracuse; Euctemon (B.C. 4ii. being archon at Athens; 147 years have elapsed.

being archon at Athens

A.M. 3525.1

2 Hi years have elapsed.

LIV.
Since Gelo, son of Dinomenes, B.C. 479. J made himself tyrant of Syracuse; Tiniosthenes being archon at Athens; 215 years have elapsed. VOL. I.

LXIV.
Since the death of Euripides [the C A.M. 3595. IB.C. 409. poet] at the age of 77; Antigenes
to the correction spoken oi (g)Or rather 198 years, according M. Gibert, Mem. de VAcad. des />;/>. torn, xxiii. p. 75. by

74

INTRODUCTION.
archon
at

[CHAP.

ir.

being

Athens;

145

years

have

was

elapsed.

Dyscinetus being archon at Athens have elapsed. 106 years

built
;

LXV.

LXXV.

the poet SoA.M. 3597. 1 [Since] the death of B.C. 407. 3 phocles, aged 91 ; [and since] Cyrus his Persian expedition; [the younger] began Callias being a second time archon at Athens ; 143 years have elapsed.

LXV1.
Since Telestes [the Dithyrambic the prize B.C. 403. | poet] of Selinuns, gained for poetry at Athens; Mycon being archon there; 139 years have elapsed.
A.M. 3601.1

Since Dionysius [the elder] of f A.M. 3636. B c 368 Sicily, died, and was succeeded in 1 the tyranny by his son Dionysius [the younger]; and Alexander began to reign at Pheres [in Thessaly]; Nausigenes being archon at Athens; 104 years have elapsed.
-

LXXVI.
the temple of Delphi

plundered f A.M. 3646. B c 358 Cephisodotus L being archon at Athens; 94 years have elapsed.
-

Since the Phoceans

;

LXV1I.
Since [the Greeks] who had acA.M. 3603. 1 B.C. 401. | corapanied Cyrus [the younger] returned to Greece; and since the philosopher Socrates died, at the age of 70; Lachetes being archon at Athens; 137 years have elapsed.

LXXVII.
Since Timotheus [the poet] died t A.M. 3647. 357. at the age of 90; since Philip, king I B.C. of Macedon, built the city of Philippa since Alexander of Pheres was killed ; and Dion con;

LXVIII.
A.M. 3605.
B.C.
)

quered the generals of Dionysius Agathocles being archon at Athens ; 93 years have elapsed.
;

Since

at

Aristocrates being 135 years have elapsed.

399. j

Athens archon there;

LXXVIII.
Since Alexander, afterwards king CA.M. 3649. of Macedon, was born ; Callistratus IB.C. 355. being archon at Athens ; 91 years have elapsed. In his time flourished Aristotle the philosopher.

LXIX.
Date
l

Since

gained

1obliterated 1

the prize for Dithyrambic verse at

LXXIX.

Athens

LXX.
A.M. 3624. 1

Since Philoxenus, the DithyramB.C. 380.; bic poet, died at the age of 60; Pytheas being archon at Athens; 116 years

Since Calippus [or Callicrates] ( A.M. 3650. having killed Dion, made himself \ B.C. 354. tyrant at Syracuse ; Diotimus being archon at Athens ; 90 years have elapsed.
****************

have elapsed.

The remainder

is iosL

LXXI.
A.M. 3627.
B.C.
7

Since Anaxandrides, the comic

poet, gained the prize at Athens ; Callias being archon there; 113 years have
377. j

SECTION
To
sive

VIII.

elapsed.

OF jERAS AND EPOCHAS.

avoid a confusion, too

LXXII.
A.M. 3631.)
B.C.
373. J

common

to exten-

Since Astydamas [the poet] gain;

ed the prize at Athens Areus [or Aste'ius] being archon there; when a great comet appeared 109 years have elapsed.
;

LXXIII.
Since the battle of Leuctra, beB.C. 371. i tween the Thebans and Lacedaemonians, in which the Thebans were victorious; Phrasiclides being archon at Athens; 107 years have elapsed. At this time died Cleombrotus, kiug of the Lacedaemonians.
A.M. 3633.
1

most writers on chronology have divided the times of which they treat into certain portions, each commencing at a fixed and determinate point, better known by the appellation of JEra, or Epociut, whence the intermediate events are dated, backward or forward. These epochas are for the most part arbitrary, and relate more peculiarly to the history to which they are applied, than to that of the world at large they are, however,
intricate

and

subjects,

useful as boundaries

LXXIV.

Since Stersichorus the Second, of B.C. 370. 5 Himera, gained, at Athens, the prize [for poetry] ; arid the city of Megalopolis
A.M. 3634.
1

of distinct portions of time, within which the less important events are included. The Greeks dated many of the events of their history, first, from the Argonautic Expedition; next, from the Siege of

SECT. VIII.]
then,

AND EPOCHAS.
5879.

75

from the Settlement of Cecrops in Attica, and the Foundation of At liens ; and, the Olympic Games, lastly, from the Revival of the Christian sera and it in the year 776 before is only from this last epocha that we can in the The least rely ou the chronology of Greece.

Troy;

aera is adopted by the Greek and a great number of writers. church,

II. 16562348.

This

The universal deluge, according to (A.M. the Hebrew the Samaritan places \ B.C.
:

early history of the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Egyptians, though they erected the first kingdoms on the earth, is too obscured by legendary exaggeration, to permit us to confide in the epochas described in its course. The sera of Nabonassar, king of Babylon, commences only in the year 747 B. C. when this prince ordered the records of the acts of his predecessors to be destroyed, and directed public annals to be kept, not only of the political and civil transactions of the kingdom, but also of the eclipses ; it being in his time that the study of astronomy was restored, and brought to a The Rocomparative degree of perfection. mans, also, like other nations, had their particular epocha, viz. the Building of their City,

it in the year of the world 1307, or 1656 the Septuagint in 2242, or 2262.

and

111.

The

<era,

of Callisthenes, com-

A.M. 1770-

mencing with the first astronomical I B.C. 2234. observations at Babylon, and adopted by some
historians.

IV.

The
to the

call

Hebrew

maritan in the Septuagint in 3389, or 3469.

of Abraham, according f A.M. 2083. placed by the Sa- 1 B.C. 1921. the year of the world 2384, and by
;

V.

The deluge of Ogyges, and Attica.

in Bo3otia (A.M. 2240. (B.C. 1764.

which, according to Varro, whose opinion is most generally received, took place B. C. From about the middle of the eighth 753. (h) century before the aera of Christianity, we have, therefore, data sufficient to enable us to fix the events of history with tolerable precision. But there still remains an antecedent lapse of 3251

whose chronology is uncertain ; and it is only by catching a glimpse of the principal nations, when incidentally mentioned in the Sacred Writings, that any of the epochas of this dark space can be brought near to the
years,
truth.

The

following

list

contains the principal aeras

adopted by

different nations for

determining

the order of dates, and the leading epochas employed by the majority of historians in the arrangement of events.
I.

VI. Arrival of Cecrops in Attica, and f A.M. 2448. foundation ofthe kingdom of Athens, i B.C. lose, according to Castor in Eusebius. This is the first event recorded on the Arundelian marbles, which place it 1318 years before the archon Uiognetes, i. e. B. C. 1582. VII. The Exodus, or deliverance of Is- J A.M. 2513. \ B.C. raelfrom Egypt, according to the {B.C. 1491. the Samaritan places it in the year of Hebrew the world 2814 ; and the Septuagint in 3819, or 3894. VIII. the Argonauts, under $ A.M 2741. Expedition of Jason. I B.C. IMS. IX. Troy taken by the Greeks, and f A.M. 2820. bunied. I B.C. 1184.
:

creation of the world, accordto the Hebrew text ing according to the Samaritan, B. C. 4407, or 4700 ; and according to the Septuagint version, 5508, or
\. 1
-

A.M.

The

4 B.C. 4004

X. Foundation of Solomons temple, f A.M. 2002. according to the Hebrew text. The IB.C. 1012. Samaritan places it in the year of the world 3294, or 3406; and the Septuagint in 4259, or
4495.

(h) The calculation of Varro was used by the emperors in their public acts, and therefore claims a preference to all others. The Capitoline marbles reckon 752 and ;

only

years

tionof Porcius Cato, followed by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the city was founded B. C. 751, and upon this supputation Mr. Rollin has regulated his History oj Rome. To reduce
aera, in ecclesiastical or profane writers after only necessary to retrench 754 years from the given date, and the remainder will be the year of our Lord.

Fabitis Pictor,

the most ancient

the foundation of Rome, 748 been followed by Archbishop Usher, and the editors of the great English Universal History. According to the calcula

historian, places years B. C. in which he has

Roman

the

Roman

Christ,

it is

L2

76

INTRODUCTION.

[CHAP.

ii.

XL
A.M. 3228. 1
B.C.
776.
j

XIX.
Commencement of the reign of Alex- f A.M. ander the Great at Macedon. JB.C.
3668. 336.

JEra of the Olympiads, used by the

Greeks 1081 years, viz. till A. D. 31-2, when Constantine the Great substituted the jEra of Indiction. The Greeks also formerly marked their years by Athens. XII. 1 Foundation of Rome, according to A.M. 3251. B.C. This sera was used by 753.3 Varro.(i) till A. D. 250 ; they likewise forthe Romans
the archons of

XX.
Death of Alexander,
his empire divided.

at

Babylon;

f A.M. 3681. JB.C. 323.

XXI.
from Seleucus Nicanor, because it I B -C- 312. began upon the day when that prince entered It was followed by the Syrians, and Babylon. the Jews established among them; the latby ter gave it the name of Dhilcarnaim, and the ^Era of Contracts. of the Seleucidee, so called
f

A.M. 3692.

merly marked their years by their consuls. XIII. JEra of Nabonassar, used by PtoA.M. 3257. ) B.C. 747. \ lemy and Censorinus the chronoloand more celebrated in ancient astronomiger, It received its name cal tables than any other. from having begun in the reign of Nabonassar, who vainly strove to make himself accounted
the
first

XXII. The first Punic war, begun in the CA.M. year of Rome 490, forms a memo- C B C
-

3740.

264

rable epocha in the history of that republic, continued 24 years.

and

king of Babylon, by destroying

all

the
It

public acts and records of his predecessors. has also been called the mathematical canon,

and

the canon of kings.

XXIII. The second Punic war, began in the year of Rome 536, and continued 17 years and some months.

c
(

A.M. 3786.
B.C.
218.

XIV.
A.M. 3320 684 B.C.
.

XXIV.
third the year of

")

Establishment of annual archons at Athens, beginning with Creon.

The

Punic

ivar,

JEra of the Persian empire, or Cyrus master of Asia, and the return of the Jews from their captivity at Babylon, according to Archbishop Usher's construction of
A.M. 3468.
B.C.
\ 536. j

605, anid con- \ B.C. 149. eluded with the destruction of Carthage, in the year of Rome 608.

Rome

began

in CA.M. 3855.

XXV.
the
49. month of October of the year of 1 B c Rome 705, and is used in the works of some
-

jfEra of Antioch,

commenced

in

A.M. 3955.
-

the

Hebrew

text, (j)

XVI.
A.M. 3495. 1 republic; or the 509. J B.C. of the Tarquins, and the expulsion establishment of the consular government, in the year 245 of the foundation of the city. The succession of the consuls serves to regulate the chronology of the Roman republic and empire, and also of the Christian church, as well as of
several

ecclesiastical writers.

jEra of the

Roman

XXVI.
Correction of the Roman calendar, f A.M. 3959. 45. by Julius Csesar, began with the 1 B -C. first of January in the year of Rome 709. In order to bring the beginning of this year to its due place, the preceding was made to contain 445 days, and is therefore called the year ofconfusion.

European
1

states.

XVII.
A.M. 3526.
B.C.
478. ]

XXVII.
;

JEra of Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, according to Eusebius a most im-

JEra of Spain, used by Spanish f A.M. writers till A. I). 1415, when it was {B.C.
abolished by Peter king of Arragon. also adopted in the south of France.
It

39G6.
38.

The portant event in the history of Sicily. Arundelian marbles, of which this forms the 56th epocha, places it six years later.
XVIII.
A.M. 3573. \
B.C.
431. |

was

XXVIII.
of'Actium ; also j A.M. 3973. 31. of the Roman empire; took place on 1 B c the 2d of September, in the year of Rome 723 ; but the Egyptians, by whom it is most followed,
battle
-

JEra of the

The Peloponnesian war, between

Athens and Lacedaemon, began on

the 7th of

May.
(i)

See the last note.

(j)

For various readings of this 3

date, see pages 56, 57, etseq,

SECT. VIII.]

jERAS

AND EPOCHAS.
to this aera

77

calculate only from the beginning of the next found upon several It is year, B. C. 30.

medals.

because Mohammed fled from the Mecca to Mepersecution of his enemies from dina in the night between the 15th and 16th of

XXIX.
A.M. 4004.
A.D.
writers.
7

July in this year.

or

The

vulgar,
all

l. j

adopted by

Christian epra, modern Christian

XXXV.
[A.D.
632.

jEra of Yezdejerd, so called from

practice of dating from this aera was introduced, A. D. 532, by Dionysius, a monk, surnamed the Little; but he made a mistake of four years and seven days, which not being discovered till upwards of six centuries afterwards, when it throughout the states of

The

Yezd'jerd, or Jesdergirdes, the last sovereign of the second empire of the Persians, by whom it

was adopted.

XXXVI.
restored,

The Western empire

Otho

by

[A.D.

BOO.

had been adopted Christendom; and

incal-

Charlemagne, king of France, on Christmas day.

XXXVII.
the Great obtains the empire. [A.D.
962.

when a correction would have caused

culable confusion in the public records, &c. it has therefore been suffered to remain, and will probably be continued to the end of time the true epocha of the nativity of Christ was, according to the computation of the Hebrew text, seven days prior to the end of the year of the world 3999. By this aera, modern writers carry their computations either backward for ancient history, or forward for subsequent events.
:

XXXVIII.
107! of Gregory VII. [A.D. surnamed Hildebrand, who first assumed the them at. right of making kings and of unmaking

The

pontificate

pleasure i. e. this epocha marks the commencement of the usurpations of the popes.
;

XXXIX.
JEra of Gelaleddin, so named from [A.D. 1079. the SultanGelaleddin, who reformed the Persian calendar, and made it nearly equal to the Gregorian.
It

XXX.

JEra of Dioclesian, called also the tera of martyrs, and sometimes the Abyssinian tera, was adopted by those who had before reckoned by the cera of Actium. It received its first name from the minions of Dioclesian its second, from the persecuted Christians during his reign and its third, because adopted by the Christians of Abyssinia.
284.]
; ;

A.D.

superseded the

aera

of Yezdejerd

among
The

the Persians.

XL.
crusades or holy wars begun, [A.D. 1096. under pretence of rescuing the holy city and sepulchre from the hands of the infidels.

XXXI.

XLI. The pontificate of Innocent

III.

AD
-

1198.

A.D.

312.]

substituted

jraofIndictions,orofConstantinc, by that emperor in lieu of the

XLH.
The
France.
death of St. Louis, king of [A.D. 1270.

Olympiads, by which the Greeks had before reckoned.

XLIII.

XXXII.
A.D.

Destruction of the Western empire by the Barbarians. Some writers prefer using the epocha of the invasion of the Barbarians, A.D. 403, or 406.
476.]

The great schism of the West, or of [A.D. 1378. two popes at once viz. Urban VI. at Rome,
:

and Clement VII. at Avignon. This schism lasted 38 years, under them and their successors.

XXXIII.
A.D.

XLIV.
Invention of the art ofprinting; the [A.D. 1440. first step towards the revival of literature in Europe. But the precise year of this discovery is very uncertain.

by Clovis. Millot places this event in commences his modern history with it

Foundation of the French monarchy, 482, and but his is not considered as of any authority weight
485.]
:

XXXIV.

XLV.
The Eastern empire
der
destroyed,

A.D.

622.]

JEra of Mohammed, or

the

adopted by the Arabians, who before reckoner from the last war in which they were engaged it is still used in all Mohammedan countries

Hefra

by

[A.D. 1453.

the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, un-

Mohammed

II.

This epocha concludes

The word

hej'ra signifies flight,

and

is

appliec

called the middle ages, beginning with the Christian aera.

what are

INTRODUCTION.
XLVI.
A.D. 1402.]

[CHAP.

it.

LX.
the

America discovered by Columbus: affected the political its consequences have system of the whole world.

Napoleon Buonaparte abdicated,and [A.D. Bourbons restored to the throne of France.

1814.

XLVII.
A.D. 1517.]

The

reformation begun,

by Martin

Luther.

XLVIII.
A.D. 1519.]

empire :

Charles V. king of Spain, obtains the memorable in the annals of Europe.

XLIX.
council of Trent ended: freadverted to in ecclesiastical affairs. quently
A.D. 1563.]

The

L.

Union of the crowns of England and a memorable epocha in the history Scotland; of Great Britain.
A.D. 1603.]

LI.

Treaty ofMunster, or of Westphalia, for a new division or arrangement of the states of Europe by which the Dutch United Provinces and the Swiss republic are confirmed in
A.D. 1648.]
;

their independence.

LII. Revolution in Great Britain: the true epocha of the political liberties of this
A.D. 1688.]

country.

epochas, some are principal, others secondary; the former being connected with the general affairs of the world, or of that portion of it which was the chief theatre of human actions ; the latter apply only to particular From among the former, states and nations. it is the practice of writers of general history to take some as boundaries of certain portions of their compilations, by which they are enabled to keep the reader's attention awake to the concerns of several nations at once, by occasionally breaking off at these epochas, or periods, from the pursuit of the history of one country to take up that of another, in order to bring it down to the same point which being done with all the states included in the period, the history of the first nation is resumed and carried forward to the next epocha, when the former routine is again observed ; and thus to This mode the end of the proposed work. has a manifest advantage over that of completing the history of each country by itself; inasmuch as it combines, in a considerable deof gree, the details of history with the light

Of these

LIII.

Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, for settling the balance of power in Europe.

A.D. 1748.]

LIV,
A.D. 1789.]

French revolution, broke out on the

chronology; which in this Work will be carried to its full extent, by introducing each epocha with a CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, and annexing to the history of each kingdom a GENEALOGICAL MAP of its sovereigns, and the various
ramifications of their families. The remarkable epochas in sacred history are seven in number; and though mentioned in the foregoing list, they require a more particular attention, as well on account of the superior interest they excite as connected with revealed religion, as on account of the various computations, of which the several copies of

14th of July.
A.D. 1792.]

LV.

JEra of France; adopted by the

French at the foundation of their republic, 22. began September LVI. alA.D. 1802.] Treaty of Amiens: frequently to in the history of the late war, and luded
in state papers relative to A.D. 1804.]
it.

the sacred Scriptures admit.

LVII.
Napoleon Buonaparte, emperor of
the French,
A.D. 1806.]

EPOCHA

I.

FROM THE CREATION TO THE

December

2.

LVIII.

The German empire ended by the rehead.

II. August 6; and replaced signation of Francis with the by the Confederation of the Rhine,

emperor Napoleon at
A.D. 1813.] French in

its

LIX.
Battle of Leipzig : the power of the Germany destroyed.

the particular time of any transaction before the deluge, except the years of the fathers' ages wherein the several descendants of Adam, in the line of Seth, were begotten, and the length of their lives ; we can only endeavour to determine the years of the lives of those patriarchs, which include also the distance of time contained in This undertaking, indeed, would this epocha.

DELUGE. As Moses has not set down

SECT. VIII.]

YERAS
now

AND EPOCHAS.
of

be accomplished with ease, were there no varieties

in the several copies,

extant,

Moses's writings, viz. the Hebrew, the Samaritan, and the Septuagint; but as these differ very considerably one from another, learned men are much divided in their opinions con-

cerning the chronology of the first ages of the world and to enable the reader the better to judge of the variations alluded to, the following table is introduced, in which the numbers of each are exhibited, with the addition of the calculation of Josephus.
:

TABLE OF THE YEARS OF THE ANTEDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS.

Their ages at their sons' birth.

Heb.

Sam.

Sept.

Joseph.

Adam

130

130

230

130

80

INTRODUCTION.
The
history of this age, though comprised
tion

[CHAP.

ir.

very few words by Moses, is pregnant with events the most important to mankind. We
in

here see how the heavens, the earth, and all that therein is, were created by the almighty tiat of God. behold man in his state of the peculiar favourite of his Maker innocency, but, beguiled of his happiness by giving way to the temptation of the devil, becoming at once the object of divine vengeance and mercy; driven from the blissful seat of Paradise, the victim of disease, both of soul and body, and finally consigned to death ; but with a promise of redemption and restoration, through the mediation of the Seed of the woman. From Adam we see a twofold generation proceed, through Cain and Seth ; the one remarkable for its im-

We

itself. The poets of Greece, also, were not entirely ignorant of this epocha ; and their Golden Age, War of the Giants, &c. are generally referred to the Mosaic account of this obscurely known, but interesting period : though Mr. Bryant, as will be seen in the history of the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, very plausibly identifies the Titans and Giants with the posterity of Cush, in the next epocha.

EPOCHA
THE

II. FROM THE DELUGE TO THE CALLING OF ABRAHAM.

difficulty of settling the chronology of this period, at least equals, if it does not ex-

piety and crimes ; the other the depository of the promises of God, and of divine worship. At length, however, these two races get blended

promiscuous marriages, an universal corruption and profligacy ensue, which end in bringing down the wrath of God upon the whole earth; so that, with the exception of Noah and his family, all flesh is destroyed by the general deluge. See the seven first chapters of Genesis. In the fragments of profane history which have reached us, we discover some traces of these events, though disguised by traditionary
in

ceed, the embarrassment of the former epocha, and from the same cause, viz. the diversity between the several copies of the Mosaical writings which has caused chronologers to range themselves under the banners of different hypotheses, in which each has evidenced his zeal and ingenuity in upholding his favourite theory but no one has arrived at demonstration, nor been able to persuade the world to give his system an exclusive preference.
; ;

legends,

and mixed with fables. Berosus, the Babylonian historian, makes ten generations between Aloras and Xisuthrus, kings of Chaldaea, who reigned before the flood which cor;

responds with the ten generations of Moses, from Adam to Noah. Sanchoniatho, of Phoenicia, Manetho the Egyptian, and the Chinese
chronologers, commence their annals, not only at a period antecedent to the flood, but even several thousand years prior to that of the crea-

of this period, according to the are 367 or 427 years ; according to Josephus, 967 ; according to the Samaritan copy, 1077 ; and according to the Septuagint translation, 1207, or 1307, 1257, or 1267 years. The difference of 60 years between the two numbers of the Hebrew text and the two first computations of the Septuagint, arises from the age of Terah ; some copies making him but 70 years of age when he begat (in) Abraham; others, 130. (n) The other variations of the several readings of the Septuagint, as well as of the copies above quoted, from each other, will be noticed in due time; but it is first requisite to introduce the following

The years Hebrew text,

Methuselah

will,

conformably to the Hebrew and Samaritan,

die in the year of the flood. And with respect to those

is

to the accuracy of the historian and in this, he has been lowed by Lenglet Dufresnoy, and others.
:

fol.

600 years, Father Tournemine of opinion that they belong equally to the Hebrew and Samaritan as to the Septuagint, only that the latter expresses at length, in every instance of repetition, what in the two former has been left to be understood after the first mention of the century as a prime number, in the case of Seth as we say in familiar conversation, the year 16, for the year 1816, &c. and he contends that the idiom of the Hebrew language admits of this explication, without any violence being offered
;

(m) See Gen.

xi.

26.

(n) Compare Gen. xi. 32. with. xii. 4. and by deducting Abraham's age, 75, when he left Haran, from that of his father, 205, when he died in that country, the age of Terah The advowill appear to be 130 when Abraham was born. cates for the age of 70, however, do not admit of Abraham having lived with his father in Haran till his death; in which they seem to be countenanced by the reading of Gen. xii. 1.

SECT. VIII.]

vERAS

AND EPOCHAS.

TABLE OF THE YEARS OF THE POSTDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS, TO THE VOCATION OF ABRAHAM.

Their A^es at

Shorn

after the

Flood

INTRODUCTION.
rising from the waste of waters, and we see the Almighty renewing his covenant with mankind, in the person of their new representative, Noah,

[CHAP.

11.

chosen progenitor of the Messiah. Abram had many sons, but only one child of promise,
the privilege was to to all his brethren, preference Isaac had two sons, but Jacob, though the younger, was preferred to Esau, the elder ; and of Jacob's twelve sons, Judah was to be head of

which was Isaac,

to

whom

and promising that the waters of the deluge shall no more cover the earth for its entire destruction while the promise of the Redeemer is made hereditary in the family of Shem. We
:

appertain, in

also behold the malediction of the descendants

and Sicyon.

of Canaan, the curtailment of men's lives; the division of the Earth among the posterity of Noah, and their dispersion, and confusion of language; the decline of religion, and the introduction of idolatry ; with the call of Abram, from Ur in Chaldaea, to leave his false deities, and become a witness for the true God, in the midst of a perverted and degenerate world. also catch a few glimpses of profane hisin this epocha, in the commencement of the tory kingdoms of Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, China,(s)

the tribe to which the family should belong, wherein the Messiah was, in the fulness of time,
to appear.

We

The other facts of sacred history, during this period, are the establishment of the ceremony of circumcision, as a seal of the covenant made by God with Abram, thenceforward called ABRAHAM ; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, with their dependencies, by fire from heaven the mysterious wrestling of Jacob with an Angel, and the change of his name to ISRAEL ; the births of the patriarchs, from whom descended the twelve tribes of Israel ; the
;

EPOCHA

FROM THE VOCATION OF ABRAHAM TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL, AND THE PROMULGATION OF THE WRITTEN LAW.
III.-

sale of Joseph into Egypt, and his subsequent exaltation ; the settlement of Israel and his family in that country, their bondage, and the

THIS period comprehends 430 years,

all
:

in

which

the versions of the holy Scriptures are agreed; as follows

Isaac, born after the Vocation of Isaac, at the birth of Jacob, was Jacob, at the birth of Joseph

Abram.

...

25 years.

Joseph, Joseph,

From

when sold to the Midianites when he received his father in Egypt.

out of Egypt,

60 91 17 22
135

the journey of Israel to the birth of

Israelites

Moses
Moses, when he led the

was
Total.

80
430

upon them by the king the and miracles wrought by JEHOVAH, in plagues bringing them out of captivity the overthrow of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea the escape of the Israelites, and the promulgation of the law from the summit of Mount Sinai. In the mean time we behold the rest of mankind plunging into idolatry, and giving themselves up to the grossest superstitions while the impious race of Acmon, rendered remarkable by their crimes, as well as by the splendour of their exploits, confound the imaginations of their fellow mortals, and at length
cruelties exercised
; ;
; ;

we bethe patriarchal manners and form of religion, as established with Abram and hi? descendants, through whom the seed of the woman is still promised. also perceive the transmission of this promise, assuming a more explicit form than before From Noah, it passed to Shem, and was, during the last
In pursuing the history of this period,

come acquainted with

usurp the throne of deity itself. In profane history, besides the affairs of the house of Acmon, we here and there catch a glimpse of the Egyptians and Assyrians; while in Greece we see the kingdoms of Argos,

We

epocha, supposed to belong to his family in common, till Abram was pointed out, as the
() Some writers suppose that Fo-hi, the founder of the Chinese monarchy, was no other than Noah who, in his latter days, grieved and disgusted at the degeneracy of his descendants, retired to the extremity of the earth, with a chosen few, and there laid the foundation of a society, that
;

Athens, Lelegia, (afterwards called Lacedaemon Sparta,) Messenia, and Thebes, established, with the first migrations of the Greeks to Italy, to which they gave the name ofMagna Greecia. The kingdom of Troy, as begun by Scamander, also dates its origin from this period, as does likewise that of Tyre, built by Agenor.

and

afterwards increased to a potent kingdom. M. De Guignes, others, imagine that the Chinese were originally an Egyptian colony, and that the first emperors of China were in reality kings of Thebes, in Egypt. But this will be farther noticed in its proper place.

and some

SECT. VIII.

AND EPOCHAS.
IV.

EPOCHA
THE

FROM THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL

TO THE FOUNDATION OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE.

length of this period is as diversely reThe Hebrew presented as any of the former. formed of the whole numbers, computation, gives 480 years, as does the Samaritan, according to Eusebius and the present copies ; but when formed of particulars, the Hebrew gives 580, and the old Samaritan, followed by Josephus,
"392
:

ing miracles in their favour; sometimes murmuring, and wishing to return to Egypt, at other times engaged in open rebellion against God, and even not unfrequently forsaking his service, to give themselves up to the worship of From these errors and devils and dumb idols. crimes they are repeatedly reclaimed, at the expense of very severe chastisements ; and
at last they carry their pride and presumption so far as to demand a king, that -they

when

to all

which, Archbishop Usher, whose

computation
Israel in

follow, prefers 479, viz. 40 the Desert

entrance into Canaan, to the days of

we

years.

From
Under Under Under Under

(lie

the Judges the Judges Saul

David Solomon
Total.

46 310 40 40 3
479

The common
this

epocha

at
;

440 years

copies of the Septuagint state the Alexandrian MS.

;

gives it o'Ol while Pezron, pretending to follow the computation of the Vatican copy, extends it to 873, and by another calculation to

962.

proceed chiefly from the with which the chronology of the obscurity book of Judges is encompassed, which has occasioned a variety of systems to be from time to time set forth, as the reader may perceive from the copies of six of the most considerable, given in a former page.(t) In the sacred history of this epocha, we behold the Almighty condescending to become the legislator, ruler, and protector of the Israelitish people, whom he had brought out of captivity of the worst kind we see him promulgating laws, and instituting ordinances, typical of that more extended and spiritual kingdom, which in due time he will establish over the whole earth. The tribe of Levi is set apart for the ministry

These

variations

when they had the living God for their only sovereign ; for, till then, the government of Israel had presented the peculiar spectacle of a Theocracy. Saul was the first king of Israel; but on account of his perverseness and disobedience, God changed the succession from his family to that of David, whose son Solomon built the temple at Jerusalem, which has been justly deemed the wonder of the world, and the first ever consecrated to the true God. In the mean time, we perceive, in profane history, the dawn of what is called the heroic age, from the exploits of those whom the poets have honoured with the title of Children of the
as

may be as other nations, God gives them the accomplishment of their desire in wrath, and they soon find that it is not so well with them

Gods;

in

which

historical facts,

though

still

tinctured with the marvellous, begin to assume more of the appearance of truth than in the

Egypt is very gradually repreceding ages. from the weakness induced by the covering visitation of the destroying angel, and the disaster at the Red-sea, by which she had lost the flower of her population and nobility but Assyria, the most potent monarchy of the age, is so involved in obscurity, through the loss of her records, that the very names and succession of her sovereigns cannot be ascertained with pre;

and service of the tabernacle the family of Aaron is appointed to the priesthood the sus; ;

of Greece now first become Strange as it may appear at the interesting. present day, it is nevertheless a fact, that whilst the descendants of Shem and Ham were improving the useful arts in the east and
cision.

The affairs

tenance of the people is provided in a supernatural way, and their march directed by the di\ ine Shechinah, or Glory, till they reach the land, so many ages before to their ancestor promised
other side, we find this people constantly forgetting the almighty hand which had delivered them, and was daily work-

Abraham.

On

the

south, and establishing powerful kingdoms, the posterity of Japheth, who settled in the west and north, sunk into a state of apathy that left them very little above the brute creation ; nor was it till they were visited by their more enlightened brethren, that they became acquainted, little by little, with the advantages of
industry, or that they could appreciate benefits resulting from a cultivation of

(t)

See page 59.

the the

M 2

INTRODUCTION.
sciences.

[CHAP.

ii.

The Kgvptian
laws,
initiated

ga\e them

colonists, therefore, them in their reli-

gions mysteries, and excited amonr them a taste for science and the arts; while the Pha>nicians taught them writing, navigation, and commerce. To this epocha we may refer the rise of the kingdoms of Corinth, Latiuin, Myas well as the destruccena and Lydia of Thebes, by the tion of Argos, by Perseus of Sicyon, by its union with Mycena% Kpigoni; which is also itself overthrown by the Ileraclida_> of Troy, by the Greeks ; and of the Athenian monarchy, by the substitution of the To these general government of archons.
1

and their manners; the ruin of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, who transported the ten tribes into Assyria, and repeopled their country by a colony of Cutheans; the history of Tobit the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar; the burning of the temple; the captivity of Judah in Babylon; the history of Daniel, and the pious devotion of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego; the pride and humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar the siege and coiKjuest of Babylon by the Medes and Persians; and the restoration of the Jews by
pations
;
;

Cyrus.

The

prophets

who

lived in this period were

c\e!it-i

may

be

added

certain

transactions,
pri-

which, though in themselves originally of a

or particular nature,
:

Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Micali, Nahum,

became, in the sequel, of extensive public importance such were the

establishment of the council of the Amphictyons, for the direction of the affairs of Greece the institution of public games and combats, for inuring the youth to the use of arms ; the expedition of the Argonauts ; the invasion of Greece by the Amazons; and the return of the Heraelidce to the Peloponnesus, an event which changed almost the whole political face of Greece, and was the occasion of many celebrated migrations to Asia Minor, and the foundation of cities of the iirst importance.
:

Habakkuk, and Zephaniah.

king of Egypt, about this time, receives the Greeks

into

The whole of this epocha is interesting in profane history, as from this period only, according to Herodotus, can we rely on the authenticity of the facts recorded. Psammiticus,
his territory, -whence all strangers had been rigorously excluded, and the true history of that country now first dispels, and shines through the fabulous mists with which it had been obscured. The Assyrian monarchy is dissolved on the death of Sardanapalus 1. and from the ruins arise the kingdoms of Nineveh. Babylon, Media, arid Cappadocia Persia gradually increases in magnitude, at the expense of these three kingdoms, and at length becomes a mighty empire under Cyrus. Greece, though feeble, maintains its independence Lycurgus establishes his wonderful regulations in Laceda'inon Solon gives Athens a code of equitable laws; the Olympic games are revived, and become of sufficient, consequence to constitute them epochas for the measurement of time; the kingdom of Macedon arises, while that of Messenia is destroyed and the government of Corinth is changed from a monarchy to
: :

EPOCHA

FROM THE FOUNDATION OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE TO THE RETURN OF THE

V.

JEWS FROM CAPTIVITY, PURSUANT TO THE DECREE OF CYRUS.

THE computation of this epocha admitted to be 470 years, rlz.

Building
(lie

is

usually

Tin

To To

7 vcar>. death of Solomon 30 the lie^innini; of the Captivity of Judith 370 " the Restoration (,-9
lire

Temple

lc the

470

Pezron, however, makes it comprehend s, and .losephus extends it to (5 -iO. This epocha makes us acquainted with the glorious reign and memorable actions of lomoii, ki::o- of Israel and Judah ; the revolt of the ten iribes from his son and successor I boam; the wars and alliances of the sever of the two kingdiii'is, either between (i; or with other nations; the prophets, tli

a republic. The cities of Rome and Carthage, with the kingdom of Cyrene, also owe origin to this epocha.
!

EPOCHA
vioi

VI. FROM THE RETURN OF JEWS TO THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD AND
i;

JESUS CHRIST.

HISTORI\\S are all agreed as to the length of this interval, which may be taken as follows
:

SECT. VIII.]
From

/ERAS
94
of Darius, the
last

AND EPOCH AS.

the Jews were not quite so easy Ptolemy Lagns surprised Jerusalem, and* carried oil' 1 00,000 of the inhabitants into Egypt. Ptolemy Philadelphia lived in peace with them, and had their sacred writings translated into the Greek language, (u) Ptolemy Philornetor derided, in the famous controversy between the Samaritans and Jews, in favour of the latter. From the kings of Egypt, the Jews passed under the dominion of the sovereigns of Syria, who proved a dreadful scourge to them. Antiochtis Epiphanes thought to overthrow the temple, and to destroy the law of Moses, with the whole Jewish nation ; but, though he actually plundered the temple, and polluted the altar
:

the Restoration, to the end of the governyears.

to the death

ment ofNebemiah

Thence

Persia

king of Ill

To To

the death of Alexander the Great the battle of Ipsus, which decided the contests of the deceased monarch's generals....

23
113
.5-2

lleign of the first six kings of Syria, with ends the history of the Maccabees

which

Pontificate of

Hyrcanus

Thence

to the birth of

JESUS CHRIST

132

532

The history of this epocha contains a detail of the most remarkable revolutions, both in sacred and profane history. Cyrus, having overthrown the power of Babylon, publishes an edict, permitting the Jews to return to their own
country, and gives them assistance to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem. Zorobabel, at the head of 42,000 of his countrymen, arrives in Judea, and lays the foundation of the temple, which is finished in sixteen years, notwithstanding the opposition of the Samaritans. During this time, they are encouraged to perseverance by the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and MaIn virtue of a subsequent decree of lachi.

Artaxerxes Longimanus, Nehemiah arrives with enlarged powers, and builds the walls of the city and from the date of this decree, passed in the twentieth year of the king, Daniel's seventy prophetical weeks are reckoned. About the same time, Ezra, or Esdras, collates and revises the sacred writings then extant, and by adding the history of his own time, completes what is now called the Old Testament. It is about this time that the Hebrew language begins to fall into disuse as a vernacular tongue. The Jews adopt the Chaldaic characters ; while the Samaritans, opposed in all things to the Jews, retain the ancient characters (which at the present day are called Samaritan"), and build a temple on mount Gerizim, in opposition to that at Jerusalem. The overthrow of the Persian empire made little or no alteration in the affairs of the Jews. Alexander, indeed, marched against them ; but the appearance of their high-priest so corresponded with a vision which had appeared to him in Macedon, that he entered peaceably into the city, and offered sacrifices in the temple. Under the successors of this prince, however,
;

princes; Mattathias, Judas, Jonathan, Simon, and John Hyrcanus, bore the title of prince and high-priest; the five latter, viz. Aristobulus, Alexander, Jannus, Hyrcanus II. and Antigonus, assumed the style of kings, and acquired considerable dominion by conquest from the Syrians, Idumeans, Philistines,
these,

swine upon it, his violence was resisted by Mattathias the high-priest, of the race of Phinehas, and head of the family of the Asmoneans, or Maccabees, which governed the Jews during 130 years, in a succession of ten of
the five
first,

by

sacrificing

viz.

and Ammonites. This house was at length mined by domestic dissensions; and Herod, a native of Iduinea, supported by the Romans, established himself upon its ruins, was crowned king of the Jews, and extirpated the whole race of the Asmoneans, not even sparing his own wife and her two sons. Towards the close of
his reign, the Messiah, JESUS CHRIST, appeared in the world, for the redemption of man ; in the

was put to death by the Jews; and, seventy years afterwards, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, under Titus, and the nation scattered upon the face of the earth, a perpetual and terrible example of the vengeance of an offended
God.

reign of Herod's son Archelaiis, he

The

subjects of profane history are

:

nu-

merous and interesting we witness the growth, declension, and fall of the Persian empire; the extensive conquests of Alexander; the division of them among his generals, which gives birth to a new kingdom of Egypt, under the dynasty of the Ptolemies, the kingdoms of Syria, Perpreters,

translation is tlie celebrated (u) This Septuagint Version, said to have been performed by seventy-two intcr-

appointed by Eleazar the high-priest,

at the

requisition.

INTRODUCTION.
ganuis, and some minor states: those of Bosplmrus, Pontns, Bithynia, and Parthia, which were either established, or evolved from their native obscurity, during this epocha, will also call for attention, as being all destined, with tin exception of Parthia, to swell the triumphs of the Roman generals, and to enlarge the dominion of that republic.

[CHAP. n.

ing himself to be the long-expected Messiah, or Christ, the seed of the woman, after the flesh, who should bruise the serpent's head, as promised to our first parents on their expulsion from Eden; and, in his divine nature, the " Yet, as his glorious Son of God. kingdom is not of this world," he rather appeared in the character of a minister, or servant, than of a

EPOCHA
,

FROM THE INCARNATION OF JESUS CHRIST TO THE END OF THE NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY, AND THENCE TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE, AND THE
VII.

DISPERSION OF THE JEWS BY THE ROMANS.

THIS

interval includes 74 years,

though usu-

ally reckoned at 70, as follows : B.C. 4. From the Nativity of Christ to his A.D.26. entrance on his public ministry. 30 years. 29. Thence to his crucifixion and ascen.

sion

63.

To

70.

the arrival of St. Paul at Rome, with which the history of the Acts of the Apostles ends 34 To the destruction of the Temple by Titus 7
.

Total number of years in this epocha.

74

incarnation of our Saviour took place, probably, in the year of the world 3999 ; and on the 25th of December, according to the Western church but the computation adopted by Christians, following the error of Dionysius the Little, places it at the close of the year 4003, whence A. M. 4004(v) is the first of the vulgar cera, as it is called, reckoning after Archbishop Usher's computation of the Hebrew text. It is to be observed, however, that the Hebrew whole numbers make the interval between the creation and the nativity of Jesus Christ, 3944 years, while the calculation from particulars amounts to 4111. The modern Samaritan,
:

The

sovereign in which quality, though he came for the redemption of man, he was despised and He conrejected, and put to open shame. demned the pertinacious adherence of the Jews to the outward forms and ceremonies of their religion, while they were destitute of that inward principle of love to God and their fellow men, which could alone render their worship acceptable before God he taught them the spirituality of the law, and by convicting those of corrupt and hypocritical motives, who made the greatest pretensions to holiness of life, excited a most bitter resentment against his person and doctrines. The priests, the scribes, and the pharisees, determined to destroy him; but the lower orders admired the purity of his manners, the sublimity of his discourses, and the miracles that he performed; and very many of them believed, to the saving of their souls. Of these humble followers, he made choice of twelve, whom he named Apostles, and sent out in various directions to preach in his name; and notwithstanding the opposition of his enemies, they made many converts. At
: :

according 4305 years; but the old Samaritan, mentioned by Jerome, goes to 4424. The Vatican copy of the Septuagint makes the interval in question 5270 years, 7 months; but the Alexandrian MS. enlarges it to 5508 years, .losephns calculates it at 4658; and Pezron at
to Eusebius,

gives

(when all things were accomplished concerning him, which had been foretold by the prophets,) the priests, &c. were permitted to lay hold of him ; and, whilst he freely gave himself a sacrifice and atonement for a lost world, the Jews satisfied their malice by procuring an order from Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, for his crucifixion. On the third day, however, they were put to confusion by his resurrection from the dead, according to his own prediction; and, after visiting his disciples on various occasions, during the enlength,

5873. In this period,

we behold our blessed Saviour

faith in

preaching

in

and forgiveness through

Jndea, the doctrine of repentance

him

declar-

(v) Owing to Hi.- error of Dionysius in _ tions for the Christian irra, noticed in

making

his calcula-

pn^.' 77.

suing forty days, and giving them commandment to preach the gospel throughout the world, he visibly ascended from among them into heaven, and took his seat as Mediator, at the right hand of God. In obedience to their Lord's command, the disciples began to preach, and, as might be expected, were opposed by the Jews; upon which they turned to the Gentiles, at first with

SECT. VIII.]

AM) EPOCH AS.

;

but the spread of their doctrine soon roused the jealousy of the Roman emperors, and the followers of Jesus, lirst denominated Christitms at Antioch, were persecuted and put to death under all the aggravated circumstances that rage and bigotry could devise. Instead of subduing, this did but put the power of Christianity to the test, by shewing that faith could endure the greatest tortures with patience and resignation; and .every martyr in his death was the cause of many of the spectators, and in some instances of the executioners themselves, embracing a religion which gives its

some success

sincere votaries power over the grave. Next to the promulgation and spread of Christianity, the fate of the Jews, and their annihilation as a nation, according to the threatening of our Lord, claim our attention during The facts this last period of sacred history. are not indeed recorded in holy writ, but they are so connected with it, that the historical analysis of the epocha would be incomplete The Jews had become, first the without it. allies, and subsequently the subjects of the Romans, under the government of the proconsuls

Jerusalem, where a long and sanguinary ensued: but the destruction occasioned by the besiegers was lenient in comparison of the horrors inflicted by the besieged on themselves, who, divided into various factions, each actuated by a most fiend-like animosity, destroyed each other with unrelenting fury this, added to the combined ravages of famine and pestilence, cut off incredible numbers of the unhappy inhabitants of that devoted city.(w) The natural and artificial strength of the place, however, continued to baffle the efforts of the bet the lines siegers, and to protract the siege were forced one after the other, and at last 4 the temple, in which the leaders of the fac; :

their final stand, was taken on the 8th of September, A. D. 70, by storm, and burned to the ground thus putting an end to the miseries as well as the hopes of the nation at once. A general massacre ensued and it is computed that nearly a million and a half

tions

had made

of Syria in which state, though always turbuthey continued, without any remarkable interruption to the general tranquillity, till about 20 or 25 years after the crucifixion of our Saviour, at which time a dissension arose between them and the Syrians as to the right of property in the city of Caesarea, which had been built by Herod, and was always deemed a SyroGrecian city. The controversy was referred to Rome ; and in the year 66, the emperor Nero decided in favour of the Syrians. general rebellion of the Jews ensued ; the Roman general Vespasian, and his son Titus, (afterwards emperors) entered Judea with legions, to whose banners victory had for ages been attached ; the cities and strong places Avere successively reduced, and at length they arrived before
;

lent,

of Jews perished in this war, besides incalcunumbers who died in caves, woods, the wilderness, and even in common sewers, where they had secreted themselves from their enemies, but met with a worse fate in being starved Thus ended the Jewto death, or suffocated. ish nation and church; nor have the Jews ever been able to regain a footing in Judea, or indeed in any country on earth ; though there is scarcely any part of the globe in which they are not to be found.
lable

SECTION

IX.

OF COMPARATIVE CHRONOLOGY.

THIS branch of the science teaches llie method of comparing different aeras, and is of
the greatest importance in facilitating the study of history, because it enables the student, when
circumstances of the siege in order more acutely to punisli the Jews for their rejection of Christ and his gospel but we have never seen it referred to what we conceive to be the true cause,
:

(w) It
siege,

is impossible to read the history of this celebrated without feeling a question arise in the mind, how came

it to pass, that, distressed as the inhabitants were by internal factions, civil war, famine so great that mothers ate their

own

viz.

THE EVERLASTING MERCY OF GOD; who,

conform-

and pestilence which cut off hundreds daily, the city should have been capable of holding out so long as from the 14th of April, when the battering engines first began to
children,

play against the walls, to the 8th of September, when the Various causes have temple was stormed and set on fire I been assigned as, the strength of the works, the unwillingness of Titus to destroy the temple, &c. Some have attributed
;

ably to his own proclamation, Exod. xxxiv. 5 7, and his " delighteth not in the promises elsewhere by his prophets, death of sinners," but would rather that all men should rewith which view he pent, and receive pardon at his hands seems to have prolonged the space for repentance to those
:

Jews to the very

last

moment, and

at length gave

jt to

the vengeance of

God, supposing

that he protracted the

reluctantly to the effects of their own blindness resistance to his merciful forbearance.

them up and obstinate

88
reading of

INTRODUCTION.
chronology.

[CHAP.

ii.

events reckoned by one aera, to ascertain the corresponding years of some other epocha, to which lie is more accustomed, or to

Christian reader of Mohammedan history, in which the order of events is regulated by years of the/^jYt, would naturally wish to know the concurrent years of the Christian ajra ; in order to which he must have recourse to comparative

which he may be led

to reduce

them:

e.g. A.

The reciprocal values of the various periods, or divisions of time, made use of in chronological computations, are likewise discovered by this branch of our subject, which indeed includes the fundamental princia more ples of chronology, and will receive the subjoined tables adequate illustration from than from any verbal description that can be
given.

TABLE
HOURS, (x)
24

I.

OF THE RECIPROCAL VALUES OF THE PRINCIPAL PERIODS, ADOPTED IN THE MEASUREMENT OF TIME.

SECT. IX.]

Si"

OO JCO O 'O
i-l
: ;

oiived ISOyturj.
"O Ci
(^ t^ CO

Al>r'ain /iivJ17.') CO rH iO CO CO
>i

xO o

T- .r 'c i~

CC

i/tur.>
1-1

o u
;

co;;

Ccoocooco^'v

c
91

"O k. .~e

a t-rs

;*&
.

xruf
Z>

lived 23O yrs. O> b. 00 t~ Cl N.

'

s o M

=> CM .= n Ken lived -j.'iy yean. ."?,! "^ 22!SJr 2"=>'r'0>

l

"w

"XJ
1

^crTS
CO .Q'O<;
.

O^S^THC^
P*
TH s*

S
,

o * <
'5,

s
-I

Eber
'

(iued

464

years.

5 '*
!
;_

S
.i -c

o
ac

^OT CO
3!
<

Salah
I

/iueri

43 J

** *o <O i?5 G* W5 CO

eft

rH r-

a
"*

;< fc
rj

t-j

O T? m Q ^^

?years.
f5
>

co'

& &

Arphaxiid
TT-*

/it

T-i <^>

CQ GQ CO CO ^0 CO

-J*

-^

pp

ft

<

em

/iut'd

600

years.

Isl
I

Noah
co
i

^50

years.

* 1-1
\

co -o 1> CO
i

6 2%
i?S t
.

oco^P^PP!

rr

1"H

.S 5J -1

S 5 3iftr-t'OCO<O<OT-!-3'COt>. * ^ j."5 "3 ri -H CN^ -j

c

g Lamecb /iued 777 i/earsi--StCCOCO^^OTH^OCO^J'6t-i

.

"**

"

"

,^'-sa<-,

>o -o

nm

--0

-t -f -i '^

O
s
6l
vH

aM
i.
.

.n

>
w

*-t

10

Jared

"?

"
w

-<
v s
2 s

--s

Mahiilaleel /ircJ 89:> w'ars

*""

-~ ^3

S ** E S*

"^ '^ ^* -'

*^ ^
rjl

^'
"'

T^

^*

d O

^
!

^ ^
1

Caiiuin lived

'

S fe S 5 S
Enos
lived

910 i

i/ears.

rHT-H co a-.

t^^
JiJ

"^

905
".

7/Pars.
'V.

9 *g
^^
^ C
^

**3

cC -3 c> co ."r> ^H oa co -*

'-o

C'' -.3

?i
i

*- co

O
95

; "
.

SV'th iiwerf
-O "O -r

/-.

G~> '-O
--

^> (^ -? CO G" *O ^T CO "t '^ *--

912

O (^ C O ^M
:

t->
'

Tt

= Adiini^u-ii l:>0
-5

*n -o

"-.

j*

^ *o

1/eru-s.

JoK5sS?^*5fci^*P3S OO O O
-

r z

'p CO CO CO

'-O

r->

T-<

rt

CT) CO (^CO 1s- '-C 'C- ^O ''". 10 iH J. -^ rQ CO CQ CQ CO CO CO rp "M ^J ^ ' O ' ^* 'C l" -I Ol (* "T rH 'O ^O *O

^
">'

-" CO
'

"",

CO CO CO G'

'

rO CO ^' C. rH ^t CO CO

O ^

3-.
"

'-O

O' CO (-- CO CO '-D 'O CO Oi

O in O
-f-

-f CO
^H
CJ'

"'
"t"
.

b- CO 00 CO

-o co co co -J

-"-

VOL.

I.

90

INTRODUCTION.
writing.

[CHAP.

ir.

This table, by presenting a comparative view of the ages of both ante and post-diluvian patriarchs, shews which of them were contemporary, and enables the reader to judge of the purity with \vhich the tradition of the early events of the history of the world, and of mankind, might be preserved in the family of the Hebrews, and transmitted to Moses, who is
first

And

it

forms

no weak

argument

against those, who, denying the divine inspiration of the writings of Moses, would reject his narrative altogether, that the history of the deluge, &c. could be transmitted or even to Isaac, with the intervention of only TWO persons, Lamech and Shem for, upon inspecting the table, it appears that
creation,
fall,

from

Adam to Abraham,
:

supposed

to

have committed them to

ADAM
was contemporary with 56 Lamech 243 Methuselah
Jared Mahalaleel Cainan
years.

NOAH
was contemporary with Lamech 595 600 Methuselah Jared 366 Mahalaleel 234 Cainan 179 Enos 84
.
,

SHEM
years.

Enos

470 535 605 695

was contemporary with Lamech 93 Methuselah 93 Noah 448

(After the flood.)

years.

Abraham
Isaac

150 50

After the call of Abraham, the preservation of the history of the world became an object of peculiar importance to him and his family, inasmuch as it included the history of the true religion, and we cannot doubt that the utmost pains were taken to keep it uncontaminated and if the inquiry be carried still more forward, we shall find the oral tradition of these early ages passing from Isaac to Moses through Levi and Amram. Thus the whole history of the book of Genesis, and the beginning of that of Exodus, including a space of more than 2500 years,
:

could be, and indeed really was, preserved, and transmitted to the historian through five persons, whose testimony was supported by many others, who had either themselves been eye-witnesses of the facts, or had heard of them from their immediate ancestors. The history of Moses, therefore, from this comparative view, leaving inspiration entirely out of the question, comes to us at least as well authenticated as any record of modern times,

about which no question has arisen.

SECT. IX.]

ssa

'S'c g

gSSfeS" ^

2 s

-3

'O -O

Sg O -i

INTRODUCTION.
as utility of this third table is obvious, enables the historian to compare, without trouble, the aera which is the subject of his study with most others adopted by writers in their computations; and by a trifling calculation they

[CHAP.

The

it

mediate period.

may be adapted to any given interThe only instances which re-

quire particular rules for the reduction of the years of one epocha into those of another, are those of the Olympiads and Mohammedan Hefra, as follows RULE I. To reduce Olympiads to years of the world. Multiply the number of the preceding Olympiads by 4, taking into the calculation the odd years, if any, of the current Olympiad,
:

of July, A. D. 622, when Mohammed was obliged by the citizens of Mecca to consult his personal safety by flight to Medina ; the word But as the MohamHej'ra signifying flight. medans calculate their year by lunar months, it is sometimes composed of 354 days, sometimes of 355 ; and, consequently, neither corresponds with the years of the Christians, nor with the revolutions of the celestial bodies. The common year of the Mohammedans is composed of twelve lunar months; the first of thirty days, the second of twenty-nine, and so on alternately to the twelfth. But as the end of
their year wants eight hours and forty-eight minutes to the next new moon, which makes

to 3227, (the number of comyears of the world when the Olympiads plete began in 3228) and the new product will be the year of the world required. Thus; The Peloponnesian war began in the second year of the 87th Olympiad; what teas the corresponding year

add the product

the exact number of eleven days at the end of thirty lunar years, the Arabian astronomers have adopted a cycle of thirty years, in which are found eleven superabundant or leap-years of 355 days, which constitute the 2d, 5th, 7th, l()th,
13th, 16th, 18th, 21st, 24th,

26th,

and 29th,

of the world? 86 x 4 = 344 + 2

the year required, as expressed in the preceding table. To reduce these years again to years before the Christian aera, subtract them from 4004, the reputed age of the world at the commencement of that aera, and the remainder will be the

= 346 + 3227 = 3573,

answer.

3573 = 431, as in the table. e.g. 4004 To reduce Olympiads to years of the Julian period, proceed as above directed, only add to the product of the Olympiads multiplied by 4, the number of complete years of the Julian period at the commencement of the Olympiads,
viz.

of the cycle, the last month of each of these years consisting of thirty days instead of twentynine ; the sum total of days contained in the cycle of thirty years, including the eleven leapNow the years, amounts therefore to 10,631. of a day in the Christian aera correspondence with the Hej'ra, or vice versa, may be found by the following method
:

Required, the correspondent day to the first of January, 1815.

of the Hefra

Deduct 622, the year of the Chriswhich the Hej'ra commences, from 1814, the number of years completed at
tian sera, with

RULE.

3937.

EXAMPLE.

The

battle

in the second year of the 187//4 Olympiad; was the corresponding year of the Julian

of Actiwn took place what

186 x 4

744 + 2

746 + 3937

= 4683,

period? as

in the table.

By subtracting

710, the

number of the Julian

the time stated in the problem multiply the remainder by 365, and the product gives the gross number of days since the beginning of the Hej'ra, which are to be reduced into Mohammedan cycles and years. But as the correction of the style, and the intervention of the bissextile years of the Gregorian calendar, prevent this general rule from solving the question in a di:

period at the creation, from this product 4683, we have in the remainder, 3973, the of

rect

manner,

it is

necessary to explain

it

more

year the world at the epocha in question or by deducting 4683 from 4714, the number of the Julian period in the first year of the Christian aera, we shall obtain 31, the number of years before that aera, in which the battle of Actium
:

in detail.

was

fought.

RULE
used by

years of the Christian (era.

reduce years of the Hefra lo The Hej'ra, or aera the Mohammedans, began on the 16th
11.

To

The remainder left by the subtraction of 022 from 1814 is 1192, and this multiplied by 365, produces 435,080 days. Again, divide 1192 by 4 for the leap-years, and we have 298 days, from which must be deducted 10 suppressed at the reformation of the calendar, and two for the leap-years omitted in the years 1700 and 1800; so that we have 286 left, which must be
added
to the gross

sum of

435,080, together

SECT. IX.]

COMPARATIVE CHRONOLOGY.

03

with the farther augmentation of 169 for the number of days between the 16th of July, when the Hej'ra commenced, and the 1st of January. Thus we shall obtain 435,080 + 286 + 109 = 435,535, for the number of days between the <era of the Hej'ra and the 1st of January, 1815. This is to be divided by 10,631, the number of days in the Mohammedan cycle. Therefore, 435,535 H- 10,631 = 40 cycles, with a remainder of 10,295 days and this overplus reduced to with a faryears of 354 days, gives 29 years, which would be the ther remainder of 29 days, answer to the proposition, but that in 29 years there are 11 Mohammedan leap-years of 355 days each: these 11 days must therefore be deducted from the last remainder of 29 days, and the answer will stand 40 cycles, 29 years, 18 days. Reduce the cycles into years, add them to the 29 years, (40 x 30 = 1200 + 29 - 1229) and it will appear that the first of January, 1815, corresponds to the 18th day of the first month of the year 1230 of the Hej'ra.
;

of the suppression of the 10 days in the reformed calendar, and of the bissextiles in 1700 and 1800, the 298 days occasioned by the intervention of so many leap-years in the Christian calendar, are reduced to 286, which must be deducted from 1193 years, 90 days, and the remainder will be 1192 years 169 days since the commencement of the Hej'ra, July 16, A. D. 622 ; and the two dates added together will 1192 + 622 = 1814, give the answer required with an overplus of 169 days; i. e. so many days after the 16"th of July, 1814, which is the firs* of January, 1815.
:

SECTION
THOUGH
last,

X.

OF TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
this is

by no means the
:

least

the inverse of this process, years of the Hej'ra may be reduced to years of the Christian aera, thus Required, the correspondent day of the Christian (era to the 18th of the first month of the

By

important division of the science for it teaches us to arrange the leading events of history in the order in which they occurred, and enables the spectator, at a single glance, to behold the multifarious transactions of all nations within a given period so that an entire course of
;

1230th year of the Hej'ra. RULE. Divide 1229, the number of complete years in the proposition, by 30, in order to reduce them to cycles; the remainder, if any, is years. Reduce both cycles and years into which is done, by multiplying the former days, by 10,631, the number of days in the Mohamcycle and the latter by 354, the days which compose their ordinary years add the odd days expressed in the question, with as many more as there are leap-years in the remainder, and the product will be the exact number of days since the commencement of the Hej'ra, and are to be reduced to years of the Christian aera in the ordinary method. EXAMPLE. 1229 -r- 30 = 40 cycles, with a remainder of 29 years. 40 x 10,631 = 425,240; and 29 x 354 + 18 (for the days in the question) + 425,240 + 11 (for the leap-years in the remainder of 29) = 435,535, the number of day s between the beginning of the Hej'ra and the 18th of the first month of the 1230th year of that sera.
;
:

history may be easily comprehended, at the same time that a proper distinction may be observed between its' several parts. Chronological tables

medan

Dividing this sum of 435,535 by .365, we obtain 1 193 ordinary years, 90 days: in this period of 1193 years, there must have been 298 bissextiles, each containing 366 days; but on account

are either general or particular: the former consist of an enumeration of the events of history, thrown promiscuously together, without any distinction of kingdoms, regard being had only to their order of time ; of " Short Chronicle" prefixed to this kind is the Sir Isaac Newton's Chronology. Particular chronological tables present the several parts of history in distinct columns, in which the order of dates is likewise preserved ; as in the tables of Marshall, Tallants, Helvicus, Blair, &c. In the first of these modes we see, at almost one view, the principal things which history records; and from the dates annexed to each article, are enabled to form an idea of the interval of time between them but by the second method, we obtain a distinct idea of the course of any single history, and at the same time a clear comparative view of the contemporary state of any other history which was In the tables annexed to this parallel with it. both these methods are adopted. section, Chronological tables should be furnished with a variety of dates, in distinct columns, to
:

94

INTRODUCTION.

[CHAP.

ii.

every t-MMit, to s;i\c the reader the trouble of reducing tin- dilii-rcut methods of computation to each other; but this, however, must be kept within due bounds, or they will occupy too much room, to the exclusion of more valuable matter: the years of the Julian period, with those before or alter Christ, to run through the whole series of the work ; the years of the world, for ancient history ; the olympiads, for

Grecian affairs; and theyearsof the city of Rome,

for the history of the Romans; are quite sufficient: though some writers take also the years since the deluge, the aera of Nabonassar, that of

the Seleucida:, &c. but as these are included in the foregoing section of Comparative Chronology, and are in fact but seldom met with, they have been omitted in the following tables, as likely to be rather cumbersome than useful.

A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF REMARKABLE EVENTS,

FROM THE CREATION OF THE WORLD TO THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1818.
(Events of uncertain date are marked with an asterisk
*.)

EPOCHA
J uliao
Period.

I.

FROM THE CREATION TO THE DELUGE; 1656 YEARS.

A.

M.

B. C.

710.

1..4004

to Usher's computation of the Hebrew text, on Sunday the 23d See Gen. i. of October. First day: the heavens and the earth created; origin of light; distinction between day and night. Second day: the firmament created, and the superior and inferior waters divided. Third day the earth drained ; seas, lakes, rivers, <Vc. formed ; trees, plants, and vegetables produced. Fourth day the sun, moon, stars, and planetary system created and arranged.

The work of creation begun, according

Fifth

day

fowls and fishes produced.

The garden of Eden planted, and Sixth day: quadrupeds, reptiles, insects, and lastly man, created. Adam and his wife placed therein. Seventh day the first sabbath or day of rest, on Saturday, October 29. "The first woman sins ; leads her husband into the transgression, and both are expelled the garden of Eden. The woman receives the name of Eve, as being the mother of all mankind.
:

Expiatory

sacrifices first instituted,

711. 839. 840. 945.

2. .4002 129.. 3875 130. .3874 235.. 3769

1035.

"Cain and Abel born about this time. * Abel murdered by Cain. Seth born, the second of the patriarchs before the flood Adam being the first. " men Enos, son of Seth, born, the third patriarch, in whose days it is said, Gen. iv. -26. began to call the name of the Lord;" or, as some translate, ." men began to call thfinsclrcs bij the name upon of the Lord ;" hence originated the distinction between the descendants of Seth, who are called the sons of God, and those of Cain, who are denominated sons of men. It is also supposed that idolatry was introduced by the latter about this time. Cainan, the fourth patriarch, born, in the 90th year of Enos. Mahalaleel, the fifth patriarch, born, in the 70th year of Cainan. Jared, the sixth patriarch, born, in the C5th year of Mahalaleel. Enoch, the seventh patriarch, born, iu the li-2d year of Jared. Methuselah, the eighth patriarch, born, in the Goth year of Enoch. Lamech, the ninth patriarch, born, in the 187th year of Methuselah. Death of Adam, at the age of 930 years. Enoch, for his piety, translated to heaven, in his 365th year.
;

Seth dies, at the age of 912 years. Noah, the tenth patriarch before the F.nos dies, aged 905 years.

flood, born, in the

182d year of Lamech.

Cainan

dies,

aged !)10 years.

2206.
2-2<i!!.

1 ii

")<;..
.

-2448 '2440

1558.

2270. 1560. .2444

Mahalaleel dies, aged 895 years. Jared dies, aged 962 years. God reveals to Noah his purpose of destroying the inhabitants of the earth by a general deluge; commissions him to preach repentance, and commands him to prepare an ark, or vessel, for the preservation of himself and family from the impending judgment. Gen. vi. 5, et seq. Japheth, eldest son of Noah, born. Shem, second son of Noah, born. He is considered as the first of the patriarchs after the flood. Ham, the youngest son of Noah, bom about this time.

SECT. X.J
Julian
period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
B. C.

95

A.

M.

2361.. 1C 31 .2353 2366.. 1656 .2348

Methuselah

Noah, dies, aged 777. aged 1)69 years, being the oldest of all men. The preaching of Noali having produced no general reformation, the Almighty orders him to enter the ark with his own family only, and the animals who were instinctively directed to it. This takes place on the 17th day of the second month, (which, according to archbishop Usher's calculation,

Lamech,

father of
dies,

was Sunday, November 30,) and on that day se'nnight the rain begins and continues as described Gen. vii. 11, ct seq. The whole period of the deluge was 150 days.

forty days,

EPOCHA

II.

FROM THE DELUGE TO THE VOCATION OF ABRAHAM; 427 YEARS.

2307.. 1657.. 2347
2368.. 1658. 2373.. 1663. 2403.. 1693. 2433.. 1723.

The

2346 .2341 .2311 .2281

.

On Wednesday, May 6, the ark rests on the mountains of Ararat Friday, December 18. Arphaxad, the first patriarch after the flood, born.
deluge.
quit
it till

but

Noah doe&

not

Malediction of Canaan, youngest son of Ham. Salah, the second postdiluvian patriarch, born.

2467.. 1757.. 2247

2469.. 1759, .2245 2480.. 1770. .2234

2481.. 1771.. 2233

Eber born, whose name signifies passage ; whence it is conjectured that about this time the first migration from the neighbourhood of Ararat took place. It probably consisted of the younger branches of the family of Ham, who, travelling towards the west and south, settled in Phoenicia and Egypt. Peleg born, in who.se days the earth was divided, as his name implies. *The tower of Babel built by Noah's posterity, as a rallying point, in the plain of Shinar, whereupon God miraculously confounds their language, and causes them to disperse. Usher. *Asshur begins the kingdom of Assyria, according to the general notion of chronologers. The celestial observations of the Chaldu-ans are begun at Babylon, according to a register sent by Callisthcnes to Aristotle, B. C. 331, containing the asterial phenomena of 1903 years. *Nimrod, surnamed Belus, begins the kingdom of Babel, or Babylon, about this time, and expels Asshur from the south of the land of Shinar, who retires to the east bank of the Tigris, and builds Nineveh and other cities. About the same time, according to Mr. Bryant, the Cuthites, or progeny ofCush, the father of Nimrod, project the tower of Babel.

2497.. 1787, 2217 2516.. 1806. .2198 2526.. 1816. .2188 2529.. 1819, 2185 2558.. 1848. .2156
. .

Reu bora the fourth of the postdiluvian patriarchs. *The first dynasty of Chinese emperors, called Hya, begins, and lasts 441 years, under 17 emperors. The kingdom of Egypt begins, under Mizor, or Metzor, the son of Ham, chief of the tribe called Mizraim.
;

Serug, the

fifth

postdiluvian patriarch, born.

lip

*Babel overthrown, according to Mr. Bryant, and the

of the builders confounded.

The Chaldaean

priests collect their sacred utensils, and, returning north-westward, build a city called Shinar, (the Singara of Ptolemy) in Mesopotamia.

2559.. 1849.. 2155

2588. .1878. 2126 2600. .1890. 2114

Nahor, the sixth of the patriarchs, born. The Assyrians begin to return to the south of Shinar, or Babylonia. *Serug settles at Ur of the Chaldees. Birth of Terah, the seventh patriarch from Shem. Asshur, having subjugated the Cuthites, assumes the regal title of Belus, and reigns 55 years, which
begins the kingdom of Assyria.
is by some supposed about this time to have founded the Chinese monarchy. He is known to the natives under the name of Fo-hi. *JHgialus settles in the Peloponnesus, and begins a kingdom, at first called JEgialeia, afterwards Apia, and finally Sicyon, being the oldest of the Grecian states. *Ninus, son and successor of Asshur, begins to reign at Nineveh. Ninus, after a long siege, takes the city of Shinar from the Chasdim, or Chalda-ans, and appoints a

2610. .1900. .2104

2625. .1915. .2089

*Noah

2655. .1945. .2059 2665. .1955. 2049

.

2656.. 1946.. 2058

2658.. 1948. ,2056 2697.. 1987. ,2017

2696.. 1996. .2008 2707.. 1997. ,2007
2712.. 2002.. 2002

Soon afterwards, he marries Semiramis, of Cuthcean extraction, by which means viceroy there. the Sabian idolatry is introduced among the posterity of Shem. *Acmon and Dceas, sons of Manaeus, or Thorgama (the H ypsistos of Sanchoniatho, and the Ashkenaz of Moses,) set out on their celebrated expedition from Phrygia, into Cappadocia, Armenia, and the parts of Scythia on the north and east of the Caspian sea ; on their return, they assume the title of " sons of the " the sun." Titans, or earth," or of Nahor and Haran, sons of Terah, born. The 16th dynasty (according to Eusebius) of five Theban kings begins in Egypt, and continues 190
years.

Their names are unknown.

23!).

Peleg dies, aged

Nahor

aged 148. Semiramis succeeds her husband Niuus in Assyria, and soon afterwards lay* the foundation of Babylon. The Cuthites revolt, and are defeated and dispersed. numerous body of Cuthites, having been expelled the dominions of Semiramis, enter Egypt, under the title of Hyc-sos, or King-Shepherds, and subjugate the lower country during 259 years. This is the 17th dynasty of Mauetho.
dies,

Ofl
Julian
period.

INTRODUCTION.
A M.
B. C.
,1
,

[CHAP.

ii.

27 Hi. 2000. 21 115. 20015.

27-2
I
.

!)!)!!

Noah

<lirs,

aged 950 years; 350 years after the flood.

2011.
.201H.
.

HUM! UMCJ

Birth of
I'raniis,

Abram,

into Europe,
27-2)!.

the eihth of tin- patriarchs. the s;tioeas Crelus, son of Acmon, begins to reign in Asia Minor, and soon afterwards passe* and begins the empire of the Celtes, or descendants of Gomer, the eldest son of Japheth.

19HO 37:Ui. ,2o2(i. 1!7 3737. 2027. .1977 2749. .2039.

.

3759. ,204!). 2776. ,2006.

1955 1938

2787.. 2077..

1 !-27

2788.. 2078.. 1920

and Nineveh, and reigns 38 years. TM Ninyas, "or Zameis, succeeds his mother Semiramis at Babylon secure his western provinces, he appoints a viceroy at Shinar. Serug dies, at the age of 230. The Cuthites in Asia, taking advantage of the indolence of Ninyas, form a general insurrection which of the line of Shem, with Chedorlaoruer, king of Elain, or gives rise to a coalition of princes This is the beginning of the first Titanic war, which lasts about 11 years. Persia, at their head. The first Titanic Arius, or Arioch, succeeds Ninyas in the kingdom of Assyria, and reigns 30 years. war concludes with the total subjugation of the Cuthites: Chedorlaomer, king of Elam (Persia) conquers the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma, Xeboiim, and Bela, or Zoar, and keeps them in subjection 12 \ears. Tidal, king of nations, (or of Syria,) reigns about this time. *Uranus deposed, and the Celtic empire usurped by his youngest son llus, or Saturn, the first prince Cres reigns in Crete about the same time. that ever wore a crown. Abram removes from Ur of the Chaldees, to Ilaran, in Mesopotamia, taking with him his nephew At this time the idolatrous worship introduced by Lot, his wife Sarai, and his father Terah. Semiramis had obtained a great ascendant in Assyria. *Zoroaster the Raclrian, chief of the Guebres, or fire-worshippers, and Hermes the Egyptian, are re;

Birth of Sarai, wife of lieu dies, aged 23!. "The city of Damascus

Abram.
is

said to

have been built about

this time.

2793.. 2083.. 1921

puted to have lived about this period. Abram, in obedience to the divine command, renroves Terah, the father of Abram, dies, aged 205. The 130 years of sojourning, spoken of Exod. xii. 40, 41, into Canaan, being 75 years of age. are generally reckoned from this epotha.

EPOCHA

III.

FROM THE VOCATION OF ABRAHAM, TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL; 430 YEARS.

2794. .2084. .1920 2790. .2086. .1918 2800. .2090. .1914
2801.. 2091. .1913

Abram Abram

2803. .2093. .1911 2804. .2094. .1910

2806. 2096. 1908 2810. .2100. .1904 2817. .2107. .1897
. .

goes into Egypt, on account of a famine in Canaan and causes Sarai to pass for his sister. having returned with his family to Canaan, Lot separates himself from him, and goes to Sodom; while Abram resides in the valley of Mamre, near Hebron. Revolt of the kings of Sodom, &c. from Chedorlaomer, which occasions a war the next year, when the king of Sodom is defeated, and Lot is taken away among the captives. Abram defeats the troops of Chedorlaomer, rescues Lot and the other captives, and is blessed by Melchisedec, priest and king of Salem ; on this occasion Abram is supposed to have begun the practice of giving tithes. God promises a numerous posterity to Abram. Ishmael born to Abram, of his concubine Hagar, About the same time Bela, the first king of the
;

Horites, begins to reign.

dies, 403 years after the birth of Salah. "Jupiter, son of Saturn, king of the Celtes, horn, according to Przro's calculation. God makes a covenant with Abram enjoins the rite of circumcision changes his name to Abraham, and his wife's to Sarah and gives them the promise of a legitimate son. The cities of Sodom, Go-

Arphaxad

2818.. 2108.. 1896

2820. .2110. .1894 2828. .2118. .1886 28:ifi. 2120. 1878 2843. .2133. 1871
. .
.

morrah, Ac. destroyed ; but Lot is delivered, and dwells in a cave of the mountains, with his two daughters. About the Isaac, the child of promise, born to Abraham of Sarah; Abraham being 100 years old. same time, the daughters of Lot, by an incestuous commerce with their lather, give birth to Moab and Ben-ammi, heads of the Moabites and Ammonites. Ishmael and his mother Hagar dismissed from Abraham's house.

Treaty between Abraham and Abimelech, king of Gerar, relative to the well of Beer-sheba.
Salah dies, 403 years alter the birth of Eber. Isaac, being 25 years of age, his father is commanded to offer him up in sacrifice to God; but the Almighty substitutes a ram in his stead, on finding the faith of Abraham unshaken. 'Second revolt of the Titans, by whom Saturn is deposed but by the timely arrival of Jupiter with forces from Crete, the rebellion is checked and Saturn restored. Sarah dies, aged 127 years. Isaac marries Hebekah. * Abraham marries Kcturah about this time. Shem, son of Noah, dies, at the age of 000 years.
;

2851.. 2141.. 1863

2B55..2145. 1859 2H5H..21-18. 1850 2864.. -21.".4. 1850 2868.. 2158. 1846

SECT. X.]
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
B. C.

97

A. M.

2872.. 2162.. 1842

2878.. 2168.. 1836 2891.. 2 181.. 1823

2892.. 2182.. 1822

2893.. 2183.. 1821 297.. 2187.. 1817 2918.. 2208.. 1796 2932.. 2222.. 1782 2034.. 2224.. 1780 2935.. 2225.. 1779 2941.. 2231.. 1773 2942.. 2232.. 1772 2050.. 2240.. 1764
29.V2.. 2242..

1762

2957.. 2247.. 1757

2971.. 2261.. 1743 2975.. 2265.. 1739

2983.. 2273.. 1731

2986.. 2276.. 2995.. 2285.. 2998.. 2288.. 2999.. 2289..

and reigns in Thessaly 60 years. A third revolt, better of the Giants' war, quickly ensues Jupiter and his friends are obliged to seek refuge in Egypt, and other distant countries, till the valour of Hercules enables them to return, and the Titans are totally overthrown. Esau and Jacob born ; their father Isaac being 60 years of age. The kingdom of Argos begun by Inachus, son of Oceanus, and cousin to Jupiter, whose lieutenant he appears to have been. Lenglet Dufresnoy. *Memnon, the Egyptian, is by some supposed to have invented letters. According to the supputation of our tables, he is the same with Amenophis II. who began to reign B. C. 1718, aud is tlie Pharaoh who promoted Joseph. Abraham dies, aged 175 years. Eber dies, 430 years after the birth of Peleg. "Ogyges reigns over Bceotia, Attica, &c. 1020 years before the first Olympiad. *Esau marries two Canaanitish women about this time. Pezron. *Jupiter dies, aged 122, and the empire of the Celtes is dissolved. Amenophis I. king of Thebes and Memphis, in Egypt, having united most of the minor states of that country, and broken the power of the Hic-sos, assumes the title of Pharaoh, or universal monarch. Jacob by subtlety obtains his father's blessing, which had been promised to Esau goes to Haran, and engages to serve his uncle Labau seven years for Rachel. Ishmael dies, aged 137 years. Jacob marries Leah and Rachel. 'Deluge of Ogyges in Boeotia and Attica, in consequence of which the latter lies waste for upwards of 200 years, till the arrival of Cecrops. The city of Zancle (now Messina) in Sicily, built by pirates. Evocheiis begins to reign over the ChalJulius African-its. He is supdaeans, 224 years before the Arabs got possession of that country. Mr. Bryant thinks posed by Usher to be the same with Belus, afterwards worshipped at Babylon. his name indicates him to be the same with Bacchus. The second dynasty of Chinese emperors, called Chang, and afterwards Yng, begins, and continues 656 years, under 30 emperors. The Hyc-sos, or Shepherd-Kings, expelled Egypt by Am-osis, or Tuth-mosis. Jacob and his family, unknown to Laban, set out on their return to Canaan ; Laban pursues them, but being warned of God, makes a friendly treaty with Jacob, on overtaking him, and returns. Jacob, pursuing his journey, wrestles with an angel, who changes his name to Israel meets Esau, and is reconciled to him and finally settles among the Shechemites in Canaan. Job is supposed to have lived about this time. Rape of Dinah, Jacob's daughter, which causes the destruction of Shechem and his people, by Simeon
"Jupiter, at the age of 62, deposes his father,

known by

the

title

1728
17 19 1716
17 15

3006.. 2296.. 1708 3007.. 2297.. 1707 9012.. 2:502.. 1702

and Levi. Joseph sold by his brethren, into Egypt, at the age of 17 years. Joseph cast into prison by Potiphar, on a false accusation of his mistress. Isaac dies, at the age of 180. Joseph interprets the king's two prophetic dreams, and is promoted to the first place in Pharaoh's house and kingdom. The seven years of plenty begin the following year. The seven years of famine begin. Joseph's brethren go into Egypt, to purchase corn, the first time; on their return, the next year, he discovers himself to them, and invites his father to settle in Egypt, which he complies with. The Egyptians, having expended all their money in the purchase of corn from the king's stores, Joseph persuades them to barter their lands, and afterwards lets them out, at a perpetual rent-tax of a fifth
part of their produce.

3013.. 2303.. 1701 3025.. 231 5.. 1689

3079.. 2369.. 1635

3099.. 2389.. 1<! 15 3 107.. 2397.. 1007

31 32.. 2422..

1582

3140.. 2430.. 1574 3 140.. 2430.. 1573

seven years of famine end. Jacob, on his death-bed, predicts the advent of the Messiah in the tribe of Judah, and expires at the age of 147. Joseph foretels the egress of the Israelites from Egypt, desires to have his bones taken along with them, and dies at the age of 110, having been governor or prefect of Egypt during 80 years. The history of the book of Genesis ends here, containing a period of 2369 years. The Ethiopians, from the banks of the Indus, settle in the vicinity of Egypt. The nineteenth dynasty begins in Egypt, under Sethos-^Egyptus, or Ammesis, or Sesostris, from whom the country received the name of Egypt. This dynasty persecuted the Israelites, and appears to have been of the race of Ethiopians mentioned in the last event. The Chronology of the Arundelian Marbles begins with the arrival of Cecrops in Attica, 25 years before the usual computation. Aaron born. Pliaraoh (supposed to be Rhampses, or Rainesses-Miamum) issues a decree for drowning the Hebrew

The

male children.

VOL.

I.

INTRODUCTION.
Julian Period.

[CHAP.

ir.

A. M.

B. C.

3143. ,2433.. 1571 3158. ,2448.. 1556 3166. ,2456. .1548 3168. 2458.. 1546 3183. ,2473.. 1531

3194. 2484.. 1520 3108. 2488.. 1516 3207. ,2497.. 1507

3211 2501.. 1503 3215. 2505.. 1499 3217. 2507.. 1497

.

8221.. 2511.. 1493

3223.. 2513.. 1481

3224.

3229. 3234. 3261. 3262.

3263.

SKCT. X.]
-Till). HI

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
B. C.

A.

M.

IVriod.

3324. .2614. .1390 3331. .2621. .1383

3347. .2637. .1367

3358. .2648. .1356

3304. .2654. .1350 3371. .2661- .1343 3373. .2663. .1341 3388. .2678. .1326 3389. .2679. .1325 3401. .2691. .1313

3407. 3409. 3429. 3430.

.2697. .2699. .2719. .2720.

.1307 .1305 1285 1284

. .

3451.. 2741.. 1263

3459. 3462. 3469. 3471.

3508351335163526. 3526.

100
A.
Period.

INTRODUCTION.
M.
B. C.

[CHAP. n.

3573.. 2863. .1141 3578..-2;iH. .1136 3580.. 2876. .1128 3590. .2880. .1124
3.-.:i7..

2887.. 1117

3.199.

3670.. 2960. 3G80..2970. 3691.. 2981. 3702.. 2992.

SECT. X.]
Julian

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
B. C.

101

A.

M.

Period.

8836.. 3126.

878
872 869

8842.. 3132. 3845.. 3135.

3846.. 3136. 3854.. 3142. 3875.. 31 65. 3888.. 31 78. 3894.. 3 184.
3900.. 3 190.

868 862 839 826 820

Hazael, the Syrian general, having put Bcn-hadad to death, reigns in his stead, according to the prophecy of Klisha, 2 Kings, viii. 12, 13. The art of sculpture in marble, supposed to be discovered. The city of Carthage built by queen Dido, a Tyrian princess, who, to avoid the avarice of Pygmalion, had, with a few faithful followers, left her native land, and after wandering for some time in search of a Some writers think that she only enlarged a town already settlement, fixed upon the coast of Africa. About the same period, Phidon, tyrant of Argos, invents scales and measures, or rather introbuilt. duces them into Greece : he also first stamped silver money. The Cypriots are the sixth maritime power in the Mediterranean.

Jonah prophesies against Nineveh, about

this time.

The army of Hazael, the Syrian, desolates great part of Judah. The Phoenicians are the seventh maritime power in the Mediterranean.
Belesis, rebelling against Sardanapalus, besiege and take Nineveh. Sardanapalus burns himself to death, and a general anarchy ensues, which issues in the subdivision of the kingdom. Caranus begins the kingdom of Macedon, which, reckoning to the battle of Pydna, continues 646 years. The city of Capua, in Campania, built. Ardyssus reigns in Meeonia, or Lydia, and is generally esteemed the founder of the kingdom, though it is known to have existed in some way so early as the year 1223 B. C. Herodotus. Amos the prophet flourished about this time, as did also Hosea. The Corinthians invent the ships called Triremes. Phul, or Pul, begins the new kingdom of Assyria.

Arbaces and

814
801 797

39 13.. 3203.
3917.. 3207.
3924. .321439211.. 3218. 3937.. 3227. 3938.. 3228.

700 7iW 777 776

Corcebus conquers in the 28th Olympiad from their revival by Iphitus, though this is commonly called to Scaliger, celebrated on the 23d of July. \\iejirst Olympiad, and was, according

EPOCHA
;

VI.

FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE OLYMPIADS BY CORCEBUS, TO THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS BY CYRUS 240 YEARS
Julian

Period.

A. -M.

Olvmp. U. C.
. .

B. C.

3938. .3228.. 1-1. 3943. .3233.. 2-2.

776

.771

3944. .3234-. 3. 3948. .3238.. 3-3.

3,

.770 766

revived by Coroebus. Uzziah, king of Judah, struck with leprosy, for presuming to offer incense. *Rormilus and Remus born. Phul, king of Assyria, invades Israel, and receives 1000 talents to depart in peace. Belesis, or Nanibre, prefect of Babylon, makes himself independent.

The Olympic games

Phul subjugates Media.

. .

3954. .3244.. 5-1. 3957. .3247.. 4.

760

Theopompus

.757

3960. 3250.. 6-3.,

.754

establishes the ephori at Lacedremon. Isaiah begins to prophesy at Jerusalem, and continues his exhortations for upwards of 60 Nahum began his ministry the preceding year, and Micah three years after. years. Corinth becomes a republic under annual prytanes, Automenes being the first. Some writers place this event' 22 years earlier. at Athens reduced to 10 years' duration. The

archonship

The
3961. 3251..
4.,

1..753
2. 4.
.

jEraof the

Milesians are the ninth maritime power in the Mediterranean. to Varro, on the 12th of the calends of city of Rome, according

May,

or

3962. .32.52.. 7-1., 3964. .3254.. :l. 3967. 3257.. 8-2-

752 750

7. .747

April 20. Daicles is the first victor crowned at the Olympic games. Rape of the Sabines, by the followers of Romulus. After a war of three years, the Romans and Sabines agree to unite, and Tatius, king of the over both people. latter, reigns jointly with Romulus

3971. .3261.. 9-2.. 11. .743

3980, 3982. 3083, 3988.

The The

.3270.. 11-3. .3272.. 12-1. .3273.. 2. .3278.. 13-3.

20. .734 22. 732 23.. 731

.

28.. 726

3990. 3991 3992. 3993.

.

,3280.. 14-1. 3281.. 2.

,:J282..

3.

,3283..

4.

30. . 724 31 . 723 32. .722 33. .721

.

Messenian war begins, and continues 19 years. The Lacedaemonians bind theman oath not to return home till their enemies are conquered. The Carians have the command of the Mediterranean. a colony from Corinth, led thither by Archias. Syracuse, in Sicily, founded by the prophet, flourished about this time. Habakkuk, The Lacedicmonians, defeated by Aristodemus, the Messenian general, and despairing of word to their wives and daughters to recruit the being ever freed from their oath, send amours. population by promiscuous The first Messenian war ended, by the capture of Ithomi. coast of Italy, Alcidamidas, and a colony of Messenians, settle at Regium, on the south-west The Chinese empire divided into principalities, or viceroyalties. Samaria taken after a three years' siege, and the kingdom of Israel finished by Shalmaneser,
first

Mm of Nabonassar begins.

selves with

king of Assyria,

who

carries the ten tribes into captivity.

10-2
.lull,

INTRODUCTION.
A. M. Olvrap.

[CHAP.

ir.

Period.

U.C.

B. C.

.15-4.. 37.. 717 .16-4.. 41.. 713 4004. ,::>! M. .17-3.. 44. .710

3007.
1001

4005. 4008. 4011.

4011. 4014.
4018.

4024.

SECT. X.]
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
Oljmp. U. C.
.

103

A.

M.

B. C.

4109.. 3399.

4. ,149, .605

4110.. 3400. .44-1. .150 .604

4112.. 3402. 3. 152, .602 4117.. 3407. .45-4. ,157 .597

.

4118.. 3408. 46-1., 158. .590

Nebuchadnezzar, or Nabocolassar, son of the king of Babylon, invades Judah, and makes Jehoiakim tributary, from which most chronologcrs reckon the beginning of the captivity. Some Phoenicians, by order of Pharaoh-Necho, sail from the Red-sea, round the coast of Africa, and return through the Straits up the Mediterranean being the first voyage of discovery on record. Daniel interprets the first dream of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Jehoiachin, king of Judah, sent in irons to Babylon, by Nebuchadnezzar, who pillages the temple of all its riches, and sets up Zedekiah to be king. Cyaxares expels the Scythians from Upper Asia. Epimenides of Crete, the first builder of
;

4120.. 3410.

3. 160. .594

temples in firepre, flourishes. Solon publishes his laws at Athens. Thales of Miletus, after travelling into Egypt, returns to Greece, and calculates eclipses, gives general notions of the universe, and maintains the unity of the Godhead, as he had received it from the Egyptian priests. Anaximander, his scholar, invents maps, globes, and, as some writers assert, the signs of the zodiac though it is more than probable that they had been long before known both to the Egyptians and Chaldaeans.
;

4123.. 3413. ,47-2. .163, .591 4124.. 3414. 3. .164. .590

,

4127.. 3417. 48-2. .167. .587 3. .168. .586 4128.. 3418. 4. .585 4129.. 3419.
,

41 32.. 3422, .49-3. 172, .582 4134.. 3424, 50-1 ,174 .580 2. ,175, .579 4 135.. 2425, . 4 142.. 3432, .52-1. 182, .o72 2. 183. .571 41 43.. 3433, . 3. 184. .570 4144.. 3434.
. .

Halyattes II. king of Lydia, begins, and continues six years. The city of Jerusalem, after a siege of 18 months, taken by Nebuchadnezzar, on the 19th June. The temple of Jerusalem burned to the ground, on the 7th day of the 5th month. A battle upon the river Halys, between Cyaxares and Halyattes, interrupted by a total eclipse of the sun, on the 28th of May, as predicted by Thales, which brings the war to a conclusion, both armies retiring under dismal forebodings. The Isthmian games restored. Corinth, delivered from its tyrants, becomes a free republic. Money first coined at Rome, by Tarquinius Priscus. The Mcgarensian war. The city of Tyre taken by Nebuchadnezzar, after a siege of 13 years. Apries, king of Egypt, dethroned by Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar sets up the golden image; Shadracb, Meshech, and Abed-nego, cast into Daniel interprets the king'* the furnace, for refusing to worship it, come out unhurt.

The Pythian games first celebrated at Delphi. The war between Cyaxares, king of Media, and

second dream.

4145.. 3435.
.

4.. 185.. 569

. .180, .568 2. .187. .567 3. ,188. .566

4U0..3436. 53-1
4147.. 3437. 4148.. 3438.
,

Nebuchadnezzar becomes insane, and resides in the desert seven years, according to the Egypt recovers its independence. prediction of Daniel. The Nemaean games restored. Phalaris tyrant of Agrigentum. The Etrurians conquered by the Romans. The first census at Rome, 188 years from its foundation, when there appeared to be 84,700
citizens.

41-VJ..3442. .54-3. ,192. .562

4154.. 3444. ,55-1. 194. .560

Nebuchadnezzar restored, but survives only a few months. The first comedy at Athens, performed on a moveable scaffold by Susarion and Dolon. The kingdom of Persia begins under Cyrus, grandson of Astyages, (or Ahasuerus, as some suppose) king of the Medes.

4 04.. 3454.
1

57-3. ,204. .550

4. ,20.3.
. .

4 165.. 3455.

.549 4 KM.. 3456. 58-1 ,200. 548 4 175.. 3405. ,60-2. ,215. .539
4170.. 346G.
3.. 216.. 538

Medes and Persians. The temple of Apollo, at Delphi, burned by the Pisistratidae, or sons of Pisistratus. The kingdom of Lydia ends, on the defeat of Crcesus by Cyrus. The Phocseans, forsaking their native country, settle in Gaul, where they build the
Marseilles.

Pisistratus first usurps the government of Athens. of the Cyrus, deposing his grandfather, becomes sovereign

city

of

4178

3408. 61-1
.

. .

218

. .

536

which Belshazzar, (or Nabouadius) was surprised Babylon taken by Cyrus, the same night, in in the midst of his revelry by the hand- writing against the wall of his palace. and Darius the Mede (supposed to be the deposed Astyages) is made viceroy of Babylon, holds that office about two years. for the restoration of the Jews to their own counCyrus, master of all Asia, issues a decree of the walls and temple of Jerusalem. try, and for the rebuilding

EPOCHA
105
417!!
.

VII.

FROM THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS BY CYRUS, TO THE BEGINNING OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR:
years.

3408

61-1

218

536

4179.. 3469..

2.. 219.. 535

the number .Era of the Persian monarchy. 42,360 Jews, besides proselytes and servants, to the priest. of 7337, return to Jiuleii, under Zerubbabel and Joshua, at Athens, on * waggon. Thespis, the inventor of tragedy, performs his first piece

Arundelian marbles place

it

ihis a yt

;ir

sooner.

104
A.M. Olymp. U.C. B.C.
4180.. 3470..
3.. 220.. 534

INTRODUCTION.
The

[CHAP.

ii.

4184. .3474. .62-3. .224. .530

4187 .. 3477 . . 63-2

227

627

foundation of the second temple laid at Jerusalem, on the 29th of April. Tarquiniu* Superbus, the last king of Rome, begins to reign the same year. Cyrus marches against the Scythians, and next year loses his life in a battle against Thomyris, queen of the Massagetae. About the same time, the Samaritans begin to interrupt the Jews in the building of the temple. The Jews admonished and encouraged to proceed with the temple, by the prophets Haggai

and Zechariah.
3. .228. .526 4188. .3478.. 4.. 229.. 525 4189.. 3479.. 4193. .3483. .64-4. .233. .521 public library first founded at Athens, and learning encouraged. Cambyses, the Persian, son and successor of Cyrus, conquers Egypt. Darius Hystaspis, (rhe Ahasuerus of F.sther) elected to the throne of Persia, on the death of the impostor Smerdis. Darius issues a second decree for rebuilding Jerusalem and its temple.

4196 .. 346 .. 65- .. 3236 .. 518

4199. .3489. .66-2. .239. .515

The temple
of April.

at

Jerusalem finished, on the 10th of March: the passover celebrated on the 18th
years.

4202 3492 . . 67-1 . 242 . 512 3.. 244.. 510 420 t.. 3494..
.
.

Babylon revolts from Darius, for two

The tyranny

420534.. 95..

4.. 245.. 509

of the Pisistratidae abolished at Athens, by the assistance of the Lacedaemonians, and a democracy established. Tarquin and his family expelled Rome, on occasion of the rape of Lucretia ; and the consular government begins, on the 26th of February, (the Regifugium of the Roman calendar;) Junius Brutus and Tarquinius Collatiuus, the husband of Lucretia, being the first
consuls.
first alliance between the Romans and Carthaginians. Sybaris destroyed by those of Crotona routing their army of 300,000 with one of less than 100,000. The second census taken at Rome, and there appears to be 130,000 citizens. Megabysus, the Persian lieutenant in Europe, conquers Thrace and Macedonia. Porsenna, king of Etruria, makes war against the Romans, as do the Sabines, in favour of

4206 .. 3496 .. 68-1 .. 246 .. 508

4207.. 3497.. 4208.. 3498..
2.. 247.. 507 3.. 248.. 506

The

69-1 . . 250 504 2.. 251.. 503 4211.. 3501..

4210 .. 3500

. .

the restoration of Tarquin. Sardis taken and burned by the Athenians, which occasions the Persian invasion of Greece. The lesser triumph, called Ovation, begun at Rome, by Posthumius entering the city with

a myrtle crown.

4216 .. 3506 4217 .. 3507

. .

70-3

. .

. .

256 257

. .

498 497

The lonians, after a revolt, subdued by the Persians, and the city of Miletus destroyed. The Roman people refusing to obey the senate and consuls, Lartius is appointed dictator, and invested with absolute authority for six months. The Saturnalia instituted. 150,700
citizens.

4219. .3509. .71-2. .259. .495

Tarquinius Superbus dies at Cuma, whither he had retired on the close of the Latine war, at the age of 90, fourteen years after his expulsion from Rome, prior to which he

had reigned 25 years.

4221.. 3511..
..261.. 493

The populace of Rome, being discontented with the aristocracy, or patricians, retire to mount Sacer, and threaten to build a new city but by the persuasion of Menenius " the Belly and Limbs," they return, and are farther Agrippa, who invents the fable of
;

4223.. 3513.. 72-2.. 203. . 491 4224.. 3514.. 3..'2<M. .490 4226.. 3516.. 73-1.. 266. 488
.

4227.. 3517.. 4228.. 3518..

2.. 267. . 487 3.. 268. . 486

4229.. 3519..

4.. 269. . 485

.

4230.. 3520.. 74-1.. 270. 484

appeased by the appointment of popular tribunes. Gelo usurps the government of Syracuse. Coriolanus banished from Rome. The Persians defeated at Marathon, by Miltiades the Athenian. Coriolanus advances with an army of Volscians against Rome, but withdraws at the entreaty of his mother. Egypt revolts from the Persians, four years. Darius makes Artabasus king of Pontus. The first Agrarian law proposed at Rome, by Spurius Cassius. jEschylus, at the age of 39, gains the first prize of tragedy, at Athens. Spurius Cassius thrown from the Tarpeian rock, after having been three times consul, for The Volsci and ;Equi subdued. aspiring to the sovereignty. Xerxes, king of Persia, recovers Egypt, and entrusts the government to his brother Achaemaenes. Aristides the Just banished from Athens.
appointed at Rome, for collecting the revenues, and managing the public eruption of mount .Etna. Xerxes begins his celebrated expedition -against Greece. The battle of Thermopylae finishes on the 7th of August, and the Persians are defeated in a The Archeanactidie take possession of the sea-fight, off Salamis, on the 20tli of October. Cimmerian Bosphorus, and reign there 42 years. The Persians, commanded by Mardonius, defeated at Platasa, by Pausanias, regent of Laceon the 22d of September. Leotychides, the colleague of Pausanias, having endasmon, couraged the lonians to shake off the Persian yoke, gains the battle of Mycale, on the
Quaestors
first

4231.. 3521..

2.. 271.

483

treasury.

An

4233.. 3523.. 4.. 273. 481 4234.. 3524.. 75-1.. 274. 480
.
.

4235.. 3525..

2.. 275.. 479

same day.
4237. .3527..
4. .277. .477

The 300 Romans,

of July.

of the

name of

Fabius, killed by the Vcientes, near Cremona, on the 17tk

SECT. X.]
Julian Period.
.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
U. C.
.

105

A.

M. Olymp.
. . .

B. C.

4238. 3528 76-1 . 278 . 476 4243. .3533. .77-2. .283. .471

4244. 3534.
.

3.

284. 470
.

4245. .3535.

4. .285. .469

4248. .3538. .78-3. .288. .466

4. . 289. 465 4249. 3539. 4251. ,3541.. 79-2.. 291.. 463

.

3. 292. 462 4252. 3542. . 4255.. .3545. .80-2. .295. .459 3. .296.. 458 4-256. ,3546..
,

4258. 3548. . 81-1 . 298. 456

. . .

4200.. 3550..

3. .300..

454

A great eruption of Mount jEtna. 1 03,000 citizens in Rome. Themistocles, the Athenian general, accused of conspiring against the liberties of Greece. retires to Xerxes, in Asia. Cymon, the Athenian, defeats the Persian fleet off Cyprus, and the army in Pamphylia, near An eruption of Mount jEtna. the river Eurymedon. The first solemn contest between the tragic poets: Sophocles, at the age of 28, is declared The city of Capua founded by the Tuscans. victor over jEschylus. The Sicilians recover their liberty those of Syracuse maintain it for 61 years, viz. till the An earthquake at Sparta destroys 20,000 persons ; usurpation of Dionysius, B. C. 405. the Helots and Messenians, taking advantage of the public consternation, revolt. The third Messenian war begins, and continues ten years. Egypt, under the influence of Inarus, assisted by the Athenians, revolts from the Persians A great pestilence at Rome; both consuls dying, P. Valerius Poplicola is seven years. created viceroy; and next year he appoints the consuls, without the usual mode of election. The Persians defeated by the Athenians, in a naval engagement, oflF Egypt. The Athenians begin to tyrannize over the rest of Greece. Ezra arrives at Jerusalem, with enlarged powers from the Persian monarch, accompanied by a great multitude of his countrymen, bringing with them vessels of gold and silver, and other rich presents from the king and his princes. From this year, being the seventh of Artaxerxes Longimanus, Daniel's seventy prophetical weeks, or 490 years, are Cincinnatus appointed dictator at Rome. reckoned, to the crucifixion of our Saviour. War between the Corinthians and Megareans. The Athenians, deserted by the Egyptians, retire out of Egypt, by capitulation with the The Secular games first celePersians, to whom that country becomes again subject. brated at Rome ; the tribunes begin to assert their right of convoking the senate. The Romans send deputies to Athens, for a copy of the laws of Solon. An eruption of
;

jEtna.

4203. .3553. .82-2. .303. .451 4-204. .3554. . 3.. 304.. 450

decemviri created at Rome, and the laws of the twelve tables compiled and ratified. naval war breaks out between the Athenians and Persians, during which the Persians are often defeated by Cymon. 4265.. 3555.. 4.. 305.. 449 The decemviri expelled Rome, and the consular government restored. The Persians make an ignoble peace with the Athenians. 4266.. 3556. .83-1.. 306- -448 The first Sacred war, about the temple of Delphi, begins; the Athenians and Lacedaemonians being auxiliaries on opposite sides. 2. .307. .447 The Athenians defeated, and their general Tolmidas slain, by the Baotians, at Chaeronea. 4267. .3557.. 3. . 308. . 446 The Athenians and Lacedxmonians enter into a thirty years' truce. 4268. . 3558. . Thucydides, the Athenian general, banished by Ostracism. 4.. 309. .445 Nehemiah sent by Artaxerxes to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Herodotus reads his his4269. .3559. . tory at the Olympic games, and receives marks of public honour, at the age of 39. The plebeians permitted to intermarry with patricians, by a law of the Roman senate. 4270.. 3560.. 84-1. .310.. 444 Military tribunes, with consular powers, created at Rome. The Athenians send a colony to Thurium, in Italy, of which number are Herodotus, Thucydides, and Lysias. 4271. .3561.. 2. .311. .443 Censors first appointed at Rome. 4-27-2. .3562. . 3. .312. .442 A general peace Euripides first gains the prize for tragedy at Athens, at the age of 43 :

The

(he died B. C. 407.)

4273.. 3563..

4.. 313.. 441

4274

. .

3564

85-1

314. . 440

3565 4-275 4276. .3560.

. .

2
.

. 31 5 . . 439 3.. 316.. 438

.

4-278. .3568. .86-1..

318.. 436
. .

Artcmones of Clasomenac invents the battering-ram, the testudo, and other military instruments. Pericles subdues Samos. A great famine, which began last year, at Rome, increases to such a degree that many perComedies prohibited at Athens for three years. sons throw themselves into the Tiber. War between Corinth and Corcyra. Spartacus gets possession of the Cimmerian Bosphorus. The Fidenatae revolt from the Romans. Malachi, the last of the prophets, appears about this time.

4-279.. 3569.

2.. 319.. 435

. .

4281

4-28-2.

4. 321 357 1 . 433 3572. 87-1. 32-2. 432

. . .

4283.. 3573..

2. .323. .431

The Romans take the capital of the Fidenata;. The Corinthians defeated by the Corcyreans. The temple of Apollo consecrated at Rome, on account of the continuance of the plague. Melon begins his nineteen years' cycle of the moon, from the new moon of July 15, being eighteen days after the summer solstice. (o) The Peloponuesian war begins on the 7th of May, with an attempt of the Boeotians to The history of the Old Testament ends surprise Platsea, and continues 27 years.
about
this time.

(o) See page 40.

VOL.

I.

106

INTRODUCTION.
EPOCHA
VIII.

[CHAP. n.

FROM THE PELOPONNES1AN WAR TO THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT: 108 YEARS.
A.M. Oljmp. O.C. B.C.
4884. 3574. 87-3. 324
. . .
.

430

Athens

visited

by
4. .325. .429 4285. .3575.. 4287 .. 3577 .. 88-2 .. 327 427 4288.. 3578.. 3.. 328.. 426
. .

Sitalces, king

Pericles dies,

by a pestilence of five years' duration. The Spartan ambassadors arrested of Thrace, and afterwards put to death by the Athenians. having governed Athens 40 years, viz. 25 with others, and 15 by himself.

The Leontines obtain assistance of the Athenians against the Syracusans. The plague breaks out a second time at Athens, and, on account of the great
this privilege.

mortality, and the numbers slain in battle, a decree is made, permitting every citizen to have two wives. Socrates, the philosopher, is said to have been among the foremost to take of

advantage

4290. . 3580. . 89-1

330. .424

4291.. 3581..

2.. 381.. 423

4. .333. .421

4293. .3583..

Clouds," performed at Athens ; being a satire peace, and the Athenian forces return home. The engagement at Deliuin takes place about the beginning of November. The Athenians and Lacedaemonians make a truce, which lasts from the 3d of October to about the 12th of April following. A peace of fifty years concluded between the Athenians and Lacedaemonians, which is kept for six years and ten months ; though each party continued at war with the other's
Aristophanes'
first

comedy,

upon

Socrates.

called " The The Syracusans make

allies.

4294 .. 3584 .. 90-1 .. 334 .. 420

3.. 336.. 418 4296.. 3586.. 4298 358 .. 91-1 .. 338 .. 416
. .

The

Athenians, at the instigation of Alcibiades, renew their treaty with the Eleans, Ar-

gives,

and Mantinxans.
respecting the

The Lacedaemonians gain a signal victory over the Argives and Mantinaeans. The scene of the Pelopounesian war removed to Sicily. Tumults at Rome,

4298.. 3589-4300.. 3590..

2.. 339.. 415

3.. 340.. 414

4301.. 3591..

4.. 341.. 413

4302.. 3592.. 92-1.. 342.. 412 4304.. 3594..

3- -344.. 410

4305.. 3595..

4.. 345.. 409

Agrarian law. Alcibiades, accused of having thrown down the statues of Mercury at Athens, is recalled from the command of the Athenian fleet, and retires to Sparta. Egypt revolts from the Persians, under Amyrthaeus. The second part of the Peloponnesian war, called Decelean, begins ; the scene of which is in Sicily, whither the Lacedaemonians send a fleet towards the end of May. Nicias the Athenian general, loses his army in Sicily, through the terror excited by an eclipse of the moon, on the 27th of August. The Athenians deserted, on account of their misconduct in Sicily, by their allies of Chios, Samos, and Byzantium. Four hundred persons elected to the government of Athens. The Lacedaemonians, under Mindarus, assisted by Pharnabazus the Persian, defeated by the Athenians, at Cyzicum.- The Carthaginians are attacked in Sicily. The history of Thucydides ends, and that of Xeuophon begins, at this period. The Carthaginians destroy Selinuns and Himera, in Sicily ; but are repulsed by Hermocrates, the

Syracusan general.

4306. . 3596 .. 93-1 .. 346 .. 408

4307.. 3597.. 4309.. 3599..

.

2.. 347.. 407

4.. 349.. 405
. .

The Medes, after a revolt from the Persians, are obliged to submit. The Athenians become masters of the Hellespont. The Romans defeated by the Volsci. The Carthaginians make a new attack on Sicily. Alcibiades returns to Athens, and rejoins
the

army of

that republic.

The Athenian

4310. . 3600. 94-1

431 1.. 3601..

350. . 404

4:m..3603-.

2.. 351.. 403 4. .353. .401

consisting of 180 ships, under Conon, totally defeated, at ^gospotamos, by Lysander, the Lacedaemonian. Dionysius seizes the government of Syracuse. Athens taken by Lysander, on the 24th of April, which ends the Pelopounesian war. Athens subject to thirty tyrants. The Roman knights begin to serve in the cavalry. Cyrus, the younger, prince of Persia, killed in an expedition against his brother Artaxerxes, which gives occasion to the famous retreat of the 10,000 Greeks, under Xenophon, who had entered Asia to assist him. The thirty tyrants expelled from Athens, by Thrasyfleet,

bulus,

who

establishes a

democracy.

4314. 3604. . 95-1 354. 400 431.1. -3605 2-. 355-. 399 3.. 356-. 398 431 6-. 3606 4.. 357- -397 4317- -3607- .
.
.

Socrates put to death, by the Athenians. The festival, called Lectixternium, instituted at Rome, on account of the plague raging there. Military catapultae invented by Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse. The Romans, having consulted the Delphian oracle, draw off the waters of the lake Albanus, which had swelled, and frightened the Augures. Dionysius declares war against

4318- .3608- -96-1. .358- -396

4319.- 3609-

2. .359.. 395

Carthage, which continues five years. The Agesilaus, king of Lacedaemon, makes an expedition into Asia, against the Persians. city of Veii taken by Camillus, the Roman dictator, after a siege often years. A coalition between the Athenians, Thebans, Corinthians, and Argives, against the Lacedaemonians, which begins what is called the Corinthian War. Tumults at Rome about the Agrarian law ; the threaten to settle at Veii.

people

SECT. X.]
'"'I

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
Olymp.
t'.C,

107

8"

Period.

A.M.

B.C.

4320.- 3610

96-3- -360. -394

4--361--393 4321..3611-4324. 3614-. 97-3 364 390

4-. 365. -389 4325-. 3615.. 4326. -3616.. 98-1 366 388 2-. 367- -387 4327-. 3617-.

4328.

108
{,"''" Penod.

INTRODUCTION.
A.

[CHAP. n.

M.

Olymp.

U. C.

B.C.

4358 .. 3648 .. 1 06-1 .. 308 .. 356

Caius-Martius Rutilins, the

A body of wanderers, of first plebeian dictator at Rome. various tribes, chiefly shepherds, under the name of Brutii, seize a great part of Lu-

4360.. 3650.. 4361.. 3651..

3. .400.. 354 4. .401.. 353

cania, from them called Brutium, now Abruzzo. Dion, tyrant of Syracuse, put to death by the mercenaries of Zacynthus. The Phocians, under Onomarchus, assisted by Lycophron, tyrant of Pherse, defeated by Philip of Macedon, in Thessaly. Mausoleus, king of the Carians, dies this year ; and his queen, Artemisia, raises a magnificent cenotaph to his memory.

4363 .. 3653 .. 107-2 .. 403 .. 351 3.. 404.. 350 4364.. 3654.. 4366. . 3656 .. 108-1 .. 406 .. 348
4367. .3657..
2. .407. .347

The

Sidonians, being besieged by the Persians, set fire to their city, and perisli in the flames. Egypt conquered by Artaxerxes-Ochus, who compels Nectanabis to retire into Ethiopia. Philip, king of Macedon, concludes the Sacred war, having taken all the cities of the

Phocians. Dionysius, after ten years' banishment, recovers the tyranny of Syracuse, and holds
years.

it

four

4371.. 3661.. 109-2.. 411.. 343

The Syracusan

aera begins with Timoleon banishing Dionysius, and settling a democracy. war breaks out between the Romans and Samnites, which continues seventy-one The Carthaginians send a crown of gold as an offering to Jupiter Capitolinus. years. Philip of Macedon conquers Thrace, and makes it tributary.

4374

. .

3664 .. 110-1 .. 414 .. 340

3. .416. .338

The

Carthaginians defeated by Timoleon, in a great battle, near Agrigentum, in Sicily,

on the 13th of June.

4376. .3666..

1378 . . 3668 . . 111-1

. .

418 . 336
.

and Tliebans, at Chaeronea, on the 2d of August, which makes him master of all Greeee. The rostrum at Rome built with the prows of ships taken by the consuls from the Anthiates. Philip, assassinated by Pausanias, about the end of August, is succeeded by his son Alexander, surnamed the Great.
Philip defeats the Athenians

4379.. 3669..

2.. 419.. 335

4380.. 3670..
4381. .3671..

3.. 420.. 334

4. .421. .333

4382

. .

3672

. .

112-1 . 422
.

332

4383.. 3673..

2.. 423.. 331

4384.. 3674..

3.. 424.. 330

4386. .3676. .113-1. .426. .328 2.. 427.. 327 4387.. 3677..

Alexander enters Greece, about the 9th of September; obliges the Athenians to submit; and destroys Thebes, leaving only the house of Pindar the poet standing; the inhabitants being almost all destroyed or enslaved. Pontus conquered by Alexander. Alexander having entered the Persian dominions in Asia Minor, gains his first battle over Darius-Codomanus, near the river Granicus, in Phrygia, on the 22d of May. Second victory of Alexander over the Persians, near the town of Issus, in the month of October. The Samaritans obtain leave of Alexander to erect a temple on mount Gerizim, in opposition to that at Jerusalem. Alexander takes the city of Tyre, after a siege of seven months; he also becomes master of Damascus and Gaza, enters Jerusalem, and offers sacrifices to the God of the Jews proceeds to Egypt, which he subjugates crosses the Desert, to visit the temple of Jupiter-Ammon, whose son he pretends to be; lays the foundation of the city of Alexandria, in Egypt, and receives a crown of gold from the Grecian states. Alexander gains his third and last battle over Darius, at Arbela, on the 2d of October, by which he becomes master of all the Persian dominions this is properly the aera of the third or Grecian monarchy. Several Roman ladies enter into a conspiracy to poison their husbands, whicli many of them carry into execution, before they are detected a slave informs against 170 of them, and they are publicly put to death. The cycle of Calippus commences from the death of Darius, on the 1st of July. Agis, king of Lacedaemon, defeated and killed by Antipater, the Macedonian general. Alexander crosses the mountains of Caucasus, and subdues Hyrcania, &c. Alexander undertakes an expedition into India, against Porus, whom he defeats and takes
; ; ;
:

4388.. 3678..

3.. 428.. 326

.

4391 .. 3681 .. 114-2. 431

..

323

prisoner : having over-run that country as far as the Ganges, his soldiers refuse to cross the river, and he returns, having first built several cities. The praetor Publius, a plebeian, having defeated the Palepolitans, obtains a triumph, in being the first praetor who attained that honour. opposition to the patricians Alexander dies, at Babylon, on the 21st of April his half-brother, Philip A ridaeus, sucbut his conquests are divided among his generals, who soon ceeds him at Macedon fall out about the division. Ptolemy-Lagus begins the new kingdom of Egypt.- The Lamian war begins between Antipater and the Athenians.
; : ;

EPOCHA
IN

IX.

FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT TO THE BEGINNING OF THE MACCABEES' GOVERNMENT
JUDEA: ICO YEARS.
4392.. 3682.
.

3.. 432.. 322

4393.. 3683..

4.. 433.. 321

Eumenes usurps the kingdom of CapAntipater puts the Athenian orators to death. padocia. The Samnites defeat the Romans at the Caudine pass, and make them pass under the yoke.

SECT. X.]
A. M. i" Period.
,

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
Olyrap.

109

lian

U. C.

B.C.

4394.. 3684.. 115-1.. 434.. 320

4395.. 3685.. 43<><;..386.. 4397.. 3687..

2.. 435.. 319 3.. 436.. 318 4.. 437.. 317

Polysperchon proclaims liberty to all the Greek cities. Ptolemy entering Jerusalem on a sabbath-day, under pretence of offering a solemn sacrifice, takes the city by surprise, and carries oft' 100,000 of the inhabitants into Egypt. The Samnites subdued by the Romans. Phocion unjustly put to death by the Athenians. Cassander becomes master of Athens. The government of Syracuse, and soon after of all Sicily, usurped by Agathocles. Demehe was banished in 307, trius Phalereus seizes Athens, and governs for ten years and died about 284. Olympias, mother to the deceased Alexander, puts Aridaeus to
:

death.

4399 .. 3689 .. 116-3 .. 439 .. 315

4.. 441.. 313 4401.. 3691.. 4402 . . 3692 . 1 17-1 . 442 312
. .
.

4403.. 3693..

2.. 443.. 311

4404.. 3694..

3.. 444.. 310

Cassander rebuilds Thebes, and founds the city of Cassandria, in Macedonia. Eumenes, after gaining two battles over Antigonus, is deserted by his army, and delivered by them into the hands of his enemy, who puts him to death. Mithridates II. recovers the throne of Pontus, from which he had been exiled by the Macedonian invasion ; and Great anarchy in Macedon. Rhodes almost Ariarathes recovers that of Cappadocia. destroyed by an inundation. Antigonus restores the cities of the Peloponnesus to their liberty. Seleucus Nicator takes Babylon, and begins the new kingdom of Syria, with which the sera of the Seleucidae continences, called by the Arabians, Dhilcarnaim, and tliejEraof The Romans begin the Tuscan war. Contracts, on Tuesday, the 13th of March. The Via Appia begun at Rome, by the censor Appius Claudius. Antigonus establishes himself in Asia. Cassander usurps the throne of Macedon, having At Rome, the pleput Roxana, the widow of Alexander, and her infant son, to death. beians obtain the privilege of electing sixteen military tribunes, to command in the army, and two officers to superintend the fleet. Agathocles, defeated by the Carthaginians, on the river Himera, July 22, carries the

war 4406 .. 3696 .. 11 8-1 .. 446 .. 308

4407.. 3697.. 4408.. 3698..
2.. 447.. 307
3.. 448.. 306

into Africa.

4410.. 3700.. 119-1.. 450.. 304 4411. .3701.. 2. .451. .303 4413.. 3703.. 4.. 453.. 301

4414. .3704. . 120-1. 454. 300 4415.. 3705.. 2.. 455.. 299 4418: 3708.. 121-1.. 458.. 296
. .

Lucius Papirius defeats the Samnites, and takes away their gold and silver bucklers. Fabius defeats the Tuscans, &c. Demetrius Poliorcetes, son of Antigonus, changes the oligarchy of Athens into a democracy, and banishes Demetrius Phalereus, Dinarchiis, and others. The successors of Alexander first assume the title of kings. Demetrius Poliorcetes defeats the army of Ptolemy in Cyprus, takes most of the cities in that island, and obtains a naval victory over the Egyptian fleet. Seleucus founds the cities of Antioch, Edessa, Laodicea, &c. The Romans send colonies to Sora, Alba, and into the country of the jEqui. The battle of Ipsus, in Phrygia, wherein Antigonus is defeated and slain, by Ptolemy, A new division of the Macedonian empire, Seleucus, Lysimachus, and Cassander. according to the prediction of Daniel, chap. viii. (wherein four kings are emblematically described by four horns:) Ptolemy has Egypt, Libya, Arabia, and Palestine; Cassander, Macedonia, Thessaly, and Greece; Lysimachus, Thrace, the Chersonesus, Bythe rest of Asia, as far as the Indus. thynia, Lycia, and Caria; and Seleucus, The Roman priests first elected from among the plebeians. Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse, passes with his army into Italy, and takes Crotona. Demetrius Poliorcetes takes Athens, after a year's siege, and banishes Lachares, who had

4420.. 3710..
4421. .3711..

3.. 460.. 294

4. .461. .293

4423. .3713. .122-2. .463. .291

4424.. 3714..

3.. 464.. 290

4427

. .

3717

123-2

. .

467

. .

287

assumed the government. Demetrius Poliorcetes assassinates Alexander, son of Cassander, and seizes the crown of Macedon. A census at Rome 270,000 effective men. The first sun-dial erected at Rome, by Papirus Cursor, and the notation of time by hours begun. Seleucus having built about 40 new cities in Asia, peoples them with colonies from different nations. The god jEsculapius brought from Epidaurus to Rome, with great ceremony, in the shape of a monstrous serpent ! The Sanmite war, (according to Eutropius) finishes, having lasted 49 years. Fabius introduces the art of painting at Rome. The Athenians revolt from Demetrius Poliorcetes his army, corrupted by Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, desert him, and he flies, first into Greece, and afterwards into Asia, where he surrenders himself to Seleucus, and dies in captivity, next year. Meantime, Pyrrhus
; ;

4428.. 3718..

3.. 468.. 286 4.. 469.. 285

1 24-1
. .

4429.. 3719..

4430

3720

. .

470

284

causes himself to be proclaimed king of Macedon. Pyrrhus, finding his new subjects not to be depended on, abdicates the throne of Macedon, and Lysimachus is elected in his room. Dionysius of Alexandria begins his aera on Monday, the 26th of June ; being the first who calculated the year at 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes. He died B. C. 241. The Se)ituagint translation of the holy scriptures, undertaken by order of Ptolemy-Philadelphus, king of Egypt,
is

completed about

this time,

and deposited

in

the library at

110

INTRODUCTION.

[CHAV.

II.

4430

3720

124-1

. .

470. 284
.

4431. .3721..

2. .471. .283

The Pharos of Alexandria built. A great earthquake in the Hellespont Alexandria. and Chersonese. The Scythians invade the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and keep possession of it 204 years. The Gauls invade the Roman territory, and besiege Arezzo. Lucius Cecilius, with 13,000 Romans, slain in battle, the Gauls. A Roman
by
sent into Cisalpine Gaul, which gains a battle there. Dolabella defeats the Senones, and afterwards the Boii and Etrurians at the lake Vadimonis, in Etruria.

army

4432.. 37t2'2.. 4433.. 3723..

3.. 472. 282

.

Philataerus, a servant of

4.. 473. . 281

Lysimacbus, seizes his master's treasures, aud begins the kingdom of Pergamus. Lysimachus defeated and slain in battle by Seleucus, in Phrygia. The Achaean league, or republic, begins. The war between the Romans and Tarentines breaks out, and continues

10

years.

4434 .. 3724 .. 1 25-1 .. 474 .. 280

4435. .3725.. 4436. .3726..
4437.. 3727..
2.. 475 3.. 476

Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, arrives in Italy, to assist the Tarentines, and continues there,

and

in Sicily,

about

279 . 278
.

4. .477. .277

4438. 4439.

army of Gauls, under Brennus II. cut to pieces by the Delphians, while endeavouring to plunder the temple of Delphi. Antigonus-Gonatus, son of Demetrius-Poliorcetes, recovers the throne of Macedon, which is occupied by his family till the end of the kingdom, B. C. 168. The first regular body of grammarians, or critics, began about this time. Pyrrhus, defeated by the Romans, retires, first to Tarentum, and afterwards to Epirus. The Gauls settle in a part of Bithynia, from them called Galatia, The Samnites and Tarentines defeated by the Romans, which concludes those two wars ; the first having lasted 71 years, and the second 10 years. Silver first coined at Rome, under the consulate of Fabius Pictor and Gulo, five years before the first Punic war. Athens taken by Antigonus-Gonatus, king of Macedon, who retains it about 12 years. Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, begins a canal to unite the Nile with the Red-sea. A census at Rome: 292,226 citizens. The first Punic war begins, between Rome and Carthage, and continues 23 years. The chronology of the Arundelian marbles composed. Eumeues succeeds Philataerus on the throne of Pergamus, and greatly extends his dominions, so that he is sometimes called the founder of that kingdom. The battle of Sardis, in which Antiochus-Soter, king of Syria and Babylon, is defeated by Eumenes of Pergamus. The Romans first concern themselves with naval affairs. The Carthaginians defeated at sea by the Romans, under Duilius, who has the first naval
large

A A

census at

Rome: 278,222

six years. citizens.

triumph in November. Three hundred Romans, under Calpernius Flamma, preserve the Roman army in Sicily, by keeping the Carthaginians engaged till they are all cut to pieces. Regulus taken prisoner, and put to a cruel death by the Carthaginians, B. C. 251 Antigonus restores Athens to its liberty. The Parthians revolt from Antigonus, king of Macedon. The Carthaginians are masters
of the Mediterranean. Aratus of Sicyon, having expelled the tyrant Abantidas and others, persuades his fellowcitizens to join the Achaean league, of which he is soon after made the praetor. The Romans begin the siege of Lilybaeum, in Sicily, which continues ten years. Arsaces begins the kingdom of the Parthians, and Theodotus that of the Bactrians. The Romans, under Claudius Pulcher, totally defeated by the Carthaginians, under Adherbal, in a naval engagement, off Drepanum, in Sicily. A census at Rome: 297,897 effective men. Ptolemy-Euergetes, king of Egypt, kills Laodice, queen of Antiochus, to avenge the death of his own sister Berenice overruns Syria and Upper Asia, and returns home laden with rich spoils, particularly the sacred vessels, and statues, to the number of 2500, which Cambyses, 288 years before, had taken from the Egyptian temples. The records of China destroyed. The fourth Chinese dynasty, called Tsin, begins and continues 43 years, under four emperors, of whom the second, Tche-Hoang-Ti, built
; ;

the celebrated wall.

Aratus reduces the citadel of Corinth, on the 12th of August, and prevails on the Corinthians to join the Achaean league. About the same time he takes Megara from the Lacedaemonians. Lutatius, the Roman consul, destroys the Carthaginian fleet, off the isles of Agates, which ends the first Punic war. Agis, king of Lacedaemon, attempting to settle an Agrarian law, is put to death. The first plays acted at Rome, being those of Livius Andronicus, the first Roman dramatist. The Carthaginians finish the Libyan war, with their mercenaries, it having lasted three years and four months.

SECT. X.]
Julian

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
Olymp.
U. C.
B. C.

Ill

Period.

4477. .3767. .135-4. .517. .237

4478. 4479.

112
Julian Period.
. A
'

INTRODUCTION.
Olymp.

[CHAP.

ir.

U.C. B.C.

4617.. 3807 .145-4, .557.. 107

4518.. 3808. .146-1 .558. .196 3. .560. .194 4520.. 3810. 4522..38L2. .147-1. .562. .192

4523. 4J24.

4525. 4526.
4527.

SECT. X.]

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
EPOCHA
X.
IN JUDEA,

FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MACCABEES' GOVERNMENT

103 YEARS.
Julian

TO THE CHRISTIAN JERA

A. M.
.
.

Period.

Olymp.
.

U. C. B. C.
. .

45 1 552
.')

3841 3842

154-2 3

591 . 592
.

1
1

63 02

4553.. 3843.

4.. 593.. 161

Judas Maccabaeus prince of the Jews. Demetrius Soter, son of Seleucus IV. escapes from Rome, puts Eupator to death, and recovers the throne of Syria. Hipparchus begins his astronomical observations at Rhodes, and continues them for 34 years he died about 125 B.C. Philosophers and Rhetoricians banished" from Rome, by Cato the censor. Judas Macca:

55 I.. 8844. 15.J-1. .594.. TOO 2. ,595.. 159 4555.. 3845.

1

baeus enters into a treaty, offensive and defensive, with the Romans ; it being the public transaction between the two states. Terence's last play of " Adclphi," acted at the funeral of Paulus jEmilius.

first

4550.. 3840.

3.. 506.. 158

.

4558

3848

156-1

598

. .

156

water, invented at Rome, by Scipio Nasica, 134 years after the introduction of sun-dials. An irrnptinn of the Tartars iniu China. Hipparchus observed the autumnal equinox on Sunday the 27th of September, about mid-day. Prusias Venator, king of Bithynia, defeats Attalus, and plunders and burns several of the

The measurement of time by

4559.. 3849..

2.. 599.. 155

4561.. 3851..

4.. 601.. 153

. .

4562

3852. . 157-1

602. . 152

temples of Pergamus. Carneades the orator, sent with others from Athens to Rome, to plead before the senate for a mitigation of tribute, alarm the senate by their eloquence, but excite among the Roman youth an admiration and emulation of their talent. Jonathan Maccabveus, succeeding his brother Judas, as prince of the Jews, assumes also the pontificate, after it had been seven years vacant. Andriscus, pretending to be the son of Perseus, seizes the kingdom of Macedon, but is soon afterwards defeated by Metellus, and sent to Rome, to grace that general's
triumph.

4564.. 3854..
.

3.. 604.. 150

Alexander Balas usurps the kingdom of Syria,

Soter.

after having defeated

and

slain

Demetrius

4, .005.. 149 45(!5..55. 4506.. 3856.. 158-1. .606.. 148

The

451 !7.. 3857..

4508.. 3858..

.607.. 147 .008.. 146

third Punic war begins, and continues three years. Jonathan Maccabaeus defeats the Syrian general Appollonius, near Azotus which city, as well as Ascalon, he takes. War between the Romans and Achaeans. A census at Rome: 322,000 citizens. P. .Smilianus Scipio finishes the third Punic war, by the destruction of Carthage. The Achaean league dissolved by L. Mummius, who destroys Corinth, and thence trans;

ports the
4. .609.. 145 45G9..3859.. 4570.. 3800.. 159-1. .610.. 144

first fine

paintings seen at
all

Rome.

The Romans

Greece, and nearly desolate the country. Jonathan Maccabaeus, and 1000 of his companions, treacherously slain by Tryphon, the

overrun

4571.. 3861..

2. .611.. 143

Syrian. great earthquake in China. Hipparchus observes the autumnal equinox on Wednesday the 26th of September, about sun-set; and, from the new moon on the 28th of the

4572.. 3862..
4573..38<>:5..

3.. 012.. 142 4.. 613.. 141

same month, he begins his lunar cycle. Simon Maccabaeus takes the castle of Jerusalem by famine, after a long blockade, repairs it, and rescues Judea from all the remains of Syrian servitude. The war between the Romans and Numautines, in Spain, begins, and continues eight
years.

4576

3866

. .

160-3

61 6 . . 1 38

The Roman army, 30,000

Numantines.

strong,

under

Mancinus,

ignominiously defeated by 4000

4577.. 3867..

4.. 617.. 137

4578

3808 .. 101-1 .. 618 .. 136

2. .019.
.!:{.-,

4579.. 3869..

Ptolemy Physcon, having desolated Alexandria by his cruelties, endeavours to replenish it, hy inviting thither the most ingenious foreigners in all arts and sciences; which commences a new aera of learning. Scipio Africanus, with Sp. Mummius and Lucius Metellus, attended by Panaetius, the Stoic philosopher, make their celebrated embassy into Egypt, Syria, and Greece. The history of the Apocrypha ends about this time. The Servile war begins in Sicily, and continues three years. Hipparchus observed the vernal equinox, on Wednesday, the
2-1 th

4581.. 3871..

4.. 021..

13:5

Nuinantia,

little after midnight. Tiberius Gracchus slain in a tumult at Rome, Spain, destroyed by Scipio. in Attalus, king of Pergamus, bequeaths his attempting to restore the Agrarian laws. dominions to the Romans.

of

March/ a
in

4584.. 3874.. 162-3.. 624.. 130

Antiochus Sidetes, king of Syria, defeated and

slain by the Parthians, under Phraates II. Aristonicus, a natural son of the late king Attains, having made himself tyrant of Pergamus, is this year defeated and taken prisoner by M. Perpenna, the Roman general.

VOL.

Learning revived
I.

in

China.

114
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A.M.
.

[CHAP.

ii.

Olyrap.
.

U. C.
.

B.C.
. .

4585

3875 . . 162-4

625

129

The Samaritan
feats the

4586 .. 3876 .. 1 63-1

..

626 .. 128
. .

4591. .3881. .104-2. .631

1-2H

4503. .3883..

"2.

.633.. 121

temple, on mount Gerizim, destroyed by John Hyrcanus I. who also deIdumxans, and obliges them to be circumcised. Hipparchus observed the vernal equinox on Thursday, March 23, about sun-set. Mithridates the Great begins to reign Cartilage rebuilt, by order of the Roman senate. The Romans declare war against the inhabitants of the Balearic Isles (Main Pontus. jorca, Minorca, and Ivica,) on account of their piracies. Cains Gracchus killed in attempting to establish an Agrarian law at Rome. Alexander Zebina, joint king of Syria with Antiochus Grypus, defeated by the latter, and, two A great eruption of /Etna. The weather of this year years afterwards, put to death. was so remarkably favourable, that its wines are said to have kept 200 years.

1595 . . 3886 .

165-2 . . 635 . . 119

3.. 636.. 118

4596.. 3886..

4598. .3888. .106-1. .638.. 116

4602. .3892. .167-1. .642. .112

4603.. 3893..

2.. 643.. Ill

3.. 644. .110
4. .645. .109

4604.. 3894..
4605. .3895..

Caius Marius, as tribune of the people, imprisons the consul Metellus, for opposing a law that he had proposed relative to the bridges at Rome. The Romans settle a rolony at Narhonne, and defeat the Gauls near the A Ips :Metellus conquers Dalmatia. Cleopatra, widow of Ptolemy Physcon, and daughter of his first wife of the same name, ;i. -.111,1, the government of Egypt, hut is constrained by the Alexandrians to act in the name of her eldest son Ptolemy Latliurus. Antiochus Cyzicenus defeats his half-brother Grypus, and takes possession of Syria; but, next year, divides it with Grypus, and calls his own part Coelo-Syria, of which the capital was Damascus; Antioch being the metropolis of the portion of Grypus. The Jugurthine war, between the Romans and Jugurtlia, king of Numidia, begins, and continues five years. The famous sumptuary law, called Lex Licinia, made at Rome, for regulating each day's
.

expense

in eating.

4607 .. 3897 .. 168-2 .. 647 .. 107

John Hyrcanus besieges and takes Samaria, and defeats the army of Ptolemy. The Teutones and Cimbri, from Germany, invade the Roman territories, during eight years. Metellus defeats Jugurtha in two battles. Cicero born on the 3d of the nones of January, (which agrees with the beginning of November of the Julian year:) he was put to death B. C. 43, aged sixty-four. Aristobulus succeeds Hyrcanus as high-priest, and assumes the title of king of the Jews; being
the first high-priest that wore a crown. Cleopatra dethrones Ptolemy, and raises her youngest son, Alexander, king of Cyprus, to the government of Egypt. Jugurtha, defeated by the Romans, and betrayed by Bocchus, king of Mauritania, into the hands of Marius. Caepio and Manlius defeated by the Teutones and Cimbri, on the banks of the Rh6ne, with the loss of 80,000 Romans. The Roman people obtain the power of electing the praetors, which had hitherto been confined to the senate.

4608.. 3898..

3.. 648.. 106

4609. ,3899..

4. .649.. 105

4611. ,3901.. 169-2.. 651.. 103

4612. ,3902..

3.. 652.. 102

Marius defeats the Teutones in two battles, at Aqua; Sextise, (Aix, in Provence,) where 200,000 of the enemy are killed, and 70,000 made prisoners, about the end of the
year.

4613. .3903..

4.. 653.. 101

The

4614. .3904.. 170-1.. 654.. 100

4615. .3905.. 4617. .3907..
2.. 655.. 99 4.. 657.. 97

Cimbri, endeavouring to penetrate into Italy by Noricum, (the Tyrol,) are defeated by Marius and Catullus: 120, 000 are slain, and 60,000 taken. Julius Ciesar born on the 4th of the ides (or 12th) of the month Quirinalis, afterwards, from him, called July. Saturninus revives the Agrarian law at Rome. Lusitania (Portugal) conquered by the Romans, under Dolabella.
his

Ptolemy Apion, king of Cyrene, bequeaths occupied by the Parthians.

kingdom

to the

Romans.

Mesopotamia

4618. .3908.. 171-1.. 658.. 96 3.. 660.. 94 4620. .31)10.. 4621. .3911..
4. .661..

93

4623.. 3913.. 172-2.. 663.. 91

4625.. 3915..

4.. 665.. 89

4626.. 3916.. 173-1.. 666.. 88

Mithridates Pacorus, king of the Parthians, sends an embassy to China. Antiochus Cyzicenus, defeated by Seleucus, near Antioch, kills himself, to avoid falling into the hands of his rival. Seleucus, defeated by Antiochus Pius, or Eusebes, son of Cyzicenus, retires to Mopsuestia, in Cilicia, and is there burned to death by the inhabitants : soon afterwards, Philip and Antiochus, brothers of Seleucus, destroy the city of Mopsuestia, and put all the inhabitants to the sword. The Social or Marsic war, between the Romans and the Marci and their allies, begins, and continues three years. Antiochus Pius, defeated by Philip and Demetrius, retires among the Parthians, leaving the conquerors joint sovereigns of Syria. The beginning of the war between the Romans and Mithridates the Great, king of Pontus, B. C. is generally placed in this year; but Mr. Playfair prefers the year 94 of Sylla finishes the Marsic war; and the allies, submitting, are admitted to the privileges

Roman
years.

citizens.

The

civil

war between

Sylla

and Marius breaks

out,

and continues

six

Sylla takes possession of

Rome.

SECT. X.J
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
Olymp.
U. C.
B. C.

115

A.

M.

4627. ,3917, .173-2 .667.. 87 4628. 3918,

.668.. 86

the armies of Marius, China, Carbo, and Sertorius ; is taken during the absence of Sylla, and many of the most eminent citizens are put to death. on the 1st of March, according to the Roman calendar, and sends Sylla takes Athens, in which was the original MS. of Aristotle's works. Sylla Apellicon's library to Rome, also cuts to pieces the army of Archelaus, the general of Mithridates.

Rome, besieged by

4, .669.. 85 4629. .3919. 4630. .3920. .174-1. . 670. 84 2, . 671 . . 83 4631. .3921.
.

4632

3922..

3.. 672.. 82

4. .673. .81 4633. .3923. 4634. .3924. .175-1. .674. 80 2.. 675.. 79 4635. .3925.
.

A census at Rome: 464,000 citizens. Mithridates obtains a peace of Sylla. at Rome, burns the capitol, and commits great cruelties upon all who had Sylla arrives favoured the cause of Marius. The Syrians expel the family of the Seleucidae, and invite Tigranes the Great, king of Armenia, to accept the vacant throne. of Delphi, to reward his troops ; defeats Carbo and the younger Sylla plunders the temple Marius, at Praeneste and the Porta Collina of Rome ; and, after proscribing 40 senators, 1600 equites, and about 7000 citizens, is created dictator, which he holds for three years. Cicero begins to plead, in his 26th year; his first oration being in favour of Quinctius. Mithridates makes his son Machares king of the Cimmerian Bosphorus.
and retires to a private life, where he dies of a loathsome Sylla resigns the dictatorship, Alexandra, widow of Jannaeus, assumes the title of Queen disorder, the following year.
of the Jews, and makes her son Hyrcanus II. high-priest. Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, bequeaths his dominions to the Romans. Mithridates of Pontus, having occupied Bithynia, and made a league with Sertorius, tyrant in Spain, Lucullus, the Roman consul, renews the war against him. The Servile war, under Spartacus, (Enomaus, and Crixius, the gladiators, begins. Spartacus defeated and slain, together with 40,000 of his companions, by Crassus and Pompey which ends the Servile war. The censorship, which had been discontinued for 16 years, revived at Rome. The Roman capitol rebuilt. Lucullus defeats Mithridates and Tigranes, in a great battle Antiochus in Armenia, and takes the city of Tigranocerta, with all the royal treasures. A Asiaticus, of the race of the Seleucidae, seizes a part of Syria, and reigns four years.
;

4639. .3929. .176-2.. 679. .75 3.. 680.. 74 4640. .3930.

4.. 681.. 73 4641. 3931 4643. .3933. .177-2.. 683.. 71
.

4644. .3934. 4645. .3935.

.
.

3. .684. .70

4.. 685.. 69

4647. 3937. .178-2.. 687.. 67

census at Rome 450,000 citizens. Battle of Jericho, in which Hyrcanus, high-priest and king of the Jews, is defeated, and soon afterwards dethroned, by his brother Aristobulus. The war against the pirates,
:

4648. 3938.

3.. 688.. 66

4.. 689.. 65 4649. 3939. . 4651. 3941, .179-2. .691. .63

begun in the spring, and ended by Pompey about midsummer. Crete conquered by Metellus, and made a Roman province, after a war of two years. Pompey defeats Mithridates in a night battle in the Upper Armenia, and dethrones his son Machares, king of Bosphorus. Pompey dethrones Antiochus Asiaticus, and makes Syria a province of Rome. The Cataline conspiracy at Rome discovered and announced in the senate by Cicero ; the conspirators are defeated by Caius Antony, the consul, and his lieutenant, Petreius, about the middle of December. Mithridates, having lost a battle against his son Pharnaces,

who had

rebelled against him,

kills

himself,

Pharnaces

seizes the

Cimmerian Bosphorus.

Pompey

and Pontus becomes subject to Rome; takes Jerusalem, and restores

4654. 3944. ,180-1. .694. .60

4656. 3946.

3. .696. .58

Julius Caesar, returning to Rome from the conquest of Lusitania, divides the republic with Pompey and Crassus, about the end ot autumn, which forms the First Triumvirate. Cicero, hanishprl Rome at the instigation of Clodius the tribune, retires to

Hyrcanus.

TMessalonica,

whence he

recalled the following year, through the interest of Milo. J. Cwsar begins to attack the Helvetii, on the 1st of April, having the year before obtained the government of Cisalpine Gaul, for five years, by the Lex Vatinia.
is

4659

3949

181-2 . 699 . . 55
.

J.

4660. .3950. 4661. 3951.

3. .700. .54 4.. 701.. 53

.

Caesar passes the Rhine, defeats the Germans, and makes his first expedition into Britain, whence he returns in September. Pompey builds a stone theatre at Rome. Caesar makes a second expedition to Britain. Crassus killed, and his army destroyed, by the Parthians, under Surenas, at Sinnaca, in

Mesopotamia.

4662. .3952. .182-1 .702. 52

.

Clodius, the tribune, with his friends and servants, assassinated by T. Aunius Milo, for having refused him the consulship.

4663. ,3953. 4664. ,3954.

2. . 703. . 51 3. .704. .50

4665.. 3955..

4.. 705.. 49

Gaul made a Roman province. The civil war between Caesar and Pompey begins on the 22d of October, when the senate ordered Ca'sar to disband his army, and keep within the bounds of his government in Gaul; instead of which he crossed the Rubicon, and besieged Pompey in Bruudusium. Pompey sails from Brundusium on the 3d of January, and Caesar enters it on the 4th; whence he goes to Rome about the Oth; besieges Marseilles ill the spring; defeats
Pompey's lieutenants in Spain, in the summer ; returns to Rome, v\ here he is created perpetual dictator, in September; and passes into Epirus on the 15th of October. Antipater, the Idumaean, made iutendant of Judea, by J. Caesar.

Q2

110

INTRODUCTION.

[CHAP.

ii.

AM

U.C. B. C.

4666. .3056. .183-1. .706. .48

At

the battle of Pharsalia, Pompey is totally routed by his rival J. C.esar, and afterwards a^asbinated by order of Ptolemy Dionysius, king of Egypt. This battle was fought about the 20th of July of the erroneous calendar, or about the 12tli of May of the

Julian year.

4667. .3957..

2. .707.. 47

domestic war between Ptolemy Dionysius and his sister, the famous Cleopatra ; Alexandria besieged and taken by Ca:sar; during which the celebrated library is nearly de-

4668.. 3958..

3. .708.. 46

46C9..3959..
.

709.. 45

4670 . . 3960 . 184-1

710 . . 44

4671. .3961..

2. .711. .43

4672.. 3962..

3.. 712.. 42

4674. .3964. .185-1. .714. .40

stroyed by fire. Ptolemy, defeated by Cresar, is drowned in endeavouring to swim across the Nile; Caesar makes Ptolemy the Younger, nine years of age, king of Egypt, under the regency of The civil war spreads into Africa, where the friends of Pompey fortify Cleopatra. themselves in Utica; and Cato, on the approach of Crcsar, indignantly stabs himself, on This year, the calendar being corrected by the 5th of February. Soaigenes, of Alexandria, the mathematician, under the patronage of Julius Caesar, consisted of fifteen months, or 445 days, and is therefore called the Year of (Confusion. Battle of Munda, in Spain, gained over Pompey's son and lieutenants, on the 17th of March, and Cwsar returns to Rome in October. Caesar stabbed in the senate-house, by Brutus, Cassius, Casca, &c. on the 15th of March, aged 56 having, it is said, conquered 300 nations, taken 800 cities, and defeated three millions of men, of whom one million fell in the field of battle. His death was preceded, and immediately after it, a as many authors mention, by uncommon prodigies large comet made its appearance over Rome, which was also seen in China. Marc Antony, who had been master of the horse to Julius Caesar, having taken up arms against the conspirators, is defeated in two battles at Mutina, in Cisalpine Gaul, by Octauus Caesar, nephew of Julius, who had, with the consuls, been sent by the senate against him. Antony unites his interest to those of Lepidus, and, the consuls soon afterwards both dying, Octavius joins them, and the second triumvirate for the division of the commonwealth is thus formed, on the 27th of November. A proscription at Rome, and, among many others, Cicero is put to death, on the 7th of December. Cleopatra poisons her brother, and assumes the sole government of Egypt. Brutus and Cassius, defeated at Philippi by the forces of the triumvirate, kill themselves, about the end of October. The Parthians make an incursion into Syria and Judea, cut off the ears of Hyrcanus the highpriest, whom they send into captivity, and assist his nephew, Antigonus, in seizing the crown. Herod, son of Antipatcr, the Idumaean, goes to Rome, to implore the assistance of the senate. Marc Antony marries Cleopatra, queen of Egypt.
; :

4675. .3965..
4676.. 3966.. 4677.. 3967..

2. .715. .39 3. . 716.. 38 4. .717. .37

1678 .. 3968 .. 186-1 .. 718 .. 36

3.. 720.. 34 4680.. 3970.. . 32 . 187-1 . . 722 . 3972
. . .

Ventidius, the Roman, defeats the Parthians, whose general, Pacorus, is slain in battle, and recovers Syria and Palestine, on the 9th of June. The Roman senate creates 67 new praters The sera of Spain begins. Jerusalem taken by Sosius and Herod, on the 1st of January ; Antigonus is soon afterwards put to death, with whom ends the Asmonean family, 126 years after Judas Maccabaeus: Herod, having received the title of king of the Jews from the Roman senate, begins to The younger Pompey is master of the seas. reign under their protection. Octavius and Lepidus defeat Sextius Pompey, in Sicily; Lepidus is soon after degraded from the triumvirate, and banished to Circeii.

Antony subjugates Armenia, and

4682

takos Artabazus, alias Artaxias II. prisoner. Aftei u long misunderstanding, Octavius and Antony openly prepare for war ; the former in Italy, the latter in Egypt.

4683.. 3973..

2.. 723.. 31

The

4684. .3974..

3. .724. .30

4685.. 3975..

4.. 725.. 29

battle of Actium, in which Antony and Cleopatra are defeated by Octavius, on the 2d of September ; from which period the Roman emperors properly begin. An earthquake in Judca. Alexandria taken by Octavius, on the 1st of August, whereupon Antony and Cleopatra put themselves to death, and Egypt becomes a Roman province. Octavius triumphs three days at Rome, and the temple of Janus is shut. A census at

Rome
4687 .. 3977 .. 181-2 .. 727 .. 27

4,101,017 citizens.

The Roman

power of Imperator
in Palestine.

senate confer the title of Augustus on Octavius Caesar, January 13; then the for ten years, next the censorship, then the tribuueship, and lastly A great famine an absolute exemption from the laws. The pantheon at Rome built. the Julian year, and fix their Thoth to begin always on the 29th of

489..3979..

4.. 729.. 25

The Egyptians adopt

August.

4090 .. 3980 .. 189-1 .. 730 .. 24

The

senate, by a solemn oath, on the 1st of January, confirm to Octavius (henceforward to be tailed Augustus) the tribuneship, with an exemption from the laws. yKlius Gallus makes an unsuccessful expedition into Arabia.

15

SF.CT. X.]
Julian

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
Oljmp.
U. C.

117

A.M.

B.C.

Period.

4G91.. 3981.. 189-2.. 731.. 23

Marcus Agrippa retires to Mytilene, from a pique between him and Marcellus, where he continues two years, till Augustus sends for him, and gives him his daughter Julia in

4G92.. 39'2..
4(5<>:?..:W83..

3.. 732.. 22 4.. 733.. 21

1 90- 1
. .

marriage. conspiracy, by Muracna and others, against Augustus, discovered and suppressed. great pestilence in llalv

4(594 .

3984

734

20

Augustus, going iipnn hi, travels into Greece and Asia, recalls Agrippa, makes him his son-in-law, anil entrusts him with the government during his absence. Tiberius, son of the empress Livia, recovers the Rinnan ensigns from the Parthians, which had been taken from Crassus, B. C. 53. Porus, king of India, solicits an alliance with

Augustus.

1095.. 3986 fl .

2.. 735.. 19

Rome

4(596.. 398(5.

3.. 730.. 18

all the known world being either subject to her, or Agrippa constructs the magnificent aqueducts of Rome. Herod repairs, or rather rebuilds, the temple at Jerusalem'. Augustus reduces the senators to 300 but this being complained of, he afterwards limits

at the

meridian of her glory

treaties.

bound by

them
4.. 737.. 17 4G97..3987.. 4098 . 3988 . . 191-1 738 16
.

to GOO.

Celibacy discouraged at Rome.

The Secular games revived at Rome. M. Lollius defeated by the Germans,

4099.. 3989..

2.. 739.. 15
3.. 740.. 14

4700.. 3990..

4701.. 3991..

4. .741. .13
1 92-1
.

in Gaul, on which account Augustus goes thither for three years, and thereby covers his intrigue with Terentia, the wife of his friend and minister Majcenas. Agrippa goes into Syria and Judea for four years. Drusus conquers the inhabitants of Rhactia and Vindilicia, on the 1st of August, being exactly three lustra, or 15 years, from the taking of Alexandria, by Augustus. A great conflagration at Rome. Poleraou, whom the Romans had made king of Pontus and Armenia, by marrying Dinamis, queen of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, unites the three kingdoms. Augustus, on his return from Gaul, assumes the office of Pontifex Maximus, and burns all the pontifical books, about 2000 in number, reserving only the Sibyline oracles.

4702

. .

3992

742

12

4703.. 3993.. 4704.. 3994.. 4705.. 3995..

2.. 743.. 11 3.. 744.. 10 4.. 745.. 9

The Pannonians conquered by Tiberius. Agrippa, returning from Pannonia, pania. Many prodigies said to have appeared in China. Drusus conquers several German nations, as the Sicambri, Chauci, &c.
Herod
builds the city of Caesarea.

dies in

Cam-

Drusus goes upon an expedition into Germany, against the Chatti and Cherusci, and dies in
FriezTand.

4700. .3996. .193-1. .74(5.. 8

Augustus corrects the calendar, by ordering the twelve ensuing years to pass without intercalation the month Sextilis receives the name of Augustus, by a decree of the senate. A census at Rome 4,233,000 citizens. The temple of Janus shut, in consequence of an universal peace.
; :

4708.. 3998..

3.. 748..

4709.. 3999..

4.. 749..

Tiberius invested with the tribunate for five years ; but, jealous of the favour shewn by Augustus towards the sons of Agrippa, he retires in disgust to Rhodes. Conception of John the Baptist announced to his father Zacharias. Our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST born at Bethlehem, in Judea, on Monday, the 25th of December, (according to the Romish church,) four years and six days before the common sera. Q. Varus governor of Syria, and Cyrenius of Judea. A comet

appointed

seen

in

China.

4710.. 4000.. 194-1.. 750.. 4

4711. .4001..
2. .751..

the 1st of January, (according to the church of Rome:) the wise men, or magi of the east, guided by a star, arrive in Judea to make their offerings. Joseph and Mary take the holy child into Egypt, during which Herod cruelly orders all infants under two years of age to be slaughtered, hoping that among them Jesus might

JESUS CHRIST circumcised on

4712.. 4002..

3.. 752.. 2

Herod dies on the 25th of November, and the Roman emperor and senate divide his with kingdom among his sons: Herod Archelaus has Judea, Idiimea, and Samaria, Herod Antipas is created tetrarch of Galilee and the title of ethnarque, or prince and Philip is made tetrarch of Trachonitis Perea, or the country beyond Jordan and the adjacent country. Joseph and Mary return from Egypt, and settle at Nazareth, of Pandatarium, in ( .al.lee.' Augustus banishes Julia, widow of Agrippa, to the little isle Caius Caesar goes as general in the Aroft Campania, on account of her incontinence.
; ;

perish.

menian war.
4713.. 4003.
.

4.. 753.. 1

An

mutual aversion

interview, in the island of Samos, is rather increased.

between Caius Caesar and Tiberius, whereby

their

118

INTRODUCTION.
EPOCH A
FEOM THE
CHRISTIAN JERA TO
XI. (p)

[CHAP. n.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE; 476 YEARS. FIRST CENTURY OF THE VULGAR CHRISTIAN jRA.(q)

Julian Period.

uc

A D
Augustus in the 32d year of his reign. Caius Csesar makes peace with the Parthians. Tiberius returns to Rome; and, soon afterwards, Lucius Caesar, one of the sons of Augustus, dies at
Marseilles.

4714. .754. . 1 4715.. 755.. 2

4716.. 756.. 3 4717.. 757.. 4

4718. .758. . 5 4719.. 759.. 6

4720. .760.
.

Caius Caesar, another son of Augustus, dies at Lymira, in Lycia, in consequence of a wound received in Armenia. Tiberius, returning from Rhodes, is adopted by Augustus, and a second time invested with the tribunate. The temple of Janus re-opened, in consequence of fresh disturbances Cinna's conspiracy detected. in Germany, whither Tiberius repairs. Bissextile, or Leap-year, which had been observed every third to every fourth. year, changed Tiberius, having extended his conquests to the Elbe, grants the Germans peace. A great famine at Rome. Revolt of the Pannoniaus and Dalmatians, against whom Tiberius and his

nephew Germanicus are sent. Herod Archelaus, king of Judea, against whom the Jews and Samaritans had complained, is deposed, and his dominions added to the province of Syria Coponius being the first governor of Judea. Judas of
;

4721. .761.. 8

9 4722. .762. 4723. .763. . 10

.

Galilee appears about this time : Acts, v. 37. JESUS CHRIST, at the age of twelve years, questions and disputes with the Jewish doctors in the temple, The Pannonians reduced. in April, the passover being ended. Dalmatia subjected by the Romans. Three legions, under Yarns, cut to pieces in Germany, by Arminius; Varus stabs himself, and the Barbarians send his head to Augustus.

4724.. 764. .11

4727.. 767.. 14
768. . 15 4729.. 769.. 16

Tiberius reduces the Germans, for which service Augustus makes him his colleague in the empire, August 28. A census at Rome : 4,037,000 citizens. Augustus dies at Nola, on the 19th of August, aged 76, and is succeeded by Tiberius.

4728

4730. . 770. 17
.

The war renewed in Germany. Achai'a and Macedonia become provinces to Caesar. Arminius defeated by Germanicus, in two battles. The mathematicians and magicians expelled Rome. Conspiracy of Drusus discovered. An earthquake in Asia destroys twelve cities. Cappadocia made a Roman province. Germanicus triumphs The first African war, under Tacfarinus, begins, and continues for his successes in Germany, May 26.
four years. A new island appears in the Archipelago. city of Tiberias, in Galilee, built by Herod Antipas. Germanicus goes on an expedition to the East. Germanicus, poisoned by Piso, dies at Antioch, about the beginning of December. Caiaphas high-priest of the Jews. The Jews banished Rome. Agrippina, widow of Germanicus, brings her husband's ashes to Rome. The theatre of Pompey, at Rome, consumed by fire. Silius reduces Gaul, which had revolted. Tacfarinus defeated and driven into the deserts by the Roman governor Blesus, which ends the war. Tacfarinus slain by Dolabella, which ends his second war. John the Tiberius retires to the island of Caprea, leaving the management of public affairs to Sejanus. Baptist begins his ministry in the wilderness of Judea; and, towards the close of the year, JESUS is baptized by him in the river Jordan, being about 30 years of age. -Pontius Pilate made governor of Judea. A conflagration at Rome consumes all the quarter of Mount Celius. 50,000 persons said to have been

4731.. 771.. 18
4732.. 772.. 19

The

4733. .773. .20 4734.. 774. .21 4737. .777. .24 4739.. 779. .26

4740. .780. .27

4741 4742

781 . . 28 . 29 , 782
. .

John the Baptist beheaded, about

of an amphitheatre at Fidena. this time, by order of Herod Antipas. Our Saviour JESUS CHRIST crucified by the Jews, on Friday, April 15; rises from the grave on the following Sunday, April 17 ; and ascends to heaven on Thursday, the 26th of May. Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, 5th June.
killed

by the

fall

.30 4744.. 784.. 31

474:1. .783.

4745. .785. .32 4746. .786. .33 4717.

.7tt7.

Annanias and Sapphira strnck dead for their hypocrisy. Nero, eldest son of Germanicus, dies. Stephen, the first Christian Sejanus disgraced, and put to death. A great persecution of the followers martyr, stoned to death by the Jews ; Saul of Tarsus assisting. of Christ in Judea ensues. Philip baptizes the Ethiopian eunuch. Saul of Tarsus, converted, becomes an eminent preacher and apostle, better known by the name of Paul.
life,

Drusus, son of Germanicus, dies. .34 .Peter cures Eneas of the palsy, at Lydda; and restores Tabitha to
(p) This
is

at Joppa.

generally
is

'(|)

The

diviiion of the Christian sera liy centuries

deemed the first epocha of MODERN HISTORY. be preferred to that by epocbas; but as both methods have been adopted by the best writers, they are here preserved.
to

SECT.

x.'J

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
A
fire at

119

i \ Period.
.

uli <u

U. C. A. D.

4749.. 789.. 36

4750.. 790.. 37
4752. 792. 39 4753. .793. .40 4754.. 794.. 41
. .

Rome destroys part of the circus, and the quarter of Mount Aventine. Tiberius declares himself friendly to the followers of Christ, but is prevented by the senate from enrolling JESUS among the gods. Tiberius dies at Misenuni, near Baiae, on the 16th or 26th of March, aged 78, and is succeeded by Caligula, son of Germanicus. Disgrace and death of Pontius Pilate.
St.

Matthew

writes his gospel.

4755. .795. .42 4756. .796. .43 4757. .797.. 44

Cornelius the centurion converted about this time. Seneca Caligula, put to death by Chaereas and others, is succeeded by Claudius, brother to Germanicus. banished to Corsica. Mauritania reduced, and made a Roman province. The name of Christians first given to the followers of JESUS CHRIST, at Antioch. Claudius undertakes an expedition to Britain. St. James, the brother of John, put to death, and Peter imprisoned, by St. Mark writes his gospel. Herod Agrippa, at Jerusalem. Vespasian, having fought 30 battles with the Britons, taken 20 of their towns, and subdued two British nations, establishes himself in the isle of Wight.

4758.. 798. .45 4759.. 799. .46 4760. .800. .47

A dreadful famine, foretold by Agabus, Acts, xi. 2, rages in Judea at this time. Thrace becomes a Roman province. A new island, called Therasia by Seneca, appears in the jEgean sea. The Secular games celebrated at Rome. Caractacus, the British king, conquered by the Romans. Claudius adds three new letters to the Roman alphabet, of which the names of two only remain, viz. the Claudius puts many noble .fiLolic digamma, answering to our v, and the antisigma, answering to ps Romans to death, to gratify his wife Messalina. The canal between the Rhine and the Maese cut.
Messalina, having filled Rome with her debaucheries, publicly marries Caius Silius, during The Gauls admitted into the emperor's life-time, for which they are both put to death by Claudius. the senate. Miserable death of Herod Agrippa, Acts, xii. 23. Seneca recalled from banishment, and made preceptor to Nero Caesar, son of the empress Agrippina.

4761. .801. .48

The empress

4762

. .

802

. .

47

4763. .803. .50 4765.. 805.. 52 4767. .807. .54 4769. 809. 56 4772. 812. . 59
.

The

Cologne founded by Agrippina. city of London built by the Romans about this time. The apostles hold a council at Caractacus, sent in chains to Rome, receives his liberty from Claudius. Jerusalem. St. Paul preaches at Athens. Astrologers expelled Italy. Claudius, poisoned by his empress Agrippina, is succeeded by Nero, son of the empress, and grandson of

4773. 813. 60
.
.

4774. .814. .61

4775.. 815. .62

4776.. 816.. 63

4777. .817. .64

4778. 818. .65
.

Germanicus. city of Rotterdam built about this time. Nero puts his mother Agrippina to death, and begins his public debaucheries. St. Paul pleads at Cassarea, before Felix, governor of Judea, Syria, &c. St. Paul makes his defence before Festus, the successor of Felix, and appeals to the court of Rome soon A remarkable comet appears. afterwards, he preaches before Herod Agrippa, king of the Jews. Boadicea, queen of a part of Britain, defeats the Romans, and burns the city of London; but is soon afterwards conquered by Suetonius, and poisons herself in the year (J4. St Mark, the Evangelist, dies about this time. St. Paul, sent in bonds to Rome, by sea, from Sidon, in the ensuing spring he pursues his the beginning of winter, is shipwrecked at Melita, or Malta voyage, and arrives safe in Italy. A great earthquake on the 5th of February destroys part of the city of Pompeii, at the foot of Vesuvius, and greatly damages Herculaneum. The city of Rome, set on fire by Nero, burns for six days upon which the first Gentile persecution of the Christians begins. The Jews begin their revolt by pelting the governor Florus with stones. The city of Lyons destroyed Seneca, Lucan, and many other eminent characters, put to death, at Rome.

The

by
4779. .819. .66

fire.

Nero goes

into Greece,

rioteers.

The Jewish war

and holds public trials of skill with tragedians, musicians, dancers, and chabegins in May, under Vespasian, in consequence of Nero having decided

the controversy relative to Caesarea in favour of the Syrians.

4780. .820. .67

4781 . 821 68 4782.. 822.. 69

.

4783. 823. 70
. .

4784. .824. .71

Vespasian: of Jupiter Capitolinus destroyed by fire. Vespasian orders the capitol to be rebuilt, the first stone of which is laid on the 21st of June. Titus, son of The city Vespasian, takes Jerusalem, on the 7th of September, which puts an end to the Jewish war. and temple are levelled with the ground, and the lands of Judea sold. Vespasian triumphs for his victories over the Jews. The temple of Janus is shut, for the sixth (r) time,

sect of Gnostics, causes St. Peter and St. Paul to be cast into prison, and Vespasian shortly afterwards put to death, the former by crucifixion, the latter by decapitation. defeats the Jews, and takes Joseph us the historian prisoner. Nero, deposed by the senate, kills himself, and Galba is proclaimed. Civil wars between Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and the latter remains master of the empire.

Simon Magus, founder of the

The temple

4786. .826. .73 4787.. 827. .74

the empire being ;tt peace. Vespasian banishes the philosophers from Rome. The states of Achaia, Lycia, Sarnos, Thrace, &c. formed into distinct provinces.
(r)

Accordhig

to Orosius.

120
Julian

INTRODUCTION.
i

[CHAP. n.

Mod
>..

A.

V).

47tW..828. 4790.. H2!>.

832.

77

79

4793.. 833.
47!)!.. 034.

80
81

Vespasian dedicates a temple to Peace, and places in it the golden vessels taken from Jerusalem. The Parthians revolt. A great plague at Rome. Vespasian dies, aged 69, and is succeeded by his son Titus. The cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii buried by an eruption of Vesuvius, on the first of November: Pliny the Elder is suffocated by the smoke and ashes, while endeavouring to explore the progress of this phenomenon. The capitol, pantheon, &c. at Rome, consumed by fire. Titus builds the hot-baths, and dedicates the

amphitheatre begun by

his father.

Julius Agricola builds a wall from the Frith of Forth to that of Clyde, to prevent the incursions of thr Caledonians into South Britain. Titus dies on the 13th of September, aged 41, and is succeeded by his

4795.. 835.
4797.. 837.

82

84
85 86 88 89 92 93 94 95

brother Domitian. Domitian banishes the philosoAgricola reduces South Britain to the condition of a Roman province. phers from Rome. Agricola defeats the Caledonians, under Galgacus ; and, sailing round Britain, first discovers it to be an
inland.

4798.. 838.
4799.. 839. 480 I.. 841. 4802.. H 42. 4805.. 1(13.
4806.. 848. 4807.. 847. 4808.. 848.

4809.. 849.. 90

4810- -850. 4811.. 851.

97 98

4812.. 852.. 99

Domitian orders the nativities of all the noble Romans to be cast, and puts to death such as were said to be born for empire. The philosophers banished Rome. The Capitoliue games instituted by Domitian, and ordered to be celebrated every fourtli year. The Secular games celebrated at Rome. The Dacian war begins, and continues about 15 years. Astrologers banished Rome. Agrippa, the mathematician, observes, in Bithynia, a conjunction of the moon with the Pleiades, on the 29th of November, at seven o'clock in the evening. The empire of the Huns, in Tartary, destroyed by the Chinese. Philosophers and men of science banished Rome Epictetus is among the exiles. The second persecution of the Christians begins about November, and continues till the death of Domitian. St. John, after being thrown into a caldron of boiling oil, and taken out unhurt, is banished to Patmos about this period, and there writes the book of the Apocalypse, or Revelation. Domitian assassinated by Stephanus and other conspirators, on the 18th of September, aged 45. He was the last of what are called the twelve Caesars; though the family of Augustus ended with Nero. St. John recalled from banishment; he is supposed to have died about A. D. 100. Menelaus, the mathematician, observes, at Rome, a transit of the moon over Spica Virginia, on the llth of January, at seven o'clock in the morning. Julius Scverus, governor of Britain.
;

SECOND CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN

4815.. 855.. 102

JERA.

4816. 4818. 4819. 4820. 4827.

,856. ,858. ,859. ,860. ,867.

,103 ,105 .100 ,107 ,114

(Lib. Pliny the Younger, proconsul in Bithynia, sends Trajan his celebrated account of the Christians. x. Ep. 97.) Dacia reduced to the state of a Roman province. A great earthquake in Greece and Asia. Trajan makes an expedition into the East, against the Parthians. The third persecution of the Christians breaks out. Armenia is made a province of the empire. Trajan erects his celebrated column at Rome, in autumn.

great earthquake in China.

4828. ,868. .115 4829. .869. .116 430. .870. .117 4831. .871. .118 1833. .873. .120 4(534 .874. .121
.

An insurrection of the Jews of Cyrene. An The Jews make an incursion into Egypt.
The

earthquake at Antioch.

Trajan subdues Assyria.

4839. .879. .126 4841. .881. .128

4843. .883. .130 4844. .884. .131 4845. .885. . 132

Adrian makes an expedition to Britain, against, the Caledonians. fourth persecution of the Christians begins. Nicomedia, the capital of Bithynia, and other cities, destroyed by an earthquake. Adrian builds a wall across the country, from Solway Frith to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 60 miles in length, to defend the Britons from the incursions of the Caledonians. Adrian goes into Asia and Egypt for seven years. Csareaand Nicopolis destroyed by an earthquake. Aquila translates the Old Testament into the Greek
tongue.

Adrian rebuilds Jerusalem, and dedicates a temple there to Jupiter. The Jews, excited to rebellion by Barcocliebas, commence a second war, of about four years' duration. Salvius Julianus compiles the Perpetual, Edict, or body of laws for the pru-tors of Alexandria. Ptolemy, at Alexandria, observes the autumnal equinox on the 25th of September, at two o'clock
in the afternoon.

4847.. 887.. 134 4848.. 888. 4H19..889. 4852.. H!I2. 4853.. 893.

135 136 139

,140

Urbicus builds a wall between Edinburgh and the Frith of Dumbarton; usually called Antoninus. Adrian finishes the second Jewish war, and banishes all the Jews from Judea. The second great canicular year of the Egyptians begins, on the 2()th of July.
Justin Martyr writes his first Apology for the Christians. Ptolemy observes the vernal equinox, at Alexandria, on the afternoon.

the

wall of

22d of March, about one o'clock

in the

SECT. X.]
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
A.D.

121

U. C.

4854.. 894.. 141 4858.. 898.. 145 4859.. 899.. 146 4805.. 905.. 152

A number
Sethites,

of heresies appear about

this

time,

among

the Christians

as the Ophites, the Cainites, the

&c.

4872.. 912.. 159 4875.. 915.. 162 4876.. 916.. 163

Antoninus defeats the Moors, and afterwards the Germans and Dacians. of Serapis introduced at Rome, by the emperor: his mysteries are celebrated on the 6th of May. Antoninus stops the persecution of the Christians. An inundation of the Tiber. An earthquake at Rhodes. Antoninus receives the submission of the Bactrians and Indians. Vologeses II. king of the Parthians, begins a war with the Romans, which continues three years. The persecution of the Christians, which began this year, under M. Aurelius Antoninus, the philosopher. is by some historians called the fourth, who make that under Adrian, in 118, a continuation of the third,

The worship

4878.. 918.. 165

4879.. 919.. 166 4881.. 921.. 168

begun by Trajan, in 107. Sulpicius calls it lliejfifth. Ctesiphon and Seleucia being taken, the Parthians sue for peace, and cede Mesopotamia and Adiabene for which the two emperors, Aurelius and Verus, have a triumph decreed them, next to the Romans " Fathers of their country." year, and receive the title of The Romans send an embassy to China, to establish a trade in silk. An universal pestilence. Peregrinus the apostate casts himself into a fire he had kindled, at the Olympic
;

games.

4882.. 922.. 169 4884.. 924.. 171 4887.. 927.. 174

The war

4890.. 930.. 177

4893.. 933., 180 4894.. 934.. 181 4895.. 935.. 182 4896.. 936.. 183 4901.. 941.. 188

at a moment when the troops of Aurelius were on the point of perishing through drought, the Christians pray for help, and are answered by a plentiful shower of rain. The war with the Marcomanni, Vandals, &c. finishes. The persecution of the Christians increases in violence, and several distinguished persons suffer martyrdom. Another war breaks out between the Romans and Marcomanni, &c. which lasts three years. The emperor Commodus, at the solicitation of his concubine Martia, remits the persecution of the Christians.

with the Marcomanni breaks out. Montanus propagates his heresy. During the war with the Quadi, in Germany,

Commodus makes peace witli the German tribes, and enters Rome The temple of Serapis, at Alexandria, destroyed by fire.

in

triumph.

4902.. 942.. 189 4904.. 944.. 191 4907.. 947.. 194 4908.. 948.. 195 4909.. 949.. 196 4911.. 951.. 198
4913.. 953.. 200

Ulpius Marcellus finishes a violent war, that had raged in Britain. Th<> capitol and libraries at Rome destroyed by lightning. Maternus, having excited a revolt in Spain and Gaul, comes into Italy, and is there defeated and put to death. -The plague rages in Italy. Rome visited by the pestilence. -The Romans defeated by the Saracens. A great part of the city of Rome, with the palace, the temple of Vesta, &c. destroyed by fire. Severus begins the siege of Byzantium. The Christians begin to dispute about the time for celebrating the feast of Easter. Severus, having taken Byzantium, destroys the walls, deprives the inhabitants of their freedom and privileges, and leaves them in subjection to the town of Perinthus. Severus, by the defeat and death of Albinus, becomes sole emperor; and celebrates magnificent games, in which he bestows crowns of victory on his soldiers. Severus defeats the Parthiaus, who had revolted, takes Ctesiphon, and subjects the Adiabeuiaus and Arabs. Scapula, proconsul of Africa, persecutes the Christians within his government.

THIRD CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN

491 4.. 954. 4915.. 955. 491 7.. 957. 4918.. 958. 4920.. 960. .201 .202 .204 .205 .207

JERA.

4922.. 962. .209

4925.. 965. .212

4929. .909.. 216

4930.. 970. .217 4932.. 972. .219

Symmachus publishes a version of the Hebrew Scriptures, in Greek. An eruption of Vesuvius. Severus issues his edict for the fifth persecution of the Christians. The Secular games celebrated at Rome. An earthquake in Wales. Severus goes to Britain, accompanied by his two sons, Antoninus Caracalla and Septimius Geta: 60,000 of his troops die of the plague. Severus, to secure the Roman possessions in the south of Britain, builds a wall across the country, nearly upon the she of that of Adrian, being only a few paces more to the northward, and about 68 miles in length. The Christian religion introduced into Scotland. A distinction made at Rome between municipal and free citizens. Caracalla murders his brother Geta, on the 28th of March ; and more than twenty other noble Romans are also put to death by his order. Caracalla goes into the East, surprises Artabanes II. king of the Parthians, and, after laying waste his
country, retires into Mesopotamia. Septuagint translation of the Old Testament found in a cask. Christians depute Julius Africanus, the chronologer, to solicit the re-establishment of the town of Emmatis, of which the name had been changed to Nicopolis. The sixth Chinese dynasty, called Heou-Han, begins. It was divided into three branches, vis. that of Heott-Han, which lasted 43 years, under two emperors ; that of Ottei, which prevailed 45 years in the north ; and that of Ou. which prevailed 59 years in the south. Heliogabalus engages to pay an annual tribute to the Goths, that they may not invade the empire : from which time the decay of the empire may be dated. A conjunction of tlie heavenly luminaries observed at Alexandra), on the 29th of August.

The The

4934.. 974. .221

4935.. 975. .222

VOL.

I.

122
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
U. C.
A. D.

[CHAP.

ir.

4938.. 978..-2-2.-1 4939.. 979. .'2-2(1 4942.. 982.. 229 4925.. 985.. 232 4926.. 98CJ..233 4927.. 987.. 234 4928.. 988.. 235 4954.. 994.. 241
4955.. 995.. 242 4960.. 1000.. 247

The mathematicians are allowed to teach publicly at Rome. The new kingdom of Persia begins about this time. The reign of the Arsacidse ends in Parthia; Artabanus being
battle

for the third time conquered, and slain in by Artaxerxes, king of Persia. Ammonias, the Christian and Platonic philosopher, opens a school at Alexandria: he flourished after 243, Artaxerxes defeated, with great slaughter, by the Romans, at Tadmor. The emperor Alexander enters Rome in triumph, having taken or killed 700 elephants, and 1800 chariots of the Persians. Pontianus, bishop of Rome, banished to Sardinia. The sixth persecution of the Christians commences with the death of Alexander. Sapor I. king of Persia, invades Mesopotamia, and menaces Antioch. The Franks first mentioned in history, as having

Gordian

The

been defeated by Aurelian, military tribune, in Gaul. successful in his Persian expedition, and takes several cities. Secular games celebrated at Rome, to commemorate the millennium of the city.
is

Pompey's theatre

4963.. 1003.. 250

4964.. 1004.. 251 4965.. 1005.. 252 4970.. 1010.. 257 4971.. 1011.. 258 4973.. 1013.. 260

destroyed by fire. The seventh persecution of the Christians begins under Decius. One Paul, to avoid it, retires into Thebais, and there lays the foundation of the monastic life ; he being the first hermit. The Novatian heresy propagated about this time. The Romans defeated by the Goths in Moesia ; and Decius and his two sons are slain in battle. A great pestilence over the Roman empire. The Romans again tributary to the Goths. The persecution of the Christians continued. The Scythians and Persians invade Asia. The eighth persecution of the Christians begins, under Valerian. The empire is successively harassed by thirty tyrants, or pretenders, in various parts. The Scythians ravage the empire, take Trebisonde and Chalcedon, and burn Nice. The Pranks also

Ravenna, and commit depredations in Spain. Valerian, in the East, having repaired much of the damage done by the Persians, passes into Mesopotamia, but is there taken prisoner by Sapor ; who, after keeping him captive for some years, and offering him the The temple of Diana, at Ephesus, greatest indignities, at length orders him to be flayed alive.
pillage several cities, as far as

4974.. 1014.. 261 4975.. 1015.. 262 4977.. 101 7.. 264

consumed by

fire.

great plague rages throughout the Roman empire. 1 Earthquakes in Europe, Asia, and Africa, attended with three days of darkness. one of the thirty tyrants, having established himself at Palmyra, with the title of king, Odenatus, governs the Eastern empire for Gallienus, declares war against the Persians, and takes possession of

4978.. 1018.. 265

4980.. 1020.. 267

4982.. 1022.. 269 4984.. 1024.. 271

4985.. 1025.. 272 4986.. 1026.. 273 4987.. 1027.. 274

Mesopotamia. Odenatus takes several Persian satraps or governors, and sends them prisoners to Rome, where Gallienus receives the honours of a triumph. The seventh Chinese dynasty, called Tcin-ou-ti, begins, and continues 155 years, under 15 emperors. Odenatus, king of Palmyra, dying, is succeeded by his widow Zenobia, who assumes the title of queen of the East. The Scythians cross the Danube, and are defeated by Cleodamus and Athenaeus, The Goths ravage Cizicum, Asia, and Achaia but, being repulsed by generals of Gallienus. Athenaeus, they retire into Epirus, Acarnania, and Bceotia. Claudius gains a great victory over the Goths, Scythians, and Ileruli, in which 320,000 of the enemy are slain, and 2000 of their vessels sunk or destroyed. Zenobia takes possession of Egypt. The Alemanni and Marcomanni ravage the empire. Aurelian consults the Sibylline oracles as to the event of the war, and puts to death several persons of quality at Rome. The ninth persecution of the Christians begins, under Aurelian. The emperor declares war against Zenobia. Aurelian defeats Zenobia, takes Palmyra, and puts to death the philosopher Longinus, who was
;

The emperor defeats

The Tctricus, tyrant of Gaul, whom, with Zenobia, he leads in triumph at Rome. temple of the Sun built at Rome. Aurelian abandons Dacia to the Barbarians. The ninth persecution of the Christians ends with the martyrdom of Felix, bishop of Rome.

attached to that queen.

4989.. 1029.. 276 4990.. 1030.. 277 4993.. 1033. .280 4997.. 1037.. 284

4999.. 1039.. 286 5000.. 1040.. 287

5003.. 1043.. 290 5004.. 1044.. 2!) 6005.. 1045. .292

I

send Egyptian year, though his reign does not commence till the 17th of September. The Romans a second embassy to China. Several tyrants set up in the provinces and the northern nations attack the Roman territories on all piM.<. TbeSalian Franks establish themselves in Toxandria, to the west and south of the Rhine from them came Clodion and his successors " and therefore," says M. Freret, " we should here fix the commencement of the French monarchy, rather than under Clovis, 300 years afterwards, as Father Daniel would have it." The Gregorian and llermogenian codes published. The two emperors and the two Caesars march to defend the four quarters of the empire. Dioclesian orders divine honours to be paid to himself.
; :
;

Wines first made in Britain. Probus goes on an expedition to Gaul, in which country the Franks settle about this time. Probus defeats the Persians, in the East, and the Blemmies, in Egypt. The ;rra of Dioclesian (called also the ^Era of Martyrs) begins on the 29th of August, according

to the fixed

15

SECT. X.]
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.

123

U.C. A. D.

5006. .1046. .293

6008. .1048. .295 5009. 1049. 296

. .

Constantius Chlorus drives the Franks out of Batavia, after having killed several hundred thousands of them, and transports a great number into Gaul. The whole Carpathian nation surrender themselves to the Romans, and are settled in Pannonia. Dioclesian recovers Egypt from the tyrant Achileus, takes Alexandria after a siege of eight months, and Coustantius Chlorus defeats Alectus, and recovers Britain, after an destroys Busiris and Coptis.
usurpation of ten years.

FOURTH CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN

5014. .1054. .301
5016. .1056. .303

JERA.

5017. .1057. .304 5018. .1058. .305 5019. .1059. .306

5020. 1060. 5021. .1061. 5022. .1062. 5024.. 1064 5025. .1065.
.

307 .308 .309 311 .312

.

5026. .1066. 313 5028. .1068. .315 5029. .1069. .316 5031.. 1071.. 318
.

5032.. 1072. .319

5034. .1074. . 321 5036.. 1076. .323

5037.. 1077.. 324

5038.. 1078.. 325

5039.. 1079.. 326

Constantius defeats 60,000 of the Alemanni, near Langres. Maximiauus Galerius defeats the Barbarians in Africa. A new war breaks out between the Romans and Persians. The tenth and last persecution of the Christians begins partially at Nicomedia, on the 23d of February; and soon afterwards becomes general. The two emperors order the churches to be demolished, the sacred books to be burned, the Christians to be deprived of all offices in the state, and those of meaner rank to be put to death. Dioclesian and Maximianus resign the empire, and retire to private lives. Constantius Chlorus and Maximianus Galerius succeed them. The Franks defeated by Constantius, in Gaul, and two of their kings, or chiefs, Ascaric and Regaisus, put to death. Constantius dies at York, in Britain, on the 25th of July, and is succeeded by his son Constantine, surnamed the Great, by the suffrages of the army ; but the praetorian band at Rome set up Maxentius, son of the late emperor Muxiiuianiis Hercules, who also himself endeavours, next year, to recover the empire. A considerable part of the city of Rome destroyed by fire. Four emperors appear in different parts of the empire. The persecution of the Christians in the East, which had relaxed, breaks out afresh. Galerius dies of a loathsome disease, and Maxentius orders him to be ranked among the gods! Constantine sees a vision of a cross in the clouds, and is converted, or rather confirmed in the principles wherein his mother Helena had educated him. Crossing the Alps, he arrives at Rome, and defeats Maxentius, who perishes in the Tiber, on the 24th of September ; from which time, the Roman indicSee page 43. tion, or aera of Constantine, is reckoned. The tenth persecution terminated by an edict of Constantine and Licinius. Constantine orders the punishment of crucifixion to be abolished. Arius propagates his heresy about this time. Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, excommunicates Arius, whose cause is espoused by Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia. Licinius banishes the Christians from his presence, prohibits their holding councils, and enacts several other regulations against them : but Constantine publicly favours them, and endeavours to reconcile the differences between Alexander and Arius, but in vain. The observation of Sunday, or the Christian sabbath, first ordered. Commencement of the civil war between the two emperors. Constantine rescinds all the laws that Licinius had made against the Christians, and gives full liberty to the exercise of their religion. Constantine defeats Licinius, first at Adrianople, on the 3d of July, and at Chalcedon on the 18th of September. The victor grants Licinius his life, at the suit of Constantia, sister to Constantine, and wife of Liciuius ; but, being detected in a conspiracy, he is afterwards banished to Thessalonica. Constantine remains sole emperor. The first general council, convoked at Nice, by order of the emperor, begins June 19, and ends r August -2. >. The Niceue creed composed, and the time of Easter settled to be observed on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon. Licinius, detected in exciting fresh troubles at ThessaloThe combats of the gladiators abolished at Rome. nica, is put to death by order of Constautine. Crispus, the eldest son of the emperor, being falsely accused by his step-mother, Fausta, is poisoned by order of Constantiue. The Partitions persecute the Christians within their territories. Constantine
builds a superb church at Jerusalem; and his mother Helena erects two others, one on tiie mount of Athanasius, on the Olives, and another at Bethlehem, on the spot where our Saviour was born. death of Alexander, succeeds to the bishopric of Alexandria, and rejects the emperor's intercession for the re-establishment of Arius, Frumentius preaches the gospel to the Abyssinians, and is made

5041. .1081. .328

bishop of that country. [The latter event is sometimes placed in the year 341.] Constantine, having repaired and beautified the city of Byzantium, in Thrace, transfers the seat of

5043.. 1083.. 330

empire thither. Byzantium solemnly dedicated, and named Constantinople. Sapor II. begins a dreadful persecution of the Christians in Persia, which continues forty years. [Some writers place this persecution in the

5044. .1084. .331 5045. .108-5. .332

The heathen templet demolished, by order of Constantine. The emperor sends his son Constantine the Younger to help
of

year 1526 or 327, others in 343.]

the Sarmatians against the Goths, 100,000

whom

are slain in battle.

R2

124
Julia

INTRODUCTION.
U. C.
A. D.
1

[CHAP.

Period.

4047.. 1087.. 33

6049.. 1089.. 336 6050.. 1090.. 337

6053. 1093. .340 *055. 1095. a 12

.

5056.. 1096.. 343

4057. 1097. .344 6058. 1098. .345 5064. 1104. .351 5065. 1105. .352
6066.. 1106.. 353

5068.. 1108.. 355

5070.. 1110.. 357

6071.. 1111.. 358 5072.. 1112.. 359

6074.. 1114.. 361

5075.. 1115.. 362

4076.. 1116.. 363

6081.. 1121.. 368 6083.. 1123.. 370

6086.. 1126.. 373

5089.. 1129.. 376

6091. 5092. 5094. 5095. 6096. 5102. 5103. 5105.

SECT. X.]
Julian

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
A. D.

125

Period

U. C.

6108.. 1148.. 395

6109. .1149.. 396 Sill, .1151.. 398

5114. 5115. 5116. 5118.

.1154.. 401 .1155.. 402 .1156.. 403 .1158.. 405

5119.

126
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
U. C. A. D.

[CHAP.

ir.

6159 "1199 -.446

61 00. 1200. 447 f. 1(5-2 1202- 440
-

and
Attila

Britons

Meroveus begins

far as Thermopylae. to reign over the Franks, from whom the first dynasty of the French kings are called Merovingian. The Saxons and Angles cross from Germany to Britain, and land in the isle of Thanet, at the invitation of Vortigern, to defend Ihe natives against the Scots and Picts of the North.

The begin to be sung about this time. make iheir celebrated complaint to Artius. and his Huns lay waste all Europe, and advance as
Spirit,

Picts and

Scots ravage South Britain

the

5163- -1203- -450

Attila ravages all Germany and France ; but is defeated, next year, with the loss of upwards of 180,000 (or, as some relate, 300,000) of his men, near Chalons, by Aetius, assisted by Theodoric and Meroveus. Italy is afflicted with so dreadful a famine, that parents are reduced to the cruel necessity

of devouring their 51 4- 1204. 451

The

own children. Christians persecuted in Britain.

The

fourth general council, at Chalcedon, begins October 8,

5165- .1205- 452

6167- 1207- 454

and ends November 1. The city and republic of Venice take from the fury of the Barbarians.

their rise

about

this time;

being established by certain refugees

Attila dies of excessive drinking: the empire of the Huns is ruined or divided on his death. The dals become masters of Sicily. The Britons endeavour to expel the Saxons, who, instead of
tectors,

Vanpro-

had become

their tyrants.

S168-. 1208- -455

Genseric, king of the African Vandals, invades Italy, at the instigation of Eudoxia, widow of ValenGenseric enters Rome on the 12th of tinian, to avenge her husband's death on the tyrant Maximus. July: the Romans stone Maximus, and cut his body to pieces ; while the Vandals destroy the most considerable buildings, rifle the city of its riches, and carry the empress Eudoxia, with her daughter The Suevi take possesPlacidia, and many thousands of the inhabitants, into captivity in Africa. sion of the province of Tarragona. The kingdom of Kent, the first of the Heptarchy in Britain,

ol69" 1209- -456

Theodoric

begins, under Hengist. II. king of the Visigoths, enters Spain, by persuasion of Avittis, defeats Rechiari us, king of the Suevi, and obliges him to fly into Lusitania (now Portugal,) whither he also follows, takes him

5170- 1210- 457 5171- 1211- 458 5174- 1214. .461 6175- 1216. 462

Ricimer defeats the Vandals who infested the coasts. prisoner, and puts him to death. Vortimer, the Briton, defeated by Hengist, in the battle of Crayford. An earthquake does great damage at Antioch, and in Thrace, Ionia, and the Cyclades. About this time the Chinese sail to the north of California, in America. The emperor Leo concludes a treaty with the Goths. A great fire at Constantinople, on the llth of
September.
Childeric, king of the Franks, takes Cologne from the Romans. period the hand of a painter withered, who had undertaken
;

Theodore

relates, that

about

this

5176-.. 1216- 463 5177- 1217- 464

-

51 79-. 1219- -466

5180- 1220- 467 5181- 1-2-21- 468 5182- 1222- 469

5185- .122.5- 472

same form that the Pagans described their Jupiter Gennadius. Victorinus, of Aquitain, invents the Paschal cycle of 532 years. Beorgok, king of the Alans, defeated and slain by Ricimer, the Roman general. Count MarcelliuHS expels the Vandals from Sicily. Euaric, king of the Visigoths, overruns Spain, enters Gaul, besieges Clermont in Auvergne, but is at Rogation-days instituted. length put to flight by Ecdicius, son of the late emperor Avitus. The Lupercalia celebrated at Rome. The emperor Leo defeats the Vandals Genseric obtains peace.
;

to represent Jesus Christ in the he was, however, healed through the prayers of

The Visigoths drive the Romans out of Spain. The Ostrogoths send the head of Dinzic, king of

the Huns, and son of the famous Attila, to Con-

stantinople.

5188- 1228- 47o

6189-. 1229- 476

<Src. as far as Congreat eruption of Vesuvius, which lays waste all Campania, and throws ashes, and in such abundance as to cause almost total darkness in the middle of the day. stantinople, The Romans defeat the Hengist, the Saxon, treacherously murders 300 British nobles at a feast. Saxons, who had established themselves in the vicinity of the Loire (better known by the name of Heruli ;) and the Franks take possession of the isles they had occupied, Childeric having first made a treaty with their chieftain Odoacer. defeats Orestes, on the 23d of August, takes Rome and the Roman Odoacer, invited into

nobility, Italy, by Ravenna, deposes Augustulus, refuses the imperial honours, but assumes the title of king of making Ravenna the seat of his government. Great part of Constantinople destroyed by fire.

Italy,

EPOCHA
5189- 1229- -476 5191.. 1231.. 477 5193- .1233- .480

XII.

FROM THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE BY ODOACER, TO

TTS

REVIVAL BY CHARLEMAGNE: 324 YEARS.

5195 1236 ..482 5197- -1237' -484

years, under six emperors. Great part of Constantinople destroyed by an earthquake of 40 days' continuance the greatest shock was felt on the 24th of September. Xeno, emperor of the East, publishes a decree of union between parties in the church. Huneric, king of the Vandals in Africa, persecutes the Christians.
:

The kingdom of Italy begun by Odoacer, on the 23d of August. The ninth Chinese dynasty, called 7 si, begins, and continues 23

SECT. X.]
Jrlian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
The
battle of Soissons gained

127

A. D.

5198.. 485

5200. .487 5203. .490

5204. .491 5206. .493
5207. 4.04 0209. ,496
.

by Clovis against Siagrius, the Roman general in Gaul, which confirms the power country, and in by many chronologers deemed the true sera of the French monarchy. (Firfeann. 287, 420.) The Britons, under Ambrosius and Prince Arthur, defeat the Saxons, under Ella. Theodoric and his Ostrogoths, having left their seats in Mcesia the preceding winter, enter Italy, and defeat Odoacerat the river Sontium, on the 28th of March, a second time at Verona, and a third at Abdua. Ella founds the second Saxon kingdom, of Sussex. Zeno, being seized with an epilepsy, is buried alive, on

^of the

Franks

in that

the 6th of April.

of Italy passes to the Ostrogoths, by the taking of Ravenna, on the 27th of February, after a Odoacer assassinated at a banquet, by Theodoric. siege of two years. Gelasius, bishop of Rome, asserts his supremacy as sovereign pontiff. The SclavoClovis, king of France, is baptized, and encourages the spread of Christianity in his dominions.

The kingdom

5210.. 497

The
The The

nians seize on Poland and Bohemia. Isauric war ends with the capture of Athenodorus, of the city oi Tarsus, in Cilicia.

who

is

decapitated, and his head exposed on the gate*

6212. 499 5213. 500

Bulgarians ravage Thrace. Saracens overrun Syria and Phoenicia.

*

SIXTH CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN JERA.

5214. .501

The emperor

5216. .503

5217. .504 5218. .505 5219. .506

5220. 5222. 5223. 5224.

.507 .509 .510 .511

The Pandects published. The Magi prevail at Rome. which ends the Persian war. Anien, chancellor of Alaric II. king of the Visigoths in Spain, reforms the Theodosian code, and publishes it at Aire, in Gascony, on the 2d of February. Battle of Vouille, near Poictiers, in which Alaric is defeated and slain by Clovis. A great fire at Constantinople. The Saracens invade Arabia and Palestine. Clovis makes Paris the capital of the French dominions. Clovis dying, his dominions are divided, among his children, into the kingdoms of Paris, under Childebert ; Metz, under Thiery Soissons, under Clothaire and Orleans, under Clodirair. A great insurrection tt Prince Arthur defeats the Saxons in the battle of Badon-hill, near Bath. Constantinople.
the Christians in Africa
Celcr, general of the empire, defeats Cabades,
; ;

much greater antiquity. The Vandals again persecute

Anastatius makes a treaty of peace with the Saracens. Gondebaud, king of the Burgundians, publishes his code, intitled La Lay Gombette. The army of Ar.ailatius cut to pieces by Cabades, king of Persia. Pope Syramachus resists the civil power. Fergus II. begins the kingdom of Scotland, according to the Irish historians : those of Scotland give it a

5225. ,512 5226. ,513 5227. ,514

An

irruption of Vesuvius.

5229.. 516
5230. .517 6232. .519

Persian and Saracen kings embrace the Christian religion. Goth besieging Constantinople, his fleet is set on fire, and destroyed, by means of a brass specHlum, the invention of Proclus. The Getae ravage Macedonia, Thessaly, &c. Dionysius the monk, surnamed the Little, introduces the computation of time by the Christian aera. Palestine afflicted with a five years' drought and pestilence. Cerdic the Saxon, having defeated prince Arthur at Charford, begins the kingdom of Wessex, being the third of the
Vitalianus the

The

5234. .520 5235. .521 523fi. .522 5237. .524 5238. 5239. 6240. 5242.
.525

The

Heptarchy.

Britons defeat the Anglo-Saxons at Bath. An earthquake at Corinth. Thrasamond, king of the Vandals in Africa, defeated and slain by the Saracens, or Moors. The battle of Voiron, where Clodimir, king of Orleans, is killed by Goudemar, king of Burgundy.

An

earth-

quake

in Cilicia.

526 527
,529

5243.. 530
5244. 531 5245. 532

city of Antioch consumed by fire. earthquake at Antioch. Dionysius the Little composes his cycle. The fourth Saxon kingdom, of Essex, founded by Erchenwin. The Justinian code published on the 16th of April. The order of Benedictine monks instituted. Justinian orders Antioch to be rebuilt. The Jews revolt, and set up one Julian for their king : the emperor has numbers of them put to death, and, among the rest, their king. Hilderic, king of the Vandals, dethroned, and shut up in a close prison by his brother Gilimer : the emperor

The

An

5246. 6247 5248. 6249.,

.

533 534 535 536

declares war against the latter. Thiery, king of Mcrz, seizes Thuringia from Hermanfroi. The kingdom of Burgundy ends, being conquered by Childebert and Clothaire, kings of Paris and Soissons. An A great pestilence in Ethiopia. insurrection at Constantinople, in which 30,000 persons are killed in one clay. The Digest of Justinian published, on the 30th of December. Bclisarius, by the capture of about the end of the year, finishes the kingdom of the Vandals in Africa.

Carthage

Sicily

The

Indian monks (some writer! refer this inhabitants of Constantinople taught the fabrication of silk, by two to the year Belisarius takes Rome from the Ostrogoths, OB the 10th of December. 551.)
:

and Naples taken by

Belisarius.

1-28
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A. D.

[CHAP.

ri.

537 6352.. 530

62 .V>..

263.. 540

6855.. 642
256.. 543

6257.. 544 5258.. 545 6260.. 547 5263.. 550

French coin begins to be current through the Roman empire. with war, famine, and pestilence. The Goths raze the city of Milan. Theodebert, king of Italy distressed 'Metz, enters Italy by fraud, and takes the camps of both Romans and Goths, in one day. Ravenna surrenders to Belisarius, and Vitiges is taken prisoner and sent to Constantinople. The Roman troops in Africa destroyed by the Moors. Autioch destroyed by the king of Persia. The consulship of Basilius is the last at Rome. The Romans defeated by the Goths, on the P6. Antiocb Prince Arthur mortally wounded in Cornwall, by the treacherous Modred. rebuilt. A great plague, which came from Africa, desolates Asia and Europe. An earthquake, of wide extent, does much Totila, king of the Goths in Italy, seizes Tuscany, Campania, Pumischief, on the 6th of September. teoli, Naples, &c. Totila begins to besiege Rome : the emperor sends Belisarius against him. The Persians defeat the Romans in
several battles. Totila takes the city of Tivoli, and puts
all the inhabitants to the sword. taken by Totila, and pillaged in a barbarous manner, on the 17th of January. Ida founds the fifth Saxon kingdom, of Northumberland. earthquake in Palestine, Syria, &c. The state of Poland first formed by Lechus, who takes the tide of

Rome

An

Duke. 6264.. 551

6265.. 552

The manufacture of silk, according

anno 536.)

to

some chronologers,

is

introduced into Europe by some monks.

:

Vide

The empire of the Geou-gens,

6266.. 553 5267.. 554 8269.. 556 6270.. 557

5271.. 558

or Avari, in Great Tartary, ends the Huns, who tion of their power, in the year 93, having recovered their strength, raise a An earthquake in Greece, and a great commotion in the sea. Turks. The fifth general council, or second of Constantinople, begins, May 4.

had remained after the destrucnew empire under the name of

Narses, the

Roman

general,

A A A

in Italy, in February, and is himself appointed governor sedition of the Jew s in Palestine. Civil wars in France.

by the defeat and death of Teia, puts an end to the kingdom of the Ostrogoth* of that country, for the emperor Justinian.

The eleventh Chinese dynasty, called Tchin, begins, and great earthquake at Rome, Constantinople, &c. continues 33 years, under six emperors. dreadful pestilence over Europe, Asia, and Africa, which continues for almost 50 years. Childebert dies on the 23d of December, and is succeeded by his son Clothaire, who thus becomes sovereign of all France. The winter of this year was so severe, that the Danube was frozen over, and the Huns crossing it, fell

5274.. 561

5276.. 563 6278.. 565 5281 . 568

.

upon Moesia, Thrace, and Greece. conspiracy against the emperor Justinian, on the 5th of November : Belisarius, suspected of being privy to On the death of Clothaire, France is divided by his four it, is disgraced, but restored to favour next year. sons into as many states. Constantinople almost destroyed by fire. The pestilence ravages France, Italy, and Germany. Colomb propagates Christianity among the Picts.

5282.. 569

5285.. 572 6286.. 573 5287.. 574 5288.. 575

Narses, disgraced by the emperor, invites the Lombards from Pannonia, to settle in Italy, where Alboinus begins the kingdom of Lombardy. Longinus, sent by the emperor to govern in Italy, takes the title of Exarch, and makes Ravenna the seat of his government. The Turks send an embassy from the heart of Scythia, or Tartary, to Constantinople, with proposals for opening a trade in silk being the first notice of these people in history. The Persians declare war against the emperor Justin II. The Avari, or Huns, from Chinese Tartary, break into Germany, and ravage Thuringia, but the kings of France oblige them to withdraw. The Persians invade and plunder Syria. The Lombards in Italy are governed for 12 years by elective dukes. The first monastery founded in Bavaria, at Weltemberg, Uffa founds the sixth Saxon kingdom, of East Anglia. on the Danube. A civil war breaks out in France, which continues several years, through the ambition and
;

5289.. 576 6293.. 580 5294.. 681 6295.. 582

5296.. 583 5297.. 581 02!)!).. 586 6301 r,H8 6302 589
.
.

envy of Brunehaut and Fredegonde ; the former wife of Sigebert, the latter of Chilperic. The Lombards defeated by Mummol, general to ( outran, king of Orleans. Chosroes the Great, king of Persia, defeated by the Roman general Justinian. The city of Antioch destroyed by an earthquake. Cliosroes, being again defeated, dies of grief. The Latin tongue ceases to be spoken in Italy about this period. Crida founds the kingdom of Mercia, being the seventh Saxon kingdom in Britain. The Turks divide into two the tribes, the Oriental and Western ; the former reside in the vicinity of China, the latter on the borders of Persians and Romans. The Suevi in Spain conquered by the Visigoths, which ends their kingdom in that country. Fiefs originate about this time in France.
i

The kingly government restored by the Lombards The city of Paris destroyed by fire. The Tiber overflows at Rome, in November, and

in Italy.

6303.. 590

occasions a plague. Philippicus, the Roman general, gain* a complete victory over the Persians. The pestilence rages in Italy and France. The Avari ravage Thrace, and defeat the Roman army sent against thenv The twelfth Chinese dynasty, called 6'oui, begins, aud continues 29 years, under two emperors.

SECT. X.]
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
The

129

A. D.

5305.. 593

5308.. 595

Avari expelled Thrace, by the Roman general Priscus. The Gascons cross the Pyrenees from Spain, and establish themselves in that part of France afterwards called Gascony. Chosroes II. king of Persia, having been dethroned by his subjects, in the year 590, is restored by the troops of the emperor Mauritius. The Sclavonians penetrate into Istria, Bohemia, and Poland. The Lombards besiege Rome, and ravage the
emperor's territories in Italy. John, Patriarch of Constantinople, assumes the title of Universal Bishop, in opposition to the Pope of Rome. Augustine arrives in England, attended by forty monks, under the auspices of Pope Gregory I. surnamed the Great.

5309. 596 5310. .597

.

5311. .598 5312. .599 5313. .000

A A

truce between the

Romans and Lombards.

dreadful pestilence in Africa. The Sclavonians and Avari ravage Italy.

SEVENTH CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN

5314.. 602

JERA.

Phocas murders Mauricius and

his children,

and usurps the empire, on the 23d of November.

The Lombards

5316. .603
5317. .604 5318.. 605 5319. .606 5320. .607

defeat the Romans in Italy. Chosroes II. to avenge the death of Mauricius, declares war against the Romans, which he continues for eighteen years, with so much slaughter and success, that the Romans lose nearly all their possessions in Asia. St. Paul's church, in London, founded by Ethelbert, king of Kent. Augustine, the first archbishop of Canterbury, dies. -The use of bells for churches is introduced about this
period,

The temporal power

England.

by Pope Sabinianus. of the popes begins, by the concessions of Phocas.

The Court of Chancery

instituted in

The Pantheon

5322.. 609

at Rome, (which was built by Agrippa, in the reign of Augustus, and dedicated to Jupiter and all the gods,) converted into a Christian church by Pope Boniface 1 V The Jews of Antioch revolt, and massacre the Christians. A sedition at Constantinople, during the public
.

5323. .610 5324. Gil 5325. .612 5326.. 613

.

5327.. 614 5328. .615 5329. .616

in the Circus. Heraclius, general of the Romans in Africa, takes up arms against Phocas. Heraclius takes Constantinople, puts Phocas to death, and is himself proclaimed emperor, on the 5th of October. The church and abbey of Westminster founded by Sigebert, king of the East Saxons, or of Essex. The Saracens, or Arabs, ravage Syria Mohammed begins to publish his Koran. Clothaire becomes king of all France, and introduces the Maires du Palais, whom he appoints regents of the kingdoms he had united, Brunehaut, widow of Sigebert, king of Austrasia, charged with being accessary to the deaths often kings, or sons of kings, is put to a cruel death. The Persians take Jerusalem, kill 90,000 of the inhabitants, and carry off the cross of Christ.

games celebrated by Phocas

The Persians overrun Africa and Egypt, and take Alexandria. The Jews banished from Spain and France. The Persians plunder Carthage: Chosroes

refuses peace to

5531 618 5532.. 619

. .

5334. .621 5335. .622

6338. . . 625

Heraclius, unless he would renounce Christianity, and worship the sun. Constantinople plundered by the Avari. The thirteenth Chinese dynasty, called Twang, begins, and continues 288 years, under 20 emperors. Heraclius defeats the Persians in a general engagement; and is successful against them ever after. Mohammed, obliged to fly from Mecca, takes refuge in Medina, and is there favourably received : the zeraof the

5340. 627
,

0:541. ,628

5342. ,6-29 0340. 632

.

5347- 634

Hej'ra begins on Friday, the 16th of July. Sain the Persian general, having advanced into Thrace, with a view to besiege Constantinople, is defeated by Theodorus, general of Heraclius: during the battle, a storm of hail, the stones of a most extraordinary size, fell upon the Persians, and killed a great number of them. Chosroes put to death by his son Siroes, who makes a peace with Heraclius, and restores the wood of the holy cross. The emperor enters Constantinople in triumph, carrying the cross in his arms. An academy founded at Canterbury. Heraclius departs from Constantinople, on a journey to Jerusalem, whither he carries the cross, and there establishes the feast of the Holy Cross, on the 14th of September. Mohammed becomes master of Mecca, and afterwards of the greater part of Arabia. Mohammed dies at Medina, aged sixty-three, and is succeeded by his father-in-law Abu-beker, as caliph, or chief of the Saracens. The Persian aera of the day on which the PerYezdejerd begins on the 16th of June, sians were defeated at Merga, by the Saracens, under Abu-beker. The Saracens take Damascus, having defeated the emperor's troops, under Theodorus and Bahanes, on the 23d of August.

5348. (>.'}> 5349- -636

o:;.")0
.

Egypt and

The

Palestine invaded by the Saracens. Christian religion supposed to have been introduced into China, by missionaries, by Tartary, and erected a monument, which was discovered in 1620.

who

entered that country

.f>:57

5351

.638 .0353. -640 5350- -643

.

Jerusalem taken by the Saracens. On the death of Dagobert I. the Maires du Palais begin to usurp the royal authority in France. The Saracens take Alexandria, and burn the library. Sad, general of the Saracens, defeats the Persian army in an engagement, which lasted three days and three hands of the Arabs. nights, by which the capital, and the greatest part of the Persian dominions, fall into the retires into Khorasan. Yezdejerd
I.

VOL.

130
A. D.

INTRODUCTION.
Omar,

[CHAP.

ii.

Period.

5357- -044

53i;o,

047 048
0-V.J

5305

5360. .653

0371.. 658
5373. .660 5370, .003

5381' '668 5382. .669

5384 671 6385- 672

.

5386 -.673
5388, .675 5389. .076 6391. .078

caliph of the Saracens, killed by a Persian slave, in the temple of Jerusalem, which he had converted into a mosque. The university of Cambridge founded by Sigebert, king of East Anglia. The laws of the Lombards formed into a system, by Rotharis, and published on the 22(1 of November. The Saracens become masters of Africa, where they obtain the appellation of Moors. Cyprus taken by the Saracens, under Moavia. Yezdejerd murdered by his subjects, who had betrayed Merou, the royal residence, to the Turks; and Persia becomes part of the empire of the caliphs, governed by a sultan. The Saracens, under the conduct of Moavia, conquer the island of Rhodes, and break up the famous colossal statue of Apollo: another party also ravage Armenia, and defeat the Greeks at sea. The Danes begin to invade England. The Saracens sue for peace to the emperor Constans, who grants it, on condition of the caliph paying him an annual subsidy of 100,000 crowns, with a horse richly caparisoned, and a slave. Organs first used in churches. Glass invented by a bishop, and brought into Grirooald, duke of Beneventum, seizes the kingdom of Italy. England by a Benedictine monk. The Saracens carry out of Africa upwards of 80,000 prisoners, and sell them for slaves. The Saracens ravage Sicily ; and destroy the city of Syracuse. The Saracens invade Syria and Asia Minor. The Saracens land in Thrace, besiege Constantinople, from April to September, and- take up their winter quarters at Cyzicum. Wamba, king of the Visigoths in Spain, is the first sovereign of that country anointed and crowned ; the former kings being only elected and proclaimed. The Saracens renew the siege of Constantinople without effect ; their fleet off Cyzicum is destroyed by means of the Greek fire by Callinacus. Partarithus recovers the kingdom of Lorabardy The Saracens, attempting to land in Spain, are defeated by Wamba, who burns their flotilla. The Saracens purchase a peace for thirty years of the emperor Constantine. The Bulgarians, so called from the river Bulga, or Volga, invade Thrace: the emperor gives them a considerable sum of money to retire : but they go no farther than the banks of the Danube, and give their name to the

5392.. 079
53!)3..680 5394, 5397. 5398. 5399.

.681 .684 .685 .686

5401 5403. 5408. 6410. 5411.

.688 .090 .095

.

Oi>7

098

5413.. 700

province in which they settle. the death of Dagobert II. king of Neustria, the mayors of the palace, Martin and Pepin d'Heristal, govern that kingdom, without any other sovereign Thieri III. is suffered to enjoy the title of King of Austrasia. The sixth general council of Constantinople, surnamed " In Trullo," begins on the 7th of November, and continues till the 16th of September in the next year. The pestilence rages in Saxony ; and next year in Syria. An eruption of Vesuvius. Egfrid, king of Northumberland, defeated in an attempt upon Ireland. The Britons totally subdued by the Saxons. Sussex subdued by Ceadwalla, and united to the kingdom of Wessex. Quilien, an Irish monk, propagates Christianity at Wirtsburgh, in Germany, and becomes the first bishop of that place. Kent, laid waste by the West Saxons, remains feeble during the remainder of the Heptarchy. Pepin d'Heristal deposes Thieri, and sets up his son Clovis III. as king, in whose name he governs all France. The Arabians first coin money. The gospel propagated in the eastern parts of France.- Venice begins to be governed by a Doge or Duke. The Saracens take Carthage, arid expel the Romans from Africa. The Picts in Britain embrace Christianity, which is also, about this time, introduced into Friesland, or Holland. Cracus, duke of Poland, builds the city, named, after him, Cracow the duchy becomes elective about this period.

On

EIGHTH CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN jERA.

5414.. 701 5420.. 707 6422.. 709 5426.. 713

The The The

Saracens are said to have fought eighty-one battles this year. Saracens invade the Roman territories. Ina, king of Wessex, publishes the Saxon laws about this time.

5427.. 714 5430.. 717 5431.. 718 5432.. 7V9 5430.. 726
5440.. 727 6443.. 730

5445. .732

Saracens, under Muca, conquer Spain, being brought in by Julian, count of Ceuta: Roderic, the last king of the Visigoths, is defeated and killed, in an obstinate engagement, on the third of September. The Bulgarians ravage Thrace. Charles Martel, son of Pepin d'Heristal, governs all France, as Maire du Palais. The Saracens besiege Constantinople unsuccessfully. Pelagius founds the kingdom of Leon and Asturias, in Spain. Boniface, an Anglo-Saxon monk, propagates the Christian religion in Germany. The controversy about images, by Ihe Iconoclasts, begins, and occasions many insurrections in the Eastern empire: Leo Isuuricus publishes two edicts for demolishing images in churches. Ina, king of Wessex, first levies the tax called 1'ctvr's Pence, for the support of a college at Rome. Pope Gregory II. excommunicates the emperor Leo bauricus, for persisting in his opposition to images, being the first instance of the kind. The emperor confiscates the lands of the pope in Sicily, and sends a flotilla to attack him in Italy, which is disCharts Muriel defeats the" Saracens, who had invaded France, from Spain, near persed by a tempest. Tours, in October 375,000 of them are said to have perished on this occasion.
:

SECT. X.]
Julian Period.
.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
The pope and many of
success.

131

A.D.
the Italian bishops pray the emperor to revoke his edicts against images
;

5446. 733

but without

5448.. 735 5449.. 736

5453. .740 5454. .741

5455.. 742
5457.. 744 5459.. 746

5460. .747

5461 748 5462.. 749

. .

5463. .750

5464. .751 5465. .752 5466. .753

5467.. 754

5469.. 756 5470 . 757

.

5475. . 762 5476.. 763

Charles Martel becomes master of Aquitaine, by the defeat of duke Hanaud, whom lie compels to do homage The office of pope's nuncio is instituted about this time, by Gregory III. for the duchy. The emperor puts his edicts in force, destroys all the images within the empire, and persecutes the monks. On the death of Thiery III. Charles Martel governs France, with the title of Duke, for six years, not permitting any one to take that of King. The Lombards seize the duchy of Spoleto, but the pope recovers it. An earthquake at Constantinople, &c. Charles Martel dying on the 20th of October, is succeeded by his sons ; Carloman, in Austrasia and Thuringia ; and Pepin, in Neustria, Burgundy, and Provence, with the title of Dukes. Pepin, surnamed the Little, places Childeric III. son of Thiery of C belles, on the throne of Neustria and Burgundy, but continues to keep the government himself, as Maire du Palais. The monastery of Fulda, in Germany, founded by Boniface, afterwards bishop of Mayence. The Saracens become disunited, and go to war among themselves. A dreadful pestilence breaks out, and An earthquake throws down a great number of buildings in devastates Europe and Asia for three years. From the 4th of August to the month of October, a thick darkness obscures the light Syria and Palestine. of the sun. Carloman, leaving his estates, and the care of his son Drogo, to Pepin, retires into Italy, and builds a monastery, near Rome, wherein he passes the remainder of his life. The computation of time by the Christian asra begins to be used in histories about this period. The race of Abbas become caliphs of the Saracens, and encourage learning: the empire of the Saracens divided into three parts. Many cities in Syria destroyed by an earthquake ; and, in Mesopotamia, the earth opening, leaves a gulf two miles in length. Pepin deposes Childeric, confines him in a monastery, and, having the sanction of Pope Zachary, assumes the title of King of France with Childeric the Merovingian race ends. The second race of French kings begins with Pepin, from whose son they are denominated Carlovlngian. The exarchs of Ravenna conquered by the Lombards, having continued 183 years. The defenders of images The kings of France first crowned. persecuted. Astulfus, king of the Lombards, declares war against Pope Stephen III. who implores the assistance of Pepin, declaring him and his sons Carloman and Charles, sovereign lords of Rome ; at the same time, he makes Pepin promise to give the city of Ravenna, with the territories of the late Exarchate and of the Pentapolis, when conquered, to the church. Pepin goes into Italy with a numerous army, and obliges Astulfus to relinquish Ravenna to the emperor, and to Next year, Astulfus, besieging give back to the pope all the cities he had taken from the holy see. Rome, brings Pepin again into Italy, who makes him cede many other cities to the pope, and thus confirms the temporal power of the bishops of Rome, first begun in 606, by the concessions of the tyrant Phocas. The Saracens in Spain, revolting from the house of Abbas, begin the kingdom of Corduba, under Muavius. Pepin reduces the Saxons in Germany, and levies contributions on them. The emperor Constantine sends several in France. presents to Pepin among the rest, an organ, the first known The caliph Almansor builds the city of Bagdad, and makes it the capital of the house of Abbas. Burials, which hitherto had been in the highways, are permitted in towns. A severe frost begins 011 the 1st of October, and continues 150 days, to the end of February in the following
: ;

year.

5479. .766 5483. .770 5485.. 772 5487. .774

The Turks

5491 778 5493.. 780

. .

ravage Armenia and Asia Minor. Constantine dissolves the monasteries in the east, and obliges the monks and nuns to marry. Charlemagne, king of France, begins the Saxon war, which continues thirty years. By the surrender of Pa via, and the capture of Didier, the kingdom of the Lombards ends, after a duration of 206 years. Charlemagne takes the title of King of Italy. Charlemagne encourages learning in France, and gains the celebrated battle of Roncevaux. The Saracens pillage and destroy the Christian churches of Asia, and begin to obstruct the exercise of that
religion.

6497. .784 5500.. 787

Charlemagne defeats Witikind and the Saxons, in a battle that lasted three days. The seventh general council, or the second of Nice, begins on the 24th of September, and ends about the middle of October.
Pleadings in courts of judicature instituted. earthquake at Constantinople, and, a few months afterwards, a conflagration, which destroys the palace of the patriarch, where the original manuscripts of Chrysostom were kept. Charlemagne defeats the Avari, in Pannonia. The refusal of Alfonso II. king of Asturias, to give the Saracens their usual tribute of 100 virgins, occasions a war, wherein they are defeated with great slaughter.

5501 788 5503. .790

. .

An

5504. .791

5505. .792 5506 793

. .

An academy founded

at Paris.

5507. 794 5410. .796

.

the sea with their piracies, and ravage Gallia Narbonensis, where they are at length defeated by Charlemagne. Ofla, by way of expiating his murder of Ethelbert, levies the tax of Peter's Pence 011 his subjects in Mercia. Pope Leo III. sends legates to Charlemagne, to request him to confirm his election, against Pope Adrian.

The Saracens of Africa infest

s2

132
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A. D.

[CHAP.

ii.

5511. ,7!>7 5512. ,790

4513. .800

Seventeen days of unusual darkuess. escort to reconduct him to Rome, and establish him in the Charlemagne furnishes Leo with a numerous holy see. The same prince also extirpates the Avari, or Huns, in Pannonia : (the Greeks call them Turks, because they came from Great Tartary.) on Christmas-day, he is crowned King of Italy and Emperor of the West, Charlemagne arrives at Rome, where, Leo. by Pope

EPOCHA

XIII.

FROM THE REVIVAL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE BY CHARLEMAGNE TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE
CRQISADES: 29G YEARS.

NINTH CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN

5514.. 801 5518.. 805

.ERA.

5520. .807

5521- -808
5523.. 810 6527 . 814
.

in France, Germany, and Italy. great earthquake Sclavonian Boii, or Bohemians, ravage the country lately occupied by the Avari, or Huns; Charlemagne sends his son Charles to oppose them and the young prince kills their chief, Lecko. the moon, on the 31st of January, three hours after midnight, both being in 2 deg. 27 rain, of Jupiter eclipsed by Qn the 17th of March, a large spot was seen on the sun, and continued for eight days. Libra. Gotricus the Dane ravages the territories of Charlemagne this is generally called the first descent of the Nor-

The

mans into France. A civil war among the Saracens, between Alaminus and Almamon. The emperor Leo V. renews the edict against images. .Charlemagne

6528- -815

6529.. 816 5530.. 817

6532.. 819
6534.. 821

dies on the 28th of January, in the seventysecond year of his age, the forty-seventh of his reign as king of France, and the fourteenth of his empire : he is succeeded as emperor and king by his son Louis. An insurrection at Rome, against the pope, who orders several persons to be put to death, by his own authority Louis, irritated by tin's proceeding, sends to his nephew Bernard, king of Italy, to inquire into the facts ; on which the pope makes a concession by his legates. Almamon encourages learning among the Saracens; he also makes an observation on the sun's greatest declination, and rinds it to be 23 deg. 34 inin. Louis divides his empire among his children. Bernard, king Ecclesiastics first exempted from military service. of Italy, conspires against his uncle, but is arrested, with many of the chiefs of his party the council of French princes condemn him to death Louis orders his eyes to be put out, and he dies in prison, on the 1st of April, next year. Almamon orders his astronomers to measure a degree of latitude on the plains of Sinjiar, near Babylon, and they find it to be 5(Jf Arabian miles.
:
:

5535

. .

822

named Thamas, who had abjured Christianity and embraced Mahommedauism, becomes powerful the Saracens, ravages Armenia and Asia, and undertakes the siege of Constantinople by land and sea; but is obliged to retire in the month of December, on account of the intensity of the cold. Thamas renews the siege of Constantinople, which is relieved by the Bulgarians, and Thamas is besieged and
slave,

among

5530 .. 823
5538. .825

6540.. 827

taken in Adrianople, in October.- -Louis, emperor of the West, performs public penance at Attiyni, to expiate the death of Bernard. The Saracens of Spain take possession of Crete, and call it Candia. Benimula observed the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23 deg. 35 min. Harold V. king of Denmark, embraces the Christian religion, and, with all his family, is baptized, for which he is, next year, dethroned by his subjects. The Almagest of Ptolemy translated into Arabic, by order of the caliph Almainon. The Saracens take possession of Sicily, Calabria, &c. ravage Gallicia, and pillage the clmrehe.s.

5541 . .828

Commencement of

the kingdom of England, under Egbert, he having united the several kingdoms of the
St.

Hep-

6542.. 829 5544 831 5545. .832 5548. .835 5551. .838 5553.. 840
.

tarchy. Missionaries sent from France to Sweden, to propagate Christianity.

Mark's, at Venice, built.

detestation of images.

The kingdom of Navarre, in Spain, begins. The emperor Theophilus banishes all painters from the Eastern empire, on account of his The feast of All Saints instituted. The Picts defeated, and their nation extirpated, by Kenneth II. king of Scotland.
Louis

6554. .841
5555.. 842 5550.. 843

le Debonnaire dying, his eldest son, Lotharius, has Italy, with the title of emperor; Charles le Chauve, the kingdom of France ; and Louis, that of Bavaria, or Germany. Lotharius defeated at the battle of Foutenai, on the 25 lu of July, where the greater part of the French nobility perish : the three brothers are afterwards reconciled. Michael III. surnamed Porphyrogcnetes, under the regency of his mother Theodora, restores the use of

images.

6S57..644

French dominions, in an assembly of peers at Thionville, among the three brothers, on Germany is detached from the empire of the Franks. Ramirus, king of Leon, defeats Abdurrahman, king of Corduba, and kills 70,000 Saracens. Charles le Chauve defeated in Aquitainc, by Pi-pin II. Louis, king of Germany, defeats the Vandals.

new

partition of the

the IGth of

March.

SECT. X.]
Julian A. Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
The Normans penetrate into Germany. The Saracens pass from Africa into Italy, lay siege to Rome, and pillage the suburb*. A great earthquake in Italy. The Venetian fleet totally destroyed by the Saracens, in the hay of Crotona. The Saracen fleet dispersed, and their army routed, bv the allies of Pope Leo IV. Auscharius, archbishop of Bremes and Hamburgh, preaches the gospel in Denmark and Sweden
counted the first bishop of Upsal, the ancient capital of the latter country. The Danes and Normans invade England. The Moors defeat the Spaniards.,

135

D.

5558- 845 6559. .846 5560. .847 6501. .048 550-2 .849 5503. .850
.

and

is

ac-

5564.. 851
5565. 852 5500, .853 5568, .855
.

and Corsica.

-The Saracens ravage Sardinia

The English defeat the Danes, &c. at Oklcy. The Moors persecute the Christians in Spain. The Normans get possession of some cities in France. Lotharius, emperor of the West, divides his territories among his children, and retires in disgust
tery of

to the

monas-

Prum,

in the bishopric

55G9. .850 5570. .857 6572. 8-3!)

.

5573, 800 5574. .801

.

5575. 802 5577. 864 5578, .865

.
.

5580 ,.867 5581. .868 5582, 869

,

Louis II. has Italy, Provence and Burgundy. The Normans plunder the coasts of Holland. An earthquake shakes the greater part of the known world. The Britons defeat the Scots, in the north of England. A remarkably hard winter, during which the Adriatic is frozen over, and carriages are used on it for the transIn many places a kind of snow fell, of a blood colour. port of merchandise. The schism of the Greek church begins. Iluric, the first prince of Russia, begins to reign, from whom descended all the grand dukes and Czars till the year 1598. Lous I. king of Germany, sends missionaries to convert the Sclavonians. Charles le Chauve creates Baldwin, grand forester of Flanders, count of Flanders A civil war among the Saracens in the East those of the West ravage Italy, and are repulsed by the enjperor Louis II. The Danes, under Ivar, being invited into England by earl Bruern, conquer Northumberland. The government of Egypt becomes independent of the caliphs of Bagdad, under Ahmed. The emperor Basilius, while hunting, is caught by the girdle in the antlers of a large stag, thrown from his a soldier,' cutting the girdle, releases the emperor, but is put to death horse, and dragged along the ground
:
;

of Treves, where he dies on the 28th of September: by this new division, with the title of emperor; Lotharius, the kingdom of Lorraine ; and Charles, that of

for having

drawn

his

sword upon him

5583.. 870

The Danes

5584.. 871

5585 .872 5586 .873

ravage England, pillaging the churches and monasteries: the nuns of a convent attacked by them, cut their faces with razors, hoping, by such disfigurement, to preserve their chastity ; but the spoilers after securing all the riches, set fire to the building, and burn the wretched inmates to death. Ethelred I. king of England, fights nine pitched battles with the Danes in the course of the year, generally with success but being at last defeated and slain, his brother Alfred, surnamed the Great, succeeds to the throne. Clocks first introduced at Constantinople, from Venice. The Danes defeat Alfred in the battle of Wilton. The dynasty of Soflarides begin to reign in Khurasan. About the month of August, a swarm of locusts, of a prodigious size, fall in France, and in the space of one night, devour even the branches and bark of young trees; soon afterwards they die, and so infect the air with their putrid carcases as to occasion a
;

pestilence.

6587. .874
5591, .878

The Danes

The Sclavouians subjected by Louis, invade Scotland, and continue their depredations in England. The Saracens ravage Italy and Africa. king of Germany. Alfred, having been driven from his throne by the Danes, conceals himself in the isle of Atheluey, in Somersetshire but soon afterwards defeats the enemy in the battle of Edington, obliges some to leave England, and
;

5592 .879 5593 .880 5594 ,.881 5595 .882

the rest in Northumberland, under their own prince Guthrum, who embraces Christianity. The Normans invade Germany. Boson seizes Dauphiny and Provence, and begins the kingdom of Aries. The Normans invade France, and destroy several abbeys. AlbaU-gui, the Arabian mathematician, observes
settles

the

obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23 35'. Louis III. king of France, defeats the Normans in a great battle.

The Normans

5590. .883 5597 .884 5598. .885 5599. .886

.

5000.. 887

seize the city of Treves, on the 5lh of April, burn it to the ground, and put the bishop to death; Albategni observes the autuuuial equinox, at they afterwards pillage Liege, Cologne, and other cities. Aractus, on the 19th of September, one hour fifteen uiinutes after midnight he is surnamed the Mohammed of Aractus. Albategni observed, about this time, that the first star of Aries was 18 2' distant from the equinoctial point. The Saracens burn the monastery of Mount Cassino, and put to death the abbot Bertharius. Charles le Gros, emperor and king of Italy, seizes the kingdom of France, and reunites the empire of Charlemagne. Alfred founds the university of Oxford. The Scvlhiuns bwomo IUUSUTS of Croatia. Paris besieged by the Normans, but bravely defended by Gosliii, bishop of that city: Charles le Gros raises the siege by a dishonourable peace. Charles le Gros deposed, and his dominions divided into live.iunpiionis viz. Arnolph, a natural son of Carlomau, is recognized by the Germans as their sovereign; Eudes becomes king of Western France and Aquitaine; Louis the Blind, son of Boson, has the kingdom of Aries; Rodolpli has Transjuran Burgundy ; while Guj and Bereiiger contest Italy between them.
:

134
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A.D.

[CHAP.

ir.

5602. .889

5603. .890

sums to the Hungarian? (or Madgiares,) to assist him ; Bulgarians ravage Greece; Leo sends considerable but they are defeated by the Bulgarians. These Hungarians had recently arrived on the banks of the Danube from beyond the Volga, and gave the name of Hungary to the country where they settled. The Normans repeat their excesses in France and the Low Countries. Alfred composes his body of laws about

The

6604.. 891

The Danes make

5607. 894 5610. .897 0612. .899

.

and divides England into counties. a new attempt on England. Arnolph, king of Germany, defeats 90,000 Normans between the Rhine and the Meuse, in September. The first land-tax known in England. Borsivoi, duke of Bohemia, embraces Christianity, and endeavours to establish it throughout his dominions. War between the Greeks and Bulgarians. A great famine in Germany.
this time,

The Hungarians
wars
in

ravage Lombardy.

TENTH CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN

5614. 5615. 5616. 5618.

JERA.

.901 .902 .903 .905

Civil

France and Germany.

Himerius, general of Leo VI. defeats the Saracens in a naval engagement, on the 6th of October.

5619.. 906 5620. 907

.

The Normans commit fresh depredations in France. The Normans take the town of Rouen, and begin to establish themselves inNeustria. Haroun, caliph of Egypt, conquered and killed by Mohammed, general to Muetafis. The Normans conquer Cotentin and Maine, and ravage Brittany, Picardy, and Champagne. ^rajof the foundation of Calcutta, in the Hither India. The dynasty of Twang ends in China, having reigned 288
years
:

it is

5621. .908
6622.. 909

The dynasty
Fatima.

succeeded by five small dynasties, which altogether exist but fifty-three years. or kingdom of Fatimites begins in Africa, pretending to be descendants of Mohammed's daughter
:

The Hungarians

6623. .910 6624. .911 6625.. 912

6627. .914

ravage Thuringia Burchard, landgrave of that province, defeated by them, dies without issue; and the emperor Louis gives his territories to Otho, duke of Saxe. The monastery of Cluni founded. War begins in England against the Danes, and continues twelve years. Thebit observed the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23 deg. 33 min. 30 sec. Charles the Simple cedes a part of Neustria to the Normans, which thenceforward is called Normandy: Rol, or Louis III. Rollo, their leader, and first duke, embraces Christianity, and marries Charles's daughter Giselle. emperor of the West, and king of Germany, dying on the 21st of January, without issue, the Carlovingian race of emperors ends, and the imperial title becomes elective Conrad, count of Franconia, is elected. Ordogno II. succeeding to the throne of Asturias, transports the seat of his government from Oviedo to Leon, whence he and his successors are termed kings of Leon. The emperor Conrad defeats the Hungarians.
:

Constantino's generals defeat the Saracens.

5628. .915 5629.. 916

The Hungarians
Ordogno
II.

ravage Saxony.

defeats the Saracens in Spain, takes several of their cities, a few days after an eclipse of the sun, on the fifth of April.

and

kills

about 70,000 of them

in battle,

6630.. 917

5633. .920 5635. .922

5636. .923 6637. 924 5638.. 925
.

5639.. 926

5641. 928
.

5643. 5646. 5649. 5652.

.930 .933 .936 .939

5654.. 941 5655. 942 5658. .945

.

&ft63..950
606ii.
.

9f>3

560. 965
.

6669. i960

Bulgarians besiege Constantinople, which is bravely defended by the inhabitants, till the assailants retire. The Hungarians make a new irruption into Germany, advance as far as the abbey of Fulda, and burn the city of Basle. Fourth marriages condemned by the council of Constantinople The Moors defeat the Christians in Spain. The Hungarians again pillage Germany, and make inroads into France and Italy. Rodolph II. king of Transjuran Burgundy, defeats Berenger in the battle of Placentia, and is acknowledged king of Italy. Fiefs established in France. The Hungarians burn Pavia, and enter France, but are persuaded to depart by Ralpho, with a sum of money. The emperor Henry I. takes Brandenburgh, Misnia, and Lusatia, from the Sclavonians, and appoints margraves, or marquises, to defend these frontiers of the empire. The kingdoms of Aries and Transjuran Burgundy, united. The Saracens, attacking the isle of Lemnos, are driven away by the emperor Constantine. Henry, emperor of the West, or king of Germany, builds the city of Misna, or Meissen, on the Elbe, and establishes the marquisate of Misnia. The emperor Henry subjects the Danes to the payment of tribute. The Hungarians defeated in Germany. Towards the close of this year, a frost sets in, which continues 120 days. The empire of the Saracens in the East divided into seven kingdoms. Ramicus II. king of Leon, defeats the Saracens at Salamanca, with the loss of 80,000 killed, soon after an eclipsf of the sun on the 17th of July. Arithmetic brought into Europe, by the Saracens. The Eastern emperors lake possession of Apulia and Calabria. The Turks ravage Thrace, and the Danes invade France. The emperor Otho defeats the Sclavonians, and makes Bohemia tributary. Otho conquers the Hungarians in Bohemia. Hugh the White, or the Abbe, or the Great, duke of France, gets the duchies of Burgundy and Aquitaine from Otho drives the Hungarians out of Bavaria. Lothaire, king of France. Hugh the Gn-at, the son and uncle of kings, and brother-in-law to three crowned heads, dies, after having governed France twenty years, without possessing the regal title : his son, Hugh Capet, succeeds him in his authority.

The

SECT. X.]
A.D.
Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
Otho
defeats the Sclavonians in Saxony.

135

6070.. 957 5071.. 958 5072.. 959

5673.. 960
5674.. 961
5(579..

A (Mir between the Normans and Saracens, in Italy. Hugh Capet created duke of France l>y Lothaire, who also gives him Poictou, and thus leares himself possessed of little more than the city of Leon. The power of the monks very great in England. Otho goes on an expedition against the Vandals. Commencement of the dynasty of Sum, or Sony, in China,
which continues 320 years, under seventeen emperors. Nicephorus Phocas, general of the Eastern emperor Romanus, recovers Crete, or Candia, from the Saracens. The Miceslaus, duke of Poland, embraces Christianity, and endeavours to establish it among his subjects.
Russians invade Bulgaria. Otho sends Luitprand, bishop of generals of the emperor Nicephorus recover Antioch from the Saracens. Cremona, to demand of Nicephorus the hand of his daughter-in-law Theophanc, for his son Otho, which occasions a war between the two emperors. Otho causes his son to be crowned emperor, at Rome. A dreadful famine in Germany Hatton, archbishop of Mayence, orders a number of poor people, who, pressed It is said, that he perished miserably by hunger, came to ask alms of him, to be shut up, and burned alive the following year, being pursued wherever lie went, and at last devoured, by rats and mice. The Normans Otho makes Magdeburgh an archbishopric. ravage Spain. The younger Otho drives the Saracens out of Italy, and defeats Nicephorus, who is put to death by his wife, on the llth of December. The race of Abbas, in Egypt, extinguished by the Fatimites, who build Grand Cairo. John Zimisces, having released the ambassadors of Otho, whom Nicephorus had confined, dismisses them, with the princess Theophane, who is married to the younger Otho on the 18th of April, and crowned empress. The Russians, Bulgarians, and Turks, to the number of 300,000, ravage Thrace, and are defeated by Bardas Sclerus, general of the Eastern empire.

966

5680.. 967

The

5681.

968

5682.
5683.

969
970
971

5684.

5690.. 977 5G91.. 978

Otho II. defeats and subjugates the Bohemians. Lothaire, king of France, takes possession of Lorraine, and obliges Otho to withdraw. Abdalmelic, king of Cordova, having made many conquests upon the Christians in Spain, is at length defeated by Veremond, or

Bermuda
5693.. 980 5694. 981
.

II.

king of Leon.

5695.
5696. 5698. 5699. 6700.

982 983 985 986 987

recover Apulia and Calabria. orders a massacre of his principal nobility at a magnificent entertainment, to which he had invited " them; this transaction obtained him the surname of the Bloody." The city of Halle, in Saxony, built. The Vandals and Bohemians ravage Saxony, &c. A civil war in Spain Ramirus III. king of Leon, defeated by his revolted Gallician subjects, dies of grief. Otho II. wounded by a poisoned arrow in an engagement with the Saracens, dies at Ravenna, on the 6th of December. Violent commotions in Venice. England and Scotland invaded by Sueno II. king of Denmark.

The emperors of Constantinople

Olho
II.

An

The

5701 988 5703. 990 5704.. 991

. . .

earthquake in Greece. Carlovingian race ends in France, after having ruled in that country 236 years Hugh Capet, duke of Paris, is elected king, and anointed at Rheims, on the 3d of July. -Vladimir, or Waldemire, grand duke of Russia, embraces Christianity, and marries Anne, sister to the Eastern emperors Basilius and Constantine.
:

pestilence in

Germany.
the

The Normans invade England. Olaus, the first king of Norway, appears about this time. The figures used in arithmetic, brought iuto Spain from Arabia by the Saracens, begin to be adopted by
Christians throughout Europe. About this period, Gerbert, archbishop of Rheims (afterwards known as Pope Sylvester II.) the Arabian, or rather Indian figures, into France, undertakes the construction of the
first

5705.

992

who had introduced

spring clocks,

6706.. 993 994 5707.

.

995 6708. 99(5 5709. 5711.. 998

. .

6712.

999

5713. 1000
.

which continued in use till 1650, when the pendulum was invented. A great eruption of Vesuvius. The kings of Denmark and Norway invade England with a powerful force. Charles duke of Lorraine, the only survivor of the race of Charlemagne, dies in prison, at Orleans, after two years' confinement. Almanzor, the Saracen king of Corduba, defeats the Christians in Spain. Otho III. declares the Western empire to be elective. The Christians in Spain gain a great viciory over Almanzor. Stephen, the first Christian king of Hungary, reigns about this time, and is called the Apostle of his nation. The emperor Otho performs the tour of Italy, as an act of devotion. Aboul Wafi and Abu Hamed observe the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23 deg. 35 mill. Basilius II. Eastern emperor, defeats the Otho goes on pilgrimage Bulgarians, and drives them out of Thessaly. to the tomb of Adalbert, at Gnesna, in Poland, in which he founds an archbishopric, and erects the city kingdom of Poland in favour of Boleslaus, duke of that country. The pope creates the kingdom of Hungary, in favour of Stephen, (fide anno 998, supra.)

ELEVENTH CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN

5715. .1002 6717. 1004 4718. .100-3
.

JEtLA.

orders a general massacre of the Danes throughout England. Sueno II. king of Denmark, invades England, to avenge the destruction of his countrymen. About this period, almost all the old churches are pulled down, and rebuilt in a new style of architecture. The Lorraines shake oft' their subjection to the French crown, and elect Godfrey for their prince.

Ethelred

II.

130
Ju!i:in

INTRODUCTION.
A. D.

[CHAP. n.

Period.

57 19.. 1006

5720..1007
5721 . 1008 5722.. 1009
.

dreadful pestilence breaks out in most parts of Europe, and continues for three years. Boleslaus, th newly-created king of Poland, seizes Cracovia, marches with an army into Bohemia, puts out the eyes of the duke, and besieges Prague, but soon abandons it. A great eruption of Vesuvius, which does considerable damage to the surrounding country. Ethelred, king of England, agrees to pay an annual tribute to the Danes: some writers refer this to the year 1012. The Saracens penetrate into Italy, and become masters of Capua. The Normans ravage Friezeland. A party of Saraceus besiege Jerusalem, destroy the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and bum the monastery which had been built near that spot. A civil war breaks out among the Saracens of Spain, which continues till 1091, and ends with their becoming subject to those of Africa, called Moors.

57-24..
J>7-2">..

1011
101-2

An

earthquake at Constantinople.
the priests from
all

5726.. 1013

The caliph of Egypt pillages the church of Jerusalem, and expels The Danes get possession of England, Ethelred is deposed, and

Palestine.

5727.. 1014

5728.. 1015 5729.. 10 16

Sueno, having taken the city of London, is of Poland, invades Saxony and Pomerania : the emperor Henry, having proclaimed king. Boleslaus, king concluded a truce with this prince, arrives in Italy, where he defeats Ardouin, who had assumed the title of king of Lombard y, and advances as far as Calabria. Henry expels the Saracens from Apulia and Calabria. By a violent storm, on the 18th of September, almost all Flanders is inundated. Basilius, emperor of the East, entering Bulgaria, defeats the Bulgarians on the 29th of July, takes 15,000 prisoners, and puts out their eyes, except one in every hundred, to whom he On the death of Sueno, Ethelred recovers the leaves one eye, to enable them to become leaders to the rest. kingdom of England. Henry passes from Italy into Poland, and obliges Boleslaus to take an oath of fealty, and to pay an annual
tribute.

5730.. 1017
5731.. 1018

Edmund II. surnamed Ironside, fights Stephen, king of Hungary, publishes a civil and ecclesiastical code. six battles in England, with Canute II. king of Denmark, most of which he loses through the treachery of Edric ; and at length they agree to reign jointly. The Manichaean heresy detected in France, and suppressed, by Robert I. Edmund Ironside, being killed by his domestics, Canute reigns alone in England. The Normans first enter Italy in a body, where they begin certain establishments, which in the sequel give The Russians break into Poland, but are forced rise to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, or of Naples.
to retire.

5732.. 1019 5733.. 10-20 5735. .1022 5730.. 1023 5741.. 1028 5744.. 1031 5745.. 1032 5748.. 1035

emperor of the East, completes the conquest of Bulgaria, and makes dreadful plague in Saxony. Aretin the monk introduces a new species of music, under six notes. The caliph of Egypt ravages Palestine, and plunders the temple of Jerusalem.
Basilius,

it

a province of the empire.

Savoy and Maurienne become

counties.

Norway conquered by Canute the Great, king of Denmark and England. Romanus drives the Saracens out of Syria, and begins to rebuild the temple

at Jerusalem. The Normans wrest Apulia from the Greeks. Rodolph, king of Burgundy, bequeaths his kingdom of Aries, or Burgundy, to the emperor Conrad. Capua taken from the pope, by the king of Sicily. On the death of Sancho the Great, king of Navarre, &c. his dominions are divided among his four sons, from which distribution, the kingdoms of Castille and Arragon arise the former under Ferdinand, surnamed the Great ; the latter under Ramirus. The Vandal*
;

57 4!).. 1036
57-50..

1037

ravage Saxony. On the death of' Canute, Norway regains its independence, under Magnus. Eudes, count of Champagne, defeated in the battle of Bar-le-duc, and killed by the emperor Conrad, on the 17th of September. Bermudas III. last king of Leon and Asturias, killed in a battle against the kings of Castille and Navarre in him ends the race of Peter, duke of Cantabria, and of Recaredos, king of the Goths, usually denominated the dynasty of-Omimadea, which had reigned in Spain for 308 years. Thogrul Bcigh, or Togrul Bev, appears about this period as the chief of the Seljoucide Turks, who, in 1043, esta:

5751.. 1038

5753.. 1040 5701.. 1041

5756.. 1043
5759.. 1046 6761.. 1048

empire in Persia and parts adjacent. earthquake and famine at Constantinople. On the death of Mohammed al Allah, the last caliph of Spain, or king of Cordova, the Saracens, already much disunited, erect almost as many small kingdoms as they have cities. The city of Smyrna destroyed by an earthquake. The African Saracens, or Moors, invade Sicily. The Greeks ravage Bohemia. The emperor Henry III. lays waste Bohemia with fire and sword, and obliges the duke Bretislaus to do him homage bare-headed and bare-footed. The Saxon race of princes restored in England, in the person of Edward the Confessor. The Russians from Scythia, to the amount of 100,000, land in Thrace. The Seljoucide Turks take possession of Persia. The emperor Henry III. convokes a council at .Sutrium, where the three pseudo-popes are deposed. Damasius II. who sat in the papal chair but twenty-three days, is the first pope whom historians notice as having been crowned. The tiara was originally a mere coronet, or bandeau, such as had been, many year* before, worn ly the kings of Parthia, Armenia, <V<-.
blish a potent

An

IS

SECT. X.]
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
The Greek church separates from the Roman, or Latin. The Turks take the city of Bagdad, and overthrow the empire
Isaac Comnenes, disgusted with

137

A.D.

1054 5768.. 1055 5771.. 1058

57(54..

of the Saracen caliphs. Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia and Calabria, expels the Saracens from Sicily, and gives
Roger.

it

to his brother

5772.. 1059

5773. .1060 5775. 1062

.

grandeur, abdicates the Eastern empire, in favour of Constantine XII. A vast multitude of serpents are said to have assembled in a monastery. near the city of Tournay, where, separating into two bands, they attacked each other, and fought plain, with such fury, that one band was completely annihilated : the other was destroyed by the peasants with clubs and fire. Germany afflicted by a severe famine. of 70,000 Europeans undertake a journey to Palestine, or the Holy Land, and are there all killed,

human

surnamed Ducas, and

retires to a

Upwards or made

prisoners.

5776. .1063 5778. .1065

5779.. 1066

The massacre of Goslar. The Turks take Jerusalem from the Saracens. The Sclavonians again abjure Christianity, and put to death all who persist in a profession of that religion. The conquest of England, (or rather of Harold the Usurper,) by William the Bastard, duke of Normandy, in The Danes equip

5782. .1069 5783. .1070

5785. .1072

the battle of Hastings, on Saturday, the 14th of October. a considerable armament, and endeavour, but in vain, to regain their footing in England. Arzachel of Toledo observes the declination of the sun to be 29 34': he left 402 observations on the sun's law introduced in England. apogee. The feudal I. a about gentleman of Normandy, is the first count of Sicily. Surnames begin to be used in

Roger

England

this time.

6787. .1074
5788. .1075
5789. .1076

great authority over the crowned heads of Europe, and claims the exclusive right of creating kings. Solyman, sultan of the Turks, subdues all Asia Minor. Henry IV. emperor of Germany, defeats the Saxons at Neustadt, in Thuringia, on the 9th of June ; with which begin the celebrated wars between those two powers. and the pope quarrel about the nomination of German bishops, and the emperor is excommunicated.

Pope Gregory VII. surnamed Hildcbrand, assumes

5790.. 1077 5792.. 1079

5793.. 1080

5798.: 1085 5799.. 1086 5800.. 1087 5801.. 1088

5803. .1090

5804.. 1091

5806.. 1094
5808.. 1095

>809..1096

earthquake in England. Asia Minor begins to be known by the name of Turkey, or Turcomania. Arzachel finds the sun's apogee in Gemini 17 50'. The emperor Henry IV. after three days' abstinence on bread and water, goes, with his wife and children, barefoot, to make his submission to the pope, at Canusio, about the end of January. Boleslaus II. king of Poland, having put to death Stanislaus, bishop of Cracow, is excommunicated by the pope, and his kingdom put under an interdict. Avicenna observed the vernal equinox on the 14th of March, at The Persian year reformed. nine minutes after two in the afternoon. Solyman, sultan of the Turks, fixes his residence in Bithynia, and concentrates the Turkish power in Asia Minor. Domesday-book begins to be compiled from a survey of all the estates in England it was finished in 1086. Alfonso VI. takes Toledo from the Saracens, and makes it the capital of Castille. The order of Carthusians founded by Bruno. An expedition of the Christians against the Saracens in Africa. Alfonso VI. king of Castille, wrests the northern division of Portugal from the Saracens, and, next year, gives of Burgundy, with the title of Count. The it, with his daughter in marriage, to prince Henry emperor Henry IV. totally defeated by Egbert, marquis of Saxony, at Gleicha, on the 24th of December. The dynasty of Assassins begins in Irak, and subsists 117 years. The emperor Henry arrives in Italy, in order to appease the troubles, and sojourns there seven years during which time, he becomes master of Mantua, Florence, and many other cities, and obliges pope Urban II. to leave Italy. The Saracens in Spain, being hard pressed by the Christians, call in the assistance of Joseph, king of Morocco, who, instead of helping, turns his arms against them, obliges great numbers to leave the country, subjects The order of Knights Hospitallers of St. John of or kills the rest, and begins the kingdom of Granada. Vide anno 1099. Jerusalem (since called the order of Malta) founded. Conrad, son of the emperor Henry, rebels against his father, and is crowned king of Italy, at Milan, by the archbishop Anselm. Pope Urban II. in the council held at Auvergne, excommunicates Philip I. king of France, on account of his divorce and subsequent marriage. Ulstan, bishop of Worcester, deprived of his bishopric for not understanding the French (or Norman) language. Disputes between Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, and William Rufus, king of England, about investitures. The croisades begin, at the instigation of Peter the Hermit, and Walter the Moneyless.

Henry

An

VOL.

I.

138

INTRODUCTION.
EPOCHA
XIV.

[CHAP.

ii.

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CROISADES, TO THE ACCESSION OF RODOLPH OF HAPSBURGH TO THE EMPIRE:
177 YEARS.
Julian Period.
,
,

A.0.

6810. 1097 5811., ,1098

5812. .1099
813. . 1100

Nice taken by Godfrey of Boulogne and the croisaders.

The

croisaders take Antioch, in June, after a siege of eight months; and, on the 27th of the same month, they The order of St. Benedict instituted. defeat the Turkish general Cobagat. Jerusalem being taken by the croisaders, on the 15th of July, they elect Godfrey to be king. The order of knights of St. John begins, according to some writers ; others place their commencement in the year 1091.

An

earthquake in

Sicily.

TWELFTH CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN

6815. . 1102

JERA.

6817.. 1104 6818.. 1105 5819.. 1106 5821.. 1108 5822. .1109
5823.. 1110 5826. .1113 5827. .1114
5830. .1117 5832. .1119

family of Guiscard assumes the titles of Kings of Naples and of Sicily, from being dukes or counts of Calabria and Apulia. Baldwin, earl of Hainault, defeats the Saracens near Joppa. William, duke of Aquitaine, undertakes a voyage to Palestine, with a numerous army, which is, next year, massacred at Constantinople. Baldwin, king of Jerusalem, defeats the Saracens, and takes Ptolemais, or Acre. Henry I. king of England, invades Normandy, and unites it to his dominions. Battle of Tinchbray, in Normandy, wherein duke Robert is taken prisoner by his brother king Henry. Hungary becomes independent of the German empire. Joseph, king of Morocco, defeats the Spaniards in the celebrated battle of the Seven Counts, near Badajos. Tripoli taken by the croisaders. Learning revived, at the university of Cambridge. Writing on paper fabricated of cotton becomes common. War begins between England and France; the first on record. The celebrated Peter Abelard, and Heloise his wife, flourished about this time: the former died in 1143, aged Heloise died some time after him. 63.

The Norman

5833.. 1120

5834

. . 1121 5835. .1122 5838. 1125 5840.. 1127 5843. 1130 5845. 1132 5848.. 1135 5850. .1137 5851.. 1138 5852.. 1139
. . .

Louis VI. or le Gros, king of France, defeated at Brenneville, by Henry I. of England. Baldwin II. king of Jerusalem, defeats the Turks at Antioch. Prince William, son of Henry I. and a number of English nobility, perish at sea, on the 26th of November, being shipwrecked in their return to England, from Barfleur. The order of Premonto instituted. The Scythians, &c. who had passed the Ister, defeated by John Comnenus, emperor of the East. The Saracens again defeated by king Baldwin, near Antioch. Germany afflicted with a plague. The pope excommunicates Roger, duke of Sicily. Roger proclaimed king of Sicily.

An earthquake in Lombardy. Bohemia becomes a kingdom.

The

Cistercians

exempted from

taxes.

Roger, king of Sicily, takes Beneventum and Capua from the pope. The Pandect of Justinian found in the ruins of Amalfi.
Scots, invading England, are defeated. Alfonso, duke or count of Portugal, defeats five Saracen kings at Ouriques, takes Lisbon, and is proclaimed king by his army, on the 25th of July. The civil war breaks out in England, between king Stephen and the empress Matilda. The canon law introduced into England. The doctrine of Abelard condemned in the council of Sens. The factions of the Guelphs and Gibbelines begin to prevail in Germany.

The

6853. .1140 5854.. 1141 5856. .1143 5857. .1144

The Koran
Otho

translated into Latin.

Frisingensis introduces the Peripatetic philosophy into

Germany.

The primacy of the church of Toledo

confirmed.

5859. 1146 5860. .1147 6861.. 1148

.

The empress Matilda retires from England. The second croisade to the Holy Land, excited by the preaching of Bernard. The croisaders besiege Damascus, without success. The emperor Conrad, and
arrive at Jerusalem.

king Louis VII. or

le

Jeune,

5862.. 1149
5863. 1150 6R64. 1151 5866.. 1153
. .

Henry of Anjoti comes

and ravages Greece.

to England, to assert his family claim to the

crown.

Roger, king of

Sicily, invades

The

6867.. 1154
6UIJ9.
. 1

lo({

5870.

157

6871

1158

civil law revived at Bologna, by Wernerius, the first restorer after Justinian : he died in 1190. Gratian completes the compilation of the canon law, after 24 years' labour. Treaty of Winchester, between Stephen and Henry, about the end of November, by virtue of which Henry becomes eutitled to the reversion of the kingdom of England, after the death of Stephen, which takes place the next year. Nouradin takes Damascus from the croisaders. Christianity introduced into Finland. The city of Moscow founded. The marqiiisate of Austria made a duchy. Baldwin III. king of Jerusalem, defeats Nouradin, near Genuesareth. An earthquake in Spain. Ladislaus, duke of Bohemia, receives the title of King, at the diet of Ratisbou.

SECT. X.]
Julian

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
Insurrections in
Scotland. War between Henry II. king of England, and Louis VII. of France. emperor Barbarossa excommunicated by pope Adrian IV.

139

A. D.

Period.

6872.. 1159

The

5873.. 1160 6875,. 1162

The order

4877..1164

6880.. 1167

5882.. 1169 5883.. 1170 6884.. 1171

of Carmelites instituted. Barbarossa destroys the city of Milan, leaving only the churches standing. The affairs of the croisadcrs begin to decline in Palestine. A contest in England between king Henry II. and Sardinia made a kingdom, by the emperor Barbarossa. Thomas a Becket, archbishop of Canterbury the council of Clarendon declares against the primate. The Teutonic order begins. ( Vide anno 1190. j Barbarossa takes Rome, after having defeated upwards of 12,000 Romans ; but sickness and disease prevailA new war breaks out between the kings of ing in his army, he is soon obliged to return to Lombardy. England and France. The caliph of Persia invades Egypt. An interview between Henry II. king of England, and Louis VII. of France, at St. Denis. Peace between England and France. An earthquake at Anlioch. The Venetians take the isle of Chios. The dynasty of the Fatimites ends in Egypt. Saladin becomes master of that country, assumes the title of Sultan, and causes the spiritual authority of the caliphs of Bagdad to be recognized by his subjects. Beckpt, arrhbishop of Canterbury, assassinated.- -Dermot, king of Lein:

5885.. 1172 6886.. 1173 5887.. 1174

6889.. 1176
5890.. 1177 6891.. 1178

6892.. 1179
5894.. 1181 6895.. 1182

589G..1183 5897.. 1184 6899.. 1186

5900.. 1187 6901.. 1188

5902.. 1189
5903.. 1190

5904.. 1191 5905.. 1192

5908.. 1195
6909.. 1196 5911.. 1198

5912.. 1199

6913.. 1200

English to assist him against the other Irish kings. of England takes possession of Ireland, and returns about the beginning of February. The city of Catania destroyed by an earthquake. William, king of Scotland, acknowledges his kingdom to be a fief of the crown of England. (N. B. Thig is doubtful ; the Scottish writers assert that the acknowledgment related only to certain lands which William held in England, in his private capacity, as the kings of England frequently did homage to those of France for their possessions on the continent, which they held in fee.) Vide anno 1212. The emperor Barbarossa totally defeated by the Milanese. The dispensation of justice by circuits begins in England. Genghiz Khan begins to reign, at the age of 13, and is deposed by his subjects. Baldwin IV. king of Jerusalem, defeats and repulses Saladin, before that city. The pope sends a legate to Prester John of Asia, the great khan of the Mogul Tartars. The village of Hanover obtains the privileges of a city. The croisaders defeated by Saladin. Louis VII. king of France, arrives in England, on a pilgrimage to th* shrine of Becket. The university of Padua founded. The laws of England digested by Glanville, about this time. Damascus taken by Saladin. Seven thousand Albigenses massacred by the inhabitants of Berry. A general massacre of all the Latins found in Constantinople. The Bulgarians throw off the Roman yoke. The great conjunction of the sun, moon, and all the planets, in Libra, takes place on the 14th of September, at sun-rise. Jerusalem taken by Saladin, on the 2d of October, which ends that kingdom. A third croisade undertaken for the recovery of Jerusalem. The tax called " Saladin's Tithe" imposed in most countries of Christendom. The Dutch and Zealanders defeat the Saracens in Spain. The duchy of Mecklenburgh held as a fief of the crown of Denmark. Richard Cceur de Lion, king of England, and Philip Augustus of France, go to the holy wars. Richard renounces his superiority over Scotland for a sum of money, to enable him to undertake the journey. The emperor Frederick Barbarossa subdues Cilicia, and defeats the Saracens ; but is killed by his horse throwing him into the river Salphet, or the Cydnus. The Teutonic order of knighthood, according to Mr. Playfair, is this year instituted at Ptolemais, or Acre ; other writers place its institution in 1164. Ptolemais taken by the croisaders. Guy of Lusignan elected king of Cyprus. Richard Cceur de Lion defeats Saladin at the battle of Ascalon, and is afterwards made prisoner, on his return home, by the emperor Henry VI. The African Saracens enter Spain with a large army, defeat Alfonso the Noble, king of Castille, and kill 50,000 Spaniards. The emperor Henry VI. takes possession of Naples and Sicily. A fourth croisade to the Holy Land. A fifth croisade undertaken. The order of the Holy Trinity instituted, for the redemption of captives, by John of Matha. Richard Coeur de Lion killed at the siege of Chalons. The emperor Philip gives the title of King to Premislaus, duke of Bohemia ; from which time the regal dignity remains attached to the country itself, some of the sovereigns having (Vide anno 1158.,) previously borne it personally. The university of Salamanca, in Spain, founded. William, king of Scotland, does homage to the king of England, at Lincoln, on the 21st of November. ( Vide annis 1174 and 1212.J
ster,

in Ireland, calls in the

Henry

II.

THIRTEENTH CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN

5914.. 1201 5915.. 1202

JERA.

A war begins between John, king of England, and Philip Auguscity of Riga, in Livonia, founded. tus, of France. Genghiz Khan recovers his estates from the insurgents. ( Vide anno 1176.) The principality of Antioch united to that of Tripoli. John, king of England, accused of the murder of his nephew Arthur, is cited to appear before an assembly of the peers of i'rauec ; but not complying, his

The

T2

140
Julia

INTRODUCTION.
A. D.

[CHAP.

ii.

Period.

5915.. 1202

The estates in that country are confiscated, whence his name of Sans Terre, or Lackland. Venetian croisaders take the city of Constantinople, oil the 10th of July. Genghiz Khan kills and begins the empire of the Mogul Tartars in Asia.

French and

Vang Khan,

5916.. 1203

5917.. 1204

5918. .1205 5920. .1207 5921. .1208

croisade (by some called the sixth, by others the fourth) sets out from Venice, and arrives at Chalccdnn, on the 24th of June. Alexius IV. emperor of Constantinople, attacks the Latin croisaders, by advice of Mursnfle, who soon afterwards makes away with Alexius, and assumes the imperial titlr. The inquisition begins. Constantinople again captured by the Latins, on the 13th of April, who elect Baldin the mean time Theodore Lascaris establishes himself, as win, earl of Flanders, emperor of that city emperor of the Greeks, at Nice. The princes of the house of Coninenus seixe certain territories viz. Michael, apart ofEpirus; David, Heraclea, Pontus, and Paphlagonia and Alexis, his brother, the city of Trebizond, where he establishes an empire, which continued separated from that of Constantinople, till Mohammed II. sultan of the Ottoman Turks, conquered both, in 1453 and 1461. Normandy conquered, and reunited to France, after a separation of about 300 years. The emperor Baldwin defeated and taken prisoner by the Bulgarians, near Adrianople. The towns of Rouen and Falaise made corporations, being the first of the kind in Normandy. The order of Fratrca Minorca, or 1'raiicisrans instituted. King John of England excommunicated by pope
;
:

Innocent

III.

5922. .1209
5923. .1210

writings of Aristotle, just imported from Constantinople, are condemned by the council of Paris.- The manufacture of silk carried from Greece to Venice. The Moguls, under Genghiz Khan, first invade China. The persecution of the Albigenses, begun in the preceding year, is now very violent. The emperor OthoIV. excommunicated by the pope.

The

5924. .1211 5925. 1212

.

The Welch conquered by king John of England. The Christians in Spain gain a great victory over

5926.. 1213 5927.. 1214 5928.. 1215

the Moors, at Naves de Tolose, and kill 200,000 of them, on the 12th of July. William, king of Scotland, and Alexander his son, do homage to king John, and acknowledge Scotland to be a fief of the crown of England. See the Original, in the Fwdora, p. 104. Edit. 181(5. King John, reconciled to the pope, becomes his vassal. War between England and Scotland. Philip Augustus, king of France, defeats the emperor Otho IV. near

5929.. 1216

5930. .1217 5932. .1219 5933. .1220 5934. .1221 5935. .1222 5930. 1223 5939. .12-26
.

The Turks gain a victory over the Persians. of England compel king John to sign Magna Charta, at Runnymede, between Windsor and Staincs, on the 15th of June. The order of Dominicans established at Paris, in the Rue St. Jacques, whence they are frequently called Jacobins. The doctrine of transubstantiation begins to be introduced. Alexander, king of Scotland, excommunicated, and his dominions put under an interdict, by the pope's nuncio. The English barons, revolting, are excommunicated by the pope, whereupon they elect Louis, son of the French king, for their sovereign ; but abandon his interest on the death of John, on the 19th of October. Peace between England and Scotland. The French defeated at Lincoln. The croisaders take Damietta from the Saracens. The Moors introduce the sciences of astronomy and geography into Europe, about this period. The university of Padua enlarged, by the emperor Frederick II. A great earthquake in Germany. The Christians forced to evacuate Damietta. Louis VIII. surnamed the Lion, gives liberty to slaves in France. Louis and many prelates and nobles form a league Ecelinus takes possession of Trent, against the Albigenses.
Bouvines.

The barons

5940.. 1227

5941 . . 1228 5942.. 1229 5943.. 1230

5944.. 1231 5946.. 1233 5919.. 1230 5951.. 1238

0952

1239

5953.. 1240 5954.. 1241

-...

1242

5957.. 1244 5958.. 1245

Verona, and Padua, and holds them for 34 year-;. expedition of all the European powers, except the emperor Frederick, to Palestine: Frederick is excommunicated by pope Gregory IX. for not joining it. The power of the English barons begins to be abridged by the privileges granted by Henry III. to cities and corporate towns. Genghiz Khan and his Tartars overrun all the Saracen empire. The university of Toulouse founded. A treaty, being the first, between the Saracens and Christians. A conspiracy against the crown of Sweden. Denmark desolated by a pestilence. The kingdoms of Castille and Leon united, by Ferdinand III. The Teutonic knights subjugate Prussia. The university of Naples founded Several persons murdered in the university of Paris, on occasion of the disputes about the works of Aristotle. The Almagest of Ptolemy translated from the Arabic into Latin, by order of the emperor Frederick II. The inquisition entrusted to the Dominicans. The order of the Blessed Virgin instituted. First irruption of the Tartars into Russia, Poland, Ac. The university of Vienna founded. The Tartars subject the Russians to the payment of tribute. A writing of this date, on paper made of rags, is still extant. Waldemar II. king of Denmark, publishes a code of the ancient Cinibrian laws. The Tartars invade Hungary and Poland. The Russians defeat the Swedes and Livonians, near Narva. Commencement of the Hanseatic league. Tin mines discovered in Germany. A plague ravages France, Italy, and Greece. Battle of Taillebourg. The Kharismians defeat the Christians, and take Jerusalem. The order of the Celestines instituted.

An

general council held at Lyons for renewing the croisades.

clear red star, like Mars, appears in Capricorn.

SECT. X.]
,Tuli;m

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
The

141

A. D.

Period.

5901.. 1248
5962.. 1249 5903.. 1250

5964.. 1251 5965. .1252 5966. 1253 5907.. 1254 OlMiif. 1255
. .

seventh (or fifth) croisade, under Louis IX. surnamed tlic Suint, who sets out on the 12th of June, and winters in Cyprus. Damietta, in Egypt, taken by St. Louis, on the 5th of June. St. Louis, defeated and taken prisoner in Egypt, on the 51 h of April, obtains a truce for ten years, and passes Cimabue revives painting at into Palestine, where he fortifies several cities, and releases 12,000 captives. The Sorbonne founded at Paris. The family of Saladin excluded from the throne of Egypt, by Florence. the Baharite Mamelukes. The Florentines begin their republic. Wales subdued, and Magna Charta confirmed, by Henry III. Alphonso XI. king of Castille, finds the sun's apogee in Gemini 28 deg. 40. min. The celebrated Alphonsine tables of astronomy composed by Alphonso king of Castille.

War between Denmark and Sweden.

On

the death of William, earl of Holland, in December, the electors being unable to agree as to his successor, the Western empire remains void for seventeen years.

5969. 1256 5971 1258

. .
.

The Augustine order established. The Tartars take Bagdad, and overthrow
England appear for the
first

the empire of the Saracens. Representatives of the time in parliament some authors refer this to the year 1264.
:

commons of

5972. .1259 5973. 1260

.

The

5974., 1261

Tartars invade Poland. Alfonso XL surnauied the Wise, king of Castille and Leon, orders all public records to be written in the motherThe sect of Flagellants appear at Perouse, in Italy. tongue, and not in Latin, as heretofore. Alexius Strategopulas, general to Michael Paleologus, recovers Constantinople from the Latins, in July, by means of an understanding with the Greeks in the city which ends the empire of the Franks, or Latins, in
;

5976.

1263

the East, fifty-seven years after its commencement. The Norwegians invade the Western Isles of Scotland.

The earl

of Leicester, at the head of the barons, rebels

5977.. 1264

5978 5979

1265 1266

against king Henry III. Henry, king of England, taken prisoner by the barons, in the battle of Lewes. According to some writers, the commons were first summoned to meet in parliament this year. ( Vide anno 1258.) Pope Urban IV. institutes the annual festival of the Holy Sacrament. Prince Edward defeats the earl of Leicester, in the battle of Evesham, on the 4th of August. Battle of Beneventum, in which Mainfroi, usurper of the crown of Sicily, is defeated and slain, on the 26th of

February

Charles of Anjou becomes master of that kingdom.

Peace between the Scots and Norwegians.

5980.. 1267 5981 1268

The

police of the city of Paris established by Stephen Boileau. Antioch taken from the croisaders, by the sultan of Egypt, chief of the Mussulmans. The Tartars again invade China, and expel many of the natives. Conradin, prince of Naples, defeated and taken prisoner in the battle of Celano, on the 29th of August, by Charles, king of Sicily, by whom he is prosecuted as a traitor, con-

demned, and publicly executed at Naples, with Frederick of Baden, duke of Austria, on the 27th of October.
5982.. 1269
5983. .1270
Louis undertakes a new expedition to Palestine. Cozah Nasirodin observes the obliquity of the ecliptic 23 deg. 30 min. The king of Hungary reduces Bulgaria. A guard of Scots embodied in France. Prince Edward goes to the St. Louis passes into Africa, and dies at holy wars, in May, and is absent till the 25th of June, 1274. Tunis, on the 25th of August: his son, Philip III. or the Hardy, succeeds him, and continues the war with
St.

to be

the Infidels.

5985. .1272

The academy

5986. 1273
.

at Florence founded. The orders of the mendicants icduced to the four following: Dominicans or Jacobins, Franciscans or Cordeliers, Carmelites, and Hermits of Augustine. Rodolph, count of Hapsburgh, head of the present Austrian family, elected emperor of the West, in the month of October, and crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle. Cheou-Ching, in China, observed the obliquity of the ecliptic to be

23 deg. 33 min. 39

sec.

EPOCIIA XV. FROM THE ACCESSION OF RODOLPH OF HAPSBURGH TO THE EMPIRE, TO THE REFORMATION BY LUTHER:
244 YEARS.
5987. .1274 5990. 1277 5992.. 1279
.

The first commercial treaty between England and Flanders. The sultan of Egypt defeats the Tartars, near Damascus. Nepotism firstavowed at Rome, by pope Nicholas III. Edward I. king of England, relinquishes his claims on Normandy. The celebrated Mortmain statute made

5993.. 1280

The

5995.

1282

England, in November. The Moguls complete the conquest of Tartars again defeated by the sultan of Egypt, near Emessa. China, under Houpilay, or Kublai, grandson of Genghis: Khan, and begin the twentieth dynasty, called Yuen, which continues, underten emperors, till the year 1368. Houpilay assumes the surname of Chitsou. The Sicilians, excited by Peter III. king of Arragou, \\ lio was endeavouring to become master of Sicily, massacre all the French they can find in their island, men, women, and children, on Easter-day, March 30 this event, in which 12,000, (or, as some relate, 8000) persons were destroyed, has obtained the appellation of Sicilian Vespers, because the ringing of the bell for evening prayer was made the signal for the horrid deed. The academy of La Crusca founded. Llewelliu, prince of Wales, defeated and killed in the battle of Llandweir, on the llth of December.
in
:

142
Julian
Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A. D.

[CHAP. n.

8996.. 1283 6997.. 1284

5998.. 1285

6000.. I 287 6001- -1288 6002.. 1289 6003.. 1290 6004.. 1291

to England A new separation between the Latin and Greek adopt the Christian sera. Charles, king of Naples, defeated by the fleet of Peter of Arragon, under Roger de Lauria, near Naples, and his son, Charles the Lame, carried off prisoner, on the 5th of June. The Tartars ravage Hungary. Alphonso HI. succeeding Peter as king of Arragon, takes the island of Majorca and, next year, that of Minorca. The Mogul Tartars break into Poland, and commit great ravages. Kelaoun, sultan of Egypt, takes Tripoli from the croisaders.

Wales conquered by king Edward

churches.

I.

and united

The

states of Segovia

great earthquake in Europe. I. banishes the Jews from England. The university of Lisbon founded. The sultan Melee, of the Mameluke race, conquers all Syria, takes Ptolema'i's, or Acre, by assault, on tne 19th of May, and obliges the croisaders to evacuate Asia ; from which time, no more religious expeditions have been prosecuted for the recovery of the Holy Land. The Latin patriarchs of Jerusalem end. A con-

Edward

6005. .1292 6000. .1293

6007. .1294 6008. .1295 6009. .1296

6010. .1297 6011. .1298

test between Robert Bruce and John Baliol, for the throne of Scotland. Adolphus, count of Nassau, elected emperor of the West, on the 1st of May. English parliaments may be traced in regular succession from this year, the twenty-second of Edward I. ( Vide annis 1258, 1264.; The parliament of Paris instituted, under Philip IV. The factions of the Neri and Bianchi begin in Tuscany. The Visconti family created dukes of Milan. Premislaus, duke of Poland, receives the title of King. An intense frost in Denmark. The motion of trepidation discovered by Thebit, the Arabian astronomer.

Edward I. invades Scotland. Edward commits great ravages

records, to England.

in Scotland,

and sends the famous coronation chair and stone, with the national

The emperor Adolphus deposed by the

6012.. 1299

princes of Germany, on the 23d of June, and Albert, duke of Austria, son of the late Rodolph, elected in his stead. Adolphus is afterwards defeated and slain in the battle of The empire of the Ottoman Turks begins in Bithynia, under Osman. The Spires, on the 2d of July. battle of Falkirk, in Scotland, on the 22d of July. An earthquake in Germany. Spectacles invented by a monk of Pisa. The celebrated jubilee founded at Rome, by pope Boniface VIII. and appointed to be held every hundred years, (which term was, in 1350, abridged to fifty years :) on this occasion the pope appeared in pontifical and imperial robes, with the motto,

Ecce Duo Gladii.

6013.. 1300
Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, elected king of Poland.

6014.. 1301

6015.. 1302

B016..1303 6019.. 1306

6020.. 1307 6021.. 1308

6023.. 1310 6025.. 1312

FOURTEENTH CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN JERA. between Philip IV. of France and the pope the former, of course, is excommunicated by the to be a spiritual and temporal sovereign. Dante and the White faction holy father, who declares himself banished Florence, by Charles of Valois and pope Boniface VIII. The Mogul Tartars defeated near Damascus, by the Mameluke sultan of Egypt. The mariner's compass invented (or improved) by Flavio, of Melfi, in Italy. The university of Avignon founded. The Scots defeat three English armies in one day, near Rosslyn. Philip IV. banishes the Jews from France. Coals said to be first used in England. (s) The universityof Perouse, in Italy, founded. The Swiss cantons begin. The seat of the popes removed to Avignon, and remains there for seventy years. The university of Lisbon The emperor Albert killed in Switzerland, on the 1st of May, and the empire retransferred to Coimbra. mains vacant almost a year. The knights of St. John take Rhodes, and settle there. The council of Vienna abolishes the order of Knights Templars, on the 22d of March. The university of

violent quarrel

6026.. 1313

6027.. 1314

6028.. 1315 6029.. 1316

6031.. 1318 6032.. 1310 6033.. 1320 6034.. 1321

Orleans founded. Molay, grand master of the order of Templars, and a great number of the knights companions, burned alive at The emperor Henry VII. poisoned in receiving the consecrated host, dies on Paris, on the llth of March. the 24th of August, near Sienna, in Tuscany, and the empire remains vacant till next year. The cardinals, unable to agree in the election of a pope, set fire to the conclave, and separate. The battle of Bannockburn, on the 25th of July, in which the Scots defeat the English. The imperial electors, unable to reconcile their various interests, a civil war, of several years' duration, ensues. Famine and pestilence rage in Germany. The Scots invade Ireland. of the cardinals, for the election of a pope but, unable to agree, Philip, earl of Poictiers, convokes a meeting they suffer James D'Ossa, the son of a cobbler, to nominate himself; and he is, inconsequence, installed and crowned at Lyons, by the name of John XX. (or XXII.) on the 5th of September. A severe famine in England and Scotland. The university of Dublin founded. The order of Knights of Christ founded in Portugal. Gold coined in Christendom. An earthquake in England. A civil war in England, between king Edward II. and the barons. Abu'lfeda, the Saracen prince of Hamah, in he died in 1383. Syria, finishes his Arabian geography:
;

(i)

They were

in use in

England 400 yeari before

this.

See Suxou Chronitie, sub aim, 851.

SECT. X.]
Julian

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
The

143

A.r>.

Period.

6 035..1322
6036..1323 038. 1325
.

rival emperors fight the battle of Muldorff, on the 28th of September, when Frederick of Austria is take* prisoner by Louis of Bavaria. A terrible eruption of /Etna. A truce of thirteen years between England and Scotland. The first treaty of commerce between England aud Venice. Frederick of Austria, renouncing his claim to the

empire,

is

set at liberty,

and Louis IV.

:

is

universally acknowledged.

C039..1326
6040... 1327

The civil war continues in England queen Isabella brings an army into the country against her husband, Edward II. on the 22d of September. Edward II. deposed in the beginning of January, by the parliament of England, and sent prisoner to Berkeley castle, where he is soon afterwards put to a horrid death his son Edward III. a youth of fourteen, succeeds
:

but the government is engrossed by the queen and her favourites. 6042.. 1329 Philip VI. surnamed the Fortunate, king of France, gains a victory, in the battle of Mount Cassel, over the Flemings, on the 23d of August. C043. ,1330 Gunpowder invented by a monk of Cologne. 6044. ,1331 The Turks take the city of Nice from the Eastern empire. The Teutonic knights settle in Prussia. The art of weaving cloth introduced into England by the exiled and fugitive Flemings. 6045. ,1332 Uladislaus IV. king of Poland, seizes upon Silesia. Philip VI. king of France, accuses pope John XX. (or XXII.) of heresy, in which he is soon afterwards supported by the emperor Louis IV. 6046. .1333 The Moors get possession of Gibraltar. The Scots defeated by the English, at Halidown hill, near Berwick, on the 19th of July. 6049. .1336 Edward III. of England, supports the cause of the Flemings against Philip VI. of France, and begins to assert his pretensions to the French crown, as grandson, by his mother's side, of Philip IV. or the Fair. 6050. .1337 The first comet whose course is described with astronomical exactness, appeared in the beginning of June. 6051. .1338 Edward III. begins his invasion of France, and sails from England on the 15th of July. The German empire declared to be independent of the pope. 6052. .1339 Denmark desolated by war, famine, and pestilence. The academy of Pisa established. 6053. .1340 Edward III. defeats the French in a naval engagement, near Helvoetsluys, about the 23d of June; which is followed by a truce of four years' continuance Copper money begins to be used in Scotland and Ireland. 6055. .1342 The siege of Algiers, in which gunpowder is ascertained to have been used. The knights, or representatives of counties, and burgesses, or representatives of cities and corporate towns, first sit together in the English parliament. ( Vide anno 1293.) 6057. .1344 Edward III. renews the war with France, on the 6th of June. The Madeira Islands said to be discovered by Macham, an Englishman. Gold first coined in England. The Tartars, invading Poland, are defeated by Casitnir the Great. 6059.. 1346 The battle of Cressy, in which the French are defeated with the loss of upwards of 30,000 men, on the 26th of August, by Edwa'rd the Black Prince. The Scots defeated by the English, and king David II. taken prisoner. A treaty of commerce between the Venetians and the sultans of Egypt. 6060.. 1347 Nicholas Gabrini, surnamed Rienzi, restores the tribunate at Rome, on the 19th of May, and rules with Calais surrenders to Edward III. on the 3d of August, after a siege sovereign authority for seven months. of eleven months, and remains in the possession of the English 211 years. The court of Admiralty established in England. A code of laws published in Poland, by Casimir the Great, and the university of Cracow founded. 6061.. 1348 A dreadful plague spreads over all Europe, which is deprived of nearly a fourth part of its inhabitants. The university of Prague founded. 6062.. 1349 Edward III. of England institutes the order of St. George, or of the Garter, at Windsor, on the 23d of April. The plague ravages England, Scotland, and Ireland. Peter IV. the Ceremonious, king of Arragon, adopts the use of the Christian aera. 6063.. 1350 The observation of the jubilee fixed for every fiftieth year. (Vide anno 1299.)
to the regal title
;

6065.. 1352 6066.. 1353 6068.. 1355 6069.. 1360

The Turks

first

enter Europe.

Swarms of locusts desolate Africa and

John II. king of France, taken prisoner by Edward the Black Prince, in the battle of Poictiers, on the 19th of September, and sent to England. An earthquake in Germany. The Golden Bull, for regulating the imperial elections, published, and confirmed on the 29th of December, under the auspices of the emperor
Charles IV.

for their opinions respecting the conspiracy at Venice.

Two monks of the order of Fratres Minores burned at Avignon, of Jesus Christ. poverty
Asia.

6070.. 1357 6071.. 1358

6073.. 1360 6075.. 1362

Tamerlane begins to reign

6077.. 1364 8078.. 1365

in Persia. The treaty of Calais, between Edward III. of England, and the French, on the 24th of October. The use of the Christian aera adopted in various parts of Spain. signed King John, set at liberty, returns to France. Edward III. orders the'law pleadings in his courts to be in English, instead of French, as a favour to his subThe military order of Janizaries instituted among the Ottojects, on attaining the fiftieth year of his age. man Turks. Battle of Cocherel, on the 6th of May, and of Avrai, on the 29th of September. The universities of Vienna and Geneva founded.

great sedition in France.

144
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A. D.

[CHAP.

ir.

6079. .1360 6080.. 1367 6081.. 1308

6082.. 1369

6083.. 1370

6086.. 1373 6090. . 1377

6091.. 1378

Adrianople becomes the seat of the Turkish empire. Battle of Neii a, in Castille, on the 4th of April. Revolution in China: the Moguls, descendants of Genghiz Khan, Battle of Montial, on the 14th of March. and the dynasty of Mim, or Ming, begins with Hong-vou, or Tait-tcou, which expelled by the Chinese continues 281 years, under seventeen emperors. Hong-vou receives ambassadors at his court from Tamerlane and the emperor of Constantinople. Wickliffe, doemed the first reformer of the Christian religion, begins to preach in England, and becomes the head of the sect called Lollards: he died in 1385. The dynasty of the Stewarts, or Stuarts, begins to reign in Scotland, in the person of Robert II. Amurath 1. institutes the office of grand vizir. Chivalry flourishes. The Genoese become masters of Cyprus. The seat of the popes removed from Avignon back to Rome. The sea breaks in upon Flanders. Wickliff's doctrines begin to be condemned. The schism of double popes, which continued 38 years, begins, under Urban VI. at Rome, and Clement VII. at Avignon, who excommunicate each other and their respective adherents. Greenland discovered by a Venetians. This year Wickliffe published his Translation of the Vulgate Bible, in English.
;

6092.. 1379 6094.. 1381

6095.. 1382

Civil

commotions

in Flanders.

6096.. 1383 6097- -1384 6099.. 1386 6100.. 1387 6101.. 1388

61 02.. 1389 6104.. 1391

6105.. 1392 61 06.. 1393 6107.. 1394 6108.. 1395

Bills of exchange first used Tyler and Jack Straw's insurrection in England, in the beginning of July. A plague in Germany. in England. The Turks take Hierapolis. End of the governBattle of Rosebeck, in Flanders, on the 17th of November. ment of the Baharite Mamelukes in Egypt; the Circassian Mamelukes, or Borghites, succeed them, and hold that country and Syria till 1517, when they also are dispossessed by the Ottomans. Cannon first used in the English service, by the governor of Calais. The first navigation law enacted in England, prohibiting natives to export or import goods in foreign vessels. Tamerlane subdues Georgia. The company of linen weavers, in England, begins. Tamerlane conquers Turkistan. The first lord high admiral of England appointed. Battle of Otterburn, on the 31st of July, in which Henry Percy, surnamed Hotspur, son of the earl of Northumberland, is defeated by the Scots, under earl Douglas. Battle of Falcoping, on the 21st of September, in which Margaret, queen of Denmark, defeats the Swedes, and unites the crowns of Sweden and Denmark. Bombs invented at Venloo. The celebrated Bajazct, sultan of the Ottoman Turks, begins to reign. The academy of St. Luke founded at Paris. Cards invented to divert the melancholy of Charles VI. king of France. The Jews banished from Germany. Cape of Good Hope discovered by the Portuguese.

Wat

The Jews

6110.. 1397

6111.. 1398
6112.. 1399

Bajazet and the Turks ravage Wallachia. banished France. The university of Paris vainly endeavours to reconcile the schism of the rival popes. Sigismund, kins of Hungary, defeated in the celebrated battle of Nicopolis, by Bajazet, sultan of the Turks, on the 28th of September, where a great number of French nobility, commanded by the count of Nevers, The Turks afterwards subject the Bulgarians. perish. Margaret, queen of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, establishes what is called the Union of Calmar, for the perpetual connection of those kingdoms, which, however, continues only till 1448. A rebellion in Ireland. Dukes first created in Scotland. Tamerlane penetrates into Hindoostan. An intense

6113.. 1400

frost in Denmark. Tamerlane takes Delhi, in January, whence travelling to the north, he afterwards becomes master of NovoRichard II. king of England, deposed by the parliament, under the influence of his cousin Henry, gorod. duke of Lancaster, and confined in Pontefract or Pomfret castle, where he is shortly afterwards murdered: the duke ascends the throne by the title of Henry IV. In this transaction originates the contest between the houses of Lancaster and York. The emperor Wencc.tlaus deposed from the empire, on account of his vices, though he continues to reign, for 18 years, as king of Bohemia, and retains the imperial title. Tamerlane invades Asia Minor.

FIFTEENTH CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN

6114.. 1401 6115.. 1402
6116. .1403 6118.. 1405

JERA.

The emperor Rupert

Bajazet
I.

Tamerlane takes Bagdad, on the 9th of August. invades Italy, and is repulsed. sultan of the Ottomans, defeated and taken prisoner, by Tamerlane, in the battle of Angora, on

the 281 h of July. Battle of Shrewsbury, on the 22d of July, in which Hotspur is killed by the troops of king Henry. The Canary island* discovered, by John de Bethencourt, a Norman gentleman. Tamerlane dies, while

mak-

ing preparations for the conquest of China. England, at the siege of Berwick.

Famine and pestilence

in

Denmark.
lays

Great guns

first

used in

6120. .1407

6121. .1408 6122.. 1409

John Huss begins to propagate his doctrines in Bohemia. Pope Benedict king aud clergy having endeavoured to put an end to the papal schism. Ladislans, king of Naples, takes possession of Rome.

France under an

interdict, the

The

cardinals, renouncing their allegiance to both popes, assemble in council, at Pisa, on the 25th of March, depose tnem on the Sth of June, and elect Alexander V. on the 16th. The Lollards multiply in England.

SECT. X.]
Julian period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
The emperor Rupert

145

A. D.

6123.. 1410

6134 .1411
6125, .1412

6127, .1414 6128, .1415

6129. .1416

6130.. 1417

6131, .1418 6132. .1419 6133. .1420

6134. .1422 6135. .1422

6130. 6137. 6139. 6140.

.1423 .1424 .1426 .1427

dies on the 18th of May ; and Sigismund, king of Hungary, brother of Wenceslaus, (vide anno 1400) is elected by a party of the electors ; and Jossus, marquis of Moravia, by the rest so that three emperors of the West, and three popes, are seen reigning at one time. Sigismund sells the electorate of Brandenburgh to Frederick, burgrave of Nuremburgh, ancestor of the present royal house of A civil war in France. Painting in oil colours invented at Bruges, by John Van-Eyck. Prussia. The emperor Jossus dying on the 8th of January, the title of Sigismund is recognised by all parties. The university of St. Andrew's, in Scotland, founded. Algebra brought from Arabia into Europe, about this time. The Portuguese begin to make discoveries on the African coast. John Huss cited before the council of Constance, and thrown into a dungeon : next year he is condemned to the flames. Henry V. king of England, invades Normandy, and defeats the French in the battle of Azincour, er Agincourt, in Artois, on the 25th of October. The emperor Sigismund raises Savoy from a county to a duchy, in favour of Amadeus VIII. on the 19th of February. Jerome of Prague, a disciple of Huss, condemned by the council of Constance, and burned on the 30th of May. The English defeat the French fleet at the mouth of the Seine. The kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, united under Erick IX. on the death of Margaret. Henry V. of England, makes a second expedition to France. Paper constructed of linen rags begins to be in common use, some say, invented. ( Vide anno 1239.) Massacre of the Armagnac faction at Paris. The council of Constance, having ended the papal schism, dissolves itself on the 22d of April. Treaty of Troyes signed on the 21st of May, by which Henry V. of England is acknowledged heir to the crown of France, after the death of Charles VI. to the prejudice and exclusion of the dauphin. This year presents the singular spectacle of two kings, two queens, two regents, two parliaments, and two universities of Paris, in France. The island of Madeira discovered by the Portuguese. Battle of Beauge, on the 3d of April, in which the duke of Clarence is killed. The duke of Bedford, regent of England and France, causes the infant Henry VI. to be proclaimed king of France, and has him crowned at Paris. The Christian ?era adopted in Portugal. The English, under the earl of Salisbury, defeat the French and Scots, in the battle of Crevant, in June. The duke of Bedford defeats the partisans of Charles VII. at Verneuil. on the 16th of August.
:

An

earthquake at Naples.

The academy of Louvain founded.

sia,

The

Hussites are said to have committed dreadful devastations in Sile-

6141. .1428 6142. .1429

6143. .1430 6144. .1431 (J147. .1434

Moldavia, and Austria. The siege of Orleans, the first adverse blow to the English power in France, begins on the 12th of October. Joan of Arc, surnamed the Maid of Orleans, obliges the Battle of Herrings, on the 12th of February. English to raise the siege of that city, on the 12th of May, and conducts Charles VII. to Rheims, where he is anointed on the 17th of July. The order of the Golden Fleece instituted by Philip, duke of Burgundy, at Bruges, on occasion of his marriage with Elizabeth of Portugal. The Hussites continue their ravages in Bohemia. Henry VI. king of England, crowned a second time at Paris. A great earthquake at Lisbon. Cosmo de Medici recalled from banishment from which period that family begins to be illustrious in Florence,
;

6148.. 1435

Sweden. Treaty of Arras, on the 22d of September, by which Charles VII. detaches the duke of Burgundy from the
civil

war

in

interests of the English.

6149. 143(5 6150. .1437

,

Paris recovered

by the French, on the 13th of April.

6152. ,1439

The Turks invade Hungary. Ulugh Beigh, emperor of expedition to Africa. Samarcand, and author of the Persian Astronomical Tables, observes the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23. 30'. 17". he died in 1449, aged 57. The Greek and Latin churches re-united, at Florence, on the 5th of July. The famous Pragmatic Sanction
The Portuguese send an
:

settled in France.

6153. ,1440
G155. 1442

6157. 1444 6159. 1446 6160. 1447

C161. 1448

Mentz it underwent various improvements in the course of the following 22 book with a date is the Latin Psalter, in 1457. years printed The Turks, under Arnuralh II. invade Hungary. The kingdoms of Naples and Sicily united, under the title of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, by Alfonso V. king of Arragon. Famine in Sweden. Truce between England and France, signed at Tours, on the 1st of June. Battle of Varnes gained by the Turks over Ladishius, king of Hungary. The sea breaks in at Dort, on the 17th of April, and drowns about 100,000 persons. The emperor Frederick declares war against the Swiss. The Visconti family ends in Milan, and is succeeded by the Sforzas. The Turks defeated by ScaJwkrbeg., king of Albania, in 22 battles. Christian I. of the house of Oldenburgh, elected king of Denmark and Norway while Charles Canuteson proThe Scatscures himself to be proclaimed sovereign of Sweden, by which the union of Calmar is broken. defeat the English at Sark. The sanguinary contests between the houses of Lancaster aud York break out

The

art of printing invented at

:

the

first

in

England.

The Vatican

at

Rome

founded.

VOL.

I.

146
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A. D.

[CHAP.

ii.

6163.. 1450

61 64.. 1451 6165.. 1452

61 66.. 1453

61 67.. 1454 6168.. 1455

6169.. 1456 6171.. 1458 61 72.. 1459 6173.. 1460

6174.. 1461

6175.. 1462

6176.. 1463 6177.. 1464 6179.. 1468 6180.. 1467 0181.. 1468

recovered by the French, in the buttle of Fourmigni, gained over the English, by the constable dc Five hundred persons drowned in llie Tiber, in endeavouring to pass the bridge during the jubilee at Rome. Yng-tsong, emperor of China, with 100,000 of his troops, made prisoners by the Tartars. The English evacuate Rouen and several other places in France. War between Denmark and Sweden. Commencement of the duchies of Modena, Reggio, and Ferrara, by concessions, parity of the emperor, and of Berso and Hercules of Este. First alliance of the Swiss with France. partly of the pope, in favour The emperor Frederick III. issues letters-patent, dated the 6th of January, for constituting Austria an archduchy. Mahomet II. sultaii of the Ottoman Turks, takes Constantinople on the 2!)lh of May the emperor Constant ine is killed, and with him ends the Eastern empire. The English government in France, (with the the loss of the battle of Castillon, on the 7tb of July. exception of Calais,) ends, with The Prussians and Poles carry on a war of 12 years' continuance against the Teutonic knights. The first battle of St. Alban's, in England, on the 31st of May, where king Henry VI. is taken prisoner by Richard duke of York, who is proclaimed protector of the realm. A great earthquake at Naples. The Turks repulsed from before Belgrade by the papal troops, who destroy upwards of 40,000 of them. Corinth taken by the Turks. The arts of engraving and etching invented. First expedition of Alfonso V. king of Portugal, to Africa. Academies founded at Basil and at Friburg. Alum mines discovered in Italy. Purbachius and Regioinontanus Richard duke of York defeats the Lancastrians at observe the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23. 29'. Northampton, on the 19th of July, makes Henry his prisoner, and assumes the title of king of England: but, on the 31st of December, he is slain in the battle of Wakefield, by the troops of queen Margaret : the duke is succeeded in his pretensions to the crown by his son Edward, and Henry remains in the custody of the earl of Warwick. Second battle of St. Alban's, in which the earl of Warwick is defeated by queen Margaret, and king Henry is released. Edward, duke of York, arrives at London, where he is proclaimed by the title of king Edward IV. and crowned on the 5th of March. Battle of Towton, in Yorkshire, on the 29th of same month the LanThe battle of Hexham is castrians defeated, and Henry, with his wife and son, escape into Scotland. soon afterwards fought, in which the troops of Henry are again defeated : this unhappy prince, after being concealed about a twelvpmnnlh by his friends, is given up, and confined in the Tower: the queen and her son wander for some time in the forests, till an opportunity offers for them to escape to France. Expedition of the Turks into Wallachia. Regular posts established in France. An edition of the Vulgate Bible, in two volumes, finished this year, is generally denominated the first book printed ; but there is See under 1440. a psalter extant, bearing the date of 1457. War between the Turks and Venetians. Alfonso's second expedition to Africa. The pestilence ravages

Normandy

Richmont, on the 18th of April.

Saxony and Thuringia.

The

An

league against Louis XI. of France, called edition of Cicero de Officiis printed this year. Spanish sheep first brought to England.

"

La

Guerre du Bien public."

6182.. 1469 6183.. 1470 6184.. 1471

61 85.. 1472 61 86.. 1473

6187.. 1474
6188.. 1475 6189.. 1476

fil!)0..l477

191.. 1478

earl of Warwick joins the Lancastrian party. Scanderbeg, king of Albania, the great enemy of the Turks, dies. Uzun-Hassan, or Usum-Cassan, chief of the Turkomans, becomes master of Persia: the Christians form alliances with him against the Ottomans. Louis XL of France institutes the order of St. Michael. The carl of Warwick restores Henry to the English throne, on the 6th of October: Edward flies to the continent, and is declared to be an usurper and traitor by the parliament. Edward IV. returning to England, lands at Ravenspur, in Yorkshire, on the 25th of March; enters London, and sends Henry prisoner to the Tower, on the llth of April defeats the earl of Warwick at Barnet, on the 14th of April, the same day that queen Margaret and her son arrive in England, who are also defeated in the batile of Tewkesbury, on the 4th of May, and taken prisoners the young prince is assassinated by the partisans of Edward, on the 21st of the same month king Henry dies in the Tower, a few days afterwards and Edward calls a parliament on the 6th October, which ratifies all his actions. War between the Turks and Parthians. The study of the Greek language introduced into France, by Gregorius Tiphernas. The Cape de Verd islands discovered by the Portuguese. The emperor Frederick III. erects Holstein into a duchy, in favour of Christian I. king of Denmark. Poland and Hungary infested with locusts. Ferdinand V. king of Castille, defeats Alfonso V. king of Portugal. Charle.-. the Bold, duke of Burgundy, Waltherus defeated by the Swiss, at Gran.son, on the 5th of April, and at Moral on the 20th of June. observes the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23. 30'. The duke of Burgundy shiin in buttle by the duke of Lorraine, on the 5th of January, at the seige of Nancy. Laurence de Medici expelled Florence, under an anathema, of pope Sixtus IV. which greatly distresses learning. Peace between France and Castille. Waltherus observes the vernal equinox on the llth of March, at tiv minutes after eight o'clock.

The

seer, x.]
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
and Arragon united under Ferdinand V. or the Catholic, and monarchy. -The university of Upsal founded. The isle of Rhodes invaded by the Turks.
Castille

147

A. D.

6 192.. 1479
01 03.. 1480 Cl 94.. 1481
(>1 !>.">..

Isabella,

which properly begins the

Spanisli

great famine in France.

1482 6 196.. 1483

A court of inquisition erected at Seville. The Portuguese discover the Guinea coast. On ihe death of Edward IV. on the 9th of April, his son Edward V. is supposed to have been murdered by the protector, Richard, duke of Gloucester, who usurps the crown, by the title of Richard III. Posthorses and stages established. desolated by famine and pestilence. Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, a descendant on his mother's side of Edward III. in the line of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, arrives in England from Britany, defeats Richard in the battle of Bosworth, who is slain in the conflict, on the 22d of August is proclaimed king of England by the army, by the title of Henry VII. ; and, by his marriage with the princess Elizabeth, daughter of Henry IV. unites the interests of the houses of York and Lancaster. A war between the sultan of Egypt and the Turks. The Russians subdue the kingdom of Casan. The court of star-chamber, in England, instituted by Henry VII. Battle of St. Aubin, in which the duke of Britany is defeated, and the duke of Orleans taken prisoner, by Dame Anne de Beaujeu, regent of France, on the 28th of June. The Cape of Good Hope discovered

0197.. 1484

Denmark

G198..1485

6199. .1486 6200. .1487 6201.. 1488

6202.. 1489

by the Portuguese. Catharine Cornaro, the last sovereign of Cyprus, cedes that island to the Venetians. An earthquake at Constantinople. Geographical maps and sea-charts first introduced into England, by Bartholomew Columbus, brother to the celebrated navigator.
Poetry begins to flourish in Germany. study of the Greek tongue introduced into England, by William Grocyn. Ferdinandv king of Arragon, &c. takes Granada, on the 2d of Biiiaiiy united to tho French o.vv.1). January, which terminates the dominion of the Moors and Saracens in Spain, after it had existed 780 years. Christopher Columbus receives his commission, or treaty, for a voyage of discovery in the Western Ocean, from Ferdinand and Isabella, on the 17th of April, sails on the 3d of August, discovers San Salvadore on the 12th of October, and afterwards most of the Bahama or Lucayo group, with the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. Columbus, returning to Europe, arrives at Palos, in Spain, on the 15th of March ; and sets off on his second voyage in September, in the course of which he discovers Dominica, Mariegalante, Guadeloupe, MontJo. Reuchlin, surnamed Capnio, introduces the Hebrew and serrat, Antigua, Porto Rico, and Jamaica. Greek languages into Germany he died in 1521, aged 67. Charles VIII. king of France, goes on an expedition into Naples, of which Poyning's act passes in Ireland. he becomes master next year. Battle of Fornova, in Italy, between Charles VIII. and the Venetians, &c. on the 6th of July. Algebra (brought The diet of Worms convoked for securing the into Europe in 1412) is first taught by a friar at Venice. A treaty of commerce between Henry VII. of England, and Philip duke of Burgundy. peace of the empire. Columbus returns to Spain disgraced, through the envious and mutinous temper of the colonists. Jews and Moors banished Portugal. Sebastian Cabot, a native of Bristol, founder of the maritime power of Britain, in the service of Henry VII. discovers Newfoundland, Florida, &c. and Americas Vesputius, in the service of Spain, discovers the contisails to the East Indies nent south of the line. by the Cape Vasquez di Gama, the Portuguese admiral, first of Good Hope. Columbus sails a third time to the West, and discovers the American continent, near the mouth of the river Oroonoko, on the 1st of August. The Wallachians ravage Poland, and carry off above 100,000 prisoners, whom they sell to the Turks. Louis XII. king of France, conquers the Milanese in July, and enters Milan on the 6th of October. War between the Turks and Venetians. The emperor Maximilian I. divides the empire into six circles (to which he added four others in 1512.) Brazil A great plague in England. discovered by the Portuguese. Painting in chiaro oscuro invented.

6203.. 1490 6204. 1491 6205.. 1492

.

The

6206. .1493

6207. .1494

6208

1495

C-209.

.1496

6210.. 1497

6211.. 1498

6212. .1499
6213. .1500

SIXTEENTH CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN

6214. .1501
Ishmael Sophi, of the sect of Ali, begins to reign in Persia Louis XII. of France, and Ferdinand V. of Spain, seize on the kingdom of Naples. The government of the sheriffs at Morocco begins. The tribunal of state
inquisitors established at Venice.

621.).

l.><)2

6210. .1503

The island of St Helena discovered. The power of the French in Naples ends
therus observes the

summer
!)

apogee

in

Cancer, 4 deg.

solstice, at inin.

Nurcmburg, on the 12th of June,

which
still

Walwith the loss of the battle of Cerignole, on the 28th of April. at 12 h. 46 mill. 34 sec.: the sun's
bears his name.

6217. .1504 6218. 1505 0219. . 1500

.

Kinj;

Henry VII.

builds the chapel at Westminster,

Shillings first coined in England. The island of Cejloii discovered

by the Portuguese.

The academy of Fraiikfort-on-lhe-Oder founded.

u 2

148
Julian Period.
<;>.><>..

INTRODUCTION.
A.D.

[CHAP.

ii.

6221

1507 1508

The Genoese subjected by Louis XII. of France. The island of Madagascar discovered by the Portuguese. The pope and the emperor join the king of France in the celebrated treaty of Cambray, against the Venetians,
signed and confirmed on the 10th of December. Venetians defeated in the battle of Aignadel, by Louis, king of France, on the 14th of May. Cardinal Ximenes undertakes an expedition from Spain to the coast of Barbary, and wrests Oran from the Algerines, on the 26th of May. An earthquake at Constantinople, on the 14th of September. The pope grants the investiture of Naples to Ferdinand of Spain, on the 13th of July. Wernerus observes the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23. 28'. 30". The island of Cuba conquered by the Spaniards. A new league formed, between the pope, the emperor, and the Venetians, against the French, on the 4th of October. (Comp. anno 1508.) Battle of Ravenna, on Easter-day, the llth of April. The river De la Plata discovered. Ferdinand of Arragon, &c. wrests the kingdom of Navarre from John d'Albret. The emperor Maximilian adds four new circles to the Germanic empire. ( Vide anno 1500. j The French defeated by the Swiss, in the battle of Novarro. War between England and Scotland ; battle of Guinegat, or of the Spurs, on the 16th of August; and of Flowden, on the 9th of September. War between the Ottomans and Persians. Cannon bullets of stone still in use. Battle of Marignan, between the French and Swiss, on the 13th and 15th of September, followed by the capture of the duchies of Milan, Parma, and Placentia. The first Polyglot Bible printed at Alcala. Copernicus observes the vernal equinox at Fruemberg, on the llth of March, at thirty minutes past four in the morning ; also Spica Virginis in Libra, 17. 3'. 2". and the sun's apogee in Cancer, 6. 40'. The Turkish corsair, Barbarossa, seizes the kingdom of Algiers, which he had been called to protect against the Spaniards. Treaty of Noyons signed on the 16th of August. The Turks terminate the kingdom of the Mamelukes in Egypt. Five books of the Annals of Tacitus found. The reformation in religion begun in Germany, by the monk Martin Luther, on the 30th of September.

6222.. 1509

The

C223--1510
C224..1511
(J22-3..1512

6226- -1513
6227.. 1514 6228.. 1515

6229.. U16

6230. .1517

EPOCHA
6231.. 1518 6232.. 1519 6233-. 1520 6234.. 1521

XVI.

Spaniards. doctrines of Luther, by a bull, dated the 9th of November. Zuinglius begins the reformation in Switzerland. The confederacy of the Holy Junta formed in Spain. Luther burns the pope's bull at Wittemburg, on the

FROM THE LUTHERAN REFORMATION TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 272 YEARS. Mexico, or New Spain, and the Straits of Magellan, discovered. 40,000 Moors defeated by the
Pope Leo X. condemns the

6235. .1522 6236. .1523

6238. .1525

6239. .1526

6240- 1527
6241. .1528 6242. 1529

10th of December. league between the emperor Charles V. king of Spain, and Henry VIII. of England, against the king of France. The first diet at Worms, on the 17th of April: Luther banished. The Turks take Belgrade, in August. " Henry VIII. receives the title of Defender of the Faith," for having written in defence of the pope's The Swedes revolt from Christian II. king of Denmark, and elect Gustavus Vasa for their supremacy. Fernando Cortez conquers the kingdom of Mexico. sovereign. A ship of Magellan's squadron performs the first voyage round the world. The English make their first voyage to Russia. The Turks take the island of Rhodes from the knights of St. John, on the 25th of December. A league against Francis I. of France, by Pope Clement VII. the emperor, the Venetians, &c. The tenets of Luther introduced into Sweden and Denmark. Luther marries the nun Catharine de Born, or Bruen. Albert de Brandenburg, grand master of the Teutonic order, assumes the title of Duke of Prussia. The inquisition established in Portugal. The pope and Venetians join the French king against the emperor. Lutheranism established in Denmark. The Turks conquer great part of Hungary. War between the pope and the viceroy of Naples. Rome plundered by the army of the emperor, on the 6th of

May. The Bermuda islands discovered. Popery abolished in Sweden, and Gustavus Vasa crowned on the 12th of January. established at Genoa, by Andrew Doria.

Anew

form of government

The name of

between Charles V. and Francis the end of five weeks.

Protestants given to the reformers, at the diet at Spires, March 15. The peace of Cambray, The Turks besiege Vienna, but are repulsed at I. on the 5th of August.

6243.. 1530

Melaucthon presents dreadful earthquake in Portugal, in January, preceded by an inundation in Holland. Union of the the Confession of Faith of the reformed to the emperor, at the diet at Augsburgh, in June. The secretary of Protestants at Smalcald, on the 22d of December. Parochial registers first appointed.
state's office established in

S244..1531
6245.. 1532

6246.. 1533

England. A in England. duchy, in favour of the family of Medicis. Post-offices established at Lisbon. great earthquake Treaty of Nuremlmrg, on the 2d of August. John Calvin begins to propagate his tenets: but, being obliged to fly from Paris, settles at Geneva. The court of sessions instituted in Scotland. An insurrection of the Anabaptists in Westphalia. The papal authority abolished in England, and the king duke ot declared to be temporal head of the church. Iwan, or John IV. surnamed Basilowitz, grand

Tuscany erected

into a

Moscow, begins

to reign.

SECT. X.]
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.

149

A.D.
Barbarossa, the corsair, seizes the kingdom of Tunis. The pope confirms the marriage of Henry VIII. with Queen Catharine, and censures that with Ann Boleyn, on the 23d of March, and the reformation begins in England on the 30th. The Bible first printed in English by Coverdale. The reformation introduced into Ireland. The expedition of Charles V. into Africa, where he re-establishes the king of Tunis, ends on the 14th of August. The order of Jesuits founded bylgnatius de Loyola, a Spaniard. Pope Paul III. excommunicates Henry VIII. of England, on the 30th of August. Expedition of James V. of Scotland to France League between Francis I. of France, and Solyman II. sultan of the Turks, against the Emperor Charles V. The lesser monasteries suppressed in England, on the 4th of

6247 "1634

6248.. 1535

6249.. 1536

6251

. .

1538

February.
ten years' truce, concluded at Nice,
years.

on the 18th of June, between Charles and Francis, which

lasts four

6252.. 1539

The

0253.. 1640

62S4..1541
0255.. 1542

The constitution greater monasteries, &c. suppressed in England, and their revenues seized by the king. in Spain subverted by Charles V, Francis I. of France, orders the public acts to be written in French, instead of Latin. Sebastian Cabot discovers the variation of the compass. Copernicus observes the obliquity of the ecliptic, on the 27th of September, to be 23 deg. 28. min. 8 sec. The institution of the Jesuits approved and confirmed by Pope Paul III. Solyman, sultan of the Turks, makes Hungary a province of the Ottoman empire. Charles V. besieges Algiers,
of the Cortes

0256- -1543

0257.. 1544

6258.. 1545

0259.. 1546 6260.. 1547

6261.. 1548
6263. .1550

6264- -1551

6265.. 1552

6266.. 1553

6267- -1554

6268- -1555

C-209-. 1556

6270.. 1557
6271
..

on the 21st of October. Treaty of alliance between Sultan Solyman and Francis I. of France, against the emperor Charles V. Japan Battle of Solway Moss, where the Scots are defeated by the English, on discovered by the Portuguese. the 23d of November. Iron cannon and mortars first made in England. Pins first introduced, from France, and used in England, A league between Henry VIII. and Charles V. against instead of ivory or wooden skewers and splinters. California discovered by Sir Francis Drake. Francis I. The academy of Verona founded. The Imperialists defeat the French, at Cerisoles, on the llth of April, which leads to the treaty of Crespy, between Charles and Francis, on the 18th of September. The crown of Sweden declared to be hereditary. The English defeated by the Scots at Ancram Muir. Needles first made in England. The council of Trent Parma and Placentia made duchies by Pope begins on the 13th of December, and continues eighteen years. Paul III. in favour of the family of Farnese, of which he was a member. The emperor Charles V. forms a league with the pope against the Protestants. Socinianism springs up in Italy. The Scots defeated by the English, atPinkFriesque's conspiracy against the government of Genoa detected. Interest of money in England settled at 10 per cent. ney, on the 10th of September. The interim granted by Charles V. to the Protestants. War between the Turks and Persians. The reformation advances in Poland. The eldest sons of peers permitted to sit in the house of commons. The bank of Venice established. The parliament of Paris refuses to ratify the pope's letters patent in favour of the Jesuits. League between Henry II. of France, and Maurice elector of Saxony, against the emperor. The Protestant religion established in England, by Edward VI. Treaty of Passau, between the emperor and the Protestants, signed on the 31st of July. Books of astronomy and geometry burned in England, under an idea of their containing magic arts. The Book of Common Prayer confirmed by the parliament of England. Andrew Doria, of Genoa, defeats the corsair Dragut, before John Basilowitz, grand duke of Moscow, subjugates the kingdom of Casan. (Vide anno 1486.) Naples. Popery restored in England by Queen Mary. John Calvin causes Michael Servetus to be burnt alive at Geneva, for his pretended erroneous opinions concerning the holy Trinity. The French invade the Netherlands. The Russians conquer the kingdom of Astracan, on which occasion the grand duke John Basilowitz assumes the title of Czar. The peace of Germany, as to religious matters, re-established on the 25th of September, after eight years of hostilities. -A league between the pope and the king of France, against the Spaniards, signed on the 15th of December. East Greenland discovered by Sir Hugh Willoughby. Charles V. resigns the crown of Spain, to Philip II. on the 6th of January, and retires to the monastery of St. Just, in Estramadura, where he died in 1558. Glass first manufactured in England. Battle of St. Quintin, on the 10th of August, in which the French are
defeated by Philip of Spain. The Protesrecover Calais from the English, on the 8th of January, after 211 years' possession. tant religion restored in Queen Elizabeth, who succeeds her sister Mary on the 17th November. England, by The tranquillity of Europe re-established by the peace of Chateau-Cambresis, about the beginning of February. Mary, queen of Scotland, opposes the reformation, and persecutes its advocates. A treaty between Elizabeth of England, and Philip II. of Spain removes his court from Toledo to Madrid. the Protestants of Scotland, concluded at Berwick, on the 27th of February. The Presbyterian form of

1558

The French

6272 --1559
6273.. 1560

church-government preferred
C274. 1561
.

in Scotland,

though not established

till

1592.

Livonia ceded to Poland.

150
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A.D.

[CHAP,

rr.

0-->7-)..1562

Battle of Dreux, on the 19th of December, in which the prince of Conde, chief of the French Protestants, is The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England agreed upon by the condefeated by the duke of Guise.

vocation of the clergy in London.

(Vide anno 1571.,)

6270.. 1563

War between Sweden and Denmark. The duke of Guise assassinated, by Poltrot, before Orleans, on the The slave-trade begins among the British merchants, and continues, to the disgrace of 21th of February. The Escurial, in Spain, built. The council of Trent ends on the a free and enlightened nation, 243 years.
Knives first made in England. 4th of December. beginning of the year fixed to the 1st of January, in France, in which country it had heretofore begun The emperor Ferdinand I. dies at Peace between England and France, on the 9th of April at Easter. Vienna, on the 25th of July, and is succeeded by his son, Maximilian II. Malta attacked by the Turks, but without success : after their retreat, the citadel of Valetta is built. The Tartars ravage Hungary. The first commotions break out in the Netherlands, in April, when the petition of the 400 is presented to the governess Margaret, duchess of Parma. The religious wars recommence in France ; the constable Montmorency, mortally wounded in the battle of St. Denis, on the 10th of November. Mary, queen of Scots, defeated by her subjects, retires into England, puts herself under the protection of The exercise of the reformed religion permitted in the Netherlands. Elizabeth, and is by her imprisoned. Revolt of the Moors in Spain. The Huguenots defeated in the battles of Jarnac, on the 13th of May, and of Moncontour, on the 3d of October : Louis I. prince of Conde, killed by Montesquieu, in the former. The Royal Exchange, at Lou-

0277.. 1564

The

0278. .1565 0279. .1566 0280. .1567

0281. .1568

6282. 156!)

don,

first built.

6283. ,1570

0284.. 1571

0285.. 1572

6-286.. 1573

League between Spain, Venice, and the pope, against the Ottomans. Peace granted to the Huguenots, at Germain-en-Laye, on the 15th of August. Pope Pius V. gives the title of a Grand Duchy to Tuscany. A number of towns and villages in Holland, Friezland, and Zealand, overthrown by the violence of the winds, and others destroyed or damaged by inundations. The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, revised and ratified by the convocation of the clergy at London. ( Vide anno 1562.) Cyprus taken by the Turks from the Venetians. The Turks totally defeated, oft' Lepanto, on the 7th of October. Massacre of the Huguenots at Paris, on Sunday, the 24th of August, the night of the feast of St. Bartholomew. A new bright star observed in Cassiopeia, by Cornelius Gemma, in November, which disappears in the following March. The prince of Hesse observes the vernal equinox, at Cassel, on the 10th of March, at twenty-six minutes after

eight in the evening. The university of Leyden founded. Russia invaded and overrun by the Turks. An edict of pacification in France, for the toleration of the Protestants, issued on the 9th of May, and ratified by the parliament on the 15th, which gives occasion to the celebrated League of the Catholic party A great plague at Milan. against Henry III. 6290. .1577 Sir Francis Drake, the English circumnavigator, undertakes a voyage round the world, from which he returns on the 3d of November, 1580. Sir Martin Frobisher re-discovers West Greenland. 6291 1578 First treaty of alliance between England and the States-General of Holland, &c. on the 7th of January. A long and bloody war between Persia and the Ottomans. Battle of Alcazar, on the 4th of August, in \\hieh

6288. .1575 6280. .1576

6292.. 1579

6293. ,1580 6204.

C295. 1582

Sebastian, king of Portugal, is defeated and slain by the Moors. Union of Utrecht, on the 22d of January, which begins the republic of the United Provinces. Faustus Sociuus settles in Poland, and there establishes his heresy. (Vide anno 1546.) The order of knights of the Holy Spirit instituted in France, by Henry III. The kingdom of Portugal seized by Philip II. and united to that of Spain. Parochial registers first appointed
in

England.

6296. 1583
'2'J7.

1584

6298. 1585

The United Provinces of the Netherlands formally renounce their alleinto France. giance to the Spanish crown. Pope Gregory XIII. reforms the Julian calendar, and introduces the New Style, the 5th of October being reckoned as the 15th. The first proposal for settling an English colony in America made by Sir Walter Ralegh, who, next year, disroxers A irginia and Cape Breton. Matthew Ricci, an Italian Jesuit, begins to propagate Christianity in China. Tycho Brahe observes the vernal equinox, at Uraniburgh, on the 10th of March, at fifty-six minutes past one in the afternoon. on Carthagena taken by Sir Francis Drake. Treaty of Nonsuch, between England and the States-General, the loth of August. from Virginia into England, by Sir Walter Ralegh. Coaches Tobacco first
Copper coin introduced
imported England. Shah Abbas begins to reign in Persia. Battle Cavendish's first voyage round the globe. Babington's conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth detected. of Zutphen, on the -22(1 of September. Mary queen of Scotland beheaded in Fotheringay castle, on the 8th of February, after a captivity of eighteen years. Battle of Coutras, on the 10th of October, in which the Duke de Joyeuse is deother ships in the bay feated by Henry king of Navarre. Sir Francis Drake burns 100 sail of Spanish and of Cadiz. 3
first

used

in

0299. 1580
r,;?oo.

157

SECT. X.]
Julian
IVrio.l.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
The
Spanish Invincible

151

A. D.

0301.. 1588

6302.

1589

G303..1590

Armada sails for the invasion of England, in May, and is defeated by Lord Howard, and others, on the 27th of July. The first newspaper published in England on the 28th of July. The Duke of Guise, and his brother the cardinal, heads of the Leagurs in France, assassinated, on the 13th of December, at Blois. Paper first manufactured in England, at Deptford. Duelling with small swords introduced into England. -The use of bomb-shells invented at Venloo. Tycho Brahe observes the summer solstice, at Uraniburgh, on the llth of June, at thirty-six minutes after one in the afternoon ; the sun's apogee in Cancer, 5 deg. 30 min. Henry III. of France, murdered by James Clement, a Dominican friar, on the 22d of July: Henry IV. of Navarre succeeds to the vacant throne. Sir Francis Drake's expedition to Spain and Portugal. Peace between the Turks and Persians. The steel frame for weaving silk stockings invented by the Rev. Mr. Lee, of Cambridge. An earthquake at Vienna, on the 5th Battle of Ivre, which ruins the French League, on the 4th of March.
Sir Francis Drake,

6304.. 1591 6305.. 1592

6306.. 1593
6307.. 1594

6308.. 1595

6309.. 159G

6310.. 1597 6311.. 1598

6312.. 1599 6313.. 1600

of September. Telescopes invented by Jansen, a German spectacle-maker. Baud of gentlemen-pensioners instituted in England. Tea first introduced into Europe. Trinity College, Dublin, founded. The Falkland islands discovered. Presbyterianism established in Scotland. (Vide anno 1560.) Corea taken by the Chinese, from the Japanese, after a war of seven years. Henry IV. abjures the Protestant religion, on Sunday, the 25th of July, at St. Denis. Bothwell's conspiracy A great plague in London. against King James of Scotland suppressed. The Jesuits expelled France, for nine years. The Bank of England incorporated. Byrgius observes the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23 deg. 30 min. Sir Francis Drake undertakes an expedition to the isthmus of Darien. The Caribbee islands discovered. Mendana and Quiros make discoveries in the Pacific Ocean. The Russians begin to explore Siberia. Tycho Brahe observes the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23 deg. 29 min. 25 sec. The Spaniards wrest Calais from the French. A great earthquake at Japan. The English defeat the Spanish fleet, and take Cadiz, on the 2lst of June. Treaty between England, France, and Holland, against Spain, David Fabricius observes the Stella Mira, in the neck of signed at the Hague, on the 31st of October. the Whale, on the 13th of August. The Turks invade Hungary. Watches first brought to England, from Germany. Cervantes writes his romance of " Don Quixote," about this time: he died in 1620, aged sixty-nine. Henry IV. publishes the edict of Nantz, for the toleration of Protestants, in April. The peace ofVervin* signed on the 22d of the same month. Tyrone's insurrection in Ireland. Tycho Brahe observes Saturn in opposition to the Sun, on the 24th of March, at twenty minutes after ten in the forenoon. The English East-India Company incorporated. Cowrie's conspiracy in Scotland. St. Helena first possessed by the English. About this time the Dutch wrest the East-India settlements, and the Spice islands, from the Portuguese. Janseuius observes a changeable star in the neck of the Swan.

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN

8314.. 1601
6315.. 1602 6316.. 1603

JEV.A.

Ireland invaded by the Spaniards, on the siege of Ostend, by the Spaniards, begins on the 25th of June. 21st of September. Decimal arithmetic invented at Bruges. Byron's conspiracy de'tected and punished. Queen Elizabeth of England dies unmarried, on the 24th of March, and is succeeded by her nearest relation, James VI. of Scotland, in whose person the crowns of the two kingdoms are united. Manufactures of crystal, silk, tapestry, &c. established in France. King James orders a new translation of the Bible into
English.

The

C317..1604

6318.. 1605
6319.. 1606

Ostend taken by the Spaniards, on the 10th of September, after a siege of more than three years. Peace between England and Spain. The French establish a colony in Canada. The Jesuits restored in France. Kepler discovers a new bright star near the right foot of Serpeutarius, in September, which disappears in the space of a year. A remarkable dispute between the Pope and the Venetians relative to the privileges of the clergy. Guy
Fawkes's gunpowder plot discovered in England, on the 5lh of November. twenty jean' truce between the empire and the Ottomans. Oaths of allegiance first administered in England. Christian IV. of Denmark visits King James. The states of Venice interdicted by the Pope. Upwards of 800 houses destroyed by fire at Constantinople, and more than 1500 lives lost. Hudson's Bay discovered. A considerable inundation in England, in January. The Venetians and the Pope reconciled, through the mediation of Henry IV. of France. Galileo begins to discover the satellites of the planets, by means of telescopes, just invented in Holland. Coloni( s sent from England to Virginia. The cold and frost of this winter extreme, throughout Europe. A truce fr iwclve years bi-tvccn the United Provinces and Spain, signed on the 4th of April, by which the independence of the former is recognized. Henry IV. assassinated by Fraiuis Ii:u;iillac, a priest, on the 4th of May. The Persians defeat the Turks near Babylon. War between Russia and Poland. 900,000 Moors banished from Spain to Africa, by the Thermometers invented by Drebbel, a Dutchman. Three of Jupiter's satellites discovered by Inquisition.

C320..1607
6321.. 1608

6322.. 1609

6323.. 1610

152
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A. U.

[CHAP.

it.

6323.. 1610 6324.. 1611

6325.. 1612

6326.. 1613

on the 7th of January. Longomontanus observes Saturn in opposition to the sun, on the 12th of August, at noon. The order of Baronets instituted in England, on the 22d of May. The present translation of the English War between Sweden and Denmark. Peace between the Turks and Persians. An earthBible completed. quake at Constantinople in which city, also, 200,000 persons die of the plague. The English make an unsuccessful attempt to discover a northern passage to China. The French form a Simon Marius first observes a lucid spot in the settlement in the island of Maragna, on the Brasil coast. girdle of Andromeda. The house of Romanov begins to reign in Russia. Peace between Denmark and Sweden. On the llth of March, upwards of 120 houses are destroyed by fire at Osnabruck. On the 18th of April, a considerable Gnesna, in Poland, and its suburbs, destroyed by a conflagration, caused portion of Magdeburgh is burnt. by an incendiary, who set fire to the city in ten different places. In the month of May, so great a quantity of hail fell in France, that in some places it lay on the ground to the depth of twelve feet, and destroyed the corn and the vines. An overflowing of the waters is followed by a prodigious swarm of locusts, in Provence,
Galileo,
;

8327.. 1614

6328.. 1615 6329.. 1616

S330..1617 6331.. 1618

which eat up all the plants. Logarithms invented by Baron Napier, of Scotland. A new British colony sent to Virginia. Sir Hugh Mydleton brings the New River to London, from Ware, in Hertfordshire. Christian IV. of Denmark, pays a second visit to England. Peace restored between the Ottomans and Imperialists. The Jews banished France, on the 23d of April. King James of England restores the Brille, Flushing, &c. to the Dutch in May. Sir Walter Ralegh completes the settlement of Virginia. Cape Horn first sailed round. A short civil war in France. Peace between Sweden and Russia, and between the Venetians and Austrians. Peace between Poland and Russia. A formidable conspiracy at Venice detected. Battle of Ardeville, between* the Turks and Persians. The synod of Dort begins on the 1st of November, and continues till the 26th of
April following. of thirty years commences in Germany, the 26th of August, on the subject of the Imperial succession. Dr William Harvey discovers the circulation of the blood. Battle of Prague, on the 3Oth of October, by which the elector palatine is stripped of his territories. Navarre united to France. The English make a settlement at Madras. The island of Barbadoes discovered by Sir William Courteen. Coining with a die, and copper money, first used in England. The broad silk manufacture from the raw material introduced into England. The civil war renewed with the Huguenots in France, and continues nine years. War between the Dutch and War between Poland and the Ottomans. The Dutch form the Spaniards, after a truce of twelve years. The factions of Whigs and Tories begin to appear in England. settlement of Batavia, in the East Indies. The colony of New England planted by the Puritans. The Poles defeat 300,000 Ottomans, which occasions an insurrection of tlie Janizaries at Constantinople, and the deposition of the sultan Osman. Heidelberg taken by the Imperialists, and its celebrated library sent to Rome, on the 16th of September. The bishopric of Paris raised to an archbishopric. The order of Knights of Nova Scotia instituted by king James. The residents and officers of the English factory at Amboyna cruelly tortured and massacred by the Dutch. Defeat of the Spanish fleet, by the Dutch, near Lima. The Ottomans besiege Belgrade, and are repulsed. Breda taken by the Spaniards. A pestilence in England. Discord between Charles I. and the English house of commons. The first English settlement in the West Indies planted in the island of Barbadoes. Peace between Ferdinand of Hungary and the Ottomans. The Turks besiege Bagdad, with 150,000 men, but do not take it till 1638. A league between the Swedes, Danes, Dutch, and the German Protestant princes, against the emperor. War between England and France. Persia invaded by the Turks the great Shah Abbas dies, after a reign of forty-three years. George Villiers,. duke of Buckingham, assassinated by Felton, on the 23d of August. Rochelle taken by Louis XIII. on the 18th of October. 16,000 persons die of the plague in the city of Lyons. Charles I. imprisons nine members of the house of commons, on the 4th of March, O.S. and dissolves the The edict of pacification published parliament on the 10th.- Peace between the emperor and Denmark. at Nismes, on the fourth of A truce for six years, concluded between Sweden and Poland, on the 5th July. of September. Gustavus Adolphus enters Germany. Peace restored between France and England. Gazettes first published at Venice. Treaty of Stockholm, between England and Sweden, signed 011 the 31st of May. War between Spain and Germany. Poland invaded by the Turks. Gustavus Adolphus defeats the Imperialists Treaty between France and Sweden, signed on th 13th of January. in the battle of on the 28th of August. Gassendi first observes the transit of Mercury over the Leipzig, sun's disk, on the 17th of Noven>!>er, at fifty-seven minutes alter nine in the forenoon. Battle of Lutzen, in which the S.vedes defeat the Imperialists, but with the loss of their monarch Gustavus

6332.. 1619

A war

6333.. 162O

6334.. 1621

6335.. 1622

6336.. 1623

6337.. 1624 6338.. 1625

6339.. 1626 6340-. 1627 6341.. 1628

6342.. 1629

6343.. 1630
6344.. 1631

6345.. 1632

346.. 1633

A great, eruption of Vesuvius, by which 4000 persons Adolphus, who is killed, on the filh of November. and a hirge extent of country is laid waste. An English colony settled at Antigua. Galileo condemned by the Inquisition at Rome, for teaching the doctrine of the earth's diurnal and annual Louisiana discovered, or settled, by the French. revolutions,
ptrish,

SECT. X.]
Julian

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
War

153

Period.

A. D.

6347.. 1634

6348.. 1635

6349.. 1636

6350.. 1637

6351.
6352.

138
1639

between the Russians and Poles. Battle of Nordlingen, on tlu> 26tli of November, in which the Swedes are defeated by the Imperialists. Louis XIII. fixes the first meridian on the western point of the island of Ferro, one of the Canaries. Commencement of the French Academy at Paris. A long and sanguinary war between France and the Empire and Spain, breaks out. Treaty between France and Holland, on the 8th of February. Regular posts established from London to Scotland, Ireland, &c. An English colony planted at Maryland, by Lord Baltimore. Thomas Parr dies at the age of 152 years, having lived in the reigns often English kings. Treaty between Louis XIII. of France, and Christina, queen of Sweden, concluded OB the 10th of March. A truce of twenty-six years between the Swedes and Poles the former defeat the Imperialists at Wistock, on the 4th of October. Cassini observes the transit of Mercury over the sun's disk, at Thury, on the llth of November, at forty-three minutes after ten in the forenoon. A sanguinary war commences between the Poles and Cossacks, in the Ukraine. League between Spain and Denmark, against Sweden. Insurrection of the Protestants in Hungary. The prince of Orange recovers Breda from the Spaniards. Mr. Hampden's trial, for non-payment of ship-money, begins in November, and closes with his condemnation on the 12th of June, 1638. Charles I. endeavours to establish episcopacy in Scotland the Scots withdraw their allegiance, and enter into the celebrated solemn league and covenant. The polemoscope invented by Hevelius. Bagdad taken by the Turks, on the 6th of January, O. S. Two battles of Rheinfeld, on the 18th and 21st of
:

February.
,

Battle of Thionville, in which the Imperialists defeat the French, on the 27th of May. The Dutch admiral, Van Tromp, defeats a Spanish fleet off the English coast. Mr. Horrox^irst observes a transit of Venus over the sun's disk, at Liverpool, on the 24th of November, O. S. at fifteen minutes after three in the afternoon.

5353. ,1640 0354. 1641

The house of Braganza begins to reign in Portugal. The earl of Strafford beheaded on Tower-hill, on
Papists in Ireland, on the

63 J5.. 1642

6356.. 1643

6857.. 1644

B358..1645

the 12th of May. 40,000 Protestants massacred by the 23d of October, and following days. Charles I. of England demands the surrender of the five obnoxious members of the house of commons, on the 4th of January, which begins the civil war. -Peace between the Ottomans and Imperialists the latter defeated by the Swedes, at Leipsic, on the 3d of October. Battle of Edgehill gained by the parliamentary army over the forces of King Charles, on Sunday, the 23d of October. The French defeated by the Imperialists, at Tutlingen, on the 15th of November. Tasman makes discoveries in the Pacific Ocean. The duke d'Enghien, afterwards prince of Conde, defeats the Spaniards at Rocroy, on the 9th of May. First battle of Newbury, in which Charles I. is defeated by the parliamentary troops, on the 20th of September. A n excise duty laid on ale and beer by the English parliament. The Royal Academy of Painting established in France. The Mantchew Tartars invade China. Barometers invented by Torricelli. The Swedes defeat the Imperialists in Bohemia, on the 25th of February. The English parliament appoint Sir Thomas Fairfax general in chief of their forces. Oliver Cromwell defeats the army of King Charles at Marston Moor, on the 2d of July. Second battle of Newbury, on the 27th of October. Graveliues taken by the duke of Orleans, on the 18th of July. Riccioli observes Saturn in opposition to the Sun, at Revolution in China : Bologna, on the 10th of October, at twelve minutes after seven in the morning. the emperor Hoai-tsong and his consort kill themselves, and the prince Ou-san-kouei, or U-san-ghey, invites the Mantchew Tartars to assist him against the rebel Li-tse-tching ; but they place Chun-tsi, a boy of seven years of age, the nephew of their own sovereign, on the throne. (Vide anno 1649.) Laud beheaded, by order of the English house of commons, on the 10th ofJanuary. War between Archbishop the Turks and Venetians the former become masters of great part of the island of Crete, or Candia. Charles I. totally defeated at Naseby, on the 14th of June. Peace concluded between Denmark and Sweden, on the 3d of August. The first code of Russian laws published. Marshal Turenne takes Treves from the
;
;

Imperialists,

on the 30th of October.

abolished in England. Two the 30th of January.

635f. .1646 6360. .x;i7

..I6tr,

The Turks defeat the Venetians near Retimo, on the 9th of October. Episcopacy The Scots betray Chcrles I. into the hands of the parliamentary commissioners, on

6302.. 1649

.1650 364 .1651

0365.. 1652

revolts in Naples. Treaty of Munster, or Westphalia, for the pacification of Europe. The civil wars of la Fronde, or opponents of the cardinal Mazarine, break out in Paris. Fabricius observes a new star in the tail of the Whale. Charles I. beheaded on the 30th ofJanuary, aged forty-nine. On the 17th of March, the English commons abolish royalty and the house of peers. A league between Denmark and the United Provinces. Galileo first The Tartars having completed the conque.st of China, this year is applies the pendulum to clocks. reckoned the first of the reign of Chun-tsi, with whom began the twenty-second dynasty, called Tsing, which still occupies the throne. (Vide anno 1644.) Battle of Dunbar, in which the Scots are defeated by Cromwell, on the 3d of September. Charles II. crowned kins of Scotland, at Scone, on the 1st of January. The Turkish fleet defeated by the Venetians near the island of Scio, on the 13th of June. 300,000 Tartars defeated by the Poles, on the 20th of June. Battle of Worcester, on the 3d of September, iu which Charles II. and his Scottish adherents are completely defeated by Cromwell. The people called Quakers first appear in England. The first war between the English and Dutch begins on the 19th of May. The Dutch establish a colony at the Cape of Good Hope. The Spaniards retake Barcelona, Casal, Dunkirk, &c. during the civil wars of the French.
1

VOL.

154
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A. D.

[CHAH.

II.

6366.. 1653 6367.. 1654

636ft..

Cromwell

dissolves the long parliament, on the 20th of April, and is proclaimed T.ord Protector of England, on the 16th of December. The air-pump invented by Otta treaty of peace between the English and Dutch, on the 5th of April.

1655

6369.. f656

6370.. 1657

6371 . 1658
.

6372.. 1659

C373..1660

6374.. 1661 6375.. 1662 6376.. 1663

Guericke, a Syndic of Magdeburgh. The English, under admiral Pcnn, take first discovers a satellite ofSatnrn, on the 25th of March. Admiral Blake attacks Tunis. The Venetians defeat the possession of Jamaica, on the 7th of May. Turkish fleet, in the Dardanelles, on the llth of June. Peace between England and France, on the 25th of October War between Sweden and Poland. The Venetians re-admit the Jesuits into their territories. A treaty between the king of Sweden and the elector of Brandenburg, on the llth of January. Spain declares war against England. The Swedes defeat the Poles at Warsaw, on the 18th of July, and two following days. Admiral Blake destroys the Spanish galleons in the bay of Santa Cruz, in September, and dies on his return home, within sight of his native shores, on the 20th of April following. Cromwell refuses the regal title, in April. War between Sweden and Denmark. A treaty between the king of Poland and the elector of Brandenburg, on the 9th of September, by which the latter is exempted from future homage, as duke of Prussia. Dunkirk taken from the Spaniards by Marshal Turenne, on the 4th of June, and transferred to the English on the 17th. The Dutch take possession of the island of Ceylon, in the East Indies. Hevelius observes Saturn in opposition to the sun, at Dantzic, on the 4th of A pril, at thirteen minutes after five in the morning. Richard Cromwell abdicates the protectorship of England on the 13th of May, and the supreme authority passes to the officers of the army. Peace restored between France and Spain, by the treaty called the " Peace of the Pyrenees," on the 28th of October. Peace between Sweden and Denmark, signed at Copenhagen, on the 17th of March, and between Sweden, Charles II. restored by general Monk (afterwards duke Poland, and the Empire, at Oliva, on the 3d of May. of Albemarle) to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland, on the 29th of May, after an exile of twelve The people of Denmark, oppressed by the aristocracy, surrender their privileges to Frederick III. years. on the 13th of October. Bombay, in the East Indies, ceded to England, by the Portuguese. The custom of franking letters begins. Hevelius observes the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23deg. 29 min. 7 sec. The Royal Society established at London, on the 15th of July. Charles II. sells Dunkirk to the French kiug, for 400,000, on the 17th of November.

Huygens

6377 "1664

C378..1665

37i>..1666

8380.. 1067

6381.. 1668

382..1669

33..1670

for Inscriptions and Belles Lettres established at Paris. The Spaniards defeated by the Neuhasel, in Hungary, taken by the Turks, on the 17th of September. The Portuguese, near Evora. duchy of Prussia declared to be independent. Carolina, in North America, colonized by the English. A quarrel between England and the United States of Holland, &c. Nova Belgia (now New York,) <S?c. in North America, conquered from the Swedes and Dutch, by England.- The English clergy resign their power of The French defeat the Turks in the battle of St. Godart, in Hungary, taxing themselves in convocation. on the 22d of July. The Observatory at Paris founded. The Academy for Sculpture established in France, on the 31st of August. Treaty of Temesvar, on the 7th of September. War between France and England. The Dutch fleet defeated by the English, off Harwich, on the 3d of June. The Spaniards defeated by the Portuguese, at Villa Viciosa, on the 7th of June. The plague rages violently in London, in July, and carries off 68,000 The magic lantern invented by K ire her. persons. An engagement of four days between the English and Dutch fleets off Dunkirk, begins on the 1st of June. The English defeat the Dutch fleet, near the mouth of the Thames, on the 25th and 26th of July. The fire of London breaks out, on the 2d of September, and continuing three days and three nights, extends to 600 streets, consumes 13,200 houses, 87 churches, 6 chapels, 52 public halls, the Royal Exchange, the Custom House, 3 city gates, the gaol of Newgate, 4 stone bridges, the Sessions' House, part of Guildhall, with its courts aud offices, Black well Hall, Poultry and Wood-street Compters, and St Paul's cathedral doing damage to the amount of upwards of 10,696,000 sterling, according to the value of money at that period. An War between England and Denmark. The Academy of Sciences English settlement formed at Antigua. Action of Pentland Hills, on the 27th of November. begin their meetings at Paris. The Dutch fleet, under De Ruyter, sails up the Thames and Medway, on the 10th of June, destroys several Peace of Breda, between Great Britain and Holland, France, and ships, and is finally repulsed at Tilbury. Denmark, signed on the 10th of July. War renewed between France and Spain. A triple alliance between Great Britain," Sweden, and the States-General, against France, on the 23d of January. Peace between Spain and Portugal, after Commercial twenty-six years of warfare, on the 3d of February. Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, treaty between Great Britain and the States General, on the 17th of February. between France and Spain, on the 22d of St. James's Park, Westminster, planted, and made a April. public thoroughfare. The isle of Candia, or Crete, taken by the Turks, on the 6th of September.
;

The Royal Academy

The

Peace of Madrid, between Great Britain and Spain, on English Hudson's Bay company incorporated. the 18th of July. Peace between the duke of Savoy aud the Venetian republic. Mengoli observes the Hevelius discovers a nexv star, on the 15th of July, obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23 dcg. 28 min. 24 sec.

which soon diwppeuri, but is again visible in 1672: the same astronomer observes Saturn in opposition to the sun, at Dantzic, on the 8th of September, at tifty-six minutes after eight in the evening.

SECT, x.]
Julian
Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
The Royal Academy of Architecture, and
regalia of Egland.

155

A.T).

0384.. 1671

the Hotel Royal des Invalides, founded at Paris. Cassini discovers four of Saturn's satellites, in the course of a fewyears. Colonel Blood attempts to steal the crown and

6385 --1072

0380- -1073

0387.. 1074

6388.. 1075

6381)..

1070

declared by England against the Dutch, on the 17th of March, and by France, on the 6th of April. and Holland, against France, on the 15th of July. A sanguinary engagement treaty between the Empire between the English and Dutch fleets, in Solebay, on the 28th of May. Louis XIV. overruns great part of Holland, after taking Utrecht, on the 10th of June. De Wit, grand pensionary of Holland, and his brother, War between the Turks and Poles. The British African Company assassinated, on the 12th of August. Richer observes the obliquity of the ecliptic to be23deg. 28 min. 54 sec. The vernal incorporated. equinox observed at Paris, on the 19th of March, at forty-one minutes after seven. The English and French defeat the Dutch, on the 28th of May, at Schonvelt; again on the 4th of June; and on the llth of August, in the mouth of the Texel. Louis XIV. declares war against Spain, on the 9th of Battle near Choczim, in which the Poles defeat the Turks, on the 31st of October. October. Treaty of peace, &c. between Great Britain, Holland, and Spain, signed at Westminster, on the 19th The elector palatine joins the emperor against France. Sicily revolts from Spain. Battle of February. of Senefl", in Flanders, between the prince of Orange and the prince of Conde, on the 1st of August. First settlement of the French at Pondichery, in the East Indies. Academy of Soissous established. Marshal Turenne defeats the Imperialists at Ensheim, on the 24th of September; again at Mulhausen, on the 19th of December, and at Turkheim, on the 27th of December. Marshal Turenne crosses the Rhine, and is opposed by Montecuculi, Conference for a peace held at Nimeguen. War between Sweden and Denmark. The Prussians defeat the Swedes at Fehrbellin, the Austrian general. on the 8th of June. Turenne killed by a cannon-ball, on the 17th of July, five days before the battle of Altenheim, on the 22d. Charles II. grants the settlement of Carolina, in North America, to eight noblemen, for whom the celebrated Mr. Locke draws up a constitution and code of laws. Louis XIV. declares war against Denmark, in favour of Sweden, on the 28th of August. The fleet of the allies defeated by the French, off Palermo, on the 23d

War

6390.. 1077

6391

1678

O392..1t;7!>

0303.. 1080

639-1.. 1081 031)5.. 10U2

at St Germain's, on the 24th of February. The micrometer invented by Kircher. An unaccountable darkness at noon-day, on the 12th of January. Peace of Niraeguen, between France and Holland, on the 31st of July. The Tartars attack the Russians. Peace between France and Spain, on the 17th of September. The Popish plot, in England, discovered by Titus Oates, on the Ofh of September, and the earl of Danby impeached on the 21st of December. The Habeas Corpus Act passed. The treaty of Nimeguen signed on the 20th of January. The bill of exclusion first moved in the English Peace between Sweden and Denmark, after a war of four years, parliament, on Sunday, the 27th of April. on the 23d of August. The Meal-Tubplot, in England, discovered, on the 23d of October. An engagement, of eleven days' continuance, between the English and Moors, at Tangiers, begins on the 7th of November. William Penn, a Quaker, receives Louis XIV. of France, acquires the surname of the Great, about this time. a charter for planting the colony of Pennsylvania. A remarkable comet appears, and continues visible from the 3d of November to the 9tb of March following. Viscount Stafford beheaded on the 29th of December. The city of Strasburg submits to Louis XIV. Disputes between Charles II. and the English parliament. The

of May. The royal observatory at Greenwich built. Commercial treaty between Great Britain and France, signed

0300.. 1083 6397.. 1084

6398.. 1085

6399.. 1680

Tekeli excites troubles in Hungary. The autumnal equinox observed on the 12th of September, at thirty-four minutes after six. The Rye-house plot discovered, in England, on the 14th of June. Lord William Russell beheaded on the 21st of July. The siege of Vienna, by the Turks, raised on the 2d of September. Luxemburgh taken by Louis XIV. A truce between France and Spain concluded at Ratisbon, on the 31st of July, and between France and the Empire, on the 5th of August. League between Venice and Poland, against the Turks, 150,000 of whom are defeated, on the 17th of June, at Weitzen, by the duke of Flamsteed observes Saturn in opposition Lorraine. Louis XIV. receives an embassy from the king of Siam. to the sun, at Greenwich, on the 19th of February, at ten minutes after five in the morning. James II. endeavours to restore the Roman Catholic religion in England. The duke of Monmouth, a natural son of Charles II. defeated in the battle of Sedgemore, on the Oth of July, and soon afterwards beheaded. Louis XIV. revokes the edict of Nantz, and persecutes the Protestants of France. Treaty of alliance, between Germany, Great Britain, and Holland, against France, signed at Vienna, on the 12th of May: league of Augsburgh, against the same, on the lltb of July. -A second embassy from Siam
at Paris,

London penny-post begun. The Royal Academy at Nismes founded.

arrives in France.

Sir Isaac

0400.. 1087

The kingdom of Hungary

France, finished.

Newton publishes his system of philosophy. declared to be hereditary in the house of Austria.

-The palace of

Versailles, in

6401

1088

6402... 10159

William III. prince of Orange, invited by the the 10th of July, on the 5th; James retires to English, lands at Torbay, on the 4th of November, a.id'the Revolution begins A revolution in Siam, in consequence of which the French are expelled. France, on the 23(1 of December. William and Mary, prince and princess of Orange, proclaimed joint sovereigns of England, on thfe 10th of war against England and Spain. February. The emperor declares waj against France, and France declares

Smyrna destroyed by an earthquake, on

x 2

15fi

INTRODUCTION.
*
A

[CHAP.

if.

Julian Period.

n
defeated by the English and Dutch, in Bantry Bay, on the 1st of May. The Land-tat and Toleration Acts passed hi England. Episcopacy abolished in Scotland, on the 22ri of July. Battle of The Turks defeated by the Imperialists, near Patochin, on the 30th of Killicrankie, on the 27th of July. A conjunction of Venus with Louis XIV. declares war against Holland. August, and 24th of September. the sun, observed at Paris, on the 26th of June, at 14 minutes past eight in the morning. Peace between Peter the Great, czar of Muscovy, and the emperor of China, concluded at Nipchou, in Eastern of the two empires are settled. Battle of Fleurus, in Flanders, where M. Tartary, by which the boundaries De Luxemburg!) defeats the allies, on the 21st of June. The allied English and Dutch fleets defeated by Battle of the Boync, in Ireland, in which James II. is the French, off Beachy Head, on the 30th of June. defeated by William III. on the 1st of July. finally A congress at the Hague, in January. Mons taken by the French, on the 30th of March. Battle of Aghrim, The Turks or Kilconnel, in Ireland, which is decisive against the party of James II. on the 12th of July. Battle of Leuze, in defeated by the Imperialists, at Salankemen, in Hungary, on the 9th of August. Limerick surrenders Flanders, gained over the allies, by M. De Luxemburg!), on the 8th of September. 12,000 Irish Catholics to the forces of William III. on the 3d of October, which ends the war in Ireland. Flamsteed observes the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23 deg. 28 min. 32 sec. transported to France. Massacre of Glencoe, in Scotland, on the 31st of January. Battle off La Hogue, in which the English defeat the French fleet, on the 19th of May. Namur, in Flanders, besieged and taken by Louis XIV. on the 25th of May. The duke of Luxemburg!) defeats the allies at Steinkirch, on the 24th of July. Earthquakes in England and Jamaica, on the 8th of September. The duchy of Hanover made the ninth electorate of the empire; though not recognized as such by the States till 1708. The order of St. Louis instituted in France, on the 30th of April. The English and Dutch fleets defeated by The duke of Luxemburg!) defeats the allies at the French, off Cape St. Vincent, on the 16th of June. Lauden, on the 19th of July. The duke of Savoy defeated by Marshal De Catinat, at Marsiglia, on the 24th of September. Bank of England incorporated by act of parliament. Messina, in Sicily, destroyed by an earthquake. Huy The Turks defeated by the Poles, at Niester, on the 26th of September. taken on the 18th of September. War between the allies and the Ottoman Porte. Casal taken by the duke of Savoy, in May. William III. retakes Namur, on the 25th of July. The assassination plot, in England, discovered on the 14th of February. Peace between France and Savoy signed at Turin, on the 26th of June. Azof taken from the Turks, by Peter the Great, czar of Muscovy. Carthagena taken by the French, on the 26th of May. The Turks defeated at Zentha, by the Imperialists, under Prince Eugene of Savoy, on the 1st of September. Peace of Ryswick, on the llth of September, between Great Britain and France, France and Holland, France and Spain ; and, on the 20th of October, between France and the Empire. The first treaty of partition between Great Britain, France, and Holland, signed on the 19th of August, for Peter the Great, czar of Muscovy, travels incognito, in Holland and England ; the dismemberment of Spain. in the latter, he works some time as a common ship-carpenter in Deptford Yard ; afterwards he goes to Vienna. Peace of Carlowitz, between Poland, Venice, and the Ottomans, on the 16th of January. The Dutch guards dismissed from England, about the end of March. The Scots attempt to form a settlement on the coast of A league between Denmark, Poland, and Russia, against Sweden. Darien, in America. The Dutch, and the Protestants in Germany, introduce the New Style, omitting the last eleven days of February. The second treaty of partition signed at Landen, on the 3d of March, and at the Hague on the 25th. Charles XII. king of Sweden, at the age of eighteen, besieges Copenhagen, which leads to a treaty of peace with the king of Denmark, in August. A severe law against Papists enacted in England. A conjunction of Venus with the sun, observed at Paris, on the 2d of September, at twenty minutes past eleven at night. Charles XII. of Sweden, defeats the Russians at Narva, on the 20th of November.

6402.. 1689

The French fleet

6403. .1690

6404. .1691

6405. .1692

6406. 1693
.

6407. .1694

6408.. 1695
6409.. 1696

6410.. 1697

6411.. 1698

6412. .1699

6413. 1700
.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN

8414. .1701

JERA.

Frederick I. duke of Prussia, and elector of Brandenburgh, having assumed the regal title, is crowned on the 7th of January. Treaty between the Emperor, England, and Holland, against France and Spain, signed at Charles XII. of Sweden, defeats the king of Poland, near Riga, takes the Hague, on the 7th of September. Kamtschatka discovered and Mittau, the capital of Lithuania, and subjugates that whole country.

conquered by the Russians.

6415. .1702

The

6416.. 1703

States-General of Holland, &c. resolve to abolish the office of stadtholder, which remains vacant till 1747. War declared in England, Germany, and Holland, against France and Spain, on the 4th of May. Battle of Luzara, in Italy, on the 4th of August: the Imperialists defeated by the French. Landau surrenders to Venloo surrenders to the allies on the 25th of Sptember. The the Imperialists, on the 30th of August. French fleet destroyed in the port of Vigo, by the British and Dutch, on the 12th of October. The French begin the settlement of Louisiana. Charles XII. of Sweden, defeats Frederick Augustus I. king of Poland, near Cracovia. Portugal joins the league against France and Spain, on the 5th of May. The city of Petersburg!), in Russia, founded by Peter the Great, Brisac taken by the duke of Burgundy, on the 28th of August. The

SECT. X.]
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.

157

A.D.

6416.. 1703

C417..1704

f,418..1705

A dreadful tempest in England, Imperialists defeated by the French at Spires, on the 5th of November. on the 27th of November Bianchini observes the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23 deg. 28 min. 25 sec. The duke of Marlborough defeats the Bavarians at Schellenburgh, on the 2(1 of July. Charles XII. of Sweden causes Stanislaus Lecksinski to be elected king of Poland, and lie is anointed and crowned at Warsaw, on the 4th of October Frederick Augustus being still living. Admiral Rook takes Gibraltar from the Spaniards, on the 24th of July. The allies, under the duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene Peter the Great takes of Savoy, defeat the French, &c. at Hochstedt, or Blenheim, on the 2d of August. Narva from the Swedes, on the 10th of August. Flamsteed observes Saturn in opposition to the sun, at Greenwich, on the 25th of October, at midnight. Landau taken by the allies, on the 23d of November. The Spanish fleet defeated, off Gibraltar, by the English, on the 2lst of March. The French lines in Brabant forced by the duke of Marlborough, on the 18th of July. Charles XII. defeats the Russians twice, in the month of July, first near Mittau, and afterwards in the neighbourhood of Warsaw. Barcelona reduced by the English, on the 22d of August. The English parliament settles the succession to the British crowns iu
;

6419.. 1706

the Protestant line of the house of Stuart. Battle of Ramillies, in Brabant, on the 12th of

6420. 1707
.

immediately enters that kingdom. The New Philippine islands discovered by the Spaniards. The articles of union ratified by the Scottish parliament, on the IGth of January. Battle of Almanza, in Spain, on the 14th of April, in which the Imperialists are defeated by the French. Treaty between the emperor Joseph I. and Charles XII. king of Sweden, in April. The emperor seizes the kingdom of Naples. Frederick I. king of Prussia, declared to be sovereign of Neufchatel, on the 3d of November. A,
conspiracy at Geneva.
Battle of Oudenarde,

May. Carthagena taken by the allies on the 13th of June. England and Scotland united, under the title of THE KINGDOM OF GREAT BRJTAIN, by articles signed at Prince Eugene defeats the French at Whitehall, on the 22d of July, to take place on the 1st of May, 1707. Charles XII. gains the battle of Frawstadt, overruns Saxony, and obliges Turin, on the 27th of August. Frederick Augustus to abdicate the throne of Poland, on the 13th of September the czar Peter of Muscovy
:

6421

1708

6422.. 170!)

6423.. 1710

6424.. 17110425.. 1712

IM26..1713

6427.. 1714

6428,. 1715

on the 30th of June, in which the French are defeated by the duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene. The Muscovites defeated by the Swedes at Holowazen, and expelled Poland, in July. Sardinia taken possession of by the allies, on the 4th of August. Minorca taken by the British, under General Stanhope, on the 18th of September. Lisle taken by the allies, on the 12th of October. Ghent taken by the duke of Marlborough, on the 30th of December. Battle of Pultowa, in the Ukraine, on the 30th of June, in which Charles XII. is totally defeated by the Russian general Menzikow, and retires to Bender, under the protection of Achmet III. sultan, or grand signer of the Turks, where he remains four or five Tournay taken by the allies. Battle of Malplaquet, or years. Mons taken by the allies, Teniers, on the 31st of August, in which the French are defeated by the allies. on the 21st of October. Douay taken by the duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene, on the 15th of June. The academy at Lyons founded. Queen Ann changes her ministry, on the 8th of August. General Stanhope defeated and taken Battle of Villa Viciosa, on the prisoner by the duke of Vend6me, at Brihwega, on the 26th of November. 29th of November. The English South-Sea company begun. St. Paul's cathedral, London, finished. Gironne taken by the Duke de Noailles, on the 23d of January. The duke of Marlborough takes 1'ouchain, on the Scheldt, on the 13th of September. The Duke de Villars defeats the duke of Onnond at Denain, and recovers Douay, Quesnoy, and Bonchain. Treaty of Arau, in Switzerland, on the 22d of July, for appeasing the disputes between the Protestant and Catholic cantons. Peace of Utrecht, by which Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Britain, and Hudson's Bay, in North America, and Gibraltar, and Minorca, in Europe, are confirmed to Great Britain, signed on the 30th of March, O. S. The emperor Charles VI. issues the Pragmatic Sanction, for ensuring his hereditary estates to his eldest Peace between Russia and the Ottoman Porte. daughter, Maria Theresa of Austria, in default of male heirs. Frederick IV. king of Denmark, takes the duchies of Bremen and Verdun, from the Swedes, and afterwards sells them to the elector of Hanover. The Russians take Abo, and almost all Finland, from, the Swedes, and defeat them in a naval battle, near the isle of Aland, in the Baltic Sea. An opposition between Saturn and the sun, observed at Paris, on the 26th of February, at fifteen minutes past eight in the evening. Treaty of Rastadt, between France and Germany, on the 6th of March, N. S. The bull Unigenitus received in France. Interest of Money in England fixed at five per cent. Accession of the House of Hanover to the throne of Great Britain, August 1. The Turks declare war against Venice, on the 26th of December. A conjunction of Venus with the sun, observed at Paris, on the 26th of January, at nineteen minutes past eight in the evening. Louville observes the obliquity of the ecliptic to be 23 J 28' 24" Upwards of 15,000 persons die of the plague at Vienna. The Turks conquer the Morea, and expel the Venetians from two> small places they still retained in Candia. The earl of Mar raises an army in Scotland, in favour of the Pretender, and causes him to be proclaimed, by the style of James III. at Castleton, in September. Battle of Dumblain, or Sheiiff-Muir, in Scotland, and of Preston, in Lancashire, on the 13th of November. Barrier The Pretender treaty between Germany and Holland, signed at Antwerp on the 1-ith of November. lands in Scotland, near Aberdeen, on tiie 22d of December, but retires again to France, after a few weeks'
stay.

153
Julian

INTRODUCTION.
A. D.

CHAP.

II.

Period.

0429.. 1716

Tlic island of Corfu invaded by the Turks ; who are defeated by Prince Eugene at Peterwardein, on the 25th of July. Temeswar, the last place possessed by the Turks in Hungary, taken by Prince Eugene, on the The Jesuits in China begin to be persecuted by the emperor Kang-hi, who had at first 13th of October.

6430.. 1717

6431.. 1718

6432.. 1719

been favourable to their tenets. Peter the Great visits Holland and Paris, in April and May. Belgrade taken from the Turks, by Prince Eugene, on the 18th of August. Triple alliance between Great Britain, France, and Holland, signed at the Hague, on the 24th of December. In the cpurse of this year and the following, the Russians conquer Georgia, Schirvan, &c. from the Persians. The quadruple alliance, between Germany, Great Britain, France, and Holland, for the maintenance of the Peace of Passarowitz, between the treaties of Utrecht and Baden, and for the pacification of Italy. Germans, Venetians, and Turks, on the 10th of July. Admiral Byng defeats the Spanish fleet oft' Syracuse, on the 31st of July. -Charles XII. undertakes the conquest of Norway, defeats the Danes in two battles, and is afterwards killed by a musquet-ball, in the trenches before Frederickshall, on the 30th of November. Great Britain declares war against Spain, on the llth of December. Battle of Villa Franca, on the 9th of June. A Spanish fleet, having on board troops for Scotland, in favour of the Pretender, dispersed by a tempest. Peace restored between Great Britain and Spain, on the 2(ith of June. Vigo taken by Lord Cobham, on the 10th of October. Peace between Poland and Sweden, and between Hanover and Sweden, signed at Stockholm, on the 20th of November. -The Mississippi scheme at

6433.. 1720

The South-Sea scheme

height in France, in November and December. begins in England, on the 7th of April is at its height towards the end of June ; and ends in the disappointment and ruin of the adventurers, about Michaelmas. Peace between Sweden and Denmark, on the 3d of June. A great earthquake in China, on the llth of June. The French Mississippi company dissolved, on the 27th of June. The plague breaks out at Marseilles, and causes great distress, in Ceuta, in Africa, August. The kingdom of Sardinia ceded to the duke of Savoy, on the 7th of August. relieved in October, by an army from Spain, after having been besieged or blockaded by the Moors for
its
;

thirty years.

8434.. 1721

6435.. 1722

Treaty of peace between Russia and Sweden, signed at Nystadt, on the 19th of August. Peter the Great seizes the duchy of Courland from his niece Anne, widow of the last duke. The senate of Russia confer the title of Emperor on Peter the Great, which is ultimately recognized by all the powers of Europe. The Spaniards, under the Marquis of Lerida, obtain three victories over the Moors, in the vicinity of Ceuta. Peace between the English and Moors, on the 12th of August. -A great revolution in Persia, on the 12th of October, occasioned by an irruption of the Affghans from Candahar. Roggewein makes discoveries in the Pacific Ocean. The autumnal equinox observed at Paris, on the 23d of September, at twenty miuutes
past ten in the forenoon.

6436.. 1723

Buda,

in Hungary, almost destroyed by fire, on the 28th of March. A great fire at Stockholm, on the 12th of May. The bishop of Rochester, found guilty of treasonable correspondence, is deprived on the 1st of June, and banished on the 22d. The town of Chateaudun, in France, nearly consumed by fire, on the 20th of

June.

An

perish. Yong-tching begins to reign in China, small island of Ma-kau.

inundation at Madrid, on the 15th of September, by which several persons of distinction persecutes the Christians, and banishes the Jesuits to the

6437. 1724

6438- 1725

6439.. 1726

6440.

1727

3441. 1728

6442. 1729

6443.. 1730

An academy of sciences established at earthquake in Denmark. Eruption of Heckla, in Iceland. Great tempests in most parts of Europe, particularly at Lisbon. Petersburgh. The order of St. Alexandei Neuski instituted. War between the Turks and Persians.- -Treaty of Hanover, between Great Britain, France, and Prussia, against Germany and Spain, on the 3d of September; acceded to by Holland and Sweden. The Highland clans of Scotland disarmed, by an act of the British parliament. The bishop of London, as patriarch of England, extends his jurisdiction over the Anglo-American colonies, by virtue of letters-patent granted by the king. The value of current coins fixed, in France, in June. The city of Palermo, capital of Sicily, almost destroyed by an earthquake, on the 21st of August. A printuig-oth'ce established at Constantinople, in opposition to the mufti. The Spaniards, who had attempted, on the 23d of February, to retake Gibraltar from the British by a coup de main, besiege it on the 20th of May, which is continued till the April following. -Dr. Bradley discover* the aberration of the fixed stars. A colony of Danes passes into Greenland. A dreadful earthquake in China, University of Holstein founded. A great fire at Copenhageu.by which the greater part of that particularly at Pekin, on the 10th of October. Tunis and Tripoli humbled by France. city is consumed, on the 20th of October. Servia repeopled by the exertions of the duke of Wittemburgh, governor of Belgrade for the emperor. Prince Thamas gains an ascendancy, in Persia, over the usurper Ashraff, by means of his general Thamas Kouli Khan. Treaty of peace and alliance, signed at Seville, between Great Britain, France, and Spain, on the 9th of November. The French colonists in Louisiana massacred by the Natches, a barbarian nation, at the close of November. The Corsicans revolt from the republic of Genoa, under Pampiliaiii. and Prince Ashraft', usurper of Persia, slain in battle by the troops of Kouli Khan, in the month of January
;

An

and recovers the throne of his ancestors. Captain Beering, who had been sent out on a voyage of discovery, in the North Seas, in 1725, by Peter the Great, returns to Petersburgh, on the 1st of March. The Persians, under Kouli Khan, obtain a great victory over the Turks, which is pro-

Thamas

II.

enters Ispahan,

SECT. X.j
JllllHI)
'

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
Tunis and Tripoli bombarded by a French squadron, ductive of a revolution at Constantinople, in October. on account of their piracies on the coast of France. An earthquake at Pekin and its environs, by which upwards of 100,000 persons lose their lives, September 30. Kouli Khan retakes several of the cities of Persia, from the Turks, and great earthquake at Naples.
Sanction confirmed by a diet of the empire, on the llth of January. The Moors defeated by Spanish fleet, off the Barbary coast, on the 20th of June. -The summer solstice observed at Paris, on The Spaniards, under the duke of Montemar, retake the the 21st of June, at 7 h. 28 min. 30 sec. A. M. of Ouran, and the castle of Mazarquivir, from the Moors and those employed in the blockade of Ceuta, city Thainas Kouli Khan deposes his sovereign, the Shah are several times worsted by the garrison, in sorties. Thamas, in August, and places his infant son upon the throne, whom he proclaims by the title of Shah Abbas II. retaining the government himself, as regent. A part of the Algerine squadron, equipped for the Holland in great danger of being inundated, through the damage attack of Oran, defeated by the Maltese. done to the dikes by a multitude of worms of a peculiar species, brought from the Indies by merchant
tin;

Period.

6443 --1730

6444.. 1731

besieges Bagdad.

6445.. 1732

The Pragmatic

vessels.

S446.

1733

The

The Moors and Algerines beiiege Oran, but are repulsed Jesuits expelled from Paraguay, in January. the Spaniards. Kouli Khan obtains a great victory over the Turks, in July, which augments his authority, by War between France and the Empire, on the subject of the Polish succession. The kings of in Persia.

6447.. 1734

6448.. 1735

The fort of Kehl taken by Marshal Berwick, Sardinia and Spain unite with France against the Emperor. on the 28th of October. -The cities of Pavia and Milan surrender to the king of Sardinia in November, and the citadel of the latter to Marshal dc Villars in December. The allies take Novaro, in Italy, on the 7th of January, and Tortona, on the 5th of February. Kouli Khan The Imperialists defeated by the French and defeats the Turks a second time, before Bagdad, in February. Piedmontese, at Parma, on the 18th of June. Philipsburgh surrenders to the French, on the 8th of July. The city of Dantzic submits to Augustus II. on the 10th of July. A commercial treaty between Great Britain and Russia, signed on the 2d of December. Messina surrenders to the Spaniards, on the 22d of February. The city of Frederickstadt, in Branden burgh,
by Frederick William, king of Prussia. Tranquillity restored to Poland, by the diet of Pacification, which closes its sittings on the 9th of July. Kouli Khan having taken Georgia anil Armenia from the Turks, the latter demand a peace, which is granted on condition of their restoring all that the sultan Aclimet had wrested from the Persians during the late troubles in that country but the treaty is not concluded till next year. Kien-Long begins to reign in China, and completes the overthrow of the Christian religion
built
;

in that

0149.. 1730

The young

country. king of Persia, Abbas II. dies in the month of March, and the regent Thamas Kouli Khan causes himself to be declared king, under the name of Shah Nadir, or " Victorious King." -The diet of the Empire confirms the preliminaries of Vienna, on the 16th of May. Theodore Baron de Neuhoff, aWestphalian,
; ;

04.J0..1737

6451.. 1738

head of the rebels, and is proclaimed king but his party being weakened, he disappears on the 12th of November (he" died in England, in 1756, a prisoner for debt in the War between the Russians and Turks Count Munich takes the principal places in the King's Bench.) Crimea, and in the environs of Oczakow, while General Lasci subjects Azof. Augustus II. king of Poland, institutes the order of the Knights of St. Henry. Cassini observes a transit of Mercury over the sun's disk, at Thury, on the llth of November, at in the forenoon. forty-three minutes past ten The emperor Charles VI. joins in the war with Russia, against the Turks, on the 2d of July. Count Munich takes Oczakow, on the 13th of General Lasci, at the head of the Russians, ravages the Crimea. A July. dreadful hurricane in the East Indies, at the mouth of the Ganges, on the 10th of October. The Corsicans enter into a treaty of submission with M. de Boisseux, commandant of the French forces. The order of St. Jamiarius instituted at Naples, on the 6th of July. Orsowa retaken by the Turks, OB the 9th of August. Shah Nadir, having subjected Candahar, declares war against the Great Mogul, and in- a. Its Hindoostan. The autumnal equinox observed at Paris, on the 23d of September, at twenty-one minutes The definitive treaty of pe;ice past seven in the morning; the sun's apogee in Cancer, 8 deg. 19 min. 8 sec. between France and the Empire, signed at V ienna, on the 7-18th of November, by which the cession of Lorraine is made to France, the duchy of Tuscany to the family of Lorraine, and Naples, &c. is confirmed to Don Carlos. Spain accedes to this treaty on the 10th-21st of April following. The English in America, having been frequently attacked by the Spaniards, and no regard being paid to their complaints, they begin
arrives in Corsica, puts himself at the
:

to

make

reprisals.-

045-2.. 1739

Count Munich defeats the Turks, on the 8th of Peace restored between the Emperor August, near Choczim. and the Ottoman Porte, at Belgrade, on the 21st of August, and between Prussia and the same, in November. Shah Nadir becomes master of the Mogul empire. The native Indians in the vicinity of Goa attempt to expel the Portuguese from their coasts, but are totally vanquished in the following year. War declared by Great Britain against Spain, October 23. The revolted negroes of Jamaica submit, and obtain permission to form plantations of their own. Admiral Vernon takes Portobello from the Spaniards, on the 21st of November. Captain Spangenberg, commander of a Russian vessel, discovers thirty-four new islands between Kamtschatka and Japan. An intense frost in Great Britain, begins on the 24lh of December, and continues

9 weeks.

160
Julian Period.
. A n D
'

INTRODUCTION.
'

[CHAP.

11.

6453.. 1740

The

6454. .1741

0455. . 1742

0456. 1743
.

Baskir Tartars, and those of Ufa, in the country of Casan, revolt from the Russians. The emperor Charles VI. (King on the 9th of October, a general war breaks out in Germany, on account of the pretensions of the electors of Bavaria and Saxony, as well as of the king of Prussia, to his hereditary dominions, which, his daughter the archduchess Maria Theresa. Shah by virtue of the Pragmatic Sanction, should descend to Nadir goes to war with the Usbeck Tartars, and subjugates Bokhara, and the country formerly called Indians spread themselves from the neighbourhood of Goa, and menace Sogdiaua. The Mahratta of Prussia, invades Silesia, on the 16th of December. Pondichery. Frederick II. king and its citadel surrender to the king of Prussia, on the 9th of March. Battle of Molwitz, on the Gros-Glogau 30th of March, in which the Austrians are defeated by the king of Prussia. War between Sweden and Russia, declared on the 24th of July. The elector of Bavaria occupies Passau, and claims the entire sucThe archduchess Maria Theresa crowned queen of Hungary, at Presburgli, on the 25th cession of Austria. Battle of of June. Breslau, the capital of Silesia, taken by the king of Prussia, on the 10th of August. Williamstrand, in Finland, on the 3d of September, in which the Swedes are defeated by the Russian general The elector of Bavaria subjugates Lower Austria, on the 2d of October. The king of Prussia comLasci. Count Maurice, of Saxony, the conquest of Silesia, by the capture of Neiss, on the 31st of October. pletes takes Prague, on the 26th of November, in the name of the elector of Bavaria, who is recognized as king of Bohemia by the States, on the 29th of December. A revolution in Russia, on the 6th of December, winch of Peter the Great, on the throne, according to her father's will. places Elizabeth, daughter The Austrians overrun Bavaria. Prince Charles of Lorraine defeated by the king of Prussia, in the battle of Czaslaw, on the G-17th of May. Peace between the archduchess, as queen of Hungary, and the king of Louis XV. of France, declares war against the archduchess Prussia, signed at Berlin, on the 28th of July. and her allies, England and Holland, on the 3d of July. The king of Sardinia abandons the cause of France, and joins that of the archduchess. Treaty of peace between the queen of Hungary and the elector of Saxony, king of Poland, published on the 17th of September. Maria Theresa, archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary, crowned at Prague queen of Bohemia, on the llth of May. Battle of Dettingen, on the 16th of June, in which the French are defeated by the allies, under the British general the earl of Stair, king George II. being present, and taking an active part in the Peace between Russia and Sweden, concluded at Abo, on the 17th of August. Shah Nadir conflict.

6457.. 1744

An

6458. .1745

0459. .1746

O460..1747

Turks in Armenia, &c. attempt of the French to invade Great Britain, defeated in February. Naval engagement off Toulon, between the united fleets of France and Spain, and the British squadron, under admiral Matthews, on the. 10th of February. Menin and Ypres, in Austrian Flanders, surrendered to Louis XV. in June; who also Commodore Anson arrives at invades Bohemia, and takes the city of Prague, on the 16th of September. St. Helen's, having completed his voyage round the world. Bavaria overrun, Battle of Pfaffenhofen, the French and Palatine troops defeated by the Austrians, March 6. and the elector obliged to make peace with the queen of Hungary, &c. Battle of Fontenoy, the allies Shah Nadir defeats the Ottomans at Erzerum. Cape Breton and Louisburgh, defeated by the French. The rebellion in favour of the Pretender begins in Scotland Prince in America, taken by the British. Charles, sou of the Pretender, lands at Borodale; and his standard is erected by the marquis of TnllibarBattle of Preston Pans, in Scotland, in which the king's forces, under general dine, on the 19th of August. Carlisle taken by the rebels, November 15, but retaken Cope, are defeated by the rebels, September 21 by the duke of Cumberland, on the 30th of December. Treaty of Dresden, between Prussia, Poland, The city of Astracan, in Russian Tartary, almost destroyed by fire. Austria, and Saxony, December 25. Battle of Falkirk, January 17, the royal troops defeated by the rebels. Treaty of peace between the Turks and Shah Nadir. Count Saxe takes Brussels, the capital of the Austrian Netherlands, February 9, and Antwerp soon after. Battle of Culloden, April 16, the duke of Cumberland defeats and disperses the rebels; Battle of Plaisance, or St. Lazaro, June 4, the Austrians gain an advanprince Charles retires to France. Battle of Tidon, in Italy, July 30, the Austrians defeated tage over the French and Spaniards. by the French and Spaniards. Lord Balmerino and earl Kilmarnock beheaded on Tower Hill, for having joined the Pretender during the rebellion, August 18. Madras, in the East Indies, taken from the English, by M. De la Bourdonnais, after having defeated a Biitish squadron, September 10. Count Saxe defeats the Dreadful earthquake at Lima, in Peru, by which 5000 persons allies at Raucoux, near Liege, September 30. November, Conference* opened at Breda, for the peace of Europe. Battle of Kesselperish, October 7. dorff, near Dresden, prince Charles of Lorraine defeated by the prince of Auholt Dessau, general to the king The Genoese, assisted by the French, expel the Austrians from their capital. of Prussia, December 4. The States-General of Holland, Ac. alarmed at the progress of the French in their neighbourhood, and by the threats of Louis XV. revive the office of stadthokler, and elect William of Nassau, prince of Orange, May 2. The French fleet defeated by lord Anson and admiral Warren, off Cape Finisterre, May 3. The celebrated Thamas Kouli Khan, or Shah Nadir, a .-assinated, in Korasan, by his nephew, June 20. Battle of he allies, commanded by the duke of Cumberland, defeated by the French, Lawfl'dt, in thecounty of Lieget June 21. Bergen-op-Xoom taken by the French, September it. Admiral Hawke defeats a French fleet, off Cape Finisterre, October 14. The States-General make the stadtholdership hereditary in the family ofNassauOrange, November 11. Elizabeth, empress of Russia, establishes an university at Petersburg!]. The counts Zaluski, for the purpose of reviving the sciences in, Poland, collect an immense library at Warsaw, for the use of the learned.
attacks the
;
;

SECT. X.]
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
The

101

A. D.

6461.. 1748

6462.. 171!)

6463.. 1750

6465.. 1752

congress of Aix-la-Chapelle begins in March; preliminaries are signed on the 30th of April; and the defibetween Great Britain, France, Spain, Austria, Sardinia, and Holland, on I lie 71 h of October. The title of " Most Faithful Majesty" conferred on John V. king of Portugal, by a bull of Pope Benedict XIV. Eruption of Vesuvius, in the end of May, and beginning of June. Conspiracy at Malta for murdering the knights, and delivering the island to the Turks. Cape Breton exchanged with France, for Madras and Fort The French of Pondichery gain a great victory over the Nabob of Arcot, in favour St. George, June 12. of the Great Mogul, from whom they receive in return a considerable cession of territory, July 23. The several factions that had distracted Persia since the death of Shah Nadir, are reduced to two: that of Ali Kouli Khan, or Ibrahim Shah, viho is crowned at Ispahan; and that of Shah Couh, crowned at Casbin. The ancient city of Heraclea, or Herculaneum, discovered, after having been buried by the lava of Vesuvius upwards of seventeen centuries. Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, built, and 3000 families sent thither as settlers, at the expense of the British government. A league between the pope, Venetians, &c. against the corsairs of Algiers and Tunis. Two shocks of earthquake felt in England, on the 8th of February and 8th of March. The interest in the An academy of sciences founded at Stockholm. public funds reduced in Great Britain to 3 per cent. The French defeat the Indian princes, in several actions. A civil war in Persia; Ibrahim taken prisoner by his rival Couh, has his eyes put out, and is immured in a dungeon. Westminster bridge finished, having been eleven years and nine months in building, at an expense of ,330,000. The king of Gilolo, one of the Molucca islands, embraces Christianity, and sends an embassy to the pope, to request a supply of priest- for the instruction of his subjects. The New Style introduced into Great Britain ; the 3d of September being reckoned as the 14th. 3600 houses
nitive treaty

6466.. 1753

0467.. 1754
6468. .1755

destroyed by fire at Constatinople. Heraclius, prince of Georgia, having in the preceding year totally defeated Shah Couh, causes himself to be crowned king of Persia, at Ispahan; but is soon obliged to quit that city by the prince of the Affghaus, and other competitors. The British museum established by act of parliament. The French attack an English fort on the Monongahcla, and Logstown on the Ohio, April 17. A great earthquake at Constantinople, Grand Cairo, &c. September 2. dreadful eruption of ./Etna, March 9; at the same time, Vesuvius forms a new mouth, and throws out, during this and the following years, vast quantities of bituminous matter. War between the Dutch and The university of Quito, in Peru, debtroyed by an earthquake, April 28. Algerines declared, April 10.

6469.. 1756

Moscow opened, May 7. Lisbon destroyed by an earthquake, Nov. strength, being commanded by General Paoli. War declared in Great Britain against France, May 17. Admiral Byng
new

1.

The

insurgents of Corsica acquire

defeated by the French, in endeavourCalcutta taken by the viceroy of Bengal, June 28; and the ingto relieve Port Mahon, in Minorca, May 29. horrible catastrophe of the black-hole ensues. Oswego, on the Lake Ontario, taken by the French, August 14. Battle of Lowoschutz, between the king of Prussia and the Marshal De Browne, general of the The Algerines, assisted by the Tripolitans, take the city of Tunis, and commit great Austrians, Oct. 1.

6470.. 1757

cruelties on the inhabitants. Calcutta retaken by the British, Jan. 2. Damien, a lunatic, attempts to assassinate Louis XV. and is afterwards put to a cruel death, Jan. 5. Admiral Byng shot, pursuant to the sentence of a court-martial, for Battle of Prague, the king of Prussia having failed to relieve Port Mahon, the preceding year, March 14. defeats the Austrians, May 6. The military order of Maria Tlieresa instituted by the empress-queen, to commemorate the victory of Marshal Daun, at Colin, on the 18th of June. Battle of Plaissey, in the East More than half the town of Syracuse destroyed by an earthquake, August 6. Convention Indies, June 23. of Closter-Seven, between Marshal Richelieu and the duke of Cumberland, for a suspension of hostilities,

Sept. 8.

0471

. .

1758

6472.- 1759

473..1760

Konigsberg taken by the Russians, January 22. Senegal, on the coast of Africa, taken by the English, May 1. Fort St. David, in the East Indies, taken by the French, June 2. Marshal Daun obliges the king of Prussia to raise the Louisburgh, Cape Breton, siege of Olmutz, and to retreat from Moravia, July 1. taken by the English, July 27. Attempt to assassinate Joseph II. king of Portugal, Sept. 3. Marshal Daun defeats the king of Prussia, at Hochkirchen, Oct. 14; in consequence of which the sieges of Colberg, Fort Duquesne, on the Ohio, taken by the English, Neiss, Cosel, Torgau, Leipsic, and Dresden, are raised. November 24. An earthquake at Constantinople, Dec. 4 followed by a conflagration on the 22d. 29,Goree taken from the French, by Commodore Keppel. Vesuvius emits torrents of fire from a new mouth, in January. Louis XV. institutes the order of Military Merit, for foreign officers of the Protestant religion. James Sheile, an Irish farmer, dies at the age of 136. The French defeated by the allies, at Minden, Aug. 1. The Jesuits expelled Portugal, September 3. General Wolf killed in the battle of Quebec, Sept. 13. Admiral Boscawen defeats the French fleet, ofF Dreadful earthquakes in Syria and Palestine; the cities of Damascus, Safet, Naplouse, Gibraltar, Sept. 18. &c. are nearly destroyed, in October and November. Marshal Daun defeats the Prussians at Maxen, in Saxony, Nov. 20; and on the same day, Admiral Sir Edward Hawke defeats the French fleet, off Belleisle. An eruption of Vesuvius, Nov. 25. Balbec and Tripoli destroyed by an earthquake, December 5. An intense frost in the north of Europe. Frederick V. king of Denmark, sends three persons to make observations on the country and inhabitants of Arabia Felix; to this prince we are also indebted for the detailed
;

VOL.1

162
Julian

INTRODUCTION.
A.D.

[CHAP.

ir.

Period.

6473.. 1760

A transit of Venus over the sun, June 0. account of the antiquities of Egypt, collected by Captain Norden. The English become masteis of Montreal and Canada, Sept. 8. Berlin plundered by the Russians, Oct. !). battle of Torgau, Marshal Daun defeated by the king of Prussia, Nov. 3. Earthquakes in Syria. Sanguinary in the vicinity. Colonel Coote takes Pondicherv, January (J474..17G1 Eruptions of Vesuvius, attended with earthquakes Dominica taken by the English, June 6; and Belleisle on the 7th. A great fire at Petersburg!). The 15. Prince Herat-lias of Georgia take* Louis XV. of France, and Charles III. of Spain. Family Compact between and is again recognized as king of Persia. The king of Ceyloq rises against the Dutch settled in that Ispahan, A process instituted in the parliament of Paris against the Jesuits. island, and causes them considerable damage. 6475.. 1762 War declared by Great Britain against Spain, January 3. Peace between Prussia and Russia, March 5. Armistice between the Swedes and Prussians, which leads to a peace. Portugal declares \var against Spain, May 23. A sudden revolution in Russia, July 9 the emperor Peter III. is deposed, and his wife Catharine II. of the house of Anhalt Zerbst, is recognized as empress the dethroned monarch dies eight days afterHavannah surrenders to the British, on the same wards. The Jesuits suppressed in France, August 6. A preliminary treaty of peace signed at Fontainblean, of Wales is born, August 12. day that the prince between France, Spain, and Great Britain, November 3. The king of Prussia enters into negociations for Austria. The American Philosophical Society established at Philadelphia. peace with the house of Peace of <i476..T763 Peace of Paris, between Great Britain, France, and Spain, acceded to by Portugal, February 10. Hubersburgh, between the empress-queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and the king of Prussia; also between the latter and the elector of Saxony, king of Poland, whose hereditary estates are restored, February 15. John Wilkes, Esq. arrested, by order of the secretary of state, April 30 which begins the controversy between that patriot and the administration, relative to general warrants, seizure of papers, &c. Shah Zadah, son of Alumghir II. escapes from the hands of his enemies, gets possession of Delhi, and is recognized Cassim Ali Khan, in the south, makes himself as Great Mogul in the northern provinces of Hindoostan master of Bengal, &c. but on the 5th of October, the latter is defeated by the English commander Adams, who proclaims Jaffier Ali Khan nabob of the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. Forty-nine British Patna captured by the British, November 6. gentlemen murdered at Patna, in the East Indies, October 6. 6477.. 1764 The ancient order of St. Stephen revived in Hungary. The practice of franking letters restricted in Great BriGeneral Monro defeats Sujah Dowlah, at Buchar, in the East Indies, October 23. The suptain, May 1. them to live pression of the Jesuits in France completed by an edict of Louis XV. which, however, permits An earthquake at Lisbon, there in a private capacity, on condition of their conforming to the laws. December 26. The American Stamp Act passed. Admiral Byron makes discoveries in the Pacific Ocean. The British parliament grant 10,000 to Mr. Harrison for his time-piece for discovering the longitude. 6478.. 1765 Sujah Dowlah defeated by General Clive, who soon afterwards settles Bengal under the British government. Kerim Khan settles himself in the government of Persia, after great troubles, without assuming the regal Achmet Shah retains possession of Chorasan. The British Society of Artists incorporated by royal title The sovereignty of the Isle of Man annexed to the British crown. charter. 6479.. 176G The American Stamp Act repealed, March 18. A spot, more than thrice the bigness of the earth, passes over the sun's centre, April 21. The Dutch compel the king of Candi to abandon to them the sovereignty A great earthquake at Constantinople. The Jesuits expelled Bohemia and Denmark. of the island of Ceylon. 6480.. 1707 The Jesuits expelled Spain, and transported to Italy, April 2. Corsica ceded to France, by the Genoese, May 15. Martinico almost destroyed by an earthquake. The Russians commit great ravages in Poland, and transport many of the most illustrious members of the diet into Russia. The Dissidents have their priThe Jesuits expelled Venice and Genoa. Wallis and Carteret vileges established in Poland, November 21. make discoveries in the Pacific Ocean. 0481.. 1708 Octennial parliaments established in Ireland, February 3. The Royal Academy established in London. The Jesuits expelled Naples, Malta, and Parma. Bougainville makes discoveries in the Pacific Ocean. The Spaniards take possession of New Orleans, in America, in consequence of the cession of Western Louisiana by France. Violent commotions in Poland, and various confederacies formed, which are defeated by the Russians attached to the court party and to the diet. The Turks declare war against Russia, and The American colonists begin to be dissatisfied with the gain some advantages over the Montenegrins.
; : ;
; :

British

government.

fi482..17C9

0482.. 1770

6484.. 1771

abandons Corsica, on the 13th of June, which is soon afterwards reduced by France. Captain discoveries in the Pacific Ocean. The Russians take Azof and Choczim, after having deThe king of Morocco takes Mazagan stroyed two Turki-h armies they also seize Moldavia and Wallachia. from the Portuguese, alter a long siege. A new confederacy in Poland; and the whole kingdom distracted with civil contentions, fomented by Prussia, The French East-India Company dissolved, and a free trade allowed, April 8. The Austria, and Russia. Ottoman licet defeated and destroyed, July 7, in the port of Cliisme, opposite the isle of Scios, by the Russian admiral Count Alexis Orloff: on the 18th, Count Romanzow defeats, a large body of Turks, and, on the 1st of August, routs the army of the grand vizir, consisting of about 1:>(),000 men, near the river Prutli, which is followed by the capture of several ,<laces in the neighbourhood of the Danube. Ali Bey makes himself master of F.gypt - An earthquake at St. Domingo. The ri^lit of Falkland Island settled between Great Britain and Spain. Bender taken by storm, by the Ru-si.ius, September 2tt. Brass Crosby, lord mayor of London, committed to the Tower, by the houte of commons, for a breach of
General
Pai.li

Cook makes

IS

SECT. X.]
Julian

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
The Russians become, masters of the Crimea, or privilege in imprisoning their messenger, March 27. An attempt to kidnap Stanislaus, king of Poland, November 3. The Tonrgoutli Tartars, Little Tartary.
subjects of Russia, to the number of 50,000 families, leave their settlements near the Caspian sea, and put themselves under the protection of the Chinese government. First treaty for the diinemberment of Poland, between the empress of Russia, the house of Austria, and the king of Prussia, August 9. Revolution in Sweden, by which the king becomes absolute, and the form of government observed from the reign of (iiistavus Adolphus to that of Charles XI. is restored, August 10. Ali Bey, defeated iu Egypt, by Aboudaab, retires into Palestine. Shah Alum is replaced on the throne

Period.

A.D.

6484- -1771

64G5..1772

G48G-- 177=3

0487.. 1774

6488.. 1770
048!).. 1776

0490.. 1777

of his ancestors, in Hindoostan. A second body of 30,000 Tartar families, forsake their settlements in Russian Tartary, and are admitted into the Chinese dominions. Ducal Holstein ceded by Russia to the king of Denmark. The order of Jesuits suppressed by pope Clement XIV. July 21. Disturbances in America begin with the destruction of tea, on board three sloops, at Boston, December 18. The British government first sends judges to India. Captain Phipps sent to explore the Arctic seas but, having made 81" North, is in danger of being blocked up by the ice, and abandons the attempt to discover a northern passage. Captain Cook continues his discoveries in the Pacific ocean, and sails to latitude 71 10' S. The American petition, brought over by Dr. Franklin, dismissed by the house of commons, Januarv 29. The Grenville Act, respecting elections, made perpetual, March 31. The Boston port bill passed. Treaty of peace between Russia and the Turks; by which the former acquire the free navigation of the Black Sea; the Crimea is declared to be independent; and the tribute of virgins and boys, for the use of the seraglio, is remitted by the First meeting of the American grand signor to the inhabitants of Mingrelia, Arc. July 21. The king of Morocco declares that his religion congress at Philadelphia, in the beginning of September. will not permit him to suffer a Christian to remain within his dominions, and besieges Ceuta, in October. Louis XVI. restores the ancient parliament of Paris, November 12. Commencement of hostilities between Great Britain and the Anglo-Americans, at Lexington, April 19. Battle at Breed's-hill (usually called the battle at Bunker's-hill) between the British and Americans, June 17. The American congress assume themselves independent of the crown and parliament of Great Britain, May 15, and publish their declaration in July. The rope-house in Portsmouth dock-yard burnt by the Austria grants religious toleration, and incendiary known by the name of John the Painter, Decembers. abolishes torture, which is also laid aside in Poland. General Burgoyne takes Ticonderoga from the Americans, July 0. Battle on the Brandywine, September 11. General Burgoyne's army surrenders to the Americans, Philadelphia taken by the British, September 20.
;

at Saratoga,

October 16.

0401.. 1778
0402.. 1779

0493.. 1780

Treaty of alliance and defence between France and the Americans, February 0. War between Austria and Prussia, July 7. Pondichery taken by the British, October 17. Captain Cook assassinated by the natives of Owhyhee, in the Pacific ocean, February 14. Peace between the Austrians and Prussians, May 13. The Spaniards join St. Vincent's taken by the French, June 17. the cause of America. Grenada taken, July 3. Engagement between Admiral Byron and the Spanish Admiral D'Estaing, off Grenada, July 0. The Spaniards begin the siege of Gibraltar, July 8. An extraordinary eruption of Vesuvius, August 8. Sir George Rodney takes twenty-two sail of Spanish ships, January 8 and defeats Langara, near Cape St. A dreadful insurrection in London, accompanied by riots in many other parts of Vincent, on the 10th. England and Scotland, occasioned by an attempt of the parliament to remove the political disabilities of the Louis XVI. abolishes the application of torture in France, August 25. Papists, June 2 to 7. Major Andre apprehended by the Americans, at Tarry Town, and hanged, as a spy, at Tappau, in the State of New York, on the 2d of October. Henry De la Motto, a French spy, executed at Tyburn. A dreadful hurricane in the Leeward Islands, October 9. The British government declares war against the Dutch,
;

December
0494.. 1781

20.

0495.. 1782

0490.. 1783

Lord George Gordon tried on a charge of high treason, in having occasioned the riots of the preceding year, and acquitted, February 4. Engagement between the Dutch and British fleets, near the Dogger Bank, August 5. The British army, commanded by Lord Coruwallis, surrenders by capitulation to General Washington, commander of the united American and French forces, at York Town, October 19, Minorca surrenders to the Spaniards, February 4. Sir George Rodney defeats the the French fleet, under Count De Grasse, off Dominica, April 12. The Spanish floating batteries, employed in the siege of Gibral-The British government acknowledges tar, destroyed by General Elliot, with red-hot balls, September 13. the independence of the Thirteen United States of America, November 30. Preliminaries of peace between Great Britain, France, and Spain, by which the independence of America is

A dreadful earthquake, attended by many extraordinary circumstances, in Italy confirmed, January 20. and Sicily, by which the city of Messina, and several other places, are destroyed, Februarys. Armistice between Great Britain arid Holland, Feb. 10. Eastaiid West Florida ceded to Spain. The order of Knights of St. Patrick founded in Ireland. Definitive treaty between Great Britain, France, Spain, and the United States of America, ratified, Septembers. In this year the suu was obscured during the whole summer. A volcanic eruption of Heckla, in Iceland, surpassing every thing of the kind recorded in history the lava is said to have spouted up to the perpendicular height of two miles, during a continuance of two mouths,
:

Y2

164

INTRODUCTION.

[CHAP. n.

6496.. 1783

C497..1784

and covered 3600 square miles of ground, in some places 100 feet deep! A large meteor appears in October, to the northward of Shetland, and takes a southerly direction, with immense velocity ; its tract miles. being observed for more than 1000 The great seal of England stolen from the house of Lord Chancellor Thurlow, March 24. Treaty of peace A grand jubilee, in commemoration of Handel, performed in Westminster with Holland ratified, May 24. 26. Archindschan, in Turkey, destroyed by an earthquake, and 12,000 abbey, by 600 performers, May
inhabitants buried in the ruins, July 18. Protestant churches Printing re-established at Constantinople. allowed in Hungary. The Crimea settled by Russia. Sunday schools first opened, at Gloucester, by Mr. Robert Raikes. Mr. Lunardi ascends with a balloon, from the Artillery Ground, London ; being the first attempt of the kind in England, September 15. Dr. Seabury, the first bishop in America, consecrated at Bull-feasts abolished in Connecticut, by five non-juring Scottish prelates, November 14. Spain, except for

498. .1785

8499.. 1786

6600.. 1787

pious or patriotic purposes. An earthquake in Calabria, April 10. Treaty of of Germany suppresses 2000 religious houses. confederacy between the king of Prussia, and the electors of Hanover, Saxony, and Mentz, for preserving A violent storm in France, by which 131 the inviolability and union of the Germanic empire, May 29. Preliminaries of peace signed at Paris, between the villages and farms are laid waste, August 5. emperor and Holland, September 20 and the definitive treaty, on the 16th of November. Inundations in various A severe frost in Germany lasts 115 days. parts of England, in September and October. Gustavus III. abolishes the use of torture in Sweden. Cardinal Tourlone, high inquisitor at Rome, dragged out of his carriage by the populace, and hanged on a gibbet, fifty feet high. The Droit d'Aubaine aboAn earthquake in Scotland and the north of England, August 11. Commercial treaty lished in France. between Great Britain and France, September 26. A plague in the Levant. Mr. Adams, the American ambassador, presents Dr. White, of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Provost, of New York, to the archbishop of Canterbury, to be consecrated bishops for the United States. The first Botany Bay settlement sails from England, March 21. A fire destroys one-fourth of Christiana, in Denmark, and does damage to the amount of 100,000 rix-dollars (22,500 sterling,) April 9. An earthquake in Mexico and the adjacent country. Mr. Burke, at the bar of the house of lords, in the name of the commons of England, impeaches Warren Hastings, Esq. late governor-general of India, of high crimes and misdemeanors, April 19. Dissensions in Holland occasion the interference of the king of Prussia in favour of the stadtholder, and he enters Amsterdam on the 9th of October. France and Great Britain make preparations to assist, the former the democratic party, the latter the Orange party ; but the malecontents being soon defeated by the Prussians, &c. the British and French courts disband their armaments by mutual consent, on the 27th. Contests between Louis XVI. and the parliament of Paris begin. Banks first established in the East Indies. An inundation of the Liffey does considerable damage in Dublin and its

The emperor

environs,

November

12.

6501.. 1788

War

between the Turks, Germans, and Russians. The stadtholdership guaranteed to the prince of Orange, by the United States of Holland, <tc. June 27. Russia declares war against Sweden, June 30. Inundation at Kirkwald, in Scotland, by the irruption of the dam dykes, which nearly destroys the town, October 4. His majesty George III. king of Great Britain, taken ill, October 17 on the 22d, symptoms of mental derangement appear. The French notables, convoked by Louis XVI. assemble at Paris, November 6. Some British merchants, resident in India, form a small settlement at Nootka Sound, on the north-west coast of America, for the purpose of opening a trade in furs with the natives. Animal magnetism introduced in France, but is soon exploded, and next year brought over to England. Formosa, in the Chinese sea, revolts ; 10,000 Chinese are massacred, and a great number driven into the woods or on
;

the rocks.

6502.. 1789

His majesty, King George

recovered.

III. declared to be in a convalescent state, February 17; and on the 25th quite Insurrections in France. A magazine of gunpowder and bomb-shells blows up at Corfu, and kills 180 men, March 11. A general thanksgiving in England for the king's recovery; his majesty goes in state to St. Paul's cathedral, April 23. The states-general of France assemble, May 4; the Tiers Etat, or commons, assume the legislative authority, under the title of" the National Assembly," in which they are joined, on the 19th of June, by most of the clergy, the duke of Orleans, and a few of the noblesse. Most of the French princes emigrate. The Bastile at Paris destroyed, and the governor, &c. to death, which

put

is

usually considered as the beginning of the French revolution, July 14.

EPOCHA

XVII.
1819: 30 YEARS.

FROM THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO THE YEAR

fi')02..1789

The Spaniards dispossess the British of their settlement at Nootka, which nearly involves Great Britain in a war with Spain. The national assembly of France abolishes nil feudal .services, with the game- laws, &c. August 4. An earthquake at Bcrgo-di-San-.Sepolcro, in Tuscany, which destroys tlie cathedral and the bisliop's palace, with the adjacent town of Castello: Borgo also has 150 houses destroyed, and thirty swallowed up by an opening of the earth, September 30. Louis XVI. brought from Versailles to Paris by the Poig$ardes, October 6.

SECT. X.]
Julian
.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.

165

Tv
*

Period.

1 1

B503..1790

The Jews of Spain, Portugal, and Avignon' January 11, Confederacy of the Belgic province.-., at Brussels. 28, admitted as citi/ens of France. February 5 and 13, Religious houses, to the number of 4500, and monastic March (i. An earthquake at Arnside, in Westmoreland. vows, of every description, suppressed in France. 11 and 18, Woods and timber belonging to the clergy, and all church lands, ordered to be sold, by the French national assembly. April 17, Assignats first issued in France. The Russians burn the Turkish fleet June 10, Titular distinctions and feudal rights, with all in the Archipelago, and take the fortress of Kilia. heraldic honours, abolished in France. July 3, The Swedish fleet, commanded by the king in person, receives a considerable check in the Gulf of VViborg; but, on the J)th and 10th, it completely defeats the 14, The celebrated conRussians, with the loss of most of their ship*, and upwards of 14,000 men. federation iu the Champ dc Mnrn, at Paris, where the king and national representatives swear to maintain Prussia and Austria, against France. the new constitution. '27, Coalition between August 14, Peace between Sweden and Russia. 25, Decree of the national assembly, excluding the clergy from all judiciary October 28, Definitive treaty between Great Britain and Spain, relative to Nootka Sound. functions. December 2, The peace of the Belgic provinces restored, by the publication of a general amnesty on the
March
part of the emperor. 3, the national assembly orders the church plate to be sent to the mint, to be converted into currency. Thirty thousand houses destroyed at Constantinople, by earthquakes, between March and July. The iu America, founded. April 30, Defeat of the French, near Mons, by the Austrian*. city of Washington, May 3, Revolution in Poland: the crown becomes hereditary. 4, The pope burned in effigy, in Paris. June 1, The punishment of death by the rack, and other modes of torture, abolished in France. 10, The national assembly decree the suppression of the pope's authority, and Protestants are permitted to have
at

4504. .1791

France. 20 and 21, Flight of Louis XVI. from Paris; discovered on the 22d. July 14, Riots the meeting-houses and private dwellings of Dissenters become the objects of the fury of also destroy Dr. Priestley's library and chemical apparatus. 17, The Jacobins, headed by Robespierre, assemble in the Champ de Mars, to frame a petition for dethroning the king; many hundred citizens are slain on the occasion. Bangalore, in the East Indies, taken by the British, under Earl Cornwallis. August 4, Peace of Szistowa, between Seringapatam, the capital of Tippoo Saib, besieged. Austria and the Porte. 27, Treaty of Pilnitz, between Prussia and Austria, for the restitution of Louis XVI. and the dismemberment of France. September 14, Avignon, and the county of Venaissin, united to France. 15, Louis XVI. accepts the new French constitution; and, on the 30th, the constituent assembly terInsurrection of 35,000 negroes in St. Domingo; upwards of 300 whites massacred. minates, its sittings.

churches

in

Birmingham ths mob, who

C505..1792

national legislative assembly commences its functions, at Paris. 16 and 17, Jourdan and massacre the inhabitants of Avignon. Earthquakes in Scotland, in Calabria, and in Sicily. November 22, Three hundred houses burned at Port-au-Prince, in the island of St. Domingo, by the Mulattoes. December 2, An earthquake in the island of Zante. 27, An earthquake at Lisbon. January 9, Peace of Jassy, between Russia and Turkey. February 9, The cotton manufactory at Sheffield, valued at 45,000, destroyed by fire. 10, John VI. prince of Brasil, declared regent of Portugal, in con12, Louis XVI. assents to the decree of the sequence of the mental derangement of the queen, his mother. national assembly, for confiscating the property of the emigrants. March 2, Shocks of earthquake felt in the counties of Bedford, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, &c. 10, Gustavus III. king of Sweden, shot by Ankerstroem, and dies on the 29th. (The assassin was executed on the 18th of April). 19, Definitive treaty between the British and their allies, the Nizam and Mahrattas, on the one part, and Tippoo Sultan on the other, whereby the latter cedes one half of his territories to the English, and delivers up two of his sons to Lord Cornwallis, as hostages for the fulfilment of the terms of the treaty. 20, The guillotine first used in France. 25, The lake of Hareutoren, in the county of Kerry, in Ireland, a mile in circuit, sinks into the ground, with all its fish, &c. and disappears. Muley Ismael, emperor of Morocco, and his brothers, massacred by his subjects. April 6, Monastic orders, and ecclesiastical distinctions of dress, abolished in France. 15, The revolutionary tribunal of Paris commences its administration. 20, The national assembly of France declares war against Francis II. king of Hungary and Bohemia: hostilities commence on the 28th, near Lisle. May 7, The custom-house at Seville destroyed by fire, and damage done to the amount of 40,000. 14, The partizans of Russia, in Poland, enter into a confederacy at Targowitz, in opposition to the new constitution; and, on the 24th of August, a Russian army obliges the king, Stanislaus Augustus, to accede to it. The appellation of Citizen, and a red cap, are the only title and mark of distinction allowed at this time iu France. '25, The archives of the order of St. Esprit, and the titles of nobility, enrolled in the convent of the Great Augustines, at Paris, with all the registered proofs of nobility, amount ing to nearly GOO huge folios, publicly burned in the Place Vendome. July 27, The president of the national assembly receives the celebrated manifesto of the duke of Brunswick, commander of the combined armies of the Empire and of Prussia, threatening to lay Paris in ashes, unless the- king were restored to his former power. August 10, A new revolution breaks out in Paris: the Swiss guards, and other adherents of the king, arc massacred the national assembly declares the kingly on the 12th, Louis and his family are imprisoned in the Temple. September 2 authority to be abolished to (S, Dreadful massacres at Paris, by the Jacobin faction. In the course of this and the following year, France is covered with scaffolds, on which an immense 21, The national conquantity of blood -is shed. vention holds its first sitting, and proclaims the government of France to be a democracy. 22, The French General Anselm takes possession of Nice. 29, Spires taken by Custine. 7000 houses troops enter Savoy.

October

1,

The

his banditti,

166

INTRODUCTION.
AD

[CHAP. n.

E5S.

U505- -1702

C506..1793

Lord Macartney's embassy to China. October 21, Mentz surrenders, under Custine as do Frankfort, on the 23d, and Liege, on the 28th. by November 0, Total defeat of the Austrians, by the French General Dnmourier, at the village of Rossu, near the camp of Jemmappe, which lays all the Netherlands open to the French. '29, The ducky of Savoy declared bv the convention to be the. eighty-fourth department of France, under the name of Mont Blane. December 2, The convention determines on putting Louis XVI. on his trial: and he is brought before on the llth. 20, The perpetual banishment of the Bourbon family decreed by the it, for that purpose, French convention. 20, Louis XVI. again appears before the convention. January 13, The inhabitants of Nice form themselves into a republic, and demand an union with France, which is accepted on the 31st. 17, The convention sentences Louis XVI. to be beheaded, which is carried 24, into execution on the 21st, at Paris, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, and nineteenth of his reign. The king of Prussia takes possession of Thorn. February 1, The French convention declares war against Great Britain, and her ally, the stadtholder of Holland. A piece of land, in Finland, 4000 square ells in Ferdinand III. duke of Tuscany, is the first sovereign who acknowledges the extent, sinks fifteen fathoms. French republic. March, First coalition between Austria, Prussia, the German empire, Great Britain, Holland, Spain, Portugal, the Two Sicilies, the Ecclesiastical states, and the king of Sardinia, agaiu-t the French republic. April 9, The king of Prussia and the empress of Russia send a declaration to the diet at
destroyer!

by

fire, at

Constantinople.

to the French, capitulation,

Grodno, of their intention to make a new partition of Poland. April 3, Dumourier seizes the commisAn earthquake at St. Domingo. May 8, Battle near St. sioners of the convention, and deserts to the allies. 20, Corsica in a state of open Amaiiil, in which the republican General Dampierre is mortally wounded. 31, Several members of the French convention proscribed, under the insurrection against the convention. denomination of Girondists and Federatittt, by the Jacobins, better known by the appellation of the Mountain Part;/, who now assume the entire domination over the country; but many departments revolt, and About the month of June, Lutf-Ali, competitor with declare the convention to have lost their confidence. Mehemet for the throne of Persia, is betrayed into the hands of the latter, who orders his eyes to be plucked out, and some time after puts him to death, with all his relations: Mehemet remains master of the empire. June 24, The national convention presents a new constitution to the French people. July 13, The king of Poland signs a treaty at Grodno, whereby one half of Lithuania is ceded to Russia. 13, The infamous Marat, member of the convention, and principal abettor of Robespierre's tyranny, assassinated by Charlotte Corde: she is in consequence guillotined on the 17lh. 27, Valenciennes surrenders to the duke of York. -August 27, The inhabitants of Toulon surrender that city, with the arsenal and shipping in the harbour, to Lord

Hood, commander of the British squadron. Septembers, Battle of Honclkskoote, near Dunkirk, in which the duke of York is defeated by Houchard, with the loss of 4000 men. 22, The national convention introduces their new calendar, (continued to the last day of December, 1805). 25, Treaty of Grodno, by which
the Poles cede a part of Great Poland, with the cities of Dantzic and Thorn, to Prussia. 29, Shocks of earthquake felt at Shaftesbury and Salisbury. October 10, The revolutionary government begins to act in France. 16, Queen Marie Antoinette, of Austria, widow of Louis XVI. publicly beheaded at Paris. November 0, The celebrated duke of Orleans, who had assumed the title of Citoyen Egalite (Citizen Equality,) and voted for the death of his nephew, Louis XVI. is himself beheaded, by order of the revolutionary tribunal. 7, The public exercise of the national religion suppressed in France, and the worship of Reason, December 19, The English abandon Toulon, after setting fire Liberty, and other imaginary deities, set up. to the arsenal and shipping. This year and the following, Vancouver, the celebrated navigator, and former companion of Captain Cook, visits and describes, with much care, about 800 leagues of the north-western coast of America. February 3, The national convention decrees the abolition of slavery in the French West-India islands. 26, The royal palace of Copenhagen consumed by a fire, in which property to the amount of 4,500,000 sterling was destroyed, and more than 100 persons lost their lives. March 24, Insurrection of the Poles, under Kosciuszko, who defeats the Russians, near Raslavice. -April 5, Danton,Camille Desmoulincs, and other chiefs of the Cordelier faction, guillotined. (!, The French enter the Genoese territories. 17, The Polish patriots (Ir-t'c ;il the Russians at \Varsaw, and take Defeat of the French near Landrecy. possession of that city. May 10, Madame Elizabeth, sister to the late Louis XVI. condemned to death by the revolutionary tribunal at Paris -The duke of York defeats the French near Tournay,. 17, The Habeas Corpus Act suspended in 18, The allies defeated near Rouhaix, and the duke of York narrowly escapes being taken prisoner. England. June 1, Great naval victory obtained 22, The island of Corsica taken by the British, under Lord Hood. by Lord Howe over the French fleet. 8, The Prussians defeat Koscinszko, take Cracow, and besiege Warsaw. 1U, \n earthquake, in the neighbourhood of Naples, almost destroys the city of Torre del Greco. Dreadful eruption of Vesuvius, the lava covering, and totally destroying, 5000 acres of rich vineyards and cullnatcd lauds -20, Battle of Fleurus gained by the French, under Jourdan, over the Austrians, which puts the former a second time in possession of Flanders. July 3, An earthquake in Turkey destroys three towns, containing 10, COO inhabitant*. 18, Revolution at Geneva. --20, Dreadful conflagration near Katclifte >ir,iimes iiearh (JOO houses, and occasions a loss of about a million sterling. Cross, London, which 27,Fall of Kobespieire and In. part), with whom also ends the reign of terror. Robespierre is guillotined, with many of hU adherents, on the 28lh. August 1, The republican army of the Western I'yrennecs, with only COOO men, defeat 10,000 Spaniards. 4, St. Sebastian, in Spain, taken by the French. 5, The sanguinary

C507..1794

SKCT. X.]
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.

107

A.D.
surrenders to the system of Robespierre entirely abrogated in France. 10, The town of Calvi, in Corsica, 215, Sln>s capitulates 1o tlie French. 29, Valenciennes surrenders British, after a siege of (illy one days. to the republicans, as does Conde, on the following day. 30, A dreadful explosion of a powder magazine, nt (ireiielle, near Paris, kills sixty persons, and maims about the same number, besides destroying and September 10, The duke of York, defeated by the French, is duiii;iing a great number of buildings. October 3, General Clairfait defeated by the French, obliged to cross the Mouse, and retreat to Thiel. with the loss of 10,000 men. 1, Battle of Macejowitz, between the Russians, under General Fersen, and the Poles, who are all killed or made prisoners: Koscinszko among the latter. 18, The Jacobin clubs suppressed at Paris. November 4, Maestricht taken by the French. The Russians, under Suw arrow, take the suburb of Warsaw, called Prague; on the 9th, the city capitulates, after an engagement, in which 14,000 of the Poles were slain, and 10,000 made prisoners, of an army of 26,000. 17, The French obtain a very important victory over the Spaniards, after an engagement of two days, in which general Dugommier is killed. December 12, Utrecht taken by the French. Insurrection of the negroes at St Domingo. Telegraphs, invented in 1687, are brought into use by the French during this year, and by the English in 1796. Watt and Downie tried at Edinburgh for high-treason; the former executed, and the latter pardoned. Messrs. Hardy, Home Tooke, and Thelwall, tried on a charge of high-treason at London, and acquitted. January 3, The last treaty for the division of Poland, signed at Petersburg!!, between Russia and Austria, re11, Great battle of Heussen, between the allies and the French, in serving a part for the king of Prussia. which the latter obtain a complete victory. 18, The French enter Amsterdam, and are received by the inhabitants with the greatest demonstrations of friendship. 20, The stadt holder, with his whole family, arrive The Zuyder Zee being safely at Colchester, and are taken under the protection of the British government. entirely frozen over, (a circumstance unknown for a full century before), the French are enabled to march into all the United Provinces of Holland, and take possession of the Dutch fleet, in the harbour of Amsterdam. February 9, Treaty of peace, signed at Paris, between the French republic, and the grand duke of Tuscany. March 8, Sir E. Pellew takes fifteen, and burns seven, of a French fleet of thirty-rive sail of 14, Admiral Hotham defeats a French fleet, and takes two ships. 28, The states of Courland transports. and Semigallia submit to Russia, and cease to have particular sovereigns. April 5, Peace of Basle, between the French republic and the king of Prussia. 23, Warren Hastings, Esq. after a trial of seven years' continuance, honourably acquitted by the high court of parliament. -In the month of May, the final partition of Poland, between Austria, Russia, and Prussia, takes place. May 10, Peace of Paris, between the French and Batavian republics. 17, Treaty of Basle, between the French republic and the king of Prussia, for securing the 20, Insurrection of the Jacobins at Paris, in neutrality of a part of the German empire. favour of the re-establishment of the constitution of 1793, during which, Ferrand, a member of the convention, is assassinated, with many others who were not members. 31, The revolutionary tribunal abolished, by order of the convention. June 5, Death of the Dauphin, commonly called Louis XVII. son of Louis XVI. in the prison of the Temple, at Paris, supposed to have been poisoned by his gaoler, Simon the Cobbler, The arsenal, admiralty, <Hrc. with nearly fifty streets, containing 13o'3 houses, destroyed by fire, in Copenhagen. 7, Eight transports, under convoy of three French men of war, taken by Admiral Cornwallis. 19, Eleven Dutch East-Indiamen taken by the Sceptre man-of-war and some armed Indiamen. 25, The French fleet defeated by Lord Bridport, and three ships of war taken, on" L'Orient. July I, Defeat of the French emigrants in the Bay of Quiberou: upwards of 500 of these unfortunate men having surrendered themselves as prisoners of war, are guillotined, by order of Tallien. 22, Treaty of Basle, between the king of Spain and the French republic, by which the Spanish part of St. Domingo is ceded to France, and the latter relinquishes her August 28, Peace of Basle, between France and conquests in the Peninsula. the landgrave of Hesse Cassel. 7000 houses destroyed by fire at Constantinople. September 22, The na" constitution of the tional convention promulgates a new constitution, known by the name of the year 3."30, Belgium united to France. October 5. Revolution of the 13th Veudcmiaire, year 4, at Paris, suppressed by the conventional troops, commanded by Barras and Buonaparte. 2(5, The French national convention closes its sittings, having continued upwards of three years; and, on the 28th, the new legislative body, conIn the sisting of two councils, that of the ancients, and that of the five hundred, commences its functions. course of this month, Mchemet, sovereign of Persia, surprises Tiflis, the capital of Georgia, pillages it, and puts the inhabitants to death, or makes them slaves: the Russians, allies of Heraclius, prince of Georgia, prepare lor war with Mehemet. November 4, Installation of the executive directory, in France, consisting nl live members. 26, .Stanislaus Augustus Poaiatowski, the last king of Poland, resigns his crown at Grodno. December '27, The Princess Maria Theresa Charlotte, daughter of the late Louis XVI. exchanged at Basle, tor the Fn-nch The British settlement at Sierre Leone, on the deputies detained in Austria. African coast, nearly destroyed by a French frigate. Trincomalee, in the island of Ceylon, taken by the
British.

(J507..1794

6-508- -179-3

8509.. 1798

February 23, Napoleon Buonaparte nominated to the command of the French army in Italy. Kien-Iong, emperor ot China, at the age of eighty-seven, abdicates the throne, after a prosperous reign of more than sixty ) car.-,, in ta\ our of Ins seventeenth sou, Ka-king. March 18, A new species of paper money, denominated tvi-ntorial General Hot he restores tranquillity in La Vendee, after a civil muniluti-s, issued in France. war ot more than Im-c years. April 11, Battle of Montcnotte, the h'rst victory gained by Buonaparte in Italy; which is followed by a series of successes. May 11, Battle of Lodi. 15, The king of Sardinia cede*
,

108
JulUu
Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A n D
.
' -

[CHAP,

ir

C609..1796

Savoy, with the counties of Nice, Tende, and Beuil, to France. 29, Buonaparte takes possession of Milan. July 27, Peace between the French and Suabians. August 17, The Cape of Good Hope, with a squadron of nine ships of the line, taken from the Dutch by the British. 19, The Dutch fleet in Saldaiiha Bay, Africa, consisting of five men of war, and several frigates, surrenders to Sir G. K. Elphinstone. September, Mehemet, sovereign of Persia, seizes the Chorasan, which had been separated from Persia in 1752. October 24, The conferences for peace, between Lord Malmesbury and the French government, commence at Paris. 26, Moreau concludes his celebrated retreat, and recrosses the Rhine. December 5, A subscription loan, to the amount of eighteen millions, for prosecuting the war against France, filled at London, in less than sixteen hours. 16, A French fleet, carrying 20,000 soldiers, leaves Brest, for a dewhere it is dispersed by a storm, and returns home, with scent on Ireland, and anchors in Bantry Bay considerable loss. 19, The negociations for peace having failed, Lord Malmesbury is ordered by the direcIn the course of this year, the Russians become masters of Derbent, Bakou, Chamaki, tory to leave Paris. and other cities of Persia.
;

0510.. 1797

January 26, Final treaty, signed at Petersburgh, between Austria, Prussia, and Russia, relative to the parThe Negroes of St. tition of Poland, and for securing the late king an annual pension of 200,000 ducats. Domingo declare themselves free and independent, and begin the republic of Hayti. February 1, The French invade the Papal territories. 14, Sir John Jervis defeats the Spanish fleet, off Cape St. Vincent. 20, An earthquake at 6, Loretto pillaged by the French army, and the celebrated Madona sent to Paris. Sumatra does great damage, and upwards of 300 persons perish. 22, 1200 Frenchmen landed at Fisgard,
Pembrokeshire, and are made prisoners. 25, The Bank of England declines payment of their notes in a nominal value specie, and on the 6th of March issues twenty-shilling notes, and stamped dollars bearing of 4s9rf. (The latter recalled in the following October). The whole country between Santa Fe and Panama, in America, including the cities of Cusco and Quito, with 40,000 inhabitants, destroyed by an earthquake. March 16, Battle of Tagliamento. April 5, The Several violent shocks are also felt in the West Indies. Emperor Paul establishes a new order of succession to the Russian throne. 15, An alarming mutiny in the British fleet at Spithead. 18, Preliminary treaty of peace, between France and Austria, signed near Leoben, by Buonaparte and the ministers of the Emperor. 28, Verona taken bj the French, and the greater part destroyed by fire. May 14, Mehemet, sovereign of Persia, assassinated by one of his officers, while marching against the Russians. 16, Revolution at Venice: democracy set up, under a provisiouary go19, Martial vernment; the French troops take possession of the city, and of the provinces on Terra Fiona. law proclaimed in Ireland. 22 and 31, Revolution at Genoa, under French influence. Another muting in the British fleet at Sheerness, which, after blocking up the trade of the Thames for some time, subsides on the 10th of June. June 14, The Ligurian republic begins. 21, Political clubs and reading-rooms sup26, A new copper coinage of penny and twopennv pieces issued in England. pressed in Great Britain. July 6, A new conference opened at Lisle, with a view to the restoration of peace, between the French plenipotentiaries and Lord Malmesbury, which continues till the 17th of September, without effect. " the 18th 9, The Cisalpine republic begins. September 4, Revolution at Paris, known by the name of October 11, Admiral Duncan defeats the Dutch off the coast of Holland, takes nine Fructidor, year 5." sail of the line and one frigate, and sends the Dutch admiral De Winter prisoner to London. 17, December 9, A congress Treaty of Campo Formic, beWeen the French republic and the Emperor. at Rastadt, for settling the peace of the empire with France. Passwan Oglou, a rebellious Turkish opened 28, Insurrection at Rome against the French, during which general pacha, seizes the city of Belgrade. Duphot is killed and the war against the Papal territories breaks out anew. Gold seven-shilling pieces first issued in Great Britain. Newspapers first published at Constantinople. January 24, Revolution in the Vaudois, in Switzerland; a French army enters Switzerland. 28, Treaty between France and the republic of Mulhausen. February 15, Revolution at Rome: the people establish March a new republic, under the direction of five consuls. 26, The pope made prisoner by the French. 30, Ireland declared to be in a state of actual rebellion. 26, April 11, The Helvetic republic begins. Geneva united to the French republic. May 19, A French armament, commanded by Buonaparte, sails from Toulon, for the invasion of Egypt. 23, The rebellion breaks out in Ireland, in the night, by the stoppage and burning of the mail coaches passing from Dublin to the country. 25, An earthquake, at The Irish insurgents defeated at Hacketstown, in the county ofCarlow, Sienna, kills about fifty persons. and at Baltinglass, in the county of Wicklow; and again, on the 27th, on the hill of Taragh, about twenty-five miles from Dublin. 28, Four thousand of the Irish rebels lay down their arms, on the Curragh of Kildare, to General Dundas. June 5, General Johnson defeats the Irish rebels, at New Ross, who of leave 3000 men dead on the 9, The insurgents in the county of Wicklow being dispersed, 1500 spot. them break their pikes, and return to their allegiance. 12, Malta capitulates to the French, under Buonaparte, on their passage to Egypt. 20, General Moore defeats a numerous detachment of the Wexlord 22, Wexford, rebels, nearTaghmon. 21, Defeat of the Irish rebels at Vinegar-hill, by General Lake. the principal post of the 26, The insurgents of the county of insurgents, taken by the English troops. Kilkenny attacked in their position on Kilconnel-hill, by Sir C. Asgill, and defeated with the loss of one thousand men killed, of cannon, two swivels, including Father Murphy, their chief, ten pieces their colours, and great of ammunition, arms, and cattle. July 1, The French army, under quantities Buonaparte, arrives on the coast of Egypt, and next day takes possession of Alexandria. 6, The
in
;

(ioll.

.1798

SECT. X.]
Juli:m
IVricKi.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
Wicklow insurgents attacked by

169

A. D.

6511.. 1798

the united forces of generals Need ham and Sir J. Duff, on the borders of \\extord, anil completely dispersed, with the loss of about 700 killed. 21, Battle of the Pyramids, gained Buonaparte. 23, The French enter Cairo and, in the course of this and the following months, expel by the Mamelukes, and get possession of all Egypt. August 1, Admiral Sir H. Nelson defeats the French fleet, at Aboukir, near the Egyptian coast. 22, A French army of 1000 men, under General Humbert, landed on the north-west coast of Ireland. September 8, The French troops in Ireland, after sustaining the attack of a column of Lord Cornwallis's army, under General Lake, surrender at discretion, at Ballinamuck. 9, A dreadful battle at Underwalden, between the Swiss insurgents and the French Voops the
; ;

town of Santz burned to the ground, and most of the inhabitants put to the sword. 12, The grand signot declares war against France, on account of the expedition to Egypt. 30, Colonel Burke and Major Bellew executed for high treason, at Sligo. October 12, Sir J. B. Warren defeats a French fleet off the coast of Ireland. December 1), The king of Sardinia cedes Piedmont to the French. The same day, the Neapolitans are defeated by the French at Calvi. Towards the close of this year, the cold becomes very rigorous, The troubles excited in Turkey exceeding, in most countries of Europe, that of the years 1709 and 1740. by Passwaii Oglou are appeased. The voluntary contributions for the support of the British government against the threatened French invasion, amounted this year to upwards of two millions and a half sterling,
<liil2.

.1709

besides 139,332. 15s. 2d. remitted from British residents at Bengal. January 23, The French troops, under Championnet, enter Naples, and- establish the Parthenopian republic. February 4, Buonaparte leads a part of his army into Syria and soon afterwards gains the battle of El Arich, and takes possession of Gaza and Jaffa. March 3, The island of Corfu, which had been seized by the French, in 1797, taken by the Russians. 12, France declares war against Austria and Tuscany, hostilities having previously begun for several days. April 8, The congress at Radstadt broken up by the Austria, Great Britain, part of the German Empire, Naples, Portugal, Russia, imperial ministers. Turkey, and the States of Barbary, form a second coalition against France. 28, The French plenipotenGeneral tiaries, Bonniere, Roberjeot, and Jean Debry, assassinated on their departure from Rastadt. Suwarrow, commander of the allied forces in Italy, enters Milan, having defeated the French the day before, at Cassino, on the Adda. May 4, Seringapatam, the capital of the Mysore country, in the East Indies, taken by storm, by the British, and Tippoo Saib slain. 20, Sir Sydney Smith having repulsed Buonaparte in his attempts on St. Jean d'Acre, the latter raises the siege, after having had the trenches open against it for sixty days. June 10, Changes in the French directory; the Jacobins recover their influence. Morocco visited by a dreadful plague, of which about 3000 persons died daily towards the 20th of June, 274,000 had died in the city of Fez and its dependent villages. July 12, Printing-presses licensed in England, in order to suppress the seditious temper of the times. 13, The king of the Two Sicilies returns to Naples. 25, The French defeat the Turks before Aboukir, in Egypt. 28, The city of Mantua surrenders by capitulation to the allies, after a blockade of two months, and a bombardment of four days: the French are now almost expelled from Italy. 22, Surinam surrenAugust 15, Battle of Novi ders to the British. 23, Buonaparte leaves the army of Egypt to General Kleber, and embarks for France. 27, 20,000 British troops land in Holland, and form a junction with the Russian troops in that country. 30, The Dutch fleet in the Texel surrenders to the British, under Admiral Mitchell. September 18, Battle of Manheim the archduke Charles defeats the French, who recross the Rhine. 19, The Anglo-Russian army, commanded by the duke of York, defeated at Bergen, by the French general Brune. 25, Battle of Zurich. Octoberd, General Suwarrow evacuates Switzerland, of which the French immediately become the masters. 'I he Russian troops recalled by the emperor Paul. 6, The Anglo-Russians, in Holland, again defeated by Brune, at Castricum. 9, Buonaparte lands at Frejus, and arrives at Paris on the 10th. 18, Capitulation at Alkmaer, for the evacuation of North Holland by the allied British and Russian army. November 9 and 10, Revolution in France of the 18th and 19th Brumaire, year 8: the legislative body transferred from Paris to St. Cloud the constitution of the year 3 the executive directory suppressed abrogated and a provisional government established, under three consuls, consisting of Buonaparte, December 13, New constitution decreed in France, with Buonaparte as first consul, Sieye*, and Ducos. Cambaceres the second, and Le Brun the third. The coin ascertained to be in circulation in England,
:
: : ; ; ;

6513..1UOO

amounted to 41,000,000. January!, The new legislative body, or senate, and the tribunate, of France, installed. 7, The Helvetic directory dissolved, and an executive commission established. 24, Treaty of El Arich, for the evacuation of Egypt by tin; French, which the British cabinet does not approve. February 19, Installation of the consular government at the March 1, The Bank' of France established. 14, palace of the Thuillcries, Paris. Barnabas Chiaramonti, bishop of Imola, elected Pope, in the conclave held at Venice, and assumes the name of Pius VII. 21, Formation of the republic of the Seven Islands, under the protection of Russia. 28, The French, in Kgypt, take Cairo from the Turks. Mourad Bey, chief of the Mamelukes, submits to France. May 3, 5, 9, Victories of Engen, McRskirch, and Biberach, gained by Moreau over the Austrians, v ho retreat towards Ulm. 14, and following days, The first consul Buonaparte leads an army over the (neat St. Bernard, and descends into the 15, His Britannic Majesty fired at valley of Aoste, in Italy. Genoa taken by the English and Austrimis, but surrendered to by James Hadrield, at Drury-lane theatre. the French in June 2, Buonaparte enters Milan, and re-establishes the Cisalpine republic. 14, Battle July. of Marengo, near Alessandria, gained by Buonaparte over the Austrian general Melas. The Freucli general

vol..

i.

170
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A.D.

[CHAP.

ii.

6513.. 1800

ti-314.

.1801

Kleber assassinated in Egypt; and succeeded in the command by General Menou. July 2, The bill for the union to commence from uniting Great Britain and Ireland in one parliament, receives the royal assent the 1st of January 1801. August 19, During a storm, at Heyford, in Oxfordshire, pieces of ice fell of the size of a hen's egg; and in Bedfordshire, hailstones eleven inches in circumference, fell and destroyed a great number of hares and partridges, in the fields. During this month and the following, the yellow fever makes great ravages in the south of Spain, particularly at Cadiz and Gibraltar. September 5, The island of M.iltu surrenders to the British, by whom it, had been blockaded for twenty-six months. 30, Treaty of amity and commerce renewed between France and the United States of America. October 15, The French take possession of Florence and all Tuscany. 26, An earthquake at Constantinople, destroys An inundation at St. Domingo, destroys 1400 persons. the royal palace, and a great many other buildings. November 9, A dreadful hurricane experienced in Holland, the north of France, Great Britain, and the December 3, Victory of Hohenlinden, neighbouring seas, which ravages nearly a seventh part of Europe. gained by Moreau over the archduke John. -10, Renewal of the armed neutrality between Sweden, Denmark, and Russia, against Great Britain. 24, Unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Buonaparte, at Paris, " infernal machine."- A gold mine, of little importance, discovered in the Wicklow by means of an mountains in Ireland. NINETEENTH CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN JERA. January 1, Union of Great Britain and Ireland. Discovery of a new planet, named Ceres, by M. Piazzi, at Palermo, in Sicily. February, Toussaint Louverture, the negro chief, takes possession of the Spanish part of St. Domingo, in the name of the French republic. 9, Peace of Luneville, between France, the Emperor,
;

and the Empire.

states of Georgia, in Persia, belonging to Prince George Heracliowitz, united 27, Spain declares war against Portugal, on account of her alliance with Great Britain. March 8, General Sir Ralph Abercrombie, with a British force of 17,500 men, lands at Aboukir, in Egypt, and is mortally wounded on the 21st, in a battle gained over the French, near Alexandria, in which the latter lose 3000 men, in killed, wounded, and prisoners. 24, Paul, emperor of Russia, strangled in his palace, in the night, by conspirators. April 2, Lord Nelson arrives with a British fleet in

10, to the Russian empire.

The

8-515.

.1802

0516.. 1803

on the 4th, he captures the Danish navy, bombards Copenhagen, and obliges the government of that country to enter into an armistice, signed on the 9th, by which the armed neutrality of the North is destroyed. June 6, Peace between the Portuguese and Spaniards. 21, Ternate, in the East Indies, captured by the British. 27, The city of Cairo, in Egypt, surrenders to the British. July 5, Engagement between the French and English in Gibraltar Bay. 15, The Concordat between Buonaparte and Pope Pius VII. for the re-establishment of religion in France, signed at Paris. 16, The French fleet defeated near Cadiz. 26, The island of Madeira taken possession of by the British. August 2, Louis I. 30. Menou surprince of Parma, proclaimed king of Etruria, conformably to the treaty of Luneville. renders Alexandria to the British, under General Hutchinson and on the 2d of September, the French evacuate Egypt, after an occupation of more than three years. September 7, The Helvetic diet opened at October 1, Preliminaries of peace, between Great Britain and France, signed at London, by Lord Berne. Hawkesbury and M. Otto. Treaty of San Ildefonso, between France and Spain ; by which Louisiana is restored to the former. 4. Peace between Spain and Russia. 8. Peace between France and Russia. 9, Preliminaries, between France and the Ottoman Porte, signed at Paris. 18, The Batavian republic receives a new constitution, modifying that of the 1st of May, 1798. 27, New organization of the Helvetic constitution on the 28th, the diet at Berne is dissolved by force, and a new senate and executive are formed. November, An inundation on the coasts of Holland and Germany. January 26, Buonaparte elected president of the Italian republic, (originally the Cisalpine republic). March 27, Definitive treaty of Amiens, between Great Britain and France, Spain, and the Batavian republic by which the former gives up all her conquests, except only the islands of Trinidad and Ceylon. 28, Dr. Olbers discovers a tenth planet, which he names Pallas, at Bremen. April 8, A national religion re-established in France. 16, The list of emigrants destroyed by the French government. May 4, Insurrection of the peasants in the Pays de Vaud, who destroy a vast number of feudal title-deeds. 8. The conservative senate of France confers the dignity of First Consul on Buonaparte, for ten years. Toussaint Louverture surrenders to the French in St. Domingo, and is treacherously made prisoner by Le Clerc, and sent to Europe. 12, Switzerland receives a new constitution, by which it is divided into 18 cantons. 19, Life-boats invented by Mr. Buonaparte's plan for establishing a legion of honour, passes into a law. June 12, Crema, in Upper Greatliead, who receives a premium from the British parliament, this mouth. Hungary, destroyed by an earthquake. 26, The Ligurian republic receives a new organization. Pint stone of the London docks laid. August 2, The French senate proclaim Buonaparte first consul for lii'e. 4, The first consul is empowered to name his successor. 11, Battle between Sciudiah and the British, in the East Indies, in which the latter are victorious. 21, The West India docks, at Poplar, near London, opened. 20, The island of Elba united to the French republic. September 2, Piedmont united to the French November 15, The city of Stockholm nearly destroyed by fire. December 2 aud 3, An inunrepublic dation in Dublin and its neighbourhood. February 19, A new constitution established in Switzerland, by a mediatory act of the French government. 21, Colonel Dcspard, and six of his associates, executed in Horscmonger-lane, Southwark, for high treason. April 30, Louisiana ceded by France to America. May 16, Renewal of the war between Great Britain and
the Sound
;

SECT. X.]
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
France.

171

A. D.

6516. 1 1803

C517..1804

22, Buonaparte orders all the British residents in France to be made prisoners, and sent to various the electorate of Hanover. June 30, The depots in the interior. 26, A French army, under Mortier, enters island of Tobago, in the West Indies, taken by the English. July 9, The great tower over the choir of Westminster Abbey destroyed by fire. 23, Lord Kilwarden, chief justice of Ireland, assassinated in his carAbout this time, Abdul Wechab announces himself as a new prophet, and streets of Dublin. riage, in the credit among a vast multitude of Arabians ; by whose assistance, in the course of the next year, he gains becomes master of the celebrated cities of Mecca and Medina. August 11, Scindiah defeated by the British, in the East Indies. September 10, 20, The Dutch settlements of Surinam, Demerara, and Essesurrender to the British. 23, Sir Arthur Wellesley (Duke of Wellington) defeats the Mahrattas, in quibo, Towards the close of this month, the yellow India, and afterwards occupies the cities of Agra and Delhi. November 18, A fever again breaks out in the south of Spain, and is particularly destructive at Malaga. half past eight in the evening. 30, Convention of neuvery luminous meteor passes over London, about and Portugal. The French in St. Domingo, reduced to the last extremities trality between France, Spain, disease and war, evacuate that island ; while Dessalines, commander of the negroes, extends his conquests, by and massacres most of the while inhabitants. December 17, The province of Cuttac, and the port of 30, Treaty of peace, between the British and the rajah Balusore, in the East Indies, ceded to the British. of Berar, by which several valuable and important places are surrendered or ceded to the former. January 15, A new civil code, denominated the Code Napoleon, adopted by the legislature of France. 19, A violent hurricane of wind, in Devonshire and Cornwall, occasions great damage. 22, Hurricane at A .slight shock of earthquake in Holland. The French carry off the celebrated boring Shenfield, in Kent. machine, from the iron-foundry of Hanover, valued at two millions of crowns. February, generals Moreau and Pichegru, Georges Cadoudal, and several other individuals, arrested at Paris, being accused of a conspiracy against Buonaparte, and imprisoned. 15, The British East-India fleet of merchantmen, under the command of Sir N. Dance, on its return home, sets a French squadron at defiance, and brings March 21, The Duke D'Enghien, (made prisoner a few days before, at its rich cargo in safety into port. Ettenheim,) shot at midnight, in the wood of Vincennes. May 18, The senate of France declare Napoleon Buonaparte to be emperor of the French, in which quality he is proclaimed on the 20th. June 25, Georges Cadoudal, and ten others, guillotined at Paris. (Pichegru had been found strangled in his bed, on the 6th of April; and Moreau obtained permission to exile himself to the United States of America.) August 4, Francis II. emperor of Germany, declares himself hereditary emperor of Austria. September 1, M. Harding, of Leinthal, near Bremen, discovers a new planet, to which the name of Juno is given. In this month, the yellow fever causes a gieat mortality at Alicant and in the south, of Spain. Octobers, James Dessaliues, the negro chief at St. Domingo, causes himself to be crowned November 17, Battle of Ferruckabad, in the East Indies, gained by the British. 25, king of Hayti. Pope Pius VII. arrives in France, in order to anoint Buonaparte at his approaching coronation. December 2, Coronation of Buonaparte, at Paris, as emperor of the French, by the title of Napoleon I. 12, 19, Suppression of feudal servitude in the duchies of Sleswick Spain declares war against Great Britain. and Holstein. During the whole of this year, Buonaparte kept a numerous army encamped on the coasts opposite to England, and issued repeated threats of invasion; while the English made considerable prepa-

G518.. 1805

January,

rations for his reception. The Russians raise the siege of Erivan, and retreat with the loss of 3000 men. 31, London docks, at Wapping, opened. March 18, The Italian, or Cisalpine republic, becomes a

The new
kingdom,

and the sovereignty

conferred on Napoleon Buonaparte. April 10, The English, after a long war against Holkar, chief of the Mahrattas, in the East Indies, conclude a pacificatory treaty with him. 11, A treaty for a third coalition against France, signed at 26, A new Petersburgh, between Great Britain and Russia. constitution for the Batavian republic proclaimed at the Hague; on the 20th, Schimmelpcnnitick takes the
is

oath, and enters on his function, as grand pensionary. May 26, Coronation of Napoleon Buonaparte, as king of Italy, at Milan, by cardinal Caprara, archbishop of that June 2t>, The commons of city. England impeach Lord MelviMe, at the bar of the house of peers, of malversation during his tenure of the office of treasurer of the navy. July 22, The French and Spanish fleet defeated, and two sail of the line taken, by Sir R. Calder, off Ferrol. 24, Au earthquake at Eiscnhartz, in Syria. 26, Violent earthquake throughout Naples particularly felt in the county of Molisa, where great part of the town of Isernia is destroyed, and 20,000 lives are lost. Aug. 31, Sir S. Smith attempts, unsuccessfully, to burn the Boulogne flotilla,

by means of machines, called carcases, or catamarans. September 0, The Gregorian calendar ordered to be restored in France, on the 1st of January 1806. October 2, Commencement of hostilities between the French and Austrians, at Gunt/burgh, in Germany. 8, The Ligurian republic formally united to France. 17, General Mack, commandant at Ulm, capitulates to Buonaparte: the same day, hostilities commence in Italy between the archduke Charles and Masscna. 21. Splendid victory of Trafalgar, obtained by the British fleet over the united French and Spanish squadrons; in which engagement Lord Nelson was unforNovember 4, Four French 27, and following, The French pass the Inn, and enter Austria. tunately killed. ships of the line, which had escaped from the battle of Trafalgar, taken by Sir R. Strachan, off' Cape 13, The French enter Vienna and, on the same day, the army of Italy passes the Tagliameiito. Ortegal. 14, The French occupy Presburgh, capital of Hungary. 1C, Battle of Gunter.-dorf; the French take 2000 Russians prisoners. 20, The united squadrons of England aud Russia land 1200 men in Naples. December 2,
;

z 2

172
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A. D.

[CHAP. n.

6618. . 1806

Battle of Ansterlitz, between the Austro-Russian army, commanded by the emperors of Austria and Russia, and the French, commanded by Buonaparte ; in which the former are totally defeated. 20, Peace of Presburgh, between France and Austria. The Servians, who had for some time been in a state of revolt from llie
Porte, gain, in the course of this month, under their commander, Czerni Georges, several adthe neighbourhood of Belgrade. vantages over the Turks, in of Bavaria and VVurtemberg. 8, The English, under Sir D. Baird and January 1, Proclamation of the new kings SirH.Pophain, retake the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch. 9, Public funeral of Lord Nelson at St. Paul's, London. Towards the end of this month, the Prussians occupy the electorate of Hanover. Feb. 0, Admirals Cochrane and Duckworth defeat a French squadron, under Lasseignes, near St. Domingo. 1(5, Buonaparte adopts his son-in-law, Eugene Beauharuois, and declares him his successor to the crown ol'ltaK, iu default of male issue of his own. 28, The principality of Neuchatel and Vallengin ceded to France, by the king of Prussia, March 10, Sir J. B. Warren captures the French ships in whose house it had been held for 100 years. Mareugo, Rear-Admiral Linois, and the Belle Poule, of forty guns, off Madeira. 15, Buonaparte nominates his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, to the duchy of Cleves and Berg, who makes his public entry iu that character at Dusseldorf, on the 25th. Aprils, The king of Prussia takes possession definitively of the 22, The island of Capri taken by Sir Sydney Smith. - '2!), The trial of Lord .Melelectorate of Hanover. ville begins in Westminster-Hall, and continues till the 12th of June, when his lordship is acquitted. May 1, Definitive union of the Venetian states to the kingdom of Italy. 10, Joseph Buonaparte crowned king of Naples and Sicily, by the title of Joseph Napoleon. June 10, The British house of commons, on a motion of Mr. Fox, come to a resolution to take effectual measures for abolishing the slave-trade a similar resolution passes the house of peers, on the motion of Lord Grenville, on the -24th. 11, Louis Buonaparte crowned king of Holland, by the name of Louis Napoleon. Great Britain declares war against Prussia. 24, A British force, under Sir Home Popham and Major-General Beresford, landed near Buenos of Sweden disAyres, in South America; and on the 28th of July, that place surrender.-,. 2(J, The king solves the states of Pomerania, and introduces the Swedish constitution into that country. July 4, Battle ofMaida, in Calabria. Servitude abolished in Pomerania. 12, The Confederation of the Rhine begins; and on the (ith of August, Francis II. publicly renounces bis title and privileges as Emperor of Germany. 18, The fortress of Gaeta, in Naples, after a gallant defence of three months, capitulates to the French. The magazine of Malta blows up, containing 370 barrels of gunpowder, and 1600 shells, by which a h out

Ottoman

8519. . 1806

1000 persons are

Ayres.
13,

wounded. August 12, The Spaniards, under Captain Liniers, retake Buenos and the landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, assume the title of Grand Dukes. September 2, The mountain of Rossberg in Switzerland, between Zug and Schweitz, falls, and buries nearly 500 persons in its ruins. 9, A tremendous hurricane at Dominica and Martinique does of the inhabitants. 20, Buonaparte leaves Paris, to take the command great damage, and destroys many of the army of Germany, in expectation of a fourth coalition being about to be formed against France. 30, The elector of Wurtzburgh, joins the confederation of the Rhine, and takes the title of Grand Duke. October 1, Buonaparte passes the Rhine at Mayence, and hostilities begin between the French and
killed or

The

elector of Baden,

Prussians on the 8th.

Halle.

25,

The French

14, Battle of Jena, or Auerstadt. 16, Capitulation enter Berlin, and the fortress of Spandau capitulates.

of Erfurth.
Sir

17, Battle of
falls

Samuel Hood

in

with a French squadron, from Rochefort, laden with troops, and captures four of the frigates, but loses his right arm in the action. 27, Buonaparte makes his public entry into Berlin. 28, The French take Battle of Prentxlow. 31, The elector of Hesse-Cassel declared possession of the duchy of Brunswick. an enemy of France, and his territories seized by the French troops. November 1, The fortress of Custrin reduced. 3, Buonaparte publishes an 2, Battle of Lubeck, between the Prussians and French. address to the Poles, promising to restore their independence, should they shew themselves worthy of becoming a nation. 8, The city and fortress of Magdchurgh surrenders to the French general Ney. 21. Buonaparte issues the famous Berlin decree, declaring the British islands to be in a state of blockade, and 28, The French, under Murat, interdicting to the whole world every species of communication with them. enter Warsaw : the emperor of Russia publishes a manifesto against France. 29, The Russians, under General Michelson, seize Jassy, and declare war against the Ottoman Porte. December 2, The city of Glogau, in Silesia, surrenders to the troops of the king of Wurtemberg. 5, The French cross the Vistula,

05*20.. 1807

and occupy Prague. 6, The French general Ney takes possession of Thorn. 11, The elector of Saxony Louis Buonaparte, as king of Holland, joins the Rhenish Confederacy, and receives the title of King. establishes the orders of Union and Merit, which are afterwards united. 13, The insurgent Servians take Belgrade from the Turks, the fortress of which surrenders to them on the 24th. 19, Buonaparte makes his entry into Warsaw. 30, The Ottoman Porte issues a declaration of war against Russia. January 1, Curacoa taken by a British squadron. 5, Breslau surrenders, after a siege of nearly a month. 11. Brieg, in Silesia, capitulates to the French. 12, An explosion on board a vessel laden with gunpowder, in one of the canals of Leydeu, throws down a considerable portion of the city. 25, Battle of Mohrungen. February 3, Monte Video, on the river La Plata, in South America, taken by assault, by the British. 8, Battle of Ostrolenka. Battle of Prussich-Ejlau. 1C, The French take possession of Schweidnitz, in Silesia.
19, A British squadron, under Sir J. T. Duckworth, forces the passage of the Dardanelles, and blockades March Constantinople ; but retires again on the 2d of March. 2, The Russians defeated at Braunsberg. Ifi, Slave-trade abolished by the British parliament. 21, Major-General Frazer takes Alexandria from

SECT x .]
.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
the Turks.

173

Period.

uli il "
.

A. u.

6520

1807

29, Dr. Olbers, of Bremen, disc-overs an eleventh planet, to which he gives the name of Vesta. at Ror-clta. April -2, Czerni Georges, chief of the Servians, defeats 81, English defeated by the Turks, 4, Mutiny at Malta; on the 12lh, at night, to avoid being apprehended, the mutineers the Turks, at Nissa. >ot lire to a lame magazine, containing from 100 to 500 barrels of gunpowder, and blow themselves up. 22, The market town of English again defeated in Egypt, with the loss of about 1100 men. I!), The iii Devonshire, entirely destroyed by lire, with only the exception of seven houses and the church.

The

27, Danlzic surrenders to Lefebvre, who is in conseq 15, Battle of Weischelmunde consequence made 29, Revolution at Constantinople; the Sultan Selim III. deposed by the hereditary duke of Dantzic. June 5, Battles of Spanden and Lomitten. G, Battle of Deppen, on the Passarge. An earthJanissaries, at Lisbon. 14, Decisive battle of Friedland, on the Allia, in Prussia, in which the Russians are dequake 21, Armistice of Tilsit. feated 1>\ 10, The French take possession of Konigsberg. 22,

_ Mny

Chii'lleigh,

Buonaparte. Attack of the British man of war Leopard, on the American frigate Chesapeake. 25, Interview between Alexander, emperor of Russia, and Buonaparte, on a raft, floated for the purpose, on the river Niemen. Towards the close of this month, the duke of Mecklenburg-Schw erin is reinstated. July 7, Peace of Tilsit, between France and Russia and on the 9th, between France and Prussia the Duchy of Warsaw given to the elector of Saxony, who takes the title of King of Saxony Jerome Buonaparte recognized as The British troops, under General \\hiteloeke, after an unsuccessful attempt upon king of Westphalia. Buenos Ayres, sign a convention with the Spaniards, for the evacuation of South America. 13, Hostilities recommence' bei ween France and Sweden. 14, Armistice between the Servian insurgents and the Turks, signed 10, The British troops land without opat Kopenilza. August J, Kagusa united to the kingdom of Italy. of Zealand, before Copenhagen. 1!, The tribunate of France suppressed, and its legisposition in tin: island lative powers transferred to the senate. 21, Stralsund evacuated by the Swedes. 24, Armistice between the Russians and Turks. September 7, The island f Rugeu capitulates to the French. The city of Copenhagen and the Danish fleet surrender to a British force, under Lord Cathcartand Admiral Gambier. 22, The pacha of Cairo defeats the British army in Egx pt, and makes his public entry into Alexandria on the 24th. October 30, Charles IV. king of Spain, announces the discovery of a conspiracy against him, in his own palace and family his son Ferdinand, prince of Asturias, is in consequence arrested, with some others ; after a few days, the prince is restored to liberty but the duke Del' Infantado, and some Spanish noblemen, are November 1, Russia declares war against England. 11, The British order in council issued, banished. France to be in a state of blockade (in opposition to Buonaparte's Berlin decree.) 29, The French declaring having passed through Spain, for the invasion of Portugal, the prince regent, with the queen his mother, his to Brazil, in South America: the next day, the French family, and a great number of his court, emigrate December 10, Maria Louisa, regent of Etruria, in the name of her army, under Junot, enters Lisbon. infant sou, announces to her subjects the cession of that kingdom to Buonaparte, as sovereign of Italy; next day the French troops take possession. 17, Buonaparte issues his Milan decree against neutral vessels permitting their being visited by British ships, or suffering themselves to be sent into a British port. 22, The islands of St. Thomas and St. John surrender 18, Great Britain declares war against Russia. to the British. 24, The town of Madeira capitulates to the English, under General Beresford. 25, Santa
:

Cruz surrenders
<>r>21..1808

to the British.

January 12, Massacre of the Portuguese in Lisbon, by the French. 15, A hurricane does great damage on the coasts of Holland and Belgium; the city of Flushing is inundated, and considerably damaged. 21, The towns of kehi, Cas.sel, Wesel, and Flushing, with their dependencies, formally annexed to the French em25, The prince regent and court of Portugal arrive safely at Brazil. February 2, A violent tempest pire. does considerable damage on the French coast of the Channel 400 persons perish at Cherbourg. A considerable part of the city of Dantzic destroyed by fire. Pope Pius VII. protests against the demands made 10. The emperor of Russia on him by Buonaparte, and the French take possession of Rome. publishes a declaration against Sweden; and on the 21st, his troops penetrate into Finland. 17, Fort Sylla, in Calabria, 29. Denmark declares war against Sweden. surrenders to the French, after a week's bombardment. March 3, Mariegalante captured by the British. 6, The king of Prussia issues a declaration against Sweden. 19, Charles IV. lung of Spain, resigns his crown in favour of the prince of Asturias, who is proclaimed under the title of Ferdinand VII. 24, Murat eaters Madrid, at the head of a French army. A great fire at Port Espagne, Trinidad, destroys all the town, excepting only two houses. May 2, The populace of Madrid rise upon the French. 3, The Swedish fortress of Sweaborg, in I inland, surrenders to the Russians. 5, Buonaparte obliges the queen of Spain to declare her son Ferdinand VII. illegitimate, in consequence of which Charles IV. resumes the regal title: but on the 10th, Buonaparte, having got all the royal family into his power, forces Charles to abdicate, and the princes to resign their pretensions, in his favour after which, he sends them all into the interior of France, and on the Oth of June, causes his brother Joseph to abdicate the throne of Napls, and to be proclaimed king of Spain. 21, Buonaparte unites the provinces of the papal territory to the kingdom of Italy. June (j, The Spaniards declare war against the French, and implore the assistance of Great Britain. 14, A French squadron, of five ships of the line and one 20, The Spanish patriots issue a profrigate, surrenders to the Spaniards and British, in Cadiz harbour. clamation of peace with Great Britain, and Sweden her ally; which is answered, on the 4th of July, by a similar proclamation on the part of his Britannic majesty. July 7, Joseph Buonaparte inaugurated King of Spain at Bayoune, and crowned at Sau Sebastian's on the 9th. 15, A dreadful thunder-storm in the west
;

174
Julian

INTRODUCTION.
,

CHAP.

11.

P. en..d.

A<

yx \J*

6521.. 1808

of England, particularly in Somersetshire, where the hailstones measured from six to seven inches in circum19, Battle of Baylen, in which the French, under Dupont and Wedel, are defeated by the 23, Buonaparte places his brother-in-law, Murat, on the throne of Naples, under the title of Spaniards. Joachim Napoleon, King of the Two Sicilies. 28, A revolution at Constantinople ; the reigning sultan, Mustapha, is deposed, the late sultan, Selim, murdered. August 21, Battle of Vimiera, in which the French, under Junot, are defeated by the English, under Sir Arthur Wellesley (Duke of Wellington.) 30, Sir H. Dalrymple concludes a convention with Junot, at Cintra, for the evacuation of Portugal by the French. September 3, The Russian fleet in the Tagus surrenders to the English. 20, Covent Garden
ference.

(J-322..1809

6523.. 1810

theatre totally destroyed by fire. and the Ottoman Porte. 12, Cayenne surrenders to the British and January 5, Peace between Great Britain Portugese. 16, Battle of Corunna, in which Sir John Moore is killed, and Sir David Baird severely wounded. 21, The south-east wing of St. James's palace burnt down. 27, The British house of commons The resolve to inquire into the conduct of his royal highness the duke of York, as commander in chief. French enter Ferrol, and take possession of eight line-of-battle ships there. February 13, Don Pedro 23, Martinique captured by the British. Cevallos, the Spanish ambassador, arrives in London. 24, Drury Lane theatre totally destroyed by fire. March 13, Revolution in Sweden, effected by the influence of Buonaparte: Gustavus Adolphus IV. deposed. 27, The French dispossessed of Vigo, by the British and Spaniards. A violent eruption of Mount JEtna. 29, Oporto taken by the French. April 6, Declaration of war against France issued by the Archduke Charles, at Vienna. 10, The Austrians begin the war an irruption into Bavaria. 11 to 14, The English, under the direction of Lord against France, by making Cochrane, destroy four French line-of-battle ships in Basque Roads. 17, The island of Saints, in the West 23, The French take possession of Ratisbon. Indies, captured by the British. May 12, Sir Arthur The French take possession of Vienna, after a-short bombardWellesley obliges Soult to abandon Oporto. ment. 17, Buonaparte issues a decree, for uniting the Papal States to the French empire, from the 1st of June in this year, and abolishing the pope's temporal power. 21, and 22, Engagement of two days, between the French and Austrians, at the village of Aspern. 22, The Russians declare war against Austria. 31, June 7, Ferrol and Corunna evacuated by the Stralsund taken by the Dutch, and Colonel Schill killed. the Spanish general Blake defeated by the French. 15, Battle of Saragossa 14, Battle of Raab. French. 19, The non-intercourse law re-enacted by the American government. 23, The Spaniards are successful over the French at St. Jago. 24, Raab capitulates to the French. 25, Sir John Steward captures the island of Ischia. July 7, The city of St. Domingo capitulates to the combined British and Spanish 8, The Austrians completely defeated in the decisive forces, under the command of General Carmichael. battle of Wagram, by the French. 22, The British expedition to Flushing sails from the Downs, under Lord Chatham. 27 and 28, Battle of Talavera. August 3, The British begin the siege of Flushing, which surrenders on the 16th. September 4, An eruption of Mount Vesuvius. 17, Peace between Sweden and October 14, Peace of Vienna, between France and Austria. 25, A general Jubilee celebrated Russia. throughout the British empire, on occasion of his Majesty George III. entering the fiftieth year of his December 15, Buonaparte dissolves his marriage with Josephine, at the Thuilleries. 23, Walcheren reign. evacuated by the British troops, and united to the French empire on the 27th. January 0, Peace between Sweden and France. 30, Buonaparte confiscates all English merchandise found between the Maese and the Scheldt. February 5, Guadaloupe capitulates to the British. 11, Dreadful accident at Liverpool about ten minutes before the Sunday morning service, the whole of the spire, and the north and east sides of the upper part of the tower of St. Nicholas's church, give way, and are precipitated through the roof, along the centre aisle by which upwards of twenty persons are killed, the greatest part of them girls 15, The contract of marriage between Napoleon Buonaparte, belonging to Moorfields charity-school. emperor of the French, and the Archduchess Maria Louisa, daughter of the. emperor of Austria, published at the court of Vienna, and at Paris on the 27th. 18, The islands of St. Eustatia, St. Martin, and Saba, Address surrender to the British. March 1, The American congress prohibits all intercourse with the French. of Jerome Buonaparte to the Hanoverians, on the annexation of their country to the kingdom of Westphalia. 6, A tremendous hail-storm in the department of the Lower Alps, does very considerable damage many of the hailstones were as large as a goose's egg, and weighed upwards of a quarter of a pound six peasants were killed, and many others wounded to which may be added an incalculable loss in cattle, &c. 6 to 8, A great storm at Cadiz destroys or damages about thirty-six English, Spanish, and American ships. 11, 16, Treaty of Paris, Buonaparte married by proxy to the Archduchess Maria Louisa, of Austria, at Vienna. between Louis Buonaparte, as king of Holland, and Napoleon, as emperor of the French, &c. by which Dutch Brabant, the whole of Zealand (including the isle of Schowen,) and so much of Guelderlaud as is situate on the left bank of the Waal, is ceded to France. 22, The island of St. Maure, in the Ionian Sea, taken by the British 23, Buonaparte issues a decree from Rambouillet, for the seizure and confiscation of all vessels under the American flag April 1, 'I he civil ceremony of Buonaparte's marriage with the Archduchess Maria Louisa celebrated at Paris, with unparalleled splendour and magnificence the religious ceremony is performed on the day following. 6 to 9, Riots in Westminister, in consequence of the comBurdett to the Tower, for a breach of the privileges of the hou'-e of commons. 22, mittal of Sir Prunei The fort of Mata^onla, in Spain, taken by the French. 24, The king of Sweden prohibits the entrance of all British ships, manufactures, and colonial goods, into his dominions. May 12, The castle of Hostalricb,
;
:

SECT, x.]
Julian ,, Period.
I

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.

175

A A.

If,

6523.. 1810

29, The crown prince Augustenburg, of Sweden, dies suddenly, while in Catalonia, taken by the French. order the extraordinary reviewing some regiments of horse. June 25, The Spanish council of regency A forest in India, twenty-eight miles broad, and sixty-five long, set on national Cortes to be convoked. fire by some wood-cutters, continues burning five weeks, and fifty villages are involved in the conflagration. in London and its vicinity. 2, A dreadful fire July 1, A very high wind occasions considerable damage near Paris, in the suite of apartments opened by the prince of Schwartzenburg, ambassador from Austria,
for a grand fete and ball, at which Buonaparte was present: many persons lose their lives ; and among 3, Louis Buonaparte abdicates the throne of others, the princess of Schwartzcnburg is burned to death. Holland, in favour of his infant son ; but the kingdom is annexed to the French empire on the 9th. Lord The island of Bourbon surrenders to the British. Grenville installed chancellor of the university of Oxford.

6524.. 1811

A September 14, Almeida falls into the hands of the French, after a long and obstinate defence. 15, sanguinary plot discovered at Lisbon, for murdering the British forces there. 24, West Florida revolutionized by a convention of the principal inhabitants. 27, Lord Wellington's entrenchments at Busaco attacked by Massena, without success. Octobers, Inundations at Botany Bay. 16, The Spanish Cortes meet. 27. November 1, The British parliament All goods of British manufacture, found in France, ordered to be burnt. meet according to prorogation when, there being no commission signed by the king.the houses ad joum themselves to the 15th. [This occasion acpears to have been the first public acknowledgment of the return to which his majesty has been subject.] 2, The president of the United States of America . of the malady rescinds all acts respecting neutrals, so far as they regard France and her dependencies, on the supposition " intention" to revoke the Berlin and Milan decrees. that it was Buonaparte's 3, The princess Amelia, of George III. king of Great Britain, dies, in her 25th year. 10. Dreadful explosion of youngest daughter gunpowder at Cork, which destroys several houses, and many people lose their lives. 13, Inundations at 41, Masseua evacuates the Portuguese territory. 16, Inundations in LincolnExeter, and its vicinity. December 2, Mauritius, or the Isle of France, the shire. 19, Sweden declares war against Great Britain. last remains of the French possessions in the Indian seas, taken by the British. 15, A great part of the cliff near Guildford battery, at Dover, gives way, and in its fall occasions much damage, seven persons being crushed to death. 20, The house of commons, in a committee, resolve to pass a bill for appointing his royal highness the prince of Wales regent of the kingdom during the indisposition of his majesty, under certain restrictions during the first year; which is acceded to by the lords on the 28th. 22, St. Paul's cathedral, London, robbed of the communion plate, &c. valued at 2000. 24, An A Igerine ambassador to the English court arrives in London. January 1, The garrison of Tortosa surrenders to the French. The cortes of Spain, by proclamation, prohibit the people from obeying any act published by King Ferdinand while in a state of captivity. 15, The British parliament opened by commission under the great seal. February 7, The regency bill passes in England, by commission. 8, His royal highness the prince of Wales takes the oaths as regent of the British dominions. 11, The Russians defeat the Turks in a sanguinary engagement at Lafesat. 25, The tides rise much higher than usual, as had been predicted by astronomers. March 2, General Ballasteros defeats the French, at Palma. 5, Battle of Barrosa. 11, Badajos surrenders to the French. 18, The directors of the Bank of England raise their dollars from 5s. to 5s. 6d. current value. 20, The empress Maria Louisa, of France, delivered of a son. 27, The island of Anholt unsuccessfully attacked by the Danes. April 2, Buonaparte repeals his Berlin and Milan decrees. 4, The garrison of Olivenza surrenders to the English. 10, Action near Cape Henry, in North America, between the American frigate President, Commodore The house of commons vote 100,000 for the Rogers, and the British sloop little Belt, Captain Bingham. relief of the sufferers by the French invasion of Portugal; May 1, Three French frigates burnt in Lazone Bay, by Captain Barrie. 9, The first stone of the Regent's Bridge, at Vauxhall, laid by Lord Dundas, proxy for the Prince Regent. 10, Almeida blown up, and abandoned by the French. The garrison of Fi16, Desperate and sanguinary battle of Albuera, near Bagueras, with 400 men, taken by the Spaniards. dajoz; the French defeated by General Beresford. June 2, Coronation of Christophe and his wife, as king and queen of Hayti (St. Domingo), performed with great pomp in the Champ de Mars, at Cape Francois. 28, The city of Tarragona surrenders to the French. July 1, The states of Venezuela, in South America, declare the sovereignty of the people, the 29, His highness the duke of Gloucester rights of man, <tc. installed chancellor of the university of Cambridge. August 2 and 3, Several shocks of earthquake felt at St. Michael's, supposed to arise from the bursting of a volcano in the sea, as a new island was soon discovered in the direction from which the shocks were felt. 5, Massena repulsed in an attempt to relieve Almeida, besieged by Lord Wellington. 8, The Dutch settlement of Batavia capitulates to the British. 19, Feudal rights abolished in Spain. Figueras surrenders to the French, after a blockade of four months. September 1, A comet appears in England, which had been before visible in some other parts of the world, and continues to be seen till December ; its greatest brilliancy being in October. 21, Buonaparte being off Boulogne, orders seven armed praams to attack the Naiad frigate, Captain Carteret, and has the
;

12, Commercial treaty between Great 10, The French take Ciudad Rodrigo, after a siege of ten days. Britain and the prince of Brazil. August 11, Dreadful earthquake at St. Michael's, which destroys thirtytwo persons, and twenty-two houses. 21, Bernadotte, the French general, elected crown prince of Sweden, by the diet. 22, An unsuccessful attempt made to carry off Joseph Buonaparte, by a party of Spanish cavalry. 28, A dreadful hurricane at Barbadocs. 26, Lord Wellington appointed a member of the Spanish regency.

17t>

INTRODUCTION.
^ * "
.

[CHAP. n.

Julian

Period.

0524. .1811

1,

mortification of seeing one taken, and the rest compelled to seek shelter under their batteries. October A tire in Greenwich hospital, consumes the infirmary but no lives are lost. 11, First stone of the
;

6525.. 18 12

C520..1813

Strand bridge laid, on tin- Surrey ?ide of the Thames, by H. Swann, Esq. chairman of the directors of the works. 14, A tire in Emmanuel college, university of Cambridge, occasions a loss estimated at 20,000. 24, An ambassador from the Ionian islands arrives in England. November 5, The Saldanha frigate lost in the Irish Sea, and all on board perish. 16, Serious riots at Nottingham, created principally by the journeymen weavers destroying articles of machinery which diminished the demand lor labour. 30, Horrid mutiny and murder committed on board a prize-ship in the British Channel: In- perpetrators being afterwards convicted, December 8 and 20, Horrid massacres at Ratcliffe-Highway, London. 29, are hanged at Portsmouth. General Hill defeats a French detachment near Los Navas, whereupon the French evacuate Merida. Januarys, The French retire from before Tariffa, leaving their artillery and stores. 9, Valencia capitulates to the French. Asturias evacuated by the 19, Ciudad Rodrigo taken by storm, by Lord Wellington. French. 24, The Spanish general Lacy defeated near Tarragona. 29, The riots at Nottingham increase to so alarming a degree as to make it necessary for the magistrates to call in the assistance of the military, and many skirmishes ensue between them and the Luddites, or frame-breakers. The British ship Manilla, of thirty-six guns, Captain Seymour, blows up, oft' the Texel. February 4, Pensacola surrenders to the French, through the treason of the governor. 10, Two fires at Manchester destroy property to the iimount of 30,000. The 10, General Ballasteros defeats a French column, commanded by Maranziu. French invade Svtedish I'omeraiiia, and levy contributions in Stralsund to the amount of 100,000 rix-dollars. March 18, The Spanish constitution completed by the Cortes, for settling the succession to the crown. 19, Russia declares war against France. 20, Dreadful earthquake at Caraccas, in South America, by which the city of Curacoa, and town of Laguira, are destroyed, with great numbers of the inhabitants. April 0, Badajos taken by Lord Wellington by storm. May 11, The Right Hon. Spencer Perceval, prime-minister of Great Britain, shot by Bellingiiam, in the lobby of the house of commons. 29, Gen. Hill, after a march of seven days through a mountainous country, takes Almarez by assault, destroys the works of the enemy, and returns to his position near Badajos. June 1, General Ballasteros attacks Couroux in his position near Bornos. 4, and following, The island of St. Vincent's nearly destroyed by a volcanic eruption and earth1(5, The French evacuate Salamanca, which is occupied by Lord Wellington and the allies, on the quake. 17th. 18, The United States of America declare war against Great Britain. July 1, The French enter Wilna. 10, Dreadful storm of thunder and lightning at Messina, in 11, Canada invaded by the Americans. lii, Peace of Orebro, between Russia, Sweden, and Great Britain. 22, Marmont defeated, and his Sicily. army totally destroyed, by Lord Wellington, neat Salamanca. 28, Massacre at Baltimore, in consequence of the re-appearance of a newspaper, called " The Federal Republican." August 11, Bilboa evacuatrd by the French. Iti, 17, Battleol Sniolensko. 12, Lord Wellington eiitersMadrid 19, Astorga retaken by the Spaniards from the French. 27, Seville taken by assault, from the French, 25, Soult abandons the siege of Cadiz. by General Cruz and Colonel Skerret. September?, Battle of the Borodino, or Moskwa, nearMojaisk; in which the Russian army was defeated by the French. 14, The French enter Moscow, two-thirds of which 30, The French eagles and colours taken in Spain deposited in city is burned by the retreating Russians. Whitehall chapel. October 18, The Russians under General Wittgenstein, defeat the French under St. Cyr, in the neighbourhood of Moscow, and on the 22d recover that city. November 14, An earthquake in Jamaica. 28, The French defeated at the passage of the Beresina. December 5, The severity of the frost having nearly annihilated the French army, Buonaparte leaves the wreck of it, at Smorgonie, and arrives at Paris on the 19th. 10, Wilna taken l>y the Russians. 18, The British house of commons votes 200,000 for the relief of the sufferers from the French invasion of Russia. 30, The Prussian General t D'Yorck enters into a convention with the Russians. January 25, Concordat between Buonaparte and the Pope for restoring to the latter somewhat of his former ecclesiastical power in France and Lombardy. March 3, Treaty of Stockholm between Great Britain and Sweden. 15, Interview between the emperor Alexander and the king of Prussia, at Breslati. 17, The king of Prussia joins the allies against France. 30, The empress Maria Louisa appointed regent of France. April 15, Buonaparte, having raised a new army, re-enters the field. May 2, Battle of Lutzen. 20, Battle of Bautzen. The emperor Francis offers his mediation 22, Battle of Wurtschen. for the pacification of Europe. June 1, The American frigate Chesapeake captured by Captain Broke. The plague appears about this time at Malta. 4, An armistice agreed to by the belligerent powers in Germany. 14, 15, Treaties of Reichenbach between Great Britain and Prussia, and Great Britain and Russia. 21, Battle of Vitoria part of the Marquis of Wellington's army crosses the Pyrennees. July 2, The Daedalus 5, Convention of Peterswaldcn, between Great Britain ami frigate lost, by striking on a rock off Ceylon. Russia. 7, Illuminations in London, Ac. tor the success of the British arms in Spain. 25, and follow ing days, Severe fighting in the neighbourhood of Roncevaux, between the French and British. August 2, Battle of the 17, Hostilities recommenced in Germany the emperor Francis PyrcniH es: the French driven out of Spain. 25, 20, Dreadful inundations in Hungary. 27, 28, Battles of Dresden Buonaparte defeated joins the allies. by the allies; on the former day, general Moreau mortally wounded. 29, Macdonald defeated \>\ Bluchcr, on the river Bohr, in Silesia. 30, Vandamme (Heated by the allies, and taken prisoner, at Culm. 31, San Sebastian's taken by storm, by the Marquis of Wellington. September 2, An insurrection in China, which continues to the end of the year. General Moreau dies of his wounds, received before Dresden, on the
I ; :

SF.CT. X.]
Julian

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
27th ult

177

Period.

A. D. 9, (28th of August 6, Battle of Donnewitz ; Ney defeated by the Crown Prince of Sweden. of Toplitz, between Prussia and Austria, and Russia and Prussia. 10, The British squadron on Treaty Lake Erie destroyed by the Americans. 10, Action at Pirna Buonaparte repulses the allies through Nol18, Freyberg taken by the Austrians. lendorf, to Culm, but is himself obliged to retreat the next day. October 3, Bertrand defeated by Blucher, at Wallenberg, the latter having previously effected the passage of the Elbe. Preliminary treaty of peace and alliance between Great Britain and Austria, signed at Toplit/. 7 and 8, Passage of the Bidasoa; Lord Wellington enters France, at the head of his victorious 16, Battle of Radefeld and Linden15, Bremen taken by the allies. 8, Bavaria joins the allies. troops. 18, Battle of Leipsic: Buonaparte routed, and his army nearly thai; The French defeated by Blucher. annihilated. 20, The French frigate Le Weser captured, 19, Leipsic attacked and carried by the allies. Ushant. 30, by Sir Christopher Cole. 23, The Trave French frigate captured by Captain Tobin, off The Americans repulsed by Lieutenant-Colonel Pearson, at Port Prescott. 31, Pampluna stormed and November 5, Skirmish between Sir E. Pellew's squadron and the taken by the British and Spaniards. Toulon fleet. 5 and 6, General illumination in London, for the success of the allies in Germany. 9, Buonaparte arrives at St. Cloud. 10, The French, under Soult, defeated by the Marquis of Wellington, at St. Pe. 11, The Americans defeated by Lieutenant-Colonel Morrison, at Crystler's farm, Upper Canada. Action at Longue Sant, between the British and Americans. Joachim (Murat) king of Naples, opens his ports to general trade, in opposition to Buonaparte's continental system of exclusion. (The proclamation to this effect was not issued till December 6.) 15, Counter revolution in Holland.- 21, Deputies from Holland arrive in London, to claim the protection of the British government, and to invite the return of the Prince of Orange, after an exile of nineteen years. 30, William Frederick, Prince of Orange, lands at Scheveling, and next day issues his first proclamation from the Hague: December 2, he " enters Amsterdam, and is proclaimed Sovereign Prince of the United Netherlands." Dec. G, The 9 to 13, A series of victories obtained by the fortress of Zara capitulates to tbe British and their allies. Marquis of Wellington over the French, under Soult, in the vicinity of St. Jean de Luz. 11, Treaty of Valency, between Napoleon Buonaparte and his captive, Ferdinand VII. of Spain (which is rejected by the Spanish cork's, on the 14th of January, 1814.) 15, Armistice between the Crown Prince of Sweden and Holstein occupied by the allies. the Prince of Hesse, for the King of Denmark. 19, Fort George, 20 and 21, The allies enter Switzerland, at Niagara, North America, stormed and taken by the British. Lautfc.nbcrg, Rhdnfeldt, and Basle; at the latter place they first cross the Rhine, and enter the French the ancient government restored. 23, Revolution at Berne 2G, Buonaparte appoints extraorterritory. dinary commissioners, invested with absolute authority, to visit the provinces, and carry the conscription and levies into effect. 27, Lord Castlereagh leaves London, to proceed to the continent, for the purpose of negotiation (h\$ Lordship embarked at Harwich for the Hague, on the 30th.) A remarkable fog, extending fifty miles round London, sets in, and continues eight days, attended and followed by a severe frost of six weeks' continuance. Sir G. Prevost defeats 30, The allies, under General Bubna, enter Geneva. the Americans lit Black Rock. January 1 and 2, Marshal Blucher crosses the Rhine, at Coblentz and Kaub. 2, Modlin surrendered to, and Dantzick taken possession of, by the Allies. Lord Castlereagh sails in the Erebus, for Holland. The allies deliver their declaration to the Swiss Diet, announcing their determination to make no peace with Buonaparte, till the Swiss territories be restored to what they were in the year 1798, and their independence 4, The committee of the French legislative body having proposed to Buonaparte the guaranteed. acceptance of terms proffered by the allies, the whole body is by him dissolved. 5, Treaty of Gluckstadt taken by storm peace signed between Great Britain and Joachim (Murat) King of Naples. by a division of the Crown Prince's (Bernadotte's) army, commanded by Baron De Boye, assisted by a British squadron. Hostilities recommence between the Crown Prince of Sweden and the Danes. The French frigate Ceres taken by Capt. Rainier, of the Niger. 8, Buonaparte calls out the French national The fortress of Cattaro surrenders to Capt. Hoste, of the guards, and declares himself their commander. Bacchante. 10, Action at St. Diez ; Milhaud repulsed, with loss, by Gen. De Roy. 12, The French defeated near Epinal, by the Prince Royal of Wurtemberg and the Hetman Count PlatofF. Wittemberg formed and taken by the Prussians, after a siege of 15 days. 13, General thanksgiving in England, for the successes of the allies against Buonaparte: the same day, the emperor Alexander, accompanied by the king of Prussia, crosses the Rhine, at Basle, into which city the emperor Francis had made his entry the preDefinitive treaty of peace, ceding day. 14, Nancy surrendered to the allied forces, under Gen. Sackcn. signed at Kiel, between Great Britain and Sweden, and Denmark by which the latter cedes Norway to Sweden, in exchange for Pomerania. 17, The Danish declaration against Buonaparte published. Langres surrenders at discretion to the allies. Joachim (Murat) king of Naples, takes possession of Rome, in favour of the allies. 18, Proclamation of Frederick VI. king of Denmark, declaring his resignation, rbr himself and successors, of the kingdom of Norway. 22, The Neapolitan troops join the Austrians, at Ferrara. Lord Casllereagh arrives at Basle, the head-quarters of the allies. 23, Buonaparte dismisses the pope, Pius VII. from his confinement at Fontainbleau. 24, First action fought on the French territories, between Morticr, and the allies, at the bridge of Fontaine, between Bar-sur-Anbe and Chaumoiit. Monsieur, Count D'Artois, brother to Louis XVI LI. leaves London, for the continent, and arrives at the Hague on the
; ; : ;

(I.V20..1813

C527..1814

VOL.

I.

A A

INTRODUCTION.
,1.

[CHAP. n.

\ 11 A D
-

<>.>27..1Kll

28th.

parte leaves Paris, lo put himself

20, liuiuui, Auschlagerweg, and Stadeiche, .suhiirbs of Hamburgh, .stormed by Uie allies. Buonaat the ln-ad of the rre.ncli 2<>, Bois-lc Uuc capitulates to the troops.

Prussian.-, under General Bulow. 27, Action of St. Dizier, on the Manic, between Buonaparte and the allies. February 1, Battle of Brieinie, or of La Rothiere (begun on the 2!>th of January;) the Trench defeated by Marshal Blucher. General Bulow enters Brussels. Dreadful eruption of the voliano of Albay, in the island of Lucou, one of the Philippines. 3, Danlxic proclaimed to be under the dominion of the king of Prussia. Merxein, near AuUu-rp, attacked by the British, Prussians, and Dutch. General Bulow enters Ghent. 4, and following days, A fair on the river Thames, at London, the surface of that .stream being frozen over, Action at La Chausee, between b,elow and between the bridges. 5, Chalons capitulates to Gen. D'York. Vitry and Chalons, between the advanced guard of Gen. D'York and the rear of Marshal Macdonald, who evacuates the place on the next day. Lord Castlereagh arrives at Ciiatilion sur Seine, where he is met, the following day, by the other deputies to the congress, for settling the affairs of Europe. -7, The allies enter Prince Christian, son of !), Troyes, Buonaparte having evacuated it in the course of the preceding night. the king of Denmark, proclaimed King of Norway, by the Norwegians, who assemble in diet, and protest 9 and 10, Actions of Romilly, St. Hilaire, St. Aubin, and Mama. 10, against their cession to Sweden. The Crown Prince of Sweden crosses the Rhine, at Cologne. Battle of Champauberr, nrar Sezanne, between Buonaparte and the Russian corps of Alsutfief. 11, Sens taken by assault, by the Prince Royal of \Vurtcmberg. Proclamation of the Due D'Angouleme to the French people., inviting them to range hemselves under the standard of the Bourbons; issued from St. Jean de Luz. First Battle of Montmirail Buonaparte boasts that the Russian army is annihilated. 12, Battle of Chateau-Thierry. Soissons taken by the allies. The custom-house of London accidentally burned down. 13, Skirmish off Toulon, between a French squadron and the British ships Boyne and Caledonia. 14, The Austrian general KJeist defeated by 1(> to 20, Two French Buonaparte. 15, Second battle of Montmirail, between Buonaparte and the allies. irigates captured by Rear-Admiral Durham. 17, Battle of Nangis, between Buonaparte and Gen. WittFontainbleau taken by the Austrians. genstein. 18, Battle of Moutereau, between Buonaparte and the Prince Royal of Wirtemburg. Monsieur, Count D'Artois, brother to Louis XVIII. arrives at Basle, and on the 22d enters France amid the congratulations of the populace. 21, Fraud upon the public funds, at London, by a false account of the defeat and death of Buonaparte, accompanied with the restoration of the Bourbons, propagated by one De Berenger, under the h'ctitious title of Colonel Du Bourg. 22, Battle of Mery-surSeiue, between Marshal Blncher and Gen. Boyer the town burned during the conflict. 23, Troyes evacuated by the allies and Buonaparte enters it the next day. Prince Schwartzeuberg proposes an armistice. The passage of the Adour forced by the British. 24, Battle of St. Paar Gen. Guilay routed by Count Valmy. Decree of Buonaparte, issued from Troyes, threatening death to all Frenchmen wearing the insignia of the Bourbons. 20, The French frigate Clarinde captured by Captain Phillimore, of the Eurotas, after an obstinate resistance. 27, Action at Bar-sur-Aube, between the Bavarians, under Gen. Wrede, and the French. Victory of Orthes, on the Adour, 28, Actions gained by Lord Wellington over Marshal Soult. of La Fcrte and Clairvaux, between the Prince Royal of Wurtemberg and Marshal Macdonald. March 2, The French defeated at Aire by the British, under Sir Rowland Hill. 3, Proclamation of the Prince of the Netherlands for convoking the representatives of the people, to deliberate on a new constitution. 4, Marshal Oudinot defeated by Prince Schwartzenburgh, between Bar-sur-Seiue and Troyes; the latter retaken by the allies, and all discussion relative to an armistice 5, Battle of Soissons, between put an end to. the allies and Proclamation of Buonaparte, issued from Fismes, for Buonaparte, who retires in the night. and 7, Battle of Craon, between Buonaparte and General Winzingerode, calling out the levee en masse. who retires upon Laon. 8 and 9, Unsuccessful attack of the British, under General Graham, upon Bergenop-Xoom. 9 and 10, Battle of Laon, in which the French \\ere defeated. 11, Battle of Macon, between General Bianchi and two divisions of Marshal 12, Bourdeanx Augereau's army: the former victorious. capitulates to Sir W. Beresford the inhabitants declare for the restoration of the Bourbons; and the Duke D'Angouleme enters in Rhtims taken by the Austrian general Count St. Priest, who, on triumph. the 13th, or 14th, is in his turn 1(5, Chalons and Epernay defeated, and Rheims is reoccupied by the. enemy. occupied by the enemy. 18, The negociatious for peace at Chatiilon broken off. 19, Count Woronzow forces the gates of Rheims, where Buonaparte had shut himself up. 20, Battle of Tarbe, between Lord Wellington's troops, and those of Marshal Soult. 21, Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube Buonaparte repulsed by the Prince Royal of Wurtemberg. 23 and 24, Actions near Vitry the allies, victorious, march upon Paris. 24, Ferdinand VII. king of at Gerona. 25, A Spain, having been liberated by Buonaparte, arrives French corps of 5000 men, convoying provisions and military stores to Buonaparte, surrounded and made prisoners, by the allies, at Fere Champenotse. Two deputies from Bourdeaux arrive in England, to invite Louis XVIII. to return to France. 28, The American frigate Essex 2fi, Battle of La Ferte Gaudier. captured in the bay of Valparairo, by the British ships Phrebe and Cherub. Battle of Clave, between General D'York and the rear of the French at Meaux and grand army. 2!>, The allies cross the Marne Friport, taking up their quarters between Montmartre and the wood of Viucennes, with their head-quari :
: ;

ters at

ness, the

Bandy. Prince Schwartzenbcrgb publishes a proclamation to the Parisians. 30, Her imperial highDuchess of Oldenburgl], sister to the Emperor of Russia, arrives in England, on a visit, and enters London the next day. The suburbs of Paris attacked by the allies, and the empress Maria Louisa quits 4

KB*,
Jllliiill
.

x.]
T A, U.
.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.

170

n Period.
,

ti.j27..1814

Battle between Monlmartre and Belleville; Marshal Marmont that capital with her infant sou Napoleon. 31, The allies enter agrees to evacuate Paris, and Joseph Buonaparte Hies from that city in disguise. Paris, and the emperor Alexander issues a proclamation, declaring that no treaty will he made with Buonaof protection, and summoning a meeting of the senate to settle the state of the. parte; assuring the citizens
nation.

April 1, Meeting of the

French

senate;
;

a provisional government,

consisting of Talleyrand,

Prince of
;

Count De Jaucour; the Duke of Dalberg; and M. De Montesquieu is appointed, charged with the formation of a new constitution. 2, Decree of the senate, declaring Napoleon Buonaparte and all his family to have forfeited the imperial throne, and absolving the army from its allegiance to him. The senate also removes all obstacles to the return of the Pope to Italy, and of Don Carlos, brother to Ferdinand VII. to Spain. 3, The decrees of the 2d hist, revised by the French senate, and published. The emperor Alexander 4, Hostilities declared to be at an end between France and the allies. recommends Buonaparte to choose a place of retirement for himself and family. Buonaparte addresses a farewel proclamation to the army, from Rennes; and afterwards renounces the thrones of France and Italy, and accepts the isle of Elba for his retreat. 7. The American embargo and non-importation laws repealed by the house of representatives. The French senate adopts a new constitution, and restores the Bourbons Proclamation of Louis XVIII. to the army, by Marshal Jourdan, at Rouen. 9, The to the government. French national guard ordered to wear the white cockade, by the provisional government. 10 and 11, Battle ofThoulouse, between the army of Lord Wellington and that of Soult; advices of the revolution at Paris not having reached that place in time to prevent it. 11, Convention between the allies and Buonaparte, by whicli the latter renounces for himself, bis successors, and descendants, all rights of sovereignty, &c. 11, 12, 13, Illuminations in London and its vicinity, for the down fa of the national enemy, and the prospect of 12, Monsieur, Count D'Artois, makes his public entry into Paris, as representreturning tranquillity. ative of his brother Louis XVIII. and lieutenant-general of the kingdom. Lord Wellington also enters Thoulouse in triumph, after the victory of the preceding day. 14, Lieut.-Gen. Sir John Hope wounded and taken prisoner, Major-Gen. Hay killed, and about 400 British soldiers killed and wounded, by an unthe commandant of w hich, it is said, was unapprised of the expected sortie from the citadel of Bayonne sl-.'tc of affairs at Paris. 15, Public entry of the emperor of Austria into Paris. 10, Marshal A ugereau 17, Convention between the Marquis of Wellington and proclaims Louis XVIII. to the army at Valence. Marshals Soult and Souchet, for a suspension of hostilities; the two latter having acceded to the new order of public affairs. 18, Genoa surrenders to the British. 20, Louis XVIII. enters London, from Hartwell, in his public character of King of France, accompanied by the British Prince Regent and their respective suites. The same day, Buonaparte leaves Fontainbleau, for the southern coast, then to embark for Revolution at Milan: M. De Prena, the French imperial minister, massacred, Elba, oft" the coast of Tuscany. and the senate expelled Eugene Beauharnois, the viceroy, escapes to Mantua. 21, Grand entertainment 22, The Lordgiven at Carlton house, by the Prince Regent, to Louis XVIII. and the Bourbon Princes. Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the city of London, present a congratulatory address to Louis XVIII. on the change of his fortunes. 23, Louis XVIII. embarks at Dover, on his return to France. A convention, or preliminary treaty of peace, between Great Britain and France, signed at Paris; as was also another convention, of similar purport, between France and the continental allies. 24, Landing of Louis XVIII. at Calais, after an exile of 23 years. Proclamation of Ferdinand IV. king of Sicily, declaraBenevento
;

Count De Bournonville

2.5, The ports of the United States of tory of his resolution to accept of no indemnity in lieu of Naples. America put under blockade by Sir A. Cochraue. 28, Buonaparte embarks at Frejus, onboard the British 29, Proclamation of the British government, declaring Norway to frigate Undaunted, and sails for Elba.

he in a state of blockade. v 2, First meeting of the States-General of the Netherlands. Declaration of Louis XVIII. from St. 3, Grand entrance of Louis XVIII. into Paris. Oueii, that France shall be a free country. Buonaparte lands in Elba. The Marquis of Wellington created a Duke of the United Kingdom. 4, Proclamation of Ferdinand VII. sets aside the constitution made by Buonaparte to the Elbese, on his arrival among them. the Spanish Cortes during his captivity; dissolves that body, and declares it to be high treason to attempt to restore their constitution. 5, Proclamation of Davousl, prince of Eckmuhl, to the inhabitants of HamProclamation of the Prince Regent, burgh, announcing the evacuation of their city by the French. <>, Fort Oswego, uiu.ouncing a cessation of hostilities by .sea and land, between Great Britain and France. on Lake Ontario, captured by the British, under Lieut.-Gen. Drummond. 8, A solemn Te Dcum performed in all the churches of Elba, as a thanksgiving for the arrival of Buonaparte! 14, Defeat of the

Spanish squadron, belonging to Monte Video, by theBuenos-Ayres squadron, commanded by Commodore Brown. A solemn funeral service, in the church of St. Denis, at Paris, for the repose of the souls of Louis XVI. his queen Marie Antoinette, his si-tor Madame Elizabeth, and his son Louis XVII. who had perished in the early convulsions of tin rc\oluti:>:i. -23, Antwerp evacuated by the French, and occupied ntiou, -.igned at Paris, on the 23d of April. by the allies, in pursuance of the pro\i<.. 25, A fuucrai service at Paris for Georges Cadot.iln!, I'icJicgru, und Moreau. 30, Definitive treaties of peace, ".ni the French government. The Emperor sigi.fd at Paris, between the ministers of li Alexander, the King of Prussia, with variou- j.imccs and nobility in their suite, leave Paris, on their

way

to visit England.

A A 2

180
Julian Period.
p. *""
.

INTRODUCTION.

[CHAP. n.

6527- -1814

June

Dreadful after having negotiated the peace of the continent. 4, Lord Castlereagh arrives in England, tornados in the vicinity of the Ohio, in North America. 0, Declaration of Great Britain, in favour of the annexation of Norway to Sweden. Arrival of the Emperor of Russia, King of Prussia, cVc. at Dover, on a 8, The Emperor of Russia and King of Prussia hold their courts in London, visit to the Prince Regent. where they had arrived on the 7th the former at Cumberland House, the latter at Clarence House and arc both attended by the Prince Regent. !), Lord Cochrane, the Hon. Cochrane Johnstone, and several others, found guilty in the court of King's Bench, of a conspiracy in planning and executing the fraud on the 9, 10, 11, General illuminations in London and its vicinity, on stock-exchange, on the 21st of February. 14, Several American vessels, occasion of the signature of the definitive treaty of peace with France. and a cotton manufactory, at Wareham, head of Buzzard's Bay, North America, destroyed by the British. 14 and 15, Grand entertainment given by the University of Oxford to the Prince Regent and his imperial and royal visitors, who receive the degree of Doctors of the Laws and the freedom of the city. 18, Battle ofArazua, in the Caraccas, between the pat riots and royalists, in which the latter are successful, and massacre their vanquished opponents. Grand civic entertainment, given by the citizens of London, at their Guildhall, 20, The volunteers of London and its vicinity reviewed to the Prince Regent and his illustrious visitors. Peace proclaimed in in Hyde Park, by the Prince Regent, the Emperor of Russia, King of Prussia, &e. London. 21, Surrender of Monte Video to the army of Buenos Ayres. A deputation of the people called Quakers waits upon the Emperor of Russia, with a congratulatory address on the restoration of peace. 22, The imperial and royal guests leave London, for Portsmouth, 23, Arrival of the Duke of Wellington in England, after a victorious career of nearly six years in Portugal, Spain, and Fiance, against the best generals of Buonaparte. 23 and 24, Grand naval review and entertainment at Portsmouth, given by the Prince of Prussia, &c. embark at Dover on Regent to his illustrious visitors. 27, The Emperor of Russia, the King their return to the continent. 28, The Duke of Wellington takes his seat tor the iirst time in the House of Lords, and receives the congratulations of his peers, in a speech from the Lord Chancellor. The Leopard, of 50 guns, bound for Quebec, bilged on a rock oft" the island of Antecoaster. of Commons, to acknowledge his gratitude for the July 1, The Duke of Wellington appears in the House honours conferred upon him by the people of the United Kingdom. 3, Launch of the Nelson, of 120 gnus, at Woolwich: this ship was built by government in honour of the late Admiral Viscount Nelson and Bronte. Fort Erie capitulates to the Americans. 5, General Riall repulsed by the Americans, between Chippawa and Fort Erie. 7, General thanksgiving for peace, in England the Prince Regent, attended by his ministers and most of the royal dukes and nobility, goes in state to St. Paul's cathedral, London. The royalists enter the city of Caraccas, and massacre such of the patriots as had not ensured their safety by flight. The King of Prussia grants a new constitutional charter to the inhabitants of Neuchatel. 9, Grand banquet at Guild11, Moose Island surrenders to Sir Thos. hall, given by the citizens of London to the Duke of Wellington. Hardy and Col. Pilkington. 16, Grand festival given by the East-India company to the Duke of WellingProclaton. 21, Superb fete at. Carlton House, given by the Prince Regent to the Duke of Wellington. mation of Ferdinand VII. for re-establishing the inquisition in Spain by another proclamation, of the same date, Ferdinand also orders all Frenchmen to Ivave his dominions, and prohibits the entrance of any others. Louis XVIII. adopts Buonaparte's Legion of Honour as a military order. 25, Battle of Chippawa, and actions at Lundy's Lane and Niagara, between the British and Americans. The Emperor Alexander arrives at Petersburg!), for the first time since he left it in pursuit of the French, in October, 1812. 2fj, Commencement of hostilities between the Swedes and Norwegians, near the Haarlorn islands. 28, The Norwegian island of Kragaro taken by the Swedes. 31, The commemoration of Ignatius De Loyola, founder of the fraternity of Jesuits, celebrated with great pomp at Rome. August 1, A grand festival, or jubilee, at London, in the three Parks, in commemoration of the centenary of the accession of the house of Brunswick; the victory of the Nile, in 1 ?!)<',; and tin: restoration of peace in the The civil list of France settled at 25 millions of francs, including three millions in domains present year. 2, The steeple of (about 1,040,000 sterling) for the king; and eight millions fur the princes of his family. Kelwining church, Scotland, erected in 1140, falls down. :>, Disturbances in Spain, occasioned by the despotic conduct of Ferdinand VII. many members of the suppressed Cortes arrested and thrown into dunFrederickstadt and Frederickshall capitulate to the Swedes, after bombardment. 4, The Americans geons. o, The King of Prussia arrives at repulsed by the British, in an attack on Michelmackinac, on Lake Thorn. Berlin, amidst the acclamations of his people; being his first visit to that city since he fled from Buonaparte in 1806. The Emperor Francis adopts the order of the Iron Crown, instituted in Lombardy by Buonaparte. (> and 7, Disturbances at Cherbourg, in consequence of the French government permitting the export of 7, Bull of Pope Pius VII. for restoring the order of Jesuits in all catholic countries. grain to Great Britain. 8, First meeting of the British and American commissioners at Ghent, for the negotiation of peace. 9, Torture formally abolished in Spain. Embarkation of the Duke of Wellington, as ambassador to the court of Louis XVIII. and of the Princess of Wales to make a tour of the continent. 10, An Irish nun solemnly takes the white veil, in the Roman Catholic chapel at Clonmel. 11, Battle of Trogstadt, between the Swedes and Norwegians. The town of Stonington, North America, attacked and taken by Sir Thos. Hardy. Lord Cochrane 's banner and insignia, as knight of the Bath, removed from the chapel of Henry VII. and himself erased from the list of knights companions, on account of the share he was supposed to have had in the fraud upon the stock-exchange on the 21st of February last. 12, Attack of the British on the American
; ; ;
;

VKT.
]
Period.
"''*'\

x-.]

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
vessels in Lake Erie closed in the French
;

181

A. n.

6257

1814

two out of three taken, by Captain Dobbs. The debate on the liberty of the press chamber of deputies, in favour of a censorship upon all works of less than 20 sheets, to continue for five years. 14, The passage of Kjolhcri; forced by the Swedes. 15, Edict of Pope Pius VII. for Disaster of the British at Fort Erie, North the restoration of monastic orders in the papal dominions. America upwards of 200 men blown up, by the explosion of a magazine, or the springing of a mine, at 16, the moment when they had, under Lieut. -Gen. Drummond gained a bastion, after storming the fort. Prince Christian of Denmark resigns the government of Norway; and an armistice is concluded between The federal compact of the Swiss cantons concluded and accepted. 18, the Swedes and Norwegians. The Gcnevese constitution proclaimed. A malignant fever breaks out at Gibraltar. 20, Proclamation of peace between Spain and France, at Madrid.- -2-2, The American Commodore Barney burns his flotilla, on the approach of the British, under Sir Alexander Cochranc, a few miles above Pig Point, on the Patuxent, in Chesapeake Bay; and the inhabitants of the island of Nantucket declare themselves neutral, under the the city of Washington, the 24, The Americans defeated at Bladensburgh protection of Great Britain. metropolis of the United States, taken, and the public buildings and stores destroyed and burned, by the British, under General Ross. 25, Treaty of peace between Prussia and Denmark, signed at Berlin. Freemasons' societies suppressed by a rescript of the pope. 27, Fort Warburton, on the Potomack, blown up by the American commandant, on the approach of the British. 28, The town of Alexandria, on the Potomack, capitulates to the 'British Fort Washington, by which it was defended, having been previously stormed by a squadron under Capt. Gordon. Solemn festival in the metropolitan church of Paris, on occasion of the recovery of the holy crown of thorns! Dreadful and extensive conflagration at Bankside, Southwark. 29, The Philippine company re-established in Spain by Ferdinand VII. Grand fete given by the 31, Sir Peter Parker, of the British municipality of Paris to Louis XVIII. on occasion of his restoration. ship Menelaus, killed in an unsuccessful attack upon the American troops encamped at Bellair, in the
: ; ;

Chesapeake.

September

1, The American fort of Castine, on the Penobscott, and several other places in the vicinity, taken by the British under Sir J. C. Sherbrooke and Rear-Admiral Griffith. Proclamation of Mr. Madison, President of the United States, on his return to the seat of government at Washington. A French squadron to the sails from Brest, to take possession of the West-India colonies, relinquished by Great Britain, pursuant terms of the treaty of the 30th May. 3, Battle of Hamden, on the Penobscott; the Americans routed by by the British. The American frigate Adams, of 26 guns, in the Penobscott, blown up by the crew, to prevent its falling into the hands of the British. Several townships in the neighbourhood of that river, tender of their submission to the British. Order of the British government for discontinuing the blockade of the coast Norway. 5, A fall of meteoric stones at Agen, in France. 6, Battle of Ptattsburgh; the Americans driven deunder their furls by Sir G. Prevost. The barony of Middlethoid, in the county of Tipperary, Ireland, clared by the Lord Lieutenant to be in a state of insurrection. 7, Grand review of the French national guard, in the Champ de Mars, Paris; the colours presented by the Duchess of Angouleme, and consecrated by the archbishop of Rheims. Proclamation of Ferdinand VII. king of Spain, appointing a military commission for trying disaffected persons, without confronting them with their accusers. 8, Sudden death of the queen of the Two Sicilies, at Vienna. Malta proclaimed free from the plague. The British sloop Avon sunk by the American sloop Wasp, off Kinsale. 11, Fort Obrien and Machias, North America, taken by Lieut-Col. Pilkington. Sir. George Prevost retires in disorder from Plattsburgh, in consequence of the British squadron on Lake Champlain being worsted by the American flotilla. A v number of patriotic Spaniards sutler military execution at Madrid. 12, Major-General Ross killed in an unsuccessful attack on Baltimore. 13, A law proposed in the French chamber of deputies for the restoration of emigrants' pro16 to 17, Ninety persons 15, The British sloop Hermes lost in making an attack on Fort Mobile. perty. arrested in the night, at Madrid, and thrown into dungeons, on account of their political opinions. 17,, Sortie of the Americans from Fort Erie; General Drummond retreats to the falls of Niagara. 22, A 24, Dreadful thunder-storm in the west and south of England. pestilential (ever again appears at Gibraltar. Fort Machias surrenders to Lieut-Col. Pilkington, in consequence of which the whole county of Washington passes under British dominion. -25, Formal entry of the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia into Vienna, to assist at the general congress, convoked in that city, for the settlement of Europe. 26 to 27, General Mina, the Spanish patriot, attempts in the night to seize Pampeluna, but without success, and escapes into France. 27, Ordonnance of Ferdinand VII. king of Spain, for the restoration of national property, without indemnity to the purchasers. Proclamation of the King of Bavaria, prohibiting the meetings of se< ret societies, and the holding of freemasons' 28, Convention at Vienna, in virlodges, in his territories. tue of which the Emperor of Russia, in concert with Austria and Great Britain, places Saxony in the hands of the King of Prussia. 30, The annexation of Norway to Sweden declared by the Norwegian diet. The ministers of Austria, Russia, Prussia, Great Britain, France, and Spain, hold their first conference at Vienna, preparatory to the opening of the general congress. October 2, Proclamation of Henry Christophe, as king of Hayti (St. Domingo) recapitulating the miseries inflicted upon his countrymen (slaves from Africa) by Buonaparte, and declaring the independence of the island, with the resolution of the people never to surrender their liberties to any foreign power. 4, A law for restoring unsold the French chamber of deputies, 8, Proclamation of the emigrant property pushes

182

INTRODUCTION.
allies for openii)!! tlic

[CHAP. n.

Period.

(J.V27..1814

of November. 12, Hanover proclaimed under general congress at Vienna ou the 1st of a singular attempt to Kingdom, and Hesse under that of a Grand Duchy. 13, Detection rob the post ofticV, at London. 1,5 and 19, The Americans repulsed in their attacks upon the British, at St. Giles's, occasioned by the bursting of Chippawa. 17, Singular and fatal accident at Meux's brewery, an immense vat full of beer; by which several houses in the neighbourhood were considerably damaged, The court-martial opens on the case of Colonel eight persons killed, and many others severely injured. Quiutin, of the 10th Hussars; which continues till the 1st of November, and ends with the colonel's acquit20, Message of President Madison to the American tal, and the removal of his accusers from the regiment. 21, The law for restraining the liberty congress, on the excursion of the British to the city of Washington. of the press in France, (see 12th of August,) having passed the two chambers, receives the royal assent
the
title
<>1

of 27, A magnificent standard consecrated by the Pope; intended as a present to an English regiment Austrian huzzars, by which his holiness was first received at the Taro, on his emancipation from captivity in France. 31, Major-General Gillespie killed in an unsuccessful attack of the British in India, upon fort

Kalunga.

November

1, Declaration of the allies at Vienna, appointing the 3d instant for the opening of an office, where 3, Proclamation of the Prussian Prince to verify the powers of the plenipotentiaries sent to the congress. Repnin to the Saxon authorities, announcing that their country had been placed at the disposal of his 4, Declaration of the King of Saxony against the occupation of his territosovereign, the King of Prussia.

by the Prussians. The King of Sweden, Charles XIII. unanimously elected and proclaimed King of Norway, by the diet at Christiana. 5, The Americans evacuate Fort Erie, blow up the defences, and destroy the place. A shower of stones, in India, each weighing from 26lb. to 3()lb. in the district of Dooab. 10, Bernadotte, crown 6, Two violent shocks of earthquake, preceded by thunder, felt at Lyons. prince of Sweden, in the name of his sovereign, receives the oaths of allegiance and fidelity of the members of the Norwegian diet. 20, The Earl of Oxford, on his return from Naples to Paris, stopped by the French police, and his papers seized. 28, The Spanish government, determined, if possible, to obliterate every remembrance of the late Cortes, orders all the papers, books, &c. in which their proceedings are mentioned, to be collected and burned, with all the formalities of an auto-da-fe. 29, The American town of Rappahanock taken possession of by the British, under Captain Barrie. 30, Fort Kalunga, in the Napaul country, evacuated by the enemy, after being stormed by Colonel Mawby, of the 53d
ries

regiment.

December

0528..1815

January

28, A remarkably high tide in the river Thames. XVIII. receives the homage of the French chamber of peers. 3, An extension of the English military order of the Bath, by order of the Prince Regent, for the purpose of rewarding naval and 7, and 8, Battle before New Orleans, South America; in which the British are repulsed, military services. with the loss of their commander, Sir E. Pakenham, by the Americans. 11, Cumberland Island, North America, occupied by Capt. Barrie. 13, The Americans driven from Point Petre, and the tower of St. Mary's taken, by Capt. Barrie. 14, The magazine of Scylla, in Calabria, struck by lightning, and 15, The American ship President, of 60 guns, and 490 men, thirty-three persons killed by the explosion. captured by Capt. Hope, of the Endymion frigate, off Sandy Hook. 16, A court martial assembled at Winchester, on the conduct of Sir. John Murray at Tarragona in June 1813, continues till the 7th of February, and then concludes with an acquittal. 17, The Sylph sloop of war wrecked on Southampton Bar, Shinecork Bay, and 111 persons lose their lives. 18, The bones of Louis XVI. and his consort Maria Antoinette, found embedded in lime, in the cemetery of La Madelaine, at Paris, and removed to the royal church of St. Denis where, on the '2lst, they are interred with great ceremony. 25, Lord Castlereagh, at the congress of Vienna, in the name of the Sovereign and People of Great Britain, invites the Allied Powers to abolish the Slave-trade. 27, The British forces in America withdraw from the banks of the Mississippi, (iustavus Atlolphus, the deposed king of Sweden, publishes his resolution to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. February 1, One Nagedc, an impostor, calling himself Le Bon Dicu, and pretending to prophetical inspiration, condemned in the police chamber at Paris to live years' imprisonment. 8, The Allies, assembled in

Edict of the mayor of Lyons, prohibiting the exhibition of all paintings, statues, &c. of 4, Capt. Barrie drives the Americans from their position at Farnham Church, about seven miles from Rappahanock. 13, The Livery of London frame a petition to Parliament, against the continuance of the property and income tax which is followed by similar proceedings in all parts of England. 15, First opening of the states-general of the kingdom of Hanover, by his royal highness the Duke of Cambridge, in the name of his majesty the King of Great Britain. 20, A strong gale from the south and south-west, occasions great damage among the shipping on the British coasts. 22, A British armament arrives in the Mississippi, and lands a force on the left bank of that river, nine miles below New Orleans: the Americans being apprised of their intentions, an immediate action ensues, which ends in the repulse of the assailants. 24, Treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States of America, signed at Ghent; received at London on the 2fith, ratified by the Prince Regent on the 27th, and dispatched to America on the 28th. 2(5, Genoa transferred to the King of Sardinia, by an act of the congress at Vienna. 27, The pretended prophetess Joanna SouthcoU dies, to the great dismay and astonishment of her infa3,

Buonaparte.

tuated followers.
1, Louis

SECT. X.j
Julian

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.

18.1

Period.

A. D. 11, A tremendous thunder-storm, congress at Vicuna, declare against the continuance of the Slave-trade. It-It from the North Sea to the provinces of the Ilhine. The American fort Bovvver, the defence of Mobile, capiluhtes to Major-General Lambert, being the last important act of hostility between the British and Americans. The Indian fort of Taraghur, in the Napaui country, surrendered to Col. Cooper. 17, The -cations of the treaty of Ghent, between Great Brita-n and America, c<\< !iii:;g<-d at Washington. 19, Candy, the capital of Ceylon, taken by the British, under Sir It. Brownrigg and Major Kelly, after a scries of actions from the 1st of the month the king and two of his i\t-> arc made prisoners by the Candian. of France, on board 25, Buonaparte escapes from the Isle of Elba, determined on the re-conc|ua brig of 2(5 gun, with 40!) of his guards, accompanied by three other vessels, containing 200 infantry, 100 Polish light-horse, and 200 of the battalion of flanker*. 28, Joachim (Murat) king of Naples, issues ;< proclamation, in which he and Buonaparte guaranU-c the independence of Italy, lliots in Southwark, on occasion of the chairing of the new representative, Mr. Barclay, suspected of being an advocate for the pending corn bill.
:
I

1, Buonaparte lands in France, at Cannes, in the bay of St. Juan, department of La Var, having eluded the notice of the English frigates about Elba, (see Feb. 25,) and is received with open arms by the French army and people: Louis proclaims him a traitor, and Buonaparte declares Louis to bean usurper. to 10, Riots in Westminster, occa4, Lord Castlereagh arrives in London, from the congress at Vienna. sioned by the progress of the corn-bill in parliament. 7, Grenoble surrendered to Buonaparte. 8, Buonaparte issues a proclamation from Bourgoing, a town between Grenoble and Lyons. The American brig Avon taken by the British brig Barbadoes, after a severe conflict, between Nevis and Antigua. 10, Buonaparte enters Lyons, amid the acclamations of the soldiery, who had previously advised the Count D'Artois arrd Marshal Macdonald to retire. 13, Declaration of the Powers assembled in congress at Vienna, in. favour of the Bourbon dynasty, and proscribing that of Buonaparte. 19, An attempt to carry off the son of Buonaparte from Vienna, by forty Frenchmen, frustrated. 20, The Common Council of London petition the Prince Regent to withhold his assent from the corn-bill, and to dissolve the parliament, for having refused to listen to the petitions of the people. 21, Buonaparte enters Paris in triumph, while Louis XVIII. retires towards Ghent, by the way of Lille. 22, Marshal Ney forms a junction with Buonaparte, and issues a proclamation in his favour. The Dey of Algiers poisoned by his Negro cook, and his chief minister proclaimed in his place, who is also put to death oir the 7th of April. 25, Decree of Buonaparte, for enforcing the revolutionary laws against the Bourbons. Treaty of Vienna, between Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain, for maintaining the treaty of Paris (May 30, 1814,) and for resisting the usurpation of Buonaparte. 26, Loss of the Abercrombie East-Indiaman, \\iththewhole of the crew, oft' Portland. 29, BUONAPARTE ABOLISHES THE SLAVE TRADE IN FRANCE. 30, Hostilities between the Neapolitans and Austro-ltalians, commence with an affair of posts, provoked by king Joachim at Cesena, in the legation of Romagna. 31, Attempt of Margaret Moore to steal the British crown from the Tower of London. Proclamation of King Joachim (Mural) calling upon the Italians to join his standard in support of their independence, against the house of Austria. Proclamation of the ex-Empress Maria Louisa, in her quality of Duchess of Parma, Placentia, and Guastella, announcing the provisional consignment of those provinces to her father, the Emperor of Austria. April 1, The Duchess of Angouleme obliged to retire from Bourdcaux, on the approach of General Clause!, who, next day, takes possession of that place, in the name of Brronaparte. 2, An officer from Buonaparte arrives at Dover, with dispatches, but is not suffered to proceed to London. 4, Buonaparte addresses a circular letter to most of the crowned heads of Europe, full of pacific professions. King Joachim repulsed wi the banks of the Tanaro; while Florence is occupied by his general, Pignatelli. 5, Proclamation of Joachim defeats the Field-Marshal Bellegarde, in the name of the Austrian emperor, from Milan, (i, Austrians before Modena, and drives them across the P6. The Isle of Bourbon surrendered to the French, in pursuance of the 7, Lord W. Bentinek issues orders to the English commanders treaty of Paris, 1814. in the Mediterranean, to commence hostilities against King Joachim, by sea and land. Proclamation of the King of Prussia, issued from Vienna, and resist the usurpation of Buonacalling upon his subjects to arm, parte. The new Dey of Algiers (sec March 22,) after a reign of sixteen days, strangled, and the government assumed by the Aga Omar. 8, Joachim repulsed in an assault upon Occhio-Bello. 9, Surrender of the Duke of Angouleme to General Grouchy, at Montelimart, in the department of the Drdine. 10, The Austrian General Nugent defeated by Pignatelli between Pistoia and the Appenine defiles. 11, Nugent repulses several attacks of Pignatelli while Bianchi drives the Neapolitans from Carpi, and takes possession of Modena. 12, Marseilles submits to General Grouchv, in the name of Buonaparte. King Joachim repulsed at I'avale and Cusaglio, by Lieutenant Field-Marshal Mohr; and is, next day, obliged to abandon the neighbourhood of Ferrara, pursued by the Austrians to Bologna. 14, Proclamation of the Emperor Francis, in quality of king of Lombardy, to his new Italian subjects, declaring the provinces, as far as the P6, to be annexed to his dominions. 15 and 10, Two severe battles in India, between the British and Napaulese, on the Malown mountains, which end in the complete repulse and defeat of the latter. 16, the Duke of Angouleme put on board a Swedish vessel, at Cette, by order of Buonaparte, and forbidden again to enter France, on pain of death. 21, King Joachim routed on the banks of the Ronco, by Count Neupperg; and, in the night of the 22d, the Neapolitans abandon their entrenched camp at Cesena, the proposition of Joachim for an armistice having been rejected by the Auslriaii commander in
;

March

184
Julian Period.
.

INTRODUCTION.
The Duchess of Angouleme
arrives in

[CHAP. n.

6.V28. .1815

chief.
lor the

London.

22, Buonaparte issues a

new

constitutional charter

French. Mav 1, Proclamation of Ferdinand IV. to the Neapolitans, on reassuming his rights as King of Naples. 2, Proclamation of Louis XVI11. issued from Ghent, announcing his acceptance of the allied interference, and to resist the usurpation of Buonaparte. 3, General Bianchi defeats the calling upon all good Frenchmen before Tolentino ; the next day, Joachim is also defeated near Fernio, by Lieutenant FieldNeapolitans Marshal Mohr. 9, The village of Addington, in Surrey, nearly swept away by a water spout. 14 to l(i, Battles of St. Germane and Mignano, which end in the total rout of King Joachim, by General Nugent. of the Archduke John into Milan, as representative of the. Emperor of Austria. InsurrecSolemn
14,
18, Treaty tion of the Lazzaroni, at Naples, suppressed by the national guard and the English troops. between the allies and the King of Saxony, by virtue of which, the latter is deprived of a considerable part states, for having adhered to Buonaparte, previously to the battle of Leip/ic, in October, of his

entry

hereditary and Count DC Niepperg, General 20, Military convention between the Neapolitan commanders and Lord 'Burghersh, for the provisional surrender of the Neapolitan kingdom to tlie allies. 22, Bianchi, Public entry of Prince Leopold of Sicily, son of Ferdinand IV. into Naples, at the head of the Austrian Proclamation of the King of Prussia to the inhabitants of the ceded Saxon provinces, announcing troops. 23, The Germanic constitution regulated their annexation to his dominions, under the title of a Duchy. and adopted by Austria, Prussia, and Hanover. The first stone of the Southwark bridge, across the Lord -Keith. 29, Marriage of his royal highness the Duke of Cumberland to the Thames, laid

J813.

Princess of Salms, daughter of the Duke of Mecklenburgh-Streliti!, at New Streht/. The three restored to the Pope. 30, The Arniston British transport wrecked near Cape Lagullas, and legations in Sambarra, an island to the eastward of Java. nearly 350 persons drowned. Volcanic eruption 31, Grand ceremony of the Champ de Mai, at Paris; Buonaparte, as emperor, the public functionaries, the presidents of the electoral colleges, the army, and the people, all swear to maintain aud observe the

by

Dowager

constitution.

June

Marshal Berthier, prince of Neuchatel and Wagram, the quondam companion and counsellor of 1, Buonaparte, killed by falling from a window, at Bamberg. 4, Laroche Jacquelin, the celebrated Vendeaii chief in the days of the revolution, killed in a skirmish between the royalists and the partisans of Buonaparte, in La Vendee. 7, The French chambers of peers and representatives opened in form by Buonaparte, at Paris. 11, Addresses of congratulation presented to Buonaparte, by the two chambers. --12, Buonaparte leaves Paris, to take the command of the army assembled on the frontiers of the Netherlands. 15, Commencement of hostilities between the allies and Buonaparte, near Charleroi: the Prussians, under General Zietheu, are driven from the field, and Buonaparte directs his march towards Fleurus. 1(5, Battles of Ligny and Qualre Bras; the Prussians, under Blucher, forced to retire from the former to Mont St. Guibert; and the Duke of Wellington, with the allied British, Hanoverians, and 17, Battle of Genappe, or Quatre Bias, between a division Netherlander*, from the hitter, to Waterloo. of the allies, under the Earl of Uxbridge, (now Marquis of Anglesca, and pnrt of the French force; the Ferdinand IV. king of the Two Sicilies, enters Naples, after an exile latter remain masters of the field. of nine years. 18, Great and decisive battle of Waterloo, or Mont St. Jean, between the Duke of Wellington and Buonaparte; which, after one of the most severe conflicts on record, ends in the total overthrow of the French; and Buonaparte goes, to Paris, and abdicates the throne in favour of his son. 20, An Algeriiit fleet defeated by an American squadron, oft' Carthagena. 21, The English and their allies enter the French territories, by Bavay, as do also the Prussians, under Prince Bluclrer, by Beaumont. Buonaparte arrives the same day at Paris, where the debates in the two chambers are tumultuous. 22, 23, and 24, General illuminations at London, on occasion of the victory at Waterloo. 22, Buonaparte resigns the government to a provisional council, appointed by the chambers, and endeavours to get his infant son 25, The plenipotentiaries of the provisional government of France, address a recognixed as emperor. letter, from Laon, to Prince Blucher, proposing a negotiation for re-establishing the peace of Europe. The Allies continue advancing upon Paris, with Louis XVIII. in their rear; and Carnbray capitulates. 2ii, Louis XVIII. issues his proclamation from Courtray, on re-entering the French territories. 29, The Duke of Wellington crosses the Oise, and Louis XVIII. enters Cambray. July 1, A deputation from the French provisional government arrives at the head-quarters of the Duke of 3, A military convention signed at St. Cloud, between the Allies and Wellington, to demand an armistice. the French, fur the .suspension of hostilities, and the surrender of Paris. The remains of the French army retire behind the Loire. A commercial convention between Great Britain and the United States of America, 4, St. Denis, St. Oiner, and Cluchy, put into the hands of the Allies, in pursuance of signed at London. the treaty of St. Cloud. The Allies take possession of Montmartre, St. Clixuiuont, and Belleville. Buonaparte leaves the heights of Montmartre with a few troops; the troops in Paris, 20,000 in number, under Marshal Oudinot, declare for Louis XVI1L the provisional government dissolves itself, and the two chambers are closed. Buonaparte takes the road for Kochefort. (5, Melancholy death of Samuel \\hitbread, Ksq. M. P. for Bedford. if, Louis XV'lll. enters Paris. 10, The Kmperors of Austria and Russia, with the King of Prussia, and their suite*, arrive in Paris. 12, Buonaparte, in danger of being seized by his enemies, passes over to the isle of Aix, whence he endeavours to escape to America, liul is prevented by the British cruizers. 13, The town of Port Royal, Jamaica, destroyed by fire. 15, Buonaparte surrenders himself
>

;'),

SECT. X.]
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.

185

A. D.

(J-V28..1815

to the British, on board the Bellerophon, Capt. Maitland. 18, The union of the United Provinces with The Duke of Wellington created Prince of WaterBelgium, proclaimed by the King of the Netherlands. The Prince Regent of Great Britain, as guardian to Prince Charles loo, by the King of the Netherlands. Frederick Augustus, son of the late Duke of Brunswick, takes formal possession of that Duchy. 23, Proclamation of Louis XVIII. against the conspirators and late partisans of Buonaparte, ordering some to be tried by courts-martial, and banishing others. 24, Buonaparte arrives in Torbay, on board the Bellerophon, but is prohibited landing by the government; on the 20th the Bellerophon is ordered round to Plymouth, to await the final determination of the Allies. Augiist 2, Louis XVIII. removes the restrictions on the French press, imposed by the law of October 21, 1814. Convention between Great Britain and Austria, relative to the detention of Buonaparte, signed at Paris. Marshal Brune shoots himself at Avignon. 5, The French Colonel Labedoyere arrested on a charge of high-treason, for supporting the cause of Buonaparte is tried on the 8th and following days; condemned on the 14th, and shot in the plain of Crenelle on the 19th. 7, Buonaparte transferred from the Bellerophon to the Northumberland, and sails the next day for St. Helena. 8, Ordonnance of Louis XVIII. revoking the privileges granted to the French journals, on the 20th July, and appointing censors of the press. !), Dreadful hurricane in the West Indies. 10, Guadaloupe reduced by a British 14, Marshal Ney, arrested in Switzerforce, under Sir James Leith, from the partisans of Buonaparte. land, is conducted to Paris, and lodged in the prison of the Abbeye, after an interrogatory of four hours. The constitution of the United Netherlands 19, The French peerage proclaimed to be hereditary. accepted. 29, Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland remarried at Carlton House, according to the forms of the Church of England. Marshal Moncey cashiered, and imprisoned for three months, for refusing to preside in the court-martial for the trial of Ney. September 2, Proclamation of Louis XVIII. declaring the southern provinces of France in a state of insurrection and appointing the Duke of Angouleme to punish the offenders. A persecution of the Protestants in that quarter breaks out about the same time. 3, Destructive tire at Quebec, during the rejoicings on account of the fall of Buonaparte. 10, Severe gales of wind great damage done to the Jamaica fleet. 11, A note delivered by Lord Castlereagh to the Allfed Ministers, recommending the restitution of works of art, &c. taken from foreign nations by the French, during the revolutionary wars. 14, The lower town of Montmedy carried by assault by the Prussians. 15, Longwy capitulates to the Prussians. 19, The Spanish General Porlier, a persecuted patriot, seizes Corunna, and excites an insurrection in Gallicia but he is seized on the 23d by his own officers, delivered to his enemies, and hanged as a traitor on the 3d October. 21, Inauguration of the Prince of Orange, as King of the Netherlands, at Brussels. 26, The Holy Christian League, between Austria, Russia, and Prussia, signed at Paris. 28, The Spanish armies enter France. Proclamation of the King of Prussia, announcing the cession of East Friesland, 30, The celebrated bronze horses removed from the TuilHarlingen, &c. to the kingdom of Hanover. The town of Casan, in Russia, destroyed by fire, towards the latter end leries, to be restored to Venice. of this month, or the beginning of the next. October 6, The buildings of the victualling department at English Harbour, Antigua, set on fire by light7, The French chambers of legislature opened in great ning, and property to a large amount consumed. form by Louis XVIII. and the princes, peers, and deputies, take the oath of allegiance. 8, Joachim Murat, ez king of Naples, after having wandered from place to place since his overthrow at Germano and Mignano, in May, effects a landing with a few followers, at Pizzo, on the coast of Calabria Ultra, about but his proclamation is forty-eight leagues from Naples, and invites the Neapolitans to join his standand 11, Waterford cathedral destroyed by fire. despised, and himself taken prisoner, and shot, on the 15th. 12, About half the houses on Turk's island thrown down by a hurricane. 13, A second conflagration (see 3d September) at Quebec, supposed to be occasioned by an incendiary. 15, About 150 or 200 persons killed or wounded by the explosion of a powder-magazine at Soissons. 15 to 18, Dreadful massacres of the French Protestants by the Catholics, at Nismes, and in its vicinity. 17, Arrival of Buonaparte at the island of St. Helena. 17 and 18, A dreadful hurricane in the West Indies the island of Jamaica laid almost desolate. 21, The refractory seamen at Shields, Sunderland, Newcastle, <K:c. subdued by the magistrates, after being in a state of insurrection about seven weeks. -23, Arrhal in London of their Imperial Highnesses the Archdukes John and Louis, brothers to the Emperor of Austria, on a visit. Swedish Pomerania, and the principality, or isle, of Rugen, surrendered to Prussia, pursuant to a previous 28, Proclamation of the Prince Regent of Great Britain, as King of Hanover, announcing the treaty. annexation of East Friesland, &c. to that kingdom. (See 28th Sept.) 31, The new mint on Tower-hill, London, burned down. November 3, Convention between Austria and Bavaria, for certain exchanges of territories, signed at Paris. 4, First stone of the London Institution, in Moorfields, laid by the Lord Mayor, &c. 5, Treaty of Paris, between Great Britain, Austria, Russia, and Prussia, for constituting the Ionian islands an independent state, under the protection of Great Britain .6, The partisans and friends of Buonaparte, proscribed by Louis XVIII. forbidden by the King of Wiirtemberg to enter any part of his territories. 9, The court-martial, for the trial of Ney, begins its sittings at Paris but, next day, declares itself incompetent, the prisoner having claimed his privilege of being tried by his peers, as a marshal of France. 11, The French minister appears in the chamber of peers, and accuses Marshal Ney of high-treason.
;
;

VOL.

I.

BE

186
JuNan
Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A n *-"
.

[CHAP. n.

(J528.

1815

12, General

De

la

in the free exercise

Garde shot by the Catholics of Nismcs, while endeavouring to protect the Protestants of their religious rites. 13, The trial of Ney begins before the French chamber of

6529.

16, large sugar-house thrown down, and several persons killed, in Wells-street, Wellelosepeers. 20, Treaty of peace between France and Great Britain and square, by the explosion of a steam boiler. its allies, signed at Paris; by virtue of which France is curtailed of Marienburgh, Philippeville, Bouillon, Saarlouis, and other territories, besides being subjected to heavy contributions of money, towards defrayOn the same day, treaties of alliance were also signed between Great ing the expenses of the war. Britain, Austria, Russia, and Prussia, for maintaining the inviolability of the treaty with France; and, in a note from the Allies to the French ministry, the Duke of Wellington is announced as commander in The trial of General Lavalette begins chief of the forces left in France for the conservation of the peace. before the court of assize, at Paris, on a charge of high-treason ; on the 22d he is sentenced to be shot, but appeals to the court of cassation. 27, The public offices at London illuminated for the peace. Proclamation of the Prince Regent, forbidding the Generals and others proscribed by Louis XVIII. to remain in the kingdom of Hanover. December 2, Treaty of peace between the British government in India, and the Nepaulese. 6, The French chamber of peers having found Ney guilty of high-treason, sentence of death is passed upon him, and he is shot, the next morning, in the garden of the Luxembourg. Carthagena, South America, evacuated by G and 7, Great damage the patriots, and taken possession of by the royalists, under General Morillo. and losses among the shipping on the British coasts, occasioned by a violent gale of wind. 8, The Duke of Richelieu, in the chamber of deputies, announces a full and complete amnesty, granted by Louis XVIII. to all concerned in Buonaparte's invasion, with exceptions applicable to the persons already proscribed. 14, The c&mmon council of London resolve to address the Prince Regent, and to request his interference on behalf of the persecuted French Protestants. 16, Death of the Duke of Norfolk, in his 70th year. 20, Phi16, Decree of the Prince Regent of Portugal, for raising Brazil to the dignity of a kingdom. delivered up to the King of the Netherlands, pursuant to the treaty of lippeville, Marienburgh, &c. Paris, of the 20th ult. Escape of Lavalette, in his wife's apparel, from the prison of the Conciergerie. 29, A copy of Ossian's poems, in the original Gaelic, presented to Louis XVIII. at the Tuilleries, by a deputation from the Highland Society, of London. Loss of the government packet Greyhound, on the Wulver, or Willey Sands, or breakers, on her passage from Cork to Bristol. 1816. January 2, Jesuits banished from Petersburgh and Moscow, by an imperial ukase. 3, The celebrated Venus de Medicis restored to Florence. The royal assent given to the law of amnesty, in France. Riots among the colliers at 12, Destructive inundations in the neighbourhood of Strablane, Ireland. Dudley, Worcestershire, for an increase of wages. 13, Sir Robert Wilson, Mr. Crawford Bruce, and at Paris, on suspicion of having favoured the escape of General Lavalette. Capt. Hutchinson, arrested 18, A general 15, Riotous assemblage of the colliers at Tipton, Staffordshire, for an increase of wages. of peace ; the eagles taken at the battle of Waterloo, thanksgiving in England, for the restoration deposited in Whitehall Chapel Royal. 19, The American senate rejects the bill for carrying into effect the commercial treaty with Great Britain. 20, A conspiracy detected at Lyons. The majority in the French chamber of deputies make a declaration of their inviolable attachment to monarchy and the constitution. Death of the Princess Caroline Louisa, of the house of Saxe-Weimar, and consort of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburgh-Schwerin. 21, Sudden change in the Spanish ministry. Death of the Princess of NassutiWeilburgh. 22, The first trial by jury in civil causes in Scotland. 2o, The Duchess of Wellington EastIndiaman accidentally burned in Sangar-roads four persons perish in the conflagration. 27, Death of Admiral Lord Viscount Hood, in his 92d year. 28, Death of the Prussian Field-marshal Mollendorft', aged 92, supposed to have been the oldest general in Europe. 30, Wreck of the Seahorse transport, in Tramore Bay, on the Irish coast, with the loss of 365 persons; and of the Melville transport and Boadicea loss of 11 persons in the former, and 198 in the latter. brig, oft" Kinsale Head, with the February 2, Violent shocks of earthquake at Lisbon and Madeira, about one in the morning. 7, Notification of the Austrian ambassador at Carslruhe of the Pope's consent to the restoration to the Heidelburgh University of all the manuscript and printed books, amounting to 847 volumes, which had been taken from the Palatine library, and preserved in the Vatican. 8, Departure of Lord Amherst from Portsmouth, on an embassy to China. 9, The Dutch colony at Surinam restored to the King of the Netherlands. The Spanish ambassador withdraws from Washington, in consequence of a disagreement with the American government on the subject of Louisiana and West Florida. 12, The town of St. John's, Newfoundland, 14, Conflagration of the royal theatre of San Carlo, at Naples. 19, Arrival at nearly destroyed by fire. Dover of his Serene Highness Prince Leopold George Frederick of Saxe-Cobourg-Saali'ehl, the intended husband of the Princess Charlotte of Wales; arrives in London on the 21st, anil is introduced to the Prince Regent at Brighton, on the 23d. 21, Marriage of the Hereditary Prince William-Frederick of Orange to the Grand Duchess Anne of Russia, widow of the Duke of Oldenburgh, and sister to the Emperor Alexander. 22, Royal ordinance of Louis XVIII. for transferring the sub-prefecturate and tribunal of Tarascon to Aries, in consequence of the perturbed state of the former place. March 2, The fortress of Hurryhurpore, in the Nepaul country, captured by the British General Ochterlony. 4, The pacific treaty of the 2d December, 1815, ratified by the Rajah of Nepaul, in the British cunip before Muckwampore. 7, The Ister frigate wrecked on a reef of rocks, west of Cape de Gat. A dread'

SECT. X.J
Julian Period

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
ful landslide,

187

A. D.

<iV>9..181G

of about 120 English acres, and 60 feet deep, into the river Nid, near Drontheim, Norway,attended with the loss of many lives, and the destruction of Tiller church and other buildings. 14, Message of the Prince Regent to the British Parliament, announcing the intended marriage of her royal highness Princess Charlotte of Wales, with Prince Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg. 15, Extraordinary high tide at 17, Shock of earthquake felt in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and neighbouring counties. Brighton. Proclamation of the Ex-Empress Maria Louisa, Archduchess of Austria, on resuming the government of Parma, Placentia, Guastella, &c. 18, A ministerial proposal for renewing the property tax rejected in the British House of Commons, by a majority of 238 against 201. 19, Proclamation of Sir Thomas Maitland to the inhabitants of the Ionian Islands, securing the inviolability of their places of religious worship, which had been converted by the French into barracks and stables. 20, Death of the Queen of Portugal, and accession of King Joseph II. Exhumation of the remains of the Duke D'Enghein, from the fosse of the castle of Vincennes, in order to their interment in the royal vault. 21, Extensive inundation in Marienberg-Werder, occasioned by the ice of the Vistula bursting the bulwarks and dams, on the breaking Up of the frost ; by this disaster 53 villages in the Great Werder, containing 9930 inhabitants, 49 villages in the districts of Tiegenhoff, containing 10,902 inhabitants, and 17 of the Elbing villages, containing 4000 inhabitants, were all laid under water. In the course of this month, a conspiracy was detected in Madrid, and many suspected persons, among whom was General O'Donoghue, were put to the torture, to extort confessions. National schools established in France, by royal ordinance. 4, Lord Milton complains April 4, Dreadful earthquake and volcanic eruption in the island of Sumbawa. in the House of Commons of his progress through the streets being obstructed by an unlawful military force, stationed there for the purposes of parade and show on a court day : on the 5th, the Earl of Essex makes a similar complaint in the House of Lords but in both places the practice is defended by ministers, on the ground of expediency. 7, Death of Maria Louisa, consort of the Emperor of Austria. 13, Cession of the fort of Nagree by the Nepaulese, to the British, pursuant to the treaty of 2d Dec. pre15 and 10, A riot among the Bermondsey 14, Insurrection of the Negroes of Barbadoes. ceding, tanners, in consequence of their employers wishing them to work on Easter Monday and Tuesday. A sanguinary contest in the city 16, Explosion of the powder-mills and works in the Isle D'Angouleme. of Bareilly, in Rohilcund ; suppressed on the 21st, after a severe engagement between the native insur22, Among a variety of other antiquities, a canoe, or boat, and a gents and Capt. Boscawen's troops. beautiful silver cup, or basin, richly ornamented, found in digging for the improvement of the river Witham, near Washingborough, about four miles from Lincoln. 22 to 24, Trial of Sir Robert Wilson, Captain Hutchinson, and Mr. Bruce, before the assize court at Paris, for assisting in the escape of Lavalette ; being found guilty, they are sentenced to three months' imprisonment on the 10th May, the two former, as British officers, are censured in general orders from the commander-in-chief, by direction of the Prince , Regent. May 2, Marriage of her royal highness Princess Charlotte of Wales to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg. Riot at 4, Insurrection at Grenoble and other parts of the department of Isere, suppressed. 6, 14, InsurBridport, in consequence of the slackness of employment and the dearness of provisions. rection of the Catholics of Nisines 15, Shane's Castle, the ancient residence of against the Protestants. the O'Neile family, in the county of Antrim, destroyed by fire. 16 and following days, Disturbances at Bury, Norwich, and other parts of Suffolk and Norfolk. 20, Riots at Biddeford and Honiton, Devonshire. 22, Riots at Littleport and Ely, Cambridgeshire. 23, Massacre of the Christians at Bona, on the African coast, by the Algerines. 28, Riots at Halstead, Essex. In this month, Margarita was taken bystorm, by Bolivar, general of the South American Independents. June 12, The states ofWiirtemberg protest against the power, assumed by the King, of levying taxes without their consent. 14, The valleys at the foot of mount Jura laid under water, from the swell of the Rhine and mountain torrents, increased by a long succession of heavy rains. 17, Marriage of the Duke of Berri to the Princess Maria Carolina, daughter of the King of Naples. 18, The new Alien law passed in 18 to 22, Thirty-four of the England. The censorship of the press removed in the canton of Aargovia. Ely rioters tried and found guilty before a special commission, and five of them left for execution on the 28th. 19, The statue of the late Charles James Fox erected in Bloomsbury-square, London. 21, The new coinage bill passed in England. Accession of the King of the Netherlands to the holy Christian The country about Halle inundated by the overflowing of the Saale, in consequence of almost league. incessant rains for several preceding \yeeks, and the 28, Dreadful hurribursting of the mountain clouds. cane in the neighbourhood of Frankfort. 29, Bull of Pope Pius VII. against Bible societies, addressed to " the primate of Poland, in which he expresses himself truly shocked at this most crafty device, by which the foundations of religion are undermined !" July 4, The colliers and labourers of Bilston, proceeding towards London with a waggon of coals, for sale, as they professed, to the Prince Regent, to save themselves and families from starving, are stopped by the police mas'istrates at Maidenhead Thicket, and prevailed upon to return home, after receiving a compensation for their coals, which are distributed to the poor of that place. Another body, under similar circumstances, stopped at St. Alban's ; and a third at Leicester. 5, Extensive and destructive inundations in Holland, Germany, and Switzerland. 7, Death of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Esq. a distinguished par10, Petion declared President for life of the republic of Hayti (St. Domingo.) liamentary orator.
; :

B B 2

188
Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A
.
'

[CHAP. n.

**

UJ29..1816

17, The parish church of Archangel, on the Kubenza, destroyed by lightning. 19, Declaration of inde" the pendence, by representatives of the United Provinces of South America, assembled in congress," published at Buenos Ayres. The confined patriots at Ceuta taken from their beds in the dead of night, and transported to some unknown place. Fall of aeroliths at Sternenberg, near Bonn, on the Lower Rhine. A vessel ut anchor in the harbour 21, Mr. Lyell, the British messenger, assassinated at Madrid. of Lochmaddy, North Uist, struck by lightning, and sunk with all her crew on board. Dreadful affrav at Ballyvourney, Ireland, between the Lynch and Twomey clans, in which many on both sides are slain. 22, English merchandise burned at Ghent by the manufacturers and workmen of that place. Marriage of her royal highness Princess Mary to her cousin the Duke of Gloucester. 28, Hurricane, attended with a remarkable \ollev of atmospheric ice, which destroyed every thing within its reach, at Longpark. August 1 and 2, Riot at Gallon, a suburb of Glasgow. 9, Alarming and daring outrages committed in Kil10, Treaty between the king of Spain and the king of the Netherlands, for mutually kenny, Ireland. 13, Shocks of earthquake ill securing their merchant ships from the depredations of the African pirates. various parts of the north of Scotland, by which many buildings are injured in the vicinity of Inverness and the arches of the mound across the Little Ferry between Dornocli and Golspie, in Sutherland, are thrown down. 13 and 14, Riot at Preston. 20, Attempt of the New Zealanders to seize the British trading ships Brothers and Trial many of the crews of both vessels are slain in the conflict. 25, The capitan pasha, with a fleet of 44 sail, anchors in Smyrna roads, where having invited the governor of the city, Hadgi Mohammed Kialep Oglou, on board, he causes him to be put to death, by virtue of a firman from the grand signor, and sends his head to Constantinople. 25, A riot among the prisoners in Newgate, suppressed by
;

bombarded by Lord Exmouth, and the Dey compelled to abolish the Treaty of peace between the Prince Regent of Great Britain and the king of the Netherlands, on one part, and the Dey of Algiers on the other by virtue of which, all the white slaves, amounting to 1083, in the dominions of the latter, are liberated, and the practice of condemning Christian prisoners of war to slavery renounced by the Dey. 31, A violent hurricane on the eastern coasts of Great Britain causes much damage, and many losses among the shipping. In the course of this month, a squadron of the American United States arrived at Naples, to demand a restitution in value for the American property confiscated in the reign of Joachim Murat. September 2, A heavy fall of snow, in the night, in the lower parts of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, accompanied by a severe frost, which destroyed the crops of cucumbers and kidney-beans in the extensive market-gardens around the city of Ely. 3, Kia-King, Emperor of China, deposed by the guards of his palace; a revolution ensues, in the name of the gods of the empire, whose faces the Emperor had veiled. 4, Commercial treaty between Sweden and the United States of America. 6, The French chamber of deputies dissolved by royal ordinance, and a new election ordered, conformably to the constitutional charter. 15 and 16, Hurricane at Roseau, Dominica, Guadaloupe, and St. Domingo, by which most of the houses in the latter island are blown down, and the plantations destroyed. 21, Chateaubriand, a French ultra-royalist, dismissed from his ministerial functions, for publishing a pamphlet against the dissolution of the chamber of deputies. 23, The seraglio at Constantinople destroyed by an accidental fire. 24, A remarkable meteor seen at Glasgow. 25, A restriction laid on the freedom of the press, in the Netherlands, in respect to foreign powers. 26, Commercial treaty between Great Britain and the king of the Two Sicilies. 28, The Wey and Arun Junction Canal opened, in presence of the Earl of Egremont and the mayor and aldermen of Guildford. 29, Marriage of Ferdinand VII. king of Spain, to the princes* Maria-Isabella-Francesca, second daughter of the king of Portugal and Brasil and of Don Carlos, brother to Ferdinand, to the Princess Maria-Francesca de Assis, sister to the new queen. October 4, The beautiful church of St. Julian, Lisbon, destroyed by fire, during the celebration of the obsequies of the late queen of Portugal. 6, Death of Charles-Louis-Frederick, grand duke of MecklenburghStrelitz, and brother to the queen of Great Britain, in his 75th year. 12, Lotteries prohibited in the grand-duchy of Hesse. Depredations committed by the Luddites, or frame-breakers, in the village of Liimley, near Nottingham. 14, The first English stage-coach seen in France, launched at Dieppe. 17, Insurrection of the iron-workers and colliers at Merthyr-Tydvil, Glamorganshire, in consequence of their masters 19, Riots among the colliers at Caldcr iron-works, near Glasgow. reducing their wages. 20, Singular attack upon the horses of the Exeter mail, at Winterslow hut, near Salisbury, by a lioness escaped from a caravan going to Salisbury fair happily the animal was recovered by her keepers, without 24, His Royal Highness the Duke of Caminjury to the passengers; but one of the horses was killed. bridge appointed governor-general of the kingdom of Hanover, by proclamation of the Prince Regent. The British ship Comus wrecked in St. Shot's Bay, Newfoundland. 25, The Hon. Charles Noel, of Barham Court, convicted and fined under the old Conventicle Act, for having admitted more than twenty persons to attend divine service in his house with his family and domestics. 20, Belvoir Castle, the residence of the Duke of Portland, destroyed by fire. 29, Diabolical assassination of the Lynch family, consisting of nine persons, who are deliberately burned to death in their house by banditti, about three miles from Ardee, in the county of Louth, Ireland. 30, Riot at Walsall, Staffordshire. Death of Frcderick-CharlesWilliam, King of Wiirtemberg, and accession of his son Frederick-William to the throne. November 10, Wreck of the Harpooner transport, from Quebec, on the coast of Newfoundland, with the loss of upwards of 200 lives. 11, Marriage of the Emperor of Austria to the Princess Charlotte-Augusta of
27, Algiers
-28,
; ; :

the Lord Mayor. Christian slavery.

SECT. X.]
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.

189

A. D.

6521)..

1810

15, A popular meeting in the Spatields, near London, for the purpose of framing a Bavaria, at Vienna. 17, Imperial ukase, petition to the Prince Regent for reform in the state, and relief to the starving poor. 19, Arrival in obliging every male in Poland to serve in the army, from the age of 20 to that of 30. 100 in the court of England of the Archduke Nicholas of Russia, on a visit. 21, Lord Cochrane fined King's Bench, for having effected his escape from prison.

December

2, Riots in London, during a second popular assembly in the Spafields, convened for the purpose of receiving the Prince Regent's answer to the petition from the former meeting on the 15th November. Many outrages were committed, but before night tranquillity was restored by the exertions of the Lord Mayor and magistrates, and some of the ringleaders were taken into custody. 4, Riot at Dundee, in consequence of a considerable shipment of grain, when the people were in a starving state. 9, The corporation of London rebuked by the Prince Regent, for presenting an address, requesting that the parliament might be convened, in order to the adoption of a system of reform and economy in the national expenditure. 12, Decree of the King of Naples, confirming the privileges of his Sicilian subjects, and reconciling their 14, Hurricane at Brighton. inviolability with the unity of the political institutions of his united kingdom. 25, A party of Pindarees attack Sogatim, but are defeated and dispersed, on the 26th, by Major LushA Portuguese force from Rio de Janeiro, in the course of the month, occupies Monte Video. ington. Throrghout the whole of this year, and particularly towards its close, the distress of the labouring and manufacturing classes in Great Britain was unprecedentedly great, owing to a general stagnation of trade, and consequent stoppage of all kinds of work: the lower orders, reduced to a state of pauperism and despair, broke out in various instances of impatient riot, and the middle classes were impoverished by an unusual burden of poor-rates subscriptions -were opened in various parts ; but, though liberally sup:

ported by the opulent, they scarcely alleviated the general distress. 6-530. .1817 Januarys, Royal ordinance of Louis XVIII. against the smuggling of slaves into the French colonies. 17, Insurrection at Valencia, in Spain, occasioned by a dispute between the civil and military authorities, 23, Eruption of the volcano Idjeng, in Java, of several days' continuance, respecting the tax on coals. which desolates the country for many miles around. 27, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cumberland delivered of a still-born daughter. 28, The Prince Regent insulted, and the windows of his state carriage In the course of this broken, by the populace, on his return from opening the session of parliament. month, Amelia Island was taken possession of by Sir Gregor M'Gregor, a piratical chief of the South Americans. February 2, Lord Sidmouth, in the house of peers, and Lord Castlereagh, in the commons, present the documents of alleged conspiracy and treason in various parts of Great Britain, sealed up in green bags, which are referred to secret committees. 4, James Monroe, Esq. elected president of the American United States and D. D. Tomkins, Esq. Vice-president. 5, The common council of Londori address the Prince Regent on his happy escape from the popular fury during his return from the parliament house on the 28th nit. 8, A rare and beautiful appearance of the aurora borealis at Derby. 10, Official note from the. ministers of the allied powers, viz. Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, relative to the diminution of the army of occupation in France. 12, The Royalists in Chili defeated by the Independent General San Martin, and a new government organized in Santiago. 13, The new silver coinage issued in Great Britain. 28, Riot among the colliers at Radstock and Paulton, Somersetshire. 29, The church of St. Paulinus, at Treves, destroyed by lightning, during a dreadful storm of thunder, snow, and rain. March 2, Edict of Ferdinand VII. against the reading of certain books in Spain. 3, Singular note of the Grand Signor to his vizir, calling upon him to conclude his negociation with the Russian minister, before the latter should " grow angry, ami threaten the Porte with a war;" followed by the removal of the Reis Eftcndi, and a severe reprimand to the grand vizir. 4, The British Habeas Corpus Suspension Act receives the royal assent. 5, Insurrection of the Portuguese troops at Pernambuco, bv whom the governor and his officers are made prisoners, and shipped for Rio de Janeiro. 8 to 10, Dreadful devastations in the Grisons country from heavy snows and avalanches. 10, A tumultuous popular meeting at Manchester, assembled under pretence of petitioning the Prince Regent for redress of grievances, dispersed by the lf>, Official protest of the courts of Vienna, Madrid, Paris, London, Berlin, and Petersburgh, military. The privy counsellors of against the Portuguese occupation of Montevideo, in the preceding December. Stuttgardt protest against their exclusion from the assembly of the states. 19, Horrible and deliberate robbery and assassination of M. Fualdes, at Rhodez, in the department of Aveyron, by Bastide, Jaussion, Colard, and others, including two women : (the murderers were tried and executed in 1818.) 27, Lord Sidmouth publishes his celebrated circular to magistrates, enjoining them to hold to bail all persons charged on oath with publishing seditious libels. 31, The bill for preventing seditious meetings in Great Britain receives the royal assent. In this month, a conspiracy against the life of the Swedish Crown Prince Bernadotte was detected and frustrated. The diet at Sax-Weimar rendered the estates of the nobles and of the equestrian order subject to the public taxation. Capt. Caultield routed a body of Pindarees, near Hendia, on the banks of the Nerbudda. April 4, Eight persons killed, and many others dangerously wounded, by the explosion of the boiler in the Norwich and Yarmouth steam-packet. (>, Imperial ukase published at Petersburgh, in favour of Jews embracing Christianity. 12, A conspiracy detected at Barcelona, fomented by Generals Lacy and Milans : (the latter was not apprehended, but General Lacy, after being capitally condemned by a court-martial,
;

190
Julian

INTRODUCTION.
i
.

[CHAP. n.

P> onod

n A- U,
.

ii~>30.

.1817

to Majorca, where he was slain in endeavouring to escape from his guards.) 13, Captain Wallington attacked in his camp at Juggernaut by the insurgent forces of the Korrdah Rajah, and, after an obstinate resistance, obliged to retire. 16, Papal bull, for enabling the king of Spain to levy a subsidy for six years upon ecclesiastical property within his dominions. Financial ukase of the Emperor Alexan30, Proclamation of the king of Sweden against the use of foreign der, for discharging the public debt. articles of luxury. About this time, the eastern cantons of Switzerland experienced great distress, through the failure of employment and the want of provisions. May 7, Ukase of the Emperor Alexander for establishing an imperial commercial bank in Russia. 15, A Tunisian squadron appears in the English Channel, and four vessels from Hamburgh, Lubeck, and Olden-

was sent over

burgh, are captured, off the Galloper shoal, by two Moorish pirates. 18, A destructive fire at St. John's, Newfoundland. 21, An atmospheric meteor, consisting of purple and red circles, observed at Rheims. Trial and acquittal, at Edinburgh, of Niel Douglas, an 25, A revolutionary plot at Lisbon discovered. universal preacher, of Glasgow, on a charge of disrespectful words uttered in the pulpit against the King and the Prince Regent. 26, Rescript of the king of Wiirtemberg, containing his project of a free constiwhich leads to a riot at Stuttgardt on the 28th tution, sent to the assembly of the states, and rejected and 29th. 28, Official intimation of the emperor of Austria of his purpose to establish a representative government in Gallicia and Lodomeria. June 4, The states of Wiirtemberg dissolved by the king, in consequence of their opposition to his representative system. 5, Proclamation of the king of Wiirtemberg, explanatory of his reasons for dissolving the diet; and calling on the people to accept his plan of a representative constitution. Concordat between the Pope and the king of Bavaria. 9, Proclamation of the mayor of Lyons, for suppressing an expected insurrection. 15, Watson, after a trial of seven days in Westminster Hall, acquitted by a jury of his peers of a charge of high treason for the part he took in the Spatields meeting in December of the preceding in consequence of his acquittal, the attoryear: thre^others, implicated with him, were arraigned but, 16, Memorial from the Hanse Towns, presented to the diet at ney-general declined prosecuting them. Frankfort, relative to the depredations of the Barbary corsairs in the North Seas (see 15th May.) 17, Address from thel town of Welzheim to the king of Wiirtemberg, announcing its acceptance of his Majesty's plan of a free constitution the example is followed by 52 villages and hamlets of the same district. A fraud, to the extent of upwards of 20,000, committed on Messrs. Rundall and Bridge, jewellers, of Lud18, Waterloo bridge, from the Strand to the Surrey shore, opened in form gate-hill, by two foreigners. by the Prince Regent, the Duke of York, Duke of Wellington, &c. 28, Explosion of the boiler of the Richmond steam yacht. Insurrection among the stocking-weavers of Loughborough, Leicestershire, and its vicinity. 30, Declaration of the king of Prussia, for abolishing sectarian names in his dominions, and " " Evangelical Christians." Evangelical Church," and ordering the exclusive use of the terms The new British gold coinage issued in sovereigns of 20s. value, and half sovereigns of 10s. value.' July 1, 3, The export of tobacco from the Havannah, hitherto confined almost exclusively to home consumption, permitted to all foreign countries, by proclamation of the king of Spain. 4, Arrival of 700 British emigrants The Regent Margate steam-packet destroyed by fire at Whitstable Bay, at Quebec, as settlers in Canada. on its passage from London. 5, Treaty between the British East-India Company and the Peishwa, for 6, Dreadful inundations in the eastern parts of Switzerexplaining and amending the treaty of Bassein. land. 8, Death of the right hon. George Ponsonby, a distinguished parliamentary character, in his 63d 11, A deputation from the Ionian Islands, with a 10, Death of the Duke of Northumberland. year. copy of their constitution, presented to the Prince Regent, at Carlton House. 12, The Protestant temple at Miskolez, in Hungary, struck by lightning during the performance of divine service. 13, The duchess of Berri delivered of a daughter, which died soon after its birth. 14, Prince Oscar, son of Bernadotte, crown prince of Sweden, received into the Swedish council of state, in quality of hereditary prince. Porlamar, on the island of Margaretta, taken by Morillo, the Royalist general, after a severe conflict with the A Scottish colony of emigrants arrive at Pillau, and are settled on the estates of Count Poe, a Patriots. Polish nobleman, with privileges granted by the Emperor Alexander. 15, Proclamation of the Prince Regent, for suppressing the riots in Leicestershire and neighbouring parts. 20, Ukase of the Emperor Alexander, for raising the bishopric of Abo, to the rank of an archbishopric, under the title of the arch29, The Royal National Theatre at Berlin destroyed by fire. bishopric of the grand-duchy of Finland. 30, Return of Lord Amherst and suite to Spithead, after an unsuccessful mission to China. 31, The Russian ambassador, Lieut. -Gen. Yermoloff, introduced in form at the Persian court. August 7, Riot at Tynwald-hill, Isle of Man, on occasion of the publication of the new code of criminal 10, Visit laws, regulations for the herring-fishery, and an act for suppressing all paper money under 20s. of the king of Prussia to Louis XVIII. at Paris. 14, Union of the Reformed and Lutheran churches, under the general title of " The Evangelical Christian Church," at Winsbaden, in the principality of Nassau (sec 30th June). 15, The first stone laid of a naval pillar at Yarmouth, in honour of the memory of Lord Nelson. 16, The Buenos Ayres Independent government publishes an official notice that its privateers will commit hostilities on Spanish vessels. 20, The existence of a pestilential fever at Charlestown, South Carolina, and at Savannah, in Georgia, officially noticed. 23, Riot at Breslau, in consequence of a misconception of the terms of the oath required of the landweihr. 25, The majorats, or amount of property required to entitle the French nobility to seats in the house of peers, declared in a royal ordi; ; ;
:

SECT. X.]
Julian

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.

nil

Period.

A. D.

(W30..1817

nance. 28, French Guiana restored to Louis XVIII. by the king of Portugal, by a treaty signed at Paris. 31, Death of the British admiral Sir J. T. Duckworth. Constantinople was this month visited by a plague, which took off ten persons in the suite of the Grand Vizir, and the younger son of the Austrian Internuncio Pera and Bujukdera also suffered by the same scourge. In consequence of a note from the ministers of the allied powers, to the Swiss Federal Directory, the French refugees, partisans of Buonaparte, were An imperial ukase published for the regulation of landed proprietors and obliged to quit Switzerland.
:

colonists in Russia.
5, Amelia Island deserted by Sir Gregor M'Gregor, and the Patriotic Mexican flag hoisted : (see 10, Loss of the Lantaro packet, from Grecnock for January.) 7, The Belfast mail robbed by banditti. Charlestown, with 27 of her crew and passengers. 23, Treaty between Great Britain and Spain, for 27, The king of Prussia preventing the subjects of either from engaging in any illicit traffic in slaves. invites the members of the Reformed and Lutheran Churches in his dominions to unite in one Evangelical Christian Church: (see 30th June, and 14th August.) 28, The town of Neustadt, in the duchy of Hol29 and 30, Riot at Worcester, under stcin, destroyed by fire, with only the exception of five dwellings. pretence of removing encroachments from a piece of common land, called Pitchcroft. October 3, Explosion of the gunpowder works at Ore, near Favcrshara. 12, A shoal of small whales, called Pinner, about 40 in number, and from 12 to 21 feet in length, driven up the Dundee river, and captured by the fishing-boats. 14, Death of the right lion. J. P. Curran, a distinguished parliamentary character, aged about 70. 18, The citizens of Coblentz petition the king of Prussia to fulfil his promise of giving his subjects a free constitution. 20, The king of the Netherlands, in opening the session of the states21, Dreadful hurricane in the West Indies. general, announces the birth of a son to the Prince of Orange. 23, Loss of the William and Mary Waterford packet, by striking in the Wulver, or Willey shoals, in the British Channel, and only nine, out of about 55 passengers and crew, are saved. 26, Col. Hopctown Scott, commander of the British forces at Nagpore, defeats the troops of the Rajah of Berar. 27, The Patriot general Mina taken prisoner by the Royalists in the pass of Venadito, Mexico, after about half his little army of 200 men had been cut to pieces. The Emperor Alexander, by an imperial ukase, prohibits the use of 30, Eleven British officers detained and adulatory language in speaking to, or of him. committed for trial by the district court at Philadelphia, for having embarked on board the brig Ellen, in order to join the South American patriots. November 2, The third jubilee of Luther's Reformation celebrated in London. 6, Lamented death of her royal highness the Princess Charlotte of Wales, soon after she had been delivered of a still-born son. 7, Execution of Brandreth, Ludlam, and Turner, for high-treason, at Derby. 7 and 21, Destructive fires at St. John's, Newfoundland, by which nearly the whole town is laid in ashes. 11, Murder of Mr. Chennel and his housekeeper, at Godalming, Surrey, by Mr. C.'s son and an accomplice. 15, The Carr Rock beacon, at the entrance of the Firth of Forth, washed down by a sw ell of the sea. 19, Funeral of her late royal highness the Princess Charlotte of Wales, at Windsor : the day was observed as a day of humiliation and prayer throughout the kingdom. 24, The principality of Lucca taken possession of by the Spanish ambassador at Turin, in the name of her majesty Maria-Louisa, infanta of Spain. 25, The roof, and some of the upper part of Edinburgh College, destroyed by fire. 28, The Swedish diet opened by Prince Oscar, as Duke of Sudermania, in presence of the king. 29, British subjects prohibited by royal proclamation from serving in the army or navy of the Spanish American Independents. December 9, Primogenitures and feudal rights re-established, by royal decree, in the Sardinian states. 16, The tea-trade laid open in the kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Dutch China Company abolished. Defeat of the Mahrattas, at Nagpoor, by the British, commanded by Colonels Macleod, Mackeller, and Stuart. 21, The troops of Holkar defeated by the British under Sir Thomas Hislop. (J531..1818 January 1, The Russian imperial national bank opened at Petersburgh : (see 7th May, 1817.) The cold was so excessive on this day at Paris, that the mercury in the thermometer sunk seven degrees below the freezing 1 and 2, The Peishwa point. repulsed by the British in an attempt upon Poonah. Savendroog, a strongfortress of the Peishwa, on the Deccan coast, captured by a British detachment sent by Sir Evan Nepean from Bombay. 3, The archduke Anthony removed from the viceroyalty of the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom, and his honours conferred on the archduke Rainer, by an ordinance of the Austrian emperor. 4, Edict of the king of Spain against the purchase, by his subjects, of African negroes north of the equator. 5, The rajah of Berar' s army defeated by the British, under Lieut. -Col. M'Morine, at Sreenuggur. 12, Defeat of Gen. Morillo by Bolivar and the Venezuelan patriots, before Calabozo, followed by partial actions to the 16th inclusive in all which the Spanish Royalists are worsted. 13, Death of the right hon. George Rose, many years a distinguished statesman, and latterly the patron of saving banks, for promoting economy among the lower classes. 21, Many spirited discussions, about this time, in the French chamber of deputies, on the law for recruiting the army. 22, The Saxon king's proposed amelioration of the constitution, by the establishment of a new The privy council, rejected by the states-general. typhus fever so virulent in Ireland at this time, that upwards of 14 Catholic clergymen fell victims to it at Londonderry. 23, Santander, Corunna, Cadiz, and Alicant, declared free ports, by an edict of King Ferdinand. 28, The king of Spain demands of the British ministry the sum of 400,000, as a compensation for his partial abolition of the slave-trade, which is acceded to. The project of a new law respecting the liberty of the press, lost in the French chamber of peers, by a large majority. 29, Eleven of the

September

192
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
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. '

[CHAP. n.

IX

,.

6531.. 1818

twelve Irish judges give their final decision in favour of the crown on the long-contested point of the right of the chief baron of the Exchequer to appoint the clerk of the pleas. The British cabinet increased to 13 members, by the addition of Mr. Robinson, late vice-president of the board of trade. 31, The Habeas Corpus Suspension Act repealed. Amelia Island taken possession of by the American government. " Ashi'ord versus Thornton," argued before the February 4, The important case of the appeal of murder, several hearing's, it was decided that the defendant was entitled to his wager court of kind's bench after of battle, which the appellant, a mere stripling, declined the trial of. Death of the celebrated Count 5, Death of Charles III. king of Sweden, and Platoff, hcttman of the Don Cossacks, at Novo-Tscherkask. accession of Charles-John (Bernadotte). 5-17, Proclamation of the Emperor Alexander, as king of Poland, for the first convocation of the diet, since the grant of a new constitution. 9, The recruiting law, after an ordeal of 21 sittings, passes the French chamber of deputies. 10, The fortress of Sattara reduced by The Princess Bheem-Bhye, sister to Holkar, surrenders herself to MajorBrigadier-general L. Smith. 11, The Duke of Wellington fired at in his carriage, in passing through the streets of Paris. general Keir. The ancient Scottish crown, sceptre, and sword of state, discovered in Edinburgh Castle. 12, The independence of Chili formally proclaimed. Murder of Mr. Bird and his housekeeper, at Greenwich. 15, An 17, One Bruneau, extraordinary meteor observed at Thoulouse, which discharged atmospheric stones. calling himself Louis XVII. son of the unfortunate Louis XVI. interrogated before the French criminal In a calamitous fire, tribunals after many hearings, he is condemned to the galleys as an impostor. which destroyed a cotton mill, near Huddersfield, 14 girls, and a number of children, perished. 19, The legislature of Frankfort rejects a proposal for proclaiming that city an asylum for all persons banished their own country on account of their political opinions. 20, The Peishwa defeated and put to flight by Brigadier-General L. Smith, near Ashta. 22, Hurricane at St. Maloes, by which many vessels on the coast are dashed in pieces. 23, The fort of. Swindwab taken by the British, under Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Hislop. 27, The fortress of Talnier taken by storm, by Sir Thos. Hislop, who orders the garrison, consisting of 300 Arabs, to be put to the sword, and the Killedar, or governor, to be hanged, in consequence of their assassination of Major Gordon and Capt. Macgregor, to whom they had pre:

March

viously capitulated. 1, Definitive decree of King Ferdinand against the Spanish exiles ; by which all who had acted under Joseph Buonaparte, as counsellors or ministers, or in a military capacity, down to the rank of captains, are for ever banished. Aly Pacha, dey of Algiers, assassinated, and Houssin, his master of the horse, elected to the vacant throne by the divan. The islands of Mauritius and Bourbon laid waste by a hurricane, attended with a heavy swell of the sea. 4, Hurricane in London and its environs, which occasions the loss of many lives, by the fall of houses, chimneys, &c. : its effects were also felt in various parts of England, and much damage was done to the shipping on the coast, and in the rivers. 5, A second

attempt on the life of the Duke of Wellington, at Paris. 7, The tomb of Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, accidentally discovered in clearing some rubbish from the site of an intended new church, at Dumfcrmline. 12, The garden of the Tuilleries and the Versailles road inundated by an extraordinary swell of the Seine. 15-27, First assembly of the Polish diet, under the new constitution, opened by the emperor and 21, The king of king Alexander. 20, Conflagration of the magnificent theatre of the Odeon, at Paris. Prussia rebukes the citizens of Coblentz (see 18th Oct. 1817,) for their presumption in petitioning him to
fulfil his promise. 24, A violent hurricane in Sweden. Royal ordinance of Louis XVIII. for suppressing the slave-trade among French subjects. 7, Marriage of her royal April 3, Royal decree of King Ferdinand relative to the Spanish national debt. highness Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip- Augustus-Frederick, of Hesse-Homberg. 8, Lord Viscount Palmerston fired at, and dangerously wounded, by Lieut. David Davis, on the stairs of the War-Office. 9, Battle of Maipo, in Chili, in which the Royalists are defeated and routed, with the loss of 2000 men the loss of the Independents was also severe, amounting to killed, and upwards of 3000 taken prisoners not less than 2000 killed and wounded. 25, Royal ordinance of Louis XVIII. relative to the French national debt. 2C, Messrs. Arbuthnot and Ambrister, two British subjects, taken by the American general Jackson, within a Spanish post in Florida, tried by an American court-martial, on a charge of treason against the United States, condemned, and executed on the 30th, the former being hanged, the latter shot. 29, Visit of the Queen to the Mansion-house, to be present at the examination of the city National Schools. 30, Proclamation of the king of the Two Sicilies, for regulating the coinage of his domi;

nions.

May

1, The town of San Fernando, in the island of Trinidad, nearly destroyed by an accidental fire. 2, The queen of Great Britain taken suddenly ill, at an entertainment given by the Duke of York. 3, The assassins of M. Fualdcs (see 19th March, 1817,) found a long and singuilty, and condemned to death, after 4, Treaty between Great Britain and the Netherlands, gularly interesting trial in the assize court at Albi. 6, Royal signed at the Hague, for preventing the subjects of either from engaging in the slave-trade. edict of the king of Portugal and Brazil, for enforcing the abolition of the slave-trade among his subjects, north of the equator. 7, Marriage, at Cassel, of his royal highness the Duke of Cambridge, to the Princess Augusta-Wilhelmina-Louisa, daughter of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel re-inarried at St. James's on the 1st June. 8, Extraordinary heavy rains, by which the lower parts of London and its vicinity are laid under water. Decree of Ferdinand VII. for treating as rebels all foreigners taken in arms in the service
:

SECT. X.]
Julian Period.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.

193

A. D.

6531.. 1818

of the Spanish American Independents. 9, An iceberg:, full six miles in extent, stranded on the island of 11, Coronation of Charles-John, king of Sweden, &c. at Fowla, the most westerly of the Shetland isles. Stockholm. 13, Death of the Prince of Conde, in his 82d year. 26, Grand military review, by the Prince Regent, on Hounslow Heath. 27, The plague makes dreadful ravages at Oran, about this time. The new constitution of Bavaria published, on the repre28, The Jews excluded from the Leipsic fairs. sentative plan, with liberty of conscience and freedom of opinion in religious and political affairs. 29, Marriage, atCobourg, of his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, to the Princess Victoria-Maria-Louisa, dowager of the hereditary Prince of Leiningen, and sister to the Prince of Cobourg ; remarried at Kew on the llth July. June 3, Departure of the Prince and Princess of Hesse-Homberg from England, for the continent. 6, Arrival in London of the Grand Duke Michael, of Russia, on a visit. 9, Proclamation of king Henry (Christophe) of Hayti, inviting the subjects of the late president Petion to place themselves under his government. 12, Note from king Ferdinand to the allied powers, 10, Abrupt dissolution of the British parliament. announcing his readiness to grant a general amnesty to the Spanish American insurgents, to admit nathe Americans to posts of honour, in common with his European subjects, and to regulate the commerce of the 17, The deacon of a Protestant church at Bourdeau\ fined by the tribunal provinces on free principles. of police, for not decorating the front of his house during the procession of the host, on Corpus Christi 20, Death of the queen dowager of Sweden, Hedewig-Elizabeth Charlotte. 26, Second ordinance day. of Louis XVIII. for suppressing the slave trade. 29, Trimbuckjee-Danglia, the instigator of the Peishwa's hostility to the British, seized by Capt. Swanston, at the village of Aherigaum, and the grandson of Raghogee Bhoosla placed on the throne of the Musnud, with the title of Rajah Raghogee Bhoosla. July 7, Wreck of the Cabalva East-Indiaman, on the small island of Cargados, in the Indian ocean. 11, Marriage, at Kew, of his royal highness the Duke of Clarence, to the princess Adelaide-AmeliaLouisa-Theresa-Carolina, of Saxe-Meiningen. 14, Riots at Stockport, Cheshire. 16, The thermometer at 82 in the shade at London. Halifax, New York, made a free port. 22, Imperial patent of the Emperor Francis of Austria, for creating his grandson (the son of Napoleon Buonaparte) a duke, by the style and title of his most serene highness prince Francis-Joseph-Charles, duke of Reichstadt. 23, Singular variation in the temperature of the air at Salisbury : at three o'clock in the afternoon, the thermometer was at 121* in the sun, at eight o'clock it had fallen to 80, and at half-past ten to 73. The northeastern counties of England much disturbed by combinations among the journeymen manufacturers, for an increase of wages. 24, Confirmation of the commercial treaty (dated 4th Sept. 1816) between Sweden and the United States of America, signed at Stockholm. The fever continues to rage in Ireland. 25, In England, the average of six thermometers, in the sun, at two o'clock in the afternoon, was 114 Fahrenheit ; in the shade, 87 in a northern aspect, 88 in a southern ; the oppressive heat of the weather is every where complained of, and the harvest commences under the most promising auspices. August 1, The Quebec bank opened. 4, A congratulatory address presented by the British inhabitants of Calcutta to the marquis of Hastings, (Earl Moira) on his triumphant return to the seat of his government, after an arduous and successful war. 13, Conflagration at Constantinople, followed by a popular insurrection to allay the latter, the capitan pacha is removed on the 14th, and an effendi of the court of 14, The Russian grand duke Michael visits Edinburgh, and justice at Galata strangled on the 18th. receives the freedom of that city. 16, The punishment of running the gauntlet in the Hanoverian army abolished by the Prince Regent. 17, The interposition of the military called for by the Manchester 18, Departure of the duke magistrates, to repress the spirit of insubordination among the cotton-spinners. and duchess of Cambridge from England, for the continent. 20, Dreadful explosion, in St. George's Fields, of combustibles preparing for an exhibition at Vauxhall. 21, Another destructive fire at St. John's, Newfoundland. 22, The new constitution published for the grand duchy of Baden. 23, A beautiful vase presented to the president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, from the king of Prussia, in testimony of that monarch's gratitude for his reception there in 1814. 25, The Russian grand duke Michael visits Donaghadee, and other places in Ireland. September 2, Fresh disturbances among the manufacturers at Manchester. 7, Coronation of Charles-John, 11, Eight-aml-thirty unfortunate perking of Sweden and Norway, in his latter capacity, at Drontheim. sons, men, women, and youths, arraigned at the bar of the Old Bailey, London, on capital charges of 15, The order of Jesuits re-established in Switzerland, by the passing forged Bank-of-England notes. 17, Unsuc16, Disturbances among the weavers at Preston, Lancashire. sovereign council of Fribourg. cessful attempt, by Randal Jackson, Esq. to discuss the subject of forged notes and Bank prosecutions, at a half-yearly meeting of Bank proprietors. 10, The first stone laid of a military monument at Berlin, in presence of the king of Prussia and the Emperor Alexander. 23, Tangiers ravaged by the plague about this time. 25, Insurrection of the nathes against the Dutch troops at Samaranff, in the island of Java. 26, The Emperor Alexander abolishes vassalage in the duchy of Courland. 29, Dreadful explosion of gunpowder, on the canal wharf, Nottingham, occasioned by the incautious introduction of fire into a boat,
:

whence the powder was landing many lives were lost, and several persons wounded, by the accident. 30, The congress of allied potentates and their ministers opened at Aix-la-Chapclle, for the definitive settlement of European affairs, and the evacuation of France by their armies. Royal ordinance of Louis XVIII.
:

for restoring the

French national guard to

its

original municipal institution.

VOL.

I.

CC

194
Julinn Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A D
'

[CHAP. n.

0531.. 1818

October 9, Treaty between the allied powers assembled in congress at Aix-la-Chapelle, for the evacuation of the French territories by their armies. 17, An order of the British council issued for the coinage of crown21, Resignation of Lord Ellenborough of his office of chief judge of the court of King's Bench. pieces. Decree of king Ferdinand, for increasing the white population of the island of Cuba. 24, The Queen Charlotte Indiaman lost, near Madras, with all her crew and passengers, during a violent hurricane. Arrival in the Thames of the Dorothea and Trent discovery ships, from an unsuccessful expedition towards the north pole, in search of a north-west passage to India. 28, The emperor Alexander and the king of In the course of this month, the Wechabites were defeated, near the Prussia make a short visit to Paris. their prince Abdallah was taken prisoner, by Ibrahim Pacha. city of Derych, and November 2, Lamentable death of Sir Samuel Romilly. 10, Claims upon the royal domains of Hanover, of the enemy, abolished by royal ordinance. 14, Arrival of Lord Cochoriginating during the usurpation rane at Testigos, South America, with three ships of war and two brigs, to assist the patriots against the one of Buonaparte's adherents, arrested in London, and sent out Spanish royalists. General Gourgand, of the kingdom. 15, Declaration from the congress at Aix-la-Chapelle, that the tranquillity of Europe is established on a permanent foundation. 17, Death of her majesty Charlotte Queen of Great Britain, at Kew palace, after a long and painful illness. 19, Royal edict of Ferdinand against the reading of certain books inSpain. A large stone, of the meteoric kind, weighing about 5cwt. and supposed to be the true stone, " Jacob's pillow," on which the ancient kings of Scotland were crowned, discovered among popularly called the ruins of Macbeth's castle, on the hill of Dunsinane. 20, Return of the Isabella and Alexander discovery ships to Deptford, after an unsuccessful attempt to rind a north-west passage through Baffin's Bay. 23, From an official report, laid this day before the American congress, it appeared that the public debt of the United States amounted to 22,479,241, although, prior to 1812, it was no more than .7,163,052, the war with Great Britain having increased it more than threefold : the revenue of 1818 was estimated at 6,378,189, and the expenditure at 5,902,950, leaving an overplus of 475,239 towards the reduction of the debt: at this time a general scarcity of specie prevailed, and a total suspension of cash payments

December

6532.. 1819

by the different banks had taken place. Death of Charles-Frederick, grand 2, Funeral of the late Queen of Great Britain, at Windsor. duke of Baden succeeded by his grandson, Charles-Louis, born in 1786. 7, Loss of the Myrose EastIndiaman, off Palo-Sapota. 10, Resolution of the common council of London, to petition Parliament to correct the evils arising out of the facility with which Bank notes are counterfeited. 13, Death of Lord Ellenborough, late chief justice of the court of King's Bench. 22 and following days, London and the surrounding country enveloped in a thick fog, which obstructs all travelling, and causes a number of fatal In many parts of the Netherlands, a similar fog prevailed at the same time ; and at Amsteraccidents. dam, Haarlem, and Leyden, many persons were drowned, in consequence of mistaking their way. 26, Death of queen Maria-Isabella-Francesca, consort of Ferdinand VII. king of Spain, in the 22d year of her age. after he had 30, Extraordinary outrage at Edinburgh, during the execution of a robber, named Johnstone been suspended in an awkward manner by the executioner, he was cut down and carried off by the mob but through the activity of the police officers, aided by a party of military, he was taken from them, and In this month, the application of torture, and use of exculpatory subjected to the full penalty of the law. oaths in criminal examinations, were abolished at Hanover. January 2, Death of Queen Louisa -Maria-Theresa, consort of the exiled Charles IV. and mother to Ferdinand VII. of Spain, at Rome, in her 68th year: (her husband also died on the 20th.) 5, The directors of the Bank of England refuse to continue to merchants the usual accommodation of discounting their bills. The net produce of the British revenue, for the year ending this day, is stated by the minister at 791,867,313 ; the sinking fund to 49,000,000; the total unredeemed debt amounts to 15,815,001; and the total charge, including the sinking fund, to 45,749,296. 9, Death of Queen Catharine of Russia, consort of Frederick-William, king of Wiirtemberg, in the 31st year of her age. 14, The new British parliament assembles, and the Right Hon. Charles Manners Sutton is re-elected Speaker of the Commons after swearing in the members, the session is formally opened for business on the 21st. Death of the celebrated Dr. Wolcot, author of several satirical poems, under the name of Peter Pindar, in his 81st 18, A great sensation excited in the British metropolis, on account of the number of persons capiyear. the London jury pretally convicted at the Old Bailey, of having passed forged Bank-of- England notes sent an address to the court, earnestly entreating that capital punishments for those offences might be A fair established at Sierra Leone, for the sale, or barter, of African produce. The remains of altered. the Royal forces in Chili routed by the Independent General Balcaree, in the province of Conception. he had lost 20, Death of Charles IV. late king of Spain, at Rome, in his 71st year, after 24 hours' illness his queen on the 2d inst. 25, Dreadful hurricane in the Isle of France. 27, Petitions from the corporation of London, presented to both houses of parliament, praying a revision of the British criminal code: in consequence of this, and other similar applications, a select committee of the house of commons was appointed, on the 2d March, to inquire into the state of the criminal laws. The droit d'avbaine abolished
: :

February 1,

nobility of Hanover made subject to taxation. of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle laid before parliament. 3, The court of proprietors of the East-India Company vote an address of thanks to the Marquis of Hastings, for the able and successful manner in which he had brought the Mahratta war to a conclusion. A petition from Bristol to the house of comin

France.

The

A copy

SECT. X.]
Julian
J'eri.jd.

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.

195

A. D.

G532..1810

mons, against the resumption of cash payments by the Bank of England, is the forerunner of many others of a similar import. A secret committee appointed by the house of commons to inquire into the state of the Bank. 8, The total amount of Bank-of-England paper in circulation is stated at 27,997,298. 19, Three foreigners convicted at the Old Bailey of a breach of the slave-trade abolition laws, and sentenced to three years' imprisonment in the house of correction. 22, Treaty between the United States of America and the Spanish minister, for the cession of the Floridas to the former the court of Spain afterwards refuses to ratify this treaty. 26, The committee of the house of commons, appointed to inquire into the circumstances of the Penryn election, declare Henry Swann, Esq. unduly elected, through the influence of bribery and corruption for which offence, on the 22d March, the attorney-general is instructed to prosecute him. The British settlements at the Cape of Good Hope attacked by the Caffres the insurrection continues for several months, and is extended over most of South Africa, to the great injury of European settlers. March 3, An act of the American congress, to protect the commerce of the United States, and to punish 4, A vote of thanks passed in the British house of commons to the piracies, approved by the President. Marquis of Hastings, on the successful termination of the war in India. 7, The king of France creates 45 new peers, for the purpose of securing a majority in the upper chamber, in favour of ministers. A riot at Nismes against the Protestants. 7 to 10, A hurricane at Malta destroys property to the amount of 2,000,000 sterling. 18, Sir Manasseh Lopez convicted at the Exeter assizes, of bribery and corruption, in the Grampound election on the 3d April, the house of commons also declares his election for Barnstaple to be void, and orders the attorney-general to prosecute him for bribery in that case, (see 13th Nov.) 23, Kotzebue, a celebrated German writer, assassinated at Manheim, in the 57th year of his age, by an enthusiast, named Charles Sandt. 24, Wreck of the Paragon East-Indiaman, on Sanger sand. 25, The Southwark iron bridge opened. 26, The duchess of Cambridge delivered of a prince, at Hanover, who was christened, on the 8th July, by the names of George-Frederick-Alexander-Charles-ErnestAugustus, the king of Prussia acting as godfather personally, and the emperor Alexander standing by 27, The duchess of Clarence delivered of a princess, at Hanover, which died on the same day, proxy. after being baptized by the names of Charlotte-Augusta-Louisa. About April 2, Solemn entry into Rome, of the emperor of Austria and his consort, on a visit to the Pope. this time, a plot was discovered at Mantua, to 3, The Prince poison the emperor of Austria at Rovigo. Regent communicates to the states-general of Hanover, his will respecting the future constitution of that kingdom. 4, New Granada declares its independence. 9, Royal ordinance of Louis XVIII. for rewardViolent ing such artists, as during the preceding ten years had promoted the manufactures of France. shock of earthquake experienced at Mazara and Oran, by which many of the inhabitants were buried in the ruins of their houses. 9 and 10, The town and fort of Porto-Bello taken by Sir Gregor M'Gregor, but recaptured by the Royalists, under Gen. Hore, on the 1st May. 10, Royal ordinance of Louis XVIII. approving of a French Royal Society for the amelioration of prisons. 12, A pot, full of silver coins, of the times of Edward VI. and Elizabeth, discovered by some labourers in digging near Fontmell, Dorsetshire. 14, A tribunal of honour erected in Bavaria, to take cognizance of duels, and quarrels that might lead to them. 15, Students in colleges at Warsaw exempted from the military conscription, by order of the emperor Alexander. Marriage of Don Francis de Paulo, Infant of Spain, and brother to king Ferdinand, to the princess Louisa-Charlotte of Naples, grand-daughter of the duke of Calabria. Bagguley, " Drummond, and Johnston, leaders of what was termed the Blanket Expedition," tried and convicted of sedition at the Chester assizes, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. 16, Mr. Owen publishes his 19, Trial and conviction, at Brussels, of certain persons for plan for bettering the condition of the poor. a conspiracy to seize the emperor Alexander, during the congress at Aix-la-Chapelle, in October, 1818, in order to make him issue a proclamation for the recal of Napoleon Buonaparte. 25, Arrival, at Dover, of an ambassador from Persia, who proceeds to London on the 27th, and is received by the Prince Regent in grand style on the 20th May. 27, Explosion of the boiler of a high-pressure steam-engine, belonging to a saw-mill in Southwark, by which the building it stood in is levelled with the ground, several adjoining The Isle of France premises are damaged, and the owner, with his son and three or four others, killed. devastated by a violent hurricane, which does considerable damage to the shipping in the harbour of Port
:

May.

Louis. In the beginning of this month, the Jews are The Caffres make a second expelled Meiningen. 3, Mr. Gratirruption, to the number of about 30,000, upon the European settlements in South Africa. tan's motion in the house of commons, in favour of Roman Catholics, a majority of two : a negatived by similar motion in the house of lords, by the earl of Donoughmore, on the 17th, is rejected by a majority of 41. 6, The secret committee of the house of commons on the Bank-of-England affairs, (see 3d Feb.) recommends that the Bank should pay its notes in bullion, at a distant day, which recommendation is adopted on the 26th. 7, A law passes the French chamber of deputies, requiring security, to the amount of 10,000 francs, from the printers of the printers or pubdaily papers, and to the amount of 5000 from lishers of other periodical publications. 10 to 14, Two persons tried before the court of assizes at Paris, on a charge of having fired at the duke of Wellington, on the llth February, 1818, and acquitted. 11, A motion in the house of lords, by the marquis of Lansdowne, for copies of communications with the American United States, relative to the death of Messrs. Arbuthnot and Ambrister, negatived. 12, The Spanish

c c 2

196
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
A n D
.
' -

[CHAP. n.

'!~>:V2..1819

and banished from Madrid: other changes are prime minister, marquis Casa Irujo, suddenly dismissed, made in the ministry, and many of the old members sent into exile. 16, The directors of the Bank of of 10,000,000 sterling, before the England call upon the government for the repayment of their loan removal of the restriction upon cash payments. 18, Mr. Tierney's motion in the house of commons, for an inquiry into the state of the British nation, lost, after a prolonged and -warm debate. 24, The duchess of Kent delivered of a princess, at Kensington Palace, who was christened on the 24th June, by the names of Alexandrina- Victoria. 26, The marquis of Camden receives the thanks of the house of commons and of his country, for relinquishing the salary of the sinecure office of teller of the Exchequer. 27, Grand An intended insurrection detected, of the negro slaves of installation of knights of St. Patrick, at Dublin. An earthquake at Caraccas.--In the course of this month, in the American state of Georgia. Augusta, several German governments refuse to give their people constitutions, notwithstanding their previous promises to do so. June 3, A heavy fall of snow, attended with severe frost, in the south of Scotland. 8, The canton of Zurich laid waste by a hail storm. 10, A bill for abolishing the declaration against the doctrine of transubstana majority of 141 to tiation, rejected in the British house of peers, on a motion for its second reading, by
also

83.

12,

Granada.

The Spanish American Royalists defeated by Gen. Bolivar, who in consequence enters New 20, Arrival, at 16, The district and country of Kutch, in India, destroyed by an earthquake.

from Savannah on the 26th May; Liverpool, of the Savannah American steam-vessel, of 350 tons burden, being the first steam-boat that ever crossed the Atlantic. 23, The Glasgow weavers address a memorial to the Prince Regent, stating their grievances and distress for want of employment and food. 25, Mr. Owen's plan (see 16th April) taken into consideration, in a meeting held for the purpose at Freemasons'

30, The house of commons Hall, London, the Duke of Kent in the chair, and recommended for trial. declares the Camelford election void, on the ground of bribery, and orders a writ for a new election. and in some During this and the following months, the manufacturing districts in the north of England, of Scotland, were in a very perturbed state, in consequence of the general distress and want of parts employ among the labouring classes associations, male and female, were formed for the purpose of seekmethod of petitioning the Prince Regent and parliament ; but at redress, under the ostensible and
:

ing

legal

many of their meetings, a spirit of disaffection and a revolutionary disposition was manifested. laid with great ceremony July 1, The first stone of St. Pancras' new church, in the New Road, near London, his royal highness the Duke of York. Sir Francis Burdett's motion, in the house of commons, for a by
reform
in

in the north,

the representation of the country, negatived, by a majority of 153 to 58. 3, A comet appears and continues visible in the evening for about a month. 4, A singularly beautiful lunar phsenomenon seen at Budleigh-Salterton, Devon. 5, During a thunder-storm at Lynn, the lightning strikes Sedgeford steeple, disperses the children in an evening school, and kills one girl. 6, Madame Blanchard ascends from the Tivoli gardens, near Paris, with an illuminated balloon, surrounded by fire-works, amidst the acclamations of a vast multitude ; shortly afterwards the vehicle is seen in flames, and she is precipitated from a great height, and killed on the spot. The heat at Vienna so excessive, that Reaumer's thermometer rises to 29J degrees in the shade, and numbers of men and horses working in the fields drop dead from its effects. 7, The Spanish troops assembled at Cadiz, for the purpose of embarking to reduce the revolted colonies in South America, break out into open mutiny, but are with great quickness surprised by the commander-in-chief, O'Donnell, at the head of the garrison, who makes 160 officers and 7000 men lay down their arms. 8, Dreadful storms at Ghent, and in the department of Calvados ; in the neighbourhood of the former, pieces of ice fall, of a pound weight each, and about 3000 trees are torn up by the roots by the wind ; in the latter, the rain occasions losses to the farmers to the amount of violent storm of thunder and hail at Rambouillet, where the smallest particles of 500,000 francs. 9, the latter fall as large as musket-balls ; in the vicinity of Bourdeaux they are much larger, and lay waste the country to the extent of 10, The woods in New Jersey, east of Philadelphia, are seen

twenty leagues. an extent often miles in length, and more than five in breadth. The weavers in Montgomeryshire, dissatisfied with the low rate of wages, assemble riotously at Newton, and are repulsed by the constables, who apprehend their ringleaders. 12, A meeting of Reformers, better known by the title oi Radicals, held on Newthall Hill, near Birmingham, said to consist of 60,000 persons, who elect Sir C. Wolseley as representative for Birmingham, under the new title of Legislatorial Attorney: for this defiance of the laws, the grand jury for the county of Warwick found bills of indictment, on the 9th August, against the A steam-boat explodes at Grangeparties concerned, but the trials were put off till the next assizes. mouth, by which nine persons are severely scalded. Riot in Liverpool, occasioned by the procession of a number of persons associated to preserve religious distinction, under the name of an Orange Society, and who are attacked, and put to flight, by the Irish. A dreadful thunder-storm at Durham does great misNumerous arrests take place in Prussia, of persons chief, and sweeps away whole tracts of vegetation. suspected of revolutionary principles, mostly professors in the universities, and the alarm of an exteiisiuconspiracy against existing systems of government, is diffused throughout the German states. During a terrible storm in the commune of Chateauneuf, the church is struck by lightning, by which the curate and nine persons are killed, and forty severely wounded. 12, The chancellor of the exchequer proposes, in the house of commons, his plan of emigration to the Cape of Good Hope, in order to take off the superfluous population of the country, and obtains a grant of 50,000 for carrying it into effect. Grand regatta on the

on

fire,

for

.SECT. X.]
Julian

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
river

197

Period

A. D.

6532.. 1819

Thames, in honour of the naval victories of Great Britain. 14, Fire at Amsterdam, by which warehouses are destroyed, and fourteen persons lose (heir lives. The remains of the celebrated poet, Boileau, transferred to the church of St. Germain dcs Pres, with great solemnity. 17, A great number of distressed artisans assemble at Paisley, and having passed resolutions, ascribing the low state of manufactures to the pressure of taxation, separate without tumult. A meeting of radical reformers at Dewsbury, which terminates peaceably, after recommending a national union. 19, Reform meetings at Hunslet Moor, near Leeds, at Nottingham, and at North Shields. 20, Calamitous explosion of a coalmine at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, by which 40 persons lose their lives. 21, A meeting of radical reformers held in Smithfield, to the great terror of the Metropolis; great military preparations had been made by government for the occasion, and 6000 special constables had been sworn in by the city magistrates ; but, after passing a series of resolutions, and agreeing to a petition to the Prince Regent, praying for reform, the meeting quietly dispersed, notwithstanding an arrest, in the midst of the multitude, of one of the orators, on a charge of sedition committed at Stockport. Several magistrates and gentlemen recommend armed associations in the agitated districts, for the purpose of preserving the public peace.
22, Prince Leopold gives a magnificent festival, in order to encourage the trade of the British metropolis. 23, About 120 houses, besides stores and wharfs, destroyed by fire at St. John's, Newfoundland. Meeting of the magistrates of the counties of Chester and Lancaster, to encourage armed associations, in order to

put down sedition. Birch, the constable, of Stockport, who took Sir C. Wolselev and Harrison into cusNumerous arrests on suspicion of tody, wounded by a pistol-shot from the hand of an unknown assassin. disloyalty, in Prussia and other German states; a republican association said to be discovered at Berlin, of which Sandt, the assassin of Kotzebue, was a member, and called the Teutonic league. The lord mayor of London (Atkins) declares, in common council at Guildhall, that he had received information on oath of a diabolical plot, to fire the metropolis, and murder the inhabitants (it turned out that his lordship had been imposed on, by receiving on oath a matter of opinion, instead of a substantial fact.) General Sarazin convicted at Paris of polygamy, and sentenced to eight years' hard labour in an iron collar, and to pay a line of 40,000 francs. An affray at Liverpool, between some constables and a party of Irish South American volunteers, the latter of whom attack and break open the bridewell, and rescue their comrades who had been made prisoners during the tumult. 24, Afflicting distress among the frame-work knitters at Leicester, who parade the streets, but more to excite compassion than to create disorder. Thunder-storms in the northern counties of England, and in Scotland as far as Glasgow several persons killed by lightning, and six bridges destroyed. The kingdom of Naples dreadfully infested by banditti, who set at defiance the military character. 25, A thunder-storm at Hereford, and some cattle killed by the lightning. 26, The livery of London pass a vote of censure on the lord mayor, for officious and intemperate conduct on the day of the Smithfield meeting. A meeting of radical reformers at Rochdale, at which a national union is recommended. 28, A meeting of radical reformers at Rippenden. Nearly 600 dogs destroyed in Sheffield, through alarm on account of some lamentable instances of hydrophobia. 29, Great distress in the manufacturing towns of Scotland numbers unemployed in the towns of Ayr, Saltcoats, Kilwinning, Kilmaurs, Mauchlin, and Beith, several of whom adopt the plan of addressing a statement of their case to the lordlieutenant of the county. 30, The Regent holds a council, and a proclamation is issued on the internal state of the country. 31, A meeting of radical reformers at Macclesfield, when several intemperate resolutions are adopted, and a female radical addresses the crowd, but the meeting breaks up without any act of disorder. August 2, A meeting of radicals at Huddersfield and counter-meetings of the magistrates at Bolton and Skeleton of a whale discovered in the 5, A thunder-storm in the neighbourhood of Liverpool. Burnley. mud of the Forth, at Aithrie. Three rainbows distinctly visible at the same time, at Boston an appearance similar to that observed by Dr. Halley, at Chester, in the year 1098. Numerous and alarming reports of clandestine drilling and training carried on at night, among the discontented in the disturbed districts. 6, Tremendous storms of thunder and lightning in various parts of Ireland, accompanied by torrents of rain several persons killed, and great damage done by the overflowing of rivers, and the breaking down of bridges. A combat, in a field near Paris, between three editors of a French journal, and an equal number of the French guards, on account of an offensive publication one of each party is wounded. 7, The commercial distress in Lancashire and the west riding of Yorkshire, increased by the failure of several commercial houses in Baltimore. 8, A number of young whales appear in Dungarvon Bay, on the south-east coast of Ireland forty are taken by the fishermen, the largest not more than 23 feet in length. Distresses increase among the weavers in Scotland, at Glasgow, Ayr, Kilsyth, Hamilton, and some other places, where a turbulent disposition is partially 9, Indications of disturbance among the weavers of Glasgow. displayed. 11, A radical meeting at Leigh, and a person of the name of Clare taken into custody on the spot. 13, The grand duke of Baden, after closing the session of the deputies from the states in displeasure, prohibits all communication between them and their constituents. 15, The Jews persecuted in various parts of Germany. 16, A reform meeting at Manchester, consisting of about 70,000 persons, men, women, and children, violently dispersed by a military force, by order of the magistrates; great confusion ensues, in the midst of which five or six lives are lost, and upwards of 100 persons are wounded, or injured by the pressure some of the orators, with Hunt, the chairman, are taken into custody on the 21st, the magistrates and military receive the Prince 17, Riots at MacRegent's thanks for their resolute interference.
:

l}>8
Julian IVriod.

INTRODUCTION.
A U
'

[CHAP. n.

6532. .1819

clesfield,
oft"

suppressed by the military on the followingday. A whirlwind at Hadham, near Oulborough, sweeps the ground a field of barley, and carries it to an elevation, higher than that of the adjoining trees. 18, Death of prince Christian-Frederick-Charlcs of Hohenlohe-Kirchberg, in his 90th year, the oldest 19, A reform meeting at Huddersfield, unattended with any violence. 20, Prince prince in Germany.

Serious riots at Manchester, arising out of visits Perth, and receives the freedom of that city. the transactions of the 10th ; the military fire, and some lives are lost. Radical reform meetings at 21, A reform meeting at Glasgow. Shipley, and on the Almonbury road, which terminate peaceably. 22, Sir Francis Burdett addresses a letter to the electors of Westminster, in which he strongly condemns the conduct of the Manchester magistrates, and advises a meeting to be called at Westminster. 23, Indications of riot manifested among the weavers of Coventry. 24, Another reform meeting at Leeds, without second radical assembly in Smithfield. Death of Dr. James Watt, LL.D. any breach of the peace. 25,

Leopold

the celebrated mechanist, and inventor of steam-engines, in his 84th year. 27, The spirit of persecution continues against the Jews in Germany, in opposition to the legal authorities. 28, Melancholy death of the duke of Richmond, governor of Canada, of hydrophobia. 29, A reform meeting at Halifax, Yorkshire. 30, A meeting, 12,000 strong, at Liverpool, in which the proceedings of the Manchester magistrates are reprobated, conducted in order, and dismissed in peace. A reform meeting at Wakcfield. 31, A meeting in the town-hall of Glasgow, for the purpose of forming an armed association, in support of the civil authorities. Early in this month, the yellow fever made its appearance at Cadiz, and continued its ravages till the close of November. September 1, Tumults against the Jews continue to prevail at Darmstadt, Carlsrhue, and other places of of Germany. A general irritation in the United States of America, on account of the Spanish government having refused to ratify the treaty of the 22d February, for the cession of the Floridas. Mons. Galignani attempts to fly across the Thames, from the Windmill Hill, at Gravesend, to Tilbury Fort, by means of wings actuated by a lever; he is thrown into the river by a gust of wind, and saved by the boat's crew of a Russian frigate. 2, Tumult at Hamburgh against the Jews. Meeting in Palace Yard, to express the sentiments of the electors of Westminster, on the necessity of an inquiry into the transactions at ManchesThe interter, numerously attended ; Sir Francis Burdett presides, and the utmost regularity prevails. course between Gibraltar and Spain closed, on account of the prevalence of the yellow fever at Cadiz and elsewhere. 5, The grand jury throw oat the bills preferred at the Lancaster assizes against certain members of the Manchester corps of yeomanry, charged with cutting and maiming his Majesty's liege subjects, on the 16th ult. 6, Sanguinary conflicts between some regiments of Janizaries at Constantinople ; the 7, A subcapitan pacha banished for too much lenity ; his successor strangles 22 of the ringleaders. scription entered into, at Manchester, for the relief of the sufferers on the 16th ult. and another at Liverpool, as well as in London, and committees of management appointed.- 8, The coroner's inquest on the body of John Lees, one of those who died in consequence of wounds received on the 16th of August, at Manchester, commences its proceedings at Oldham ; it continues, with various interruptions, till the 13th October, when the coroner adjourns it to the 1st December : in this interval, he applies to the court of King's Bench, where, on the 29th November, all the proceedings are declared to be null, and a perseverance in them prohibited, on the ground that the coroner and jury had not seen the body of the deceased together. The lord mayor of London (Atkins) refuses to call a meeting of the livery on the subject of the proceedings at Manchester. The 9, Marriage of prince Frederick of Saxony, to the archduchess Caroline of Austria. duke of Reichstadt (son of Napoleon Buonaparte, see July 22, 1818) nominated by the emperor of Austria to be coadjutor to the cardinal archbishop of Olmutz. The common council of London resolve to present an address to the Prince Regent, praying that an inquiry may be instituted into the cause of the outrages at Manchester, and that the perpetrators may be brought to condign punishment : the address is presented on the 17th, when his Royal Highness returns an answer expressive of displeasure at its contents. 10, Dreadful riots at Paisley, which continue two or three days, occasioned by an attempt of the constables to seize the flags of a band of radical reformers ; a great deal of mischief is done, but the interference of the military at length puts an end to the tumult. Royal decree of the king of Spain, for the establishment of national schools on the Lancasterian plan. 12, Reform meeting at Leeds, and a subscription commenced for the Manchester sufferers. 13, Mr. Hunt enters London in grand triumphal procession, attended by an immense cavalcade, and followed by a numerous population, who, though highly excited, shew no disposition to violate the laws. Some riotous proceedings take place in Glasgow, but are quelled by the intervention of the military. 16, The citizens and inhabitants of Norwich assemble in common hall, and move an address to the Regent, expressive of their dissatisfaction at the occurrences in Manchester, and praying his Royal Highness to dismiss his ministers. 24, The freedom of the city of Bath presented to his royal highness the Duke of Sussex, in a 29, Great and agitated meeting of the livery of gold box. London, who having been denied, on the 8th instant, the privilege of assembling in common hall, by requisition presented to the lord mayor, for the purpose of expressing their opinion on the transactions at Manchester, refuse to proceed with the routine business of the Michaelmas election, until certain resolutions are passed on the subject for which the requisition had been presented much confusion ensues ; but the livery at length prevail, and pass a vote of censure on the lord mayor. The duchess of Bern delivered of a daughter. Baltimore, Boston, and New York, ravaged by the yellow fever, during this and the succeeding months.
:

SECT, x.]

TABULAR CHRONOLOGY.
October.

199

_____
.

6532. 1819

At numerous meetings held about this time, in almost every part of England, the conduct of the Manchester magistrates is condemned, petitions to the Prince Regent are agreed to, praying for an investirelief of the sufferers. 2, In a midnight gation of their conduct, and subscriptions are opened for the the trumpeter of the yeomanry cavalry, fires from his window, and wounds affray at Manchester, Meagher, two men; but his conduct is justified by the magistrates, before whom the affair is investigated, on the ground of self-defence. 12 to 16, Trial and conviction, in the court of King's Bench, of R. Carlile, a bookseller of Fleet-street, on three indictments for publishing blasphemous and seditious works; for which, on the 16th November, he is sentenced to three years' imprisonment, a fine of 1500, and to a farther imprisonment till security given for his good conduct during the remainder of his life. 13 to 15, The island of Barbadoes desolated by a hurricane, attended with extensive landslides, and dreadful sinkings of the earth. Death 14, A riot among the keelmen of North-Shields, unconnected with political affairs. of the princess dowager of Brunswick-Lunenburgh, in her 49th year. 20 Marriage of Ferdinand VII. king of Spain, to the princess Maria- Josephine-Amelia-Beatrix, of Saxony. 20 and 21, A deep fall of snow in London and its vicinity. 21, Earl Fitzwilliam removed from the lieutenantcy of Yorkshire, for having published a letter declaratory of the pacific disposition of the distressed people in his district, and for presiding at a county meeting on the 14th, for framing a petition to the Prince Regent on the state of the country and the inefficiency of ministers. An increase of the military force of Great Britain resolved on by the government. 24, A violent storm experienced in most parts of Great Britain. 26, Several atmospheric phenomena observed in the north. 27, Volunteer regiments begin to be raised in Great About the Britain, for the defence of the inhabitants against the apprehended designs of the disaffected. same time loyal addresses are framed and presented to the Prince Regent. November 1, The Persian ambassador visits Edinburgh, in the course of his tour of Great Britain. Several distinguished persons, about this time, resign their commissions in yeomanry corps, in consequence of the removal of Earl Fitzwilliam. 10, Mr. Hunt makes a fruitless attempt, in the court of King's Bench, to obtain a criminal information against the Manchester magistrates. 11, Nadin, the Manchester police 12, The conduct of the Manchester magistrates condemned officer, shot at by some unknown assassin. in a Middlesex county meeting, at Hackney. 13, Sir Manasseh Lopez, late M.P. for Barnstaple, sentenced in the court of King's Bench to two years' imprisonment in Exeter gaol, and a fine of 10,000, for bribery in the Grampound and Barnstaple elections (see 18th March). 15, A radical meeting at Coventry attacked and dispersed by the high constable and bailiffs a rule obtained against the assailants in the court of King's Bench, was afterwards dismissed. 16, A singular phenomenon observed in the \icinity of Quebec, in the fall of a quantity of black powder from the atmosphere, in such quantities as to cover the snow lying on the ground. 17, Henry Swann, Esq. late M.P. for Penryn sentenced to a year's imprisonment in the Marshalsea, for bribery in the Penryn election (see 26th February). 19, At a common hall, at which the lord mayor (Brydges) presides, the right of the livery of London to discuss public grievances at any of their meetings is asserted, and a committee of 26 liverymen appointed to watch over their interests. At a public meeting, held at Wakefield, resolutions of thanks to Earl Fitzwilliam, for his long and eminent services, are agreed to. 20, A criminal information filed by the attorney-general
; ;

against Sir Francis Burdett, for an alleged libel in his letter to the electors of Westminster.

23,

The

America, with the bones of Tom Paine his return to England is celebrated by a public dinner at the Crown and Anchor tavern on the 3d December. 30, The marquis of Lansdowne's motion, in the house of peers, and that of lord Althorpe in the commons, for an inquiry into the state of the nation, debated and rejected. December 1, A snow storm at Naples, accompanied with thunder and an irruption of Vesuvius. 2, The ducal palace of Brunswick destroyed by fire, with a large portion of the archives of the duchy. 6, Resolution of the court of common council of London, to petition against the new bills in progress through and a meeting of reformers in 8, The electors of Westminster agree to a similar petition parliament. Smithfield proposes a petition to the Prince Regent for the same object. 9, Mr. Bennett's motion in the house of commons, respecting the manufacturing districts, rejected after a long debate. The electors of Southwark agree to petition against the new bills. 12, Lord Sidmouth sends circulars to the Lords Lieutenants of counties, recommending the immediate enforcement of the new law against private training and 14, Mr. Hobhouse committed to Newgate by a warrant from the Speaker of the house of comdrilling. mons, for a breach of privilege. 15, The Spanish ambassador in London gives a magnificent festival, in honour of the marriage of the king of Spain, at which the Prince Regent is present. The sheriff of London, Parkins, brought up to Bow-street, on a charge of libel. 16, The electors of Westminster agree to an address to Mr. Hobhouse in prison, and pass resolutions, protesting against certain powers exercised by the house of commons. 19, A slight affray between the military and the inhabitants of Newcastleupon-Tyne. The radicals commit some outrages at Paisley. 22, A number of reformers arrested at Manchester. 27, The duke of Rovigo (Savary) who had, during his absence from France in 1816, been condemned to death as a traitor, arraigned before the council of war at Paris, and, after an investigation of his case, pronounced not guilty. 30, A petition from the Irish labourers, resident in St. Giles's, pre: ;

British parliament opened by the Prince Regent ; warm debates ensue on the customary address in reply to the royal speech ; but ministers triumph in a large majority, and proceed to bring in bills restrictive of the ancient right of popular meetings and the liberty of the press. Cobbett arrives at Liverpool, from

200
Julian Period.

INTRODUCTION.
n *"
.

[CHAP. n.

<i-j:)2..1819

sented to the house of commons, complaining of want of employment, and praying to be sent home to Death of the Countess Talbot, consort of the drain the bogs and improve the waste lands in Ireland. and Viceroy of Ireland. Ministers having carried all their measures for suppressing popular
political publications, disarming the session to the loth February, 1820.

meetings people and preventing private training, adjourn the parliamentary

0533.. 1820

January

Insurrection at Cadiz, among the troops, commanded by Quiroga, surnamed the Liberator of The duchess of Orleans delivered of a son, named, by order of Louis XVIII. Charles-Ferdinand-Louis-Philip-Emmanuel, duke of Penthievrc. 9, Marshal Soult, duke of Dalmatia, recalled from
1,

Spain.
exile,

2,

and restored to his rank of a French marshal, by Louis XVIII. Magdalen Hall, Oxford, destroyed 12, The court of East-India proprietors determine to erect a statue of the late Warren Hastings, to testify the respect of the Company for his memory, and their approbation of his services while governor23, Death of his royal highness, Edward duke of Kent, at Sidmouth, Devon, in his general of India. 53d year. 29, Death of his majesty, George III. king of Great Britain, &c. at Windsor, in the 60th vear of his reign, and 82d of his age: he is succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. who, from the year 1811, had exercised the royal functions in quality of Regent. 31, Proclamation, in London, of king George IV. February 11, Massacre of the inhabitants of Santa-Barbara, by a party of Spanish royalists. 12, The strong fortress of Valdivia, the port of the royalists in Chili, taken by Lord Cochrane. 13, The Duke De Berri assassinated at Paris, in his 42d year, by a fanatic named Louvet. 16, Funeral of his late majesty king George III. at Windsor. 20, The revolution, begun at Cadiz on new-year's day, extends to Corunna and other parts of Spain, in systematic order. 23, A conspiracy at London, for assassinating the cabinet one police ministers, detected and prevented at the moment it was about to be carried into execution officer lost his life, and others were wounded, in securing the conspirators, at the head of whom was the celebrated Arthur Thistlewood. March 3, The town of Chatham, Kent, nearly destroyed by fire. Assassination of Mr. Parker and his housekeeper, at Woolwich. 8, Ferdinand VII. king of Spain, finding the revolution daily drawing closer to his palace, accepts the constitution of 1812, publicly swears to maintain it, liberates all persons imprisoned or exiled on account of their political opinions, and abolishes the tribunal of the Inquisition. 10, The inhabitants of Cadiz massacred and plundered by the military, on occasion of the proclaiming, by royal authority, of the Spanish constitution. 11, Death of Benjamin West, Esq. President of the British Royal Academy, &c. in the 82d year of his age. 27, Sir Francis Burdett convicted at the Leicester assizes of sedition contained in his letter of the 22d August, 1819, on the subject of the Manchester proceedings: Sir Francis afterwards applied to the court of Kings Bench for a new trial; the consideration of which application was postponed till the sittings in Michaelmas term. 27, Henry Hunt, Esq. after a trial of ten days at York, found guilty of sedition in calling the Manchester meetings in July and August, 1819 on the 15th May, he was sentenced to an imprisonment of two years and a half in Ilchester gaol, and then to find security for his good behaviour for five years. April 10, Sir Charles Wolseley tried at Chester, and convicted of sedition for which, on the 15th May, he is sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment in Abingdon gaol ; and to find security for his good behav iour for five years longer. Several other persons, of less note, were tried and found guilty on similar charges, and received sentences equally severe. May 1, Execution, for high treason, of Thistlewood and four others, concerned in the assassination plot of the 23d February, at the Old Bailey, London. 7, An intended assassination of the Duchess De Berri detected at Paris. 24, Marriage of the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia to the Princess De Krucinska. Riot at Dover, and release of some smugglers, who had been committed to prison. 30, Marriage of his

by

fire.

imperial highness the Archduke Rainier of Austria with the Princess Francisca of Savoy-Carignan, at About this time, great distress was experienced in Ireland, in consequence of the stoppage, or Prague. failure, of several of its banks.

June
5,

Death of the Right Hon. H. Grattan, a distinguished parliamentary character, in his 74th vear. Return of her majesty Queen Caroline to England having landed at Dover on this day, amidst the cheerings of the townspeople, and slept at Canterbury she entered London on the 6th, amidst the enthusiastic greetings of all classes but as soon as her arrival was known to the ministry, a royal message was sent to both houses of parliament, calling upon the members to enter immediately upon a disquisition on her majesty's conduct, during her six years' residence abroad and for their assistance a number of papers, sealed up in green bags, were laid on their tables, which, under the influence of the ministers, were referred to secret committees. 9, Death of her royal highness Frederica-Sophia-Wilhelmina, princess dowager of Orange, and mother to the king of the Netherlands, in her 69th year. 15, A mutinous disposition evidenced by the first battalion of the third regiment of guards, quartered in the Royal Mews, Charing Cross. 17, The lord mayor, aldermen, and common council of London, present an address to the queen which is followed by addresses from most of the corporate bodies and other respectable societies in England. July 4, The secret committee of the house of lords make their report, that the papers subjected to their examination contain matters deeply affecting the honour of the Queen of Great Britain, and recommend a on the following day, the earl of Liverpool, prime minister, introduces legislative proceeding on the subject a bill for degrading her majesty from the title of Queen, and for dissolving her marriage with the King.
4,
:
;

CHAP.

III.]

GENEALOGICAL TABLES.

-209

CHAPTER
--*--

III.

OF GENEALOGICAL TABLES,
AS CONDUCIVE TO THE ELUCIDATION OF HISTORY.
-*-

of this description are of great utiexhibit at one view, and in a comlity, as they pendious mariner, the descent of families, and the ties of consanguinity between princes or other remarkable characters, from which the intelligent reader can frequently deduce consequences of importance, more readily than they are to be traced amid the multifarious descriptions of general history. They also prevent readers falling into a very common young error, that of confounding different persons of the same name, or of mistaking the identity of one person engaged in a variety of transactions.

TABLES

the connection by marby adoption, among the Romans, kc. which different families are intermixed. And by though it may be possible to express all such relations by means of lines and marks, without the use of words ; yet if these become too multiplied, they will render the table enigmatical, and require a greater exertion of study and attention than the generality of readers will hauto
:

have a clear idea

as,

riage, or

patience to bestow

it

seems most convenient,

therefore, to express the natural descent ouly by characters, and to add to each name an account in words of its other connections. Thus,
in the Genealogical Tables given in this Work, the natural descent, with the quality of the individuals, as male or female, legitimate or
illegitimate,

Genealogical tables have been represented by as different compilers in a variety of shapes under the form of a tree, which, though natural enough, so far as the idea of progressive gene:

ration goes, springing from a common root, and diverging into collateral ramifications, has the

inconvenience of presenting the last generation iinst to the Others, begineye, and rick versa. ning on the left hand of the table, have placed the successive generations in a lateral position but the best order appears to be, to place the common stock at the head of the table, and the several descents, or succeeding generations, each in a lower line, appropriated to it. The order of birth is preserved, by setting the first-born on the left hand, and the rest in succession towards the right. In some particular instances, indeed, this rule is necessarily infringed, in order to avoid a crossing of lines, which would tend to confuse and perplex ; but then it should be announced in a note, or made known by some adequate
:

a crowned head or otherwise, is described by the lines and marks subjoined to this Chapter ; under each person, the name of the husband or wife is inserted in Italics; and where there has been more than one marriage, the order of the nuptials is designated by the figures 1 2, &c. and the progeny of each bears a corresponding figure, to denote from which it sprang. The Jews were very anxious to preserve their genealogies entire and uncorrupted, and we accordingly find in their sacred writings, genealogies carried on for upwards of 3500 years. Josephus remarks that they had an uninterrupted succession of priests for 2000 years (a)
,

that the priests were careful to preserve their genealogies, not only in Judea, but also in

Babylon and Egypt; that, wherever they went, they never married below themselves, and had exact genealogical tables, compiled from those
(a) It is observed, Ezra, ii. produce an exact genealogy of
<>2,

token or mark. Besides mere natural descent, there

riety of other relations, of

is

a va-

Ihaf such as could not

tlieir families,

which

it

is

essential

were put from

the priesthood, as polluted.

VOL.

I.

E K

210

INTRODUCTION.

[CHAP. in.

authentic documents which were kept at Jerusalem ; and that in all their wars, persecutions,

they were always diligent in those documents, and in renewing securing them from time to time. Jerom says, " The Jeus know the genealogies so perfectly, that they can repeat all the names from Abraham to Zembbabel as easily as their owii."(b) But since the Roman war, about 30 years after the crucifixion of our Saviour, and more particularly since the dispersion of the Jews by Adrian, they have lost their ancient genealogies, and perhaps not an individual of the sacerdotal race can now produce authentic proofs of his descent. This circumstance has been adduced by Christian writers as a presumptive proof of the actual advent of Messiah, whose genealogy, corresponding to ancient predictions, the Jews are no longer able to trace. The genealogies of Jesus Christ, as recorded

and

calamities,

St. Matthew and St. Luke in their respective gospels, have occasioned no small perplexity to

by

critics. St. Matthew's verbe the genealogy of Joseph, sion supposed the reputed father of Jesus Christ; and St. Luke's that of Mary, his mother, whom one of the rabbins calls " the daughter of Heli." But Eusebius, after citing a long passage from a letter of Julius Africanus, in which he endeais

commentators and

to

the descent of Jesus from David. The omission of three or four persons (d) in St. Matthew's genealogy might either be in the record which he copied, or may have been the effect of carelessness in some early transcriber: of which two suppositions r the former is to be preferred ; " " if the latter be for," says Bishop Pearce, allowed, the 17th verse, which places only fourteen generations between David and the Babylonish captivity, must be considered as an interpolation," which by no means decreases the difficulty. The Genealogical Table hereto annexed, displays the direct line of succession from Adam to Jesus Christ, as well according to the reading of the Old Testament as according to the two The collateral branches are supEvangelists. pressed, as belonging more properly to other parts of the work, in which they will be found The left-hand column contains St. in detail. Matthew's reading, that on the right hand St. Luke's. The names to which no scriptural reference is affixed are to be found, in St. Matthew's line, in the first chapter of his Gospel ; and, in St. Luke's line, in the third chapter of
that evangelist. In genealogical history, we meet with Dynasties, (e) Races, Families, and Houses, under which the several sovereigns of a country are classed, and are of similar utility in this de-

vours to obviate the disagreement, says, it was a tradition in the family of Joseph, that he was properly the legal son of Heli, who dying without issue, his brother Jacob married his widow,

partment of history with Epochas and ^Eras

in that of

and having a child by her, it was accounted as the son of Heli, according to the law of inheritance, (c) However this may be, if the geneof St. Matthew be compared with the alogy MI corresponding; eulogies of the Old Testaii-t

chronology. Of these divisions, or classifications, Dynasties are mostly confined Races to the ancient and oriental monarchies to the history of France ; while Houses and Families are applied to the sovereigns of modern
:

ment,

it

will

be found to

differ

from them

in

many instances: but it was probably such a genealogy as was generally allowed to be of
authority

Europe. The commencement, duration, and end of the most remarkable of these, are represented in the annexed Diagrams of which, A. contains the ancient and most known of the Dynasties B. the most celebrated Houses and
; ;

when

lie

wrote, and proved sufficiently

Families of modern Europe.

a copy of it, as settled by Nehemiah, with the alterations I have mentioned." Prid. Conn, part i. book iv. Different rt'dt/iiiys in the Hebrew MSS. have also produced a great variety in the Genealogical Tables.
(c)

(b) It is observable, that the genealogies set down by Ezra and Nehcmiah, vary in some particulars (compare Ezra, ii. with JVWicM. vii.) which Dr. I'rideaux accounts for thus " For the true settling of these genealogies, search was made by Nehemiah for the old registers, and having found among them a register of the genealogies of those who eame up first from Babylon with Zembbabel and Joshua, lie settled this matter accoiding to it, adding such as afterwards came up, and expunging others, whose families wire extinguished." " Ln the Second chapter of E:rn" adds the Doctor, "we liave the old register, made l>\ /i nilibabcl and in the seventh "i .V/(t'//ii/'(, from the sixth verse to the end of the chapter
;
: ;

Dtut. xxv.

ii.

G.

(d) Namely, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah, and Jehoiachim, or Kliakim the latter of whom is inserted in some copies, but has not been admitted in our translation.
;

(e) nieiati

Derived, according to M. de Voltaire, from the Plueword dnnast, " power:" or rather, from the Greek,

Xvixtttuc,

from JuaToj, powerful.

16

CHAP.
It

III.]

MARKS AND ABBREVIATIONS.

211

has been stated that in the Genealogical

mind than can be produced by words alone

which much circumlopersons introduced, by and repetition are avoided, at the same cution time that the symbolic characters have a tendency to leave a more lasting impression on the

Tables belonging; to this Work, certain marks have been adopted for the designation of the

but as a previous explanation of such characters is indispensable, the present seems the most for that purpose, as well as appropriate place for the abbreviations adopted for the saving of room in the Tables, both genealogical and
chronological.

EXPLANATION
OF THE MARKS AND ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS WORK.
Emp.
signifies

Emperor, or EmpreM.
King.

IBT
Jfjjg

signifies a

King.
OllPPIl.

K
Q
Marg

...... 8

Queen.
Margrave.

D
E

Duke.
Earl.

N
abd

an unknown name.
abdicated.

dep
deth
rest

deposed.
dethroned.
restored.

b
d. or 06

born.

a natural death. a violent death.

married.

212

INTRODUCTION.

[CHAP, iv
i-

CHAPTER
-*-

IV.

OF RELIGION.
SECTION
I.

ORIGIN OF RELIGIOUS WORSHIP. ITS DIVISION INTO TRUE AND FALSE.

source of religion, and of the legitimate mode of religious worship, are to be sought for only in revelation: for mere reason could never have introduced savages to the knowledge of God; and a sense of the Deity is an hypothesis clogged with insuperable difficulties. Now it is undeniable that all mankind have believed in if reason superior invisible powers ; therefore, and instinct be set aside, there remains no other credence than primaeval origin of this universal however it might subsequently berevelation, come corrupted in the course of its transmission from one generation to another. This position may at first sight seem to be a begging of the question ; but it receives no slight support from the presumption, that, if there be a Deity, he could not do otherwise than reveal himself to the first men, after he had formed them with To other faculties to adore and worship him. the knowledge of a Deity is of no imanimals, portance ; to man it is of the first consequence. Under the government of a wise and beneficent God, chance is excluded, and every event appears, as it really is, the result of established laws. Admitting, therefore, that the knowledge of a God was originally derived from revelation, and that the first men professed pure theism, or the knowledge of one supreme, independent,

TjHE

order, from one degree of impiety to another. On either supposition, the original progenitors must have been instructed by their Creator in the truth of genuine theism ; and there is no room to doubt that such truth, simple and sublime as it is, would be transmitted in a pure state from father to son, as long as the race continued to live in a single family, and was not spread over a large extent of country. And if any credit be due to the records of antiquity, the first inhabitants of this globe lived to so great an age, that they must have increased to a very

considerable number long before the death of the common parent, who would naturally be the bond of union to the whole society, and whose dictates, in what related to the origin of his being, and the existence of his Creator, would be listened to with the utmost respect by every individual of his numerous progeny. But after the death of the ancestor, many causes would conduce to disperse this family
into separate
tribes, among to their distance from the proportion primaeval seat, and their removal from the aera

and independent

whom,

in

of revelation, great changes would take place in the opinions of some of the tribes respecting the object of their religious worship. single family, or a small tribe, retired into a desert wilderness (such as the whole earth must then

and eternal Being, we may endeavour to trace the rise and progress of polytheism and idolatry, as well as to ascertain the real opinions of the pagan world concerning that multitude of gods with which they filled heaven, earth, and hell. Whether we believe, with the author of the book of Genesis, that all men have descended from the same progenitors, or adopt the hypothesis of modern theorists, that there have been successive creations of men ; polytheism and idolatry will be seen to have arisen from the same
causes, and to have

have been) would find employment for all their time in providing the means of subsistence, and in defending themselves from beasts of prey. In such circumstances they would have little leisure for meditation; and, being constantly conversant with objects of sense, they would gradually lose the power of meditating upon the spiritual nature of that Being, by whom, as they had learned from their ancestors, all things were created. Indeed, in circumstances much more favourable, the human mind dwells not
are so long upon purely intellectual notions. habituated to sensible objects, and to the ideas of space, extension, and shape, which they perpetually impress upon the imagination, that we find it extremely difficult to conceive any

We

advanced nearly in the same

SECT.

II.]

ORIGIN OF RELIGIOUS WORSHIP.

213

being without assigning to him locality and figure: whence Bishop Law has supposed, that " the earliest generations of men," not even exthose to whom he contends that frequent cepting " revelations \\ere made, may have been no better than anthropoinorphite.s(C) in their conceptions of the divine Being." Hence a new species of religious worship

would naturally follow for when men had lost sight of the original revelation of the will of God in this respect, and had supposed the Creator of the universe to be actuated by like passions with themselves, they would fall to such inventions, in order to propitiate him, as were congenial with their own feelings and hence the first schism, or division of divine worship of which the original revelation constitutes the true, and the subsequent corruption the false; and this led by degrees from the adoration of the Creator to that of the creature ; from God to the celesfrom them to men ; from men to tial bodies from brutes to vegetables ; and, to brutes crown the whole with indelible infamy, to the worship of the principle of evil, even the devil
: :

When men had once got into this train, their gods would multiply upon them with great celeAs they acknowledged the sun to be the rity. cause of vivification, light, and comfort, they would not be long in attributing the reverse of these effects to some other principle, and none would strike their senses more forcibly than the darkness, whioh ensued upon the absence of their glorious god of the day, accompanied as it is with cold, danger, and terrifying apprehenit is probable, therefore, that the power of darkness was the second god of the pagan calendar ; and as they considered the power of light to be a benevolent principle, so they would look upon the contrary power of darkness as an evil hence the theology of the Guebres, principle or Persian magi, though its origin seems to be vastly anterior to the period to which the use of these names would seem to fix it being even older than the flood. With such impressions upon men's minds, the other luminaries would not be long without their portion of worship. For as men could not but
:

the spirit resident in the sun, they would transfer their adorations to the luminary itself.

sions:

himself

SECTION

II.

ORIGIN, OBJECTS, AND PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY. OPINIONS OF THE ENLIGHTENED PAGANS. To men, who had lost the tradition of their
forefathers as to the revelation

perceive that they experienced great benefits from the planets and fixed stars in the absence of their chief deity, the sun, and that the ill effects proceeding from the power of darkness
it

the true God, and

their

who had formed

bewildered imaginations, rein some distant but glorious habitation, siding the place most fit for his residence would doubtin their

own

and worship of a god of

were considerably diminished by their influence; would occur to them, naturally enough, that the moon, &c. were benevolent intelligences
sent to oppose the power of darkness, during the absence or repose of their greatest divinity ; so that he was able to maintain a constant suAnd as the periority over the evil principle. moon appears to the unintelligent observer much more magnificent than any other planet or star ; so it was by these idolaters considered as the divinity second in rank and pow er in the heavens; they therefore worshipped the sun as king, and the moon as queen of the celestial realms; while the rest of the planets composed the officers and attendants of their court. And as these polytheists acquired refinement in their
r

appear to be the sun, the most beautiful and splendid object in the universe an object, too, from which they were sensible that they received the benefits of light and heat, and which, they were taught by experience, was the source of veless
;

The great spirit, therefore, originally theoffspring of theirown thoughts, and to which they had given the sun for an habitation, they would next consider as the power of light and heat, and therefore, as such, would render it
getation.
religious

homage.

considering the sun as the habitation of their god, they would soon proceed to believe it to be his body; and, instead of worshipping
(f)

From

speculations, conceiving every thing in motion to be animated by an intelligence powerful in proportion to the magnitude of the body moved ; the earth, as the common mother of all things, the ocean, whose waters never rest, the air, the region of tempests, and all the elements,

sect

who

attributed to

God

the form and

members

were gradually added

deities.

to the

number of

their

of a human body.

214

INTRODUCTION.
have been the authors of
religion.

CHAP. IT.
this species of false

This kind of idolatry, which has been denominated Sabiism, is supposed to have commenced in the days of Euos,(g) about the middle of the third century after the Creation. Many writers, of approved judgment, imagine that to its prevailing influence among the antediluvians may be attributed the cause of the

however this may be, it either was retained in the memories of those eight persons who were saved in the ark, and by them transDeluge
:

mitted to their children, or a recurrence of the causes, already described, to which it owed its birth among the first race of mankind, produced the same effects among the second race though the first supposition seems the most
:

probable, because Sabiism was practised very soon after the Flood among the Chaldaeans, who had not been so separated from the parent stock, as we have supposed to have been the case with the antediluvians, particularly the family of Cain, whom we should presume to
learned Rabbi Maimonides, in his Treatise on Idolatry, has the following curious passage, in which he has compressed the sense of most of the Jewish doctors on " then" Genesis, iv. 2<>, rendered in our translation (i. e. in " men to call upon the name of the the days of Enos) began
(g)

From Chalda?a,the idolatrous worship of the host of heaven spread over all the East, passed into Egypt, and thence, as Plato affirms, into Greece ; but as yet they were worshipped only in person, or, as Dr. Prideaux expresses it, in new abtheir sacella, or sacred tabernacles. surdity was, however, afterwards adopted by these ignorant worshippers for not supposing it possible that any intelligence could exert its influence otherwise than in conjunction with some body, statues or pillars were thought of, as appropriate emblems of the absent gods, (h) on which libations of oil were poured at their This done, the intelligences by consecration. which the sun and other planets were animated, were supposed to take possession of these consecrated pillars ; and as they were dedicated to the host of heaven, they were generally set up on the tops of hills or mountains, (i)

The

shipped them

;"

" so

forgotten by all living, and they acknowledged it not, neither was there found any people on earth, except a few persons, as Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Shem, and Heber, that knew ought save images of wood and
stone, and temples of stone, which they had been trained from their childhood to worship and serve, as well as to swear

AND FEARFUL

NAME was

that, in process

of time, the

GLORIOUS

but which would have been more adequately trans" then " men began to call profanely," &c. or began " In the of Enos," says Maimonides, profanation." days " the sons of Adam erred with great error, and the counsel of the wise became brutish, Enos himself being one of them who erred. Their error was, that they said, Forasmuch as God hath created these stars and spheres for the government of the world, and set them on high, and imparted honour unto them, and they are ministers before him it is meet that men should praise, and magnify, and give them honour. For it is the will of God, that we magnify and honour whomsoever he magnified) and honoureth even as a king would have them honoured that stand before him, which is the honour of the king himself.' When Ihis thing was conic into their

Lord

;"

lated

'

" In opinion, obtain favour of the Creator." process of time, there arose false prophets among the sons of Adam, who asserted that God had commanded them to worship a star, or
all

hearts, they began to raise temples to the stars, and to offer sacrifices to them, and to praise and glorify them with words, worshipping before them, that tlvey might, in their evil

manner;
jt,

might worship it. The false prophet also shewed them an image, which he had fabricated from the suggestions of his own fancy, and declared it to be the image of the star, which had been revealed to him by supernatural power. there-

the stars, and to offer sacrifices unto them, after such a also, to build a temple for it, and make an image of that all the people, even the women and children,

They

making images according to the pattern, and placed them in temples, under trees, and on the tops of mountains and hills, where they assembled together, and worCon.p.
/'mi.

fore set to

by their names;* and even the wise men, such as priests, imagined there was no other god than the stars and planets, for whose sake, and in whose likeness, they had made these images." The Sabians themselves, however, who still practise the worship of the heavenly bodies, attribute its introduction to Seth, and give him a son, named Sabi, from whom the sect may take its name; unless it be better derived from the Hebrew word JOS saba, " the host of heaven," the objects of their worship. " (h) Sanchoniatho relates, that Hypsouranios and his brother Ousous, Phoenician patriarchs, erected two pillars, one tojire, the other to air, or wind, and worshipped them, (i. e. the pillars,) pouring out to them libations of the blood of wild beasts, which they had hunted down in the chase." As these early monuments of idolatry were called (i) (JaiTuMa, a word derived from the Hebrew Beth-el, they were probably similar to that which Jacob erected and as his was consecrated by pouring oil upon it, to the true God, their's were similarly anointed in honour of their fictitious These stones were at deities, residing in the stars of heaven. first rough and unhewn; but in the course of time somewhat of the resemblance of the human face was carved upon them how uncouth or hideous soever the representation might be, seems to have been little attended to, (if we may judge of what men in a natural untutored state are capable of worshipping, from the specimens of idols brought to this country from the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and other places ;) but as the art of sculpture was improved, the contour given to
;

with

many

oilier

vi. 13. Jo$h. xxiii. 7. Jer. v. 7. xii. 16. Zrph. i. 4,5, places in tbc sacred scriptures, where the practice of swear-

ing by any other name, than the name of Jehovah, is reprobated, and the most severe judgments denounced against those who are guilly of it.

SECT.

II.]

OBJECTS
viz.

AND PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY.

bias of a nation

215

To
spirits.

this first species of idolatry

a second,

succeeded and tutelary demigods The Chaldseans, Egyptians, and all the
that of

had got

into this train, natural

affection, friendship, interest, and a thousand of her motives, would have their share in promot-

who believed in a superintendProvidence, imagined that the government of ing the world, including the care of particular nations, and even of groves, rivers, and mountains, in each nation, was committed to a class of soul of man, but inferior spirits, superior to the to those heavenly intelligences which animated the celestial bodies these spirits were denominated daemons (Ja./^^) by the Greeks, and by the Romans genii; probably from the Persian Jan, a spirit ; which, though generally invisible, were not supposed to be pure disembodied spirits, nor to be devoid of human pasHence the multitude of mountain sions, (k) and river gods, with the dryads, hamadryads, satyrs, fauns, and nymphs, with which the Greek and Roman mythology abounds. This, as an almost necessary consequence, led to the deification of departed heroes, and for as other eminent benefactors of mankind the philosophers (whom we may suppose by this time to have begun to disseminate their crude theories) believed that all souls were but emanations from the divinity ; so gratitude and admiration concurred to make men regard the inventors of arts, and the founders of society, " as having more than a common ray of the diThe deceased founder of a people was vinity." therefore easily advanced to the rank of a daeeastern nations,
:
:

ing a species of worship, of all others the most congenial to that principal of selfishness which resides in the minds of all men ; for who could tell buthe might be the next on the list for posthumous honours ? The natural father was often also the political head of a people ; and such would quickly receive an apotheosis fondness for the offspring would next have its turn ; and a disconsolate father at the head of a nation
:

would have
gratified,

wheu he beheld

his grief assuaged, and his pride his obsequious subjects

paying divine honours to the memory of a darling child, which had been snatched from him

by premature

mortality.

(1)

The apotheosis of departed heroes and statesmen introduced the universal belief of national
and tutelary gods ; and, if not before adopted, the practice of worshipping them through the medium of statues. When the departed founder of a state, &c. had been elevated to the rank of a deity, as he was supposed still to retain his former passions and affections, it was natural to conclude that he would continue to favour the nation for which he had done so much that he would oppose while on the earth its enemies, and protect the laws a;id institutions established by himself. And, by a similar
:

mon, or demigod: and, when once the

these stones

religious

each city, and even every found Lares and Penates among their family, deceased ancestors, under whose protection
train of sentiment,
the purling stream."

and more elegant till, at length, not the face only, hut the body and limbs, appeared, and the rough stone became an elegant statue. The practire of setting the pillars on high places, proceeded either from a

became

softer

Hence

the earliest altars to this class

desire to rentier the objects of their worship conspicuous, or to bring the sacred pillar as near as possible to the deity whom it represented. This practice prevailed throughout the East, and there is scarcely any thing more strictly enjoined

of deities were built in groves, or on the banks of rivers. and progress of the worship (1) That such was the origin of departed souls, we have the authority of Sanchoniatho, who relates the motives for this species of idolatry in words " After that admit of no other construction. many generations," says he, "came Chrysor, who inventing many things
useful in eiril
life,

was, after his decease,

u-oi-sliippi'd

as

than that they should destroy the altars, statues, and pillars, erected upon hiyli places ; f and it is mentioned as a diminution of the piety of some of the best of the Kings ofjiulah, that, though they destroyed idols, and restored the worship of the true God aiming their sub" nevertheless" suffered the kiij/i. places to remain, jects, they which they ou^hl to have removed. (k) Plato tlivides the class of (heinous into three orders; and while lie holds their soids lo be " particles, or emanations from the divine essence," he affirms that "the. liodit^ oi each order are composed of that particular element in which they " though all nature be full of them, usually re-side ;" and that thev are believed to have local attachments to mountains, rivers, ana groves, whore their appearances have been most frequent; and thai, "like men, they delight in the shady grove and in
Israelites,
1

by Moses upon the

'

* jVumt.

xxxiii.

i',!.

Unit.

xii.

'2,

3.

Then flourished Ouranos, Ge, yod. to their father Hypsistos, when he fied and offered sacrifices had been torn in pieces by wild beasts. Afterwards, Chronos consecrated hi* so* Miith, and was himself consecrated by his In the reign of Chronos, nourished a personage of subjects." great reputation for wisdom, called by the Egyptians Tiiotli, Hermes. by the Phu-nkians, Taautos, and by the Greeks, According to Plutarch, he was a profound politician, and chief counsellor to Osiris, then king of Fgypt to which Pliilo " it was that Byblius, the translator of Sanchoniatho, adds, tins Thoth, or Hermes, who first brought religious worship To muke religion serviceable to into due method and order." 1 he slate, he appointed Osiris and other departed princes to as </m/s ; and being in' joined with lite stars, and i<-<-s/tij>i>eti lie IMS, after his death, worby Chrooos made king of Egypt, shipped himself ax a yod by the Egyptians.
his sister

and

who

dei-

216

INTRODUCTION.

[CHAP. iv.

they believed themselves and all their concerns to be placed, (in) From tlu- rank of demigods, the souls of departed heroes were gradually advanced to higher till at dignities in the minds of their votaries,
length they superseded the heavenly bodies, and became themselves the dii majorum gentium, " gods of the first order:" arevolution effected by the combined operation of the prince and the
priest.

wise would be inexplicable, vzz.theimmoral characters of the heathen deities themselves, and the abominable rites with which they were Avorshipped. Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Pluto, Apollo, ndeed the whole company of them, are described by the poets, (who wrote in ages and nations where they were solemnly worshipped) as notorious adulterers and infamous violators of virgin chastity. Mercury was a thief; Venus an unblushing harlot; and Bacchus and Silenus two most beastly drunkards. The malice and revenge of Juno were implacable and so little regard were any of them supposed to pay to the laws of honour and rectitude, that it became a com;

The first step towards this, seems to have been the complimenting their heroes and with public benefactors, even while yet living, the name of the deity most esteemed and worshipped thus a king was flattered for his beneficence with the title of the sun; (n) and a queen, for her beauty, was compared to the moon. And
:

mon

as this adulation advanced into established custom, the compliment got reversed, and the planet, or star, was named after the hero, the better to accustom the people to this new species of planet-worship thus the sun received the name of Osiris, and the moon that of Isis,(o) among the Egyptians, (p) Uiodorus also says, the Ammonites gave the sun the name of Moloch ; while the Syrians, according to Macrobius, called it Adod; the Arabs, Dionysius ; the Assyrians, Behis ; the Phoenicians, Saturn; the Carthaginians, Hercules; and the PalmyThe last-named writer reneans, Elegabalus. also informs us, that the moon was called by the Phrygians, Cybele ; by the Athenians, Minerva ; by the Cyprians, Venus; by the Cretans, Diana; by the Sicilians, Proserpine; and by
:

practice with the Romans, when besieging a town, to invoke the tutelary deity of the place, and to offer him a bribe to betray his friends and
votaries.

That

deities

so vile

and polluted

should be adored by more vile devotees, or that their priests should be men of the most abandoned principles, is not to be wondered at. Hence the worship of Bacchus was performed during the night, by men and women, with the most infamous excesses and hence too it was
;

the practice in some countries for young women to admit the embraces of the priests some days before their marriage, under an illusory supposition that they were devoting their virginity to Venus, in order to secure their subsequent chasand, Herodotus says, the religion of the tity
:

others, Hecate,

Bellona, Vesta,

Urania,

Lu-

cina, &c. It has been observed, that these deified mortals were supposed to carry with them to their
celestial seats all the passions

Babylonians required every woman, at least, once in her lifetime, to prostitute herself for hire in the temple of the goddess Mylitta, (the same with the Grecian Venus) that she might afterwards be proof against all temptation (q)
!

and appetites by
;

which they were swayed while on earth not even excepting the crimes to which they were addicted and this will account for what other:

far the progress of polytheism and idolatry appears to have been regular and natural, one absurdity leading to another, and every

Thus

renewed step being but a farther remove from

the truth
:

it

only remains to ascertain the uni-

(m) These national and household gods were believed to be clothed with ethereal bodies, of a form similar to thei: grosser earthly bodies before their departure from this life.

presiding in the sun and other planets. Pausanias says, that the statue of Jupiter Mellichius was merely a pyramid as was also that of the Argive Juno, as appears from a verse of Phoronis,

" Sol first (n) Diodorus Siculus says, that reigned in Egypt and was so called from the luminary in the heavens."
(o)

Diodorus Siculus.

duced upon the planetary,

farther proof that hero worship was thus superin it is to he observed that the firs statues consecrated to the greater hero gods, t. e. those who
(p)

Asa

quoted by Clemens of Alexandria. Indeed, this practice of anointing pyramidal stones was universal, as well among the barbarians as the Greeks ; to say nothing of the Egyptian pyramids, which some writers of erudition think to have been raised with similar intentions.
(([)

as indulged in

Flagrant and enormous as these practices were, especially under the pretence of devotion; they assume

being supposed to be supreme, were ranked in the first order were not of a human form, but conical, or pyramidal, similai to those which in the earlier ages of polytheism were conse Crated, by the pouring of oil upon them, to the intelligence.

the appearance of innocence and virtue, when brought into comparison with some other of the heathen rites, in honour of Bacchus, Priapus, &c. where the devotees indulged in debaucheries and sensualities too abominable to be named.

SECT.

II.J

EXTENT OF IDOLATRY.
deities,

217

The late Sir Win. versa/ity of this corruption. in the course of his researches in the East, Jones,
discovered so striking a resemblance between the gods of ancient Greece and those of the Hindoos, that he had no doubt of their having sprung from one common origin.(r) And from the various accounts given by travellers of the that the religion of savage nations, it appears
sun, moon, and stars, are worshipped by them as their greatest gods; and such of them as have other deities, have gradated from the worship of the planets to that of celestial spirits, or daemons, and from these to the souls of departed

to the seven chief

wherein a striking resemblance is found gods of the Romans, from whom, these latter people also named their days which supposition of similitude is also strengthened by the forms of the statues by
:

which the Saxon divinities were represented, and the attributes given them by their worshippers, (s)

There remains one more species of idolatry, more wonderful than all that has yet been mentioned, namely, the Egyptian worship of brutes, a superstition so monreptiles, and vegetables strous, that it even astonished the Greeks and
:

men, whose achievements in life had given them a supremacy in power or respect among their
companions. That our Saxon ancestors, and their more rude progenitors, the Scandinavians, had similar
notions of the gods with other pagans, is evident from the names given by them to the days of the week in honour of their seven principal
of the Hindoos he identifies with Janus. the same with Menu, or Satyavrata, whose patronymic is Vaivaswata, " child of the sun ;" and the attributes of Jupiter are given to Indra, " the king," and " the lord of the Divespeter, sky," whose consort is Saclii, and his weapon vajra, " the thunderbolt." Indra is regent of the winds and showers; and though the east is his peculiar With all his power, he care, his Olympus is the north pole.
(r)

Romans. So early was this practised in Egypt, that the philosophers of antiquity inquired in vain into its origin; consequently, among the moderns, conjectural hypotheses must supply the place of historical proof. The writers whose inquiries on this subject are most entitled to respect, are Mosheim and Warburton, of whom the former attributes it to the policy of the
hall, seated under a canopy, on a throne, or bed of state, with a golden crown on his head, which was also furnished with a circle in front, wherein were set twelve golden stars in his He was clothed in a close vest but right hand was a sceptre. from the middle downwards was covered with a broad loose robe, somewhat like an apron, reaching to his feet.* He was supposed to be sovereign of heaven and earth his government was held to be in the air, where, according as he was pleased or displeased, he produced thunder, rain, and tempests, or could bless the earth with seasonable weather, and protect his votaries from pestilence and afflictions of 6. every kind. Friga, from whom Friday is named, was supposed to partake of both sexes, and was looked upon as the giver of love and peace, riches and plenty: this idol was clad in armour to tlje middle, and thence to the feet was covered with a kind of petticoat: the arms were naked; in the right hand was <i drawn sword, and in the left a bow. 7. Seater, from whom our Saturday is derived, was represented as an old man, standing on the sharp prickled back of a perch; his visage thin, long hair and beard, his head and feet bare, and his body clad in a long coat, girded with a linen sash in his right hand was a bucket o water, containing flowers and fruit, and in his left a wheel uplifted. His standing on the sharp fins of the perch indicated, that his devotees expected, under
; ; ; :

The Ganesa
lie

Saturn,

says,

is

inferior to the triad Brahma, Vishnov, and Mahadeva, or Siva, which are three forms of one and the same godhead, and are probably the same with the Fates of the Greeks and
is

and Romans. (s) They were as follow: 1. Tliesun, from which Sunday is derived, was represented like the naked body of a man, placed without legs or thighs on a pedestal, his face like the sun, shooting forth rays of light, and holding a burning wheel before his breast, with both his hands, to indicate by its form his course round the world, and by its brightness, the light and heat with which he warms and cherishes the animal and vegetable world. 2. The moon, whence Monday, was represented as a woman clad in a close short coat, like a man, with a hood furnished with two long cars, piked shoes on her feet, and the moon in her hand. 3. Tuisco, from whom Tuesday was named, seems to have been the first mortal added to the number of the gods of the Scythians; he was peculiarly honoured by the Germans, as their first father, and is supposed to be the same with Gomer, the ancestor and head of the he was represented as a venerable old man, clothed Celtes in a loose garment of skin, one hand holding a sceptre, and
:

his protection, to pass safely through the most difficult and dangerous places; the girdle signified freedom; the bucket of water, with flowers and fruits, denoted his power, by kind and seasonable showers, to nourish the earth for such productions; and the wheel was the symbol of unity and con-

the otln r si-read open, either to denote In*, clemency, or his office of dictating to hi- -ubjects. 4. Woden, at'ter whom Wednesday was named, was represented in a martial posture, cased in armour, with a broad sword in his ru-lit hand, and a shield upon his left arm lie was worshipped as the of
:

cord.

We
whom

shall close this note with the

the

Romans derived

their

names of the deities from names for the days of the

and invoked tor victory; and to him were prisoners of war imolated after a succ^^ful expedition. The northern
batile.->,

god

week, where the reader will discover a remarkable coincidence name or of attributes, or both; viz. I.Apollo, Sol, or the Sun. 2. Diana, Luna, or the Moon. 3. Mars. 4. Mercury. 6. Venus. 5. Jupiter. 7. Saturn.
either of
be Grtciani.

historians call

Friga.

a.

him the father 01 Thor, and the husbann <>t Thor, whence Thursday, was placed in a spacious
I.

* This was also a peculiar characteristic in the dress of Jupiter, among

VOL.

FF

218

INTRODUCTION.

[CHAP. iv.

to priuce ami tin- craft of the priest; the latter, the use of hieroglyphics. Perhaps both causes contributed to produce this ridiculous effect;

and what was begun by priestcraft and policy, was completed by the use of the mysterious hieroglyphics as sacred symbols. These symbols were figures of animals and vegetables, deof their noting, from analogy, certain attributes deities; and when the use of alphabetical letters had banished from the minds of the \ulgar the literal meaning of the hieroglyphics, in which
continued to envelope their theology, they could not but be beheld with reverence, and regarded as emblems of the divine This idea once embraced, the perfections. would indubitably follow of paying transition those adorations to the emblems themselves, which had been originally intended for the divinities whom they represented. Indeed, the case here seems to be parallel with that which has been already described, of divine honours being first paid to an intelligence supposed to reside in a planet, and afterwards to the planet itself; and if it be asked, why did not the Celtes and Greeks fall into the same error with the Egyptians, it may be answered, because the Celtes and Greeks received letters without the intervention of the previous use of hieroglyphic characters. But even among these people, who adopted the use of pillars, stones, and images, before the introduction of letters, it has been seen that idolatry made a rapid progress ; and, in like manner, the symbolic reprethe
priests
still

sentations of divine mysteries, given under the form of brutes, reptiles, and vegetables, could not fail to produce in the minds of the untaught superstitions crowd of one country, the same effect which the anointing of stones, and the erection of images, had produced in another. The objects were indeed various, but the circumstances under which the people lived, were similar, and tended to produce the same result. It is scarcely necessary to add, that after men had brought themselves to worship the inanimate pictures or representations of vegetables, reptiles, &c. they could not be long ere they would fall prostrate before the living subjects of their most dreaded fear or most cherished

hope.

The Hindoos have

to this

day a veneration

for the alligator and the cow ; and there is good reason for believing that the worship of brutes

was carried into India, at a very remote period, by a colony of Egyptians which might happen, either when Sesostris made an inroad into that country, or when vast companies of the Egyp:

tians fled thither, to escape from the tyranny of

the shepherd-kings, (t) Having thus traced the rise and progress of idolatry, as it prevailed in the most celebrated nations of antiquity, it remains to examine the real opinions of those nations, and particularly of their philosophers, respecting the nature of the gods whom they adored. From the writings of Homer,(u) Hesiod(v) and the other poets, who were the principal
of his Theoyony, invokes (v) Hesiod, towards the beginning " the his muse to enable him to celebrate in suitable numbers,
generation of the immortal gods,

colonies did actually settle in India, is (t) That such undeniable, from monuments still remaining there, whose forms could scarcely have occurred to natives of Asia, though they appear perfectly natural, when considered as the workmanship of Africans. (u) The learned reader is doubtless too well acquainted with the writings of Homer, to stand in need of any quotations here, to prove that he held Jwe, or Jupiter, to be the father of gods and men. The doctrine of the poets was the creed of the vulgar; \\herefore we may conclude, that though they " gods many'' and lords innumerable, they adworshipped mitted but one, or at most two self-existent principles a good one, and an evil one. Nor does it appear that the subordinate gods were accountable to their chief for their conduct, unless they transgressed the limits of the provinces as-

who had sprung from

the

earth, the dark night, the starry heavens, aud the salt sea." " in what manner the Also, gods, the earth, the rivers, the

ocean, the stars, and the firmament, were generated ;" and " what divine from them, of benevohad

sprung intelligences lent dispositions towards mankind." From which invocation, it is evident that the poet had no idea of the gods of his coun-

trymen being
as

: neither could he look upon them self-existent creatures; because the ancient Greeks had no idea of He must therefore have considered them as emacreation. coeval with the earth aud heavens, from some sunations, from perior principles ; and by the divine intelligences sprung them, it is certain, he understood benevolent daemons. His

signed to them
into parties,

and in Homer's battles we see them separated and supporting the Greeks or Trojans, according a-, And if Jove somethey favoured the one or the other. times calls them to order, his interference is considered as It appears, therepartial and tyrannical, rather than just. fore, that the Greeks did not consider the inferior deities as mediators between men and the superior gods, but as divinities to whom their worship was on certain occasions to b.e
;

and Love ; principles of all things were Chaos, Tartarus, of which the hitter only b(>ing active, he must have supposed unless, indeed, by Tartarus, it to be the only self-existent god he meant a second self-existent principle of evil in which case his creed will be the same with that of the ancient Magi. Uesiod is said to have borrowed his. theology from Orpheus;
first
; :

aud in certain verses usually attributed to Orpheus, Love and Chaos are thus brought together.

directly addressed.

SECT.

II. 'J

OPINIONS OF THE PAGAN PHILOSOPHERS.

among
the Greeks and

theologians

appears evident, that, heaven, earth, and hell, with deities, they still acknowledged one who was supreme over all the rest; though the various countries of the pagan world were by no means agreed as to his

Romans, it though they had filled

names, of which Sim,

Isinirtt,

and

name

in

some places

this superiority

was

as-

signed to the Parcte, or Fates ; in many others, to Jupiter Olympius ; in some to Demogorgon,

arc the most common; and when they consider him as the preserver of created things, they give him the name of Vin'lmou. As \\WKonlofflu-. world, or the pervading mind, so finely described by Virgil, we see Jove represented by several Roman poets ; and with great sublimity by Lucan, in the well-known speech of JuCato, concerning the Ammonian oracle
' :

whose name they deemed it unlawful to pronounce; and at Athens to AN UNKNOWN GOD, whose altar was noticed by St. Paul.(w) The philosophers were not agreed in their notions respecting the gods. Some of them were
pure theists, believed in the administration of Providence, and admitted but of one God,(x) to whom worship was ultimately due but they adored the subordinate deities as his children and ministers, by whom the course of Providence was carried on. Plato is very explicit as to the origin of those deities and Cicero teaches a similar doctrine. This epitome of philosophical polytheism receives considerable strength from the Asiatic Researches of Sir William Jones, who observes, that " it must always be remembered, that the
; ;

piter is

This

is

wherever we look, wherever we move.' precisely the Indian idea of Vishnou :

for since the

power of preserving created things a superintending providence belongs emiby nently to the godhead, they hold that power to exist transcendently in the preserving member of the triad, whom they suppose to be every where always, not in substance, but in power and energy." This supreme god Brahme, in his
threefold personification, is the only self-existent deity acknowledged by the best informed Brahmins the other divinities, Ganesa, Jndra, Cuvera, &c. are all looked upon, either as his creatures, or his children, and receive only an inferior sort of adoration. Upon this principle of the generation of the gods, and of their acting as the ministers of the
;

learned Indians, as instructed by their own books, acknowledge only one supreme Being, whom they call Brahme, or THE GREAT ONE, in the neuter gender. They believe his essence to be infinitely removed from the comprehension of any mind but his own ; and suppose him to manifest his power by the operation of his di\ inc spirit, whom they call Vialmoit, the pervader,' and Xer/'/ymt, or moving on the waters,' both in the masculine gender, whence he is
'
'

supreme and

often denominated the first male. When they consider the divine power as exerted in creating, or giving existence to that which existed not before, they call the deity Brahma ; when they view him in the light of a destroyer, or rather a

self-existent power, did all the philosophers of Greece, who were not atheists, worship a plurality of deities ; at the same time that they openly censured, or secretly despised, the poetical traditions of the licentious excesses of Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, &c. The Egyptians, also, though deemed the grossest of all idolaters, believed in one self-existent God, from whom all the other gods descended by generation. (y) The Persian magi believed in two self-existent principles, as already hinted, a

good and an

evil one but, according to DioLaertius, they held that fire, earth, and genes water, which they also called gods, were gene;

c/ianger of forms, they give him a thousand

(w) Acts,
(x)
xvii.

rated of these t.wo.(z) And though neither of these self-existent principles could be annihithe

23.

the genius of polytheism as well as any man, has the following striking passage " Amidst war, contention, and discord, we rind every where, throughout the whole world, one uniform law and opinion: that there is ONE GOD, THE KING AND FATHER OF ALL, and many gods, the sous of God, who reign with God. Thene things both the Greek and Barbarian affirm, both the inhabitants of the continent and of the sea-coast, both the wise and the iinwi.se."

Maximus

Tyrius,

who understood

same with Isis, at Sais, as given by Plutarch aud Proclus, be genuine, no doubt can remain on the subject. This celebrated inscription, according to these writers, was to the
effect following
:

" Whatever "

been,

(z)

offspring which I brought forth is the sun." " OrZoroaster, the reformer of roagiism, taught that

"

The

My

veil

whatever shall be, and whatever hath am. no mortal hath hitherto removed.
is,
1

This appears from the writings of Jamblichus, Porphyry, and many other ancient authors; and if the inscription on the gates of the temple of Neis, or Minerva, supposed to be
(y)

good principle) was as far removed from the. sun from the earth:" so that the sun was one of the generated gods, and held the office of vicegerent to the invisible fountain of light and happiness.

mu/d, (the as the sun

FF 2

20

INTRODUCTION.
" there

[CHAP. v.

Jated by any power, it\\:is nevertheless believed* that the evil principle \\onld ultimately be comthe good pletely vanquished and subjected by and rendered incapable of producing any one, farther mischief. Upon the whole, we may conclude, that the whole pagan world believed in but owe, or at most tiro self-existent gods, from whom all the others descended in a manner analogous to

which
to

were many things true in religion, was not expedient for the vulgar know; and some things false, which it was
it

nevertheless convenient that they should believe." The polytheism and idolatry of this class of the heathen was therefore more their misfortune than their fault. But the philosophers, who, as we have seen, were better taught, were wholly " without excuse ; because that

generation the common people, and perhaps most, if not all the priests of the latter a-es of paganism, considered each divinity as supreme within his particular province, and not accountable to any other for his actions and therefore rendered worship to him in the most positive sense of the word. From this state of ignorance, princes, priests, and poets, all concurred in preventing them from emerging ; from the absurd, but universally received maxim, that

human

when they knew God, they

glorified

him not

as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and " and four-footed beasts, and creeping things;" worshipped and served the creature rattier than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen."(a)

CHAPTER

V,

OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
ORIGIN OF ABSOLUTE MONABCHIES, AND THEIR DECLENSION INTO THE REPUBLICAN AND MIXED FORMS.
--*-

THERE

can be no doubt that the

first

form

of government was patriarchal; for in places thinly inhabited, where the families lived at a distance from each other, the members of a family, finding their affairs tending to confusion in proportion to their increase, Avould be led, if not instinctively, at least by their habits of obedience, to refer their differences to the decision of their common head, who would thus become, either tacitly or expressly, their sovereign as well as their father: and according as they chanced to live long, to leave able and worthy successors behind them, or the contrary, the foundations of kingdoms, hereditary or elective, under various constitutions and manners of administrations, would be laid. To pass over the ages of the antediluvian period, during which, it is extremely probable,
that only under the

universal sovereign of his progeny but when a dissimilarity of languages had scattered men abroad upon the face of the earth, the patri:

two eminent governments subsisted, two dynasties of Selh arid Cain we commence our inquiries at the epocha of the
;

archal form would of necessity undergo a moThe bredification, if not an entire change. thren of a family, disunited from their common head, would not easily determine upon giving an implicit obedience to one of their own number, till he had either gained the suffrages of the majority of its members, or till by absolute violence he had exacted it from them and, in either case, it would be requisite, for the maintenance of an authority, which some might be inclined to dispute, or which all might deem an usurpation, to establish a military force ; at first consisting only of the relations, friends, and domestics of the sovereign, but at length composed of mercenary or foreign troops. In this beginning of political societies, almost every town had its own king for as the families, of whom we have just spoken, increased in
: ;

confusion of tongues. 1'rior to this event, Noah was, without doubt, acknowledged as

(a)

Romans,

\.

2025.

CHAP,

v.]

ORIGIN OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

221

numbers, the malecontents, rather than submit to an authority which they despised, would retire, and form a new settlement, under a sovereign more congenial to their wishes. These petty kings, more attentive to preserve their own dominions, than to extend them, restrained their ambition within the lounds of their native

(j. That every one was bound, to the utmost of his power, to exercise the duties of charity, benevolence, and justice.

and its immediate vicinity where, indeed, they seem to have had sufficient occupation in hearing and determining the disputes of their
city
;

subjects, repressing the licentiousness of the dissolute, watching against the depredations of robbers, and in attending to the concerns of

own households and flocks. has been supposed, that upon the first declension of the patriarchal government, men formed themselves into societies of the republican or democratic form ; but in the absence of
their
It

Happy had it been for mankind, had such fundamental principles always formed the practice of governments It would however be unreasonable to expect it; the depraved and vitiated passions of men, ever since the golden age of paradisiacal iimocency and happiness was lost by the fall of Adain, forbid us to expect that any government, under whatever form, possessed as it necessarily will be of power, can immaculately pursue the people's good, without swerving to the right hand or to the left. There are, however, material shades of difference in the several governments which have
!

seems much more natural that the patriarchal form should lead to the reproof to this effect,
gal, as
it

more assimilated

to the habits of

life

to

Avhich the first men were addicted, the change residing rather in the name than the constiwhereas the adoption of a republic tution would imply a revolution in men's minds, incompatible with the simple notions they must
:

have then possessed, and which could only be superinduced by a series of reflections, drawn from the experience of evils to which they found themselves exposed under the existing
order of things.

During this state of society, the first laws had their birth, founded upon the rights of man, and the reciprocal obligations of rulers and In their nature they were simple subjects. and in their operation, so long as their true spirit was preserved, beneficent. They may
;

be conceived in the following fundamental rules, for many ages constituted not merely the basis of public jurisprudence, but the very 'practice of the rulers: 1. That individuals should be secured in

which perhaps

appeared in the various countries of the ancient and modern world some are radically inimical to the people's dearest rights and best inothers are intrinsically worthless, and terests seem only calculated to uphold the throne of a despotic tyrant, who, whilst he proclaims himself the vicegerent of God, belies his highsounding assumption by acts of murder, rapine, and cruelty, which bespeak him the child of the devil! There are, however, a happy few, under which the prince is the father of his people, and the people find security and ease and though they be less perfect than Utopian philosophers would have them, let it be remembered, that they approximate towards perfection as nearly, it is to be presumed, as human wisdom, human justice, and human integrity, can approach to the divine perfection and in this comparatively |>erfect degree, we feel no hesitation in placing the British Constitution, under which we have the happiness to live a constitution which it has been the work of ages to rear, and which has now become the admiration and the envy of
:

the world. But, to return from this digression the first extension of power from the dominions of one prince to those of another ; in other words, the first conquests, seem to have been the effect of unavoidable quarrels, which, issuing in the subjugation of one prince, and the annexation of his kingdom to that of another, would first give the idea to an enterprising genius of aggrandising himself at the expense of his neighbours. Hence arose wars of conquest, in the course of which, the martial genius of the sovereign was imparted to his followers, who, ex:

their particular property.

2.

as he
3.

That every man was bound to do to others would desire they should do unto him. That no one should be injured in his per-

son, property, or liberty, with impunity. 4. That every individual was bound to do, or to abstain from, whatever was deemed beneficial

or detrimental to society at large.

5.

and

That a man's word should be binding

that perjury should receive exemplary pu-

nishment.

i-22

INTRODUCTION.

[CHAP. v.

changing the instruments of husbandry for the weapons of destruction, became, in subordination to their chieftain, conquerors for themselves of small domains and a military monarchy was seen to arise from their joint
;

from the increase of their numbers, to press upon each other, and to grow uneasy for want of room ; an inconvenience which must have affected those most who were settled nearest
the centre ; and accordingly the first warlike motions, of which we have any credible account, were those of the kings of Shinar and of Elam, with their allies, against (A.M.*2006. those of Sodom, &c.(d) nor does (B.C. *1938. it appear that even then, the military art was either in great esteem or in much perfection; since, in the sequel of that warfare, we see the troops of four kings, which had subjugated five others, and held them tributary for twelve years, overthrown, even when flushed with victory, by the servants of Abrarn, amounting to no more than three hundred < A.M.*2om. and eighteen persons, in whose I B.C. *113. behalf it does not appear that there was any
supernatural interposition. From this view of the subject, we may conclude, that the first form of government was the patriarchal, to which succeeded the regal,

exertions.

conquerors used their victories in different ways, according to their various temthempers and interests. Some, considering; of the conquered, selves as absolute masters and thinking it enough that they granted them their lives, stripped them of every thing else, and reduced them to a state of slavery, con-

These

first

demning them to the meanest offices, and the most laborious employments; hence the disOthers tinction between freemen and slaves.
introduced the custom of entirely transporting the vanquished people, with their families, into

new

countries, where they were to cultivate the lands for the benefit of their conquerors. Others, yet more moderate, were content witli obliging the conquered to purchase their liberty by a ransom, allowing them the exercise of their own laws and peculiar privileges, on payment of an annual tribute; sometimes even leaving their kings on the throne, and only obliging them to acknowledge the superiority of their conqueror by certain marks of homage and submission. But the wisest and most politic gained the affections of their new subjects, by admitting them to an equality with their old ones, and granting them the same liberties and privileges, so that, the interests of both being

which was itself superseded by military usurpation and absolute despotism. And here, perthe whole human race had groaned haps, under a perpetual bondage, had not a kind
Providence so ordered it, that in the transmission of the iron rod of tyranny from father to son, it must occasionally fall into the hands of a weak prince; and on such occasions tho people would be enabled to recover somewhat of their natural rights. Opportunities such as these, frequently repeated, would tend ultimately to
bring back the government nearly to what it had been under those earlier kings, who succeeded the patriarchal ages. But as by this time the

united, they

became one people.

The

first
7

A.M.*i77i.

act of violence and usurpation (b) recorded in Scripture, was that of

B.C.*223. j Nirarod, who dispossessed Asshur, the son of Shem, at first settled in the plains of Shinar, and obliged him to remove into Assyria, (c)

But this revolution, it is presumed, extended only to some few of the newly-planted In the rest, and especially such as nations. lay outermost, a simplicity of manners was retained for several ages afterwards nor does it appear that wars arose in the world till the colonies, which were at first separated, began,
;

nobles had acquired considerable power, these revolutions would be rather effected through their intrigues, than by the simultaneous exertions of the people. The power of the prince would therefore be abridged, and that of the nobles increased ; but the condition of the people would remain little or nothing ameliorated which seems to have been the first form of a mixed monarchy the king and the nobles
:

of Sanchoniatho may be cre(K) If the Phcpnician history dited, and their Chronos be allowed to be Ham, the thirst of .power began to make havoc in the world even during Noah's
life-time; that patriarch being driven out of his settlements, and at length slain by his rebellious son. Of this we shal
Jiave occasion to speak in another place. to the general acceptation of.Gen. (.c) This is according
x,

8
(i.

11.
c.

bear another construction,

that the llth verse will may be remarked " Out of that land HE thus: Nimrod) went into Assyria," &c. whence many comit

But

mentators suppose Nineveh, as well Babylon, to have been built by Nimrod, rather than by Asshur. Of this we shall have occasion to speak more largely in the history of Assyria.
(d)

Gen.

xiv.

CHAP.

vr.J

MEASURES OF VARIOUS NATIONS.

223

governing jointly. At length the nobles would proceed to set aside the regal office altogether, and, acting by their own authority, would exhibit that form of a commonwealth which has since been termed an aristocracy. Among a number of rulers, each possessed of an equal share of authority, it was impossible that jealousies and party spirit should not break out; dissensions would arise, and, to heal the breach, they must either restore royalty, and surrender their power into the hands of a king, or they must appeal to the people. The former alternative their pride forbade the latter flattered each individual with the hope that he should be raised above his compeers but, in order to conciliate public favour, concessions were made to the people, and a second species of
; :

The gradation from this to government. downright anarchy is rapid the government, with the semblance of a hundred heads, but without a real one, lay open to every adven:

the reins of power out of their own hands, would find it difficult, if not impossible, to recover them and the consequence would be the establishment of a democracy, or popular
:

turer

and in proportion as the people became ; enervated by luxury, the state would be sold to the best bidder, who, having assumed the " fretted his hour on the supreme power, and
stage," would be superseded by some more successful candidate for popular suffrage, and he also in his turn must make way for a third.

mixed government appeared, under the joint administration of patricians and plebeians. This species of commonwealth, like the feet of Nebuchadnezzar's image (part iron and part clay) was of materials too incongruous to hold longtogether: the patricians would aim at the rethe covery of their relinquished privileges of their liberties, would people, always jealous endeavour to deprive them of their remaining and the former having once given distinctions
; ;

At length, to get rid of these accumulated evils, the people and the nobles jointly agree to confide the superintendence of public affairs into the hand of some one respectable person, whilst they assume the power of legislating for themselves and thus appears that most beautiful and efficient of all forms, a mixed moiiairhy; in which the several rights and privileges of the people, the nobles, and the sovereign, are held in equal balance, and their united energies are called forth for the preservation of the state.
:

CHAPTER

VI.

OF MEASURES, WEIGHTS, AND MONEY.

A KNOWLEDGE of the measures,

and money of the
ancients,
is

weights,

the right understanding well as of the present history, where the use of their terms and phraseology is unavoidable. The following tables are therefore introduced, in which the ancient values are reduced to the English standard, chiefly according to Dr. Arbuthnot, and in some instances according to other writers of celebrity, whose names are given, wherever we have departed from the Doctor's calculations. The new French measures and weights are likewise introduced, and compared with the standard of France prior to the revolution ; and to these

necessary for of their writings, as

are added various itinerary measures of ancient and modern times.

LONG MEASURES.
TABLE
1
I.

SCRIPTCKE LONG MEASUKES.

Ft.

English
In.

4
3 2

Digits..

Palms .

= = = =

Palm
1

Spans.. Cubits..

1 Span* =: 1 Cubitf
1 Fathom

7
10

Fathoms := 1 Reed (Ezekiel's).. Reeds.. =: 1 Pole (Arabian).

10
Poles...

14 1 Schoenus,orMeasuringline= 145

0.912 3.648 10.944 9.888 3.552 11.328 7.104 1.104

* The Orientals used another span, equal to onc-iuurth of a cubit, t Sec Table II.

224

INTRODUCTION.
TABLE
II.

[CHAP. vr.

JEWISH LONG, OR ITINERARY MEASURES.

English
Miles. Facet.

Feet.

1 Cubit*

1.824

CHAP.

VI.J

ANCIENT MEASURES.

22.3

INTRODUCTION.
Ka, in a Degree.

[CHAP.

VT.

SUPERFICIAL OR SQUARE MEASURES.

Panuang
Berith

Codani
Coss Li

Turkish Turkish J of Cororaandel I of Malabar

or Indian League
C
.
,

22 66
7

TABLE

XII.

Chinese

Ancient

{Modern
.
.

Pu

Chinese or League of Siarn Rocning Werst or Vcrst Russian C Geometrical Step Roman

44 240 109 25 32 104

68,480 186,790

ANCIENT GREEK SUPERFICIAL MEASURES. Olympic Land Measure.

36 6 2 6

Olympic square feet.... Hexapoda

Hemihecti Modii

=
=:

1 Hexapodon.
1 Hemihcctos. 1 IIcclos or Modius. 1 Medimnus or Jugerum.
to

Hence it appears, that the Olympic jugeruin was equal 103 English perches, or nearly five-eighths of an acre. Pythic Land Measure.
1666J- Square cubits
1

TABLE XL
A COMPARISON OF THE ITINERARY MEASURES OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.
Number of
each equal
(o
liih

Hemihectos.

2 6

Hemihecti Modii

1 Modius. := 1 Medimnus or Jugerum.

to

Length of a
single

Mea-

Hence the Pythic Jugerum appears to have been equal 109 English perches, or nearly -rtbs of an acre.

100 EvgNiks.

sure of each
sort.

Eng. Yds.

N. B. The plethron, or acre, is said by some to contain 1444, by oihers The aruuru ol 10,000 square leet ; and tbe aroma, the half of the plethron. the Egyptians was the square of 100 cubits.

Arabia

Miles ..................
ditto

Bohemia... Brabant... Burgundy.,

China.* Denmark..
England
.

.................. ditto .................. ditto .................. Lis .................... Miles .................. ditto .................. 100.
e 0grap hical ...... tOj Miles.. ................ Leagues, Astronomical.. . .

81.93 17.36 28.93 28.46 279.80 21.35

8 6.91 25.62 36.21 28.97

. .

Flanders...
<

France

-{ditto,

Marine ...........

(ditto, Legal, of 2000 Toises ( Miles, Geographical ......

Germany

. <?

ditto,

Long .............
............

t ditto, Short

Hamburgh.. Hanover... Hesse

.

Miles ..................
ditto

ditto
ditto ditto

Holland ...

.................. .................. ..................

..

41.28 21.72 17.38 25.66 21.35 15.23 16.68 27.52

19.31 57.93 86.91

Hungary...
Ireland
Italy

ditto ----

---- ......

..................

ditto.. ...... ..........

ditto ......

Lithuania.,

18. .......... 16.26 ditto .................. Oldenburgh 28.97 5 ditto, Short ............ 21.72 | ditto, Long ............. 26.03 Legoas ................. Portugal... Miles .................. 20.78 Prussia ( ditto, Ancient, of 8 Stadia 109.18 86.91 { ditto, Modern, .......... Versts... .............. 150.81 Russia. Miles .................. 17.76 Saxony 88.70 ditto .................. Scotland... ditto .................. 27.67 Silesia.

2148 10137 6082 6183 629 8244 1760 2625 6869 4860 6075 4263 8101 10126 6859 8244 11559 10547 6395 9113 3038 202 J 9781 10820
(5075

TABLE
100

XIII.

ANCIENT ROMAN LAND MEASURES. 1 Scrupulum Square Roman feet. ...

Scrupula
Sextulus
1 Sextulus.

of land.

1 Actus.*

6 6 2

Sextuli, or

5 Actus....
:=:

1 Uncia of laud.
1 Square Actus.

Uncias

100
* The

Square Actus Jugera Heredia

,

Jugerum. t Heredium.
Centuria.

slip of ground, four Roman feet broad, and 120 long. t The jugerum, or acre, was considered as an integer, and divided, likr the libra, or as, in the following manner

acttis

was a

Jugerum contained Roman. English.

Uncif.
1
Sq. Ft. Scrap.
=

R'!s. Pal.
--

Sq. Ft.

As .......... Deunx .......

Dextans .....
----

12
:

11

=
=

28800 26400 24000

288

18

250.0.)

10
9 8 7

264 240
216

10
2

183.85

117.64
51.44

| Dodrans
|

= =

Bes ........

21600 19200
16800 14400
1

34
25
17 9
1

192
168

257.46 191.25
125.03

8101 6760 8468 1612 2025 1167 9905 1984 7083

h
r!
5

Septunx ..... i Semis .......

=
= =
=

144 120 96
72 48
24

Quincunx.... J Triens ...... J Quadraus....

Sextans ......

5 4 3
2

2000

58.82

9600

32

264.85 198.64

= =

rV Uncia ......
N. B.
the
perches.
If

7200 4300 2400

at

24
16
8

IBK46
66.21

ne take

the

Human

Roman jugerum was

11.6 English inches (see Table V.) 5980 English square yards, or 1 acre 37^
loot

Spain

<

Swabia
Sxv-den.... Switzerland

Turkey

....

Westphalia.

f Leguras, Common, of 8000 ) Varas ............... J 37.97 I ditto, Legal, of 5000 Varas 17.38 Miles..... ..... ....... 15.04 ditto .................. 19.23 ciilto ........ ........ 96.38 Berries ................ 14.56 Miles ............ ......
.

4635 10126 11700

!)153

TABLE XIV. ENGLISH SOU-ARE MEASURES.

144
!)

Inches

1826 12151

F'f
.

= =
.

1 Foot.
1 ^ard. 1 Pace.

2i Yard,

CHAP.

VI.]

MEASURES.

227

INTRODUCTION.
TABLE
XXIII.
LIgUIDS.
Wine Measure.
Sol. In.

[CHAP. vr.

ROMAN MEASURES OF CAPACITY FOR

English

Galls. Pts.

CHAP.

VI.]

MEASURES. WEIGHTS.
TABLE
XXVIII.

229

TABLE XXXII.
THE GREATER ATTIC WEIGHTS REDUCED TO ENGLISH TROY WEIGHT.
Ib. os.

FRENCH MEASURES OF CAPACITY BEFORE THE

REVOLUTION.

A A A A A A

Cubic inch
Litron Boisseau
. .

1.21063 Cubic inches English. 65.34

1045.44, or 16 Litrons. 2000.875, or 3 Boisseaux, nearly an English bushel. 4181.75, or 2 Minots. 8363.5, or 2 Mines, or 6912 inches French.

datts.

Libra
L

grs.

Minot

Tf

Libra

Mine

Septier.

Mina Attica) communis f 60Ditto=46Minae )

VT

_ ~ _

Mina Attica communis fl Mina Attica

l

10 18 13f

\ "\
I
\_

Medica

. .

iTalent.Attic.

A Muid A Ton of shipping

double for oats. 100362, or 12 Septiers. 42 Cubic feet.

Medicae

commune

* There was another Attic talent, by some said to consist of 80, by otlierj of 100 mina;. Every mina contained 100 drachmae, and every talent 60 mime but the talents differed in weight, according to the different standards of the drachma and minx of which they were composed. Some of the values of these standards are exhibited in the list
:

following

TABLE XXIX.
FRENCH MEASURES OF CAPACITY, ACCORDING TO THE

Ib.

oz.

fiu'ts.

grs.

NEW SYSTEM.
Mililitre

Antiochiae

. .

Centilitre

Decilitre
Litre, a cubic
)

decimetre
Decalitre

Hacatolitre ....
Chiliolitre

= = = _ = =

English solid Inches.

.06103 .61028 6.1028

61.028, or 2.113 wine pints. 610.28, or 2.64 wine gallons. 6102.8, or 3.5317 cubic feet, or 26.4

* < Cleopatra Ptolemaica 3

133J 144

ditto
dltto

= =
=

,
1

6 22J4
16H-

ditto....

81 6
8

1 Antiochium

=
/

80

ditto ...

Myriolitre

wine gallons. 61028. or 35.317 cubic feet, or 1 tun, 12 wine gallons. G10280. or 353.17 cubic feet.

H / Ptolcmaicum
Cleop. J Alexandriae H 1 Insulanum
VAntiocliiae

<

|=

86| ditto....

= 86 8 16 =86 8 16 =931111

96

SOLID MEASURES.
Decistere, for fire wood Stere, a cubic metre

=120 =360

ditto.... ditto.... ditto ----

=104 01914 =130 1 4 12 =390 31311

Dccastere

= = =

English Cubic Feet.

3.5317 35.317 353.17

TABLE XXXIII.
LESS ANCIENT GRECIAN,

For an explanation of the proportions, see Tables IX. and Pages 225 and 230.

XXXVII.

AND ROMAN WEIGHTS, REDUCED TO ENGLISH TROY WEIGHT.

WEIGHTS.

4
3 2
3
1J

Lente Leutes
Siliquae

Oboli
Scriptula, or
?

=1 Obolus t =1 Scriptulum,
.

1 Siliqua*.

. .

= = =

Ib.

000

oz.

diets,

grs.

O^Vr 3iV 9*V

TABLE XXX.
JEWISH WEIGHTS, REDUCED TO ENGLISH TROY WEIGHT.
1 Shekel
01
1
,

Scruples .... ^

=00
....
)
. .

6^

Drachma

60 Shekels * 50 Manehs

= =

1 Maueh, or

Mina

_ =
-;

U>.

oo<)
2

0:.

<ta. 2TS.

04

1 Talent

U3

3 10

6 10' 'r lOf

eiclit

l| Sextula l| Sicilicus

=1 Sextula = 1 Sicilicus =1 Duella

=
Ounce
1 Libra,

= = _ ~

Of 4 13 6 I5

8 Drach.=3 Duellae= 1 Uncia.t or

.

In reckoning money, 50 shekels made a mandi

bat in

12

Uncia-

or

>_
caract, or carat t used

60

shekels.

TABLE XXXI.
MOST ANCIENT GRECIAN, OR ATTIC WEIGHTS, REDl TO TROY WEIGHT.
1
CF.D

* Pliny makes the siliqita gold and silver refiners.

t

synonymous with the

by

Drachma

100 Drachmas Miuas

= =

=
i Mina] i Talent
.

IK.

diet.

1 he Grecians divided their obelus into chalet and Some, ainotii^ lejita. whom are Diodorus Siculu^ and Suidas, divided the obelus into six chatci, and \n y chains into seven tepta : others divided the obotus into eight chatci, and every chalcus into tight Icpta, or miiiuta.
f

6
1

*?T

Ihe

Roman ounce

is

65

*#
12

the same as the ounce avoirdupois.

They divided

into 7 denarii, us \\eJI as into

niis equal to the Attic

&tt

and as (hey reckoned their denadrachm, the Attic weights become in consequence one;

8 drachms

eighth heavier than the correspondent

Roman

weights.

2.30

INTRODUCTION.
TABLE XXXIV.
ENGLISH TROY WEIGHT.
Parts.

[CHAP. vi.

1 Grain*

24 Grains 20 Pennyweights .... 12 Ounces

= = =
= = = =

1 Pennyweight
1
1

Ounce Pound

= = = =
Ports.

480 5760

The pound was not the same all over France; for at L\ous, the city pound consisted of only 14 ounces, and the silk pound 'contained 15 ounces. At Thonloii*e, and throughout I'pper Languedoc, the pound consisted of 13 J Paris ounc< s; At as it did also at Marseilles, and throughout Provence. Rouen, besides the Paris li\re and marc, they had the u-citj/it
of the viscomte, which consisted of 16.5^ ounces of Paris.

* The mouevrrs lime a of the grain, thru: peculiar subdivision 4 Blank

JO IVriols
S>4

1 Periot 1 Droit 1 Mite

1

Droits
Mil,'*
is

20

Grain

= = = =
parts.

0.2304
0.96 0.48
1.

TABLE XXXVII. FRENCH WEIGHTS, ACCORDING TO THE NEW SYSTEM.

diversity of weights and measures over Europe, when the French National Convention, very early in their sittings, decreed that an uniformity should be established, upon simple principles: this important task was delegated to a committee, consisting of men celebrated for their mathematical and scientific attainments; and they published their report in the year 1797,

The inconvenience of a
felt all

The

grain

therclure

diuded

into

230,400

had long been

TABLE XXXV.
ENGLISH AVOIRDUPOIS WEIGHT, REDUCED TO TROY WEIGHT. Troy.
10 Drachms = 1 Ounce 1 == 1 Pound 1C Ounces. 1 Quarter .... a: 34 28 Pounds . 136 1 Hundred-wt. 4 Quarters = 2723 20 Hund.-wt. = 1 Ton
. .

Drachm

Ib.

m.

diets.

grs.

3.359375

from which

= =

= =

18 5.7-3 2 11 20. 11 8.

it appears, that the new system was founded on the principle of making all their weights and measures bear The basis of this system a decimal relation to each other. is taken from the ten-millionth part of a quadrant of the

258.
9
6 16.

earth's meridian:* this base

is

denominated, for measures of

as an index to the preceding : in those, the ancient weights are reduced to the Troy, and in this the Troy weight is reduced to the Avoirdupois cu.-lo-

This Table

will serve

length, metre ; for those of capacity, litre ; for superficial measure, are; for wood for fuel, atere; as will be seen on reference to Tables IX. XVI. and XXIX.; and for measures of

weight, the
f/i-riiiiinc ;

of England. The pound Avoirdupois contain* niai-y weight of Troy weight 1 Ib. 2 oz. 11 dwts. 20 grs. or, in round Whatever sum, therefore, is given numbers, 7004 grains. as the value of any of the ancient weights, it will bear the same proportion to 1 Ib. Avoirdupois that it bears to 7004 and the reduction of such proportion to grains Troy drachms, ounces, pounds, &c. will give the weight in
;

more immediate subject of the present Table, being the weight of a cubic centimetre of distilled

The measures above or below the basis are expu SMM! words indicative of 10 times, 100 times, 1000 times, by 10,000 times, &c. more or less; thus 10,000 times greater is expressed by the term myria, 1000 by chilio, 100 by hecto, 10 by deca : but the decrement of 10 is deci, of 100 centi, and of 1000 milli. Hence we obtain the following denowater.

Avoirdupois.

yrumme

minations of weight, for which, as already hinted, the term is the basis. Parts of the Troy.
Milligramme 10 Milk-grammes 10 Centigrammes 10 Decigrammes 10 Grammes. ... 10 Decagrammes

TABLE XXXVI.
FRENCH WEIGHTS, PRIOR TO THE REVOLUTION, REDUCED TO ENGLISH TROY WEIGHT.
Prior to the Revolution, almost every province had its peculiar weights, among which the Paris livre, or pound, containing 16 ounces, was divided according to the two
following methods
:

= 0.001= 015.0008 = Centigramme = 0.01 = 006 10.008 = = 0.1 = 034 10.08 = 28 410.8 = Decigramme = Gramme = 26 10 4 = Decagramme = = Hectogramme = 100. = 268 638. 13 =2685 10 Hectogrammes = 1 Chiliogramme = 1000. = Myriagramme = 10000. =26831 413 10Chiliograinmes
1 1 1 1
1

Gramme.

Ib.

m. dwts.

grs.

1.

10.

8.

8.

8.

METHOD
1 Grain, French 4 Grains
-.!

hint of taking the radix, or standard of the new system of our countryman, sures, from the measure ot the meridian, was given by

* The

first

meaMr.

I.

Troy.

Kdwarcl Wright, who

tionary, Vol. II.

died in 16^0.
col. 1.

See Dr. Hutton'a Mathematical Dic-

=
1
I

Pennyweights
CM-OS'.

= = =

Pennyweight. Gios . ....

.

1
I

8 Ounces..... 2 Marcs

Ounce Marc
Livre,

=0 =0
~
;

000 = 000
Ib.
irz.

dwts.

grs.

page 704,

4.921875 19.6875 2 11.0625

MONEY AND

COINS.

19 16.5 7 17 12

TABLE XXXVIII.
JEWISH MONEY, REDUCED TO THE ENGLISH STANDARD.
,* In
all tht

or

Pound../ The weights of this mode of division were used for gold, sil\rr, and the richer commodities those of Method II. for
commodities of
less value.

following Tables, Gold

ii

reckoned at

4(. ;

r a'..

Sitter ia ;>s.]}erm.
Sterling. o'.
.

(/.

METHOD
1 Half Ounce 2 Half Ounces 2 Ounces
'

II.
Ib.

Troy.
oz.

iluts.

1 Half-quarter Ib. Halt quart. Ib. zz 1 Quarter Pound 2 Quart. Pounds 1 Half Pound ... 2 Halt Pounds 1 Pound
1

= =

Ounce

= =

= = = = =

00
03

grs.

9 20.25
1(5.5

19 1 19

18 18

7 17 12 1 3 15

= 1 Gerah = 1 Behah, or half Shekel = lOGerahs = 2 Bekahs.... = 1 Shekel = = 1 Maneh, or Mina 50 Shekels 60 = 1 Talent (of Silvcr) ^MinaT' } = The golden Solidus, or Sextula = Daric, or Drachm = Shekel
.

' l rsff 5

1ft 3g
0|

5 14

' '

342
1

9
Oj
ti

12

116
o

1 10^

100 Pounds

1 Quintal

=1313

Talent

=5475

CHAP.
To

VI.]

MONEY AND
may
also be added, as being used
Sterling.
:

COINS.

these the following

under the

Roman power

-\

Mite

,1.

OjVa

232

INTRODUCTION.
:

[CHAP. vi.

Roman

Pliny speaks of the following alterations in the value of the coin

OF

UNIVERSAL HISTORY.
PART
I.

FROM THE CREATION TO THE CHRISTIAN

.ERA.

CHAPTER

I.

THE COSMOGONY, OR CREATION OF THE WORLD.

SECTION
THE ELEATICS.
I.

sibility

of creation, as a contradiction to rea-

OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS.

son

and of consequence have taken the op-

THE

STOICS.

PH<ENICIANS.

CHALDEANS. ATOMISTS. EGYPTIANS. EPICUREANS PYTHAGOREANS.--PLATONISTS. - MATERIALISTS. ETRURIANS. MAGI. BRACHMANS. CHINESE, &C.

1HE cosmogony, or knowledge of the original

formation of the earth, the materials of which it was composed, and the means whereby were disposed in the order in which we they

portunity thence to discredit revelation: but the supporters of the sacred writings maintain that the fact of creation out of nothing, by an INFINITELY powerful and wise self-existent God, so far from being repugnant to reason, to say nothing of revelation, is highly probable, and

behold them,

beyond

a subject, which, though far the reach of human sagacity, has

is

nevertheless exercised the ingenuity of philosophers in all ages, and given rise to theories and controversies almost without number. None of the ancient philosophers seem to have had the least idea of its being possible to produce something out of nothing, not even by the power of Deity itself: hence some of them asserted, that the world was eternal, both as to

demonstrably certain.(a) We have not indeed any idea of how NOTHING could exist from all eternity, nor of hoiv the world was created in time for in this case it is separated from eternity only by an indivisible point, which does not sufficiently distinguish between an eternal being and a temporary production but these are difficulties arising rather from the deficiency of our own finite reason and conception, which do not enable us to form adequate notions of creation or eternity, than from any real im:

possibility in the thing itself. Creation, it is to be remembered, the some-

matter and form; being without origin, and not liable to corruption while others insisted, that though the matter of the world be eternal, its form is mutable. The free-thinkers of the and former ages have denied the pospresent VOL. I.
:

implies bringing thing into existence, which before had no being whatever; not the forming of something out of If we nothing, as out of a material cause. the power of God to create matter, we deny
(a)

See Dr. Sam. Clarke,

On the Being and Attributes of God.

HH

'234

COSMOGONY. OPINIONS OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS.

either suppose that matter existed from

[CHAP.

r.

must

of the operations eternity, as a passive subject of God ; or, that matter is the only self-exeither of which involves us in istent principle One thing, the most impious absurdities. we have no ideas however, is certain, that as but what we receive through our senses, and as no man ever saw a thing created out of nocould thinfr, so the notion of such a creation entered into his mind, had it not never have been originally revealed by the Creator himself: and hence the Christian may draw a in favour of the divine oridecisive
:

argument

Ocellus Lucanus, a Pythagorean, was one of the most ancient assertors of the eternity of the world ; and from his book On the Nature of the Universe, were drawn the systems adopted by Aristotle, Plato, and Philo Judaeus. He affirmed the world, or rather the universe, to be incapable either of generation or corruphe nevertheless tion, of beginning or end
:

gin of that system of religion mulgated this doctrine.

which

first

pro-

generate and eternal; but that even mankind, and all the species of animals, have subsisted from everlasting, by a perpetual course of generation, without any original production; and that the earth hath for ever been adorned with trees, plants, and flowers, and replenished with He acknowledges the first prinminerals, &c. to be a spiritual substance, which is the ciple cause of the universe, the source of all the order and beauty, motions and forms, contained in it and declares God to be an intelligent Being, incorporeal, the first mover of all things, himself immoveable, eternal, indivisihe also affirms, ble, and void of all quantity that if there were nothing but matter in the world, there would be no original cause, but an infinite progression of causes; which is absurd. The true notion, therefore, of this philosopher was, that though the world had no
;
:

temporary generation, yet it was produced from one supreme Deity, after some other
manner.(c) Plato acknowledged the world to be the work of God but having used some expressions as if he thought the time of its formation to be indefinite ;(d) the greater part of his followers, who adhered to the opinion of Aristotle in this respect, took advantage of them, and so explained them as if, by the creation of the world, was not to be understood a creation in time, but only in order of nature, casualty, and dependence i. e. that the will of God, and his power of acting, being necessarily as eternal as his essence, the effects of that will and power must be supposed coeval with the in the same manwill and power themselves ner as light would eternally proceed from the sun, or a shadow from the interposed body, an impression from a seal, &c. if the respective causes of those effects were supposed to be Existence from eternity, and being eternal. caused or produced by another, were not therefore apprehended by these philosophers
; : ;

seems to admit, that, however eternal and necessary whatever is in the world may be imagined ; yet, even that necessity must flow from an eternal and intelligent mind, the necessary
perfections of whose nature are the cause of that harmony which keeps the universe together, He and prevents its falling into disorder.

allows God to have given men faculties, organs of sense, and appetites, not for the mike of pleasure, but FITTED FOR FINAL CAUSES; and CXpressly asserts, that the ever-active Being gomat verns, and the ever-passive is governed tin one is first in power, the other posterior that the one is divine, rational, and intelligent; the other generated, irrational, and liable to
;
;

change, (b)
Aristotle also held tends to have been the

opinion, and preamong the Greeks who asserted it. He taught that not only the matter of the heavens and the earth was inthis
first

of

the universe is (b) In another part of his work, he says, " the itself eternal, perfect, and permanent:" and that parts of the world must nee<ls be eternal, as well as the

"

world,

have been embraced

the rest, by several

MibMaiice and matter of the whole, mid mankind also." After this contrast, it is scarcely necessary to add, that the absurdity of his arguments equal the contradictions of
his assertions.
It is

uncertain

when

this

writer lived, but

learned Mohammedans, who Of this have thence been named Dahrians, or Eternatists. Al Farabi, Al Kendi, Elm Roshd, or Averroes, opinion, and Ebn Sina, or Avicenna, were suspected, and their philosophy was publicly inveighed against by the more orthodox, and themselves brawled with the names of atheists and

by many of

his

followers

among

he

supposed to have been very little older than the days of Plato, though his antiquity and authority have been by modern infidels opposed to those of Moses. (c) The sentiments of Aristotle, as to the eternity of the 2
is

infidels.

" the world must needs be an eternal (d) As when he says, resemblance of the eternal idea."

SECT.
to

I.]

ELEATICS.

PLATON1STS.

PERIPATETICS.

235

be contradictory and inconsistent notions.(e) tliis opinion, they seem to have been led from the consideration of the benevolent will and generative power of the Deity allowing that the world, notwithstanding its being from be eternity, might in some sense be said to made, as being produced from another cause, and not self-originated. Proclus himself, the
Into
;

had asserted all the corporeal world to be but oneiiiunoveable substance; thereby destroying, with tin; diversity of things, all motion and
imitation.

Simplicius,

who was

well acquaint-

ed with the opinions of ancient philosophers, is positive that Xenophanes and Parmenides
wrote not as naturalists but as metaphysicians ; not concerning a physical element, or principle, but of the true Being, or Divine transcendency; though, by reason of their obscurity, it was not perceived by many. And, in fact, when these Eleatics treat of natural things, they plainly acknowledge them to be compounded of various principles. Xenophanes supposed the earth to consist of air and fire, and that all things were produced out of the earth, except the sun and stars, which proceeded from the clouds he likewise maintained that there were four elements. Parmenides made a professed distinction between the doctrine of theological or metaphysical things, which he denominated truth, arid that of physical or corporeal things, which he called opinion. In the former of these, he asserted one immoveable principle ; in the latter tw o moveable subjects, viz. fire and earth, or heat and cold; the first being the workman, the other the matter. He also taught that the earth was formed of a dense air, which subsided; and that mankind was originally produced from mud. These notions he seems to have received from Archelaus the Ionian, whose auditor he had been and with them
:
r

great champion for the world's eternity, plainly acknowledges this sentiment, when he says, " what is called the generations of the gods, means not any temporary production, but
their ineffable procession

from a superior

first

cause."

pretenders have gone on very from these ancient philosoand have not scrupled to aver, that the phers, material universe is not only self-existent, but Such is the doctrine of that it is deity itself.
different principles

Some modern

Spinosa, who is supposed to have first reduced atheism into a system by regular deductions, His after the method of the mathematicians. fundamental opinions, however, were not new for Xenophanes, founder of the sect afterwards called Eleatic, is said to have taught the eternity and immutability of the world ; that
;

whatever existed was one being subject neither to any generation nor corruption, and that which docthis one being was the true God trine was defended by his successors, Parmenides, Meliseus, and Zeno of Elea, as well as
; ;

by Stilpo and the Megaric philosophers. And to obviate the objection, which would unavoidably be made to their proposed immutability
of the universe, that it was continually subject to alterations from new generations and corruptions ; they maintained, that whatever changes

Zeno also agreed. Strato of Lampsacus, the greatest of the Peripatetic philosophers,

made

nature inanimate,
;

seemed to undergo, they were no more than of the senses, and mere appearances. This opinion of Zenophanes and his followers, however, has been explained by several learned men, as not applying to the material world, but to the true God though some of the ancients, less acquainted with metaphysical speculations, understood them literally, as if they
it

illusions

and acknowledged up god but it though it is uncertain whether he taught that the universe, From his or nature, was one simple being. the atoms of Democritus, it is inridiculing ferred, that he admitted of no difference between the parts of the universe, -and that he
taught,
not,

as

the

atomists

did,

that the

world was a new work, the production of chance; but, as the Spinosists, that nature produced it necessarily and from all eternity. (f) _~~ _ _
i

__^

(e)

The

later Platonists were so fond of the notion of the

world's eternity, that, being on the one hand unwilling to abandon it, and on the other desirous to save appearances, they endeavoured by forced constructions to wrest their

words, especially his Tima-us, to their purpose ; conceiving that they ought, by all possible means, to conceal and deny the generation of the world, and of its soul, as if it were some horrible thing, not to be spoken of. Platonisiii was very early introduced into the Christian church,
master's

favourably received by some, and among the former was the strenuously opposed by others celebrated Origen; and in the sixth century, the doctrine of the world's co-eternity with God was suffered to be pubthe scholar of licly taught at Alexandria, by Ammonias,

where

this

dogma was

Proclus.
tion or

Plutarch, indeed, says that Strato allowed a first moimpression to chance, which was afterwards perfected by nature, or the plastic life which he supposed to be
(f )

H H 2

'236

COSMOGONY. OPINIONS OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS.

The advocates

[CHAP.

i.

Alexander the Epicurean maintained that God and matter were synonymous; that all that forms bethings are essentially God, and without any real existence, ing ideal accidents, all things were substantially the same, (g) This notion has not been confined to Europe,
but has

for this hypothesis were divided into two classes ; of which the one endeavoured to account for the generation of the

world, or

its

reduction to

its

present

order,

upon mechanical principles only, without deriving any assistance from a divine power: the
other class admitted an intelligent mind, as the architect and disposer of all things. These philosophers conceived the original of the earth to have been from a CHAOS, or dark confused fluid mass, without distinction of elements, and made up of all the varieties of parts, but without order or determinate form. To this chaos they attribvited a certain motion, arising from the action and reaction of the four first qualities, and the different tendencies of the particles of earth and water downwards, and of the air and fire upwards which motion
:

numerous

made considerable progress in the East. sect among the Japanese teach
is

that there

but one first principle, simple, dimiclear, luminous, incapable of increase or devoid of figure, perfect in the highest nution, reason or underdegree, wise, but without in a state of perfect inaction standing, existing
pervading all particular behis essence to them, so ings, communicating that they are the same with him, and are resolved into him when they are destroyed.-

and

tranquillity,

There are also several sects among the Mohammedans, which entertain similar conceits. The dogma of the soul of the world, which
not only common at this time in the East, but was so among the ancients, and was a chief part of the Stoical system,(h) is fundamentally the same with that of Spinosa though he differed from the Stoics, in contracting God's knowledge, which they allowed to be universal
is
;
;

have been irregular and disthey supposed till checked or changed into regulaorderly, rity, or what is called natural motion, either by chance or by a divine power.
to

Sanchoniatho,

writing

of

the

Phoenician

and in asserting the of the world to have been present disposition necessary, eternal, and consequently subject to no decay, contrary to their express doctrine. We come now to the second opinion, viz. of
in denying his providence
;

those

who

held the substance of the universe to

;

be eternal, but not the form a theory built " nothing can be proupon the axiom, that duced out of nothing;" whence the creation of matter was looked upon as an absolute impossibility though it was admitted that the world had not always its present state and disposition.
;

cosmogony, which he says was taken from Taaiitus (the same with the Egyptian Thoyth, or Hermes,) says, that " the first principle of the universe was a dark and spiritual (windy) air, or a spirit (wind) of dark air, and a turbid obscure chaos which things were infinite, and for many ages without bounds. But when the spirit was affected with love towards its own and this conprinciples, a mixture followed " This was the bejunction, he calls desire.
;

ginning of the formation of all things but the spirit did not know (acfaiou-ledgc) its own production. From this conjunction of the spirit,
;

was begotten mot f which some

others,

call

mud

a corruption of a

ivatery mixture ;{\)

every part of matter thus making the mundane system depend upon a mixture of chance and plastic or orderly nature. But, according to Lactantius, he rejected ail chance, and affirmed that nature was possessed of a generative vital power, though <l'--titute of sense and figure: so that all things were generated of their own accord, without the assistance of any former, or author. as it is, was afterwards em(g) This opinion, extravagant braced by some heretical Christians (if they may be allowed
in
;

to

Some writers say that Almaric and his adherents were burned alive for their heresy.
same opinion.
(h) Some heterodox Stoics, in particular Boetbius, not only denied the world to be an intelligent being, and substituted a plastic nature in the room of its mind or soul; but also asserted the world's eternity and incorruptibility, or one constant and invariable course of things of this opinion also the elder Pliny seems to have been : for he declares that the
:

that title;) as one, Almaric, in particular, whose dead body was disinterred and burned, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, for having in his life-time taught that all things

were God, and God was all things; so that the Creator and the creature were the same. These sentiments were followed !>\ liis scholar David of Dinant, and several others; the celebrated Peter Abelard was also accused of holding the

world, and what is called heaven, by whose circular motion all things are governed, ought to be believed to be an eternal and an immense deity, such as was neither made, nor will ever be destroyed. the Arabic madali, sig(i) Bochart derives this word from nifying, as he says, the first matter, or principle of things but as Sanchoniatho makes the chaos, and not mot, to le the first material principle, Bishop Cumberland thinks it may
;

SECT.

I.]

PHOENICIANS.

EGYPTIANS.

2.17

" and of this came the seed of all creatures, and the generation of the universe." He then " there were certain animals, devoid of adds,
sense,

solid the earth, slimy indeed, and very soft at first; but, stiffening by the rays of the sun, the surface began to ferment by reason of the h< al.

from which proceeded

intelligent

ani-

mals, called Zop/tasemin,(ji) (i. e. conlemplators of heaven) formed alike in the shape of eggs, immediately upon which, mot, with the sun, moon, stars, and larger constellations, shone

The air being intensely enlightened by the violent degree of heat communicated to the sea and earth, winds were generated, with clouds, and great descents and defluctions of
forth.

the heavenly waters ensued and when they were separated, or drawn from their proper place by the heat of the sun, and met all again
:

they dashed against each other, and engendered thunders and lightnings, the noise whereof awoke the before-mentioned intelligent animals, and male and female moved in the
in the air,

whereupon some of the humid parts swelled, and rose gradually into putrid pustules, covered with thin membranes. This humid matter, thus fecundated by the genial heat, received by night nutriment from the mist falling from the ambient air, and by day acquired greater solidity from the warmth of the sun till at length, the enclosed brood being arrived at perfect maturity, and the membranes burned, or burst, all kinds of animals were produced. Of these, such as had obtained the greater degree of heat, became volatile, and flew upwards ; those in which the earthy concretion prevailed, were placed in the rank of reptiles, and other
;

terrestrial

animals;

while

such as consisted

earth

and

in the sea."(k)

of the origin of the universe by Diodorus Siculus, is generally supposed to be the cosmogony of the Egyptians, though he does not say so. According to his theory, " heaven and earth, when the universe first were of one form, their nature being coalesced, blended together ; but as bodies separated, the world assumed the disposition it now bears, and the air began to have a constant motion ; hereupon the fiery parts flew to the upper regions, being naturally carried

The account

chiefly of a watery nature, repaired to a congenial element, and were denominated fish. The earth, in the mean time, was constantly

gaining greater degrees of hardness and solidity from the rays of the sun and from the winds ; so that at length it could produce no more
In rife

animals,

their species

and they began to propagate by generation." To obviate any

upward by their and hence proceeded the rapid levity circular motion of the sun, and other stars. The muddy and turbid matter, after it had become incorporated with the humid, subsided in one place by its own weight, and being agi-

own

objection against the possibility of the earth's producing living creatures, Diodorus adverts to the vast numbers of mice, which were then universally believed to be bred every year in Upper Egypt from the putrid mud left by the overflowing of the Nile.(l) This cosmogony is evidently derived from the same original with that of Sanchoniatho ; and, so far as the mechanical process of the six days' work of creation is concerned, seems to be nothing more than a corrupt amplification of the account given by Moses. That sacred historian refers
niatho, it will appear not improbable that the Phrenicians admitted two principles, of which one was a turbid dark chaos, the other a spirit, or an understanding prolific goodness, forming and batching the world into perfection; the " it knew eternity of which spirit seems to be implied in that Cudnot its own generation ;" i. e. never had a beginning.

tated

with continual internal volutations, the watery parts formed the sea, as did the more
be belter derived from another Arabic word, mat/in, to steep, or macerate in water, from the noon mawth, a confused solution, or what physicians would call a mucilage. From what is said of mot shining forth with the sun, moon, and stars, it should seem that Thoyth considered the earth

as a planet.

imagines,

These Zopkasemin were not the angels, as Bochart but the celestial bodies, which Sanchonintho supposes to be intelligent, and were therefore adored as Cumberland's Remarks on the Cosmogony of Sanpods.
( j)

worth's True Intellectual System of the Universe. (1) Eusebius condemns this cosmogony, as he does that of Sunchoniatho, because Ilic name of God is not so much
as mentioned in it; but a kind of fortuitous and spontaneous But Dr. Cudworth formation of the universe is introduced. defends the Egyptians against the imputation of their acknowledging no deity but matter; and thinks Eusebius here contradicts what he has declared in another place, that they believed in a demiurgic reason, aiid intellectual architect of

whom his fragment has been preserved, charges this cosmogony of the Phoenicians with bringing in downright atheism, because it contains no theology, or notice of the supreme God, nor of angels : but, in opposition to this opinion, it has been maintained by Dr. Cudworth, that if the best construction be put on the words of SanchoI

choniatho, p. 21. (k) Eusebius, by

This Cueph, however, the world, whom they called Cneph. was the god of Thcbais, and not of Lower Egypt.

238
the

COSMOGONY. OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENTS.

[CHAP.

i.

work of creation to the Almighty Fiat, " Let there be," &c. " Let the earth, (the waters.) bring forth," &c. but he has not described the particular operations, if any there were, which intervened between the going; forth of the commandment and the effect produced this the Egyptian cosmogonists have attempted, and the foregoing quotation exhibits an hypothesis, such as might have been expected from men, unassisted by divine revelation, and guided, or rather misguided, by
:

wherein frightful animals, of compounded forms, were generated ;(n) the governess of all which was a female, called Omox'/ra, or, in ChalThalatth, which in Greek signifies the and with equal propriety I lie moon. Belus sea, divided this woman in the midst, and made of the one half the earth, of the other the heaven; and the animals perished." But he adds, " these for the world things are allegorical humid, and animals generated therein, being the aforenamed god took away the woman's head, and the other gods mixed her body, which fell down with the earth, and formed men; for which reason they are intelligent, and partake of divine wisdom. Belus (whom they
dee,
;

legendary traditions.

In addition to what has

been stated, on the authority of Diodorus, it may be also observed, the Egyptian priests taught that the earth had certain periods or revolutions, w^hen it was to be destroyed alternately by water and fire, and renewed again. (m)

interpret to be Jupiter,) cutting the darkness in the midst, divided the earth and the' heaven

"The Chaldaeans, or Babylonians," says Diodorus Siculus, " held the nature of the world to be eternal having neither original generation, nor being subject to future corruption but they supposed the beautiful order and disposition of all things to be caused by a divine ProTidence, and that whatever is now in the heavens was not casual or spontaneous, but perfected by the determinate and established decree of the
;
:

from each other, and reduced the world into order; whereupon the animals, unable to bear the power of light, became extinct; Belus then,
seeing the country desert, though fertile, commanded one of the gods to cut off his own head, to mix the earth with the blood which issued from the wound, and to form men and beasts that could endure the air ; and Belus perfected the stars, the sun, the moon, and the five planets. "(o) The old heathen poets, who greatly contributed to the depravation of theology in general, have more particularly countenanced the opinion of the world's being produced from chaos, without the influence of God. For though make Love to preside over the ranging of they
the supreme God: that God, who is an intellectual light, or fire, did not shut up his fire within his intellectual power, but communicated it to all creatures ; first, and immediately to the first mind, and to all other eternal and incorporeal beings ; under which notion are comprehended a multitude of gods, angels, good daemons, and the souls of men. The next emanation is the supramundane light ; an incorporeal,

But Berosus, who challenges the gods." greater authority, as well on account of his antiquity as being himself of that nation, gives the following account of their cosmogony, which he quotes from Cannes, the first in" There was a time structor of the Chaldaeans when the universe was darkness and water,
:

(m) Plato in Tim. Origen Contra Celsum, lib. v. (n) Here he goes on to describe tbese monstrous beings, " men with as wings, some two, others four; and two faces; some having one body and two heads, one male, the other female, with the organs of generation belonging to both some had the legs and horns of goats, some horses' sexes feet, others the hinder parts of horses and the fore parts of men bulls also were generated with the heads of men, and dogs with four bodies and fishes' (ails horses with dogs' heads; men and oilier animals with the heads and bodies of also fishes, reptiles, serpents, horses and tails of fishes and many other very wonderful animals, having mixed shapes of each other; whose pictures are kept in the temple of Belus." (o) The magic oracles of Zoroaster give another account of the cosmogony of the Chaldeans; but they are not esteemed genuine or ancient, and consist of a medley of illfrom the Platonists and digested notions, borrowed chiefly Gnostics, abounding much in mystery as, orders of invisible
; : ;
:

luminous space, in which the intellectual beings This supramundane light kindles the first corporeal world, the einpyreuin, or fiery heaven, which being immediately beneath the incorporeal light, is the highest, brightThe empyreum diffuses itself est, and rarest of bodies. through the ether, which is the next body below it, and its
infinite,

reside.

fire less

refined thau the

empyreum
and

but that

it is fire,

the

more condense

parts, as the sun

fire is

stars, sufficiently evince.

From

the ether, this

transmitted to the material and

sublunary world; for though the matter of which it consists is not light, but darkness, (as are also the material, or bad dicmons) yet this vivilicative fire actuates and gives life
to
all its

numbers, jynges, and other equally uninfrom all which the learned Mr. Stanley telligible .jargon was at the pains of extracting the following hypothesis "The Chaldiuaus believe that the first of all tilings is eternal,
things, mystical
; :

parts, insinuating, diffusing itself,

and penetrating

even to the very centre, passing from above to the opposite Stanley's History of part, through the centre of the earth." the Ckaldaic Philosophy, book i. sect. i. chap. 2.

SECT.

I.]

ATOMISTS.

EPICUREANS. STOICS.
explain the meeting of atoms, which
if

23.9

the confused matter, by which some understand the Deity, or the active principle of the universe, distinct from matter; yet it is more probable that they meant no more than the agreement, or harmony, which ensued on the cessation of the intestine war of the elements; for their Love had his original from chaos, as well as the rest of their gods, which were no other in reality than the heavenly bodies, ele-

ments, and other parts of nature, personated and deified. (p) The cosmogony of the poets, therefore, is the same with their theogony, or generation of the gods.

Passing by their vague conjectures and en-

which the learned have disputed till they have raised into importance fancies that would otherwise have been
thusiastic allegories, about

long ago consigned to oblivion, we come to the atomic system of Leucippi is and Democritus, who held that the first principles of the world consisted of an infinite number of atoms, or indivisible particles, of dinVrent sizes and
figures,
infinite

moving
space,

till

fortuitously from all eternity in by encountering each other,

they all impossible. But the most material difference between the two hypotheses was, that Democritus believed the atoms to be animated by some superior power, while Epicurus admitted no principle but the atoms themselves. As to the production of animals, the Epicurean philosophy supposed it to proceed from the action of the sun upon the moister parts of the earth, in a somewhat similar mode with that described by Diodorus as the theory of the Egyptians, and quoted in a preceding page. Among those who, allowing the eternity of matter, introduced an intelligent mind as the disposer thereof into the form the world now bears, some, allowing of no substance but matter, supposed it to be endued with understanding and life, and consequently to be God; others held God and matter to be two distinct and independent beings. Of the former opinion were Hippasius of Metapontus, Heraclitus, and the Stoics, with perhaps Diogenes of Apollonia: of the latter, Anaxagoras, Arche-

moved one way, would have been

they became variously implicated and entangled, whence arose a confused chaos of all kinds of particles, which by continual agitation disposed themselves into a vortex, or into several vortices, where after many convolutions and evolutions, molitions and essays, in which all imaginable shapes and combinations were tried, they at length chanced to settle in the present form and system of things. This hypothesis agrees with that of Epicurus, as represented by Lucretius, except that the latter makes no mention of the vortices, so essential a part of the system of the former. To magnitude and figure, the two properties attributed by Democritus to atoms, Epicurus added And as one inevitable consequence of weight. the Democritan system was absolute fatal necessity, which, in the opinion of Epicurus, was subversive of morality, and reduced the human soul to the state of a mere machine, he added to the two-fold motion of atoms, perpendicular and reflexive, a third, in supposing that they could of themselves decline from the right line, and move obliquely, even in void space, without any collision; from which he strangely inferred freedom of will, or natural This declination likewise served to liberty.
(p) See Introduction to this

and several others, among whom may be enumerated Pythagoras and Plato. Hippasius and Heraclitus held fire to be the first principle, of which all things were made, and into which, after the revolution of certain periods, they will again be resolved and this fire was God, whom Heraclitus described to be that most swift and subtile substance which permeates the whole universe. He also accounted for the formation of the earth, by
laus,
;

fire being extinguished, its grosser parts coalesced, and made the earth, which being again loosened by the fire, produced water, and from the exhalation of the water, the air was generated. The Stoics affirmed God to be an immortal, rational, and perfect animal, the maker and governor of the world and all things in it: but they more usually described him as a fiery spirit, destitute of figure, yet changing himself into all things; containing within himself all seminal reasons or models, according to which

supposing that the

every thing
ening,

is

formed pursuant to

fate

quick-

sustaining, world, as the soul does the human body; being called by several names, according to the different form of the matter animated by him.

and pervading the whole

Work, chap.

iv. sect. ii.

Their dogma of the constitution of the world seems to have been borrowed by their master,

540

COSMOGONY. OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENTS.

among
is

[CHAP.

i.

for they held that in cer; tain alternate vicissitudes of time, the universe is

Zeno, from Herarlitus

dissolved by
lire,

But the more generally received opinion the Chinese theists, comes still nearer
namely, that

and reproduced out of it ; God or absorbing all things into himself withdrawing by a general conflagration, and afterwards producing them out of himself again. In these successive conflagrations, they supposed thatnot the world only, but the inferior gods also, are melted down into the intellectual fiery soul, or principle of the universe; who, during that interval, rests in himself, considering his providence, and entertained with thoughts becoming himself, till he airain brings the world into being; which is done

to the doctrine of the Stoics;

God

the material soul of the whole world (or, rather, only of its most excellent part, the heavens;) that his providence and power are finite, yet much excelling the prudence and power of man that there are distinct spirits in the four parts of the world, the sun, stars, mountains, rivers, plants, cities, houses, in a word, in all things ; some of which spirits they consider as the immediate cause of all the mischiefs and disasters to which human life is sub;

substance from fire into air, and then into water; and as the seed is contained in the plant, so God, being the seminal reason of the world, left such a seed in the moisture as might afford proper matter for the generation
l>\

first

changing

all

ject. souls,

this multiplicity and distribution of they are enabled to account for the whole

By

economy of nature, in the absence of an almighty power and infinite providence, which
they do not allow to any one
:

spirit,

not even to

of the things to be produced ; the grosser parts of this watery matter subsiding, made the earth, while the finer parts constituted the air, and those still more subtilized, the tire. The four elements being thus generated, a mixture of them produced plants, animals, &c. With these notions of the Stoics, agrees the
doctrine of the Pundets (Indian gentiles) being the same in substance with the philosophy of Find. They pretend that a certain immense which spider was the first cause of all things, the matter from its own bowels, wove drawing the web of this universe, and disposed it with wonderful art ; she in the mean time, sitting in the centre of her work, feeling and directing the motion of every part ; till having at length sufficiently pleased herself in ordering and contemplating this web, she draws all the threads back into herself, and the universal nature of all creatures vanishes into nothing.(q) There is likewise a sect among the Chinese, who make nature their sole deity, calling her

that of the heaven only they suppose that this latter rules as a king over the other souls, or spirits; that they owe him obedience, which

he almost compels them to pay, though some of them are occasionally refractory, and oblige him to dispense with their homage. This last opinion differs widely from that entertained by another sect of the same nation, established by royal authority, A. D. 65, and founded by a son of the king In-fan-vang, who was at first called She, or She-Kia, and afterwards (when arrived at the age of thirty) Foe.(r) The secret doctrine of this sect, which is never revealed to the commonalty, is, that a void, or emptinesses) is the principle and end of all things; that our first parents sprang thence, and on their death returned to it ; that all men are likewise resolved into that principle by death ; that mankind and the elements, with all creatures, make a part of this void so that in the whole universe there is but one sub:

stance,

which
;

is

an independent principle, by which matter is universally informed; but they differ somewhat from the Stoics, in separating this principle from all corporeal and sensible matter; nevertheless they believe that the world had a beginning and shall have an end, after which it shall again be renewed, to perish again; and so on perpetually.
God
full

only by figures
figurations

and

diversified in particular beings qualities, or interior con-

as water is always essentially the whether it be in the shape of snow, hail, same, This original being they describe, rain, or ice.

as a pure, limpid, subtile, infinite substance, incapable of either generation or corruption ; perfect in itself, and the perfection of all things;

remaining

in

perpetual repose, though without

that (q) Another of their comparisons is, immense ocean, wherein swim several phials
that wherever these phials
go,

is like an of water;

is

reunited to

its

whole; that

is,

to the ocean,

of which

it

was

originally a portion.
(r)

they are always

in

the
in

>aiiic

ocean

and when they break, the water contained 14

them

are,

t. e. NOT A MAN. cvng kin; the Latin

translation,

(s) The Chinese words vacuum et inane.

SECT.

I.]

STOICS.

PYTHAGOREANS.
Plato.

241

heart, virtue, (or

power) or understanding; the

essence being neither to
(t)

eminent ancient philosophers, Pythagoras and

great property of its act, understand, or will any thing,

The Siamese

also

have some agreement with

:

Pherycides of Scyros, the master of Pythagoras is said to have believed in three eter,

the Stoics in their notion of the alternate destruction and renovation of the universe and the cabalistic Jews are supposed to account for the origin of things, by making them emanations from a first cause, and therefore preexistent, though perhaps under some other form. The latter speak of the resuming or withdrawing of things into the first being, by a revolution and restitution of them to their first

nal beings, viz. Jupiter, or God, time, and tinearth but his treatise, which was extant in the
:

days of Diogenes Laertius,

is

obscure and

somewhat corrupted.
Pythagoras asserted two self-existent principles, a monad, or unity, and a dyad, or twofold By the former of these, it is quality, (u) admitted that he meant God, or an generally active principle of mind; (v) but it is uncertain what he intended by the latter, it being sometimes interpreted, a daemon, or spiritual princior the visible world and ple, informing matter, at others, a passive principle, or matter itself the number two being used as a type of the
;
:

SOPH) state, as if they supposed their rpo jw or first infinite Being, to contain all things, and to be always in the of the same

OIN

quantum

being

universe, whether
state.

in the created or

uncreated

Next to the doctrine of the Stoics, the opinion of those who held two distinct co-eternal claims attention, principles, God and matter, as it has been attributed to two of the most
is the fountain of that spoken of, page (t) This opinion 236, as having obtained among the Japanese, and differs from Spinosism in allowing an emersion of the world from a very different state, possible to have been, if it did not actually exist ; as it likewise does from that and Stoicism, in divesting the first principle of activity and understanding. A disciple of Coufucius having refuted the extravagancies of this

variety, inequality, divisibility,

and continual
to express the

changes of matter; as one

unity,

was

identity,

indivisibility,

and unchange-

ableness of the divine nature, (w)

sides,

The worst

and as many angles.) This mode of philosophising but since, in its literal acceptwas also adopted by Plato ation, it has no foundation in nature, numbers never generating any thing but numbers, how variously soever combined, it seems much more probable that Pythagoras used them only as symbolical representations of what he was at a loss to express by words ; though his disciples, in subsequent ages,
;

by objecting against them the established maxim, that nothing can be produced by nothing, seems to imply that be nothing ; and that, they taught their first principle to consequently, the world had a beginning without either an a theorem, it efficient cause or the pre-existence of matter may be thought, too absurd for the most bewildered
sect,
:

sought mysteries in his doctrine, never dreamed of by their

master.
his monads were atoms. (v) Some, however, imagine that Cudworth. Besides the term monad, Pythagoras used tetrad, or tetractys, to designate the supreme Being the explication of which has puzzled the wits of several ages. Ill the Golden Verses, it is said to be the fountain of the eternal nature; and, by Hierocles, the Maker of all things, the the cause of the heavenly and sensible god, intelligent God, The later Pythagot. e. of the animated world, or heaven. reans endeavour to account for the application of the name Tetractys to God, from certain mysteries in the number four;
;

imagination to entertain; and therefore it is more probable that they intended by the terms void and emptiness merely

what modern Europeans understand by space, which they conceive to be distinct from body, and whose indivisible, impassive, impenetrable, immovable, and infinite extension, seems to partake of something real. See, on this latter subject, Dr. Isaac Watts's Essay on Space, in answer to John
Locke, Esq.
Pythagoras held numbers to be the first principles of and accounted for the production of the earth by supposing that the monad and dyad were the two sources of numbers, whence proceeded points; from points, lines; from lines, plane figures ; from planes, solids; from solids, >eiiMble bodies, composed of the four elements of fire, water, earth, and air, in perpetual change ; from them the world was formed, being -animated, intelligent, and spherical, containing in the midst the earth, a globular inhabited body. The world, he taught, began from fire, and the Jiflh element ; and there being five figures of regular solid bodies be supposed the earth to be made of the cube, (or solid square;) fire of the tetrahedron, (or pyramid;) air of the or.tat-'dron, (eight triangular sides;) water of the icosahedron, (twenty triangular sides;) and the sphere of the universe, of the dodecahedron, (twelve pentagons, each containing five
(u)
all things,

but the more recent conjecture is, that this name was really the Tetragrammaton, or that proper name, mil', of the supreme God, among the Hebrews, which consisted of four
letters: nor is it wonderful that Pythagoras should be so well acquainted with this name(jEHOVAH)since besides travelling into Egypt and the East, he is attirmed by Josephus, Porphyry, and others, to have conversed with the Israelites also.

(w) Porphyry, in his Life of Pythagoras, interprets the two principles of that philosopher differently: he says, "the cause of that sympathy, harmony, and agreement, which is in all things, and of the conservation of the whole, which is always the same, and like itself, was called by Pythagoras, themselves being unity ; that unity which is in the things

the but a participation of the first cause : difference, inequality, and constant irregularity in things, he called a dyad." Hence, according to this explication, the seem to have been the ame of monad and

but the reason of

Pythagoras dyad with Plato's infinite and Jiitite: the former of which
I I

is

Uwt

VOL.

I.

242

COSMOGONY. OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENTS.

in

[CHAP.

i.

of Pythagoras's theology was, that representing God as the mover of the universe, and the soul of the world, he taught that our souls were portions of the divine substance. Timaeus Locrus, a Pythagorean, in one place affirms matter to be eternal; but in another, he asserts the eternal God, visible only to the understanding, to be the author and parent of all things; and that the world, which is visible He also to the eyes, is the generated god. duration of distinguishes between the eternal

an irregular and disorderly manner, God,

prefers order to confusion, gathered it together, converted it into the four elements,

who

and made of them the world and

therein,

all

things

according to the archetypal idea, or model, which he had conceived in himself; that he gave it a spherical figure, as being the
perfect, and that which contains all other shapes; and that he endued it with an intelligent soul, because an animated being is more excellent than an inanimate one; and this soul Plato imagined to have been formed before its material body. He farther asserted that the world was incorruptible, not by its nature, but because it was supported by the divine providence. This animated universe, as well as the several parts of nature, which he also supposed to be animated, he held to be gods, inferior indeed to the supreme God, but superior to men, and

most

God, which had no beginning; and time, which was made together with the world, as an imiand says, that before the tation of eternity making of the world, there were, besides God, idea, or form, and rude matter; the former
:

being the intelligible pattern, or exemplar of all things; the latter, the subject, which, devoid of figure in itself, yet capable of all figures, was reduced by God into the determinate form of the visible world, and being the best production, is incorruptible from any other cause than the same God who composed it. In this sentiment, Archytas the Tarentine, (x) also a Pythagorean, coincides, when he supposes God to be the artificer and mover, matter the subject moved, and form the art introduced into the matter which was also the notion of Plato. Plato, who, as well as his master Socrates,
;

justly claiming

their
for the

homage and worship.

most part
;

These gods were

fiery,

consist-

embraced the Pythagorean notions of the origin of the universe, and the three principles, just mentioned, (y) (God, matter, and idea,) asserted matter to be uncreated and eternal, (z) And, according to Plutarch, he supposed the existence of two intelligent and independent
principles, one good, the other evil. As to the formation of the world,

taught,

that matter being at

first

Plato unformed,

but he supposed ing of the celestial bodies the earth to be also a god, and affirmed it to be the oldest of all the gods within the heaven he therefore reprobated the doctrine of Anaxagoras, which made the planets and stars only inanimate stones and earth. Anaxagoras was the first (of the Ionic sect at least) who introduced an intelligent being to move, separate, and put in order the chaotic mass ; whence he obtained the surname of NOU?, mind. He admitted as many sorts of principles, as of compound bodies ; for he supposed that every kind of body was made up of a great number of minute similar particles ; thus a bone was a composition of many very small bones, &c. but as this obliged him to allow that the seeds, or principles, of all kinds are to be
:

devoid of any determinate

most simple being, the cause of
of
all

figure,

and moved

found
(y)

in

every body,

it

threw his system into

all unity, and the measure the only substance. And if the dyad of Pythagoras be really substantial matter, there seems good reason to believe that he did not suppose matter to be self-

things

and independent, but a secondary being, derived from his monad, or active principle, which in the beginning was alone, and from whom all things were derived. The
existent

Diogenes Laertius reduces these principles to two, matter ; for he observes, " the ideas, or original of things conceived in the divine mind, are no patterns, distinct principle, but the very mind of God though frequently confounded with himself, by Timaeus and others of

God and

the Platonists." the arguments (z) Hierocles, a Platonist, convinced by against the eternity of matter, endeavoured to remove this imputation from his master, and to make it be believed that the founder of his sect supposed God capable of producing the world by a simple act of volition, without any prc-existent matter, and therefore maintained that he really held an

doctrine of the eternity of matter, held by the Pathagoreans, is therefore to be looked upon as a corruption of his followers, and not one of his original tenets and this is confirmed by " Plularch, who says that Pythagoras believed the world to
:

have had a beginning, and to have been made by God."-

De

Placitis P/iilos.

lil>.

ii.

cap.

iv.

should seem improperly, has joined Atcbytu and Pythagoras with Ocellus Lucanus, as believing mankind to have existed from eternity.
(x)

Censoiiuus,

it

and some modern writers asserting matter to be eternal, Plato supposed that, means, not that it subsisted visibly from all eternity, but inDacier. Cudworth. tellectually, in the eternal idea of God."
absolute creation out of nothing " in have
:

SECT.

I.]

PLATONISTS.

MATERIALISTS.

243

f-t range confusion. In the formation of the world, he supposed the mind, or intelligence which presided over it, whom he allows to be the origin of motion, finding in the infinite matter, which was co-eternal with itself, a vast number of particles, resembling each other, but mixed promiscuously with others that were

and after joining the corpuscles of the same kind, formed of some a star, of others a stone, &c. Animals he supposed to have proceeded in the first instance from the earth, being originally generated of moisture and heat; and afterwards by the confluence of the sexes. Archelaus, the successor of Anaxagoras, according to Augustine and Simplicius, held the same principles with his master; but Plutarch and Justin Martyr relate that he supposed infidissimilar, separated them,

together

which being too closely compressed by the violence of the circumvolution, there issued out water, from the evaporation of which proceeded the air : that the heavens were made of the aether, the sun of the fire, and the things about the earth of the other elements, (a) Conformably with the Pythagorean doctrine, he admitted of two worlds, the one intellectual, the other sensible; the former being the archetype of the latter. Plutarch was an advocate for the doctrine of the eternity of matter; for he supposes the
world not to have been produced out of nothing, but out of an antecedent disorderly state. In like manner, Hermogenes, and other ancient professed Christians, asserted the selfexistence of matter, whence they obtained the name of Materiarians or Materialists; and they adopted this hypothesis, in order, as they supposed, to account for the origin of evil, as the Stoics had pretended before them, and to free God from all imputation of being the author of
it.(b)

nite air
all

principles of likewise thought men and anithings. mals were the productions of the heat, or fermentation of the earth, which yielded a slimy substance, similar to milk, for their food. Empedocles, an auditor of both Pythagoras and Anaxagoras, is said to have adopted the physiology of the latter. He supposed all things to proceed from two causes, secretion and concretion yet he believed that contention and friendship depended on one supreme deity as their author. He taught that the elements were composed of smaller corpuscles, which were most minute, and as it were the elements of the elements; he imagined that aether was first secreted ; then fire; afterwards the earth,
first

rarefaction, (or sation, (or water,) to be the

and

its

fire,)

and conden-

He

some

sectarians
;

And among modern Christians, there are who assert the uncreatedness of

matter but suppose, with the Stoics, body to be the only substance. Some, among whom may be reckoned Plutarch, Numenius, and Atticus, went still farther, and maintained that chaos, or original matter, was animated by an evil soul, which constituted a third self-existent principle; to which latter was to be imputed whatever of evil, irregularity,
or disorder, appears in the universe, as all good was to be attributed to God. (c) And some heretical Christians, as the Marcionites, Manito Zoroaster and the Persian magi, who, according to Diogenes Laertius, maintained two principles, one good, the other evil (though it is much to be questioned whether they believed the latter to be eternal;) to the Chaldxans, because their astrologers supposed two of the planets to be beneficent, two malevolent, and three of a middle nature; to the ancient Greeks, because they sacrificed both to Jupiter Olympius and

(a) It appears, therefore, that the physiology of Empedocles was fundamentally the same with that of Democritus and Epicurus, yet differing from them in some particulars as, in the exclusion of a vacuum, the denial of such
;

Typhon ;

physical corpuscles as were indivisible, and more especially in the admission of an intelligent principle, by whose wisdom the world was put in order.
(b) Their argument was, tlrat God made all things either out of himself, or out of nothing, or out of pre-cxistent matter. Upon the first supposition, he must have made nothing, being himself always unmade: upon the second, being himself essentially good, he must have produced all things good, and therefore no evil could have arisen out of his creation : but admitting, upon the third supposition, the pre-existence of matter, in the original constitution of which

account of

to Pluto, called also the Infernal Jupiter; to Pythagoras, on his monad and dyad ; to Empedocles, because of

and

was a component principle, the disorders to which the world is subject are to be attributed to the faultiness of its materials, and not to the will of its maker.
evil

() To support this opinion by authority, as well as by argument, Plutarch insisted that it was common to the Egyptians, who represented the evil principle under the name of

and friendship; to Anaxagoras, in whose mind he thought he saw a good and an evil and, above all, to Plato, who speaks of a necessary and god; an innate appetite, which may sometimes turn the heavens a disorder as well of two contrary way, causing confusion and kinds of souls, one beneficent, the other its opposite and, that philosopher supposes matter to have been lastly, because moved disorderly before the world was made which, says Plutarch, implies that a disorderly and irrational soul existed with it, as its mover, matter being incapable of moving itself.
his contention

infinite matter,

It is to

be observed, however, that Plato, in the first passage here alluded to, adds, that "it must not be supposed there are

II 2

244
flr.i-ans,

COSMOGONY. OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENTS.

[CHAP.

i.

and Panlicians, maintained this same opinion of two self-existent gods, a i>-ood our, and an evil; which last is called by Manes,
ltyli\

by God, and determined by the period called by them the great- i/eur. (d) Several sects and philosophers have already
been noticed, who entertained this opinion of the mundane revolutions; and to them may here be added the Druids, who taught the alternate dissolution of the world by water and tire, and its successive renovation. The ancient Persian magi acknowledged the world to be made by God ; but being at a loss to account for the origin of evil, they imagined two principles, a good daemon, represented by light, and a bad one, whose symbol was darkness (e) the former they held to be eternal, the latter created. (f) The modern Persians have a tradition, which they pretend to have received from Zoroaster, that God created the world in six times, or spaces of different lengths, called !>-a/iit>ib(ir/ta, making in all 365 natural days, or a complete year.(g) The old Indian philosophers, called by the Greeks Brac/imanes, supposed the world to be generated, or made, and also perishable, being subject to successive dissolutions and renovations also, that though the principles of all things were different, the formation of the world commenced from water; and that the cause of
:
:

or mutter. roine now to the last, and only true opiviz. of those who held the world to be abnion, solutely created, and liable to dissolution. The ancient Etrurians, or Tuscans, had a tradition that God, the author of the universe,

We

employed twelve thousand years in all his creations, and distributed them into twelve houses,
or chiliads; that in the first chiliad, or thousand years, the heavens and the earth were made; in the second, the firmament; in the third, the sea and other waters; in the fourth, the sun, moon, and stars ; in the fifth, animals of all kinds, except man, who was the work of the
sixth chiliad.

The

first

six

thousand years

being thus occupied in the progressive creation of the world and its inhabitants, the remaining six (to make up the supposed number of twelve) are destined to its continuance, at the expiration of which will be the consummation of all things. They also held that the world was subject to
certain
revolutions,

when

it

became

trans:

formed, and a new age and generation began of such generations, they supposed there were eight, differing from each other in customs and way of life; each having a duration assigned

God's making
ness, (h)

all

things

was

his essential

good-

two gods, of contrary minds, turning the heavens sometimes oneway, and sometimes another;" and the other authorities, by which Plutarch endeavours to uphold his hypothesis, seem to be equally misapplied indeed he contradicts himself in admitting that the evil principle will be ultimately destroyed, it being impossible that an uncreated being should be capable
:

(g) The several names of these times, their order, the number of days contained in them, and the several parts of the creation performed in them respectively, are agreed upon, by all writers; though they differ as to the particular part of the year from which they begin. . Their order, names, &c. are as follow :

of annihilation.
(d)

of such a change was supposed by the Tuscan diviners to be portended by a prodigy in the time of <'. Marius, when, the air being perfectly serene, the shrill and mournful sound of a trumpet was heard, to the great terror and amazement of all men. Diod. Sicul. lib. v.
(e)

The approach

Order.

Name.

No. of days.
.

Work

performed.

Mid-yuzeram
(

42, or 45.

The heavens

created.

o
3.

Mid-yusham,or 7 \ Mid-yuahaham j
(

.00.
.

The
.

waters created.
earth created .

Pitisliuhim, or

7 j

75

The

The good

principle,

or

Yrzdun, and Orutozd, or Ilormizdti, which the Greeks wrote Ornmazes; and the evil difinon they called Ahdriman, or A/inman, and the Greeks, Aiimaniut. Lacrt. In

God, they named Ye:ad, or

4. 5.

Pitishaim-gdh f lyuscram, or
[I/ffiiihe.hram
.

30. Trees
.

& plants create

. .

Proitm.
(f)

Hyde DC IMig.

Diog.

Mldiyarim

80

Brute animals created.

created.

Vet. Pcrs. cap. ix.

6.,

. .

Hamespitamidim .... 75. Man

365

sect of (he magi, indeed, held both principles to be eternal but they are reputed heterodox ; as the following quotation from Zoroaster, the founder, or reformer of magism " " demonstrates has the head of an hawk, God," says he, [a symbolical expression] is the first of all things, incorruptible, eternal, unmade, without parts, unlike any 'other being, the promoter of all good, impartial, the best'of the good^ the nioht prudent of the prudent, the father of equity and justice, sell-instructed, natural, perfect, wise, mid the sole inventor of what is Cudworth. holy in nature.
;
:

One

Total number of days

(h) Such are likewise the sentiments of their successors, the modern brahmins; but the particulars of their doctrine are related, by different authors, with a variety not easy to reconcile arising partly from the reservedness of the brah;

mins, who arc extremely shy of conversing with strangers, or of making the least discoveries to them ; but more from the
relators'

want of

skill in their

language.

SECT

II.]

MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION.

245

The Chinese, before idolatry prevailed among

them, acknowledged one God, or supreme eternal omnipotent spirit, lord of heaven and earth, the governor and director of all things whom they worshipped under the name of was the Sltang-ti.(\) They held that a chaos (j) of all things, from which God probeginning duced and formed the material universe; that then the earth the heaven was first perfected after which genii, or spirits, were produced; and lastly mankind that the first man, whom they call Puoncu, was generated from the chaos, as from an egg the shell of which became the heaven, the white the air, and the yolk the earth, (k) They divided the period in which the world was created and will be destroyed, as they do their natural day, into twelve hours, or times, each consisting of 10,800 years. At
; ;
; :

culous, it should be remembered that the ancients were fond of concealing their true doctrines, especially such as related to the origin of things, under the veils of symbols, Magmas,

and though, from the allegories state of philosophy in its early days, imperfect
and mystical
:

there can remain no doubt that its professors wandered wide of the truth, their theorems are rather to be respected as the ingenious efforts of studious men, unassisted by the light of revelation, than to be contemned as strange and It is, indeed, impossible at this disfabulous. tance of time to hope to have any tolerable explication of these mystic hypotheses, but they will always be considered as precious relics of ancient lore.

the twelfth hour, or midnight, they supposed the heaven to be created; the earth in the first hour after midnight; and man in the second their emperor Ya they supposed to be created in the sixth hour, or noon and they reckoned the age in which we live to be the seventh hour. In the ninth, they expect a great disorder and confusion in all things, with cruel wars,
: ;

SECTION

II.

MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. HYPOTHESES OF DBS CARTES, BURNET, AND \VHISTON. OPINIONS OF THE PRE-ADAMITES.

commotions
till

in

kingdoms, and public calamities,

things relapse into their original chaos. the Japanese, there are some who acknowledge this truth of the creation of the world and instances might be adduced of the same belief among the American aborigines: but as their opinions contain little that is curious, they may be omitted for the sake of
all

Even among
:

brevity.

some of

In conclusion, it maybe observed, that though the foregoing accounts, if taken in

their literal sense,

may appear absurd and

ridi-

THE only authentic and genuine history of the creation, is that which has been left by Moses, who, as remarked in a former chapter, (1) not only possessed means of information beyond what any other writer whose works are extant could or did pretend to, but was also directed by the Divine Spirit in the compilation of his records. " " In the beginning i. e. of time, (m) says created the heathis inspired author, vens and the earth:" and, "the earth was without form, and void ; and darkness was " upon the face of the deep;"(n) till the Spirit(o) of God," moving or operating upon " the face

"GOD

(i) This doctrine now obtains MfyaoMDg a very few of the higher classes of the Chinese : some of their other theories have already been noticed, p. 240.

revolutions of the heavenly bodies, there could be no measurement of duration before those bodies existed; consequently, prior to the creation, all was eternity, without beginning.
(n) (o)

distinguish chaos into two principles, called Yn the former signifying hidden, or imperfect, the These two principles, by comlatter, revealed, or perfect. bination, produced four images, or signs, i. t.. the four elements, whence proceeded eight forms, or symbols, representing certain general things, viz. heaven, earth, thunder,
(

j)

They
;

Gvn.

i.

1, 2.

and Yang

The word

spirit,

used

in this place, has

been variously

some suppose it should have been rendered "a most vehement ivind," the Hebrew word ("in (RUOCH) signifying both spirit and wind, in which latter sense it is " "a and the condiused, Exnd. xiv. 21, strong east wind;
understood:
tion of the earth in its chaotic state,

mountains, fire, clouds, water, and wind, whereon depend the generation and corruption of all others; and these again mutually combined, produced sixty-four symbols, completing the number of the universe. (k) Others say his origin is unknown, and that he came out of a certain desert.
(I)

say the advocates for

this rendering, required the operation

dry

its

surface, as

much

as the

of such an agent to Red-Sea did to divide its

(m) As time

Introduction, p. 11. is defined to be a duration measured by the

sufficiently to give the Others have a proper passage across its bed. taken it in the sense of an elementary fire ; others, of the sun, penetrating the earth, and drying up the moisture with which it was suffused. Some will have it to mean the angels,

waters,

and dry up the channel

Israelites

'240

COSMOGONY. MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION.

[CHAP.

i.

of the waters/' or fluid matter, reduced the \\ hole into order, and disposed it into the present form of the world; an operation which occupied four days, or rather six, if the vegetable and animal creation be considered as component parts of the earth.(p) On the first day, God created the light, by the power of His will, (" Let there be and established light, and there was light") the rotation of day and night: (q) on the second day, the firmament(r) of heaven, or the region
employed as agents in the creation ; others, a certain occult principle, called by Plato the anima mundi, or soul of the world, by others, plastic nature ; and some attribute it to magnetic attraction, causing all things to gravitate to their common But the allusion made to the wind, by our Saviour, centre. in speaking of the divine Spirit, (John, iii. 8.) and the circumstance of that same Spirit visiting or falling upon the disci" a ples, on the day of Pentecost, with the tokens of mighty
literal
is

of air, separating between the waters of the earth and the clouds, was called into being by the same almighty fiat on the third day, the separation was made between the waters of the sea and the dry land,(s) and the earth was
:

covered with verdure, herbs, and trees :(t) on the fourth day, the sun, moon, and stars were appointed in their courses, to communicate their benign influences to the inhabitants of the earth, and to divide the seasons :(u) on the fifth day, the waters were commanded to bring
&c. for in order to effect it some great inequalities must have been made in the surface of the globe some parts of it must have been raised in heaps or mountains, and others greatly
;

rushing wind," (Acts, ii. 2, et seq.) seem to imply that the sense of our English translation, " the Spirit of God,"
preferable to any other. (p) With reference to the subsequent theories in this section, it may be here observed, that the Mosaic creation is presumed to include the solar system only ; not the whole universe: and though his narration chiefly regards the earth, there is reason to believe that the other planets were similarly formed, and at the same period, of so many particular chaotic masses ; or rather portions of the same mass, from which the earth was produced.
(q) The production of light before the sun was formed, has given rise to many curious questions, and as many philosophical or unphilosophical answers : among which it has been for" to rule the gotten, that He who made the sun day," and in its orb the pre-existing power of light, could deposited also, and actually did, form or create the light itself; though our imperfect understandings cannot conceive the mode of its subsistence separate from its natural organ. Perhaps the continued existence of the human mind, or thought, or soul, after its separation from the material vehicle in which it acted while in the body, a doctrine believed by all but atheists, but accounted for by none, may furnish the best illustration of this inexplicable phenomenon. It may, however, be observed, generally, that light and heat are less dependent on the sun, than is generally imagined; for they may be excited

depressed into valleys, whither the waters might retire. Some have supposed this revolution to have been produced by the force of subterraneous fires, as earthquakes are now occasioned ; but the more philosophical opinion is, that it was occasioned merely by the various densities of the different columns of the earth, which occasioned some of them to sink lower than others towards the centre of gravitation, so that by this, the third day of the creation, channels might be formed of magnitude sufficient to receive the bulk of the waters which had previously covered the face of the earth. and plants could (t) It is scarcely to be imagined that trees arrive at full growth, and bear their fruits and seeds in so short a space as a day, without the assistance of a supernatural power: and as God is on all hands allowed to have formed the seeds of those vegetables, it will not be wrong also to attribute their sudden maturation to His interposition : indeed, something more than this is implied, Gen. ii. 4, 5, " God made every plant of the field BEFORE it was in the for earth, and every herb of the field BEFORE IT GREW the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground :" i. e. the earth was as yet incapable of production, and therefore God himself created the trees and vegetables in their maturity. " two great lights," (u) It has been conjectured that the the sun and moon, were created on the first day, together with the earth and other planets; but that the bodies of those luminaries did not appear to the earth till the fourth day,
:

from many, or, indeed, from most solid bodies, by friction, and from many liquids by simple admixture. Some have supposed, that by the term light, Moses intended the crea-

"

tion of angels; but there is every reason to believe those ministers of God" to be of a date much antecedent to the

creation of the world.

(ROKIA) rendered firmament an expansion, or that circumambient space which divides the clouds from the seas whence they arise, and is what we more familiarly understand by the term atmosphere. Perhaps Moses intended, in a more extensive sense, to express the whole of our system by this term or, it may be, what is called universal space
(r)

The Hebrew word

J/'pl

in

European

translations,

signifies

is

here intended. (s) It is not easy to determine how the waters which had covered the face of the earth were gathered into seas, lakes,

when, the air being perfectly freed from the heterogeneous and vapours which before obscured them, they began visibly to perform their several offices. But this notion will appear to be anomalous, when it is considered that as yet the earth had no inhabitants to whom the visible opeand even if this rations of the planets could be manifested objection did not arise, another, of no less difficulty, would " for if the stand in the way great lights" had been created on the first day, the fourth day would have been passed in idleness, at least so far as regards the work of creation, for the whole business would be reduced to the mandatory ordinance of their being " for signs and for seasons, and for days and years." It is therefore rather to be supposed that these luminaries were actually organized, i. e. rendered capable, the one of attracting and transfusing the elementary fire and light, and the other of reflecting it or perhaps the sun became the fixed centre of the system, and the planets were arranged in their courses around it, on the fourth day. As
particles
:

to

the stars (fixed stars, suns of other systems) it has been conjectured, from the abrupt allusion to them in this

KfcCT.

CARTESIAN HYPOTHESIS.
which from
its

247

and fowls of the air, with all those of winged insects and animalcnla?, with which the air and water abound :(v) on the sixth day, the earth produced four-footed beasts and cattle, reptiles, and every thing that creepeth on its surface or
forth fishes

conciseness, being rather suited

innumerable tribes

he deto the capacities of the people the satissigned to instruct, than written for
faction of metaphysical inquirers, has left room for various explications, and the exhibition of several very different hypotheses.

whom

thatdwelleth beneath.(w) AH things being thus arranged for the reception of the sovereign who was to rule over them, the Lord God proceeded to make man not as He had formed the rest of creation, by the mere word of His power; but by the express workmanship of His hands, of the and He breathed into his dust of the earth nostrils the breath of life, so that man became a living soul.(x) Such is the substance of what Moses has recorded respecting the creation of the world
; ; ;

The first of these, which we shall notice, is the Cartesian, whose author, Mons. Des Cartes, with all the vivacity of his nation, has endeavoured rather to form a splendid theory of his own, than to explain the Mosaical description, and reconcile it with philosophy. He agrees
with Epicurus in making matter and motion the principles of nature; but he presupposes the existence of God, by whom matter was

and motion impressed upon it ; yet he afterwards consigns it to the laws of mechanism, without farther assistance from the first
created,
abundantly," (G*n. i. 21 ;) and plants having no locomotive power, must necessarily have been dispersed all the world Other questions have been started with respect to over. animals as, whether all that have been, or hereafter shall be, were at first actually created by God ; or whether he has given to each kind of animal such a power of generation as
:

day's work, that they have crept into the text from a marginal annotation, made to obviate an objection of the idolaters, It is to be remarked, that the that the stars were not made. words (Gen. i. 16.) " He made," are in our translation in
Italic characters, a token of their having been supplied by some other than the original writer ; and according to Dr. Nicholls's criticism on the Hebrew word DN1 (VE-AT) in this
if

" the stars" be no interpolation, the passage may place, be thus read "the lesser light to rule the night in con junction with the stars," which had been previously created, and had shewn their light during the darkness with which the earth was at first surrounded. This day's work completed the inanimate creation. (v) The general opinion, formed from Gen. i. 20, is, that the (Feathered race derive their origin from water; but in Gen. ii. 10, they are said to have been formed " out of the ground:" whence some have conjectured that the fowls are derived partly from water and partly from the earth. The Jews endeavour to reconcile the two passages, by supposing them to have been formed out of both elements mixed, i. c. of soft ooze. But Calmet says, the former passage may be rendered " and let the fowl fly above the earth," &c. ("w) Whether these first vegeto-sensitive animals were created in their seeds only, and dispersed over the superficial extent of land and water, which were endued with power to hatch and bring them forth or whether they were created in their full state of perfection, is not easy to decide. Some modern philosophers have thought that only two of each species of animals were at first created, a male and a in female, from which all the rest proceeded by generation support of which opinion, they observe that only one man and one woman were created, and that at the deluge, no more tlian two of each kind (of unclean beasts) were preserved iii the ark. But it is more consonant to the tenor of the sacred writings to suppose that a great number of every kind was at first produced for it is positively asserted, with " respect to fowls and fishes, that they were brought forth
;
;

prepare matter, and produce new individuals in their bodies'? But such questions being rather subjects of metaphysical disquisition than of historical research, they cannot here be entertained. (x) In the creation of man, the masterpiece of the whole work, the inspired historian introduces the Creator in the act of deliberation, or consultation; " Let US make man, in
to

own

likeness," (Gen. i. 20;) and that no image, after mistake may arise as to the fact of man's being created " in the image of God," it is repeated in the next verse, and Many modern expositors take the plural again chap. v. 1. " Let us number, here used, make," &c. to be merely a form of speech, such as earthly princes affect but majestic this idea is far beneath the dignity of JEHOVAH, who upon other occasions speaks in the singular number, particularly where he appears as the legislator of his people, the Israelites, where the official character w ould seem to warrant, if not to The Je\vi>h require, the mode of speech here adopted. doctors suppose this deliberation to have been held with such angelic beings as God had employed in the work of creation :* but this is making the creatures equal with the Creator; and they should have proved that angels did actually assist in the creation, as well as that they are made in the image or When " the foundations of the earth were likeness of God. laid," they "shouted for joy," (Job, xxxviii. 7,) but no place in the scriptures attributes to them any coadjutancy in the work of creation ; on the contrary, it is always spoken of as the production of God alone: therefore the congress of persons indicated by the pronoun US, can apply only to the holy and eternal Trinity, Three coequal Persons in One
:

OUR

OUR

God, blessed
agents."

for ever.
to

conjecture of Philo the Jew upon this subject, amounts to little " man short ot positive bla>ph my lie savs tliat alone, of all creatures being et ilie contraries of virtue and vice ; the creation of such a capable being was
:

The

man, may be attributed

parti} proper,

and

partly impro/ier

FOR
is

GOD

(Gen.

i.

is otherwise, to his subordinate Surely this writer had overlooked the assuuimc " Guil saw every thing that he bad made, and behold it 31,) that

God, and what

De Muruli

Opijicio.

HIMSELF, who therefore here

was VSRY GOOD."

bespeaks

his

coaajulurs, lhac what

iireptcheiisible in the actions or will of

248

COSMOGONY. PHILOSOPHICAL HYPOTHESES.

are
filled up,

[CHAP.
first ele;

The principles of his theory may be from the following postulata 1. That gathered the mattcrof which the world composed being at first of one uniform nature, infinitely divisible, was actually divided into many particles of a moderate size, which had all such a motion as is now found in the world. 2. That all these principles were not originally spherical, because many such small globes, joined together, will not till up a continued space; but that, of whatever figure they were at first, they would, by their continual motion and concussion against each other, become spherical. 3. That no space is void therefore, when these round particles, by being joined together, leave some intervals between them, the interstices will be occupied by other less particles, arising from the angles which had been cut off by
impressor.
:

the surplus matter of the

i.s

ment occupies the place left by the second by which means a mass or heap of the matter of
the
tex,
first

element

settles in the

midst of the vor-

where it receives the name of the sun. Thus he supposes every one of the fixed stars to be a sun, and the centre of a vortex. The earth, also, he conceives, was originally such a star, whose vortex was in the vicinity of that of the sun, till by degrees it was covered over or
encrusted with spots, arising on its surface, as scum on a boiling pot, so that the star gradually losing its light and activity, and the motion of its vortex becoming proportionally weaker and more languid, it lost its power of resisting the vigorous encroachments of the neighbouring vortex of the sun, into which it was ultimately drawn, and being forced to comply with its motion, became one in the choir of the sun's satellites. Dr. Burnet, supposing the solar system to have existed long before the Mosaic creation, confines his hypothesis to the formation of the earth, and imagines that the chaos, on which the Spirit of God moved, consisted of the first principles from which all terrestrial bodies were produced ; the grosser and heavier parts of which would, upon the first motion, sink down towards the centre of the mass, or centre of gravity, and being there more and more compressed, w ould gradually harden in the form of a solid ball; that the rest of the mass, swimming above, would, by the same power of gravitation, be divided into t\\o orders of bodies, the one liquid, and the other volatile ; of which the former would constitute what we call water, the latter air; that there being two chief kinds of terrestrial liquors, riz. such as are oleaginous and light, and such as are lean and more earthy, which naturally separate when they settle, the lighter part would On get above the other, and swim upon it. this oleaginous surface of the watery element he supposes the atmosphere, as yet thick, gross, and dark, would gradually deposite the terrene particles with which it was surcharged, till they had formed a hardened crust upon the surface of the waters, sufficient for the production of plants and trees, and to afford an habitation for animals. The external form of his earth, therefore, consisted of an uniform shell. unbroken by mountains, seas, or rivers while its interior was composed of several regions involving each other, like so many orbs about a
r

4. That before-mentioned concussions. some of these fragments of the angles will necessarily have very angular figures, and being

the

fit for motion, will be apt to stick together, and transfer a considerable portion or degree of their motion to such particles as, being less in size, have a swifter motion. These three sorts of particles are his three elements, of which the universe is formed. The first element, consisting of the subtile matter cut off from the angles of the greater particles, is that of the sun and fixed stars, and

therefore less

susceptible of a much more rapid motion than either of the other two the second element, consisting of the spherical particles themselves, constitute the heavens: and the third, which consists of such angular particles as are less adapted to motion, is the constituent principle of the earth, planets, comets, and other phenomena of nature. The solar system he supposes to be a vortex, continually whirling round; whose matter (with the exception of the earth and planets) is very liquid and translucent, consisting altogether of the first and second elements, but containing a greater quantity of the first, than is sufficient to fill up the spaces between the particles of the second. And since all bodies moving circularly endeavour to recede from the centre of their motion, and the denser parts are obliged to off with greater force than the rest; the fly particles of the second element must necessarily rece.de from the common centre, and approach each other as much as their figure and motion
is
:

will admit.

When,

therefore, their interstices

SECT.

II.]

MR. WHISTON'S THEORY.

centre,

240

or the several elements cast circularly about each other; the water being contained between the upper shell of the suinternal central ball of perficial earth, and the And to confirm so new and surheavy bodies. prising a representation of the form of the first earth, the author adduces many passages of Scripture, which seem to describe the structure of the antediluvian earth as established on the waters, or face of the deep ;(y) conformably to which, he says, on the renovation, or restitution of nature to its primaeval state, the new earth will appear without a sea;(z) to all which he adds the testimony of ancient tradition, that the world was formed like an egg, the central parts being represented by the yolk, the exterior region or surface of the earth, by the shell, and the intervening abyss, by the white.(a) Several objections have been made against this hypothesis; as, that the laws of gravitation ruin the whole contrivance ; for if every thing subsided according to its specific gravity, the waters, being lighter than the earth, must necessarily cover the whole surface ; and the idea of an oleaginous liquid to catch the terrene particles as they fell from the atmosphere, is but a

common

The

last theorist,

whom we shall

here notice,

Mr. Whiston, has shewn a greater regard to

Scripture, as well as to the laws of nature ; yet he involves himself in no trivial difficulties, in endeavouring to explain those of Moses. He supposes, with Dr. Burnet, that the sun, moon, and stars, are all more ancient than the earth,(b) which latter he represents as having been oriThe six ginally the atmosphere of a comet. of the creation he supposes to be equal days to so many of our years for he thinks the earth, before the fall of man, did not turn oil its axis, as it has done since, but made one annual revolution about the sun, which constituted a day.(c) He endeavours to prove that the atmosphere of a comet has those several properties which are attributed to the ancient chaos and that it also possesses such peculiar characteristics as lay a rational foundation for some of those phenomena of the earth, which can scarcely be otherwise philosophically exMr. W. however, takes care to preplained. serve his theory from the imputation of its making the formation of the world to be the mere
; ;

without any reason, it deprives the ancient world of the advantages of a. sea, mountains, and minerals. But the great misfortune is, that the author has, in many places, taken unwarrantable liberties with the Scriptures, in supposing that the writers, having chiefly in view the benefit of the moral world, only secured the fundamental and general truths, but did not so strictly adhere to matter of fact in every circumstance relating to the natural world, which they treated in a method mystical and mythological, rather popular than true, and fitted more to the understandings of men than the reality of
;

weak expedient and

that,

any necessary laws of mechanism, independently of the divine power for he all along admits that the creation of matter out of a non-existent state, was the immediate work of God, who not only endued it with its several properties and powers generally, but interposed more particularly in the formation of the earth, by changing the course and orbit of the chaos or atmosphere of a comet, into that of a planet; by immediately forming the seeds of all animals and vegetables; by ordering every distinct day's work to be completed in its proper period, that every thing might follow in its appropriate order and place and principally by At the time the creation of our first parents.
result of
;
;

things.
(y)
viii.

immediately preceding the six days' creation, says Mr. Whiston, the face of the abyss, or
the earth not begun to move upon its axis till after the of man, the immoderate degrees of heat and cold which
different parts
lal'

Among

others, see

Psalm

xxiv. 2.

cxxxvi. G.

Prov.

27.

it>

(z) (a)

Rev. xxi. 1. This notion of the ancients, however, was more gene-

applied to ilu: universal world, or solar system, as explained in a Conner page. " In the (b) Supposing the words of Moses, beginning, God created the heaven and the earth" to imply that the creation of the universe out of nothing, was antecedent to the six
rally

must have been animals. very pernicious, if not fatal, to both plants and M. De Luc, like Mr. Whiston, thinks that the days of the creation were much longer periods of time than our present

would have alternately

felt,

days'
(c)

work spent upon our terraqueous globe. Eropedocles taught, that when mankind sprang

origi-

nally from the earth, the leiiglh of the day, by reason of the slowness of the sun's motion, was equal to ten of our

months.

Pint.
I,

De

present

He also inclines to the idea of the matter of the earth days. it having existed long before the Mosaic creation ; but that began at that sra to experience new changes, and to be events described regulated by new laws: that all the different by Moses actually took place in the order that lie relates them but that his days were indefinite spaces of time, which must have been vry long, but of which we cannot hopr.
; I >

Placitis Philos.

lib. v.

cap.

xviii.

Had

VOL.

ascertain the precise duration.

KK

2.">o

COSMOGONY.- PHILOSOPHICAL HYPOTHESES.

[CHAP.

i.

superior regions of the chaos, were involved in a thick darkness, agreeably to the nature of a comet, which is represented as a central solid hot body, of many hundred or thousand miles diameter, surrounded by an atmosphere of a vastly large fluid heterogeneous mass, or congeries of
bodies, in a very rare, separate, and expanded condition. (d) But on the change of the comet's orbit from a very eccentric, to a moderately the commencement elliptical curve, which is of the Mosaic creation, and the operation of

the Divine Spirit,

their

all

own

places,

things would begin to take and each species of bodies

Mould rank themselves according to the laws of specific gravity. By which method, the mass of dense fluids, composing one part of the
entire chaos, being heavier than the

masses of

would sink downward with the greatest velocity, and elevate such others as were enclosed among them thus would the chaos be distinguished into two very different and distinct regions; the lower and largest, consisting of dense and heavy
earth

and water, and

air,

only glimmeringly, would appear upon the face of the earth, and by the annual motion successively illuminate the several parts of it, and consequently occasion the vicissitude of night and day. On the second day (or year) the atmosphere, becoming more rarefied by the heat of the sun, was diffused to its due extent around the earth, and became more adapted to the transmission of light ; while the earth became still more consolidated, and the waters being thereby almost wholly excluded from the interstices which they had before occupied, were partly spread over the surface of the earth, and partly raised in vapours into the " atmosphere, where they constituted the waters above the firmament" of the inspired historian. On the third day (or year) the surface of the earth became, in settling, so irregular, that

some
into

fluids, or a vast abyss, immediately encompassand the higher and least, ing the central solid of earthy, watery, and airy parts, confusedly mingled, and encompassing the abyss. This he takes to be the state of darkness for the crowding together of all those opaque corpuscles, which before had roved about in the i mine use regions of the atmosphere, must, as a necessary consequence, exclude the sun's rays
; ;
i

to their specific gravity, sunk and others were thrown up deep valleys, in heaps, or mountains, so as to admit of the waters, which had hitherto been equally diffused, being collected into seas and lakes, leaving large tracts of the higher ground unparts,

owing

much more than

before.

Things being

in this

state, the visible part of the first day's (or year's) work was the production of light; which was effected by the separation of the upper and elementary chaos of earthy, watery,

and

airy corpuscles into two somewhat different regions; the one a solid orb of earth, with considerable quantities of water in its pores; the other an atmosphere, in a peculiar sense, or mass of the lightest earthy, with the rest of the watery and airy particles, still somewhat

confusedly mixed together. The upper regions of the chaos being thus in some measure freed from those earthy and ojraque masses above-

mentioned, would to a certain degree admit the rays of the sun; and light, though as yet
ideas, uncdntradicted by tarosphere of a comet to 1c> !)< bright and pellucid, rather limn den<e and obscure, such as 1he primitive rlrnos is always understood to have been; and it' the greater part of the bodies composing its
(d^
It is

occupied. This occurred in the first part of the day, i. e. during the night, and when the sun shone in the morning upon the slimy land, it fructified the vegetable seeds deposited there by the divine architect, and the earth \v/is by the conclusion of the day covered with verdure, On the fourth day (or year) plants, and trees. the sun, moon, and stars, were rendered visible on the face of the earth, and their respective For though the offices were assigned to them. of the sun penetrated the atmosphere in light some measure on the first day, and had considerable influence upon it during the second and third days, it is not to be supposed that his but on the body was visible all that time on of this fourth day, and the sun's coming abode below the horizon for two or three months, the vapours which had been raised the day before, must fall downwards, and before the approach of the morning leave the air in the greatest clearness and purity imaginable, and permit the moon first, then the sun, to appear brilliantly conspicuous to the earth. (e) On the fifth day (or year) the air having become
;

more congenial with our

fact, to

any known

suppose the

upper stratum had been of the same nature with our earth, they must have been vitrified on its near approach to the sun, and have left tokens of the earth having been rather the production ofjire than of water. of Mr. Winston's hy(e) It has been objected to this part

SECT.

II.]

CREATION OF MAMvIM). PRE-ADAMITES.

and fowl, containkindred ooze, or slime,
be " a
filler

251

more

clear, those seeds offish

ed in the water, or its were penetrated by the genial warmth of the sun, and hatched in all the varieties of the On the sixth day feathered and finny tribes. the earth having acquired still greater (or year) solidity, and the air become fit for the respiration of terrene animals, quadrupeds of all sorts arose from their earthy beds, together with the innumerable race of reptiles and creepingwas things : after which the body of

of the ground, "(h) which presupthe artificers that have relation to tilposes lage, or what reason he had to apprehend that " e\ery one" that found him would slay him; nor can his going into another country, marrying a wife, and building a city, be accounted for. Hence they infer, that Moses intended to give an account of the origin of the Jews, only and not of the primitive parents of the whole
all

human

race.

Adam

made of

the dust of the ground,

and by the

breath of life, breathed into him in a peculiar manner, he became a living soul; in the course of the same day, he was cast into a deep sleep, and Eve was formed of a rib taken from his side. Having thus given a general view of the various opinions of the origin of the world, and the universe to which it belongs, and introduced the creation of Adam, whose history belongs more particularly to the next chapter, it will not be quite irrelevant to the design of this introductory part of the work to take some notice of the theories of those who believe in the creation of other men besides Adam, whom they look upon as singled out because he was the progenitor of the Israelites. In support of this notion, they allege that Moses mentions two distinct creations one, of mankind in general, (f) the other, of Adarn and Eve in particular ;(g) that in the progress of his history, he gives strong intimations that there were several more men in the world when Adam and his wife were created that otherwise it is not easy to conceive how Cain could
:

it may be answered, that the passage in which the creation of rnan is spoken of the second time,(i) is evidently no more than a recapitulation of what had been said before of the creation of the world in general, with a more particular detail of that of our first parents. And as to the numbers of men supposed to be in the world about the time of Abel's murder, it is quite probable that they were all the descendants of Adam and Eve, whose posterity, in the space of nearly 130 years,

To

these objections

might, on a fair calculation, be multiplied to many thousands, considering the primitive fecundity, and that none are supposed to have died in the interim, (j) But the most plausible objection of the PreAdamites is, that if Adam and Eve be allowed to be the progenitors of all mankind, there can be no tolerable cause assigned for the difference in colour between the whites and the blacks ; it being- very improbable that they should both be

of the same parents. This objection, however, loses all its weight, when it is recollected that the ancient race of men were all swept away by the Flood, and that all the
the offspring

pothesis, that he must have been mistaken as to the extent of the Mosaic creation: for no interpretation of the words of Moses can make him describe the sun and iiiooii as being

created at different periods, nor will philosophy admit the notion that the moon was in existence before the earth for no comets, so far as observation has yet gone, are attended
;

by satellites. Something more must be intended by the sacred penman, than merely rendering the moon visible; and the word made being applied equally to the sun and moon, there can be no doubt that it ought in both places to be taken in its literal sense. See also note on page 240.
(f)

the antediluvians, the population of the earth would be, in the year of the world 132, (about three years after the murder of Dr. Dodd, supposing Adam and Eve to hav< Abel,) 4096. had no other sons than Cain and his brother, and that they, marrying in the nineteenfA year of the world, had each begot teif eight children, some males and others females, by the 25th year, who with their posterity married in the same course, and pro-

duced a similar average, the whole population would amount to 421,164 men, besides women and children under the age of seventeen, at the period of Abel's death. Should this
calculation be disputed for want of evidence that the antediluvian patriarchs began to have children before they wero sixty-Jive years of age ; the supposition that Adam, al tillage of 130 years, had as many children (one every year, which is very possible, and not improbable), and each of these a child at 05 years of age, and one in each successive year, the whole, in the 130th year of the world, would amount to 1219 And either of these numbers would be sufficient to persons. account for the building of several cities, or rather collections' of huts, and for the apprehensions of Cain.

Gen. Gen.

\.

27.

ii.

7.

(g)
(i)

Gen. Gen.

v. 1, 2.
v. 1, 2.

(h)
(j)

iv. 2.

Mr. Whiston calculates, that as mankind are known to double themselves in modern times, in about 360 or 370 years or, making allowances for wars, famines, plagues, and other if the desolations, in about 400 years duplication between the creation and the deluge be allowed to have been ten times quicker, on account of the extraordinary length of the lives of
; ;

KK 2

252

ANGELS AND INTERMEDIATE

SPIRITS.

[CHAT. n.
III.

subsequent generations are of the posterity of Noah to admit, therefore, of the creation of other men besides Adam, in order to account
;

SECTION
THAT
i.

OF ANGELS AND INTERMEDIATE SPIRITS.

there are such beings as we call ane. certain permanent substances, invi-

for this diversity of colour, we must either deny the universality of the deluge, or suppose that persons not of Noah's family were preserved in the ark, two positions in direct contradiction to the Scriptures, and therefore not to be entertained. Some writers have supposed, that the wife of one of the sons of Noah (e.g. Ham, who is said to have settled in Africa) was a negro ; and others pretend that all men were originally black but this is only getting rid of one difficulty by starting another, as the negro woman
:

ge/s,(o) sible and imperceptible to

our senses, endued with understanding and power superior to that of human nature, created by God, subject to

must have had some origin, which they have not shewn, and the imaginary change from black to white leaves the question precisely where it stood at first.(k) The season of the year in which the world was created has also been much disputed ; i. e. in respect of the place where Adam first dwelt; Some have supposed the vernal equinox to have been the time ; others, the autumnal ; which

him, and ministering to his divine providence in the government of the world, is a truth so fully attested by Scripture, as not to be doubted; that they were in existence long before the Mosaic creation, is generally allowed, for they were actually present at that creation, " when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy;"(p) and that the fall of the apostate angels was some time before
it, is

that these beings are spirits; but all matter, or are united to some thin bodies, has been a contro-

We are told

more than probable.

whether they are divested of

more generally received, and seems to be confirmed from the year's anciently beginning from that time.(l) The last inquiry worth notice in this place, is relative to the place where Adam was created. An ancient tradition states it to have been in Syria, near the spot where Damascus was afterwards built ;(m) others will have it to have been in Armenia (n); but it was most probably in or near the garden of Eden, the place designed for him and where that was, will be a subject
latter opinion is
;

The ancient philosoversy of long standing. and even some of the Christian fathers, phers, imagined them to be clothed with ethereal, or fiery bodies, of a nature similar to those which men will have, when they come to be equal with them. But the more current opinion of latter times is, that they are entirely spiritual,
yet endued with power to assume bodies at pleasure, and to render themselves visible under

what forms they

please.

for the ensuing chapter.

(k) Many hypotheses have been floated in the world on the characteristic different e between the Blacks and Whites; but as none of them are even tolerably satisfactory, we forbear to weary the reader's patience with the detail.
(1) Though Moses, by divine command, afterwards ordered the ecclesiastical year of the Israelites to be reckoned from the month A bib, or Nisan, or vernal equinox, in commemoration of their deliverance from Rgypt, and the institution of the passo*er, Exod. xii. 2. xiii. 4. Dcut. xvi. 1.) tini

In addition to their attendance on God, to execute his commands, they are presumed to be employed in taking care of mankind and their And as the numbers of these concerns.(q)
(p) Job, xxxviii. 7: some, however, have imagined that they were created on the first day, and that Moses designated them under the term light ; others, that they were created on the sixth day, after iaau, to crown and consummate the works of God, which rose by degrees from the less to the more

perfect parts.
(q) That every man, from his birth to his death, had a guardian angel, or tutelary spirit, was believed by the Jews: and our Saviour seems to have countenanced the sentiment, (Matt, xviii. 10.) The heathen* were notoriously of the saute persuasion, and held it criminal to neglect the monitions of

yet

Jews

concerns, to compute from their old first month Tisri, at the autumnal (Ejcud. equinox. " The feast of xxiii. IB. harvest in the END the
still

continue, in their

civil

of

year.'

Also, Exod. xxxiv.

W.)
i.

(m)

Ileidrw;.'.

Hint. Patriarch, torn.

Comment, in Gi'iics. (o) This word, which we render angel, Persian, and (jreek, shinties a messenger
(n) Calmet.

in
:

Hebrew, Arabic,
the term therefore

so divine a guide, on whom depended fie happiness and fortune of the individual. Every genius, they supposed, did his best for the interest of his client; and if the man came by the worst, it was an indication that his genius was inferior in The ancient Persians so strength to that of his opponent.

does not import the nature, of the being to whom it is applied, but his offlev, as a minister of Ciod. In Daniel, iv. 13, et aey. are culled watchers ; aa aiso in the remains of the they pro-

names

firmly believed in the mini try of angels, tliat they pave their to their mouths, as well as to the days of their mouths,
:

and il is from assigning to thnu distinct offices and provinces them that the Jews confess they received the n.niu's of both

phecy attributed

to

Euocb.

mouth* and angels, which they took kouie witL then, ou

their

SECT.

III.]

SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES.

celestial spirits are very great,(r) it is likewise reasonable to believe that they have several orders and degrees among them, which opinion is warranted by Scripture (s) whence some speculative men have distributed them into nine orders, according to the different names by which they are there designated ; and these nine orders they have farther reduced into three hierarchies thus
: :
i :

lii.

KCHY.

1.

Seraphim.
Cherubini.

2.
3.

Thrones.

254

INTERMEDIATE

SPIRITS,

OR

GENII.

[CHAP.

i.

one of those angels who are nearest to the divine presence, and named Aza/il, or Eblis, forfeited paradise for refusing to do homage to Adam, at the command of God. But on what occasion soever it first broke forth, pride (z) was doubtless the leading sin of these angels, who, admiring and valuing themselves too much on the
excellency of their nature, and the height of their station, were guilty in the sequel of downIt is certain right apostasy and rebellion, (a) from Scripture, that these fallen angels were in great numbers, though some have endeavoured to prove that there is no more than one devil, (b) and that there was some order and subordination among them; one especially, being considered as their prince, is called by several names, as Satan, Beelzebub, or Sammael, by the Jews; Ahariman, by the Persians; and Eblis, by Their constant employthe Mohammedans. ment, it is hardly necessary to add, is not only

or genii ; of a grosser fabric than angels, and equally liable with men to future salvation or condemnation. These genii, they pretend, inhabited the earth for many thousand years before the creation of Adam, under the reigns of several princes, who all bore the common name of Solomon but Tailing at length into an almost general corruption, Eblis (c) was sent to drive them into a remote part of the earth, there to be confined. Some, however, still remained behind, till Tahmurath, an ancient Persian king, after a warfare of some continuance, forced them to retreat into the celebrated mountains of Kaf.(d) Amongthese genii, they reckoned several orders (or, perhaps, rather different species;) some they called jin absolutely ; others, peri, or what we understand by fairies; others, div, or giants; and others, tacwins, or fates. (e) Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, we
;

meet with nothing

devils, in

among themselves, and perhaps also doing to this earth since its malediction, but endeaevil

vouring by all arts and means to pervert mankind, and to seduce them from their allegiance and duty to God. In addition to angels, good and evil, the Mohammedans believe in the existence of a kind of intermediate creatures, whom they call jin,
(z) 1 Tim. iii. 6: see also the comparison of the fall of proud Sennacherib to that of " Lucifer, son of the morning," Isaiah,

relative to evil spirits, or our acceptation of the name, unless Plutarch's evil principle, already adverted to, be taken as an exception. Their infernal gods were not conceived to be of an evil nature ; and

though they believed the furies to be the tormentors of the souls of wicked men in another world, yet they looked upon them as goddesses, and the avengers of evil actions.
(c) Eblis, the devil of from his primitive

the

Mohammedans, had not then

fallen

integrity.

xiv. 12, et seq.

(a)

Chrysostom, Theodoret, Athanasius, &c.

i.

(d) These fabulous mountains were supposed by the Eastern nations to surround the whole earth as boundaries be;

(b) Lettres de Bayle, torn.

yond them, they imagined, lay the great deep. (e) See farther on this subject, D'Herbelot. Bill. Orient.

CHAP.

II.

CREATION OF ADAM AND EVE.

255

CHAPTER

II.

GENERAL HISTORY OF MANKIND, FROM THE CREATION TO THE

DELUGE.
* +

SECTION

I.

CREATION OF ADAM AND EVE. THEIR FALL. SITUATION OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
Jul.Per.710.") i. > A.M. B.C. 4004. j

the sixth day of the creation, when time was divided from eternity, after the rude chaos of first principles had been reduced to a habitable world, clothed with trees, shrubs, plants, and flowers, and stocked with the various species of animals, aquatic, aerial, and terrestrial, the first man, Adam,(f) w as formed by the Almighty from the dust
r

f\^ ^N

of the ground, and united to a living soul, breathed into him by the divine inspiration in which latter respect he is said to have been made in the image and likeness of God. By this compound constitution, he became the link of union between the spiritual intelligences of the invisible creation and the grosser sensual inhabitants of the visible world. On the same day, also, was created woman, afterwards called Eve, the counterpart of Adam, out of whose side, (g) while he was in a deep sleep, were taken the materials of which she was formed,
:

(f)

Gen.

i.

2628.

ii.

7. v. 1.

The Hebrew word

(ADaMaH)

a kind of red earth, or clay; and is intended to designate the species rather than the individual. Liidolpluis derives it from the Ethiopia, adama, "to be pleasant, or delightful:" which epithets are applied to the earth, for its amenity, and might be to the first man for the
signifies

vering their appropriate members, he attributes the fickleness of the human species. To relate all the whims that have been written on this subject, would be endless ; but we cannot close this note without some notice of the marvellous relations

perfection of his nature and his personal beauty. According to some of the Persian magi (but not the more orthodox) the first human Hyde, pair were named Mhltu and Miihaiia. Hist. Vet. Peru. cap. \. (g)Gen. ii. 21. The original word l ?a(Tsei. A) is translated rib in the English version ; bul in the Septuagint it is rendered
>!

it may, without violence, be taken for either. Some of the rabbins pretend, that, besides Eve, God formed another woman, out of the earth, called Lilitli, of whom the Jews relate many ridiculous anecdotes: and others of them tail ; preposterously assert that Adam was at first made with but as it appeared to lessen his beauty, the Creator cut it oft', and used the materials in the construction of the woman Several of these doctors have supposed that Adam's body male on one side, and female on the was created double other; being joined together by the shoulders, the two heads
!

side; and

of Madame Bourignon, an enthusiast in the middle of the 17th century. She affirmed, that in an ecstasy, she saw the figure of Adam before he fell, and the beauty of the first world, in which every thing was bright, and transparent, The body of Adam darting forth light and ineffable glory. was purer and more transparent than crystal, and vastly fleet; through this body were seen vessels and rivulets of light, penetrating from the inward to the outward parts, through all the pores. In some vessels ran fluids of all kinds and colours,

extremely bright, and quite diaphanous. The most ravishing harmony arose from every motion ; and nothing resisted, or could annoy him. His stature was taller than that of the present race of men ; his hair was short, curled, and of a colour inclining to black his upper lip covered with short hair. Sexual distinction there was none for he was fashioned as our bodies will be in the life eternal.* His nose was formed after the manner of a face, and diffused the most delicious
; ;

looking contrary ways; and that God, in making Eve, only divided this body into two. Others join them by their side.*. These notions fall in pretty much with the androgynes of Plato, which had each two bodies, one of either sex, with four arms, four legs, and hvo faces ou one neck, till, for their insolence against the gods, they were, according to the advice

fragrancv whence also men were to issue, all their principles In his abdomen were two vessels, in being inherent in him. one of which small eggs were formed, in the other was a
;

two distinct persons. Each part neverretaining a strong inclination to reunite itself to the other, is the cause of that passion since called luce: and Ho the difficulty which the several parts meet with in discoof Jupiter,
theless
split into
still

and when man capable of impregnating those eggs was warmed by the love of God, the desire he had that other creatures should exist besides himself to praise and love the Almighty, caused the fluid just spoken of, by means of the (in- of the love of God, to drop on one or more of these eggs, with inexpressible delight; which being thus impregnated, issued, some time after, by the nasal canal, in the shape of an egg, whence a perfect man was hatched by insenfluid
:

* Matt. uii. 30.

25<>

HISTOfcY OF

THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

[CHAP.

it.

as the softened image of himself, and the only companion in all creation meet for him. When

God had made

this

woman, with which he

on the very

finished the work of creation, he brought her to Adam, who, it seems, was no stranger to

what had happened

to him, for

first

sight, he declared her to be "bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh;" adding that, "therefore

she should be called tvoman,(h) because she was taken out of man." That the first pair were created in an adult and perfect state of mind and body, is not to be doubted ; yet we must not therefore accede to all the extravagant notions which have been put forth on the subject. The Talmudists say, that Adam was of so extraordinary a stature, that he reached from one end of the earth to the other; till, after he had sinned, God compressed it to a hundred ells, (i) The Mohammedans have a tradition from their prophet, In that Adam was as tall as a palm-tree, (j) order to give us a charming idea of the beauty of Adam's person, some have asserted that God at his creation clothed himself with a human

his Maker fashioning every limb! And as to Eve, her beauty is represented to be such, that the prince of the angels became enamoured of her, and thereby occasioned his fall from the favour and presence of God. No less lavish have been the praises bestowed on the gifts of Adam's mind some of the rabbins, more moderate than others, compare him to Moses and Solomon but others assert that he was master of every science and art; that he knew more on the day of his creation, than other men, after the experience of a long life, surpassing even the angels in knowledge. But, leaving
:

these stories,

it

is

certain that

God endowed

body, superlatively beautiful, (k) by which model he formed the body of Adam, who was, however, all the while looking on, and beholding
She also affirms, that before the creation of did actually produce a son in this manner, who being perfect as himself, was, after the fall, associated with the Deity, and became the human nature of the Messiah. The division into two sexes, she attributes to man's sin, of which it was a consequence, woman being formed by taking
sible degrees.

parents with the greatest perfection, corporeal and mental, that their nature was capable of, subject to none of those irregular appetites, diseases, wants, and sorrows, which, by their apostasy, they eventually brought upon themselves and their posterity. And God blessed them;(l) and, beholding with divine complacency all that he had made, pronounced " VERY it to be GOOD." (in) And thus ended the work of creation. Prior to the creation of Adam, the Lord God had planted a garden in Eden,(n) better known by the name of Paradise, where all the beauties
rfirst
hill near Mecca, while her knees rested ou two others in the plain, about two musket-shots asunder. (k) This illustrious apparition, say they, was the prelude to the incarnation of Messiah. i. 28. (1) Gen. (m) Gen. i. 31. The Mohammedans have several peculiar The angels Gatraditions respecting the creation of Adam.

ou

head on one

Eve,

Adam

from Adam's side the vessel that contained the eggs. (h) Gen. ii. 23. The word here used, fTON (ISHOH) and
translated

the feminine of U?'N (ISH) man; consequently it might be literally rendered the female man, a term peculiarly indicative of Adam's meaning on this occaThe name of Eve, was not given to the first woman sion. till after the fall, (Gen. iii. 20.) when, Jehovah having promised " that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's

woman,

is

head,"

Adam, who understood by

restoration of his progeny to life who should be born of the woman, called his wife's

promise the and happiness through

this

final

ONE
name

nin (CHOVOH) Life, because she was the mother of all the living, i. e. of all who should he restored to spiritual life, considering both himself and all his posterity as then in a stale of death as well as the mother of all who should be bom
;

naturally into the world.

were severally sent byfrom different depths, and of various colours (whence some account for the diversified complexions of mankind ;) but the earth, apprehensive that the creature intended to be formed of these portion* would rebel against God, and bring down a curse upon her, desired them to represent these fears to the Almighty whereupon they returned without executing their errand. Azrail, however, being then sent, he performed his commission without remorse, took the seven haudfuls of earth, and, as a reward, was afterwards appointed to separate the souls from the bodies at death. The earth he had taken was carried to a place between Mecca and Tayef, where, after being first kneaded by the angels, it was formed into a human form by God himself, and left to dry for the space of forty days, or, as some
briel,

God,

Michael, and Israfil, say they, to fetch seven handful* of earth,

have been done at the request (i) Others suppose this to of the angels, who were terrified at his gigantic size and that God still left him 900 cubits high; which was not too much, if, as some imagine, lie had to wade through the ocean, to our continent, after his expulsion from paradise. (j) This would be too much in proportion, if that were really the print of his foot, which is shewn as such, being above two spans long, on the top of a mountain in the island of Ceylon; and too little, if, as is said, Eve lay with her
;

years: the angels, in the interim, often visitthis (afterwards the devil) among the re.-.t latter, in contempt, kicked the image with his foot till \l rang, and, knowing that God designed to make of it a creature
relate, as

many

ing

it,

with

I'.lilis

never to acknowledge superior to himself, secretly resolved After this God animated the as such; whence his sin. it with an intelligent soul, and placed figure of clay, endued him in paradise, where he formed Eve out of his left side.
it

(n) Gere.

ii.

815.

14

StCT.

I.]

FALL OF ADAM AND EVM.

;

2.07

it of nature were lavishly bestowed being with all sorts of well watered, and planted trees, that were either pleasant to the sight, or

very day of their creation; but this is next to impossible, as a day would be far too short for the several actions, that on such a supposi-

good

for food.

Here

Adam was

placed imme-

diately after his creation; and, as a test of his

pointed out two trees,(o) of a very but contrary nature the one called peculiar, I lie tree of life, the other, the tree of the knowand evil: of the fruit of the former, ledge' of good Adam was allowed to eat freely; but the taste, and even the touch of the fruit of the latter, was
loyalty,
;

God

must have been comprised in it; to say nothing of the circumstance of God having, in the close of the sixth day, (as he had at the end of each of the preceding five days,) looked upon, his works, and declared everything to be VERY GOOD; which could not have been the case, had sin then entered into the world, (p) Some have
tion

power,

inhibited on pain of death. The first act of Adam, after his introduction into Paradise, was to give names to all the beasts and birds: these, impelled by a divine came before him, as well for that

therefore conjectured that this great calamity happened on the eighth day, and others on the tenth day of the world's age; supposing that in commemoration thereof, the great day of atonement, among the Jews, was fixed for the tenth day of the year.

him

purpose, as to do homage to him, and to make sensible that among them all there was
fit

Commentators and

critics

seem

to

have been

none
cast

to

Adam

be his companion whereupon God into a deep sleep, and formed a

:

woman

How

out of his side, as already related. long Adam and his wife retained their

primitive innocence arid happiness, is very uncertain. The Jews in general, and most of the primitive Christians, believed they fell on the
17. Nothing can be more agreeable to (o) Gen. ii. !, 15 a state of perfect innocency, which seems to imply a slate of immortality, than the notion of a tree of life, the juices of whose fruit should impregnate the blood of the cater with indefatigable vigour, and keep up a constant state of blooming youth, or rather of full age, devoid of pain, disease, or Mealiness, till he was matured and made fit for translation to some higher and nobler state of existence, where, the state of probation being passed, lie should enter into the everSuch at least Mas the lasting reward of his perseverance. opinion of the best ancient writers, Jewish and Christian. Of this tree, the Heathen seem to have had some traditional idea, when they speak of the nectar and ambrosia, which maintained the immortality of their gods, and their mo/i/, or The other tree, great panacea, so celebrated by the poets. of the, knowledge, of yond and evil, may have been so denominated, either because its fruit really had a power of opening man's understanding, to distinguish between good and evil, which as a perfectly innocent being heconld have no apprehension of; or proleptically, as indicative of the mclancholv experience he Mould obtain, by eating of it, of the difference between the good of obedience, and the evil of transgression. Whether the former of these trees was the only one of its species, is uncertain but supposing it to be endowed with the
;

misled by human pride, under the specious idea of apportioning punishment to crime, in seeking for some flagrant breach, as they call it, of the law, as the cause of the dreadful denunciation of the Almighty against sin in his creatures. But the inspired penman informs us, that the breach between God and man was the consequence^) of a transgression of the most simple
tites,

and sensual lusts, obscuring the reason and weakening the body, which, for want of the renovating powers of the fruit of ihe tree of life, gradually fell to decay, and eventur

into the grave. Nor let this explication be deemed extraordinary, while we are daily in the habit, even as M e walk the streets of large cities, of beholding multitudes pining and drooping, with a manifest tendency towards a premature
ally

dissolution, in consequence of a latent poison, imbibed by themselves, or derived from their parents, in the pursuit of forbidden pleasures. What particular tree, this of the knowledge of good and evil was, has been the subject of much conjecture: the vine, the apple, the common Indian tig-tree,

have all been named the genebut w hat .Moses has so industriously concealed, is above the power of any to discover: it should seem, however, most probably to have been of the species which we now deem poisonous. Philo the Jew allegorizes what is saiil of both these trees and others, who admire and wheat, though no
tree,
; ;

rality are for the tig-tree

allegorical interpretations, insist that the transgression of

first

our

power above alluded

state of

was only calculated for man in his though the species should be ever so much multiplied on the earth, the constitution of man had become so vitiated after the fall, by the deadly effects
to,
it

innocency

and

therefore,

of the tree of knowledge, that the virtues of the tree of life, which was not intended to counteract its poison, could be no adequate antidote. The juices of the tree of knowledge, though not productive of immediate death, operated as a slow poison upon the vital powers, subjecting the body to tlisease and pain, irritation of the passious, inordinate appe-

parents was no other than the sensual act of generation, for which the pains of parturition were inflicted on the woman, as a punishment. But this opinion, not only has no foundation in the words of Moses, but is flatly opposed by the relation he gives of the benediction of God upon Adam and his wife, " Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." Gen. i. 28. " God is of (p) purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity." Hab. i. 13. cump. Psalm v. 5. and mortality to (q) We cannot look upon the diseases which Adam and his posterity have become liable, as so much the punishment as the consequence of his lapse. The forbidden fruit was of a deleterious nature ; God forewarned him of what would be the result of lasting it; he rashly Here was nothing tried the experiment, ate, and died.

VOL.

I.

LL

208

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

fruits

[CHAP. n.

nature; v hence we may learn the extent and purity of tin- law of God, and the inevitable ruin flint must ensue to every soul that sinrieth, whether it be in a greater or less decree. And, indeed, when we consider the state of Adam

of the earth; we may reasonably conclude that such a test as that spoken of by Moses, viz. abstinence from the fruit of a particular tree,

was more suited

to their situation

and Eve, that their wants were all anticipated and supplied by their Creator; that their couch was the ground their canopy the heavens
;

their clothing, their innocence; their food, the

punishment; on the contrary, from an attentive of Genesis, the Almighty apperusal of the story in the third rather, with respect to Adam, as a kind and benevolent pears father, deeply affected with the ruin in which His son had inlike judicial

and appetites than any other command could have been. We shall therefore relate the mournful tale nearly in the inspired writer's own words. The serpent,(r) the most subtle beast of the field, asked the woman, if it were true
were accustomed to assume certain splendid forms some of them as cherubim, or beautiful flying oxen, others as seraphim, or winged shining serpents the wonder will then cease that Eve so familiarly entered into conversation with a creature to whose appearance she was accustomed, as well as that she should be so easily deceived for Satan well knows how to transform himself into the semblance of an angel of
his wife,
; ; ;

volved himself, and devising means for his restoration, than as a vindictive judge, consigning a culprit to punishment and See also Ezek. xxxiii. 11 ; and various other places, death. 1820. Ezek. xviii. 23, as 2 Sam. xiv. 14. Isaiah, i.

26,

31, 32.

Tim.

ii.

4.

2 Peter,

in. 9.

the serpent has been objected to, as im(r) This speech of of reasoning powers probable, because it implies the existence that Eve, instead of listening to his disin a brute creature course, would have been alarmed, and not have staid to hold a parley with it ; and that if this creature had originally the use of speech, and lost it as a punishment of his crime in seducing the woman, Moses would not have passed such a circumstance over in silence, when he mentioned so small a penalty as that of going on his belly, and licking the dust the meaning of which words, say they, it is not easy to understand, unless it be admitted that the serpent originally went for if he crept from the beginning, erect, or walked on feet
; ; :

And even if this supposition be not admitted, nor that light. the serpent had the use of speech ; the inference that Eve should have been frightened at his address, does not necessarily follow : for being but newly created, she might not know that animals did not speak ; and being in a state of iunocency, she could not be the subject of suspicion or fear. The learned Abarbinel supposes the whole conference to have passed in dumb show that neither Eve nor the serpent spoke at all ; but that the latter, being a nimble active creature, got upon the tree, and, in the sight of Eve, began to eat of the
;

would be anomalous to impose that as a punishment on As to the intervenhim, which by nature he was subject to. tion of the devil, these persons contend, that as Moses does not so much as hint at it, we have no ground for such an opiTo which it has been answered, that as Moses connion.
it

that Eve, seeing it do so repeatedly without incurring ; the threatened penalty of death, concluded that the fruit, instead of being pernicious, might not only be grateful to the palate, but capable of conferring a degree of knowledge, which God had withheld. But this idea will not coincide
fruit

fines himself to the relation of facts as they appeared, he indeed represents the serpent, who was the visible instrument,

as the seducer of the

efficient

woman, and says nothing of the latent but in other parts of Scripture, the devil is called the serpent, the old serpent, who was a murderer from the beginning, by whose envy death came into the world ; and therefore no doubt ought to be entertained of the devil having been the actuating principle in the serpent, by which the first woman was beguiled to ruin herself, her husband, and all mankind. Why the devil should make choice of this animal, rather than any other, was probably on account of that subtlety, or craft, attributed to him by Moses ; which is to be understood of his familiar and insinuating nature, displayed in tokens of greater attachment to man, than was demonstrated by any other creature: and that this was actually the case, as well as that, instead of creeping on the ground, he went erect, is the sentiment of both Jews and Christians ; it seems likewise to be countenanced by the words, " I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed ;" where a prior degree of intimacy and familiarity is in souie degree implied. In Arabia and Egypt, there are said to be winged serpents of a shining yellowish colour, like gold, which by the motion of their wiugs, and the vibration of their tails, reverberating the sun-beams, make a glorious appearance. Suppose a serpent of this description to have been made use of by the tempter ; and (from the representations of them tolerated in the Jewish church) that the angels, when they ministered to Adam and
cause
;

with the account of Moses, where a question is plainly asked, and as positively replied to ; so that nothing less than actual And if beasts in general conversation can be understood. have voices ; if those voices are indications of the internal sensations of the animals from whom they proceed, which no one who has ever heard the barking of a dog, the mewing and purring of a cat, the lowing of oxen, &c. will deny it only remains to admit that Adam and Eve added to the universal knowledge they had of the nature and capacities of the brute creation, that of the meaning of the sounds which they utter; and thus the mode of conversation between the serpent and
;

be accounted for upon very natural principles. As denounced upon the serpent, it cannot seem if his original form and constitution were different strange, from what they are at present ; and the words of the sentence The debasement of a evidently imply that they were so. creature once glorious and attached to man, was probably intended not so much in indignation towards the beast, as to make it a perpetual monument of man's unhappy fall, an emblem of the deformity of sin, and a testimony of the displea-

Eve

will

to the sentence

sure of

God
:

against transgressors.

been considered in the usual acbut there is good reason to doubt whether the animal spoken of by Moses under the name ofU?TO (NocuasH) The word admits of really signifies a. serpent in this place. a vast variety of constructions, for which the reader is referred to the Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke's Comment on Gen. iii. where it is very amply and learnedly discussed and an animal of the ouran-outang species is proposed as a substitute for the serpent. The antediluvian world had several animals, which are known to us only by their fossile remains ; for
far the subject has

Thus

ceptation

SECT.

I.]

FALL OF ADAM AND EVE.

confessed that the
the
thai

259

not granted to her and her husband leave to eat of EVERY tree in the garden? To which she replied, that they were allowed to eat of all, except only the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden; of which they were commanded not to taste, nor so much as to touch it, The serpent answered, they lest they should die. not die ; on the contrary, God well knew, should that so soon as they should eat of it, the virtue of the tree was such, their eyes would be opened, and they should become as gods, discernthat

God had

offered him of hud tasted it. The woman fruit, and bring then examined, also acknowledged what
In-

woman had

she liad done, but said the serpent had beguiled her into the transgression. God then proceeded to judgment: he first cursed the serpent above
beasts, and condemned him to belly and eat the dust; adding, that
all

go on his

He would

ing good and

evil.

The woman,

therefore, se-

duced by

this notion, seeing the fruit

tempting
to

to the view,

and desirable as calculated

make

her wise, first touched, then ate of the fruit: she gave also to her husband of it, and he did eat. And now came the fearful knowledge they had so desired Guilt, and a sense of shame, possessed them. Their eyes were opened, and finding themselves naked, (s) they sewed or platted fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons. After this, they heard the voice (t) of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid themselves among the trees but on God's calling for Adam, he excused himself for not appearing, because he was naked. God
!

put enmity between him and the woman, and their respective offspring, and that the SEED OF THE WOMAN should bruise the serpent's head, though the serpent should also bruise His heel. The pains consequent on conception and parturition were inflicted on the woman for her disobedience, and she was put under subjection to her husband. As to the man, the ground was cursed for his sake, and God declared that it should (or would) bring forth thorns and thistles, and that he should (or must) earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, till he returned
to the dust,

taken.

whence his body was originally And, lastly, God having clothed(u) them both with skins, turned them out of the
garden of Eden, lest they should take of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: and, farther, to prevent any attempt on their part to return to their former habitation, he placed cherubim at the east of the garden, and a flaming sword, that turned every way, to guard the passage to the tree of
is

immediately demanded who had told him that he was naked, and whether he had disobeyed His command in eating of the forbidden fruit ? Adam did not pretend to deny his guilt, but
instance, the mammoth, or me.galonyx : possible, that the nachash, whatever

life.(v)

" cursed above ALL cattle, field," may have been suffered to perish in the general deluge, and to have left behind him no traces but of his name ?
(s)

may it not therefore be were its species, being and above EVERY beast of the

St. Augustine, and others, suppose this nakedness, and shame implied by the use of leaves as aprons, compared with what Moses declares in a preceding passage Gen. ii. 25.) " that they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed ;" to imply that the fruit of the forbidden tree provoked our first parents to lust, and some indecent motions of the body, and that when the gust of libidinous passion had subsided, they were seized with conscious shame and horror at what had passed, and endeavoured to hide from themselves and each other the organs of their guilt: and according to the

the

idiom of the Hebrew language, the term nakedness may well enough denote this. Others think the nakedness here alluded to, means only that they were sensible of their transgression ; as Moses is said to have seen the people naked, Exod. xxxii.
2o. i.e. they

sinned, and lay open or exposed to the wrath of God. (t) For wire, some commentators read WORD OF GOD, the second person in the blessed Trinity, whose attributes <>; love and mercy perfectly coincide with the subsequent treatment of the delinquents.
(u) It

had

being

common

attribute actions to

for the Hebrew tongue verbally God, which are done by his direction ;

parents here received instructhe skins of beasts ; which beasts, ihey were at the same time directed to offer up as expiatory sacrifices. And here we see an emblematic epitome of the scheme of man's redemption : the atoning victim chosen by God, and indicated to the sinner; the sinner offering up the sacrifice, and, by divine appointment, clothand so ing himself in its skin, as a propitiatory garment becoming accepted of his offended Creator. (v) This passage seems to militate against the proposition laid down in a former note, and induces a belief that the tree of life, which was planted in Paradise, was the only one of its kind, and that it was endued with virtues capable of perpetuating the life of the eater, but not of restoring his lost What the cherubim were, has been the subject innoceiicy. of much dispute; but they are generally supposed to be an order of intelligences bj whom the Almighty produced the their shape was probably that of great effects of his power icrmii'tt turn, and they are variously described in Scripture, '2 L'hron. iii. It. as IZjcud. xxvi. 1, 31. 1 Kings, vi. 29, 32. i't \. 20, 21. ]'];c.k. \. A very particular and ingenixcf]. ous disquisition on this subject ma\ lie found in the Miscellaneous Ussays of the late Rev. Dr. Isaac Watts. The words commonly rendered fiamitiy mrord, lire in the original, f'ir> /lame of rutting, or division; i. e. a dividing jiame .-lie
first

most probable that our

tions

how

to

make garments of

.'>,

to
it

same word which signifies tt mrord, signifying also division: hence those \vho place Paradise in. the southern hemisphere,

LL 2

200

'HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

first

[CHAP.

ii.

This concise account being, at

view, en-

cumbered with some difficulties, or, as some June deemed them, improbabilities, several learned and men have been inclined to
pious take the whole as an allegory
alleging that the the eastern nations, had ancients, and especially a popular and a mysterious mode of delivering their divinity and philosophy; and that the latter is frequently adopted in scripture, in ex;

was, in few words, the dilemma in which Adam liis wife had placed themsehes; and daily experience proves the fact too forcibly to require the aid of argument to establish it.

and

It is

to

unknown whither Adam and his wife, whom, about this time, he gave the name of
;

plaining natural things; sometimes to accommodate the capacities of the people, and at others to describe the real, but more hidden truth. But though it is admitted tliat some of

Eve,(x) retired after their expulsion from the garden of Eden but the Orientals have a tradition that Adam went to the isle of Ceylon, where he lived several years, in a state of penitence, on a mountain, still called Adam's Peak.

The Mohammedans say that when they were cast down from Paradise, Adam fell on Ceylon,
and Eve near Joddah, in Arabia; and that after a separation of two hundred years, Adam was, on his repentance, conducted to a mountain near Mecca, where he found his wife whence the mountain has been named Arafat and that he afterwards retired with her to Ceylon. This is evidently fictitious, and destitute
;

the ancient philosophers aflected such an allegorical way of writing, to conceal their notions from the vulgar yet it is apparent that Moses had no such design and as he pretends to relate matters of fact, just as they occurred, without disguise or art, it cannot be supposed that the history of the fall is not to be taken in a literal sense, as well as the rest of his writings. The unhappy pair did not indeed die immediately, (w) but they became subject to death, which hung continually over their heads; the time they had to live being but as the space between a criminal's condemnation and his execution, or between the reception of a deadly potion into the stomach and the destruction of the animal who swallowed it. The favour of God was forfeited; Paradise was lost; the necessaries of life were to be gotten only by hard labour, and that frequently rendered unproductive by the contradictory nature of the earth and elements, as well as by the spontaneous growth of " thorns and thistles ;" and the propagation of the species, originally the fruit of a divine blessing, was rendered extremely painful, ha; ;

zardous, and even

fatal, to tlie

woman.

Such

of foundation in Scripture; but is here introduced as a speculative sequel to this part of the history of our first parents,(y) which we sliall iitially close with a few observations on the various theories relative to the site of Paradise. The situation of the terrestrial Paradise has been a subject of controversy in all ages of the church, and has given rise to almost as many opinions as there have been interpreters and translators of the sacred Scriptures. Tliis diversity of sentiment may be chiefly attributed to two causes; first, the inclination of the primitive doctors of the church to explain all the difficult passages of the Old Testament as allegories; secondly, the want of conformity between the geography of Moses and that of profane writers. Under such circumstances, we need not be greatly surprised at the chimeras with which
electricity, popularly called lif//tt>iitig, by which the apto the tree of life was prohibited to the fallen race of

conceive the sword to have been no more than the torrid zone, Viliichin the parallel situation the earth is then supposed to have had, must have been a region of flame intensely
hot, and consequently impassable; its encompassing the earth sufficiently answering the Mosaic description, that it turned every way. Others have thought it to have been a

proach

Adam.
(w)

The words rendered

"dying thou
;"
t. e.

literally,

Some rabbins wall, or circle of fire, encompassing Paradise. are of opinion that the flaming sword was <in angel founding their notion on the passage in Psalm civ. 4, where (iod is " his " his said to make ministers a Jianring angels spirits," and Hence it has been imagined, that this /iaminij sicord fire." was a second angel, of a different kind from the cherubim, e. g. a seraph, or flaming angel, in the form of a Hying licry serpent, whose body vibrating in the air with lustre, might be But appropriately described by the image of such a .-.word. it may merely indicate the formidable appearance of the cherubiiu, or the natural phenomenon of volcanic lire, or of
;

" thou shalt continue in a dying state, till thou die finally, and return to the first principle of which thou wast
death

" thou shalt surely die," signify shall die;" or, "thou shalt die a

formed." (x) Sec note on page 255. was separated (y) Some rabbins also pretend that Adam from Eve for 130 years, during which time he lived with another woman, named Lilith, formed out of the ground like himself; on whom he begat daemons, as did the devils also on Eve in her retirement. Maimouides supposes, that by these dii'inons were meant wicked and impious men, as all the race of Adam were before Setb, whom he is therefore said to have
begotten in bis

own

likeness,

and

after his

own

image.

SECT.

I.]

SITUATION OF PARADISE.

201

the ancient Fathers have amused themselves, and misled the ignorant. Origen maintains that this garden is nothing else than an allegory; Tostat, bishop of Avila, in Spain, places it in the middle region of the air; Bonaventura will have it to be under the equinoxial line others, under the earth, in the moon, and even in heaven. Some have placed it under the arctic some in Tartary, where now the Caspian poie Sea is ; and others have sent us to seek it in the extremity of the South, or, as they term it, in he Land of Fire. Many will have it to be in the Last, either along the banks of the (Ganges, or in the isle of Ceylon, deriving the word Indies from Eden, the name of the province in which
; ; I

situated upon one of those turnings, and likely upon the southern branch of the largest, which

hath been marked by Agathodaemon, in tht geographical tables of Ptolemy, when that river comes eastward again, after having made a long turning towards the west, about 32 degrees 39 minutes northern latitude, and 80 degrees 10 minutes longitude, according to the delineation of Agathodaemon, very near the place

where he
ture.

sets

Aracca, which

is

Erec in Scrip-

Paradise lay. Some have placed it in China, and even beyond the East, in a place uninhabited and others in America. The majority have described it as in Asia, either in the Greater Armenia, near the mountains of Ararat,
;

or in Mesopotamia, or in Assyria, or in Persia, or in Babylonia, or in Arabia, or in Syria, or in Palestine. Of these opinions, that of Father Huet, bishop of Soissons and Avranches, is worthy of particular notice ; for, having investigated all the other systems, he observes that the arguments by which they are attempted to be supported are inadequate to the purpose, in as much as they are in direct contradiction to the text of Moses, who has been not a little particular in his description both of the adjacent countries, and the rivers by which the place was watered. The following is a brief exposition of his opinion, in his own words: " I will not lose time in refuting particularly all these opinions it will be sufficient to propose my own, and to shew, not only that it perfectly agrees with Moses' description and the ancient geography, but also that it is the only one which answers to it; and that whosoever
;

the position of Ptolemy be right; it suffices me have delivered my opinion. I add to it, that the four heads of this river are the Tigris and Euphrates, before their coming together, and the two channels that carry it into the sea after it has divided itself; that the more western of these two channels is the Pison; that the country of Havilah, through which it goeth, is part of Arabia Felix, and part of Arabia Deserta; that, the Gihon is the eastern channel of the two afore-mentioned, and that the country of Cush
to
is

Now my design is not to examine whether

Susiana.
"

Hence

dise

was situated

conclude, that the earthly Parain Eden, a part of the pro-

vince of Babylonia, or Irac, which extended itself all along the common channel of the two great rivers, near the place where was the ancient town of Erec, or Aracca, according to the position of Ptolemy. " Of all those that inquired into this matter, none is come nearer to the opinion I propose, than John Calvin, in his Commentaries upon Genesis. Joseph Scaliger followed him close, and after him the divines of Louvaine, and afterwards a great many others ; but they took no notice of that southern branch of the great turning of the river, though the words of Moses

will

look for another, will

fall

into insuperable

difficulties.

" I say, then, that the earthly Paradise situated upon the canal which the Tigris

was and

They expressly require it, as I shall shew. have set the Gihon at the west, and the Pison at the east, and they consequently displace the all which countries of Cush and Ilavilah ; which I maintain, makes their opinion, and that
which bear the name besides the one in the Mosaical deof Eden in Scripture, scription, two others are mentioned one of them be it, viz, one near unless, indeed, Damascus, in Syria (z) the other in or about
: ;

Euphrates, joined together, make, between the place of their coming together, and that, of their going one from another, before they fall into the Persian Gulf. And because this canal made some turnings or windings I say, to speak more precisely of it, that Paradise was
;

essentially different." There are several places

Thelassar, in Chaldea.(a)
(a)
-2

Ptolemy places an

(z)

Amos,

i.

5.

Perhaps the same that

is

noticed by

Maun-

Jiinys, xix. 12.

Isaiah, xxxvii. 12.

drel, in his Travels.

262

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

[CHAP.

11.

Ad-dan in the last-named country, and another on the Euphrates. Cartvvright gives an account of an island in the Tigris, called Eden, about 12 miles above Mousul. In Cilicia, there is a and on the city, near Tarsus, called Adena; a little withcoast of Yemen, in Arabia Felix, out the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, is another, But the similitude of names, at called Aden. this distance of time, is of little consequence to
the issue of the question ; particularly while so many places go by the same name. And it is to be remembered, that as the word Aden signifies pleasantness, so it was applied to places remarkable for the delightfulness of their situation, either considered in themselves, or comThe paratively with the adjacent country. mere name therefore proves nothing. It is evident from the Mosaic description, that the writer had no imaginary Paradise in view, but a portion of this earth, bounded by countries and rivers, very well known in his time by the names he gives them, as they were also for many ages afterwards but the Jews having, during the distraction of their affairs about the time of the captivity, lost the remembrance of all particulars relative to this account of Eden, (as indeed they did of most things connected with their antiquities,) except that of the rivers Hiddekel and Frat, or Euphrates ; the Christians, who have busied themselves much in search after it, have lost their way for want of guides, which has been the occasion of so many strange notions about it. Of the three schemes which at present obtain among the learned, the first places Paradise near Damascus, in Syria, about the springs of Jordan, and has for its patrons Heidegger, Le Clerc, Abvam, and Hardouin the second places it in Armenia, between the springs or heads of the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Araxis, and the Phasis, and is espoused by Sanson, Calmet, and Reland the third, being that of
:
:

Euphrates, called by the same people Shat-alArab, i. e. the river of the Arabs which begins two days' journey above Basrah, or Bussora, and about five leagues below divides again into two or three channels, which empty themselves into the Persian Gulf. According to this last hypothesis, which appears liable to fewer objections than any other, Shat-al-Arab is the river passing out of Eden and, considered according to the disposition of its channel, not according to the course of its stream, it may be said to divide into four heads, (b) or different branches, which constitute the four rivers; two below, viz. the two branches of the Shat, forming the Pison and Gihon and two above, viz. the Frat and Dijlat, or the Euphrates and Hiddekel. According to this disposition, the western branch of the Shat will be the Pison ; and the adjacent part of Arabia, bordering on the Persian Gulf, will be Havilah the eastern branch will be the Gihon, encompassing the country of Gush, or Chusistan, a province of
;

Iran, as

it is still

called

by the Persians,

(c)

SECTION

II.

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS.

Bishop Huet, already noticed, places Eden on the united stream of the Hiddekel, or Tigris, called by the Arabs Dijlat, and the Frat, or
ii. 10. position of Paradise, according to these three hypotheses, with some others, is indicated on the map of the division of the earth among the posterity of Noah.

THE first event recorded relative to f j u l.Per.7i2. 2. our first parents after their expulsion < A. M. ' from Paradise, is the birth of a son, B c 4002 the first-born of woman: to whom Eve, in her fond hope that he should be the seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's head, and re-open the garden of Eden, gave the name of Cain, i. e. an acquisition; observing that she had "gotten a man from the Lord. "(d) How miserably she was mistaken, the sequel of the history will shew. The year following, she gave birth to a second son, whom she seems to have contemned, for she called him Abel, or Vanity; so much was her heart set upon her first-born. (e) Of Adam and his family, we have no farther " account, except a general notice that he begat
-

(b)
(c)

Gen.

The

(d)
(e)

Gen.
;

iv.

1.

Some rabbins supposed Cain and Abel

14

to

have been

twins

but that the former was the offspring of the devil, the latter of Adam : and some heretics held them both to

have been begotten by the evil spirit who tempted Eve to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The Orientals have a tradition that Cain was born in the 30th year of the world with a twin sister, whom Abu'lfaragius calls Klimia, Eutychius, Asrun, and others Kalmanna ; and that 30 years after, Abel was born, also with a twin sister, named Lebtidha or Lefura, or according to Eutychius, Owain, and by others Delborah.

SECT.

II.]

CAIN AND ABEL.

than
ther.

263
questioned Cain concerning his bro-

sons and daughters,"(f ) till Cain and Abel had arrived at years of maturity, when it appears that Cain had betaken himself to the culture of the ground, as Abel had to the tendJul.Per. 839. ) A.M. 129. \ ing of sheep. About the year of the B.C. 3875.) world 129, as is supposed, they each presented an offering to the Lord ; Cain of " the firstthe fruits of the ground, and Abel of lings of his flock, and of the fat thereof;" the latter was accepted, but the former rejected ; whereupon Cain, moved by envy, on the first

God

But Cain, instead of acknowledging his sin, denied all knowledge of what was become " Am of Abel adding, in an impatient tone,
;

convenient opportunity, notwithstanding a monitory expostulation which he received in the interim from God, fell upon his brother Abel, when they were both in the field together, and slew him; who thus became at once the first martyr to the cause of righteousness, and the first victim of Adam's original transgression, (g) No sooner was this horrible act perpetrated,
(f) Gen. v. 4. (g) Gen. iv. 1, et seq. The oriental tradition sacrifices of these brothers to have been offered

The Lord, however, convinced him that what he had done quickly was not hid from His all-seeing eye ; and condemned him to be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, which he should labour in vain to render fruitful a sentence, which, though it fell short of the heinousness of the culprit's guilt, he yet complained of, as too severe, " averring that it was greater than he could bear," and that every one who met him would put him to death. But God told him, that sevenfold vengeance should be taken on whoever should slay Cain and the more effectually to quiet his apprehension on this score, a sign(li)
I

my

brother's keeper?"

(probably some sensible miracle) was given

targum, and that of Jonathan Ben Uzziel, give the following curious account of it: "And Cain said unto Hebel, his ' brother, Let us go out into the field :' and it came to pass, that, when they were both in the field, Cain answered and said to Hebel, his brother, ' I thought the world had been created in mercy ; but it is not governed according to the merit of good works neither is there any judgment, nor a
:

makes the

lowing occasion.

to Abu'lfaragius) Adam proposed that Cain should marry Abel's twin-sister, and that Abel should espouse Cain's: for since they must necessarily marry their sisters, it was

on the folIn the 130th year of the world (according

proper they should take those of the remoter degree, in order to infringe as little as possible on the natural limits of consanBut Cain positively refused to accede to this proguinity. posal, and insisted upon having his own sister, who was the fairest of the two. Adam expostulated, that it was contrary to the divine command that he should marry his twin-sister ; but finding him inflexible, he ordered them both to make their offerings to God before they took their wives ; thus referring the determination of the dispute to the divine deci-

As they ascended the mountain for this purpose, the devil suggested to Cain the practicability of getting rid of his brother; and for harbouring this evil intention, his sacrision.
fice was rejected therefore they were no sooner come down from the mountain, than he fell on Abel, and killed him with
:

a stone.

The mode

in

which

God

declared his acceptance of Abel's

:

but the offering is not expressed by Moses is, that fire descended from heaven, and
in the case

common

opinion
it,

consumed

as

1 Kings,

of Elijah's appeal against the prophets of Baal,

xviii.

30

38.

Before the commission of the fact, Moses alludes to a conversation between Cain and Abel,* which being lost from the Hebrew original, is of course omitted in the English translation but in the most accepted of the ancient versions, the
;

hiatus
text,

is

supplied to the following effect

"
;

Judge; neither shall there be any future state of rewards given to the righteous, nor of punishment executed on the evil-doers and at present there is respect of persons for, otherwise, why should thy sacrifice be accepted, and mine contemned? And Hebel answered and said, 'The world was surely created in mercy, and it is governed according to the fruit of good works there is indeed a Judge, a future world, and an impending judgment, when good rewards shall be given to the righteous, and the wicked shall be punished. There is no respect of persons; but because my works are better and more precious than thine, therefore is my oblation received with complacency.' And because of these things they contended on the face of the field and Cain rose up against Hebel, his brother, and struck a stone into his forehead, and killed him." The time, place, and manner of this murder, are all uncertain. Very probably it occurred not long before the birth of Sell), who was appointed instead of Abel. According to an ancient tradition, the place were Abel was slain, is still said to be shewn at the foot of a hill near Damascus and as to the manner in which this fratricide was committed, opinions are as various as the writers who have noticed it. The rabbins, and some Christians, pretend that Adam and Eve mourned for Abel 100 years, during which time they
: ;
:

in

the Samaritan

into the field ;" in the Syriac, "Let " us go into the desert in the Vulgate, " Let us walk out; in the Septuagint, "Let us go out into the field ;" which latter reading is also found in the two Chaldee targums, and in the Coptic version. As to the particular of this con-

"Let us walk out

lived separately: Adam particularly, in a valley near Hebroii, thence named the vale of tears." And the 'inhabitants of

versation,

on which so much
iv,

depended,

subject the

Jerusalem

* Gen.

8,

"

And

Cain talked with

AM

Ceylon suppose the salt lake on the mountains of Colurnbo to have resulted from the tears shed by Eve on this occasion. (h) This sign was rather to assure Cain that his life was not in danger from his fellow men, than a mark for them to avoid him. The latter supposition is, however, adopted in most translations, and has given rise to a multitude of conjectures
as to
its

hit brother."

nature.

204

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

[CHAP,

ir.

his

him, that none that met him should take away After leading a wandering life for life. some time, exiled from the society of his brethren, Cain at length settled with his wife and family in the land of Nod,(i) where he built a city,(j) and called it, after his eldest

he had Jabal, "the father of such as dwell in tents, "(1) and Jubal, the inventor of music; by the second he had Tubal-cain, (in) who found out the art of forging and working
metals,
to

and a daughter, named Naaniah,

writers

whom some

(n)

have attributed the

to

son,

Enoch.

form any satisfactory conjecture as to how long he(k) or his descendants lived. Their names will be found in the genealogical table at the all that we know of head of this Section that Lamech, the fifth in descent from them is, Cain, introduced polygamy by marrying two
:

The sacred historian has recorded very few we particulars of Cain's posterity; nor can

wives,

Adah and

Zillah

by the

first

of

whom

weaving. Hence be the same with the original Jupiter of the Heathens, Jubal the same with Apollo, Tubal-cain with Vulcan, JN'aamah with Venus, or rather with Minerva, and Jabal with Pales. To these few particulars of Cain's family must be added a mysterious speech of Lamech, (o) recorded by Moses. which has puzzled the best interpreters. Though the inspired writer has been so very
invention

of spinning and

Lamech has been supposed

'

" Cain went out from the English translation is, of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the presence east of Eden :" but as the word "TO (NOD) signifies the same " Cain went as T3 (Nan) a vagabond, it might be rendered out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt on the east of Eden, a vagabond in the earth;" which carries with it the fulfilment of the sentence just before pronounced upon him. Grotius and Junius, however, suppose that he retired into and because this lies rather to the west the Arabian deserts than to the east of Eden, they contend that the words rendered in our translation "on the east of Eden," ought to be " before," or " over-agiiinst Eden," as found in the Sep(i)

The

v (an alteration frequently found among the Hebrews, Or the Greeks, and Romans) makes Vulcain, or Vulcan. word Vulcan may be nothing more than a corrupt idiom of TWlfA'tCSiN, which may be rcadilv apprehended by pronouncing the word with a strong emjjhasis on tli second 2. His occupation. 3. The names and sounds consellable. nected with this short account of Tubal-cain: nbx (TZII.LOH) his mother's name, bearing some resemblance to the hissing sound of melting metals; as bhy (TZI,L) which sk'nities to tinkle, does to the hammering or forging of them. 4. The notion of Vulcan's lameness, he thinks, may be derived from
into a

the
o.

tuagint.

noun ybi (TZCLA) which indicates a halting, or lameness. Naamah, the sister of Tubal-cain, whose name is signi-

Moses in immediate (j) This city, though mentioned by connection with the migration of Cain, was probably not built till many years afterwards, when his posterity Philo the Jew supposes he also was greatly increased. Iluet built six other cities, but on no sufficient foundation. has supposed the Anuchtha, mentioned by Ptolemy, as situate in Susiana, or Chusistan, to be the city of Enoch, built by Cain : but it is highly improbable that a city built before the flood should either withstand the deluge, or retain its ancient name after so great an alteration in the face of the earth.
(k) An oriental tradition, credited by many Christians in Jerom's time, states that Cain was casually killed by hi.s descendant Lamech. The time of his death is variously stated, as in the 730th year of his age; in the year of the Tostat says he lived near world 701, or 87-3, or 931. 800 years; and Paul De Burgos makes him perish in the

of bnauly or (/race, he supposes to have given ri-e to the fable of Vulcan having married VeniH, the goddi 0. The literal import of the name Tubal-cain, beauty.
ficative

tan

(KONA)

(I'evel.) signifying an incestuous commerce, and N3p to burn tofifft jealousy, he conceives to allude to the

general deluge.

Rabbi Sol. Yarclii explains this passage by supposing have first been occupied with the care of cattle in the desert, removing \\itli them from place to place in (juc^t of pasture, and dwelling in tents during their abode at an\ fruitful spot; a mode of life still practised by the Bedouins and other Arabian tribes. Abel, indeed, had been a shep(1)

him

to

herd before Jabal, but upon a much less extensive scale; so that finding sufficient jias.tur.igc for his flocks near home, he had no occasion to wander from the paternal habitation.
(in) M. DC Lavaur supposes the Greeks borrowed their Vulcan, or god of smiths, from this Tuba! tain, the first worker in metals on record his arguments are supported by the following considerations: 1. His name; which, by the omission of the two fust letters, TU, and the change of the B
:

well-known amour of Wars with Venus, and their detection and exposure by Vulcan. A tradition of this kind, he thinks, may have easily found its way from the Egyptians to the Greeks but it is very questionable whether they would have discovered so refined an analysis of the names. Josephus commends Tubal cain (whom be calls Thobel) for bis great strength and skill in war; to the perfection of which art he probably contributed by the invention of arms. (n) Some of the rabbins suppose the name of Naamah to have been recorded in Scripture, because she was an upright and chaste woman; others affirm that she was a wanton; that "the whole world went after her;" and that of her evil Some imagine her to have spirits were born into the world. and that her name been the wife of Noah, others of Ham is mentioned by Moses, because she was preserved from the Her person is said to have been so charming, that deluge. the angels A/a and Azacl fell in love with her, and begat on The targum of Jonathan her the dscmons called Gedim. makes her the inventrix of funeral songs and lamentations. (o) This speech, recorded Gen, iv. 23, 24, appears to refer to some murder committed by Lamech, but upon what occasion, or under what circumstanced, it is impossible to determine though commonly attributed to the tradition,
:

already alluded to, of his having inadvertently slain his progenitor Cain, and a youth, by some said to have been his own son Tubal-cain, who attended him, and led him into

SECT.

II.]

PATRIARCHS.
these words to intimate that idolatry had its rise about this time, as is more fully related in a former chapter, (p) Of the next three descendants of Seth, riz. Ca'i'iian, Mahalaleel, and Jared, Moses has only related their several ages, as likewise of Methuselah and Lamech, the father to Noah. The oriental writers commend them, with Seth and Enos, for their piety, and the salutary injunctions left behind them, forbidding their children all intercourse with the race of Cain. Enoch, son of Jared, and father f j u l. Per. 1332. <>22. to Methuselah, was a person of < A. M. ' " B c 3384
-

concise in his notices of this elder branch of family, we are assured by other historians, that the posterity of Cain were enor-

Adam's

mously profane, every succeeding generation growing worse than the former, and becoming at length wholly addicted to rapine and brutish
lusts.
Jul. Per. 840.
")

A.M.
B.C.

130. >

3874. )

" For she called Seth, q. d. appointed God, " hath said she, appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew." Jul.Per. 94o."l Enos, the son of Seth, was born A. M. 235. I this year, in whose days, according B.C. 3769.) to our translation, " men began to call upon the name of the Lord;" or, as the " men began to call marginal reading has it, " i. e. themselves by the name of the Lord ;
:

Soon after the murder of Abel, and probably the next year, Eve became tne mo tn er of another son, whom

"

began

to be called sons of God, in contradistinction to the impious race of Cain, who were denominated sons of men. But the Jews suppose
the error. In this case he should seem endeavouring to quiet the apprehensions of his wives for his safety, by reminding them, that if Cain, who had wilfully slain his innocent brother, were to be avenged seven-fold, if any should hurt him; he,

extraordinary piety, walking with God," as the scripture expresses it, for at least the last 300 years of his life as a reward for which exemplary behaviour in ^ j u p er 1(}97 so corrupt an age, he was taken A. M. 987. 3017. God into heaven, without (.B.C. by It was tasting of death, (q) during his lifetime, that Adam, having seen a numerous posterity issued from him, after a life 930 years,
:

-|

Lamech, though he had

so, unwittingly, whilst

two persons, yet having done in the pursuits of the chase, he should be avenged seventy times seven-fold, upon whoBut this speech ever should attempt to punish him for it. has been taken as indicative of Lantech's undaunted tyranny and barbarity for his wives, knowing that all men hated him for his cruelty, were afraid lest he might be made away with; whereupon he vauntingly replies, that none could venture upon doing so, for that none could resist him ; he having murdered a man (or two men) though wounded himkilled

he did not die, but was translated, body and soul together, to Paradise ; in which they are countenanced by the apostle Paul, in the passage above referred to. The Mohammedans, who call Enoch, Edris, believe that he received from God the gift of wisdom and that
assert that

engaged

sent him thirty volumes from heaven, filled with the secrets of the most mysterious sciences and that he found out the use of the pen, the sowing needle, (for they pretend that he was the first tailor) arithmetic, and astronomv. Also, that he was the first who took up arms in the cause of reliThe Jews say he first invented letters, and became gion. acquainted with the signs of heaven. They call him Metraton, a name which some take to be that of the angel Gabriel. The rabbins maintain, that when he was translated
;

God

knowledge;

self in the conflict;

and, making himself secure in his past

success, assures them, in a scoffing manner, that if Cain's death were to be avenged seven times, his would be seventy

valuing himself upon having committed more murders, and upon being more resolute and desperate, than Cain. The words, however, may be taken interrogatively, thus: "Have I slain a man, that 1 should be wounded; or a young man, that I should be bruised >." in which sense they indicate an assertion of the speaker's innocence, adduced to quiet the terrors excited in his wives by the constant dread they were in, lest the posterity of Setli, who by this time had probably increased in numbers beyond those of the Cainites, might fall upon them, to avenge the death of Abel, and exterminate them from the earth. Something of this construction is given by the Targnms. (p) See Introduction, page 214. (q) Gen. v. 24, compared with licit, xi. 5. Several of the " he was Jews, however, construe the words of Moses, not, for God took him," as intimating that he died a natural death at an immature age; as if God, to secure him from the corruption which had then overspread the earth, had taken him, early, but by the usual mode, out of a guilty world. The generality of the Fathers and commentators, on the other hand,

times seven

he was admitted among the number of the angels, and is the person generally spoken of under the name of Michael. The Greek Christians suppose Enoch to be the same with the first Egyptian Hermes, and that he built the
to heaven,

pyramids, engraving on them the figures of artificial instruments, and the elements of the sciences, lest the memory of hem should perish in the general deluge, which he foresaw was to come upon the earth. Eupolemus makes him tinsame with Atlas, the first astronomer. The apostle Jude cites a passage (ver. 14, 15) from the book of Enoch, which has much exercised interpreters for though this book was in high esteem among the ancients, it is rather supposed to have been written by some of those Jews who lived between the Babylonish captivity and the Christian rcra it may, however, have been founded upon some original fragment of Enoch's, lost in the destruction of Jerusalem by Nubuchadnezzar, and therefore re-written from memory or tradition. This book, intitled The Scripture, or Prophecy of Enoch, after being long buried in oblivion, was partially recovered by Joseph Scaliger: it gives many strange accounts of giants engendered by angels on the daughters of men, with some particulars of the revolt of the angels, the origin of idolatrv, astrology, &c. Father Bartolocci lias endeavoured to prove,
I :

VOL.

I.

M M

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

Jul. Per.

[CHAP.

i49.

A.M.
B.C.

that sentence of death, which, by 3074.) n j s transgression in Eden, he had

;

) 930. >

underwent the

final

execution of

brought upon himself and them. The time of E\e's death is not intimated in Scripture but it has been maintained that she outlived Adam
ten years, (r)
Jul. Per. 1752. )

the children of Seth, by the contemplation of the heavenly bodies, laid the foundation of the science of astronomy; and, understanding from a prediction by Adam, that the earth was" to be

A. M.

conie very considerable, and the vast increase of collateral branches had removed the different families away from the common centre of union ; so that the tradition of the creation, the fall, and the miracles wrought by

1042. I 2962. )

At the period of Seth's decease, the population of the world had be-

destroyed, once by water, and once by fire, they engraved their observations on two pillars, called the Pillars of Set ; the one of stone, to preserve them from the effects of the flood ; the other of brick, to resist the violence of the fire. How long the descendants of Seth continued in their religious devotion to God, and separation from the posterity of Cain, is uncertain. (s)
It.

Moses

"

says,

When men

began

to

multipK on

God, was insensibly lost sight of. Mean time the posterity of Cain improved the arts taught them by Jabal and his brethren; they built cities; the various degrees of strength or of industry had introduced inequality of condition ; and opulence had substituted artificial and extravagant luxuries for the simple and pure pleasures of nature. Josephus relates that
on the authority of the most ancient Jews, that the Edris of Mohammedans is a different person from the antediluvian Enoch, and that he lived many ages after him. Origen mentions a book, attributed to Enoch, different from his Prophecy, containing secrets concerning the names of the parts of heaven, and of all the stars and constellations, which
the
still extant in Ethiopia, in the language of that the learned Du Peiresc used his utmost endeavours to get possession of it, but without success ; but the celebrated traveller, Mr. Bruce, brought a copy of it from Abyssinia, which, with his other MSS. is in the hands of his relatives. is

the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair ; and they took them
all which they From which chose."(t) appears that the beginning of their corruption was their marrying into the family of Cain ; so that their manners were soon depraved, and

wives of
it

at length they had so far degenerated that it is " the wickedness of man was very great said,
,

the Cainites remaining below in the plain, where Abel had been murdered. This mountain, they assert, was so high, that the inhabitants could hear the angels in Paradise singing the praises of God, and they even joined in the choir. Here

said to be
:

country

(r) The Jews say, that both Adam and Eve were very penitent; that he in particular was so exceedingly afflicted for his sin, that he had died of grief, had not God sent the The place of his sepulchre angel Raziel to comfort him.

cannot be collected from Scripture; but Jerom seems to approve of the opinion of those who imagine him to have been buried at Hebron, in the cave of-Machpelah, which Abraham, many ages afterwards, purchased for a buryingSome of the Arabians tell us, place for himself and family. that lie was buried (in the mountain Abu-kabis, near Mecca; others, that Noah, having preserved his body in the ark, caused it to be carried after the deluge to Jerusalem, by Melchisedck, a sou of Shem, who thereupon became king of Salem, or Jerusalem; which opinion is also held by the oriental Christians: but the Persians assert that he was interred in the isle of Serendib, (Ceylon) where his remains were guarded by lions till the giants made war upon each other. Some are of opinion that he died on the very spot where Jerusalem was afterwards buill, and tliat he. was buried in the place where Christ suffered, that so his bones might be sprinkled with the
Saviours blood.

made ample amends, of Moses in this respect. After the death of Adam, say they, Seth and his family separated themselves from the profligate race of Cain, and clm-c for their habitation the mountain where Adam was buried,
(s)

The Jews and

eastern people have

by

their traditions,

fur tiie silence

they lived in great purity and sanctity of manners, utter Their constant emstrangers to envy, injustice, and deceit. ployment was praising God; for, their food consisting of the fruits of the trees which grew on the mountain, they had no occasion for servile labours. Their only oath was, '" By the blood of Abel;" and they every day went up the mountain to worship God collectively, and to visit the body of Adam, as a mean of procuring the Divine blessing. Here, by contemplation of the heavenly bodies, they laid the foundations of the science of astronomy ; and lest their inventions should be forgotten or lost, before they were publicly known, they reared the pillars above spoken of: one of which, that of stone, Josephus says, was to be seen in his days in the land of Siriad, which is supposed to be Thebais, in Upper Egypt. The descendants of Seth continued in the practice of virtue till the 40th year of Jared, when 100 of them, hearing the sound of music and riotous mirth among the Cainites, agreed to descend from the holy mountain to see what they were about. On their arrival in the plain, they were immediately captivated by the beauty of the women, who went naked, and with whom they defiled themselves; as indicated by Moses, in " the sons of God" intermarried with the " daughsaying that ters of men." The example of these apostate Sethites was soon followed by others of their brethren ; and from time to time they continued to descend from the mount in great numbers, and mingled with the abandoned Cainites. From this intercourse sprang the giants, who being as remarkable for their impiety as for their strength of body, tyrannised in a cruel manner, and polluted the earth with every species of wickedness. This defection at length became so general, that none were left in the holy mount, save Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives,
(t)

Gen.

vi. 1, 2.

14

KF.CT. 11.]

CORRUPTION OF MANKIND. GIANTS.

207

in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. "(u)
Jul. Per. 17(56. }

seems to have been accomplished in a manner different from what Lamech expected.

A. M.

lose, 1

B.C.

2948.)

Mankind were thus running headlong into all manner of vice, when Noah, the son of Lamech,

birtli was congratulated by his with prophetic rapture, that he should father, prove a comfort to his family for the curse which the Lord had laid upon the earth but it
:

was born, whose

From the unhappy marriages of the sons of Seth with the daughters of Cain, or, as Moses speaks, of the sons of God with the daughters of men,(v) issued a generation no less extraordinary for their great stature and strength, than
for their injustice and impiety. in those days," says Moses, "

" There were giants(w) in the

Gen. vi. 5. This expression of Moses has led Joseplms, Philo Judaeus, and several of the Fathers, to interpret this passage as if the angels, who, in other parts of Scripture are called sons of God, had begotten on the daughters of men, the impious race of giants, to whom we shall shortly have occasion to advert: but this supposition is repugnant to the notions we have of the nature of those celestial being's, who " neither marry, nor are given in marriage;"* and it equally militates " the sons of God," the fallen against those who understand by
(u) (v)

mankind

at the resurrection.

At the same time men were

also threatened with a general destruction, and that their lives should be contracted to the space of 120 years.

(w) Translators are not agreed about the meaning of the word giants. Some render it, violent and cruel men; others, men who fall upon and rush fonvard, as a robber upon his But it is allowed, that in the early ages, though the prey. usual stature of men was what would now be deemed gigantic, Moses does not speak of them as giants till after the union of the families of Cain and Seth, when men abused their supe-

angels.

A more reasonable opinion is that embraced by the Jewish interpreters, viz. that by " sons of God," are meant the princes, great men, and magistrates, who instead of inter-

posing their authority to suppress and punish vice, were themselves the greatest examples and promoters of lewdness and debauchery taking by force the daughters of the inferior and weaker sort of people, to make them the agents of their lusts. The notion of angels having defiled themselves with women, has been greatly propagated by the book noticed in a preceding note, and attributed to Enoch, from which the " When men were following particulars are extracted greatly increased, they had daughters of such excellent beauty, that the Egregori, or guardian angels, fell in love with them, and proposed that they should go down and choose themselves wives of the daughters of men : to which Semiazas, their prince, replying, that he was apprehensive they would not go through with the affair, but leave him to bear the guilt alone, they all bound themselves by oath not to recede from their proposition. They therefore, to the number of 200, in the days of Jared descended on the top of mount Hermon, so called from the oath they had taken, in the year of the world 1170, took themselves wives, and began" to commit lewdness with them, which they continued to do till the flood; and the women bore to them three generations. The first generation was thatof the Giants, who also begat the Nephi/im, mid they begat those called Blind. These were multiplied according to their stature, and were initiated by the Egregori in various arts, and in all the secrets of nature. At length the Giants began to devour human flesh, so that the number of men daily decreased but those that remained cried to heaven against their cruelty, and besought God to remember them. '1 heir cric.s being heard by the four archangels, thev looked ilcmn ujion the earth, and seeing a great deal of blood shed thereon, and that all manner of impiety and disorder w;t^ committed, made their report to God, and at his command bound the princes of those transgressors, and threw them into the abyss, there to be kept till the day of judgment. The giants, being begotten of a mixture of spirit and flesh, were condemned, after having destroyed each other by mutual wars, to become evil spirits, doing mischief upon the earth, appearing as spectres, and taking no food but to rise with
; : ;
;

long bodily Whoever strength and political power went hand in hand. was able to encounter a fierce wild beast, and clear the country of noisome animals, or in the day of battle to destroy most of his enemies, was looked up to by his companions as the fittest to be their commander thus Nimrod, in a later day, from being a mighty hunter, became a great monarch.
:

rior bodily strength for the purposes of gratifying their At this period, and indeed passions. after,

worst

These giants, therefore, might be the chief warriors, who formed themselves into chosen bands, and livingamong an effeminate people, had no curb to their cruelty and lust and from them might spring an illegitimate race, who when grown up, having no inheritance, would be turned loose on the world ; these, following the example of their fathers, lived by violence and plunder; so that they became mighty men, and men of renown, and procured for themselves a name by the same means that most heroes have obtained a name in history, viz. by the mischiefs they did, and the numbers they murdered.
;

It is to be observed, that the English translators have rendered seven Hebrew words by the one term giants, viz. ne-

cnackim, rephayim, rmim, zuzim, and by which appellatives are probably meant persons eminent for knowledge, courage, piety, wickedness, &-c. without any reference to their The bodily 'stature.
philim,

yibborim,
;

zamztuiiiniin

Hebrew word
derived from

|!

?DJ

(NePHaLrM) which we render

"?DJ

(NapHL) to fall; and this

giants, is derivation has been

urged in defence of the opinion that the giants were the progeny of fallen angels; though it will equally serve to denote the offspring of fallen men. The Septuagint render the ori-

Mr Bryant be the same with the Titans, who are indifferently called sons of the earth, and children of the sun : the former appellation being derived from the mounds, or breasts of rnrtli, on which they worshipped ; the latter from the the sun. The passage might thereobject of their worship fore be rendered, " there were OF the [nephalim]
;

ginal word by y.yafls?, literally earth-bom, or sons of the earth ; a name also given by mythologists to the spurious offspring of Ge, the sister and wife of Uranus and con-

ceives

them

to

* Matt.

xxii.

30.

Luke,

35.

however, without any reference to the original meaning of the word " have rendered it, in its popular acceptation, ;,

apostates earth in those days ;" i. e. such as worshipped the heavenly bodies upon hills ; or, to avoid circumlocution, " there were Titans in those days." The English translators,
yiants,

MM

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

earth ;"

[CHAP.

ii.

who being n all probability of Cain's race, both lather and mother, and born before the by their conjunction of the twofamilies, made use of to spoil and tyrannise over the superior power weaker. After the union of the Sethites with the daughters of Cain, a mongrel offspring apthemselves by peared, who likewise signalised
i

living when Noah was born, and many of them continued till after he had begun the building of the ark so that, to use the energetic language of Moses, " it repented the Lord that he had
;

made man on
his heart."(y)

the earth, and

it

grieved
r j u i.
-J

him
.

at

robberies and oppressions, and became "mighty men ; which of old were men of renown."(x) Thus wickedness overspread the earth, not-

So great was the wickedness of mankind, and so universally had

it

A.
-

withstanding the frequent admonitions which we cannot but suppose to have been given by the patriarchs ; of whom Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Methuselah, and Lamech, were
by which are understood persons of extraordinary strength and stature. Yet it must not be doubted that at various times there have appeared men of uncommon size and powers, some of whom may have lived before the flood as well as
afterwards
;

spread, that of all the thousands ( by whom the earth was inhabited, oue man only was found perfect in the sight of God ; and this was Noah, who, treading in the steps " was a of his great-grandfather Enoch, just
-

p er O-J.K;. M. 1536. B c 246U

man, perfect
'

in his

generations, and

walked

purport

chevalier Ricon

lies the noble and puissant lord the Vallemont, and his bones.' Platerus, a celebrated physician, declares that he saw at Lucerne, the true human bones of a subject, which must have been at least NIN E:

In this

tomb

De

for credible instances, thougli rare, are recorded

TEEN

and profane, ancient and modern. In sacred history, Og, king of Bashan,* and Goliath of Gath, and his brethren,-! not to mention the AnakimJ and Emim, are so particularly described, as to leave no doubt upon the subject; and for profane history, the following extract from a memoir of M. Le Cat, read before the Academy of Sciences at Rouen, presents the most correct and authentic account of by
historians, sacred

feet high. Valence, in Dauphine, bouts of possessing the bones of the giant Bucart, tyrant of the Vivarois, who v.is slain by an arrow by the count De Cabillon, his vassal the
:

" Profane historians have giants that has yet appeared. given seven feet of height to Hercules, their first hero but in
;

our days we have seen men eight feet high. The giant who was exhibited at Rouen in 1735, measured eight feet some The emperor Maximin was of that height Sheninches. kius and Platerus, physicians of the last century, saw several of that stature; and Goropius saw a girl who was ten feet The body of Orestes, according to the Greeks, was high. eleven feet and a half; the giant Galbara, brought from Arabia to Rome, under Claudius Csesar, was nearly ten feet and the bones of Secondilla and Pusio, keepers of the gardens of .Sallust, were but six inches shorter. Funnain, a Scot, who lived in the time of Eugenius II. measured eleven feet and a half; and Jacob Le Maire, in his Voyage to the Straits of Mayellan, reports, that they found at Port Desire several graves covered with stones, under which they discovered skeletons of ten and eleven feet long. The Chevalier Scory, in his Voyage to the Peak of Teneriffe, says, they found in oue of the sepulchral caverns of that mountain, the head of a Guanche, which had eighty teeth, and that the body was not less than 15 feet in leugth. The giant Fcrragus, slain by It i.-land, Orlando, nephew to Charlemagne, was 1 i! feet high. a celebrated anatomist, who wrote iu 1014, says, that some years before, there was to be seen in the suburbs of St. Ger;
;

Dominicans had a part of the shin-bone, with the articulation of the knee, and his figure painted in fresco, with an inscription, describing this giant to have been TWENTY-TWO A NO. A HALF feet in height, and that his bones were found in 1705, near the banks of the Morderi, a little river at the foot of the mountain of Crussol, upon which (according to a tradition) the M. Le Cat then proceeds to notice the disgiant resided." covery of other skeletons, of a still more incredible magnitude, viz. of Theutobochus, king of the Teutones, found llth January, 1613, 25 \ feet; of a giant, found near Mazarino in Sicily, in 1516, 30 feet; another, in 1548, near Palermo, 30 feet; another, in 1550, 33 feet; two others, near Athens, 33 and 30 feet and one, found at Totu, in Bohemia, whose Whether the ley-bones alone measured TWENTY-SIX feet!
;

reader will conceive these accounts as genuine or exaggerated,

certain that the human stature is by no means fixed. Instances of extraordinary height and bulk are within our immediate recollection : the celebrated O'Brien, who was more than eight feet high, was a few years since known throughout the country, as were likewise Bright and Lambert, two remarkable instances of bulk. And in the metropolis, the soldier, who officiated as porter at Carlton House, and a person who held a situation in the Bank of England, are still fresh in our memories. To the Laplanders, the ordinary height of Europeans appears gigantic ; and yet they are not the most diminutive of the human race; for the Abb6 La Chappe, in his Journey into Sibrria, speaks of a village, through which he passed, inhabited by people, called Wotiacks, who were not abwra four feet in height. The accounts of the Patagouiaus, also, render it very probable, that somewhere in South America, there is a race considerably exceeding the usual stature of mankind. (x) These characteristics of the antediluvian giants and mighty men, with the twofold marriage of Lamech, (in the line of Cain) and the occupations, or inventions of his children, all seem to place the family of Jupiter before the flood; t. e. of that Jupiter to whom divine honours were Jirst given, and of whom the Thessaliau prince, so called, seems to have been only the counterpart.
it is

main, the tomb of the giant Isoiet, who was '20 feet high. Jn lloucii, in 150!), in digging in the ditches near the Dominicans, a stone tomb was discovered, containing a skeleton, whose .skull held a bushel of corn, and whose shin-hone reached the girdle of the tallest man there, being about four
feet long; consequently the

whole person to whom it had belonged, must have been 17 or 1 feet in height: upon the tomb AMIS a plate of copper, with a memento to the following
t 1

Dent. Sum.

iii.

11.

xvii.
xiii.

4
33.

7,

1 Chrun. xx. $

4
ii,

8.

Numb.

Dmt.

10, 11.

(y)

Gen,

vi. 6.

SECT.

II.]

THE DELUGE.
the frame-work
;

265>

" found with God;" he therefore grace,"(z) and to him God declared his determination of bringing a deluge of water upon the earth, to destroy all who dwelt upon its face. Prior to the execution of this sweeping desolation, God had allotted the space of 120 years
for

probable that Noah,

and escape and it is highly who was " a preacher of righteousness," employed his counsel and auto repent
;

men

was erected plank was added none would credit the prediction that God was about to visit the earth in judgment. Year after year elapsed the awful period approached; yet Noah and his family only were prepared to meet it. The ark being at length completed, and Unto plank, but
;

thority to bring his fellow men to a recollection of their impiety and a just sense of their danger.

But they continued incorrigibly obstinate; and (according to Josephus) Noah found himself in imminent danger from their violence so that he was at length obliged to depart from among them with his wife and children. To this epocha, perhaps, Moses points, when he asserts that " all " the earth was filled with violence," and
;

number of years expired, God appeared again to Noah, and ordered him to get into the ark, with his wife, his three sons, and their beasts accounted wives, (1)) together with clean, and birds, by sevens; and of beasts
allotted

accounted unclean, and

reptiles,

by

pairs,

male

and female.(c)

Noah obeyed; and having

furnished the ark with provisions, he entered it with his family, on Sunday, November 30, in the year of the world rj u i. Per. 2366. 1656, followed by the animals < A. M. i-j<;.

flesh

had corrupted

his

way upon

the earth :"(a)

who

were

instinctively

drawn

B c
-

- :}4i!

for he

immediately adds, that

God commanded

to the spot.

to prepare a vessel, or ark, of certain dimensions, for the preservation of himself, his

Noah

ark,

family,
in

and some of every species of animals, from the operation of the impending judgment,

in the himself fastened the door; and on the 17th day of the second month, (Sunday, De-

When Noah and the animals were safe

God

cember

order to replenish the earth after the waters should abate. Noah obeyed the divine mandate and while he built the ark, he continued to call on his neighbours to turn to God, that they The heart of might be saved but all in vain man, depraved and ruined by the fall, is deaf to the awful warning, turns from it with contempt, or treats it with derision. The ark being begun,
;
: !

7,) the rains began to pour from the firmament, the fountains of the great deep below were broken up, and during forty days, and as many nights, the waters continued to increase, till they overtopped the highest mountains, so that all the inhabitants of the earth and air perished, except those in the ark, which floated on the surface of the aqueous

expanse.(d)
(c) It has been questioned whether there went into the ark seven of every clean, and two of every unclean species, or seven and two pairs, i. e. fourteen of the former, and four of the latter. The natural sense of the Hebrew seems to indicate seven and and two and tivo " the male

(z)

Gen.

vi. 8, 9.

Gew.vi. 11, 12. (h) The number of persons preserved

(a)
; :

in the

ark has been

\ariously stated at six, eight, ten, twelve, seventy-eight, and but it is certain, from fourscore half men and half women

the testimony of both Moses and St. Peter, that no more than EIGHT persons, consisting of Noah, his wife, his three sons :uul their wives, were saved amid the ruin of the old world. There is likewise a tradition to this purport among the Mo-

female."

hammedans,

said to have been received from their prophet himself; yet some of those people have increased the number in various degrees, and others have diminished it, insisting
:

that one of Noah's sons, or his grandson, named Yam (the same with Canaan) perished in the flood and some of their commentators on the Koran add, that Noah's wife was like-

seven, and his ; Supposing there were only seven of the clean to which objecbeasts, one must have been without a mate tion it has been replied, that the seventh, or odd one, was for sacrifice after the deluge had subsided but this is more than Moses tells, though in other respects he has been particular in detailing the preparations for this great event, and its progress; and he asserts, and repeats it, that the animals went in by pairs. (Gen. vi. 19, 20, vii. 2, 9, 15, 16.) It is scarcely;
:

The eastern writers wise drowned with her son, or grandson. add, that Noah, in pursuance of instructions handed down to him from Adam, took the body of that father of the human race with him into the ark, and placed it in the midst, as a
barrier between the

men and

the woincu,

who hud no

necessary to add, that these animals came together by a supernatural impulse from God, as intimated by the woVds of Scripture. Yet some' have sup(Gen. vi. '20. vii. 9.) posed it to have been effected by the ministration of angels ; which is only an admission of the same truth under a different form ; for " are they not ministering spirits sent forth to

inter-

do

his (d)

will?"
vii.

(Psalm

ciii.

21, 22.)

course during the deluge.

Gen.

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

SECTION
Ul.

[CHAP.

ii.

PKOFANE HISTORY BEFORE THE FLOOD.

IN the notes to the foregoing section, it has been seen that the Jews have endeavoured to fill

whose names were Phos [Light] Pluir [Fire] and Phlox [Flame.] They found out the way of generating fire by rubbing pieces of wood
against each other,and taught men the use thereof. 4. These last mentioned begat sons of vast bulk and height, whose names were given to the

up the chasms of the Mosaic history of the antediluvian world and in this it will appear that the heathens have been no less active in collecting
;

mountains on which they

settled, viz. Casius,

they could find, nor less fruitinvention when they were deficient in facts. The history of Moses presents few circumstances but such as relate immediately to the ancestors of Noah, in the direct line from Adam the fragments here presented through Seth from the Phoenician, Babylonian, and Egyptian antiquities, relate to some of the other branches; but of the credibility of the accounts, the reader
-iich traditions as
ful in
:

must judge

for himself.

Sanchoniatho,(e) the Phoenician antiquary, begins his history from the origin of the world and of mankind but has deduced it from the first pair, through the line of Cain (if we may credit the assertion of Bishop Cumberland) with a design to countenance idolatry, which is admitted to have been originally introduced by him, or his immediate descendants. With the same view, says the Bishop, this writer has also omitted all notice of the deluge, and by a transposition of two or three persons at that period, he has engrafted the line of Seth upon the stock of Cain. The plan, however, is really quite different from that of Moses, and therefore it would be useless to attempt to reconcile them. The few scriptural names introduced [in crotchets] upon the annexed Genealogical Table, are inserted according to the Bishop's suggestion but we cannot pretend that they are warrantable. GENERATION 1. At the head of the human
; ;

Libanus, Antilibanus, and Brathys. 5. Of these were begotten Memrumnus and Hypsuranius, so named by their mothers, who, like the women of those times, prostituted themselves without shame to any men they met with. Hypsuranius inhabited Tyre, and was the inventor of huts built with reeds and rushes, and of the use of the papyrus. He also quarrelled with his brother Usous, who first invented a covering for his body of the skins of wild beasts taken in the chase. In their days, a violent tempest of wind and rain caused the boughs of the trees about Tyre to rub against each other, so that they took fire, and burned the wood there. And Usous, having taken a tree, and broke off its boughs, was first so bold as to venture upon it into the sea. He also consecrated two rude stones, or pillars, to fire and wind, and worshipped them, pouring out before them the blood of such wild beasts as had been caught

But when Hypsuranius and hunting. Ousous were dead, those who remained consecrated to them stumps of wood and pillars, and worshipped them in anniversary festivals kept to their memory.
in
6.

Many

years after this generation,

came

Agreus and Halieus, inventors of the arts of hunting and fishing; from whom huntsmen and fishermen are named.

Of these [or rather, of one of them] were begotten two brothers, who discovered iron, and
7.

race, Sanchoniatho places two persons, whom his translator, Philo Byblius, calls Protogonus and JEon of whom the latter found out the food which is gathered from trees. 2. Their issue, called Genus and Genea, dwelt in Phoenicia; but when great droughts came, they stretched forth their hands towards the sun, for him they thought the only God, calling him Heelsamen, which, in the Phoenician tongue, signifies lord of hc.urcn. 3. From Genus proceeded other mortal issue,
;

invented the art of forging and working it one of these, called Chrysor, the same with Hepluestius, or Vulcan, exercised himself in words, and charms, and divinations ; and he invented the hook, bait, and fishing-line, with slightly-built boats ; and was the first of all men who sailed on the water he was therefore likewise worshipped after his death, under the name of Some /ciis-Michius, or Jupiter the Engineer. say, that his brother invented the art of building walls with brick.
: :

8.

Afterwards, from this generation came two

(e)

For an account of

this writer

and

his

works, see the

Introduction, p. 13.

brothers, one of whom was called Technites, the other, Geinus-Autochthon, [t/tc Artist,] [the Home born Man of the Earth J] They con-

SECT.

III.]

PHOENICIAN HISTORY OF SANCHONIATHO.

bantes
l.'i.

271

trived to mingle stubble, or small twigs, with the brick-earth, and drying- the composition in the sun, formed tiles. 9. By these were begotten others, of whom one was called Agrus [A Field,] and the other Agrouerus, or Agrotes [Husbandman,] who had a statue much worshipped, and a temple, carried about by one or more yoke of oxen in Phoenicia and among the people of Byblus, he is eminently called the greatest of the gods. These brothers invented courts about men's
:

and

Samothraces,

who

first

built

complete ship.

Of

these

came

others,

the

virtues of herbs,

the

who discovered cure of bites, and

charms.
age,
this time Ilus, or Chronos, was come of and taking Hermes Trismegistus for his counsellor and secretary, opposed his father Uranus, and avenged the wrongs of his mother, Ge, who had separated from Uranus on account of his propensity towards other women. Chronos had at this time children of whom Persephone [Proserpine] died a virgin but by the counsel of another daughter, named Athena [Minerva] and of his minister Hermes, he formed scymetars and spears of iron and being farther assisted by Hermes, who excited his

By

houses, and fences, and caves, and cellars. Husbandmen, and such as use dogs in hunting,
derive from these; and they are also called Aletae, and Titans. 10. Of these were begotten Amynus and Magus, who instructed men how to constitute
villages

and flocks. In their age, appeared one which in Greek is the same with HypEliun, sistos [The Most High,] arid his wife's name was Beruth they dwelt about Byblus, and had a son called Epigeus, or Autochthon, afterwards Uranus [Heaven;] so that from him the element which is over us, by reason of its exHe had a cellent beauty, is called heaven. sister, of the same parents, called Ge [Earth] and by reason of her beauty the earth had her
:

partisans with enticing words, to carry on the war against Uranus, he drove him out of the kingdom, and took upon himself the imperial power or office. In the battle, a well-beloved concubine of Uranus, and at that time pregnant

name
slain

given to

it.

Hypsistos, or Eliun, being

by wild beasts in hunting, was consecrated, and his children offered sacrifices and libations But Uranus taking the kingdom of his to him. father, married his sister Ge, and had by her four sons Ilus, also called Chronos [or Saturn], Betylus, Dagon, or Siton, god of corn, and Atlas but by his other wives, he had a numerous offspring.
:

by him, was taken, and Chronos gave her in marriage to Dagon, in whose house she brought forth the son of Uranus, and called him Demaroon. After this, Chronos built a wall about his house, and founded Byblus, the first city in Phoenicia. And when, not long afterwards, he suspected his brother Atlas, he, by the advice of Hermes, threw him into a deep hole of the earth, and there buried him.

About this time, the descendautsoftheDioscuri having built some tumultuary and other stronger
and being cast ashore near there consecrated a temple. The auxiliaries of Ilus, or Chronos, were called Eloim, (j. d. Chronii, for so they were named under Chronos. But Chronos having a son, called Sadid, whose loyalty he suspected, he
ships, to sea,

went

mount Casius,

here, consistently with the plan of this off the narrative, which reached the tenth generation, is brought having as low as the flood but as the author takes no notice of that event, there is no natural division in his history; and as the whole is not very long,

And

work, we should break

:

the reader will be better gratified in seeing it all together, than in having to refer for the remainder to a subsequent chapter. 11. From these men [Amynus and Magus]
[well freed] and Sydyc [Just;] discovered the use of salt. 12. From Misor came Taautus, called by the Egyptians Thoor, by the Alexandrians

dispatched him with his own sword. He also cut off the head of his own daughter; so that all the gods [Eloltim] were amazed at the mind of

proceeded Misor

who

Toyth, and by the Greeks Hermes, who invented the first letters and from Sydyc came
:

the

Dioscuri,

or

Cabiri,

called

also

Cory-

Chronos. In process of time, Uranus, from his retreat, or banishment, sent his virgin daughter Astarte, with two of her sisters, Ilhi-a and Dione, to cut off Chronos by deceit but Chrouos made those sisters his wives which when Uranus understood, he sent Eimarmene [Beauty] and Hora [Fate] with other auxiliaries, to fight against him but Chronos, basing gained the affections of these also, kept them with him. Moreover,
; ; :

272
the god trived to

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

Uranus devised
Baetylia, stones conlife.

[CHAP.

IT.

move

as having

By Astarte, Chronos had seven daughters, called Titanides, or Ateinides, and two sons,
Pothos [Desire] and Eros [Love.] By Rhea, he had seven sons, the youngest of whom, as soon as he was born, was consecrated a god. By Dione, also, he had daughters. Dagon, after he had found out the use of bread-corn, and the plough, was called ZeusArotrius.

Chronos's consent or authority; and Astarte put on her head, as the mark of her sovereignty, a bull's head. But travelling about the world, she found a star fallen from the sky, which she, taking up, consecrated in the holy isle of Tyre. Ana the Phoenicians say, that Astarte is the.

To

bore Asclepius. And in Peraea, Chronos had three sons, viz. Chronos, named after his father; Zeus-Belus and Apollo. Contemporary with these were Pontus and Typhon, as well as Nereus, the father of PonFrom Pontus came Sidon, (who, having tus. an exceeding sweetness of voice, first brought hymns, or odes of praise, into use) and Posidon But to Demaroon was born Meli[Neptune.'] also called Hercules. carthus, Uranus making war against Pontus, and being separated from him, joined with Demaroon, who also invaded Pontus, but was put to flight, and vowed a sacrifice for his escape. In the 32d year of his power and reign, Ilus, or Chronos, laid an ambuscade for his father Uranus, in a certain midland place, where having got him into his hands, he emasculated him near fountains and rivers. There Uranus
;

Sydyc, or the Just, one of the Titanides

whom the Greeks call Aphrodite [Venus.] Chronos, also going about the world, gave to his daughter Athena, the kingdom of Attica but when there was a plague and mortality, he made his son Jeud(f) a whole burnt-offering to his father Uranus. Chronos was likewise circumcised, and forced his auxiliaries to submit to the same operation. And not long after, he consecrated, after his death, another son (whom he had by Rhea) called Muth, the Phoenician name of Death, or Pluto. After these things, Chronos gave the city of Byblus to the goddess Baaltis, the same with Dioue and Berytus he gave to Posidon, and to the Cabin, and to husbandmen, and to fishermen, who consecrated the remains of Pontus in, or unto Berytus.(g) Prior, however, to this, the god Taautus, having formerly imitated or represented Uranus, made images of the countenances of the gods Chronos and Dagon, and formed the sacred characters from the other elements.(h) He also
same
:
:

was consecrated, and his spirit, or breath, was separated, and the blood from his wound dropped into the fountains and waters of the rivers which place is shewn unto this day. After some things interposed, not immediate;

ly

connected with our purpose, our historian

:

proceeds

But Astarte, called the greatest, and Demaroon, surnamed Zeus, and Adodus, the king of the gods, reigned over the country, by
(f)

contrived for Chronos the ensign of his royal power four eyes, partly before and partly behind, two of them winking as in sleep and upon his shoulders four wings, two stretched out as This emflying, and two let down as at rest. blem was, That Chronos, when he slept, -trus i/et. watching; and leaking yet asleep: and for the wings, That even resting, he flew about; and But the other gods had riidi lyinfi 'yet rested. two wings on their shoulders, to intimate that they Hew about with, or under Chronos. He also had two wings on his head one to denote
; ; ;

Jeud,

in the

Phoenician tongue, signifies only-begotten

and the translator of this fragment has accordingly rendered " he made his ONLY SON a whole this
passage
cVc.

burnt-offering,"
:

be seen, on referring to the Genealogical Table, that Chronos had at this time several other sons for which reason we have preferred the substitution of the name The fact alluded to, our itself, in this place, to its translation. author, in another place, details more particularly, observing that it was an established custom among the ancients, in all extraordinary public calamities, for the rulers of a city or nation to give up their most favourite child to be slain, as an expiation, to appease the avenging daemons; and in these cases, the victims wen- butchered with much mysterious ceremony. " " Chronos," continues he, (who is called Israel by the Phoe3

whereas

it

will

whom he reigned, and who after his death was consecrated into the planet Chronos, or Saturn) therefore having an only son by a certain nymph of the country, named Anobret, and whom he called Jeud, which in the Phoenician tongue at this day signifies only-begotten, and the country being involved in a dangerous war, he adorned this son Jeud with royal attire, and sacrificed him on an altar which lie had
nicians, over

prepared for the purpose."

lib. iv.

Sanchoniatho,

lib.

i.

cap. 10.

cap. 16.

(g) This is supposed to be the most ancient consecration of relics on record. (h) That is, he formed the sacred characters from the elementary letters, which he had before invented for com-

mon

use.

SECT.

III.]

PHCENTCIAN AND BABYLONIAN ANTIQUITIES.

273

the most governing part of the mind, the other for the sense. Chronos then passing into the south country, gave all Egypt to the god Taiiutus, for his kingdom. And these things the Cabiri, the seven sons of Sydyc, and their eighth brother Asclepius, first set down in memoirs as the god Taiiutus commanded them. All these things, the son of Thabion, who was the first Hierophant [director of sacred rites] among the Phoenicians, allegorised and, mixing the facts with physical and mundane phajiiomena, delivered them down to those who celebrated orgies, and to those prophets who presided over the mysteries, who always contrived to improve their fables, and so handed them forward to their successors, and to those who were afterwards introduced among them one of whom was Isiris, inventor of three letters, brother of Chna [Canaan] the first Phoenician, as he was afterwards called. The foregoing quotation contains what little is left of the Phoenician antiquities collected by Sanchoniatho; wherein a free and open confession is made of the beginning of idolatry, and
1

the gods an- admitted to have once been mortal men which the Greeks being ashamed to do, they turned all the stories of their gods into There is, allegories and physical discourses. room for suspicion that this fragment, however,
;

though confessedly very ancient, was framed long after the epocha of the facts spoken of, and that then much of fable and invention was
faint glimof the transactions of the first ages, merings which still remained in the days of the writer, when the genuine and more perfect tradition

mixed with some current notions, or

had been
collected

lost.

We now come to

the Babylonian antiquities,

by Berosus, a Chaldaean by birth, who wrote about the age of Alexander the Great. His account, so far as can be collected from the few remaining fragments of his works, are at least founded upon some traditional accounts o/ the facts recorded by Moses, if not taken immediately from the writings of that inspired penman. He enumerates ten kings of Chaldsea before the of whom the first, flood, in the following order Alorus, is supposed to be Adam, and Xixuthrus,
;

the

last,

Noah.

TABLE OF THE CHALDEAN KINGS BEFORE THE FLOOD; FROM BEROSUS.

According
1.

to Africanus.
Sari(i) Yrs.

According

to

Abydenus.
Sari.

According
1. 2.
3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

to Apollodorus.
Sari.

Alorus
Alasparus

reigned

10
3

1.

2. 3. 4. 6.

2. 3. 4.
5.

Amelon

Amenon
Daouus
Euedorachus

5. Metalarus

13 12 18

Alorus .............. reigned 10 Alaparus ............. . ...... 3 Amillarus ...... .......... 13 Aimnenon .................. 12

Alorus

reigned

10
**
** **

Alaparus

Amelon Amuienon
Megalarus

99
18

6. 7.
8.

Daos

7.
8. 9.

Megalarus .................. 18 ...................... 10 Euedoreschus ................ **

Daonus
Euedoreschus

18 10

18
10

Amphis
Otiartes(j)

10 8
18

Anodaphus ..................
Sisilhru*

**

Aniempsinus
Xixuthrus

9. Otiartes

10. Xixuthrus

10.

10.

8 18

Total

no

99

These ten successions agree exactly with the ten generations from the Creation to the Flood, as described by Moses. Alorus, the first of these sovereigns, gave out, that God himself had declared him the pastor
of 360 days each, (i) The sarus consisted of 10 years, according to the old Chaldaic computation, and contained therefore 3600 days, which some writers, and Eusebius among the rest, mistaking for years, they have given an incredible length to the reigns of those princes. The sum of all their reigns

of the people: and indeed if any man could pretend to dominion by divine right, it must have been Adam. In his first year, there appeared out of the Red Sea,(k) at a place near the confines of Babylonia, a certain rathat part of the Indian Ocean which washes the coast ot Arabia, and is now called the Arabian Sea, together with it> two branches, the Arabic Gulf (more generally denominated the Red Sea} and the Persian Gulf, \\ Inch latter seems to be here intended. The name Red Sea was probably derived from Esau, or Edom, which signifies red; that patriarch and
his posterity

amounts to twelve hundred, or more nicely, eleven hundred and ninety-nine years about a century less than the Samaritan interval from the Creation to the Deluge.
;

having cut a

in sufficiently considerable figure

i'.j)

(k) In

Called Ardates by Polyhistor. an extensive sense, the term

Red Sea was applied

to

the Arabian peninsula, to have both it and the waters upon The Red Sea, therefore, means its coasts named from him. the Sea of Edom, and its branches.

VOL.

I.

NN

274
animal,

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

whose name was Oannes.
;

[CHAP. n.

tiona/(Y)

His

of the sea, whose names were Euedocus, Eneu-

\> as like that of a fish but beneath his fish's head, grew another, probably a human one; from the fish's tail proceeded human feet; he had the voice of a man; " and the picture of " is him," says our author, preserved to this This animal conversed with men in very day." the day-time, without eating any thing; and gave them the knowledge of letters and sciences, and skill in various arts. He taught them to dwell together in cities, to erect temples, to introduce laws, and instructed them in geometry: he likewise shewed them how to gather seeds and fruits ; and, in a word, imparted to them whatever was necessary and convenient for a But after this time, nothing excivilized life. At sun-set, this animal cellent was invented. retired to the sea again, where he staid during the night season, being of the amphibious kind. He not only delivered his instructions verbally, but wrote of the origin of things,(m) and of

body

gamus, Eneubulus, and Anementus. Under the next prince, Euedorachus, also of Pantibibla, appeared another animal, similar to the former, named Odacon. All these explained

more particularly what Oannes had summarily and concisely delivered. The eighth and ninth kings were both of a
city called Laranchi. The tenth, Xixuthrus,

political

economy.(n)

Of

Alasparus, the second king, nothing re-

markable is related. His successor, Amelon, or Amillarus, was of a city called Pantibibla;(o) and in his reign
another animal, resembling the former, called Annedotus, appealed, 260 years after the foundation of this monarchy.(p) Amenon and Metallarus were both of Pantibibla, as was likewise the shepherd Baonus, the sixth in succession. In the reign of the latter,

was son of the ninth, the only genealogical descent mentioned in this list. In his reign happened the great deluge, of which Berosus gives the following account : " Chronos, or Saturn, appeared to Xixuthrus in a dream, and warned him that on the 15th of the month Daesius,(q) mankind would be destroyed by a flood, and therefore commanded him to write down the original, intermediate state, and end of all things, and to bury the writings under ground at Sippara, the city of the sun that he should also build a ship, and go into it with his relations and dearest friends, having first furnished it with provisions, and taken into it fowls and four-footed beasts and that when he had provided every thing, and
:

was asked whither he was

'

sailing, he should To the gods, to pray for the happiness answer, of mankind.' Xixuthrus, accordingly, built a

vessel, five furlongs in length, in breadth, on board which

and two furlongs

he put
all

that he

four animals, half man

and half fish, came out

had been directed, and went into it himself, with his wife, children, and friends. The flood being come, and soon ceasing, Xixuthrus let out
placing him in the
rational
;

It has been conjectured that some (1) corruption has crept into the text of Berosus, and that the word irrational should be substituted for rational: the Greek expresses it y~
^tiioif

* aCpfsnm.

first year. The latter opinion is most hard to conceive where any man, or men, could, so early as the first year, have obtained sufficient intelligence in the sciences to have been able to teach the Chal-

for

it is

(m) See before, page 238. Other authors have mentioned this, or a similar animal. Halladius calls him Oes, and adds that he had the hands, as well as the head and feet of a man ; that he was produced from the primogeneal egg and that he was really a man dressed in a fish's skin. Hyginus writes, that Euahanes came out of the sea in Chaldaea, and taught astrology. Probably the arrival of strangers in a ship, who taught the aborigines' the arts of civilization, is all that is included in the fable. Mr Bryant supposes him to be the same with Noah. The ancients have taken no notice of this city, which (o) seems to be the same with Sippara, hereafter mentioned, where Xixuthrus deposited his records before the flood. It is probably the Sipphara of Ptolemy. Sir I. Newton supposes it to be the Sepharvaim of Scripture. (p) Apollodorus says he appeared under the next prince, Amenon, 400 years after the commencement of the monarchy. Others, supposing this Annedotus to be Oanues himself, blame Polyhistor for anticipating the time of his coming, by
(n)
;

Forty sari, or 400 years, computed from the Creation, according to the Samaritan chronology, will reach to the last or if year of Amenon, and first of his successor Megalarus reckoned from the first year of Alorus, they will reach the 20th of Megalarus, in whose reign, and not in that of Alorus, the Chaldseans received the arts from some maritime The similitude of the names Alorus and Meg-alarus people. may have led to this anachronism. (q) Daesius was the second month of the Chalda^ans after the vernal equinox, and is supposed to have been inserted by the transcribers of Berosus, instead of Apellaeus, the second
dneans.
;

after the autumnal equinox. Upon this supposition, ihe account of Berosus wanls but two days of coincidence with the time set down by Moses for the commencement of
(lie 17th of the second month, am! of the day Plutarch, when Osiris was shut up in ihe ark, on the 17th of the month Athyr, when the sun was in Scorpio, the second sign after the <iutuiuiial equinox iu Libra (reckoning Libra as the first.)

month

the Flood, viz.

set

down by

SECT.

III.]

CHALDEAN ACCOUNT OF THE DELUGE.

275

to

rcrfain birds, which, Timlin;; no food, nor place After rest upon, returned to the ship.

some days, he let them out again, and they came back to the vessel, with their feet daubed with mud: but on being sent out a third time, they returned no more, whereby Xixuthrus

of kings, whom they pretend to have reigned before the flood, beginning their account with the same year that Berosus begins his Chaldiean

understood that the earth appeared again. He therefore made an opening between the planks of the ship, and seeing that it rested on a certain
mountain, he came out with his wife, his daughter, and his pilot and having worshipped the earth, and raised an altar, on which he sacrificed to the gods, he, and those who went out with him, disappeared. They who remained in the ship, finding that Xixuthrus and his companions did not return to them, went out to seek for them, calling him aloud by his name: but Xixuthrus was no more seen; only a voice from the air enjoined them, as their duty was, to be religious ; and also informed them, that Xixuthrus, on account of his own piety, was gone to dwell with the gods; and that his wife, daughter, and pilot, were partakers of the same honour. The same voice then directed them to return to Babylon, and, as the fates had ordained, take the writings from Sippara, and communicate them to mankind telling them, likewise, that the place in which they then were, was Armenia. Having heard this, they sacrificed to the gods, and went
:
:

chronology. An ancient Egyptian chronicle, extant a few centuries ago, contained thirty dynasties of princes, who were said to have ruled iu that country through a series of 113 generations, during the incredible space of 36,525 years; in which time Egypt was governed by three
different races,
3.

viz.

1.

Auritce

2.

Mestrai;

Egyptians. But this extravagant number of years, Manetho (to whose remains we are mostly indebted for the ancient Egyptian history) has not adopted; though in other respects he is

supposed to have been led into chronological

errors

by

this

old chronicle,

(r)

That writer

16 dynasor reigns of princes ; the first seven of ties, whom he calls gods; the other nine, demigods.

began

his history with the following

These, he says, reigned 1985 years (s) and the first of them, Vulcan, nine thousand (t)
;

TABLE OF THE GODS AND DEMIGODS SUPPOSED TO HAVE REIGNED IN EGYPT BEFORE THE
FLOOD,
(u)

GODS.(v)
Yra. Mlhs. Di.

724 Hephaestus, or Vulcan reigned 2. Helios, or the Sun, the son of Vulcan 86 . .
1. 3. 4.
5.

4
6 10

Agathodxmon
Chronos, or Saturn
Osiris

unanimously to Babylon, after they had dug up the writings at Sippara they then built many " cities, raised temples, and rebuilt Babylon.
;

and

Isis

56 40 35
*

6
*

g_ 7.

******

Typhon

29 -

the antediluvian history of Berosus. Egyptians, who would give place to no nation in point of antiquity, have also a series
is

Such

DEMIGODS.
8.
9.

The

Orus
Ares, or

Mars

25 23

(r) This chronicle, however, seems to have been a composition since Manetho's time ; what is stated above, of " his being led into errors by it," is to be understood of the

current opinion.
(s)

These two numbers of

years,

which modern chrono-

correct to 11,985, or 11,988, shew that the 9000 years (if it be not, a corrupted number) did not belong to those dynasties, but to the interval before the reigns of these antediluvian kings, or before the present settlement of the world began. The old chronicle, already alluded to, ascribes no number of years to Vulcan, but 30,000 to his son and successor Helios; which agrees with an inscription on an
logers

been lunar years, or months and accordingly, dividing the number of days of so many lunar revolutions by 305, the number of days in a year, they reduce the 9000 to 724^ years 4 days. But as the antediluvian year consisted of only 360 days, this calculation requires a correction, and then the 9000 years of Vulcan's reign will make just 750 years: which is still dispfoportinate to the reigns of his six successors, whose reigns together amount to no more than 450 years. (u) The numbers in this table, transcribed from Syncellus, were not in the original record but were added by some moderns, who have mangled the chronology according to
;

Egyptian obelisk, where Vulcan, instead of being called an ordinary god himself, is styled the father of the gods; and after him, says this chronicle, Chronos and his twelve successors, reigned

own fancies. By these gods, Manetho acknowledges, elsewhere, that he means no other than mortal men, who for their wisdom and
their
(v)

3984

years

after

whom

then the eight demigods, 217 years began Ihe thirty dynasties. See farther
;

goodness were promoted to the regal dignity, and afterwards made immortal. The accounts of the Greek writers concerning the gods, which are completely at variance with the order of this table, seem to relate to the times after the flood ; it would therefore be iu vaiu to attempt to reconcile them.

on

this subject, in the History of Egypt, in this volume. (t) Several of the later Greek historians take these to

have

NN 2

HISTORY OF THE AIXTEDILUVIAAS.

Yrs. Mihs. Ds.

[CHAP.

ii.

V). Anubis
11.
12.

Hercules

Apollo

13.
1 4.
1").

Amnion
Tithoes Sosus

16. Zeus, or Jupiter

17 _ 15 25 30 27 32 20

The
taken

transcribers of
it

Manetho have generally

that this succession of princes reigned before the flood ; but if the epocha of the Egyptian kingdom began the same year with that of the Chaldaeans, as is expressly declared, the total of the reigns of the antediluvian princes could not exceed 1200 years ; and the number of sixteen kings is too large in proportion to that of the Chaldaean as well as of the generations of Moses, princes, in the same time. It seems, therefore, more conformable to the chronology of Manetho, to suppose the first seven only, whom he calls gods, and the old chronicle styles Auritae, were Antediluvians; and that they reigned 1200years, out of the 1985 already spoken of. But Mr. Whiston says, the last mentioned number of 1985 years, will not be too much, supposing them to extend from the Creation to the death of the last of the demigods, Zeus, whom he calls Jupiter-Hammon, or Ham, the son of Noah it only implying that the latter outlived the deluge, 329 years according to the Hebrew computation, or 429 according to the Samaritan of Mr. Whiston and Josephus, which is not repugnant to the scriptural account. It is to be remarked, however, that several circumstances of the deluge are mentioned in the history of Osiris and Typhon ; particularly the very day when it began, or when Osiris (who is taken for Noah) was shut up in the ark. (w) The name of Typhon signifies also a deluge, or inundation; whence the Egyptian priests call the sea Typhon; and Typhon, or, as the Latin poets call him, Typhceus, is represented as a monstrous giant, warring against heaven, till at last, overcome by Jupiter, he is submerged in water. From all which it appears probable, that he was one of those
for granted,
:

mighty men, who were of old, whose exceedingly great wickedness drew down the judgment of God upon the earth. The first of these gods, Vulcan, from his inventing the working of metals, and instructing mankind therein, w hich is on all hands attributed to him, has been thought to be the same with the Tubal-cain of Moses. But it is said to be scarcely credible that a person in (he eighth generation from Adam, and the lust recorded by Moses in the line of Cain, should have no less than six successors, whose reigns, together with his own, amounted to 1200 years: it must nevertheless be admitted that MIGHT BE BORN ABOUT THE FOUR HUNDREDTH YEAR OF THE WORLD ; which WOuld leave each of his ancestors (except Adam) 60 or 67 years of age, when they begot their eldest sons, or those through whom Tubal-cain derived his descent: a supposition which, without difficulty, admits of his having been the same person with Vulcan, and the founder of the Egyptian antediluvian monarchy. His reign therefore is contemporary with the age of Enos, in whose days idolatry began, as seen in a former page. And perhaps Moses carried down the genealogy of the race of Cain so far, to shew that he whom the Egyptians considered as the father of the gods, was a man, descended from the first murderer; and he carried it no farther, because he would not pollute his sacred page with the names of men, who, to their other crimes, added this greatest of all others, that they dared to usurp the throne of the Deity himself. Father Kircher, admitting the existence of an antediluvian monarchy in Egypt, derives the sovereigns from Cain but Mr. Bryant,
;

who
the

rejects the idea, supposes the names of gods and demigods to have been intro-

duced into the canon of the kings, from some old epheineris, through the ignorance of the Greek copyists, as more fully described
in the history

of the Egyptians, chap. of this volume.

vi.

sect.v.

dition to the East,

that Osiris returning from his expeby his brother Typhon to an entertainment. But Typhon was a traitor, and was plotting his destruction. After the repast, this perfidious brother introduced a beautiful coffer, adorned with studs of gold, and promised to give it to whoever could best get into it, or whom it would best fit Osiris tried the experiment; but no

(w)

The

tradition

is,

was

invited

the coffin of Osiris, into the river, whence it was wafted by the winds and waters to the neighbourhood of Byblus, a at the foot of city of Phrenicia, and there it was cast ashore, a tamarind-tree. Plutarch says this happened on the 17th of the month Athyr, when the sun was in Scorpio, which corwith the 17th of the second month of Moses; the

responds

sooner was he in, than Typhon and his accomplices nailed down the cover upon him, and threw the coffer, now indeed

year commencing at the autumnal equinox. Bcrosus also comes within two days of this calculation ; se note (q) on page 274.
antediluvian

16

SECT. IV.]

THE DELUGE. CONSTRUCTION OF THE ARK.

SECTION
IV.

277

THE DELUGE.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE ARK. TESTIMONIES OF THE HEATHEN. THEORIES ARGUMENTS OF MODERN PHILOSOPHERS. IN FAVOUR OF THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE FLOOD. SUBSISTENCE OF CARNIVOROUS ANIMALS WHILE IN THE ARK. STERILITY OF THE ANCIENT EARTH. THE RAINBOW UNKNOWN BEFORE THE FLOOD.

Section, that Xixuthrus set sail on his voyage to tke ffof/.s, from that country. The time occupied in building the ark

has likewise been

it

much

controverted

some

52 years, others, 78, 100, and 120. making The Mohammedans say it was built in two
years.

The dimensions

of the ark, as described by

of the deluge beginning to prevail: it is now time to return, and take a more succinct survey of the circumstances attending that event. And first, of the construction and dimensions of the ark, in which the remnant of mankind and of the animal creation was preserved. The wood of which the ark was built, is called in the Hebrew gopher-wood; by which some understand the cedar, others the cypress, Pelletier prefers the cedar, on pine, box, &c. account of its incorruptibility, and the great Mr. Fuller observes that plenty of it in Asia. the wood of which the ark was made was what the Greeks call xw ? i<ro-o ; or the cypress-tree ; for, taking away the termination um^, the root of of the word nuw p kupar, will have a near resemblance to the Hebrew IEU (GOPHCR) from which he supposed it to have been formed, (y) This observation is confirmed by Bochart, who shews that no country so much abounds in this kind of wood as that part of Assyria, in the vicinity of Babylon.
,
,

IN the close of a former Section, (x) we left Noah just entered into the ark, and the waters

Moses, were 300 cubits in length, 50 in breadth, and 30 in height, which, allowing the cubit to be 18 inches, (x) is equal to 450 feet long, 75 these some have thought broad, and 45 high
;

too scanty, considering the number of things it was to contain and hence an argument has been drawn against the authority of the relation. To solve this difficulty, many of the ancient fathers, and the modern critics, have been put to very miserable shifts: but Buteo and Kircher have proved geometrically, that, taking the common cubit of a foot and a half, the ark was abundantly sufficient for all the animals supposed to be lodged in it. Snellius computes the ark to have been above half an acre in area. Father Lamy shews, that it was 110 feet longer than the church of St. Mary, at Paris, and 64
;

narrower and if so, it must have been longer than St. Paul's church in London, from west to east, and broader than that church is high in the inside, and 54 feet of our measure in height. Dr. Arbuthnot computes its solid contents to have been 81,062 tons. It contained, besides the eight persons of Noah's family, one pair of every species of unclean animals, and seven pair of every species of clean animals, with pro;

the

has been disputed what place Noah built ark in but the most probable conjecture (for we have nothing else) is, that it was constructed in Chalda?a, in the territories of
It
;

Babylon, where there was so great a quantity of cypress, even in the days of Alexander the
Great, that that prince built a whole fleet of it. This idea seems to derive some strength from the Chaldsea tradition, spoken of in the last

during the whole year. first view, almost infinite but if we come to a calculation, the number of species of animals will be found much less than is generally imagined ; out of which, in this case, are excepted such animals
visions for
all,

them

The former
;

appears, at

as can live in the water; and Bishop \Vilkius shews that only 72 of the quadruped kind needed a place in the ark. By the description

See before, page 269. The word, however, is of doubtful meaning, and occurs no where else in all the Scriptures: the Septuagint and Vulgate translators were ignorant of its precise import the former rendering it by nr/uarc timber; the latter by timber that has been planed. Both the Targuros render it cedar ; the Persian, pine, or Jir ; and the Syriac and Arabic by wickerwork, as if the ark had been a prodigious basket! (z) Mr. Greaves, however, who tiavelled into Greece, Palestine, and Egypt, in order to ascertain the ancient weights
(x)

(y)

and measures, found the length of a cubit nearly 22 inches: hence the cube of a cubit

to
is

be 21-^^-, or
10,4t!t> inches.

The dimensions of
;

the ark therefore,

upon
;

this calculation,

which appears the most accurate, would be 547-,% English and 54,^ feet in feet in length 91-rV feet in breadth
height;
a capacity to contain all the
it,

the solid contents being 2,73(),781-r%%%^ cubic feet: abundantly sufficient, or even more than enough,

persons and animals said to have been in with a sufficient quantity of food for their subsistence for twelve mouths.

278

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

all

[CHAP.

ii.

Moses !ii\cs of the ark, it appears to have been divided into three stories, each ten cubits, or
high ; and it is agreed on, as most probable, that the lowest story was for the beasts, the middle for the food, and the upper for the birds, with Noah and his family; each
fifteen feet,

subdivided into different apartments, stalls, &c. though Josephus, Philo, and other commentators, add a kind of fourth story, under all the rest ; being, as it were, the hold of the vessel, to contain the ballast, and receive the filth and faeces of so many animals but Calmet thinks, that what is here reckoned a story, was no more than what is called the keel of the ship, and served only for a conservatory of fresh water. Drexelius makes 300 apartments; Fournier, 333; the anonymous author of the Questions on Genesis, 400 ; Buteo, Temporarius, Arias Montanus, Hostus, Wilkins,
story being
:

the carnivorous animals equivalent, as to the bulk of their bodies, and their food, to ii7 wolves and all the rest to 280 beeves, or the former, he allows 1825 sheep and for the all which will latter, 109,500 cubits of hay be easily contained in the two first stories, and a deal of room to spare. As to the third story, no body doubts of its being sufficient for the with Noah, his sons, and daughters. fowls Upon the whole, the learned bishop remarks, that of the two, it appears much more difficult to assign a number and bulk of necessary things to answer the capacity of the ark, than to find sufficient room for the several species of animals already known to have been there. This he attributes to the imperfection of our list of animals, especially of those of the unknown
;
i

parts of the earth

mathematician

at this

adding, that the most expert day could not assign the
:

others, suppose as many partitions as there were different sorts of animals. Pelletier

Lamy, and

36 for the birds, and as many for the beasts. His reason is, that if we suppose a greater number, as 333 or 400, each of the eight persons in the ark must have had 37, 41, or 50 stalls to attend and cleanse daily, which he thinks impossible to have been done. But it is observed, that there is not much
72, viz.
: :

makes only

to diminish the number of stalls without a diminution of animals, is vain it being more difficult to take care of 300 aniperhaps mals in 72 stalls than in 300. As to the number of animals contained in the ark, Buteo computes that it could not be equal to 500 horses ; he even reduces the whole to the dimensions of 56 pair of oxen. Lamy enlarges it to 64 pair of oxen, or 128 oxen; so that, supposing one ox equal to two horses, if the ark had room for

in this

256

horses, there must have been room for all the animals. But the same author demonstrates, that one floor of it would suffice for 500 horses, allowing nine square feet to a horse. As to the food in the second story, it is observed by Buteo, from Columella, that 30 or 40 pounds of hay ordinarily suffices for an ox a day ; and that a solid cubit of hay, as usually pressed down in our hay-ricks, weighs about 40 pounds; so that a square cubit of hay is more than

proportion of a vessel better accommodated to and hence he the purpose than is here done that the capacity of the ai-k, which concludes, has been made an objection against scripture, ought to be esteemed a confirmation of its divine authority; since, in those ruder ages, men, being less versed in arts and philosophy, were more obnoxious to vulgar prejudices than now ; so that, had it been an human invention, it would have been contrived, according to those notions which arise from a confused and general view of things, as much too large as it has been represented too little. Besides the places requisite for the beasts and birds, and their provisions, there was room, therefore, sufficient, for Noah's household utensils, instruments of husbandry, and seeds to sow after the deluge; for which purposes, he might spare room in the third story for 36 cabins ; besides a kitchen, a hall, 4 chambers, and a space, about 48 cubits in
length, to

walk

in.

the ark was oblong, as will from the foregoing proportions, with a appear flat bottom, and a sloped roof, raised a cubit It had neither sails nor in the middle. (a) rudder; nor was it made sharp, so as to cut the water: this form, though not calculated for sailing, seems to have been admirably adapted
to float steadily

The form of

one ox in one day. Now, it appears, that the second story contained 150,000 solid cubits; which, divided between 206 oxen, will afford each more hay, by two-thirds, than he can eat in a year. Bishop Wilkins computes

enough

for

upon the surface of the water. There can be no doubt that it was so contrived as to admit of air and light on all sides, though
the particular construction of the
(a)

windows

is

See the next note.

SECT. IV.]

CONGRESS OF ANIMALS TO THE ARK.

to the

279

not mentioned ;(b) and the whole seems to have had another covering besides the roof, probably made of skins, like that of the taberTo preserve it from leaking, Noah nacle.(c) was directed to smear it with pitch, both within

in another place,(d) may called " the father of all the children of Eber," in the days of whose son, Peleg, the earth was divided. The name Eber
sissist us.

words of Moses

Shem

is

and without; which requiring a very large quantity, some have very unnecessarily supposed that bitumen, and not pitch, was used, such as was resorted to by the builders of Babel, though Moses uses a different word in that
place.
It has been asked, how the unknown kinds of serpents in Brazil, the slow-bellied animal of the East, and all those strange species of the West Indies, should come together into the ark; or, being there, how they could be conveyed out of it into those countries, which are divided from the continent where Noah was, by a vast ocean on one side, and, supposing a passage between the two continents, by an extenAnd especially sive tract of land on the other? when it is known that some animals cannot live out of the particular climate in which they are bred ? To which it may be replied, that the

imports passage, i. e. migration: Shem was therefore the father of all the children of passage ; of all those who, leaving the patriarchal abode in Armenia, journeyed eastward; which first migration of the descendants of Shem seems to have taken place about the time of Eber's birth, who received his name in commemoration of so important an event, which also, in all probability, gave rise to the idea of building the tower of Babel as a rallying point. Mankind having thus begun to be scattered over the face of the earth, and the brute animals and reptiles with them, were prepared for the next dispensation of Providence, that of dividing the earth, not politically, but physically, which accordingly happened in the days of Peleg,
till

whose name signifies division. The earth, which then had been gradually drying, after the

temperature of the air, prior to the deluge, was so equal and serene, that all kinds of animals might live in those parts of Asia when Noah went into the ark, though none of them could bear that climate since, by reason of the change in nature. And should this not be deemed it may be farther observed, that He sufficient, who gave them the instinct to approach the ark for their preservation, could with equal facility enable them to bear the change of climate. The
real difficulty in this question is, how they got to America, which is perhaps increased by the

penetrating effects of the Deluge, then underwent a new change, arising from the effects of desiccation, promoted perhaps by an and those earthquake, or volcanic eruption ; who had travelled farthest to the east, were torn away from their brethren, some on the continent now called America, and others on smaller portions of land, together with such of the brute creation as happened to be on the
spot.

a less scale, are more recent times

Phenomena, similar to this, though upon known to have occurred in and whoever considers the
;

consideration, that most of the newly-discovered islands in the Pacific Ocean are stocked with And here, perhaps, a due attention animals.
There are various translations of the word "liltf (TSHttR) is found but once in the whole Bible, in this sense. Our version renders it windmv, as it seems, very properly for
(b)
;

broken appearance of the eastern coast of Asia, with the multitude of islands scattered between it and the west of America, must admit this hypothesis to have something more than vague conjecture for its basis. It is not, however,
proof that they did not understand it as having reference to any kind of window, or light. Symmachus calls it a transparency; and Acquila, the noon. Perhaps it may be taken in a collective sense for apertures, for the admission of air and
light.

which

the root, in the Chaldee, signifies to shine, or to yicc lii/ltt ; wherefore Jonathan Ben Uzzie] imagines tsahar to have been a precious stone, or carbuncle, which Noah was to fetch from From the following the river Pison, to illuminate the ark. " and in a cubit shall thou words, finish it above," some have supposed the window was to have been a cubit square, or hut a cubit high, which would have been much too small bul the relative it being in the Hebrew of the feminine gender, and tsahar the masculine, those two words cannot aaree; and therefore the proper antecedent seems to be the ark, which was to be covered with a roof, raised a cubit high in the middle. The Septuagiiit translate the word tsahar by " >, collecting, tliou shall make the ark ;" an evident
;

" the to have removed which cannot well be supposed to have covering of been the roof, but something flung over it, like that of the tabernacle, which is expressed by the same Hebrew word; and the use of it was probably to hang over and defend the windows in bad weather.
(c)

Noah

is

said,

after the flood,

the ark,"

In the latter verse, our trans25. xi. 2. (d) Gen. \. 21 " lation says, they journeyed from the east ;" but it might be better rendered " towards the east, or " easticard," as iu

Gen.

.\iii.

11, and other places.

2 no

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

and by the

[CHAP.

ii.

intended by

this to exclude the supposition that the inhabitants of America passed over

Bheering's straits

satisfactorily for the

though it accounts more passage of the quadrutime

for

peds and
Jul. Per.

reptiles.

A. M. B. C.

deluge having arrived, Noah, pursuant to the divine command, went into the ark, as before stated,(e) in the six hundredth year of his age, while the rest of mankind

2360. ) 1056. > 2348. )

The appointed

the

first of the 10th month, (19th July) the tops of the neighbouring hills began to appear. Forty days after, (about the 28th of August) Noah, to judge the better of the height of the waters, opened the window, or lattice, of the room where the birds were kept, and let out a raven, which flew to and fro till the earth

was

dry, but gave

;

Noah no

satisfactory infor-

mation

were in the height of security; and, contemning the repeated admonitions of Noah, they ate and drank, man-Jed wives, and were given in marriage, until the flood came, and destroyed them all.(f) For " on the same day (the 17th of the second month)were all the fountains of the great deep(g) broken up ; and the windows of heaven were opened ;(h) and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. "(i) After the waters

had reached their utmost height, which was 15 cubits, and upwards, or twenty-seven feet
above the tops of the highest mountains, they continued to prevail for 150 days;(j) but they seem to have been free from storms and commotions, and to have raised and carried the ark
gently along ; that vessel, according to the construction above described, not being able to .stand a stormy sea. At the end of five months, God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters began to decrease ; the two sources by which they had been fed, being restrained. On the very first day of their decrease, viz. the 17th of the 7th month, (6th of May) they fell so much, that the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat;

whereupon he sent out a dove, three several times, staying seven days between The first time the dove quickly reeach.(k) turned, finding no place dry enough to rest on the second time she came back in the evening, with an olive-leaf (1) in her mouth, just plucked oft', which shewed a considerable abatement of the waters and the third time, she returned no more. On the first day of the first f j u Per. 2307. month, (23d October) in the six < A. M. 1057. 234 7 hundred and first year of Noah's 1 B C
; ; l.
-

that patriarch removed the covering of the ark, to have a more extensive view, and he saw the face of the earth clear of the waters he
life,
:

but staid till the twenty-seventh of the second month, (18th December) when, by God's direction, he left the ark, with his family, and all that were with him after a confinement of a year and ten
to

however did not venture

go

forth,

days, according to the antediluvian computation ; or, according to the present, an exact year of 365 days.

Were it necessary to produce collateral evidence of the unhersality of the deluge, in confirmation of that afforded by Moses, we might advert to the concurrent traditions reincluded
cease.
in the

(e) (f)

See page 269.

150, during

all

which time the

rains did not

Luke,

xvii.

26, 27.

(g) It has been supposed that an immense quantity of waters occupied the centre of the antediluvian earth; aiid as these burst forth at the command of God, the circumambient

text (Gen. vii. 24) seems only to imply, that after the forty days' rain had covered the face of the earth, the waters remained at a stand till the end of 150 days, before

But the

strata

would naturally

sink,

and

fill

up the vacuum.

This

seems to be alluded to by St. Peter, when he speaks of the " old world standing out of the water, and in the water." 2 Peter, iii. 5. Some philosophers suppose the " breaking up of the fountains of the great deep," to mean an irruption of waters from the southern ocean. But we shall have occasion to advert to this subject

Dr. Lightfoot makes these two they began to decrease. numbers of days distinct sums " so that when the 150 days were ended, there were six months and ten days of the flood
;

past."
(k) The Chaldzean tradition* agrees with the Mosaic of the birds being sent out by history, in the circumstance And Plutarch says, that according to the myXixuthrus.

more

largely before the close

of

this section.

thologists, a dove was let out of the ark; and that her going out was to Deucalion a sign of fair weather, as her return wa.s

(h) That is, the aqueous vapours suspended in the atmoWe shall shortly sphere were all precipitated on the earth. have occasion to notice the theories that have been built on this mode of expression.
(i)

of the contrary.
(1)

From
1

the olive-leaf

Noah might

infer,
left

that the lower

hills,

where those

trees chiefly grew,

were

by the waters,
It

Gen.

vii.

11, 12, et seq.

hat the vegetables were not totally destroyed. ever since been accounted the emblem of peace.

and

has

(j)

Some suppose

after the first inundation of 10 days, or that the -10

that the rain continued for 150 days days are

* See before, paiv

SECT. IV.]

UNIVERSALITY OF THE DELUGE.

281

ceived and credited by almost all nations, as the Chaldseans, the Indians, the Persians, the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Greeks, &c. These nations have, indeed, given dates to their deludes, as much at variance with each other as they are with that described in Genesis; but as we cannot in the least rely on the chronology of the fabulous ages of Egypt and Greece, we may without any apprehension reduce them to the epocha described by the historian of the Hebrews. Nor is there wanting a similitude of character between the accounts of the deluge of Ogyges in Boeotia and Attica, that of Deucalion(m) in Thessaly, that of Prometheus in Egypt, that of Xixuthrus in Chaldaea, &c. and the history of Noah they are all described as being a chastisement of human depravity, with a single family preserved by means of a vessel (or ark ;) even the minute circumstance of Noah sending out the dove to discover whether the waters had abated, is not forgotten by profane
:

the majority of chronologers are unwilling to confound the floods above alluded to, which they call partial and local, with the universal

deluge of Noah; resting their opinions on. national traditions of what has, at various pec. riods, happened to such a river or mountain, shut up in the ark, which, say they, Noah, could have had no knowledge of. But their reasoning is inconclusive; for, as the natural and authentic evidences of a deluge are not peculiar to any one country, but are to be met with in every part of the world, they would be
recognised by the posterity of Noah, wherever they settled and as human invention is ever active to form a theory for what it does not comprehend, so, in proportion as the descendants of the sons of Noah lost the remembrance of the true history of the flood, they would substitute other statements to account for those effects which they could not but observe on We therefore conclude that the every side. various traditions of this dreadful scourge are derived from the same original. Nor does the difference of dates assigned by profane writers to their national deluges, form any sub;

though some of them have disguised under the figure of a boat. In a word, we may, by close investigation, identify all the
historians,
it

in

features of the different relations as originating one common source, even to the sacrifice offered by Noah to the Almighty, for his

stantial objection: for they are scarcely more at variance with each other, than are the

preservation.(n) Although the universality of the deluge might be demonstrated by the striking analogy which it discovers between the accounts of profane historians and that of the inspired penman yet
;

Hebrew historian, and the several versions oi the holy Scriptures thus the Samaritan text places this event in the year of the world, 1307, Josephus in the year 1556, the Hebrew text in 1050, and the Septuagint translation in 2202 ;
;

" the Greeks (m) Lucian, cle Dca Syria, torn. ii. says, pave an account of the universal deluge, too curious to be omitted. The tradition goes," proceeds he, " that the |nvsent race of men was not the first, for they totally perished hut. is of a second generation, which, being descended from Now of these Deucalion, increased to a great multitude. former men they relate this story: They were very insolent, and addicted to unjust actions for they neither kept their oaths, nor were hospitable to strangers, nor gave ear to suptor which reason this great On pliants calamity betel them. a sudden the earth poured forth a vast quantity of water, great showers fell, the rivers overflowed, and the sea arose to
; ; :

chasm opened, and received all the water; whereupon Deucalion erected altars, and built the temple of Juno over the chasm. This same chasm," says our " I have seen, and it is a very small one, under the author, temple whether it was formerly larger, and since lessened, In comI cannot tell ; but that which I have seen is little. memoration of this history, they do thus : Twice in every and not by year, water is brought from the sea to the temple, the priests only, but all Syria and Arabia ; many come from
their country a great
;

\\

men were

prodigious height; so that all things became water, and all destroyed: only Deucalion was left unto a second He was generation, on account of his prudence and piety. s;i\i'd in this manner: he went into a large ark, or chest, [Xajyaxa] which he had, together with his sons and their wives ; and, when he was in, there entered swine, and horses, and lions, and serpents, and all other creatures which live on the earth, by pairs. He received them all, and they did him no hurt, but the gods created a great friendship among them so they sailed all in one chest while the water prevailed. These things the Greeks relate of Deucalion. But, as to wkat happened after this, there is an ancient tradition among those of Hierapolib, which deserves admiration; ciz. that in
;

beyond Euphrates to the sea, and all carry water, which they first pour out in the temple, and afterwards it sinks into the chasm, which, though it be small, recehe.s abundance oi water. And, when they do this, they say Deucalion instituted the ceremony in that temple, as a memorial of the calamity, and of his deliverance from it." (n) Mr. Bryant, in his Si/*fcm of Mythology, endeavours, and with no mean success, to shew that the deluge was one of the principal, if not the only foundation of the Gentile worship that the first of all their deities was Noah; that all nations of the world look up to him as their founder; and that he, his sons, and the first patriarchs, are alluded to in
;

In our histories most, if not all of their religious ceremonies. of the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Assyria us, very considerable attention ha* "been paid to this writer's hypo
thesis.

\OL.

I.

OO

'28'2

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

[CHAP.

ir.

yet no one doubts whether these various readings do not all relate to one and the same event: and if such a difference exist in the several copies or translations of one authentic original, what may we not expect to find of the same description, in the writings of men who lived at a more remote period from the aera they treated of, and drew their information from the uncertain

and numerous

traditions,

which had been

verbally handed down to them, through many generations ? Various inquiries have been instituted as to the means by which the destruction of the antediluvian world was effected ; the quantity of water requisite for so extensive a deluge as to cover the whole terraqueous globe, seeming to require the exertion of some more than ordinary power in the course of providence. These

supposing the antediluvian world to have been a mere crust, investing a central abyss. (s) At the time of the flood, he conceives this outward crust to have been broken in a thousand places, and sinking down among the waters, caused them to spout up in vast cataracts, and overflow the whole surface.(t) But this theory is contrary to the words of Moses, who declares that " all the high hills were covered ;'*(u) while Dr. Burnet affirms that the earth was then without
hills.

been a fruitful source of hypoof the most celebrated of which, the subjoined catalogue is an analytical view. 1. It has been asserted, that a quantity of water was created on purpose, and at a proper time annihilated, by divine power. This hypothesis has been very generally received, and insisted upon by persons who are fond of mulinquiries have

theses

and perhaps was the only opinion admitted among the primitive Christians. But the sacred historian, whose account they
tiplying miracles,

endeavour by

this scheme to uphold, expressly derives the waters of the flood from two sources, " the fountains of the deep," and " the windows of heaven;"(o) he gives not the least intimation
;

3. Other writers, supposing a sufficient fund of water in the sea, or abyss, are only concerned for an expedient to bring it forth. Accordingly, Mr. Ray has recourse to an alteration in the earth's centre of gravity, which drawing after it the water out of its channel, successively overwhelmed the several parts of the earth. This, however, would occasion only a partial deluge, or succession of inundations. Neither can the of such a transition of the centre of possibility gravity be admitted, while the component parts of the globe retained their situation. 4. Dr. Hock supposes the shell of the earth to have been compressed by almighty power into a prolate spheroid, whereby the water was driven from its lodgment in the internal abyss. This might account for the inundation of two opposite zones of the globe; but the middle zone, by much the largest portion of the earth, would be raised higher from the centre, and consequently be more out of the water than

before.
5.

of a new creation of waters and in speaking of their decrease, he says those two sources Were stayed, and " the waters returned continually from off the earth :"(p) the hypothesis is
therefore untenable.
2. Dr. Burnet,(q) supposing that though the sea were drained to the last drop of its waters, and all the clouds of the atmosphere condensed into rain, they would not furnish any thing like the quantity required for the inundation of the whole earth, has, with others, adopted the theory of Des Cartes, already noticed.(r) But the Doctor has improved upon that theory, by
(o)

Dr. Halley(v) ascribes the deluge to the

shock of a comet, whereby the polar and diurnal rotation of the globe would be instantly changed and the impulse on the solid parts would occasion the waters of the sea and rivers to rush violently towards the quarter of To the globe where the blow was received. this it is objected, that such a shock would have occasioned an instantaneous, and not a
:

gradual overflow. 0. Mr. Whiston,(w) from several remarkable coincidences, endeavours to demonstrate that a comet, descending in the plane of the ecliptic, toconsequently that the antediluvian equator with the elliptic world enjoyed a pcTpetnal spring; but that the violence of the shock, occasioned by the disruption of the waters, shifted the position of the eartln and produced the present obliquity of the ecliptic, with its concomitant variety of seasons.
;

(p)
(r)

Gen. Gen.

vii.
viii.

11.
2, 3.

(q) In his Telluris Thi'oria Sacra.

Sec before, page 247. See before, page 248. (t) Though not necessarily connected with the present subject, it may be here noticed, that this author supposes that before the flood, there was a perfect coincidence of the
(s)

(u) (v)

Gen.

vii.

19.

PAH. Trans. No. 383.

(w)

New

Theory of the Earth.

SECT. IV.]

HYPOTHESES RELATIVE TO THE DELUGE.

283

wards its perihelion, passed just before the earth, on the first day of the deluge: the consequences <>f which would be, that this comet, when it c;n>;<below the moon, would raise a vast tide, as well in the small seas(x) as in the abyss under the From the shell which constituted the earth.
force of this tide, as well as from the attraction of the comet, the abyss would assume an elliptical figure, which would burst the circumscribing crust of earth, and cause it to be overflowed by the attracted waters: This he conceives to be what Moses alludes to in saying, " the fountains of the great deep were broken But as this would only account for one up." part of the means required, he goes on to shew that the same comet, in its descent towards the sun, passed so close to the body of the earth, as for a considerable time to involve it in its atmosphere and tail, leaving a vast quantity of

8. M. De la Pryme supposes the antediluvian world to have had an external sea, as well as land, with mountains, rivers, &c. and that the deluge was occasioned by the subterraneous caverns being broken up by earthquakes, BO that most of the surface of the earth, if not the

whole, was submerged by the seas which now " The " arose appear. present earth," he says, from the bottom of the antediluvian sea; and

room just as many islands were swallowed down, and others thrust up in their stead." 9. Mr. King, (a) who has recently adopted
in its

an hypothesis somewhat resembling the last, ascribes the deluge to subterraneous tires, which bursting with great violence beneath the bed of the sea, threw up the bottom of the ocean, poured out its waters upon what was before dry land, and left what had been the bottom of
the sea the most elevated part of the earth, or constitutes our land. Either of these three latter theories seem to account for the phaenomena of marine products found in the strata of the earth ; but they have no support from the Mosaic account. 10. Mr. Hutchinson and his followers pretend to derive their hypothesis from the word of

vapours, both expanded and condensed, on its surface ; a great part of which, being rarefied by the solar heat, would be drawn up into the atmosphere, and thence be thrown down in violent rains this he takes to be the " opening of the windows of heaven," particularly for the As to the succeeding rain, forty days' rain. which made up the 150 days' increase of the waters, this gentleman attributes it to the earth being a second time involved in the comet's atmosphere, as it returned from the sun. Lastly, to remove this immense orb of waters, he sup" poses a mighty wind"(y) to have dried up and forced the rest into the abyss through some, the clefts by which it had issued, leaving, however, a good quantity in the alveus of the great ocean, now first made, as well as in lesser seas, To this theory it is objected, that lakes, &c. the calculations of the returns of comets are extremely uncertain, particularly for so great a length of time; and it remains to be proved that the atmospheres and tails of those bodies are really aqueous vapours. 7. Dr. Woodward(z) endeavours to illustrate the effects of the deluge from the fishes, shells, and other exuviae found in the various strata of the earth which he concludes to have been carried out of the sea by the violence of the deluge, and afterwards left upon the land, when the waters retired.
: ;

what now

God, which has been

illustrated by Mr. Catcot: according to whom, the antediluvian world, as well as the present, consisted of a vast collec-

tion of water, called the great deep, or t lie abyss; and over this the shell of earth, perforated in

many

places, so that the waters of the

ocean

had a communication with those of the abyss.

By a miraculous pressure of the atmosphere, from the immediate operation of the Deity, these fountains were broken up; and so violent was the pressure, that the air descended and
occupied the space of the abyss, driving out the waters over the whole face of the dry land. The " windows of heaven," Mr. Catcot conceives to have been in the bowels of t/ie earth ; and to indicate only the cracks and fissures by which the airs found a passage through the shell of earth, which they utterly dissolved, and reduced to its primaeval state of fluidity. These notions are so strange, as to preclude the necessity of observation. 11. An anonymous writer,(b) who introduces his remarks with several calculations to shew
(a)

(x) He allows no great ocean in the antediluvian earth. See before, page 249. (y) Gen. viii. 1. (z) Natural History of the Earth.

Phil.

Trans, vol.

Ivii.
-

(b) In the supposed to

now

Encyclopaedia Britannica, article DELUGE, be Mr. James Tytlcr, formerly of Edinburgh, of Salem, in the state of Massachusetts.

oo 2

284

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

[CHAP.

ii.

that the quantity of water requisite to cover the earth to the height of four miles, is not so enormous as commonly imagined, says, that from a due consideration of the thickness of

the globe, it appears by no means improbable that the whole quantity of water required may be contained in its bowels, without recurring to any remarkable abyss, or huge As far as collection of waters in the centre. the earth has been dug, it has been found to contain moisture; and there is no reason to suppose that it is not equally so to the very The earth is computed at nearly 8000 centre. The ocean is of an unfathommiles' diameter. but there is no reason to conclude able depth ;

drought, it might be expected to be always on the rise during its whole continuance, because all that time the air is absorbing moisture in great quantities from the surface of the earth and of the sea. But, instead of this, when the drought is nearly at an end, and the air surcharged with moisture, the mercury will sink perhaps an inch, before a drop of rain has i'allen. And after the atmosphere has been discharging, for several days successively, a quantity of matter 800 times heavier than itself, instead of being lightened, it becomes hearier,

be more than a few miles. Making all due allowances, suppose the whole solid matter of the globe to be equal only to a cube of 5000 miles, it will even then appear that all the waters of the deluge would not be half sufficient This writer then, recurring to to moisten it.
it

to

his notion of moisture in the earth, declares his persuasion, from experiments to ascertain the quantity of water contained in a given quantity

of earth, and calculations founded upon those experiments, that though ALL the waters of the deluge should be thence derived, the general store, comparatively speaking, would have been But it was not, he conscarcely diminished. tinues, from the bowels of the earth only that the waters were discharged, but also from the air, a source which has been considered as of little importance by almost every one who has and because it does treated on this subject not always deluge with excessive rains, it is imagined to contain but little water; and because it is able by its pressure to raise only :52 feet of water on the surface of the earth, it
;

therefore been taken for granted that we ascertain the depth to which the atmosphere could deluge the earth, if it were to pomout the whole of the miter contained in it. But daily observation shews, that the pressure of the atmosphere has no connection with the quantity of water contained in it; or, if there be indeed any connection, the air appears to be lightest when it contains most water. In proof of this, the case of a long Bummer's IK- instances when the mercury of the barometer drought, will stand at 30 inches, or a little more ; whereas, if it be thereabouts at the beginning of the
lias

may

even specifically heavier, than before. Hence he concludes, that the quantity of water contained in the atmosphere, as well as in the earth, ought to be considered as indefinite. He then proceeds to consider what natural agent is powerful enough to excite these sources in a degree sufficient to make them overflow the earth to the height described by Moses and after premising that, by the " breaking up of the fountains of the deep,"' he understands the opening of all the passages, small and great, through which the secret subterraneous waters could possibly discharge themselves on the earth's surface; and by the " opening of the windows of heaven," the pouring out of the water contained in the atmosphere, through those invisible passages by which it enters, he fixes upon imperceptibly to our senses ELECTRICITY as a means, in the hands of the Almighty, which, surpassing all other powers, stops short only of omnipotence itself. By means of this fluid, immense quantities of water can be raised to vast heights in the air, as is instanced in the case of waterspouts and the waters of the ocean may be swelled, so as to overflow vast tracts of land, as in the case of And if the electric fluid conearthquakes. tained in the air be the agent by which the atmosphere is enabled to suspend the waters which rise in vapours; it is evident that on
;

fluid,

being deprived of the due proportion of this those waters must be discharged, and
rain

must

fall

in prodigious quantities.

We

have therefore only to conceive the powers of nature to be so influenced, as that the electric matter should descend from the atmosphere into the bowels of the earth for a succession of 40 days and nights, and the consequence will be the descent of impetuous rains(c) from above,
of which 85 parts of the former and lo of the latter, produce 100 parts of water. The electric spark, i. e. a flash of

(c)
is

From experiments

composed of two

it has been ascertained, tliat water gases, or airs, called oxigtn and hydrogen,

SECT. IV.]

PROOFS OF THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE DELUGE.

to

.V

and below a swelling of the waters of the ocean, with a rising of those from which fountains originate, and those contained in the solid earth Thus Avould itself, to meet them in their fall.
the flood advance gradually, without that violence which other theorists are obliged to resort to: and on the reascent of the electric fluid to the upper regions, an abatement of the waters would ensue. The atmosphere would then absorb the water(d) as formerly ; what had ascended through the pores and caverns of the earth would again subside; and everything return to its pristine condition. This theory is not only plausible, but accounts better than any other for the manner in which the deluge may have occurred, without violence to any of the known laws of nature. Having thus noticed the most celebrated theories of the means employed to bring about a deluge, the following reasons are submitted
for concluding it to have been universal. 1 The Scriptures declare, that "the waters prevailed," and " prevailed exceedingly upon the earth,
.

family might with much more ease have removed some distant quarter, to which the flood was not intended to reach. The beasts also might have saved themselves by flight ; or rather, there would have been a sufficient number in the parts not inundated, for replenishing the earth, without adverting to the safety of such as lived in the vicinity of the devoted race of mankind. The birds, of course, might, without much difficulty, have flown to another continent. 3. The number of mankind, prior to the flood, was much superior to what the present earth is supposed capable of sustaining; consequently, the waters must have overspread a larger portion of the surface of the earth than is now known to be inhabited therefore, that
:

and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered and all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both men and cattle, and the creeping tilings, and the fowl of the heaven: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark."(e) Nor will the words of Moses, who indeed seems to labour
;

for

terms to express the universality of the deluge, admit of the word earth being here

none might escape, the whole globe must have been overflowed. 4. The earth itself seems to present a demonstrative argument of the universality of the deluge, in the vast numbers of shells and teeth of fish, bones of animals, entire or partial vegetables, and other strange things, found on the tops of the highest mountains, us well as in the bowels of the earth, at a great distance from the sea, where they were probably left by the retiring waters. Among other questions that have been started on this subject, is one of some importance, vis. How were the carnivorous animals supported in the ark ? In answer to this, some have supposed that, besides the animals taken
into the ark for preservation, Noah also took a great number for slaughter ;(f) but this idea

restrained, as it may be in some other places, to Judaea, or any other particular tract of land. Neither would it less require the intervention of a miracle, to suspend the waters of one region,

or of a whole continent, till they should overtop the highest hills, than to deluge the globe itself. 2. If the deluge had been limited to a particular part of the earth, the preparation of the ark would have been needless ; for Noah and his
passing through these gases, decomposes them, or converts them into rain hence we see rain following the flash of lightning and its consequent peal of thunder, in The possibility of converting the whole atmosphere storms. into water by means of electricity, is therefore demonstrated on every recurrence of a thunder-storm.
:

seeming inconsistent with the scheme of mercy, so conspicuous throughout the whole transaction, it has been deemed much more probable, that even though some animals had been accustomed to subsist on flesh in their natural state, they might nevertheless be capable of

were

being sustained by vegetable food, and actually And by thus so, while in the ark.(g)

lightning,

the earth, especially if it were of the kind known in the East by the name of Simoom, or Samiel, which carries with it a scorching heat, destructive in other instances, but in this

case beneficial.

(d)

By means of
its
;

reconverted into

the GALVANIC FLUID, water may be two constituent gases, or airs, oxigeu and

hydrogen (see the last note.) And by this agent we may suppose the atmosphere was reinstated in the quantity of water it hud contributed towards this amazing and dreadful Besides which, a considerable portion must have deluire. been evaporated by the wind that God caused to pass over

Gen. vii. 1823. Bishop Wilkins allows no fewer than 1825 sheep, though he was of opinion, that before the flood there were no carnivorous animals; which latter sentiment has been adopted by Mr. Cockburn. ' in their domestic state (g) Dogs and cats may be supported
(e) (f)

by vegetable food, for example, bread alone bears are well snakes will eat bread to feed on berries and milk, &.c.
;

known sometimes

S86

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

[CHAP. n.

excluding such a number of otherwise useless animals, a very considerable space will be allowed for the circulation of air in the ark the want of which appears to be the most
;

inexplicable

judging of things.

whole affair, difficulty in the at least from the present constitution

With respect to the relative condition of the ancient and present world, it has been maintained, on one hand, that before the flood, the earth was more fruitful than it has been since, because its original constitution had not been impaired by the consequences of that event: and the surprising longevity of the antediluvians is adverted to, as a warrant for such a conOn the other side, it is asserted, that clusion. the air, before the deluge, might, and though probably did, contain a much greater quantity of oxigen, than it does at present ; from which the support of animal life is immediately derived yet this very kind of air is known to be
:

unfavourable to vegetation, and, consequently, in proportion to its abundance in the atmosphere of the antediluvian world, the animals would be healthy and long-lived, but the vegetables weak, puny, and sickly. The deluge, also, by overflowing the earth for a whole year, destroyed every animal and vegetable substance, so that, throughout the globe, a vast putrefaction must have been induced the consequence of which would be the production of an immense quantity of azotic gas, less friendly indeed to the human constitution, but more congenial to vegetation. And besides this, the present world would be more fertile than the former, from having been manured by the stagnation of the waters upon its surface for nearly twelve months and the of animal matter deposited upon its quantity surface during that period, instead of lessening its fertility, would have restored it, as far as we can judge, to its pristine state, when the Almighty separated the waters from the dry It is also thought that the promise of land. God to Noah, after his sacrifice, " I will not AGAIN curse the ground any more, for man's sake,"(h) intimates that the antediluvian world was remarkably barren, in consequence of the
;
;

vated earth assumed all the powers of vegetation with which it was originally constituted, but which had been suspended by the operation of the curse. To this, also, they suppose Lamech to have looked, when he prophesied that his son Noah should be " a comfort" to his fellow" men, concerning the work and toil of their hands, because of the ground which the Lord had cursed :"(j) words that seem to imply a state of excessive weariness and labour upon an ungrateful soil. Connected with this subject is the question whether any rain ever fell upon the earth prior There certainly was a period, to the deluge? during which, Moses informs us, "the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth ; but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. "(k) If the allusion in these words be confined to the period of which the historian is then speaking, " when there was not a man viz. to till the ground," it should appear to have been scarcely worthy of mention: for man was created on the sixth day, and it was not till the third day that the waters were collected into one body from off the face of the earth ; so that for the three following days the earth must have been sufficiently moist, without the assistance of either It is therefore highly probable rain or mist. that Moses alludes to some greater portion of time, than from the third to the sixth, or even to the sixtieth day of the creation, during

which the earth was watered by dews, or mists, instead of rain ; and, all circumstances considered, no period seems so likely as that from the creation to the deluge during which time, or the greater part of it, viz. from the fall of Adam, the curse of God upon the ground
;

MIGHT prevent it from giving freely, if at all, of that dew, which, ascending from its bowels into the atmosphere, was there condensed, and
fell If this were really again upon its surface. the case, we may, much better than we do at present, appreciate the nature of Adam's doom, " In SOITOW, and in the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat bread, "(1) when every grain of that bread was to be forced from a sterile earth by the united labour of ordinary culture and extraordinary irrigation, a process that must have been attended with peculiar toil and difficulty,

curse pronounced upon it for Adam's sake,(i) which curse having had its completion in the destruction of the world by the flood, the reno-

(h)

Gen.

viii.

21.

(i)

Gen.

iii.

17.

(j)

Gen.

v. 2J>.

(k)

Gen.

ii.

5, C.

(I)

Gen.

iii.

17

IP.

SECT. V.]
before

MANNERS,

&c.

OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

287

men knew how to avail themselves of mechanical powers. Well indeed might the Lainech exclaim, " This same shall comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground," &c.(m) This argument against the existence of rain
before the flood, is strengthened by the circumstance of the rainbow being made a symbol of the divine favour immediately afterwards, (n) For unless we suppose the nature of light, or of
water, to have been different, prior to this event, from what it is at present, there is a natural
impossibility of the refraction of the sun's rays

supposed to practise for their pleasure, was invented, or improved about the same period; which, as has been shewn in a former page, might be about the four hundredth year of the world. Some writers have supposed astronomy to have been cultivated by the Antediluvians, and the Sethites are said to have engraved their discoveries upon pillars of stone and brick but this is probably owing to a mistake of Josephus it is to be presumed, however, that the progress made therein, or in any other science, they was not extraordinary ; it being even very doubtful, whether letters were known before
;
:

being prevented from shewing the appearance of a rainbow whenever the sun and the clouds were in a certain relative position. And it is improbable that the Deity should institute any thing as an emblem of his displeasure being turned away, which had been seen as an ordinary natural phenomenon before the catastrophe the circumstance seems to have happened required something neiv, as significative of a new thing; and the confirmation of a new cove:

the flood.

and civil constitutions, as one circumstance is recorded, whereon to build conjecture. It is probable, that the patriarchal form of government, which certainly was the first, was set aside when tyto their politics

As

not so

much

this

ranny and oppression began to take place and much sooner among the race of Cain, than of Seth. It seems also, that their communities were
;
:

nant.

SECTION

V.

RELIGION, ARTS AND SCIENCES, POLITY AND CIVIL CONSTITUTIONS, POPULATION, AND LONGEVITY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS. SITUATION OF THE MOUNTAINS OF ARARAT.

few, though consisting of vastly larger numbers of people than any formed since the flood or rather, it is a question, whether, after the union of the two great families of Seth and Cain, there were any distinction of civil societies, or diversity of regular governments, at all. It is more likely, that all mankind then

OF the customs, policy, and other general circumstances of the Antediluvians, we can only form conjectures. All that is known even of their religious rites, is, that they offered sacrifices very early, both of the fruits of the but whether the blood earth, and of animals and flesh of the animals, or only their milk and wool, were offered, is a disputed point. Of their arts and sciences, we have not much more to say. The art of working metals was found out by the last recorded generation of Cain's line; and music, which they might be
;

great nation, though living in a kind of anarchy, divided into several disorderly associations which, as it was almost the natural consequence of their having, in all probability, but one common language, so it was a circumstance which greatly contributed to that general corruption, which otherwise might not have so universally overspread the antediluvian
;

made but one

world.

Of the peaceful and happy condition of the Antediluvians, as well as of their virtuous and harmonious manner of life, Mr. "VVhithurst (o) has drawn a picture, similar to what the poets have given of the golden age. But this ingenious author, whose Inquiry is not professedly repugnant to revelation, has forgot to inform us,
atmospheric commotions,
cessive rains,

cannot, however admit the notion, that the present (ra) There are earth enjoys its original or paradisiacal slate. many parts indeed luxuriantly fertile; but there are alxi frightful deserts and barren tracts, which still bear melancholy traces of the malediction incurred by the transgression Add to this, the frequent devastations of our first parents.

We

hurricanes,

thunder-storms,

ex-

and we

still

pestilential airs and fogs, severe frosts, ckc. has not see cause to suspect that, though

God

cursed the earth, for man's sake, old curse still remain.
(n)
(o)

AGAIN

many effects of the

Gen.

ix.

1117.

occasioned by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and inundations, with the tremendous desolations proceeding from

Inquiry into the original State and Formation of the Earth.

288
for

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

whole
interval

[CHAP. n.

what purpose, under such circumstances, the driller \vas sent; and, how we are to understand the account given by Moses, who represents the Antediluvians, not as an innocent race, quietly reposing- on the ever-verdant turf, hut as a corrupt generation, by whom "the earth was tilled with violence."' Much has been written upon the question, whether the Antediluvians used animal food, or not. As it is a question of little importance, and upon which nothing certain can be determined on either side, we shall not enter upon it, farther than just to observe, that we think the probability is in favour of the affirmative as it is scarce credible, that the Antediluvians would shew any mercy to the brute creation, when they did not spare each other. Nay, it is even not improbable, that the Antediluvians, along with their other corruptions, had become so grossly barbarous, as, to eat the living Jtbrta, like the Abyssinians, which perhaps was the reason of the prohibition given to Noah, against eating flesh with the life thereof, (p) along with the general permission to eat animal food. One of the most extraordinary circumstances, which occurs in the antediluvian history, (is the vast length of human lives in those first Few perages, in comparison with our own. sons now arrive to 80 or 100 years; whereas, before the flood, they frequently lived to near 1000: a disproportion almost incredible, though supported by the joint testimonies of sacred and profane writers. Some, to reconcile the
;

between the creation and the

deluge to considerably less than 200 years, even according to the larger computation of the
Septuagint. (q)

For such a constitution, the moral reasons are abundantly obvious. When the earth was
wholly unpeopled, except by one pair, it was necessary to endow men with a stronger frame, and to allow them a longer continuance upon In the earth, for peopling it with inhabitants. infant state of every mechanical art, relating to tillage, building, clothing, &c. it would require

many

years' experience, to invent, proper tools

and instruments to ease men of their labour, and by multiplied essays and experiments to bring their inventions to any degree of maturity and perfection. If parents at this period had
not continued long with their children, to teach them the art of providing for themselves, and of defending themselves from the attacks of wild beasts, and from other injuries, to which

they were exposed,

many

families

would have

become

totally extinct.

But one of the best and most valuable ends which longevity would answer was, the transmitting of knowledge, particularly of religious And thus, before knowledge, to mankind. writing was invented, or any such easy and durable mode of conveyance was found out, a very few men served for many generations to instruct their posterity, who thus would not be at a loss to consult living and authentic records. The natural causes of this longevity are vaSome have imputed it to the riously assigned. of the Antediluvians, and the simplisobriety city of their diet ; alleging, that they had none of those provocations to gluttony, which v\it. and vice have since invented. Temperance might undoubtedly have some effect, bat not

matter with probability, have imagined, that,

the ages of those first men might possibly be computed, not by solar years, but by months ; an expedient which reduces the length of their lives to rather a shorter period than our own'. But for this, there is not the least foundation besides the many absurdities that would thence follow, such as their begetting children at about six years of age, as some of them in that case must have done, and the contraction of the
;

There have been and abstemious persons in later many temperate

possibly to such a degree.
ages,

who

yet seldom have exceeded the usual

(p)
(q)

Gen.

ix. 4.

Josephus, and some Christian divines, are of opinion, that before the flood, and some time after, mankind in ceneral did not live to such a remarkable age, but only a few beloved of God, such as the patriarchs mentioned by Moses. They reason in this manner: though the historian records tlie names of some men, whose longevity was singular, yet that is no proof that the rest of mankind attained to the same period of life, more than that every man was then of a gigantic stature, because he says, in those c/i/s there were giants

upon the

earth.

Besides, had the whole ofthc Antediliuians

lived so very long, and increased in numbers in proportion to their age, before the flood of Noah, the eartli could not

have contained its inhabitants, even supposing no part of it had been sea. Hence they conclude, that only the lives of the patriarchs were extended to such an extraordinary But most writers maintain the longevity of mankind length. in general in the early world, not only upon the authority of as may be seen more sacred, but likewise of profane history
;
I

at large in

Josephus, Antiq.

lib.

i.

cap. 4.

SECT.

V.j

LONGEVITY AND POPULATION.

of puberty, among the first races of men, to have been 130 years, as they now arrive at that age in 14 years, the age of the Antediluvians will be in exact proportion to that of Ihe present race ; since, by multiplying these two numbers by seven, for example, the age of the present race will be 90, and that of the Antediluvians will be 910. The period of man's existence, therefore, may have gradually diminished in proportion as the surface of the earth acquired more solidity by the constant action of gravity: and it is probable, that the period from the creation, to the days of David, was sufficient to give the earth all the density it was capable of receiving from the influence of gravitation ; and consequently that the surface of the earth has ever since remained in the same state, and the terms of growth in the productions of the earth, as well as the duration of life, have been
invariably fixed from that period.
It has been farther supposed, that a principal cause of the longevity under consideration was the wholesome constitution of the antedi-

period.

Others have thought, that the long lives of those inhabitants of the old world proceeded from the strength of the stamina, or
principles, of their

first

bodily constitutions:

which might, indeed, be a concurrent, but not the sole and adequate cause of their longevity; for Shem, who was born before the deluge, and had all the virtue of the antediluvian constitution, fell 300 years short of the age of his
forefathers,

was passed

because the greatest part of his life after the flood, (r) Others have

imputed the longevity of the antediluvians to the excellency of their fruits, and some peculiar virtue in the herbs and plants of those days.

But to this supposition it has been objected, that as the earth was cursed immediately after the fall, its productions may be supposed to
have gradually decreased in virtue and goodness ; and yet, the length of men's lives were not curtailed considerably, if at all, prior to the flood. Waving this objection, as the import of the curse is variously interpreted, it appears certain, that the productions of the earth were at first, and probably continued till after the deluge, of a different nature from what they

were

in

after times.

Buflfbn

supposes

this

may have continued gradually to diminish, for many ages subsequent to that catastrophe. The surface of the globe, (accorddifference

which, after the deluge, became unwholesome, breaking, by degrees, the pristine crasis of the body, and shortening men's lives, in a very few ages, to near the present standard. The temperature of
luvian
air,

corrupted

and

ing to his theory,) was, in the first ages of the world, less solid and compact; because, gravity, having acted only for a short time, terrestrial bodies had not acquired their present density and consistence. The produce of the
earth therefore, must have been analogous to its condition. The surface being more loose and moist, its productions would of course be more ductile and capable of extension their growth, therefore, and even that of the human body, would require a longer time in being completed. The softness and ductility of the bones,
:

the air and seasons before that catastrophe are, upon very probable grounds, supposed to have been constantly uniform and mild the burning heats of summer and the severities of winter colds were not then come forth, but spring and
:

autumn reigned

and benign temperature of

is

perpetually together : and, indeed, the circumstance above all others most conducive to the prolongation of human life in the postdiluvian world appears to be an equal
climate,

whence

it

muscles, &c. would probably remain for a longer period, because every species of food was more soft and succulent. Hence, the full expansion of the human body, or when it was capable of generating, must have required 120 or 130 years; and the duration of life would be in proportion to the time of growth, as is uniformly the case at present: for if we suppose the age
This, however, might be a consequence of the change in the atmosphere by the deluge, as stated in the preceding Section, page 286.
(r)

induced

VOL.

I.

reasonable to infer, that the same cause was productive of the same effect in the antediluvian world. It is highly probable that the antediluvian world was stocked with a much greater number of inhabitants than the present earth either actually does, or perhaps is capable of containing or supplying. This seems naturally to follow from the great length of their lives, which exceeding the present standard of life in the proportion at least of ten to one, the Antediluvians must accordingly in any long space of time double themselves, at least in about the tenth part of the time in which mankind do now double themselves. It has beeu supposed

pp

290

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

[CHAP,

that they began to get children as early, and

SECT. V.]

SITUATION OF MOUNT ARARAT.

connected with the ante-

291

The

diluvian history, is the situation of the mountains of Ararat, whereon the ark rested, which has been rendered somewhat uncertain by the

last subject

various traditions relative to

it.

Sybilline verses place mount Ararat near Celaenae, in the borders of Black Phryijia: but it appears from good authority, that there is no mountain of any eminence in that place. The idea seems to have arisen from Apamea, another

The

TABLE
Years of
the World.

I.

TABLE
of

II.

Number

Years of
the World.

Nnmbf r of
Mankind.

Mankind.

Mr. C. " for all such obstructions and deficiencies, and likewise for casualties and accidents in as ample a raauner as can be desired, let the former number be reduced to one half, viz.

200 500 400 540 800 580 620 1,600 660 3,200 700 6,400 740 12,800 780 25,600 820 51,200 880 102,400 920 204,800 940 409,600 980 819,200 1020 1,638,400 1060 3,296,800 1100 6,553,600 1140 13,107,200 1180 26,214,400 1220 52,428,800 1260 104,857,600 1300 209,715,200 1340 419,430,400 1380 838,860,800 1420 1,677,721,600 1460 3,355,443,200 1500 6,710,886,400 1540 13,421,772,800 1580 26,843,545,600 1620 53,687,091,200 1660 107,374,182,400 1700 214,748,364,800 1740 429,490,729,600 1780 858,992,459,200 1820 1,717,986,918,400 1860 3,435,973,836,800 1900 6,871,947,673,600 1940 13,743,895,347,200 1980 27,487,790,694,400 2020 54,975,581,388,800 "Against this immense number, it will no doubt be objectBut in ed, that all such calculations are mere guess-work. calculations of this nature, some regular method must be 200 500 400 550 800 600 650 1,600 700 3,200 750 6,400 800 12,800 850 25,600 900 51,200 950 102,400 1000 204,800 1050 409,600 1100 819,200 1150 1,638,400 1200 3,276,800 1250 6,553,600 1300 13,107,200 1350 26,214,400 1400 52,428,800 1450 104,857,600 1500 209,715,200 1550 419,430,400 1600 838,860,800 1650 1,677,721,600 1700 3,335,453,200 1750 6,710,886,500 1800 13,421,772,800 1850 26,843,545,600 1900 53,687,091,200 1950 107,374,182,400 2000 214,748,364,800 2050 429,496,729,600
observed : and though, according to the course of nature, such an increase and multiplication of mankind might have

Ami this we shall now suppose to be the whole number of those who were born into the world before the deluge. But from this sum is to be subtracted those who died before that time. Of the descendants of Laniech died Seth, Enoch was translated at the age of 365 Adam just before the flood at 753; and Mahalaleel at 895. and the other five patriarchs lived to above 900. Before the year 900, therefore, we may suppose there were no deaths except that of Abel, but that all born within that period were But in the tenth century, death began to alive together. reign, and Adam and Eve we may presume were the first over whom death had power in a natural way, as their disobedience was the cause of it. The children also born of them iu the first hundred years would also die in this 10th century, those born in the second hundred would die in the llth, tho.-e born
to 27,487,790,694,400.
;

But, though we century in the 12th, and so on. are far from thinking that after the beginning of the lOtli century, (till which time few or none died) the deaths would
in the third
all
; yet as we have made large concessions along, we shall do the same in this case, and suppose them upon the whole to have been equal, especially as we cannot

be equal to the births

say

that violence, which was their crying sin, began and therefore shall again reduce the sum last mentioued to one half, to allow for the deaths and prevailing violence, and suppose the total number of mankind alive upon earth at the deluge to have been no more thau
to prevail;

how soon

a number vastly exceeding that of the Now, though we pretend present inhabitants of the earth.

13,743,895,347,200

to no certainty in this point, (which madeitthe more requisite to allow largely for deaths and deficiencies) yet the calculation must appear highly probable, since it is founded on grounds certain and undeniable: for instance, it must be

allowed, 1. That the Antediluvians were

:

come to the age of puberty and marriage at 160 years, as we find a son born in 162 2. That they could have children at the age of 500, as Noah had three sons after that age 3. That we have allowed 4. That we a due interval between the births, viz. six years have made the period of doubling far too short, when we had
: :

before shewed, that, after

100 marriages consummated, they

would
their

the time we have taken for and, 5. That there might be 200 persons of doubling mature age for marriage in the year 500, the men at 160, the women younger. Nevertheless, as this is the foundation of
triple

themselves
:

in half

been periodically, especially at the beginning, yet we will not suppose that all things went on thus regularly, without We do not know what extraordinary obstrucinterruption. tions might occur, to such a regular increase. Though every married pair might by the course of nature have had such a number of children as has been mentioned, yet it might possibly be in the old world as it has been since the flood, viz. that some marriages have produced many children, others few, and some none at all. Allowing therefore," continues

our calculation, we shall now shew that there was at least such a number of persons marriageable at that age of the world. As we now take 160 for the year of maturity and marriage, according to that period, all those married or marriageable in the year 500, must have been born in or before the year 340 the males at least, though the females coming sooner to maturitv, might some of them be boru later,
;

or after the year 380.

this principle,

The

following table

is

drawn up on
for granted,

wherein we proceed no farther than to the

first

produce of Adam's
that as

seven sons; taking

it

many daughters were boru *OOH utter them, aut

PP 2

292
near
Caelinae,

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

[CHAP.

if.

city,

being surnamed Cibotas, or The Ark, not indeed from any tradition of Noah's vessel, but from its situation, being shut up like an ark, or chest, by three rivers.(t) Ben Gorion seems to extend the name of Ararat to Caucasus: but the generality of ancient and modern writers understand it to apply to the mountains of Armenia; though of that they differ as to the particular situation which the ark rested and there are two on a opinions concerning it, each supported by
;

tradition.

that the emperor Heraclius went from the town of Themaniu(u) up the mountain Al Judi, and saw the place of the ark. celebrated monastery, called the monastery of the ark, formerly stood among these mountains of Cardu ; and the Nestorians kept an annual festival on the spot where they supposed the ark to have rested ; but in the year 776 of the Christian aera, the monastery was destroyed by lightning, with the church, and a numerous congregation in it since which time, probably, the credit of the tradition has declined, and

The first of these takes it for one of the mountains dividing the south of Armenia from Mesopotamia, in that part of Assyria inhabited by the Curds, from whom these mountains obtained the name of Curdue, or Cardu, turned by the Greeks into Gordya;i, and other names. The tradition on which this opinion is founded,
is

given place to another, which received.

is

now

generally

According

to this

second opinion,

mount

Ararat stands about the middle of Armenia, near the river Araxes, or Aras, upwards of 280
miles to the north-east of Al Judi. Jerom seems to be the first who gave any account of this tradition; and he describes Ararat as a champaign fertile country, with the Araxes flowing through it, at the foot of mount Taurus. By the mountains of Ararat, therefore, are to be understood, not those of Armenia generally, but the highest in the chain of Taurus, which overlooks the plains of Ararat. And, as it is not uncommon to find the same
relics in

that of the Chaldaeans, and it formerly obtained considerable credit. Berosus and Abydenus both declare, that in their time a be seen report was current, that the ark was to on these mountains and the former goes so far as to say, that the inhabitants thereabouts scraped off the pitch from the planks, and the carried it about them as an amulet wood of the vessel latter says, they used the success: against many diseases with wonderful
;
:

relations

which may be placed

to the

same

account with the wonderful properties attributed to the wood of the holy cross, in later ages. Epiphanius says, the relics of the ark were to be seen in his time and we are farther told
;

two different places at once, Nicolas of Damascus(v) assures us, that several pieces of the timber of the ark were to be seen on the mountain Baris, for a long time after it had
landed there.

The Armenians call this mountain Masis, which name they derive from Amasia, the third
And thus the increase the number of mankind. reader may perceive that we have been far from building on uncertain foundations, since we have omitted 13 pairs more, which we might have taken into the account. And if it be considered that the command given to Adam was to increase and multiply, and replenish the earth, no doubt can be made that his own and his children's marriages were fruitful in the " that the earth might be inhabited. procreation of children, in Egypt, was the port of Alexandria, (t) In like manner,
much
called Cibotas,
(u)

married to them.

54

And thus supposing Adam to have had and only 14 of them married before the year 340, we have the 100 pairs, reckoned upon in the above calculations, and 3 pairs over, in that year.
children,

TABLE OF THE SMALLEST PROBABLE NUMBER OF ADAM'S FAMILY, IN THE YEAR 340.
Year of the
IPOTMi
.

Chil-

Married
pain.
r

dren,

Eve, in ............ 340 ............ 166 y. Cam, married in ............ 1?'-' 3. Abel, married in supposed to have been slain in "nM ..178 4. Adam's 3d con married in ..184 5. Aduic's 4Ui son ..IPO son mnrrk'd in 6. Adum's 5lh ..106 7. Adam's 6th son married in
1.

Adam and

might have

54
28
o

27 14

4
13 1C

from the bay surrounding it. This town of Themanin stood at the foot of the mount

26 25

U
11

Al Judi; its name signifies eighty, in memory of the 80 to a Mohammedan tradition, were persons, who, according saved in the ark. The Christian writers among the Arabs,
however, who say this city was built by Noah and his sons, near Forda, not approving this tradition, suppose it lo be so Bocliait, because they were eight in number. called, Calmet, and others, have adopted the latter interpretation. that many people, at tin (v) This writer relates a tradition, time of the deluge, fled for safety to the high mountain of of Baris, in the province of Minyas, in Armenia, on the top

8.

Adiim's7th *vn married

in

'JO'J

20
207.

10
lu.i

" To the above 103 married pairs, might be added tin produce of the remaining 13 pairs, all born before the yea 340, and marriageable in the year 000, which would very
Peiron's Chronology of ibc Septuagint.

which a certain man struck with

his vessel.

SECT. V.]

SITUATION OF MOUNT ARARAT.

2<>3

successor of Haikh, the founder of their nation. It stands about twelve leagues to the east, or rather south-east of Erivan and of Ejmiadzin, four leagues from the Araxes, and ten to the north-west of Nackhchuvan. It is encompassed

on whose tops are found many ruins, supposed to have been built by the first men, who were for some time afraid to descend into the plains. It stands by itself, in the form of a sugar loaf, in the midst of a very extensive level, and consists of two summits, of which the lesser is more sharp and pointed than

by

several petty

hills,

the other. The tallest apex, which is that of the ark, lies to the north-west of the former, rising far above the neighbouring mountains, and appearing so high and large, that when the air is clear, it may be seen at the distance of four or five days' journey.(w) This mountain has never yet been ascended which the Armenians attribute to the interposition of angels, to disappoint the curiosity of such as would attempt to tread upon a place so sacred as that whereon the ark rested; the excess of cold,
;

be quite perpendicular; and the extremities are rough and blackish, as if smoke-dried. The soil of the mountain is loose; on the sandy parts it is impossible to get a firm footing; and to avoid such places, our traveller was frequently obliged to betake himself to places where great rocks were heaped one upon another, under which he passed as through a series of caverns; but the intensity of the cold urging him from thence, he passed over places full of stones, where he was forced to leap from one stone to another. Having reached the border of the upper or snowy region, he was obliged to desist from his enterprise through excess of fatigue, and descended the mountain, sometimes sliding on his back, or creeping on all fours, which so exhausted him and his companions, that they were unable, when they got to the bottom, to move hand or foot. Notwithstanding this account of M. Tourneall the difficulties, if we may credit Ml Struys, a Dutch traveller, are to be surmount: ed ; for he affirms, that he went five days' journey up mount Ararat, to see a Romish hermit : that he passed through three regions of clouds; the first dark and thick, the next cold and full

fort,

however, may much more reasonably be supposed to frustrate such attempts, without the intervention of any supernatural powers. M. Tournefort, who spent a whole day, with infinite fatigue, in fruitless attempts to climb this mountain, describes it as one of the most hideous sights upon earth, being destitute of houses, convents, trees, or shrubs and having an apparent tendency to moulder and waste away. He divides it into three regions the lowermost, he says, is the only one that contains any human creatures, and is occupied by a few miserable shepherds, attendants upon diseased flocks: some partridges are likewise to be seen in this region. The second, he reas the habitation of crows and tigers presents the third, or upper region, is covered with perpetual snow, and is half the year enveloped in thick clouds. On the side towards Erivan is a
;
: ;

of snow, and the third colder still: that he advanced five miles every day and when he came to the place where the hermit had his cell, he breathed a very serene and temperate air that the hermit told him he had perceived neither wind nor rain during all the twenty-five years he had dwelt there; and that on the top(x) of the mountain there reigned a still greater tranquillity, whereby the ark was preserved uncorrupted. And he farther pretends, that the hermit gave him a cross made of the wood of the ark, together with a certificate, a formal copy of which the author annexed to his
; :

wonderful

relation.

and deep precipice, down which rocks of immense size are frequently tumbling with a hideous noise. This precipice seems to
frightful
(w) Travellers, however, do not think its height extraordinary they consider its being visible at so great a distance, to be owing to its insulated situation on a vast plain, upon the most elevated part of the country, without any mountains Nor is the snow with \\hicli before it, to obstruct the view. it is always covered from its middle, upwards, any proof of -extraordinary altitude; for in the plains of Armenia ice has frequently been observed in the mornings of the middle of July.
;

relate a thousand legendary tales about the ark the whole, or a part of which, they pretend is still to be seen on the top of the mountains something there always appearing black, which they imagine to
; ;

The Armenian monks

it appears that this traveller did not reach the the renson for which he has not explained ; though it might have been expected, that having braved the inclemency of the lower regions for five days together, he would have had no difficulty in proceeding in the mild atmosphere

(x)

Hence
;

summit

to
his

which he had now attained: a circumstance that discredits whole narrative.

HISTORY OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

be the ark ; yet they admit that none ever was, or can get there; all who have attempted it having been either punished, or brought back by angels during the night, to the place whence But if they are they set out in the day.(y) whether they have any relics of the ark, asked, they gravely answer that it still lies buried in the vast heaps of snow which cover the top of the mountain ; though sometimes they will tell travellers, that the monk James (spoken of in the note below) had actually been at the top of Ararat. The Armenian patriarch informed M. Tournefort, that one saint had been favoured with a view of the ark itself; and M. Rubruquis was assured by a bishop, that the piece of the ark brought to James, was in their church. The
(y) This latter chastisement, they say, happened to one James, a monk of Ejmiadzin, afterwards bishop of Nisibin; though God at length so far complied with his importunities as to send an angel to him with a piece of the ark the angel also cautioned him against making any farther attempts to ascend the mountain, assuring him that God had prohibited
:

[CHAP, in

their

Copts also shew part of a beam of the ark in church at Old Cairo. Whether mount Masis, or the mountain of Cardu, be the true Ararat, the situation, in
is very convenient for the journey of the sons of Noah, from thence to Shinar, the distance not being very great, and the descent easy, into the plains of Mesopotamia, of which Shinar is a part. And in the Mosaic history we discover a kind of neighbourhood between the land of Eden, where man was created ; Ararat, where the remnant of the human race was saved ; and Shinar, where, after the deluge, mankind fixed the centre of their first plan-

either case,

tations.^)

access to the summit, and would not suffer men to destroy a which had saved so many creatures. (z) The situations of these places, according to several " The Division of the hypotheses, is described on the map of Ancient World among the Descendants of Noah."
vessel

SECT.

I.]

HISTORY OF NOAH.

295

CHAPTER

III.

GENERAL HISTORY OF MANKIND, FROM THE DELUGE TO THE

CONFUSION OF LANGUAGES, AND DISPERSION OF MANKIND.

SECTION

I.

HISTORY OF THE POSTDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS, TO THE BIRTH OF ABRAM.

f

JjJ" '.5Sl
Post Dil.
i.

THE
is

f ark

time of Noah's leaving the fixed by Moses on the first

B.C.

the punishment of death was denounced against the manslayer.(b) As a farther token of favour, God made a covenant with Noah, and in him with the whole human race, that the world should never again be destroyed by a flood of waters ; and he gave the sign of the rainbow as a memento of his

year of his age.(a)

day of the six hundred and first His first care was to erect an altar, on which he offered in sacrifice to God of every clean beast and fowl, as an acknowledgment of the mercy displayed in his favour amid the wreck of all the human race beside. His devotion was accepted God blessed him, declared that he would not again curse the ground for man's sake, gave him power over all terrestrial creatures, and permitted him to eat animal food as freely as vegetable. But the blood of animals was prohibited as food and
; ;

2347. j

promise. On leaving the mountain where the ark had rested, (c) Noah applied himself to the culture of the earth in the words of Scripture, " he
;

be an husbandman, and planted a began vineyard ;" and from what follows, we must infer that he first thought of making a beverage
to

of the expressed juice of the grape. Ignorant of the nature, and new powers acquired by this liquor in its fermented state, he unconsciously drank too freely, so that he lay in a state of
inebriety, carelessly

uncovered

in his tent.(d)

(a)

See before, page 280.

(b)

Gen.

viii.

13

22.

ix.

7.

The Rabbins pretend that

God

gave to Noah and his sons, certain general precepts, which, they say, comprise the law of nature, common to all men ; and for the non-observance of which the Gentiles themThese precepts were selves have been punished by God. seven in number, viz. 1. To abstain from idolatry, super-

and sacrilege. 2. From blasphemy, perjury, &c. From murder. 4. From adultery, incest, and unnatural i>. From theft and dishonesty. lusts. 0. Obedience to
stition,

3.

magistrates and judges appointed for the maintenance of these laws. 7. To abstain from flesh cut off while the

animal was living. Which latter precept they supposed to " But be enjoined by the words, flesh, with the life thereof, which is the b/ood thereof, shall ye not eat;" (Gen. ix. 4.) To these the Rabbins have added some others, and say that from the days of Moses the Israelites would not suffer a stranger to live among them, unless he observed the Noahic precepts ; and never gave quarter in battle to any who were. But as neither the Scripture, Onkelos, ignorant of them. Josephus, Philo, Jerom, Origcn, nor any of the ancient fathers, have noticed these precepts, their antiquity is much to be doubted. 15

(c) The Armenians relate that Noah settled at Erivaii, a place still celebrated about twelve leagues from Ararat for its wines. Tavernier says, he settled at Nakshivan, three leagues from Ararat, which is reported to be the oldest city Another tradition of the Armenians makes the in the world. first place of abode of Noah and his sons to be the village of Cemain, at the foot of mount Ararat. It has been supposed by some learned writers, that soon after the malediction of Canaan, Noah retired from the company of Japheth, Shem, and Ham, and travelled towards China, where he had lived before the deluge, and that he is the same person whom the Chinese call Fo-hi. The arguments in favour of this notion are at least plausible and because the Scripture says nothing in support of them, an inference in their favour has been have also been drawn from its silence. Italy and Spain named as the places of his retreat as we shall have occasion to remark in the histories of those countries. (d) It is impossible to admit that Noah was an habitual drunkard, which this part of his history would imply, had he previously know the effects capable of being produced by too luge a dose of wine. Therefore we must suppose that he was the accidental inventor of this beverage. His ignorance of its intoxicating qualities forms an ample, and. the ouly.
; ; ;

290

HISTORY OF THE POSTDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS,

[CHAP. in.

In this condition he was discovered by his youngest son Ham, who, forgetful of his filial

under duty, and the respect due to a parent circumstance, instead of concealing his every father's disaster, went and told it to his brethren, But they, instead of Japheth and Shem.(e) to behold so indecent a spectacle, took a going

dispersion, in order, it should seem, to transmit to posterity the names of the first founders of nations. Neither can much be collected from

account of the descendants of Shem, of he names very few besides those in the immediate line from Noah to Abraham.(h)
his

whom

Though Japheth

is

generally placed after his

garment between them, and walking in backward, covered Noah, and retired. When Noah awoke from his wine, and became acquainted with what had happened, he cursed Canaan,(f) the younger son of Ham, but he blessed Shem and Japheth, and gave them Canaan to be their
Jul. Per. 2716.

servant.
"j

Of

the history of this

A. M. 2000. ( ante-post-diluvian patriarch, the Post Oil. 349. f inspired historian relates no more B. C. 1998. ) than tnat he d ied in t jie 950th year

of his age.(g)

Moses, whose chief design was what more particularly concerned the

to

record

Israelites,

has only given the genealogy in the line of Shem The descendants of Noah's other two entire. sons he has brought no farther down than the
excuse for what ensued. A very small portion (compared with what is taken in modern times) would doubtless produce violent effects in a constitution not inured by previous habits
to strong liquors.
(e) (f)

two brethren in the Scripture, he is expressly said to be the elder of the three ;(i) and it is evident that he was so ; for when Noah was 500 years old, he begat three sons; according to which mode of expression in the Scripture,(j) one of them may be understood to have been born in his five hundredth year but this could not be Shem, because he was in his one hundredth year when he begat Arphaxad, two years after the flood and as Noah was then 602 years of age, it follows that Shem must have been born in Noah's five hundred and third therefore Japheth or Ham is the son year born in his five hundredth year; but Ham is distinctly said to be the youngest son ; consequently it was Japheth who was born
;
; :

Gen.

ix.

22, 24.

motive of Noah in execrating Canaan, instead of Ham, when, for aught that appears to the contrary in holy writ, he was no way accessary to the offence. Some have supposed that Noah could not with any propriety curse Ham, because on leaving the ark he had been included in the blessing of God upon the whole family; and therefore the incensed patriarch removed his malediction as far off as he could, and threw it upon Canaan, the youngest But this mode of reasoning is fallacious, son of Ham. inasmuch as it limits the blessing to eight individuals, which in fact was bestowed upon them as representatives of mankind at large j and in this sense Canaan was as much interested in Other writers suppose it as any others of the race of Noah. that Moses recorded this malediction to inspire the Israelites with courage in their invasion of the land of Canaan, by making them believe that God had from the very first destined the inhabitants to be subdued by them. But, abating all other objections to this notion, it certainly does not bear upon the question: the inquiry being, not why the historian recorded the fact, but why the fact occurred. The Jews, indeed, pretend that Canaan was the person who first dis-

Much

cavilling has arisen as to the

this may be, Ham has always been looked upon as introducer of wickedness after the flood and many enormities, some serious, others ridiculous, have been imputed to him upon the ground of this part of his history. And it is generally admitted that the heathen account of the mutilation of Uranus by his son Chronos, was derived from a corrupted tradition of the irreverent conduct of Ham towards his father

However
first

the

Noah.

An oriental tradition states him to 29. (g) Gen. ix. 20 have been buried in Mesopotamia: where his sepulchre is shewn in a castle, near a monastery, called Dair Abunah, i. e. The monastery of our father. It is a very current opinion, that before his death, he divided the world between his three thus Japheth had Europe ; sons, that they might repeople it but this has not the least Shera, Asia and Ham, Africa Of his children, Moses speaks only support from Scripture. of the three above named but others have been given to him by various writers. Several learned men have observed that the heathens confounded Uranus or Calus, Chronos or Saturn, Ogygcs, Deucalion, Janus, Proteus, Prometheus, &c. His wife is called Noriah by the Gnostics; and with Noah. the fable of Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha is evidently invented from the history of Noah. Mr. Bryant, in his System of Mythology, has with uncommon ingenuity and erudition, discovered traces of the history of Noah and the general deluge in the traditions and legends of the most
:

covered Noah's situation, and making it known to his father Ham, they jointly made sport of the accident, and spoke of it to Japheth and Shem ; wherefore Noah, when he awoke, cursed Canaan as the primary instigator of the offence. The Arabic version reads " Ham, the father of Canaan," instead of " Canaan" only but this is supposed to be merely a Yet both Christians and Mohammedans have extended gloss. the curse to Ham and all his race, and have attributed the hlack colour of the Africans to the effects of its operation.
;

ancient nations.
(h) The table at the beginning of this chapter exhibits their descent, according to the Mosaic account, with the dates of their births and deaths, calculated from the Creation, the years before and after the Deluge, and those before the Christian sera, agreeably to the Usherian computation, compared with the Julian period.
(i)

(j)

Gen. Gen.

x. 21.
v.

32,

SECT.

I.]

FROM THE DELUGE TO THE BIRTH OF ABRAM.

five

297

in

Noah's

hundredth year, and was the

eldest son.

Of the descendants of Japheth, no particulars

are related in Scripture, besides what relates to their founding of nations, which belongs, according- to our proposed plan, to a subse-

quent section.

suance of the directions of Adam and Noah, Shriii, together with Melchizedek, whom they call the son of Phaleg, or Peleg, took Adam's out of the ark, and, conducted by an body angel, buried it on mount Calvary :(m) after which, Shem constituted Melchizedek the priest of God, and left him behind to attend at the
sepulchre
pretending, on his return, Melchizedek had died by the way. Having lived 501 or 502 years
;

The posterity of Shem

;

Moses

(k)

first,

are twice described by such only are named as were

:

that

in the early dispersion secondly, the genealogy is traced in the line of Arphaxad

concerned

after the flood,

Shem(n) died

at

but in both cases he gives no more than their ages, and the year of their lives when they begat their sons. The traditions and conjectures, however, of Jewish and Christian writers, have furnished ample materials ror the investigation and amusement of the curious inquirer.(l)
;

down to Abraham

the age of 600, leaving five sons,

all whom the Scripture has recorded nothing except of Asshur, which is indeed of importance, as it fixes the epocha of " the kingdom of Assyria. Out of that land," " went forth [Shinar] says Moses, Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and

Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud,

and Aram, of

Shem, as we have already seen, was born 98 years before the and two years after that flood catastrophe, he begat Arphaxad, being then 100 years of age. And if to this be added, what
;

Calah."(o)
stated,

has already been stated, that he assisted his brother Japheth in covering their father's nakedness, when he lay exposed in his tent, and that he shared in the blessing for so doing, the reader will be in possession of all that the sacred historian has recorded on his behalf. The Jews suppose the tradition of theological truths to have passed from Noah to Shem,

Arphaxad, born, as already /-j u Per. 23G8 two years after the flood, SA.M. 165s! 2. though the third(p) son of Shem, } Post Oil. B -C. 2346. v. had the patriarchal line continued through him. Some Mohammedans make him a prophet and an apostle, and lodge the chief
l.

sovereignty over the nations in his descendants. In his 35th year he begat the succeeding patriarch, and died at the age of 438. Who the son and successor of rj u l. Per. 2403.

and through him to his children, by which means the true religion was preserved in the
world.
(k)
(1)

The

eastern writers say, that in pur-

Arphaxad was, has been much disputed; according to the Hebrew and Samaritan, it was Salah;

A.M.
Post Oil. ;. | - 3U ^ B- C-

\. 21. xi. 10, ft seq. rabbins pretend that Shem was entrusted with the will of Noah, whereby he divided the earth among his three sons ; that he went to school to Methuselah for 78 years, and after the deluge kept a school himself upon mount Tabor, where he instructed Abraham in the sacrificial ceremonies that, 100 years after the flood, he received the. spirit of prophecy, and exercised the functions of a prophet for the space of 400 years ; that he improved astronomy, together with the method of computing months and years, with the intercalation of the former; secrets previously imparted to him by Noah. Some make him the same with Melchixedek, and attribute to hint the composition of the 109th P.-alm, as well as of a treatise on physic, the Hebrew manuscript of which latter is said to be in the library of the king of Bavaria. Others, who make Shem the first king in the world, say he founded three cities, one ifl each of the three parts of the earth, viz. Sebta [Ceuta] on the Barbary coast Salernuin, in

Gen.

The

(or rather Chronos) and Japheth, Neptune (or more properly Japetus) have been reduced to the shift of making Shem the same with Pluto, which seems not at all consonant with hi* character. His name has been much confounded with Shem and Skani, titles of the sun, and of his brother Hani. It is to be observed, that tly; marginal (o) Gen. \. 11, 12. reading here is very different, and preferred by many respectable authorities. In the preceding two verses, (the fith am! 10th) the inspired historian has been speaking of Nimrod and his kingdom; and then adds, according to this reading: " Out of that land [Shinar] he [Nimrod] went forth into

Italy;

and Salem,

in Ju<l;ea.

(in) Some of these writers allow Shem to have buried no more than the skull of Adam on Calvary. ii) Those who endeavour to reconcile Scripture with the
jjiinutia:

of heathen mythology, having made Ham, Jupiter

I.

But it is contended that Assyria, and built Nineveh," &c. such a construction puts a force upon the words. (p) This circumstance alone, were the inference justifiable on no other ground, would warrant the conclusion, that Inline from Noah to Abraham, as described by Moses, does not uniformly, perhaps but rarely, proceed in the direct elder branch of the patriarchal families. The same observation equally applies to the genealogy of the antediluvian patriarchs from Adam to Noah, and obviates many of the objection* that have been made against the probability of the Scriptureaccount of them, from their great age before they began to have any children.
t

VOL.

'298

HISTORY OF THE POSTDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS,

[CHAP. in.

but in the Septnagint version, Ca'inau is put between them as the son of Arphaxiul, ami the a variation that not only adds father to Salah another link to the chain of succession, but alters the chronology of this period, by adding 130 years to it, the age at which Cainan is said The insertion of to have begotten Salah. Cainan in this place, in the Septuagint, is, however, by the most critical writers, considered as an interpolation, though the traditions concerning him(q) are more numerous than of Salah, the real son and successor of Arphaxad, with respect to whom the Christian writers have observed an equal silence with Moses. He died at the age of 433. Eber, born in the 30th or 31st Jul. Per. 2433. ) A.M. 1723. ( year of Salah, is generally sup:

subsequently given to the Israelites, would, upon the same principle, apply to them, from the frequent removes of their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, during the days of their " pilgrimage as strangers and sojourners" in the laud of promise ; or on account of Abraham having left the place of his nativity, or rather his settlement at Haran, and passed over the rivers in his way from Chaldaea into Syria in which latter sense, the term Hebrew will imply " a man from beyond the nothing more than river" [Euphrates.] Shem was therefore the father of all those who crossed the river, and settled in regions distant from the original
:

have given his name to posed 2281. } B.C. a nd many Jews, as jj ie H e fo rews well as Christians, attribute to him the honour of being the founder of that nation. But as
Post Dil.
GO.

to

patriarchal dwellings. The building of Babel has been referred to the 34th year of the life of Eber, just before the birth of his son Peleg;(t) till which

j u( Per

2467

1757. Post Dil. 100.

)

A.M.
-

^B c
;

2247

period

all

mankind, who had been accustomed

:

this

name

signifies passage,

it is

that about the period of his siderable migration, among the posterity of Shem, took place, and that the name of Eber was given him in commemoration of the event ; in which sense Shem might be very significantly and appropriately called " the father of all the children of Eber,"(r) i. e. " of all the children of the dispersion. "(s) In his days, therefore, we may place the first separation of mankind from the patriarchal dwellings, which gave occasion to the conceit of building a vast city, with a tower of immense height, to serve as a rallying point, lest they should be scattered over the face of the earth. The title of Hebrews,
(q)

more probable birth, some con-

but to live together, spoke but one language God, offended at the building of that city and
tower, confounded their speech, and scattered them abroad. But this opinion is controverted, as will be seen elsewhere. To the time of Eber and his son Peleg, some have referred the golden age of the poets ;(u) and, indeed, if it can be admitted that so pacific and innocent a state ever existed on this side the flood, it is most likely to have been in the days of Noah and his three sons that is, before their removal from the plains of Shinar ; for, immediately afterwards, we read of the ambition of a Nimrod, which made the first inroads upon the simplicity of the patriarchal
;

life.

The Alexandrian

from Cainan;

Chronicle derives the Sarmatians* Eustarhius Antiochenus, the Saggodians;t

Cainun, whose sons,

his

it is

said,

deified him,

and worshipped

G. Syncellus, the Gaspheni;; Epiphanius, the Cajani; and Salianus thinks the river Caina, in India, takes its name from More modern writers, in order to reconcile St. Luke's lii)i).|| genealogy with that of the Hebrew, make Cainan and Salah the same person;** Ilolduc, who identifies him with Arphaxad, makes him the founder of the Chinese empire and adds, that the Bonzes were introduced into Japan by him or his disciples ; and that the Brachmans had their rise
;

image after his death. }| (r) Gen. x. 21.

in Chaldica soon after his arrival in the country of Etham, (on the borders of Egypt and Arabia) whither he had been sent with a colony by Noah, about 6t! years after the deHe has also been considered as the founder of luge. It the city of Haran, or Charran, or Padan-aram, in Mesopotamia, which, it is pretended, was so called from his son The renovation of the science of astrollaran, or Charran. nomy, after the flood, has likewise been attributed to this

the first and (s) Something of a migration is implied in second verses of the following chapter, (Gen. xi.) where, after " the whole earth was of one language," it declaring that " follows immediately, they journeyed from the east," &c. This was before the building of Babel, and the consequent dispersion of the builders. the (t) Some of the Rabbins and Christian Fathers place building of this celebrated tower in a subsequent period of and contend that Eber gave him that name Peleg's life which prophetically, in expectation of a division of the earth, was to happen some time after; and on this account they reckon Eber among the prophets. Mr. Bryant places the division of the earth in Peleg's first year, and the erection of
;

Babel some years afterwards. (u) Gordon. Chrun. lib. ii. cap.
tt

ii.

Pagr 70,
f

edit.

Uadcri.
.nc
ii.

** Herman. Contract. Joh. Lucidus Lud. de Dieu. Fr.

exerc. 1. sect. 12.
||

Gomari,&c.

Chrmngr. page 4*.

ih.

De

.Krcfr's.

ant.

Legem.

lib.

ii.

Apud

Heide'gg. ubi sup.

Ap\id cundeni,

}t Abu'llnrag.

lliit. Dyiuift. p.

cap. 11.

ii.

SECT.

I.]

FROM THE DELUGE TO THE BIRTH OF ABRAM.

is

supposed, but ou no sufficient authoto have built Hebron, in Canaan, and Tanis, rity, He died at the age of 404, having in Egypt.(v) lived longer than any person upon record born after the flood, and had been contemporary with Noah, Shem, Arphaxad, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, E.sau, and Jacob ; in the 19th year of which two last he died. Peleg had a brother, named Joktan, whose thirteen sons(w) were heads of nations, and whose contentions with their cousins, the sons of Peleg, after the deaths of their respective fathers, are said to have been the first occasion of castles and fortresses being built.(x) The Scripture mentions only one son of Peleg, but the orientals have given him another, spoken of indeed in Scripture, though not as Peleg's son, viz. Melchisedek ; and they say he was begotten 209 years after his brother Reu:(y) an opinion more congenial to reason, though certainly no better founded, than that of the Jews, who make Melchisedek the same with

Eber

Peleg, we shall have occasion to speak in the next Section suffice it here to repeat what has IK Tii already advanced, that it is conceived to allude rather to a physical than a political divi;

sion.

Of

the three succeeding patriarchs,

Reu,

Serug, and Nahor, little is said by either sacred or profane historians: yet some writers have attributed to their times the founding of certain cities and kingdoms, (z) the invention- of several arts, (a) and the rise or spreading of
idolatry, (b)

Terah, son of Nahor, was born /-j ui.p er 2588. the 30th year of his father's \A.M. 1878. age, in a city called Ur, situated 1 Pt Oil. 221. ' B C> 26< south of the Euphrates, in the land subsequently called Chaldaea, from the
.

in

'

Chasdim,
there.

his great-grand children,

who

settled

and begat three sons, of whom Haran, was born about his 70th year, and the youngest, Abram, in his 130th rj u Per. 2718.
l.

Here he gave himself up

to idolatry, the eldest,

Shem.

Of
(v)

the division of the earth in the days of

2008. year; the date of the intervening \ A. M. son, Nahor, not being describ- J Post DU. 351. 199e VB C ed.(c) Haran died in his native
-

Heideg. Hist. Patr. tome ii. p. 11, 13. (w) Though the Scripture assigns only thirteen sons to Joktan, the Arabs, who derive their origin from him, reckon them thirty in number, by one mother; of whom all but two, they say, settled in India. Yarab, the elder of those two, succeeded his father in the kingdom of Yemen, in Arabia The Felix, and was the first who spake the Arabic tongue. younger son, Jorham, founded the kingdom of Hejaz, containing part of Arabia Petrea, and other territories. D'Herbelot mentions four other sons of Kahtan, or Joktan, vis. Hadramaut (the same with Hazarmaveth,) Seba, Osir, and Khawilha (or Havilah.)

the

Korah of the Scriptures. We are also told, that, in the time of Serug, a king of Egypt, called Afifanus, built a ship, and invaded the inhabitants of the sea coast; and that he was succeeded by Pharaoh the sou of Sanes, from whom the Pharaohs were denominated that the giants began to increase in Nahor's time; of whom one was called Ad, a famous king of the Arabs ; and another, Hellen, who assisted at the building of the tower of Babel, and was worshipped by the Greeks: and that the troubles of Job happened iu the twenty-fifth year of the last-mentioned patriarch. (a) It is pretended, that the first mint for coining, and the
:

page 12. (y) Ebn Amid, page 28. Eutych. Annal. page 48. (z) The building of Babel is, by some, placed in the seventieth year of Reu and the beginning of Nimrod's reign, in his hundred and thirtieth. About the same time, others fix the founding of the kingdom of Egypt, and the city of Memphis, by Mizraim ; of the city of Saba, in Arabia Felix, by a certain queen; of the kingdom of Bohemia, and its metropolis Prague; and of the kingdom of the Amazons. Others attribute the building of Rages, in Media, to Reu himself: as that of Saruj, the capital of Diyar Modar, might be to his son Serug, who is supposed to have dwelt in the place where that city now stands. In Nahor's time, we are told, that Arm tines, a king of Canaan, built Sodom and Gomorrah, anti Zoar to the two fi: of which he gave the names ol his two sons, and to the last that of their mother. The oriental authors mention a king called Karun, who reigned in the days of Reu, but say not where. They pretend that he was a famous chymist, and built a city called Ukish, 01 Ukinim, with bricks of gold. But this seems to be the saim person whom the Mohammedans make coeval with Moses, am:
(x) Abu'lfarag.
;
;

foundery for gold and silver ornaments, were erected in the days of Reu. Others attribute this invention to Terah; as that of coining gold and silver is ascribed to Serug. Weights and measures are said to have been invented by Samirus, king of the Chaldaeans, in the days of the same patriarch, though the use of them seems not to have been instituted till Nahor's
first

time.

The art of weaving buted to this king.

silks,

and of dying,

is

also attri-

(b) Though the generality of authors, and particularly of the Fathers, agree to place the origin of idolatry in the time of Serug, whom some suppose to be the introducer of it, erroneously making him (if he be not a different person from the patriarch) of the race of Japheth yet others make it more early; and it is said, that, in Reu's days, mankind bad some adoring the fallen into various kinds of false worship
:

heavens, others the celestial bodies, others animals and plants, others the images of their deceased friends. About the same time, also, the custom of men's sacrificing their children to and the rise of devils is pretended to have been introduced
:

the Sabian religion,

by some, referred to the age of Nahor. Moses says, (Gen. xi. 26.) "Terah lived 70 years, and (c) begat Abraui, Nahor, and Haran, from which mode of exis,

QQ 2

Soo

HISTORY OF THE POSTDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS,

to leave Ur.

[CHAP. in.
quitted Chahhra,

country, Ur(d) of the Chaldees, before his father, leaving a son named Lot, and two daughters, one named Milcah, and the other Nahor married Milcah, his niece, Iscah. (e)

Josephus says,

lie

and Abram

his half-sister, Sarai.(f)

is

Terah, who

same whom the Asiatics call Azer, (g) is allowed to have been an idolater. The eastern authors unanimously agree, that he was a staand he is represented tuary, or carver of idols
:

generally supposed to be the

as the

first

who made images

of clay, pictures
;
:

and taught only having been in use before that they were to be adored as gods however,
are told, his employment was a very honourable one, and that he was a great man; (h) that, at length, he was converted, by the earn-

we

being not able to endure the country, after the Some would have it, loss of his son Haran. that he did not become an idolater till he was settled at Haran; and others say, he never was converted, any more than his son Nahor, who afterwards left Ur, to join his father at Haran; which seems, from him, to be called the city of Nahor :(i) but there is more probability, that both Nahor and Haran were converted ; because Lot was bred in the true religion, and Abram chose Isaac a wife out of the family of Nahor, rather than marry him to the idolatrous daughters of Canaan.(j) Wherefore Dr. Hyde supposes
to those
version.

Nahor and Haran to have been the names given two brothers at the time of their con-

est persuasions of

Abram, and prevailed upon

Abram was the eldest pression it has been concluded that son. But it has already been observed, that the same writer has in other instances adopted the same method of placing first the person in whom the greater dignity resides, and the elder last, without regard to the order of primogeniture witness the case of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and that of Moses and Aaron. In the former instance, Japheth was the
;

(f ) Ibid. ver. 29, (g)

and xx. 12.

;

Mohammedan authors write, that Azer was the father of Abram, and son of Terah and D'Herbelot says, that the Arabs always distinguish them in their but that because genealogies as two different persons Abram was the son of Terah, according to Moses, it is thereSome of
the
;

first-born, as

was Aaron

in

the latter

but

in both,

Shem

supposed (by European writers,) that he is the sains It is, however, certain that with the Azer of the Arabs.
fore

and Moses are placed first, on account of their superior digShem as the progenitor of the Jews, and Moses as nity their lawgiver: and so, in the case of Abram, he is put before his brethren, ou account of his high station as father of the faithful. But, besides this argument, an undeniable proof
;

may

Abram was born subsequent to his father's 70th year, be drawn from a comparison of ages : Terah was 205 years old when he died in Ha ran (Gen. xi. 32.) and Abram was 75 years of age when he left that place, after his father's
that

death, to go into

Canaan (Gen. xii. 4, 5.) so that Abram must have been born when Terah was 15JO years old. (d) Several writers, taking Ur, which signifies fire, for an " Haran died in appellative, read the passage, (Gen. xi. 28.) the fire, in the land of his nativity," pretending that Haran was burnt; some saying, that it happened as he endeavoured to take the images of Terah out of the fire, into which Abram had thrown them: others, as he attempted to quench the flames of an idol-temple which Abram had set on fire: and a third party say, that Abram being thrown by Nimrod into a burning furnace, Haran was intent upon the event, resolving to follow that religion which should prevail; and, seeing his brother come out unhurt by the flames, upon Niwrod's
demanding

Arab and Turkish writers expressly make Azer and Terah the same person. Azer, in ancient times, was the name of the planet Mars, and the month of March was so for the word originally called by the most ancient Persians it was therefore given by them, signifying fire, (as it still does,) and the Chaldieans, to that planet; which partaking, as was the Chalsupposed, of a fiery nature, was acknowledged, by deans and Assyrians, as a god, or planetary deity, whom of a pillar: whence they anciently worshipped under the form Azer became a name among the nobility, who esteemed it honourable to be denominated from their gods; and is found For these in the composition of several Babylonish names. reasons, the learned Hyde supposes Azer to be an heathen and that the latter name was given him on title of Terah
several
:

his conversion.
(h) The eastern writers say, that Azer was a great lord, in high favour with Nimrod, whose son-in-law be was,

and

because he excelled all others in making idols. This employment was very honourable among the Chaldivans; the person who followed it being considered as the maker of gods for
:

whom

he believed

in,

Haran

replied, In the

God

of Abram: whereupon he was cast into the furnace, and died IN THE PRESENCE OF his father, as the rabbins exIt is press what our translation renders before his father. said, the fire, had power over him, because his faith was not so strong as Abrain's, nor was he destined to so great things. Epiphanius says, that Tenth's surviving Haran, was a punishment for his daring to make images of clay and that, before him, no father had seen his children die a natural death. Josephus affirms, that Haran's sepulchre was to be seen at
;

astrology to choose the proper materials, and fix the proper time for that work ; every kind of wood, as well as stones and metals, being, by the Chaldajans, dedicated to its peculiar planet; of whose influence it was thereby believed to participate, more than any other: and an idol thus formed, under a happy position of the heavens, ami of the matter appropriated to such a planet, was
it

required profound

skill in

conceived to be rightly prepared, and made according to art. Some of the rabbius say, Terah was a priest, and the chief of them.
(i)

Compare Gen.
10.

xxiv.

10,

with Gen.

xxvii.

43,

and

Ur

ill

his time.

xviii.

<Ve.

Mi.

27, 28, 29.

(j)

Gen.

xxiv. 3.

SECT.

I.]

FROM THE DELUGE TO THE BIRTH OF ABRAM.

latter part of his Terah, designing to remove Chaldaea into the land of Canaan, took his son Abram, and

301

Jiil

Per.

2788.}

Towards the

2078. ( life, PostDil. 421. from { 192. } B. C.

A.M.

the Israelites, when they took possession of their land, as part of the remainder of them were afterwards enslaved by Solomon ;(1) but also by the subsequent expeditions of the Assyrians

Sarai his daughter-in-law, and his grandson Lot, and, leaving Ur, came to Haran, a city in the north-west parts of Mesopotamia where, having dwelt for some time, he died at the age
;

and Persians, who were both descended from Shem; and under whom the Canaanites suffered
subjugation, as well as the Israelites: not to

of 205.

mention the conquest of part of Canaan by the Elamites, or Persians, under Chedorlaomer,(m)

We now

return to

Ham

and

his posterity,

which, if a judgment is number of persons named by Moses in the three generations of this line, compared with those in

to be formed from the

the lines of Japheth and Shem, must have been the most considerable branch of Noah's family, and they accordingly had a larger portion of the earth for their share. There is, however, nothing recorded of Ham's first descendants, besides their names and some general circumstances, with the exception of Canaan and

Nimrod, though his more remote posterity are the subjects of frequent allusion in the subsequent parts of the history of Israel. In seeking for Ham in profane history, Marsh am thinks he is to be discovered under the names of Thammuz,

With regard to Japheth, we of the prophecy, in the succompletion cessive conquests of the Greeks and Romans in Palestine and Phoenicia, where the remains of the Canaanites were settled ; but especially in the total subversion of the Carthaginian power by the Romans ; besides some invasions of the northern nations, as the posterity of Thogarmah and Magog ; wherein many of them, probably, were carried away captive. It is believed, that Canaan lived and died in the country called after his name; where forprior to
find a

them

all.

Thamus, Adonis,

Osiris, Baal, Belus, Jupiter,

and the second Saturn, (k) He also says, that the Hebrew chronology requires Ham to be the same with Menes, the first king of Egypt though almost all other writers identify that prince with Mizraim, Ham's second son. Of Canaan, who is generally supposed to have been the fourth son of Ham, the sacred historian has recorded neither the time of his birth, nor the length of his life;; but in the absence of these particulars, conjectures have not been scantily promulgated. Some insist that he was born in the ark, and that, being the fruit of unseasonable incontinence, he was therefore a wicked man. It has been already
;

merly they shewed his tomb, which was twentyfive feet long, in a cave of the mountain of the Leopards, not far from Jerusalem. Canaan seems to have been known to the ancient heathens. Sanchoniatho expressly says,
Clina was the first Phoenician, or the first who called a Phoenician, (n) The Scripture mentions nothing particular, with respect to any of his sons; but the transactions of the Israelites, with their descendants, make up a great part of the early Jewish history; and will be treated of in their proper place. Nimrod was the sixth son of Gush, and, in all appearance, much younger than any of his brothers ; for Moses mentions the sons of Raamah, his fourth brother, before he speaks of "him. What the sacred historian says of him is short; and yet he says more of him than of other of the posterity of Noah, till he any

was

observed, that the curse denounced by Noah upon Canaan was peculiar to this son of Ham, and did not extend to the rest of his brethren. And, indeed, the prophecy of Noah, that Canaan should be a sen-ant of servants to his brethren, seems to have been wholly completed in him. It was fulfilled with regard to Shem, not only in that a considerable part of the seven nations of the Canaanites were made slaves to
(k
'I)

comes

to

Abraham.

He

tells us,

that

Nimrod

a mighty one in the earth ; that he began was a mighty hunter before the Lord, even to a
to be

and that the beginning of his kingdom and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. (o) From this account a great idea has been conceived of his strength and valour. Some represent him as a giant ;(p) all consider him
proverb
;

irun J3abet,

Canon, Citron,
-2Chron.
viii.

p. 23, 7, 8, 9.

3033.
(rn)

(p)

Eutych. Annul,

p. <i3.

Abu'Ifarag. p. 12.

The Hebrew

Gen.
lib.
i.

xiv.

4, 7, 8,

&c.

(n)

(o)

A pud Euseb. Prcep. Evany, Gen. x. 8, 9, 10.

word 13J (GJBBOR) which our version renders a

is,

cap. 10, p. 39.

by the Septuagint, translated a giant,

On

iniyhty one, the subject ol'

giants, see before, p. 2G7.

302
as

HISTORY OF THE POSTDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS,

[CHAP. nr.

great warrior. It is generally thought, that, underthe words miifiity /muter, is to be by some of stood, that he was a threat tyrant; but the rabbins interpret those words favourably, savins;, that Nimrod was qualified by a peculiar and that dexterity and strength for the chase, he took; and he offered to God the game which several of the moderns are of opinion, that this passage is not to be understood of his tyrannical oppressions, or of hunting of men, but of writer of great authority in the beasts.(q) east has a singular notion, that Nimrod, by of Bahunting, provided food for the builders
;i

epresent him as a rebel against God, inpersuadng the descendants of Noah to disobey the divine command to disperse, and in setting them to build the tower of Babel, with an impious design of scaling heaven.(s) They brand him as an ambitious usurper, and an insolent oppressor and make him the author of the adoration of
;

the

men, ire,(t) of idolatrous worship given first persecutor on the score of religion, (u)

to

and

bel, (r) It must

be owned, that the phrase, before the Lord, may be taken in a favourable sense, and as a commendation of a person's good qualities
;

generally thought to have been the the flood ; (v) though some king authors, supposing a plantation or dispersion made kings in prior to that of Babel, have Mizraim is supseveral countries before him. posed by many, who contend for the antiquity

Nimrod

is

first

after

though in this place the generality of expositors understand it otherwise. There is nothing in the short history of Nimrod which carries an air of reproach, except his name, which signifies a rebel; whence commentators in general have interpreted every passage relating to him to his disadvantage.
(q) Bochart. Phaleg. cap. 12, p. 230.
(r)
lib. iv.

of the Egyptian monarchy, to have begun his and others, reign much earlier than Nimrod ;(w) from the uniformity of the languages spoken in
Assyria, Babylonia, Syria, and Canaan, affirm those countries to have been peopled before the confusion of tongues.(x) The four cities(y) Moses gives to Nimrod, made a large kingdom in those early times,

They

when few kings had more than one:

by one of the smallest of
his creatures,
all.t

only

it

cap. 12.

Perizon, Orig. Bab.

him who

insolently-

boasted himself to be the lord of

;

Abu'lfarag. Hist. Dynast, p. 12. author says, that Nimrod built this tower, (s) An Arabian ascend to heaven to see that God, who had that he

delivered Abrani from the fiery furnace into which he had cast him. They worked at this building three years, and when Nimrod had got on the top of it, he wondered to see the heavens as far above him as they were before; but his

might

make Nimrod the author of the sect of (t) The orientals the Magi, or worshippers of fire they tell us, hat accidenfire rise out of the earth, at a great distance from tally seeing and appointed one Anhim, in the east, he worshipped it desham to attend the fire there, and to throw frankincense
! ;

into

it.

astonishment increased, when this tower, and another, which had been built for the same purpose, were successively overthrown. Still persisting in his design, he determined on being carried to heaven in a chest, borne by four monstrous birds: but after wandering for some time through the air, he fell down on a mountain with Mich a force as made it shake; to which,
as this writer imagines, alludes that passage in the Koran, the mountains though the stratagems of the impious make

Jewish, Christian, and Mohammedan authors, was Abram, who, by the Hebrew chronology, might have been his con-

(u)

The person persecuted by Nimrod, according

to several

temporary.

tremble."

not make war with

disappointment, finding he could of acknowledging his power, proceeded to persecute those who adored any besides himself; but God, by dividing Nimrod's subjects, and confounding their language, deprived him of the greater part of his people, and plagued those who continued to adhere to him, by a cloud of gnats, which destroyed almost all oi Another author adds, that one of the gnats, having them. entered into the nostril or ear of Nimrod, penetrated to one

Nimrod by

make him not only the first king of (v) The eastern writers was the first who Babel, but of all the world ; and say he wore a crown, the model of which he took from the figure of one he had seen in the sky: for, being pleased with the for an artist, and had a appearance, he sent immediately crown of gold cast in the same form, which he put upon his
head ; whence his subjects took occasion to down to him from heaven. Can. p. 18, 23. (w) Vide Marsh. C/iron.
||

this

say, that

it

came

God

in person, instead

(x)
(y)

Hornius.

Ad

21. Sulpit. Sever, p.

of the membranes of his brain, where, growing larger every intolerable pain, that he was obliged day, it gave him such to cause his head to be beaten with a mallet, in order to procure some ease; and that he suffered this torture for the
space of four hundred years,
*

God

some judgment concerning might be able to make the extent of the first Babylonish kingdom, could we fix the but this is very difficult all situations of these four cities of them having been long since destroyed, and authors about them. There are even differing so much in opinions two traditions, with regard to the ruins of Babel: some a village on the Euphrates, about placing them at Felugia, 36 miles to the south-west of Bagdad, on the Tigris; others, about the same distance from Felugia southward, on the first
:

We

being willing to punish

of those rivers.
Vide Eutych. Annales, p. 63, 64. EbnAniid. p. 29. Eutych. Annul,

Cap. xiv. vcr. 46. Vide D'Herbclot. BM.

Ebn Amid.
p. 63.

p.

29.

Orient, art. Nerorod.

||

SECT.

I.]

FROM THE DELUGE TO THE BIRTH OF ABRAM.

.303

must be observed, that possessions might ;it first have been large, uiul afterwards divided into several parcels; and Nimrod being the le;i< r
It

thesis seems to claim a preference, conceives that the foundation of Babel w;is the commencereign, agreeably to the literal of the expression of Moses, " the beginimport ning of his kingdom was Babel," &c. Authors have taken much pains to find Nimrod in profane history: some have imagined him to be the same with Belus, the founder of the Babylonish empire ; others, with Ninus, the founder of that of Assyria some think him the same with Evechous, the first Chaldaean king after the deluge ; while others perceive a
:

ment of Nimrod's

of a nation, we may suppose his subjects settled within those limits. Whether he became possessed of those cities by conquest, or otherwise, does not appear it is most probable he did not build Babel, all the posterity of Noah seeming to have been equally concerned in that affair; nor does it appear, that he built the other three, Though the founding of them, and many more, with other works, are attributed to him.' It may .seem also a little strange, that Nimrod should be preferred to the regal dignity, and enjoy the most cultivated part of the earth then known, rather than any other of the elder chiefs or heads of nations, even of the branch of Hani. Perhaps it was conferred on him for his dexterity in hunting ; or, it may be, he did not assume the title of king till after the death of
:

his father Cash, who might have been settled there before him,(z) and left him the sovereignty: but we incline to think, that he seized Shinar from the descendants of Shem, driving out

Asshur, who from thence went and founded Nineveh, and other cities in Assyria.

The Mosaic
which
quent
it

history furnishes

no data, by

great resemblance between him and Bacchus, both in actions and name. Some of the Mohammedan writers suppose Nimrod to have been Zohak, a Persian king of the first dynasty; others, Cay Caus, the second king of the second race and some of the Jews say he is the same with Ainraphel, the king of Shinar, in Moses. But Mr. Bryant contends that he was the same with Alorus and Orion, and the founder of the dynasty of shepherd-kings.(b) The Scripture mentions nothing as to the death of Nimrod but authors have taken care, that such an essential circumstance in his Some of the history should not be wanting. rabbins pretend he was slain by Esau, (c)
; ;

to fix the reign of Nimrod ;(a) and subsewriters, left thus at liberty, have assigned

whom they make his contemporary. There is a

he was killed by the fall of the tower of Babel, which was overthrown by tempestuous winds, while Nimrod was in it. Others say, that as he led an army against
;

tradition, that

to various periods

general dispersion, cording to Archbishop Usher's computation, the building of Babel, the confusion of tongues, and the dispersion of mankind, happened in the first and second years of Peleg's life ; and the of Nimrod began about twelve or thirteen reign years afterwards: but Mr. Bryant, whose hypo(z) A Persian author of great authority affirms, that Cush, or Cutha, was king of the territory of Babel, and resided in Erac ; and attributes to him the making of the river Cutha.* Dr Hyde places the original seat of Cush in the same country, which lie calls the most ancient Ciis/t and says, that his

some dating it before the and others afterwards. Ac:

Abraham, God sent a squadron of gnats, which and particularly destroyed most of them Nirnrod, whose brain was pierced by one of
those insects. Having thus collected, from writers of various
The latter say, he reigned in Al Sowad is, Nimrods. 400 years; and was succeeded by a prince of the same faand mily, called Nabat Ebn Koud, who ruled 100 years some of the former pretend that Bokhtanser [or rather Bakht Nasr, the name given by the orientals to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon] was of his race.
that
;

.posterity removing into Arabia, Cush also.

(a)

it

thence took the name of

say, that Nimrod reigned in Al Sowad, that is, the black country ; for so they call Irak Arabi, from the black tents of the Scenite Arabs scattered over the

The Arabs

(c)

They
:

tell

the following story, as the occasion of this

;

accident
his

province.

They suppose

his father

Cush resided

at Erac, in the province

of Babel ; though Babel is generally thought, by Christian authors, to have been the regal seat of Nimrod. (b) Jn the history of the Babylonians, this subject will be farther discussed; suffice it here to observe, that some Christian and Mohammedan historians call the most ancient
lings of the Babylonians,
* Al Tabari in cap.

who succeeded Nimrod, Niinaredali,

Sarte,

which God made for Adam, was with and that when Noah and his sons quitted that vessel, Ham took it by which means it after\\anls fell to Nimrod, who putting it on, all kinds of beasts and birds came and fell down before him, as thinking him to excel in strength, and made him king over them, according to the text, where he is said to be a mighty hunter before the Lord. Esau, seeing the coat upon Nimrod, conceived so strong a desire for it, that he slew him, and stripped him
that the coat
in

body

the ark

of

it.

De Marts

apud Hyde De

Rel. Vet.

Pen.

p. 40.

Eliezer Pirke, cap.

24

304
times,
religions,

HISTORY OF THE POSTDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS,

events, of the removal of
first

[CHAP. in.
their their dispersion The authorities

and countries, whatever is the reader's notice in the history of the worthy postdiluvian patriarchs, we now proceed to a more general review of the state of mankind prior to, and at the period of the dispersion.

mankind from

abode about Ararat, and

SECTION

II.

REMOVAL OF MANKIND FROM ARARAT TO SHINAR. BUILDING OF BABEL, AND CONFUSION

OF TONGUES.
the family of Noah had increased so as to render its longer stay in the vicinity of Ararat inconvenient, a removal towards the south took place, along the banks of the Euphrates, till, coming to the plains of Shinar, a new settlement was formed. The words of Moses are, " as they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and

WHEN

over the face of the earth. against this construction are great, so far as names are of consequence; but in the absence of more explicit documents, it is allowable to raise hypotheses by reasoning on such facts as are recorded. During their abode in the plains of Shinar, the sons of Noah conceived the project of " a building city and a tower," in order to make themselves " a name," or rather a sign, lest they should " be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. This tower, "(g)
says Moses, they impiously designed should reach to heaven ; and various are the conjectures that have been made as to the motive that could have suggested so vain a thought. But whatever it might be, it was displeasing in the eyes of God, and He accordingly obliged them to
their enterprise by confounding their language ; so that, unable to understand each other, they named the city Babel, which signifies

At what period this they dwelt there. "(d) migration took place, as it is uncertain, so it has, in common with all similar cases, given rise to a variety of opinions. The more general notion is, that it occurred in the days of Peleg; but this could hardly be, for Moses expressly " in his says, that days the earth was divided ;"(e)
and between the migration in question, and the division of the earth, some years at least must
be supposed to have elapsed, to allow sufficient time for the plan of the proposed tower, the fabrication of the bricks, and the progress of
the building. Some writers, as already observed, place this event at the birth of Eber;(f) an opinion apparently better founded ; because it allows the space of thirty-four years for the various transactions implied in the two groat
'

abandon

confusion,

and dispersed.

is generally understood as the of the settlement of the first nations, epocha and therefore historians have placed it in the

This event

same year that Peleg, whose name signifies division, was born, in the year after the flood
101, according to the Hebrew supputation or 401, according to the Samaritan; or 531, according to the Septuagint; when the work, according to some, had been carried on -2-2 It is neveryears, and according to others 40. theless to be suspected that the name of Peleg refers to some event even more important than the dispersion of mankind by the confusion of
;

marginal reading renders the words which has been preferred by many writers, who have supposed the mountains of Ararat to have stood much more to the westward than they are placed by De Lisle, and other more modern geographers. Yet if the Cardu mountains be the real -Ararat, this reading is to be preferred, as they lie north-eastward of the city of Senyar, or Shinar, w hence the plain obtained its name: but if Mount Musis, or Masius, in Armenia, be the true Ararat, the reading " they journeyed from the east," may be admitted without violence to any geographical position ; for Mount Masius is more than two degrees eastward of Shinar; and if the sons of Noah nil-red the plain on the north-west side, as they would naturally do, in order to have the advantage of the waters of the Euphrates for their flocks and herds, rather than traverse the mountainous districts on the east, they must of necessity have journeyed from the east, though at the same time they must have also travelled from the north:
\\. \.

(d) Gen. " from the

The

the direction of

their

march would

therefore

be to the

east," eastward,

south-weit.
x. 25. has already been remarked, that the name Eber signifies passage, and Hebrew, a man from beyond the Euphrates; both which significations are strongly indicative, not only of the time, but also of the place of this migration from the original settlement of Noah. The time is fixed at the birth of Eber, in the 6G7th year of Noah, 07 years after
(e) (f) It

Gen.

the flood; and as to the place, from beyond the Euphrates, on inspecting the maps belonging to this work, it will be seen that between Mount Masius, and Ihe north-eastern branch of the Euphrates, there is a plain where Noah and his family originally dwelt, and whence the passage took place, across that branch of the river, and along ils stream beneath the mountains of Cardu, into the plains of Shinar; and in this
sense, the family of
tin:

Euphrates.

Eber may be deemed men from beyond (g) Gen. xi. 4.

O* BABEL

SECT.

II.]

FROM THE DELUGE TO THE BIRTH OF ABRAM.

his

305

languages; because the means of such dispersion do not seem to imply so violent an action as the

term division requires; and therefore many creditable writers have supposed that some physical division, occasioned by the gradual desiccation of the earth after the flood, took place about the time of Peleg's birth, and that the continents of Africa and America were then separated from the main land, with their
inhabitants, rational and irrational. Some writers have imagined that the tower

of Babel was undertaken out of fear of a second deluge ; and therefore the projectors resolved to raise a structure of sufficient height to fly to, in case of danger.(h) Others, that, knowing beforehand(i) they should be dispersed through all the countries of the world, they built this tower to defeat the design of the Almighty ; because, having a tower of such vast height as they proposed, those who were at a distance

power, to prevent a total and irrecoverable But even this is scarcely admissible, because the evil actually took place within a very few ages afterward; and had it been the sole design of the Almighty to frustrate such a consequence in this instance, it is to be presumed that he would also have interfered in after-times to prevent a similar apostasy. But whatever might be the scheme of these builders, it seems evidently to have been practicable, from the interposition of the Deity on the "occasion because it must not be supposed that he would have wrought a miracle in order to defeat what, had it been let alone, would have overthrown itself. Many, considering the confusion of tongues,
defection. (m)
;

and the consequent dispersion of mankind, as

a divine judgment, have deemed the building of Babel an evil attempt ; and being concerned for the honour of Sheui and his race, will not allow them to have been present at it. Others, on the contrary, insist, that not only Shem, but Noah and Abrain, assisted in the work while a third party suppose that Nimrod, who is generally looked upon as its chief promoter, retired into Assyria, because he would not give his assent to it. But there is scarcely a fact in all the Mosaical history which seems more firmly established than this, that all mankind were concerned in this business of Babel and it is certain that the family of Shem partook of the doom of the rest of their brethren in the confusion of tongues for the dialects of Elam, or Persia, and of Assyria and Mesopotamia, were different, as were also those even of the descendants of Eber, the Arabs and the Jews : while the Canaanites spoke the same language
; : ;

might easily find their way back again. The advocates of this opinion prefer the reading of the Latin Vulgate, " before they should be scattered abroad :" though Perizonius renders Ott? (SHCM) which we translate name, by sign;(j) and thus, taking the two readings together, the " Let us make us a sign before passage will run, we be scattered." But had either of these been their real design, they would rather have chosen some high mountain, such as Ararat, for their mark, than have built any tower whatever ; for it can scarcely be supposed, that they were so foolish as to imagine they could really reach heaven with their structure and though Moses
;

so expresses himself, his words ought not to convey any other idea than do those of the

same

and his countrymen, which as walled up to heaven, (k) when cities, third class they speak of very strong places. of writers suppose that the of this tower was top not designed to reach to heaven,(l) but to be consecrated to the heavenly bodies; in other words, that on its top was to be raised a temple for the worship of the sun, moon, stars, fire, air,
historian

describe

as the

Hebrews.

to the building itself, the informs us that burnt bricks were Scripture used instead of stone, and slime, or bitumen, for mortar. According to an eastern tradition,

With respect

&c. and that therefore the true Deity interposed

(h) Josephus. Antiq. lib. i. cap. 5. p. 50. Basnagc. Antiq. Judaiq. torn.

three years were occupied in making and burning those bricks, each of which was 13 cubits long, 10 broad, and 5 thick.(n) The
tower, whose top shall be to the heavens," i.e. "consecrated to the heavenly bodies." This writer supposes the (m) Tenison, on Idolatry. pyramidal form of the tower to be emblematic of a tlame of tire ; and therefore concludes that it was erected in honour of the sun, as the most probable cause of the drying up of
the flood.
(n)

ii.

Eutychius. Annul. cap. 2. sect. 27.

p. 41i).

Usher. Annul. A.M. 17o7. Pcrizon. Origin. Babylon, cap. xi. p. 103. (k) Deut. i. 28. 'ix. 1. The words may reach are not in the Hebrew; and (1) therefore the sentence may be rendered, " Let us build a
(i)

(j)

Ebu Amid.

p. 14.

Eutych. Anna!, p. 53.

VOL.

I.

RR

306

HISTORY OF THE POSTDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS.

[CHAP. in.

bitumen was a pitchy substance, brought from a city called Is, or Hit, in the neighbourhood of
Babylon.(o)

The

by the sons of

oriental writers describe the city built Noah as 313 fathoms in length,

and 150 in breadth; the walls being 5533 fathoms high, and thirty-three broad and the tower ten thousand fathoms, or twelve miles in height ;(p) dimensions which bear no porporEven Jerom affirms, from tion to each other. the testimony of eye-witnesses, who pretended to have examined the tower carefully, that
;

Such was the celebrated tower of Babel, memorable for the great event of the confusion of languages, consequent upon its projection, as well as by its being the original of the temple of Belus, deemed among the ancients as one of the seven wonders of the world. But, such is the transitory nature of all that pertains to man, it is now a heap of ruins, and so utterly defaced,
that the people of the country are not certain of In general, travellers have been its real site. induced, from a tradition of the inhabitants, to designate a spot, about eight or nine miles to the west or north-west of Bagdad, as the ruins of Babel.(u) Rauwolf supposes he found the ruins of Babylon near Felujia, on the Euphrates, about 36 miles south-west of Bagdad.(v) And Delia Valle was, by another tradition, directed to a third place, about two days' journey lower, near an ancient city, called Hella, on the same river ;(w) which last-named ruins have been

was four miles high;(q) and Ado raises the height to the extravagant degree of 5000
it

miles.

The only account to be depended on, supposing this tower to be the same that stood in the temple of Belus, afterwards built about it by Nebuchadnezzar, must be sought for in profane authors. Herod otus(r) describes it as a
furlong in length, and as much in breadth. Strabo(s) determines the height to have been a furlong, or 660 feet, the eighth part of a mile
:

from which computation it appears to have exceeded the largest of the Egyptian pyramids in height by 179 feet, though it fell short of it It conin the square of the base by 33 feet.(t) sisted of eight square towers, placed one upon another, gradually decreasing in breadth and
width, with a platform, upon the principle of an inclined plane, passing on all its sides from the bottom to the top, for the purpose of easy ascent ; this gave it much the resemblance of a pyramid, and it is so called by Strabo. This antique form, joined to the extraordinary height of the structure, conduce to a belief that it is the same tower mentioned by Moses, as projected and begun by the sons of Noah, but

examined by our own countryman, But it seems most likely Gregory.(x.) that none of these remains are relics of the original Babel, but rather of some later structures
carefully

Mac

of the Arabs, mostly intended as watch-towers. With respect to the confusion of languages, it is a subject of so mysterious a nature, and so enveloped in uncertainty, that the less said of New languages were formed, by the it is best. immediate interposition of the Almighty ; but

by what means, Scripture is silent, and philoThe Jews, who are sophy inquires in vain.

completed by Nebuchadnezzar.
(o) Herodotus (lib. Clio, p. 32) says, that by the city Is, eight days' journey from Babylon, there runs a small river, of the same name, into the Euphrates, whose waters carry with them many lumps of bitumen, which are conveyed thence to the walls of Babylon.

Hebrew is the the confusion to have original tongue, suppose been effected by the ministration of angels, seventy of whom were each set over a nation, to which he taught a peculiar language ; but as Israel fell to the lot of God's own inheritance,(y) they were permitted to retain the primitive
clamorous
in insisting that the
that a sight of the remains cannot but excite admiration at the veracity with which the writings of that great prophet were penned ; but Tavernier declares that, according to the Mosaic description, there is not the least probability of this monument, however ancient, being the ruins of the tower of

of says, the quantity

it

Diodorus Siculus bitumen in those parts

(lib.
is

ii. p. 100,) so great, that

not only for their buildings, but supplies the inhabitants also for fuel, being dried and burned. These springs of bitumen are much celebrated by the Arabs and Persians. (p) Ebn Amid and Eutychius, before quoted. lq) Lib. v. Comment, in Esaiam.
(r)

Babel ; and he conceives the tradition of the Arabs, that this ruin was once a beacon, built by one of their princes, to be who preferable to the current opinion of the country people, call it the tmver of Nimrod.
(v)

Rauwolf s

Travels, 1574, Part II. cap.

vii.

p. 164.

Lib.

i.

p. 33.
p.

() Lib.
(t)

xvi.

1073.

GreaVes's Descrip. of the Pyramids, p. 68, 69. (u) Travellers disagree in their sentiments of this tower, or ruin : Boullaye says it has been so well described by Moses,

Viaggi di Pietro Delia Valle, Part This writer et seq. (x) Sepulchres of'the Ancients, p. 35, thinks he has discovered in these ruins a great resemblance of the tower of Belus, as described by Herodotus; but they do not correspond in dimensions. (y) Deut. xxxii. 9.
(w)
II. lett. 17.

SECT.

III.]

DISPERSION OF MANKIND.
" he

307

the latter part of this conceit, a very fatal objection is raised, from however, the fact of the Hebrew being the vernacular tongue of theCanaanites, from whom, it is highly after he probable, it was learned by Abraham, left his native Chaldaea, unless it were also retained in that country ; and we have no reason to suppose, from the history of the Canaanites and Chaldaeans, that they formed any part of " the Lord's Others portion," but the contrary. have supposed that God did no more than cause men to forget their first language, or to affix new and various ideas to the old words which is a preferable conclusion ; for it cannot be imagined that any language was perfectly formed in the first instant of the confusion

tongue.

To

warrior, and a rebel against the Lord."(b) They raised a tower up to heaven ; founded on the expression already alluded to, " its top shall reach to heaven;" for this impiety, the gods sent a strong wind against them, by which they were scattered to the four quarters of the earth, and their work was overthrown.

was a

From this disguised representation of the Hebrew text, the Greek and Roman poets,
without doubt, borrowed their fable of the giants waging war with the gods, and piling mountain upon mountain, in order to scale heaven.

SECTION

III.

certain ideas might be impressed upon men's minds as the objects of particular primitive words ; afterwards different climates must have had a considerable share in the formation of

sounds by their influence on the vocal organs

while the invention of
trades,

new

arts,

sciences,

and

would give birth to a variety of new of the primitive expressions, compounded sounds, or borrowed from other dialects. As to the primitive language, most learned writers give the palm of originality to the

DISPERSION OF MANKIND, AND PLANTING Of THE FIRST NATIONS. POPULATION OF THE EARTH AT THAT PERIOD. SETTLEMENTS OF THE POSTERITY OF JAPHETH. POSTERITY OF SHEM. POSTERITY OF HAM. THE CANAANITES. CONCLUSION.

much disputed by rather a subject of philoothers but as this logical criticism, than of historical inquiry, it is unnecessary to enter upon it in this place. An account of the tower of Babel, and of the confusion of tongues, is given by several ancient authors. Herodotus, as already stated, saw and described the tower. Sybilline oracle, still extant, speaks of both ; as did Eupolemus
Hebrew, though
:

it

has been

is

On which Bochart(z) observes, that these things were taken from the Chaldaeans,
andAbydenus.

preserved many remains of ancient facts, though they scrupled not to add their own fictions. They relate that Babel was built by the giants, because Nimrod, one of the builders, is called in the Hebrew msj (GZBBOR) a mighty man ; or, as in the Septuagint, yiya?, a giant. The giants, they farther say, sprang from the earth which assertion they ground on Gen. x. 11, " he [Asshur, another Babel builder] went forth out of that land" [earth.] And then, these giants waged war with the gods because it is said of Nimrod, " he was a mighty hunter before the Lord ;"(a) which has been rendered,
; ;

who

THE primitive fathers distinguish between the division of the earth, and the dispersion of mankind, making them two distinct transactions. They suppose that Noah, to whom the earth was well known before the flood, divided it among his three sons, prior to the removal from Shinar, spoken of in the last section; whence they afterwards dispersed to take possession of their respective shares. And so was this notion believed, that Philastrius firmly condemns the contrary opinion as heretical. Epiphanius maintains that the sons of Noah cast lots for their shares in the city of Rhinocorura, or Rhinocolura, on the confines of Egypt and Palestine and Eusebius states that Noah, in obedience to the divine command, made a will, by which he bequeathed the continent of Europe, with its islands, and the northern parts of Asia, to Japheth and his posterity ; all the East to Shem ; and Africa to Ham. It is hardly necessary to add, that neither of these opinions have the least support
;

from Scripture. Other writers have supposed a double dispersion: one at the birth of Peleg; the other of the builders of Babel. And Sulpitius Severus
intimates, that
first

mankind increased so fast, in the years after the flood, that they had peopled
(a)

(z)

Gregr. Sacr.

lib.

i.

cap. 13. edit. 1692.

Gen.

\. 9.

(b) Jarclii iu loco.

RR 2

308

HISTORY OF THE POSTDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS.

cities

[CHAP. ni.

several countries and islands,

where they built and towns, before the foundation of many Babel, to which place he collects them together, to be a second time dispersed, pursuant to the partition of Noah. That some movement, either of general distook place among persion, or partial migration, the sons of Noah, about the time of Eber's
birth, as related in a former section ; that the final division of the earth, either political or the days of Peleg; and physical, occurred in that the overthrow of the Babel project was in some manner connected, in time or circumstance, or both, with the last-named event ; are and therefore positions warranted by Scripture, to be preferred to any hypotheses, however ingenious, of human invention. The time of Peleg's life, in which the division

birth, in the first after the deluge.

year of the second century

in

The number of persons mentioned

the

Scripture, at the period of this dispersion, amounts to no more than 57 ; (d) and as to the

generations, they are but two in tbe line of Japheth, three in that of Shem, and as many, in that of so that were we to limit our calculation of the population of the earth at that epocha, it would fall much short of what the nature of the subject requires. But as there

Ham

were certainly many collateral generations procreated between the flood and the division of the earth, unnoticed by Moses, the interval of time, 100 years, must be considered, as well as
the longevity of those who lived in the first ages after the flood. In order to account for the early beginning of monarchies, and the great armies set on foot

The Jews

of the earth took place, has been much disputed. place it in his last year, in which they are followed by Jerom, and other Christian Petau prefers his 52d year; chronologers Dr. Cumberland, his 79th year; Salianus and
:

Kircher, the year of the flood 275, answering

But if by the days of to the 175th of Peleg. Peleg are to be understood the whole of his life, or the middle or latter end of it, the force of
his

name

will

be

lost

he having nothing more

(according to Ctesias) by Ninus, whom we may take for Asshur, or his son, chronologers have suited their calculations to their different hypotheses. Usher supposes that in the 102d year after the flood, mankind might have increased to the number of 388,605 males, and as many females. But, as Perizonius well observes, the Scriptures do not suppose such multitudes in being at that time, nor did the nature of the
transaction

peculiar in his history to deserve that appellation than any of his progenitors, even so far

back as Noah, who were all living at the times above quoted, as were likewise many of his descendants. The name, the sacred historian " in his informs us, was given him, because v the earth was divided (c) it must theredays
:

have been peculiar to Peleg, of all the sons of Eber, or Shem, in the patriarchal line, to be born just at the time of the division alluded to and for this reason Archbishop Usher, whom we choose to follow,
fore
;

places the division of the earth just before, or at the time of Peleg's
(c) Gen. x. 25. (d) It is, however, said of each of the patriarchs, after " naming their successor, that they begat sons and daughters."
(e)
I.

the first plantations require it ; with only a few, and those small being And it is to be considered, that each families. of the colonies increased in proportion as they removed farther from the centre of their migration, before they arrived at the countries where they finally settled ; for the earth was not planted at once, but by degrees. And, for the satisfaction of the reader, we have inserted in the subjoined note, the calculations of three very ingenious writers, who have bestowed considerable attention to the subject; the result of whose researches places the number of mankind at the

made

period in question, at from 3000 to 32,000. (e)

Years
of

Number of
s "'"<

the flood.

born.

The
8 31 54 77
100
J-23

calculation of Father Petau.

Years of
the flood.

Number

of

sons born.

8 64 512
4,090 32,768
,

109 192 215 238 201 284

16,777,210 134,217,728
1,073,741,8-2
1

8,580,034,592 88,719,476,736 549,755,8 13,888

Total

628,292,358,728

22,144
2,097,152

146

The double 1,250,584,717,456 This table shews the number of the male descendants of

SECT.

III.]

DISPERSION OF MANKIND.
some have

309

As to the order, or method, wherein these first

plantations of the earth were made,

310

HISTORY OF THE POSTDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS.

[CHAP. in.

every one seizing on such countries as he casually arrived at.(f ) Yet if we attentively consider the account given of this transaction, by the sacred historian, we shall find nothing more foreign to his intention, than a precipitate and confused dissipation: for, first, we are told, with regard to the sons of Japheth, the eldest branch of Noah's posterity, that by these were
the isles of the gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations ;(g) in like manner Moses con-

nation dwelt, and had their lot, by themselves; and in every nation the families also dwelt, and had their lots by themselves.

Some who have undertaken to give an account

of these
first

settlements of the children of Noah,

having founded their conjectures chiefly on the similitude of names, have ransacked the whole world for names of people, countries, rivers, mountains, and cities, which had but the least affinity with those of the planters they were at a loss to fix but others have taken the precau;

cludes the account he gives of the sons of Ham, the youngest branch of Noah's posterity, These are the sons of Ham, with these words
:

tion to lay

down some

rules for their

more sure

proceeding, in this inquiry, and which may be reduced to two: viz. 1. To suffer ourselves to

after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, in their nations ; (h) and that of the descendants of Shem ends thus : These are the

sons of Shem, after their families, after their in their lands, after their nations. (i) From which texts we see a twofold order in these first plantations. First they were ranged
tongues,

be directed chiefly by Scripture, not neglecting, however, the light which may be had from profane authors. 2. To seek for the original plantations within a reasonable compass of the earth, and in an orderly disposition; looking;
for the families for the nations

where we find the nation, and where we find the families.

this is

according to their nations, and then every nation was ranked after their families ; so that every
Septuagint, above one thousand nine hundred, this addition of above six hundred years, at a time when mankind, at a mean, doubled in sixty years, will produce above a thousand times as many as this table, or the earth, for certain, does contain at present. So that, if that longer chronology were allowed, the earth, in all probability, must have had many more inhabitants in the days of David, than it has in our days, contrary to the certain observations of the increase of mankind. And the like is to be said in due proportion of the Samaritan, or any other chronology, which lengthens the space since the deluge." The following table of the ages of all the persons mentioned in, or to be collected from the Scriptures, ffom the Deluge to the death of David, is from the same author:

But, after

all,

about which

we ought
/'

one of those inquiries not to be over solicitous ;

130 123 120 125 125
125

Miriam, about

Num.

xxxiii. 39.
7.

V Aaron ) Moses

Dcut. xxxiv.

S Korah,

about

I Dathan, about
Josh.
xxiv. 29. f

Sam.

iv.

V_Abiram, about Joshua JRahab, about Boaz, about 15. JObed, about \E\i
Jesse, about

110

135 125 110 98

95 80 70

2 Sam.

xix. 32.
v.

Barzillai,

about

Gen.

xi.

10, 11. 12, 13. 14, 15.

Shem
Arphaxad
Salah

16, 17. 18, 19.

Heber
Peleg

20,21.
22, 23. 24, 25. 32.

Reu
Serug

600 438 433 464 239 239 230

.148

4.

David

Mr. Whiston observes from this table, that the gradual decrease of the length of men's lives did not stop, nor was the standard of seventy or age of man reduced to the present
eighty years,

Nahor
Terah

Chap.

xxv.
xxiii.

7. (
1. (

Abraham
Sarah

205 175
127 180 137 147 110 137 133 133 180 137 137 137 137 137
3

till the days of king David ; and that the 90th Psalm, where the lives of the Israelites seem to be stated, (if it was composed by Moses, as the title informs us,) had regard the lives of the murmurers in the only to the shortening of wilderness,* by a divine judgment, (when all those were to in the space of forty years, who were grown men at

xxxv. 28. Isaac j xxv. 17. \ Ishmael xlvii. 28. Jacob 1. 26. f Joseph Exod. vi. 16. |Levi 18. I Kohath i. 1 4. < Hebron, about Job, with xlii. 16. ( Job, about Exod. vi. 16 20. f Amram
\ Segub, about < Izhar, about

perish the exodus) without any respect to the common period of human life at that time. Barzillai, in the days of David, is the first mentioned in Scripture who was reckoned so old, as not likely to live long at eighty years of age ; t and David himself is the first who is said to have died, and that in a

soon as seventy years, good old age, and full of daysj so which are the particular numbers mentioned in that Psalm, and the standard of human life in all succeeding ages. Euseb. Prep. Evang. lib. ix. (f) Hestiaeus Miles, apud
cap. 15.
(g)
(i)

Gen.

x. v.

(h) Ibid, ver 20.

JPallu, about VJochebed, about

Ibid. ver. 31. Xumb.

xiv. 29, 35.
t

2 Sam. xix. 35.

Chron. xxix.

J.

N:

r/.s-

ANCIENT WORLD
;illiol)l>
III*'

of

t/lf

DfScclKl.illls
,
,

<>!'

No.ili;

r/i<-

.;:

\
'

I-:,
.

,/'!,/ ,'f

'/'//>'

.l/f'ff/f/f/ ///.I'

I'S

Ito

LomiitiH/r Kiuct

,:f

Ai

l/ir

i-'<li,>i,itf

/,-

/'<ihli../ir,l

In .V

/.it

f ,-//>,>/ .t/ fi' /,?/-_

SECT.

III.]

POSTERITY OF JAPHETH.
sephus supposed to have peopled Galatia for he says the Galatians were anciently called Gomerians .(m) Bochart is of the same opinion.(n) But it appears from other authorities, that Galatia received its name from the settlement there of a body of Gauls, who first invaded Asia Minor under Brennus, some time after they had sacked Rome.(o) The Cimmerians, or Cimbri, by some considered the same with the Gauls or Celtes, are derived from Gomer
; ;

for the originals of very few nations can be traced so high as the dispersion of Babel, much the part being subject to the utmost un-

greater

certainty. Since the rirst migrations of mankind, countries have often changed their names, and

people their countries, without being observed by historians. Most of the arguments in inquiries of this nature result from the identity or similitude of the names of people and countries; but, for aught we know, the nations we take to be very ancient, are modern in respect of the times next the flood ; and the names we suppose
cities from antiquity, as well as ourselves. It may are of late original be also, that many of the names of people and

to

have been retained by

and the ancient Britons, now represented by the Welsh, still call themselves Kumero, or Cymro, and Cumeri. To Gomer, therefore, we
attribute the origin of the Phrygians, at least a part of them, the Germans, Gauls, Cimbri or Danes, and Britons, (p)

may

countries mentioned in Scripture were peculiar to the Jews, since we find them nowhere else and as that nation has lost the remembrance of the greater part of its antiquities, it has become as bad a guide in these matters, as the Greeks, who began to keep records too late for us to expect any great assistance from them. In conformity with the plan above laid down, we shall enter this " devious and uncertain track" with the heads of each branch of Noah's family, and pursue it through their several
:

ASHKENAZ, the eldest son of Goiner, is placed by some in the north-west of Asia Minor, on the borders of the Euxine, or, as it was first called by the Greeks, Pontus Axinus, which
has been looked upon as a token of his name, corrupted from the Sea of Anhkenaz.(f\) RIPHATH, or DIPHATH, second son of Gomer, settled eastward of Ashkenaz, and was founder of the Paphlagonians, who, according

ramifications.

POSTERITY OF JAPHETH.

JAPHETH is supposed to be the Japetus of the Greeks, from whom, in an extremely remote antiquity, that people are said to have derived their origin :(j) the particular country of his settlement is nowhere described in Scripture. Moses only states generally, that by his posteof the gentiles were peopled; by is generally understood as it contained those countries to which the Hebrews were obliged to go by sea. (k)
rity the isles

which expression Europe

;

were anciently called Riphataei.(r) Sanson places him in the British isles but that is too far from the point of dispersion. TOGARMAH, the youngest son of Gomer, has been variously placed; north of Armenia, (s) among the Iberians, in Cappadocia(t) and Giftlatia,(u) and in Turcomania.(v) Sanson makes him the ancestor of the Germans and Swedes. MAGOG, second son of Japheth, has been held by Josephus, Jerom, and most of the Christian fathers, to be the progenitor of the Scythians about Mount Caucasus, which name Bochart supposes the Greeks to have made out of Gog-husan, signifying in the Chaldee lanto Josephus,
;

Historians and geographers, however, give him, or his descendants, the north of Asia, also. (1) GOMER, the elder son of Japheth, is by JoBocbart. Phaleg. lib. iii. cap. 1. (k) Calmet. Diet. Anderson's Genealogical Tables. Sanson. Carte de la Stukeley. Asia: Antiquisimte Tabulae. Geographic Sacrue.
(

That his settlement guage, Gog's fort, (w) adjoined those of Meshech and Tubal, appears from EzekieFs making Gog, king of Magog, to
the son of Gomer, through his son Haikh, from whom they and their country have from all antiquity borne the name of Haikh.

j)

(1)

The name of Armenia

Tallents.

Tabulis Chronographlcis. (m) Antiq. lib. i. cap. 7. (n) Phaleg. lib. Plin. lib. v. cap. 32. (o) Strabo, lib. xii.

iii.

cap. 10.

(p) Sir Walter Ralegh's History of the World. Tallents, ubi supra. (q) Bochart. Phaleg. lib. iii. cap. 9. (r) Antiq. lib. i. cap. 7. Bochart. ubi supra, cap. 10. (s) The Armenians claim their descent from Togarmab, or, as they call him Thurgumai, whom they make the son of Tiras,

they likewise derive from Aram, the seventh in descent from Haikh, who much enlarged the bounds of the kingdom on all sides. Moses Chorenens. Hist. Armen. lib. i. cap. 4. The admission of this fact, however, does not fix the first settlement of Togarmah in the country since called Armenia, or Haikh, as the Armenians may have emigrated from some other settlement. (t) Tallents. Tabulis Chronographica. (u) Bochart. ubi supra. (v) Calmet. Diet.
(w) Phaleg.
lib.
iii.

cap. 13.

312

HISTORY OF THE POSTDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS.

[CHAP. in.

been reign over the other two.(x) Though it has that a more certain discovery of his thought of the quarters might be made, were those words " the " the chief or prince of prince," prophet, the chief of Meshech and Tubal," rendered, " the prince of according to the Septuagint, Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal ;" because, in the
isthmus between the Euxine and Caspian seas, there formerly dwelt two tribes, or nations; one called Rhossi (on the river Cyrus, according to Joseph Ben Gorion, or rather on the Ros, Ras,
or Aras, called by the Greeks Araxes ;) the other called Moschici, inhabiting a long chain of mountains, that, according to Ptolemy, stretched along the north-west part of Armenia, separating it from Colchis and Iberia. From which two people, migrating over Caucasus, it is supposed the Russians and Muscovites have descended. Bochart also thinks the name of Magog is preserved in a country of these parts,

north-east coast of Peloponnesus, as well the west of Asia Minor, and also the intermediate
islands.(a)

bly

ELISHA, the eldest son of Javan, most prowas the first settler in Peloponnesus, where we meet with the remains of his name in the
country of Elis, the city Eleusis, "and the river Josephus derives the JEoliaus from Ilissus.(b) him, who migrated from Greece to Asia Minor, 80 years before the Ionian tribes. TARSHISH, second son of Javan, first inhabited Cilicia, where the city of Tarshish, or Tarsus, the intended refuge of Jonah, and the birthplace of St. Paul, long commemorated his name.(c) Tallents also derives the Phoenicians and Carthaginians from Tarshish. KITTIM, a name which stands next to Tarshish, in the line of Javan's sons, is rather indicative of a people, than of an individual. Josephus places them in the Isle of Cyprus, where he thinks the town of Citium derived its name from them. But in the apocryphal book, Macedonia is 1 Maccabees, i. 1, and viii. 5, indicated by the land of Cliettiim, pretty plainly Alexander being, in the former place, described as coming from thence; and in the latter,
Perseus, king of Macedon, is called the fii>/<>- of the Citims. The inhabitants of the isle of Chios, and the Romans, have also been spoken of as descendants of the Kittim. DODANIM, or RODANIM, (for the Hebrew
letters T [D]

according to Strabo and Stephanus, Gogarene for Gog and Magog seem to be the same name, the M not being a radical letter. The Arabs remove Gog and Magog, whom they call Yajuj and Majuj, to the farther end of Tartary, towards the north and north-east, (y) We therefore consider Magog as head of the Scythians, Tartars, and Moguls (or Tatars and Monguls, as they should be written.)
called,
:

third son of Japheth, is generally supposed to be the ancestor of the Medes. (z) But this removes him too far from his brethren and therefore Joseph Mede rather supposes him

MADAI,

to have been head of a people in Macedonia, called Medi, or Msedi, inhabiting a tract called the Medic Region, on the borders of Pasonia. JAVAN, fourth son of Japheth, may be sup-

posed, with probability enough, to have first settled near his brethren, on the south-west coast of Asia Minor, in the neighbourhood of Ionia, which contains the radical letters of his

name.

must be confessed, that the of Jonidns first belonged to the appellation inhabitants of AchaTa, before that country was seized by the Achaei, who had themselves been driven from their habitations by the Heraclidae. It is likely, therefore, that Javan peopled the
it

Yet

and i [R] are scarcely distinguishthe younger branch of Javan's family, is able) also a plural appellative, and has been variously placed at Dodona, in Epirus ; in the island of Rhodes; on the Rhone, in Gaul, of which the ancient name was Rhodanus and at Doris, in Peloponnesus. Tallents calls this name Jupiter Dodonaeus, and says his sons received the common appellative of Jupiter. Junius, Sir Walter Ralegh, and Stukeley, place the Dodanim along the west coast of Asia Minor, in JEolia and Ionia. TUBAL, fifth son of Japheth, has already been alluded to, under Magog ; in addition to what has there been said, it is proper to remark, that he is taken to be the father of the Iberians,
;

(x)
(y)

Ezek.

xxxviii. 2.

D'Herbelot. Bibl. Orient, art. Jagiouge ct Magiougc '2(i7. p. 470; and Geogr. Nubiens. p. 247,
(z)

the Latin Bible; Sir

(a)

Tallents. See farther on this subject in Anderson's Genealogica

Junius's Notes on Tables; Calmct's Diet. Joseph. Antiq. W. Ralegh's Hist, of the World; and Stukelcy's Asia Antiq. Tab. (b) Bochart.
(c)

Joseph. Antiq.

lib.

i.

cap. 7.

SECT.

III.]

POSTERITY OF SHEM.

313

dwelling between Colchis and Albania, a colony of whom afterwards settling in Spain, and mixing with the native Celtes, obtained the appellation of Celtiberians.(d) MESHECH, sixth son of Japheth, is commonly he joined with Tubal, as already noticed settled on the southern borders of the Euxine and Caspian seas, where he became the head Sanson of the Cappadocians and Muscovites.
:

where was formerly a town called Sala. But as Colchis contained a nation called Salae,(h) that country would appear to have a preferable
right to claim him for its founder ; it being more probable that he was the head of a people than the mere founder of a^city; did it not remove

him from

places him in Italy. TIRAS, the younger son of Japheth, was, according to Josephus and the general opinion, chief of the Thracians.

POSTERITY OF SHEM.

his brethren, and place him among the sons of Japheth and therefore we rather leave him in Susiana. EBER, son of Salah, and ancestor of Abraham, is generally placed in Chaldaea, or its vicinity. JOKTAN, the elder son of Eber, and brother to Peleg, was father of thirteen sons, who were heads of as many nations ; though it is uncer:

SHEM, who

Shinar, is of all the inhabitants of Asia, south of the mountains of Imaus and the Caspian Sea, and east of Canaan and the settlements of the sons of Japheth, in Asia Minor: so that his portion of the earth was by far the most circumscribed of the three allotments of the sons of Noah ; and it is conjectured, that out of this lot, limited as it was, Noah himself had the most eastern parts of China, where he begat a new progeny. ELAM, the elder son of Shem, gave his name to a country south-east of Shinar, where his posterity were for many ages called Elamites,

supposed to have remained in allowed to have been the progenitor

is

whether they were concerned in the first migration, at the birth of Peleg, or whether they settled themselves at some subsequent period. Neither are the countries possessed by them the All that Moses subjects of greater certainty. has related of them is, that " their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest, unto Sephar, a mount of the East;"(i) an expression that has caused a great diversity of opinions among the
tain

Calmet supposes Mesha to be mount Masis, or Masius, in the west of Armenia, the Ararat of Moses ;(j) and mount Sephar, the mountains of the Saphirs, on the east of the same country, or those of the Tapyrs, in Media.
commentators.
Jerom, following Josephus, places both Mesha and Sephar in India, and most of the ancients have peopled all the east of Asia, beyond Media, with the sons of Joktan. Arius Montanus, who derives Jucatan, or Yucatan, a province of Mexico, from the name of Joktan, supposes either that he passed himself into America, or that that continent was peopled by his posterity. Bochart thinks, Mesha and Sepha may be sought for successfully in Arabia, where he takes Mesha to be Muza, (supposed to be Mokha, a celebrated port of the Arabian Gulf) and Sephar to be the city of Sapphar: while the Arabian paraphrasts contend, that they are no other than Mecca and Medina. The editors of the Universal History agree with Bochart in placing Mesha (which they conclude to be a city rather than a mountain) and Sephar in Arabia, though they differ from him as to their situation yet they propose
;

and subsequently Persians.(e) ASSHUR, second son of Shem, gave his name to an extensive province east of the Tigris, which afterwards became a mighty empire, known to the Greeks by the name of Assyria. ARPHAXAD, third son of Shem, according to Stukeley, colonized Carmania but some writers
;

place him in Arrapachitis, a province in the north of Assyria, or at Artaxata, in Armenia, on the frontiers of Media ; while others, who place him in Chaldaea, derive the Chasdim, or Chaldaeans, from him.(f) Those who make but one person of Arphaxad and Ca'inan, inserted in the Septuagint version and in St. Luke's genealogy, suppose him to have founded the

Chinese monarchy. (g) SALAH, son of Arphaxad,

is

by most

writers

on

have settled in subject supposed or Khuzestan, or Chusistan, in Persia, Susiana,

this

to

(d) Joseph. Antiq. Sanson. Carte,

de.

la

Joseph. Antiq. lib. et seq. with Dan. viii. 2.

(e) (f)

i.

cap. 7.

Comp.

Geogr. Sacr. Esth. i. 2, 3,

1!>,

Eccles. ante Leg. lib. (g) Bolduc. (h) Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. cap. 4. (i) Gen. \. 30.
(j)

De

ii.

cap. 2.

Joseph. Antiq.
I.

lib.

i.

cap. 7.

See before, page 292.

VOL.

SS

514

HISTORY OF MANKIND TO THE DISPERSION.

another Sheba, and a Seba,

1 .

ill.

no others

in their stead. Upon this supposition, ihrv proeeed to state tin- settlement of Hazariu;ivetli. the third son of Joktan; for those of Alniod:ul and S!K leph, his elder brethren, they say, are altogether unknown. HAZARMAVKTII, or HAZARMOTH, as it is written in the Vulgate, is found, say they, in Hiidlirainnut, a province of Arabia Felix; both having the same radicals, and signifying a counsuch try of death, or the court of death; but why so fertile a country, a name should be given to

in the line of Nam, anterior to him in point of birth-right, and to one of them the honour of being chief of the Sabaeans seems rather to attach. Sir Walter

Ralegh supposes him to be the founder of the. Hindoo nation, and therefore places him in India. Pliny says, the Sabajan nations extended themselves from one sea to the other; that is, from the Arabian Gulf to the Persian but still
:

they have not informed us. JERAH, fourth son of Joktan, is supposed by Bochart to be discoverable in the name of the island Hieracon, or of Hawks, in the Arabian Gulf, as well as in that of a town so called on the main land, on the river Lar, near the Omanitae. HADORAM, Javan's fifth son, the same author supposes to have been head of the Drimati of Pliny, situated towards the Persian Gulf. UZAL, .sixth son of Javan, is the name given by the Jews who dwelt there, to Sanaa,(k) the capital of Yemen, whose ports were Ocela,(l) or Ocilis.(ni) which also bears some affinity to
the name.

appears to belong to Seba, son of Cush, and grandson of Ham ; and we should prefer giving this son of Joktan a place in Hindoostan, were it not so far from his brethren ; we therefore place him nearer to them, on the south-east coast of Africa, below Zanguebar, where we shall shortly find some more of his brethren. The Arabs, however, attribute the foundation of Saba, (now called Mareb) formerly the chief city of Yemen, to a descendant of Joktan, whom they call Kahtan. OPHIR, eleventh son of Javan, has been variously placed at Copar, on the Arabic Gulf, near the northern limits of the Cinsedocolpitae, and Ogyris, an island in the same sea;(o) or
this

among
the

Molucca
r

the Cassanitae, or Gassandae;(p) or in Isles ;(q) or in Pern, in America ;(r)

DIKLAH, seventh son of Joktan, signifies in the Chaldaean, or Syriac, a palm-tree, or country stored icitk palms: he might therefore find
choice seats in Arabia, but in what part
is

unknown. OBAL, Joktan's eighth

son,

is

placed

in

Africa, in the Avalitic port, or Abalitic bay, just without the straits of Bab-el-mandib, in the country called Adel though the town of
:

Obollah, towards Basrah, or Balsora, as far as affinity of name could go, might have done as well for his settlement, had not that part been pre-engaged by the family of Ham. ABIMAEL, the ninth of Joktan's sons, might also have been placed on the African coast, about the country of Azan, had notTheophrastus given him a place in Spicy Arabia, called
Mali.(n)

SHEBA, tenth son of Joktan,

is
;

be the ancestor of the Sabseans

(k) Zacut. in Juchatin. (I) Plin. Nat. Hist. lib.

supposed to but we find

and, which seems most probable, in Africa, to the north-w est of Sheba. HAVILAH, the twelfth of Javan's sons, is by Bochart supposed to have settled in the land of Khaulan, towards Yemen but as there seems to be two places,(s) as well as two persons,(t) called by that name in Scripture the one near the Persian Gulf, on the borders of Eden, which was possessed by Havilah, the son of Cush ; the other in the borders of Amalek, towards Canaan, we prefer placing this son of Joktan there, raiher than in Thibet, as Sir W. Ralegh has done. JOBAB, the youngest son of Javan, may be placed among the Jobarites, in the south-east of Arabia, upon a presumption that they should be written Jobabites.(u) PELEG, the younger son of Eber, has been considered as chief of the Pelasgi, who were so conspicuous in the earliest times of Greece
; ;

(o)
vi.

Un. Hist.

vol.

i.

book
lib.

i.
ii.

chap. 2. sect. 0. (Rvo edit.)

cap. 27.

cap. 28.

lib. xii.

cap. 14, 19.

(p)

Bochart. P/talcg.

(m) Ptolemy. (n) Hist. Plant, lib. ix. cap. 4. apud Bochart. lib. ii. It is to be observed, that no other author calls this cap. 24. place Mali, but Miiuei; ami Ptolemy mentions the Miuzei and Manitae, but no Mali. 14

(q) Sir
(r)
(s)

W.

llalcgh.

Arius Montanus, Antiq. Judaic. Gen. ii. 11. xxv. 18. 1 Sam. xv. 7. (t) Gen. x. 7, 29. (u) Bochart. Gcogr. Sacr. lib. ii. cap. 29.

SECT.

III.]

POSTERITY OF SHEM AND HAM.

;

315

but it rather appears from both he and his posterity Scripture, remained in Chaldaea, within the lot of their ancestor Arphaxad, at least till Terah, the father of Abraham, removed from Ur of the Chaldees, in order to settle in Canaan. Lui>, the fourth son of Shem, is generally reckoned, according to Josephus, the father of the Lydians in Asia Minor ; but as this takes him too far from the rest of his family, and places him among the divisions of Japheth, the opinion of Arius Montanus is preferable, who places the Ludim at the confluence of the
Italy
(v)

and

that

POSTERITY OF HAM. was probably among the first who removed from Shinar, and, supposing him to be the Chronos of Sanchoniatho, he must be placed in Phoenicia, whither, indeed, we may, without violence to the subject, suppose him to

HAM

have retired with his youngest son Canaan, soon after Noah's malediction, prior to the more general partition of the earth
;

and

this

may

ac-

count for the circumstance of the Canaanites

being hemmed in among the posterities of Japheth and Shem. Marsham and others suppose him to be the same with Menes, the founder of the monarchy of Egypt, which indeed is in Scripture called the land of Ham : (y) and some, from the similitude of the name, identify him with Jupiter- Ammon. Neither are these opinions so discordant, as many we have had else-

Euphrates and Tigris.

the
it

The
be

original

name

of

remembered, was Lydians, and if the Ludim ever dwelt in Maeonians; Asia Minor, it must have been after a second or third remove. ARAM, the fifth and youngest son of Shem, and his family, had all the countries west of
is

to

where to detail; Canaan, were in

for as

Egypt and Phoenicia, or

far as the

Mesopotamia and Syria, as Mediterranean Sea, with the exception of Canaan and Phoenicia. His posterity were railed at first Aramaeans, and afterwards
Assyria, including
Syrians. Uz, the elder son of

after ages frequently subject to one government, it may be presumed, either that reigned over both countries, and at his death divided them between his sons; or that,

Ham

Aram,

is

generally sup-

posed

to

have built Damascus, and peopled

Ccelo-Syria ;(w) but some writers place him in the land of Uz, the country of Job, in the neighbourhood of Ecloin, though that seems to

be a different place. HUL, second .son of Aram, is placed by Bochart in a part of Armenia Major, called Cholobetene, where he finds several places, whose names begin with Choi or Col: but Sanson and Stukeley place him in the northwest of Syria. GETHER, third son of Aram, is supposed by Calmet to be head of the Itureans, dwelling between the Jordan on the west, and Arabia Deserta on the east. Josephus calls him prince of the Hadrians; and Bochart places him between Armenia and the Carduchi. MASH, the youngest son of Aram, is supposed to have settled in Mesopotamia and Armenia, about mount Masis, or Masius, the same with Ararat.(x) The river Maseca, which rises in that chain of mountains, is said to have derived its name from him.
(v)

having settled Canaan in the country called after him, in his latter days he retired to Egypt, and lived at ease, committing all state affair* to his minister Thoth, or Taliutus, as related by Sanchoniatho.(z) CUSH, the eldest son of Ham, was, according to Josephus, father of the Ethiopians, who were in that historian's time called Cuthaeans. But it has been objected, that if Mizraim and Canaan settled in the lauds between him and Shinar, his son Nimrod could hardly have been found so early erecting a monarchy in the last-

named country and therefore it is more probable that he seated himself in the south-eastern part of Babylonia, and the adjoining part of the country of Chuz, or Chusistan, whence his posterity in succeeding generations might have
;

passed into other countries. (a) It is, however, to be remarked, that in Scripture language Cush signifies Arabia, though it is sometimes taken for Ethiopia. According to the Arabian and Persian traditions, Cutha, the same with Cush, was king of the territory of Babel, and resided at Erak, where were two cities of his name ^ whence Dr. Hyde is of opinion, that

Cush reigned
(y)
(z)

in

Babylonia, and that his decv. 23, 27. cvi. 22.

Cumberland On Sanvlumiatho,
lib.
ii.

pa;."!!.

2H.
Joseph.

Psalm

Ixxviii. 51.

(w) Bochart. Geoyr. Sacr. lib.i. cap. 7. (x) See before, page 292.

cap.

See before, page 271.

Tallents gives him his portion,

sect. 6. (8vo.)

generally, in Syria, Arabia,

(a)

Un. Hist.

vol.

i.

and Africa. book i. chap. 2.

ss

.310

HISTORY OF MANKIND TO THE DISPERSION.

[CHAP. in.

scendants removed into Arabia ; though it is hard to fix any of their quarters. SEBA, the eldest son of Cush, was founder of the Salni>ans;(b) and we place him south of Chaldaea, or in the Arabian Irak, in order to have him near his next brother, HAVILAH, the second son of Cush, whose country was watered by the Pison,(c) was settled near the Persian Gulf. SABTAH, third son of Cush, is supposed to have peopled an isle or peninsula, called Saphta, He is sometimes made the in the Persian Gulf. father of the Ethiopians. RAAMAH, or RAG M AH, (for the word is pronounced both ways,) fourth son of Cush, is placed in Arabia Felix, near the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where is a town, or city, called by Ptolemy, Rhegamah. SHEBA, elder son of Raamah, is variously placed in Arabia, on the borders of Midian, and beyond the Euphrates, in the environs of Charran, Eden, &c. while Bruce supposes him to have colonized the country of Sofala, in Africa, where we have placed Sheba, the son of Joktan. DEDAN, the younger son of Raamah, is supposed to have been the head of an Arabian tribe, on the confines of Idumaea. SABTECHA, fifth son of Cush, is placed by Bochart in the city of Samydace, in Cararnania, where he thinks there is some resemblance But Dr. of his name in the river Samidochus. Wells derives the Saracens from him, because
first called by the Greeks afterwards softened into Saraceni. ; NIMROD, the youngest son of Cush, it is generally agreed, remained in Shinar, where he erected his kingdom, of which Babel was the Of the history of this remarkable percapital. son we have already collected the particulars, to which the reader is referred. (d) MIZRAIM, put as the second son of Ham, is

inhabitants of Mareotis, in Egypt; though others place them more to the south and Bochart endeavours to prove that they were tlte ancient Ethiopians, or modern Abyssinian*.
;

ANAMIM, according to the last-named authority, were the Ammonians, who dwelt in
2.

Lybia, about the temple of Jupiter Annnon. 3. LEHABIM were the Libyans of Cyrenaica,
or Libya Proper,

and were sometimes called

Libyo-Egyptians.

NAPHTUHIM are thought to have settled Marmarica, among the Troglodytes ;(e) but some place them about Noph, or Memphis. 5. PATHRUSIM, according to the Chaldee paraph rast, were the inhabitants of the Delta but Bochart places them in the Theba'is, called in Scripture Pathros, though others understand Pelusium by Pathros. 6. CASLUHIM are supposed first to have settled about mount Casius, between Suez and the Mediterranean, or rather between Canaan and Egypt, whence they afterwards colonized or migrated to Colchis. From these came the PHILISTIM, or Philistines, who ultimately settled along the coast of Canaan. 7. CAPHTORIM, according to Bochart, on
4.

in

the authority of the Christian fathers, who follow the Jews, were the Cappadocians in which sense the Septuagint arid the three Chaldee paraphrasts admit them. But in these is not to be understood writings, Cappadocia of the province, so called, in Asia Minor, but some place in Egypt, by the rabbins gene;

that nation were at

Sabtaceni

supposed to be Demyat, or Damietta, Calmet frequently confounded with Pelusium. them to be the inhabitants of Cyprus ; supposes and Stukeley derives the Cophts, or ancient inhabitants of Egypt, from them. PHUT, the third son of Ham, can hardly find
rally

a place for his plantation among the disputes of the learned. Bochart endeavours to prove that he divided Egypt with Misraim, in which he
is

supposed
the family

to

be a plural nominative, indicating

peopled, that

by whom Egypt was

to

country bring (ailed, both in the East and West, Mezr, and Me/raini. It is also to be remarked, that all the descendants of Mizraim have the plural termination ; as, 1. LUDIM, by some supposed to mean the
(b)

countenanced by Jerom, who affirms Phut be Libya, and that in Mauritania there was Sir Walter a river named after him, Phut. Sanson, Stukeley, and others, have Ralegh,

therefore made him the ancestor of the AJaurs, or Moors. To all which it is objected that

Ezekiel(f)

mentions Phut,
pages 261, 314. page 301.
lib. iv.

(rendered Libya

Gen.

x.

There are three different families called l>v this name, and a fourth, chap. xxv. 3 it is therefore 7, 28
; :

(c) See before, (d) See before,

(e) (f)

very difficult, if not altogether impracticable, to distinguish the particular settlement of either.

Bochart. P/ialcrj.

cap. 29.

Chap,

xxxviii. 5.

SECT.

III.]

POSTERITY OF CANAAN.

317

our translation) with Gush, (rendered Ethiopia) and Persia, as auxiliaries to the northern enemies of the Jews, and in the alliance with
in

Gog, &c.; and Jeremiah(g) describes the same powers, in company with the Lydians, or Lud,

among
as
:

the nations that should over-run Egypt,

Nebuchadnezzar and Cambyses afterwards Phut's all which seems to imply that did settlement lay somewhere between Persia and
Babylon.

CANAAN, the youngest son of Ham, settled along the east border of the Mediterranean Sea, where he and his eleven sons were heads of nations, once powerful, but afterwards overthrown by the Israelites. Tyre and Sidon, however, two of his most celebrated cities, remained, under the Phoenicians, long conspicuous in ancient times, and sent out colonies to Africa, Spain, and other countries. Considering the narrowness of their territories at home, their power abroad, the extent of their traffic, and their maritime strength, they were, in their day, what Great Britain is at the present. SIDON, the eldest son of Canaan, settled in that part of the country afterwards called Phoenicia, from Phoenix, son of Agenor, king of Tyre or Sidon, and brother to Cadmus; or, according to some writers, it received this latter name from the number of palm-trees (^omx^) which grew in the neighbourhood. But as we shall hereafter have occasion to enter fully into their history, we shall not here anticipate it. HETH, second son of Canaan, settled in the south of Palestine, where he became head of the Hethites, or Hittites, whose habitation was about Hebron, up to Beersheba and the brook Besor, reckoned by Moses the southern limits of Canaan. JEBUS, third son of Canaan, was father of the Jebusites, who dwelt north of the Hittites, as far as the city of Jerusalem. AMOR, or Emor, Canaan's fourth son, was chief of the Amorites, who possessed the country east of Jordan, between the river Arnon on the south-east, and mount Gilead on the north. GIRGASH, fifth son of Canaan, was founder of the Girgashites, whose residence lay above that of the Amorilcs, eastward of the sea of Galilee, or, as it is otherwise called, the sea of Tiberias. After the invasion of the Israelites, such of them as escaped the sword, fled into Africa.
(g)

HIVI, the next in succession among the sons of Canaan, was chief of the Hivites; their habitation was under mount Lebanon, north of the Girgashites ; but this is rather to be understood of the Kadmonites, or eastern Hivites; for the great body of these people were settled north of the Hittites and Jebusites. ARKI, seventh son of Canaan, was progenitor of the Arkites, whose seat was north of the Sidonians, and out of the limits of Canaan, properly so called, being in Aram, or Syria. SINI, eighth son of Canaan, is frequently placed south of the Hittites ; but some writers, from the affinity of names, suppose the desert of Sin, in the neighbourhood of mount Sinai, to

have been their residence. ARVAD, Canaan's ninth son, and chief of the Arvadites, is generally placed in the city of Arad, which Bochart supposes to be the same with the territory of Arad us, consisting of an island off the coast of Syria, and that part of
the continent which was opposite to it. But some have conceived that the name Arad,

given to one of the Canaanitish kings who dwelt in the south-east of Canaan, and who, going out to oppose the march of the Israelites, was overthrown by them,(h) should rather be given to the country over which he reigned, and have therefore placed the Arvadites between the Dead Sea and the lot of the Philistines,

about Honnah.

between Hems and Apamea. There was also a country, called Hamath-Zobah, to the eastward of Canaan, about Palmyra, in the Syrian
desert.

ZEMAR, tenth son of Canaan, is usually placed between the Hivites on the south, and the Sidonians on the north ; but there is no ancient authority for this, or indeed any other station of the Zemarites it is very likely, however, that they really settled in Syria. HAMATH, youngest son of Canaan, and father of the Hamathites, settled in Syria Josephus supposes, to the north of the land of Canaan ; but Abu'lfeda, who reigned in Hamath, and \v;is an historian and geographer as well as a prince, places Hamath upon the Orontes,
;
;

Among 'the

seven nations

doomed

to destruc-

find tion, to make room for the Israelites, five of those above enumerated, viz. the Hittites,

we

the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites,

(h)

Chap.

xlvi. 9.

Numb.

xxi. 1

3.

HISTORY OF MANKIND TO THE DISPERSION.

and the Hivites; the
excepted: Canaanites. peculiarly
xites:iii
rest

[CHAP. in.

appear to have

to these are

added two others, the so called, and the Peri/-

what was the distinction of the former 6f these two from the rest of their brethren, or

whose
is

posterity they were in a direct line, history about; we only know that they dwelt inland, surrounded by the other tribes: but
silent

as to the 'Peri/y.ites, they are supposed to have been the descendants of the Siniles, and to have

received their

name from

the

Hebrew

verb vis

1o disperse, because they led an (I'/tfittarx) unsettled life, roving on both sides of the Jordan, and pitching their tents on hills, or in In these vales, and never settling in cities. (j)

elucidation of so intricate a subject. The creation of the world, the history of Adam and his family, the manners of the antediluvians. their destruction by the deluge, the nature, cause, and operation of that tremendous visitation upon the sons of men, the history of Noah and his immediate posterity, the confusion of tongues, with the dispersion of the human race, and the planting of the first nations, are all of them, especially the latter, objects of primary consideration to the historian ; and it would be but a niggard economy that should withhold from his lip the cup of knowledge, or that should abstain from mingling in its contents,
at least a spice of whatever can be obtained towards his gratification. But, having thus

seven nations, we are also to suppose the ten to to be comprised, which were promised riz. the Kenites,(k) the Keni//ites, Abraham, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,(l) the Amorites, the Canaanites, the (iirgashites, and the Jebusites ;(m) but some of them might have been blended with the others before the time of Moses ; or they might have emigrated; and so, not being personally conquered, though their territories were subjected in common with those of the tribes

settled the history of the first ages, we now enter upon the particular histories of the nations and

which had succeeded them, they were not enumerated in the history of the Israelites'
wars.

Tims far it has been endeavoured tolay down the foundations of our projected Universal History, in as perspicuous a manner as the deficiency of historical facts, and the multitude of conjectures
and hypotheses, would admit and if somewhat of prolixity has crept in, it has been admitted
:

kingdoms, beginning with a GENERAL GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD, AS KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS. Should the situation of some places on the. Maps appear different from what the reader has been accustomed to, he will recollect that the spots on which many of the most clebrated cities of antiquity stood, are now, and have long been, lost in oblivion, and that the boundaries of provinces are in various instances uncertain; which has given a kind of licence to the imaginations of geographers; and should they not all fall into the same notion, it will not be much wondered at. But lest we should bedeemed presumptuous on this head, no place of doubtful site will be described on the Maps, without an
authority in the text while the notes will consuch observations on the positions given by other writers, as may appear requisite: so that the reader will have full opportunity of compar;

tain

through anxiety, not to sacrifice to brevity any thing that might be really useful towards the
Devt. vii. 1. Acts, xiii. 19. xiii. 7. Heylin. Josephus. H eland. L'ahuet, et at. (k) The descendants of Jethro, Muses' father-in-law, are called Kcnites,* and they joined the children of Judah, in their march into the Promised Land; for which they were rewarded with a portion of ground, on the taking of Hebron. Hi her, the husband of Jael, \\lio slew Sucra, was of this tribe ;t which being of Midianitish extraction, seems to be di Hi-rent from those spoken of above.
(i)

ing

and judging

for himself.

Gen.

(j)

spread of the Girgashites they were of gigantic stature, as \\ere likewise the Anakini, the Emim, Xamxiimmini, Xu/im, and others, of whom we shall have occasion to speak in the history of Canaan.
:

or Giants, was (1) The vale of Rephaim, or of Titans, situated oil the northern border of the Jebusites' territory, whence they themselves across the Jordan, into the land

(m) Gen. xv.

xxxiv. 11.
Deitf.

1921.
vii.

Exod.

xxiii.

2328.

xxxiii. 2.

1.

Jitdges,

i.

16.

Judges,

iv.

11. et iff.

">.

J JKS?SS.ft
..*'

tf

.ft

I'/ tlif.lii.-trnlj

<-

V
.

_|
6lo

jP __

,,(?

iiiiiliidr

/'..,

_<!

,,///,,/;,/,,,/,/,,

.1

Frank*.

nu

CHAP.

IV.]

ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.

319

CHAPTER

IV.

ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION.

HISTORY OF GEOGRAPHY.

The
to

first

attempts to determine

f j H !.Per.4ii9.
:J709.

latitudes

IT
first

is

generally agreed that the Greeks,

who

have been
B.

and longitudes, appear ^A.M. '

made about

the year
Aristillns,

among the Europeans cultivated the science of Geography, derived their knowledge of it from the Egyptians, or Babylonians; but which of those two nations had the honour of the invention, it is impossible to determine. Herodotus affirms that the Greeks first learned the nature of the poles, the gnomon, and the twelve divisions of the day, from the BabyloYet Pliny and Diogenes Lacrtius attrinians. bute the discovery of the sun's passage from the obliquity Jul. Per. 4120.) tropic to tropic, i. e. 3410.1 of the ecliptic, to Thales of MiA.M.
B. C.

:>!>">,

C.by Timocharis and

both of

Alexandria, who endeavoured to trace the course of the planets, and to ascertain Live p!. of the fixed stars in relation to the equator. One of their observations is said to have given rise to the discovery of the precession of the.
equinoxes, first remarked by Hipparclms, about. 1-jQ years after ; who also adopted their method in delineating the parallels of latitude and the. meridians on the earths surface: thus laying the foundation of the science of geography as

which he could not have done without the assistance of a gnomon and thus he was led to discover the returns of the
letus,
:

694. j

four seasons of the year, as they are determined by the solstices and equinoxes. However this may be, very little was done towards the improvement of Geography for '200 years after the days of Thales for during all that period, there is only one astronomical observation recorded, and that was made by Meton and Eucteuion, who observed the summer solstice at Athens, during the archonship of Apseudes, on the 21st of the Egyptian month Phamenoth, in the morning, answering to the 27th of June, B. C. 432. This observation w as Jul. Per. 4282. } A.M. ?l:V?9 V made with a design to fix the 3572. B.C. 432.) beginning of the Metonic cycle of 19 years, (n) and which accordingly began with the next new moon, 18 days afterwards, or July 15, B. C. 432.
: V.

now studied, which was farther improved by the successive labours of Eudoxus of Cnidns, Dicaearchus of Messenia, Ephorus of Cuime, Eratosthemes of Cyreue, Posidonius of Apabut it remained maaa, and Marinus of Tyre for those celebrated geographers, Strabo and Ptolemy, to reduce the science to a system.
:

Eratosthenes

tempted
settle a

it,

had indeed atand went so far as to

r j u l. Per.
?
(.

4!<.
3V>!>.
-

A. M.
-

B c 24& latiwhich he was governed by drawing observing where the longest day was 14i hours; and this, Hipparchus afterwards determined to be in the latitude of 30 degrees. This first parallel of latitude began at the Freturu Herculaneum, or Straits of Gibraltar, and was continued through the Sicilian sea and the island of Rhodes, across the bay of Issus, and entering Cilicia, crossed the Euphrates and Tigris, as
regular parallel of
-

tude, in

far as the mountains of India. Eratosthenes also attempted, not only to draw other parallels of latitude, but also to trace a meridian at right

angles to them, through

(n)

See Introduction, page 40.

dria,

down

to

Rhodes and Alexanand Meroe, or Saba, in Syene

320
Ethiopia.

ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.
And
he farther attempted to deterearth, which he
:

[CHAP. iv.

mine the circumference of the

triumphs passed so that the materials of geography were accumulated by every additional
conquest; and Polybius says, that ^ Jul Per 4496. the commencement of the -? A. M. 3786. 218. second Punic war, when Hanni- (. B -C. bal was preparing his expedition against" Rome, the countries through which he was to pass were carefully measured by the Romans. Under Julius Caesar, the senate t j u i. Per. 4668. ordered a general survey of the < A. M. 3958. * 4e to be made and Zenodo- B C
at
-

settled at 250,000, or 252,000 stadia, reckoning in the former case 694$, and in the latter, 700

stadia to a degree, (o)

Jul. Per. 4552. 1

Hipparchus of Rhodes, who discovered the precession of the 162.) connecequinoxes, made a closer tion between geography and astronomy, by determining longitudes and latitudes from But the leading steps celestial observations. to this new projection of the sphere had been in a great measure facilitated upwards of 50 Archimedes of Syracuse, by years before, by the invention of his theorems for measuring the surface of a sphere, and its different segA. M. B.C.
3842. >

empire tus, Theodotus, and Polyclitus, had the superintendence of the work, which is said to have occupied the space of 25 years. Such of the
;

ments.
Jul. Per. 4635.

Roman itineraries as are still extant, also shew what pains those people had before been at in making surveys through the various provinces
fourth,

Posidonius of Apamaea, who time of Pompey A.M. B.C. 79.) t ne Great, attempted to measure the circumference of the earth, by horizontal and he at first made observations of the stars but Strabo assures us that he it 140,000 stadia; afterwards settled it at 180,000, reckoning 500 stadia to a degree. This measure was received by Marinus of Tyre, and is usually ascribed to Ptolemy, (p) It is, however, to the conquests of the Ro"1

of the empire.

3925. i flourished in the

and

with the sured, (q) In the reign of Antoninus Pius, rjul. Per. 4863. 150. when the Roman empire had IA.D.

Pliny has occupied the third, books of his Natural History geographical distances thus meafifth

reached

mans

that

we

are to attribute the

first

approxi-

mations towards Every war a new survey, and a new itinerary of produced the countries through which the scenes of their
geographical truth.
had first concluded the circumference of (o) Eratosthenes the earth to be 250,000 stadia ; but as this number, divided to a degree, either he, or by 360, would give 694$ stadia gome of his followers, assigned the round number of 700
stadia to a degree, which, multiplied by 360, would make the circumference of the earth 252,000 stadia : hence both these measures are attributed to Eratosthenes by different writers.
Jul Per 4146. ~)

greatest extent, and most of its were well known and surveyed, Clauprovinces dius Ptolemy, a native of Alexandria, or of Pelusium, cpmposed his System of Geography, in which he was guided by the proportions of the gnomon to its shadow, taken by different astronomers at the times of the equinoxes and solstices; calculations founded upon the longest days in different countries the distances, meaits
;

19 times farther distant from the earth than the moon that the moon was rather more than 56J- semidiameters of the earth; and that the diameter of the sun was six or seven times more than that of the earth. Archimedes c j,,|. p er 44.78.
;
.

A. M. B. C.

3436. > 568. j

Prior * '" t' m e of Eratosthenes, attempts Anaxiof a similar nature had been made. mander is said to have been the first among the
;

Greeks who wrote on the subject

Thales,
ecliptic
;

and

to him, as well as to

is

Jul Per 4320.')

attributed the discovery of the obliquity of the but he considered the earth as of a cylindrical form. Archytus of Tarentium also made some

A. M.

B.C.

it has been conjectured" authors of the most ancient circumference of the earth is 400,000 stadia. opinion that the Aristarchus of Samos, first supposed that the Tui Per 4434. ~) A. M. 3724. S earth turned upon its own axis, and revolved

3610. attempts this way, 394. ) that these are the

and

mentions that the ancients held the circumfe- ? A. M. 3768. ' B c 236 rence of the earth to be 30,000 stadia. (p) Cassini remarks, that taking exactly the mean between the last dimensions of Eratosthenes and Posidonius, a degree of a great circle upon the earth will be 600 stadia; and a minute of a degree will be 10 stadia, or just ly mile of the ancient Roman measure, and a mile of the modern. set of maps is still preserved, called the Peu(q) Another tingerian Tables, compiled by Conrad Peutinger, a learned German, born at Augsburgh, A. D. 146j, where the roads by which the Roman armies passed to the greater part of the
'

These

the sun; an opinion that had nearly proved fatal to him, as he was accused of disturbing the peace of the gods, Lares. He maintained that the sun was
U. C. 280. * See Dr. Long's Treatise of Astronomy.

3 about

empire, are described, and the several stations set down. tables, published by Welser and Berlins, give a sufficient specimen of what Vegetius call the Itinera Picta, for the and as they clearer direction of their armies hi their march have now become scarce, though still valuable as ancient
:

curiosities, a fac-simile of them is preserved in this work, as an accompaniment to the history of the Roman empire.
$
tion,

For

llie

to English measure, see Introducproportions of the stadium

page 224.

CHAP.

IV.]

DIMENSIONS OF THE EARTH.

321

sured or computed, of the principal roads laid in the suneys and itineraries; and the various reports of travellers and navigators: all which, after comparing them together, he digested into one uniform body, and then translated them, if such an expression maybe allowed, into a new mathematical language, expressing the different degrees of longitude and latitude, according to the invention of Hipparchus ; but which Ptolemy had the merit of carrying into

down

geography of the utmost extremities of the globe is now in a fair way of being better known than that of the most adjacent countries was to the

after it had lain more than 250 years. With such imperfect and inaccurate materials, it is no wonder that many essential errors should be found in Ptolemy's system and these do not merely exist in the more distant extremities of
full

practice and execution,

for

dormant

way of history, given a concise sketch of the beginnings and progress of geography, we deem it unnecessary to pursue the subject farther, as not falling immediately within the intention of the work but as the dimensions of the earth have been given according to the ancients, the reader may, for the sake of comparison, wish to see the calculations of the moderns, and therefore they are here inserted, as deduced by Dr. Hutton, from the mean of all the measurements upon record.
:

ancients.(r) Having thus, in the

his maps, but are to be found in the very centre of that part of the w orld which was best known to the Greeks and Romans, and where all the celebrated ancient astronomers had made their observations. Yet, notwithstanding all its imperfections, this system continued in use till the close of the 15th century. The improvements in geography since the days of Ptolemy, have been the effect of the progressive astronomical discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton, and other eminent men, who have lived within the last

DIMENSIONS OF THE EARTH.

Diameter ...................... 7,957? *
Circumference ................. 25,000 Contents of a degree ................ 09 ~ J
English statute
miles,
ditto, ditto.

square miles,
Solidity ............... 263,930,000,000 The seas and unknown
"J

ditto.

parts of the earth, f 160 "> 22 02 measured on the best f"' ............ J maps The inhabited parts .......... 38,922, 180
.

ditto.

ditto,

three centuries; and to these maybe added, the voyages made by celebrated navigators of different nations. So that, upon the whole, the
not, however, be concealed, that the science of still so far from perfection, that though, since the time of Sir Isaac Newton, it may be said to be extricated
(r)

Of which, Europe

contains ..... 4,450,065

ditto,
ditto,

Asia ....... . ...... 10,708,823 Africa ............. 9,654,807

ditto,
ditto.(s)

America .......... 14,110,874

It

must
is

geography

it still remains in a state of And this observation is not to be limited to what nonage. merely concerns the continents of America and Africa, and the eastern parts of Asia; for it extends to our very doors. The maps of Great Britain and Ireland are imperfect, and must remain so till some more accurate survey has been taken. The late Dr. Bradley was of opinion, that there were only TWO places in England, whose longitude might be depended on, viz. the observatory at Greenwich, and Sherbnrn castle, in Oxfordshire, the seat of the earl of Macclesfield, of which the distance was supposed to be exactly a degree, or four minutes in time but even this has been found to be inaccurate, the distance in time being observed by the late transit of Venus to be only 3 minutes 47 seconds and if we examine the longitude of the Lizard Point, we shall scarcely find two
: :

from the trammels of infancy,

always be many things to be added and corrected, as future geographers may find time and opportunity. We must not omit to observe, that, a few years ago, the British government ordered a new survey of Great Britain to be made, upon the
trigonometrical scale, which was begun by the late General Roy, and is now going on in a style of superior ;

accuracy but some years must yet elapse before so extensive a work cau be completed.
(s)

To

these general dimensions, the following particulars

:

may be added
Persian

Square

Stiles.

ISLANDS.
Square Miles.

Empire
.

under Darius.

1,650,000

Borneo

geographers agreed concerning it; some making it 40 40' from London, others 5 ; others 5 14', and some 6. The precise breadth of the Adriatic, a place as much frequented as the Thames at London, has never yet been ascertained ; and the Italians, in a very recent survey, have discovered that the coast of Naples is about '20 miles narrower than it had always been reckoned. Our best maps, therefore, are still to be considered as unfinished works, in which there will

utmost height 1 1,610,000 Russian 4,864,000 Chinese 1,298,000 Turkish 652,900 Present Persian > 100,000

Rom. Emp.

in its

Madagascar .... Sumatra

Japan Great Britain
Celebes Manilla
Iceland
.

Empire

British, exclusive

Terra del Fucgo

-

of
in

settlements
Africa,

and
.

317,190
923,000

Mindanao.

Cuba
Java
.

Gibraltar ....

228,000 108,000 129,000 118,000 77,243 08,400 58,000 46,000 42,075 39,200 38,400 38,250

United States

. .

VOL.

I.

TT

322

ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.
proceed to describe the general

[CHAP. iv.

We now

divisions of the ancient world, as laid

down

by

Ptolemy; reserving the particular description of each country for its due place in the order
of the history.

SECT.

I.]

GENERAL DIVISIONS OF THE EARTH.

;

323

but that, being swallowed up by an earthquake, as Plato asserts, those small islands Hence it has are the shattered remains of it. been held that America was not altogether
Canaries
the Fho?nicians and Carthaginians; but after the extermination of their power, and the destruction of all their records, the recollection of it was totally lost. In the earlier ages, the world was variously divided, according to the distinction of tribes, the notions men had of the figure of the earth, the situation of particular countries, and, lastly, according to that natural distinction of continents, which is still observed in the present At first the great divisions of the posday.(u)

unknown to

always fixed in every degree of their elevation but the meridian passing round with (lie earth in its daily revolution upon its own axis, has no natural fixed point and therefore, to .supply this deficiency, an artificial means has been adopted, by supposing it to puss through some
: ;

of Japheth, Shem, and Ham, were chiefly observed names which afterwards gave place to those of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The Israelites divided the earth generally into East, West, North, and South, considering Canaan as the centre of the world, with JeruBut by the days of Ptosalem in its midst. the division by continents had universally lemy, obtained, and the political limits of Europe, Asia, and Libya, or Africa, were pretty nearly the same as they now are. That great geois said to have invented the artificial grapher divisions of the globe, though some writers atterities
;

given place, which is called the first meridian, from which all the others are measured east and west. Among the ancients, the rule was to make this first meridian pass through the place farthest west that was known. Ptolemy fixed it in the most distant of the Fortunate Islands, better known in modern times by the name of Canaries, though he Avas mistaken as to their true situation. After him, as countries still more westward were discovered, the first meridian was removed farther off: the Arabian geographers fixed it upon the utmost shore of the Western Ocean ; some placed it in the island of St. Nicholas, near Cape De Verd ; Hondius, in that of St. Jago, in the same group and in the isle Del Corvo, one of the Azores. others, Later geographers, particularly the Dutch, have chosen the Peak of Teneriffe, one of the Canaries, for their first meridian ; others, the isle of Palm, in the same cluster; and lastly the
;

French endeavoured to settle an universal meridian through the island of Hierro, or Ferro,
another of the Canaries, and probably the same that Ptolemy adopted. But from the consideration that no place on the earth can be considered as most westerly in a positive sense, most Europeans prefer the meridian of their own capital, from which they reckon the longitude both ways, according to the east or west bearing of other places. Among the lesser circles, by which the earth is divided, the principal are the two tropics, and the two polar circles, dividing the globe into five zones :(v) the torrid round the middle two temperate, one on each side of the torrid zone;
;

tribute

them

to others.

However this may

be,

the terrestrial globe

was measured and divided circles into 360 equal parts, and each of by these into b'O lesser. The two greater of these circles are the equator and the meridian; the
former lying horizontally at an equal distance between the poles, or axes of the globe, the
other passing longitudinally through those poles quite round the full circumference of the earth. From the equator the latitudes, north or south, are measured ; and from the meridian, are measured longitudes, east or west. The equator, being exactly midway between the poles, is
(u) The fint continental division of the earth was into two parts only, Asia and Europe, or the eastern and western parts; Europe comprehending both the continent which still bears that name, and Africa; and this division still prevails

This may not only be interred from a variety of authors, but likewise from the words Europe and Asia themselves; the former importing western, the

among many of the Orientals.

latter half. distinct portion,

tii st began to be considered as a impossible now to determine ; or whether Europe and Africa were ever united by an isthmus between Spain and Mauritania, it is equally diiiicult to decide as also, if this be admitted, when and how such isthmus was Marmol, the Nubian geographer, affirms it to destroyed.

When

Africa

it is

have been effected by labour and arl but Averroes sa\s it was the consequence of an earthquake. (v) Next to the physical division of the earth by continents, the most common is tiie astronomical division by ZOIH-S, founded on the annual revolution of the sun, \\hich appears to approach one of the two poles during six months, and to return towards the other pole during the other six. The two points thai limit this excursion, are called tropics, and are 23j degrees distant from the equator: the space between Twice a year the sun them is termed the torrid znin Between IKI-SOS vertically over each point of that space. either tropic and the same distance of 23 i degrees from each
;
1 .

pole, are

two other zones, called temperate, hounded by the

TT 2

324

ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.
two
frigid,
in

[CHAP.

iv.

covering the northern and In point of extent, the southern extremities. torrid /one comprises a breadth of 47 degrees; each of the temperate 43 degrees; and each of the frigid 23| degrees. These zones were subdivided by the ancients into climates and parallels, of which three of the latter made one of Places lying under the same clithe former. mate have their days of the same length but

and

Arabia, across the Red Sea, through Said in Egypt, the Nile, Africa Proper, Barbary, anil the Western Ocean. The third passed through the north of China and India, near Candahar, the north of Sindia, Cabul, and Carmania, Segistan, along the coast of the sea of Basra, through Irac, Scham, (Syria), Lower Egypt, Barca, Africa Proper, and the Western Ocean.

where the longest day in one place differs half an hour from the longest day in another, there
a new climate begins.(w) The Arabians divided the earth, as the Hebrews did, according to the quarters of the heavens ; and, besides, into seven climates. Reckoning the north as the left, and the south as the right, they called Syria, Scham, or Sham, i. e. the left, on account of its northern so they denoposition relatively to them minated Arabia, Yemen, i. e. the right, because
;

The
san,

fourth stretched through Thibet, Chora-

Ofruxena, Fergana, Samarcand, Balch, Bukharia, Hira, Ommavia, Marvaruda, Mera, Sirchas, Thusa, Nisabor, Tzirtzan, Comus, Tabristan, Dinavenda, Cazwin, Deilem, Raea, Ispahan, Com, Hamedan, Nihavenda, Dinor, Hulvan, Xahrezor, Sermentaea, Mausul, Be-

it

was

in the south.

Africa they called

Mcga-

reb, i.e. the west, and the Atlantic ocean, Bahrel-mcgareb, in respect of which Arabia lying

to the east, was therefore called Scherkyon, i. e. the east, and the people Saraceni, or Easterlings, (x)

Amida, Raso-Ilaina, Calicala, Simxat, Harran, Racca, Carkisia, north of Syria, through Cyprus, Rhodes, Mauritania Tingitana, and the Western Ocean. The fifth passed through Jagog, north of Chorasan, through Adirbeitzan, Armenia, and the ancient bounds of the Roman dominions, along the north coast of the Mediterranean, through Andalusia and the Western Ocean.
leda, Nasibyn,

Of their

climates, the

first

began

at the east-

ern extremity of China, whence it stretched along the southern parts of that country, the coast of India and Sindia, the island Carala (Ceylon) beyond the Persian Gulf, through the Peninsula Arabum, the Red Sea, the Nile, Nubia, Africa, and the Western Ocean. The second passed through Sindia, the Persian Gulf, the countries of Negadaand Tehama,
north pole, and the antarctic Between these circles and poles, are two frigid zones, where the sun appears and disappears for days, or even for months together, according to the proximity
arctic circle towards
circle

The sixth passed through Jagog, Chazaraia, the Caspian Sea, Kharasm, Amasia, Heraclea, Chalcedon, Constantinople, Burgiana, and the
Western Ocean.

The seventh reached along Jagog, Turcia, the north-east coast of the Caspian Sea, the Euxine, Palus Maeotis, Burgiana, and Sclavonia.(y) Besides the foregoing, the earth is sometimes divided by w riters according to the colour of the inhabitants,(z) their relative position, (a) or
r

the

towards the south.

of the place to the poles. (w) The equator is the only point of the earth where the sun is constantly twelve hours above, and twelve hours below From that point, in proportion as we approach the horizon. nearer the arctic or antarctic circles, the days and nights become longer at certain times of tin- year; and to mark that increase, the whole space is supposed to be divided into twenty-four parts, in each of which the longest day is half an hour longer than in that which precedes it. These divisions are called climates of hours, though they ought rather to be Their extent is not equal, called climatet of itnlf-liours. and they become narrower as they approach the polar circles.

(y) This extract of the division by climates, is from Abu'lfaragus, in whose time it appears that Chorasan was so extensive as to include a great part of Persia and Scythia. All the country between the Oxus aud Jaxartes, he calls Chorasana, which was afterwards Mawaranahhr, or Mawaralnahram, and at present UsbekTartary. The countries north of the seventh climate, are comprehended under the name of Jagog, or Yajuj, (Gog and Magog) the kingdoms, &c. of the Sclavonia. Tagargrc, Turca?, Tartar!, Alani, Burgiana, and into White, (z) The inhabitants of the earth are divided Brown, Yellow, Olive, and Black. The White are ;ill the Europeans, and the inhabitants of the northern parts of Asia. The Brown are the greatest part of the inhabitants of Bar-

From

tlie

polar circles
called climates

to the

poles, there

are

six

other

climates,

of months, in each of which the loiigc.it <!ay gains a month upon the preceding; so that here the day are one, two, three, four, five, or six months long.
(x)

bary, Egypt, Sahara, and Zanguebar, in Africa Syria, Diarbeck, Arabia, the southern provinces of China, the Isles of Ceylon, the Maldives, Sunda, Moluccas, and Philippines. The greatest Most of the part of the Indians arc of a Yellowish colour. In Africa, except native Americans are of an Olive colour.
;

Hornius's Introduction to Geography, page 29.

those above-mentioned, the inhabitants are Black. (a) The division by position gives three descriptions of people, viz, 1, The Perwsci, who, having the same latitude

SECT.

II.]

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ANCIENT EUROPE.

325

the religion they prole \ss ;(b) each of which is explained in the subjoined notes. We now proceed to the more particular geographical description of the ancient world,
principal divisions, viz. EUROPE, ASIA, ASIA MINOR, and LIBYA, or AFRICA. But, for the benefit of the younger classes of
in its

I'uinicating with the ocean, and confined by the land, as the Mediterranean. LAKE. large collection of water, entirely surrounded by land. Some of the larger sort are

four

not yet entered on a course of geography, the following definitions are inserted, to which their attention is requested, as without a knowledge of them they will be frequently at a loss to comprehend the terms in which the description is conveyed.
readers,

who have

STRAIT. A narrow part of the sea, lying between two shores, and opening a passage out of one sea into another, as the Fretum Herculaneum, or Straits of Gibraltar, or those of Rhion, at the entrance of the Gulf of Corinth. GULF. A part of the sea running up into the land, as the SinusCorinthiacus, or Gulf of Corinth.

called seas, as the Caspian.

GEOGRAPHICAL DEFINITIONS.
FOR THE LAND.
large portion of land, conseveral countries or kingdoms, not entaining tirely separated by water, as Europe, Asia, or Africa.

SECTION
THE
much

II.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ANCIENT EUROPE.

boundaries of ancient Europe were
:

CONTINENT.

ISLAND. A smaller portion of land, quite surrounded by water, as Britain. PENINSULA. A tract of land every where surrounded by water, except at one narrow
neck, by which it joins the continent, as the Peloponnesus, or Arabia. ISTHMUS. neck of land between two seas, which joins a continent or a peninsula to the main land, as the isthmus of Corinth, which joins the Peloponnesus to the main land. PROMONTORY, or CAPE. hill, or point of land stretching itself into the sea, as Attica or

same as at present the Ocean on the north and west; the Mediterranean, or Mare Internum, on the south ; and Asia on the east, from which it was separated by the JGgaean sea, the Propontis, the Euxine, the Palus Maeotis, and the rivers Tauais and Rha. It lies between the 36th and 72d degrees of north latitude, and between 9. 6'. and 75. of longitude east of Ferro. But the ancients knew nothing above 60 degrees of latitude, and indeed very little of all Germany and Sarmatia. It is supposed to have received its name from Europa, the daughter of Agenor, and sister of Cadmus, who was carried thither by Jupiter; and may be divided
the
in the following
Great Dirisions.

Argolis.

manner. IN THE NORTH.

Subdivisions.

FOR THE WATER.

OCEAN. A vast collection of water, without any entire separation of its parts by land, as the
Atlantic.

Scandinavia, or | Terra Incognita $ 2. Feningia

1.

"

"

Modem Nora\.
Sweden.
Finland.
Jutland.
Sleswick. sieswicK.

Names.

3.

SEA.

CimbricaCher-7 V
sonesus
J

I
<

smaller collection of water, com-

"J ;

Denmark.

(.Hobtain.

towards the same pole, but being distant 100 degrees of 2. The longitude, have the same seasons, but opposite hours. Anticsci, having the same latitude and the same longitude, but towards opposite poles, and consequently having the same 3. The Antipodes, having the hours, but opposite seasons. same latitude, but being distant 190 degrees of longitude, towards opposite poles, have opposite seasons and hours. (b) All the religions professed on the earth may be reduced to four, viz. the Jewish, Christian, Mohammedan, and Paiian. Judaism is not professed in any particular country, the Jews
being dispersed among all other nations. Christianity is divided into three branches the Roman Catholic, the Greek, and the Protestant. Catholicism is the established church in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, several States of Germany, and the greatest part of Poland. The Greek church is found in Turkey, under the Patriarchs of Constan:

Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria ; it is also the The Protestants are diestablished church of Russia. vided into two principal branches, Lutherans and Calvinists. The Lutherans are established particularly in Denmark, Sweden, the northern part of Germany, part of Poland,
tinople,

The Calvinists prevail in Hungary, and Transylvania. Holland, in some countries of Germany along the banks of the Rhine, in some cantons of Switzerland, and in Scotland. The English church consists of a mixture of Lntheranism and Mohammedanism extends over Turkey, Little Calvinism.
Tartary, Persia, the Mogul Empire, Arabia, Egypt, and all the southern coast of Africa, Nubia, Zanguebar, part of Pai/anisin reigns in the East Indies, Nigritia, and Sahara. China, Japan, some parts of Africa, as Guinea, Monomotapa,

and Caffraria; and Paraguay.

in

America,

in part

of Canada, Guiana, Brazil,

326
Great DiriiifM. 4.
SuMivitiont.

ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.
Modern Kamet.
Great Division*.
SuMiuisions.

[CHAP. iv.
Modern Kamei.
")

C
Sannatia
. .

Poland.
Russia.

f Macedonia
I

. .

? Lithuania.

5.

Germania

of Hol("United Provinces himl. l .< Germany, east of the Rhine, and north of I.
the Danube.

'Macedonia.
]

Proper .... >Roumelia, Thrace 3

Thessaly
Epin,,
Doris .....
J (

Thessaly, or Janna. Part of Albania.

Lpirus.

MIDLAND.
r

13.
,

Greece

Achaia.

<

Locris
Pliocis

Transalpina..

Blgi
J
.

Netherlands.

Bocotia .... ^ Attica

Narbonemis.
6.

. .

^France. {Part of Savoy.

"Achaia Proper" Corinth.. ..

Sicyonia
. .

Gaul, or
Gallia..

Aquitanica

Transpadana

. ">

Savoy. Piedmont. VPart of the Milanese.

Morea.
Elis
I

Cisalpina,

or

{
I

Romagna.
Cispadana
Liguria

Togata

J Venetian territory. f Genoa, with part of Piedmont and the Mi?

{_

Messenia LLaconia

ISLANDS OF EUROPE.
IN

lanese.

rVindelicia
7.

Part

of

Suabia

and

THE ATLANTIC OCEAN.

Modern Kama.

Rhaetia.J

Helvetia

Bavaria. Switzerland. { Grisons.

Ancient Names.

tRhstia Proper
8.

Noricum
rPannonia

{Tyrol. Part of the Milanese. { Part of Bavaria. Part of Austria. ij ( Part of Austria.

Albion, or Britannia Magna. . Hibernia, or Britannia Minor

Great Britain.
Ireland.

IN

THE NORTH

SEA.

J Lower Hungary.

Sclavonia.

Thule (uncertain) .......... Orcades ................. Ebudes ..................

IN

Iceland, or Shetland.

Orkneys.
Hebrides.

"
L.

'

"

Croatia.

THE HIBERNIAN

SEA.

\ Part of Istria.

Dalmatia

Dalmatia.

Mona (uncertain) ..........

IN

Anglesea, or Man.

C Upper Hungary.
Transilvania.

THE BRITISH CHANNEL.

Isle

Dacia Proper < Part of Moldavia.

Wallachia.

Vecta ...................

of Wight.

10. Dacia.
M<Esia
Scythia

(^Bessarabia.

IN
Plt y usae

THE MEDITERRANEAN.
C

{ plrt'of Bulgaria. Part of Bulgaria.

.......

Ebusus

Ivica.

jOphiusa
(

Formentara.

IN

THE SOUTH.
fGallicia. Part of Portugal, north of the Duero.

Major. . nesiae ........ \ Minor. . Capraria ................. Stcecades ................ Urgo ....................
of EtruCaprae, near the coast

Baleares, or

Gym-

Majorca. Minorca. Cabrera.

Hieres.

Gorgona.

Asturias.

North of Leon.
'Tarraconensis, or Citerior. .
~

Biscay.

Navarre.

Arragon.

Old Castillc. North of New

Castille.

11. Hispania, Iberia, or Celtiberia

.Catalonia. Valentia.

.................... .................... Planasia ................. Cyrnos .................. Fossaea and Hermrca ....... Herculis .................
ria

Ilva

Elba.
1'ianosa.

Corsica.

Madeleine.
Asinara.
Sardinia.

Carthaginensis? South of New Castillo. t Murcia. Andalousia. f

BSD tic

Ichnnsa, or Sandaliotis .....

j Granada. South of Spanish Estra] L madura.

f~North of Spanish
K.-tra-

J
1

madura. South of Leon.

Portugal.

Accipitrum .............. Plumbaria ............... Calathe .................. lijilium .................. Dianium ................. Pontia . .................
Pithecusa, or /Enaria ...... Cuprese, near the coast of

San Pietro. San Antioco.

Galita.

Giglio. Gianuti.

Ponza.
Ischia.

(^

fGallia Cisalpina, (see Gaul.)

Etruria
j

Tuscany, with part of the States of the Church.

States

Samnium ..............
Police, or Vulcanise ........ Sicilia, or Trinacria ........

Umbria
12. Italy..
<

Lipari Isles.
Sicily.

Italy Proper.

<!

Sabini

Samninm
i>atiiiia
L

>
. . .

of the Church, with part of the kingdom of Naples.

/Egades ..................

Trapani.
Pantalaria.

Campania.

J
~)
>

Gaulos
Naples.

.Magna

Greecia

( Apulia < Lucania

(.Brutia

yEgusa

Lopadusa

Gozo. Favoguana. Lampedosa.

SECT.

II.]

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ANCIENT EUROPE.

Modern Namet.
Ancient Names.

327

Ancient Names.

Mmlern Names.

Cythera
jEgilia

Cerigo. Cerigotto.

IN
Thasus
Samotliracia

THE *GJEAN

SEA.

Creta

Candia.

Thaso. Samondrachi.

IN

THE SINUS ADRIATICUS (Gulfof

Islands of Brassa.

Venice.)

Imbros

Absyrtides Scar'dona
Brdtia

Quameo.

Lemnos
Hiera
Peparethus, or Euoenus

Embro. Lemnos, or Slalimenr.

Piperi.
Pelagnisi, or Pelagisi. San Strato.

lola-Longa.
Lesina.
Lissa.

Pharus
Isaca

Halonnesus
Chryse Scopelus
Sciathus Scandile Icus

Corey ra-Nigra
Ladesto
Melita

Curzola.

Scopelo.
Skiatbo.

Diomedia; IN

Lagosta. Mclida. Trcmiti.

THE ADRIATIC, OR IONIAN

et

SEA.

Scyros

Euboea

Superum.) (Mare Adriatic um, she Ionium, quod Corfu. Corcyra, or Phaeacia Paxu. Paxus St. Maur. Leucadia, or Neritus Ithaca Theaki, or Little Cefalonia.
Oziae

Skyro. Eripo, or Negropont.

CYCLADES.
Andros
Helena, Macris, or Cranae Ceos, or Cea

Andros.

Long
Jura.

Island.

Zia, or Cea.

Gyarus
. .

Cephalena, or Cephallenia Echinarles, or Echinae

Cefalonia.

Tenos, or Ophiusa

Tenos.

Curzolari.

Myconus
Delos

Mycone.
Lesser Delos. Delos. Siro, or Zyra.

Zacyuthus
Phaea

Zante.
Strofadia.

Rhenea
Syros
Porquerol.
Sapienza. Venetico.

Strophades Prote
Spliacteria, or Sphagia
<K.iiu.-i;i'

Cythnus
Seriphus

Thermia.
Serfo.
Sifanto.

Theganussa
IN
Portus Cranae

THE SINUS LACONICUS.

Vestigie di Cranea.

Siphnus Pares Olearus

Paros.

IN
Haliousa
Pityusa

THE SINUS AROOLICUS.

Naxos Amorgos
los

Antiparos. Naxia.
Stanpalia.

Nio.
Sequino. Argeutiere. Milo.

Sicinus

Cimolis

Ephyra Taparenus
IN
Aristera Tricrane.

Melos
Antimelos

THE MARE MYRTOUM.

Pholegandrus

Thera

Polycandra. Santorin, or Santa Irene.

Anaphe
Hydra.
Macronisi.

Anaphi.

Aperopia

SEAS, STRAITS, GULFS,

Mare Glaciate Mare Pigrum Mare Atlanticum Sinus Codanus
Palus Maeotis

Sfc.

Hydrea
Belbina Maoris, or Helena.
Cycladac

Frozen Ocean.

White Sea. Atlantic Ocean.

Baltic.

IN
Salamis

THE SINUS SARONICUS.

Coluri.

Sea of
Straits

A zof.
of Caffa, or of Jenicale.

Aspis
Craugiae

Bosphorus Cimmerius. Pontus Euxinus Bosphorus Thracius

.

Eleusa Cecia
JJgina Pityonnesus Calauria
Engina.
Island of Corsairs.

Propontis Hellespontus

Black Sea. of Constantinople. Sea of Marmora.

Straits

Dardanelles.

Mare jEgaeum
Herculeuni Fretum Gaditauuui
Fretilin
. . .
.
,

Archipelago.
Straits

of Gibraltar.

(c)

The

Mediterranean, called
"EOTH^HI,
:

and by Uionysius AX?

its

in Scripture the Great Sea, had various names assigned to

Mare Gallicum, along the coasls of Gallia Narbonensis. Mare Ligusticum, between the mouth of the Var, on the
Ligurian coast, and Corsica.

Mare

several parts, as follow Iliericum, along the south or Iberia.

and east coasts of Hispania,

Mare Balcaricum, between

of Gaul.

Mare Sardovm, about the coasts of Sardinia. Mare Tyrrhenum, Tiiscum, or Thuscum, or Inferum,
the coasts of Etruria, to the straits of Sicily. Mare Ausonium, on the south coasts of Sicily.

along

the Balearic Isles and the coast

328
Aiifit at tCamts.

ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.
3/orfcrn Xamfs.

[CHAP. iv.
Modern Names.

Ancient AV.

Mare Internum

(c)

Sinus (iallicus Sinus Ligusticus Sinus Piestanus Sinus Laus Sinus Terinacus Sinus Scylacius Sinus Tareutinus

Mediterranean Sea. Gull' of Lyons. Gull' of Genoa. Gulf of Salerno. Gulf of Politastro. Gulf of St. Eufemia. Gulf of Squillate. Gulf of Tarento.
or

MOUNTAINS.
Alpe
Apeni
in

Gaul.

f (

A1 ' )s

'

and >>;<""'" Germany.

France, Italy,

-HIS, in Italy

Apennines.

fKrapac, or Carpathian MounCarpates, or Krapacs, in Sarbetw ee " Hungary, '""'

nialia
Pyrnsfii,

between

Mare Adriaticum, rum

Supe-

Adriatic, or

Gulf of Venice.

Hispania

Poland, and Transylvania. Gaul and $ Pyrenees, between France and ^ Spain.
(.

Sinus Tergestinus Sinus Ambracius Sinus Corintliiacus Marc Alcioniuiu Sinus Cyparissius Sinus Messeniacus Sinus Laconicus Sinus Argolicus Sinus Saronicus Sinus Melas, or Melanis Sinus Therraaicus Sinus Strymonicus

Gulf of Trieste. Gulf of Larta. Gulf of Lepanto. Gulf of Gulf of Gulf of Gulf of Gulf of Gulf of Gulf of Gulf of
Arcadia.

SECTION

III.

Coron.
Colochina.
Napoli. Egina.
Saros.
Salonlt
hi.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ANCIENT ASIA. ASIA is separated from Europe by the Tanais,
the Euxine, the Jigaean, and the Mediterranean seas; while the Red Sea, Egypt, and the Its greatest exNile, divide it from Africa. tent is from the Frozen Ocean in the north, to the Indian Ocean in the south, including nearly 80 degrees of latitude ; and from the Mediterranean in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, comprehending about J75 degrees of longitude ; besides islands. It receives its name from a province of Asia Minor, so called in honour of Asia, the daughter of Oceanus, and wife of Japetus, probably the Japheth of Moses; and from which the name was gradually extended over the whole continent. The ancients knew little of Asia beyond Persia, till the days of Alexander the Great, who extended his conquests as far as India ; but still the eastern parts remained very imperfectly known. And as to the north, they were only acquainted with the names of some of the most considerable tribes of the Scythians, till long after the overthrow of the Western Roman empire. In this quarter, the most important and most busy scenes of the ancient world were transacted. Here was Adam created, and here he fell. Here were the human race renewed after the flood; and here were the first monarchies erected. The Assyrian, the Median, and the Persian empires successively held the dominion of the world in this quarter; and here it was

Contessa.

PRINCIPAL RISERS.
Alpheus
Alpheus
(

Anas Arnus
Aufideis
Baetis

iuiidiaiia.

Arno.
Aufideo.
Guadalquivir. Dnieper.

Borysthenes

Carambucis
Cephissus

Dwina.
Cephisus. Drave.

Dravus

Garumna
Hebrus Hypanis
Iberus
Ister

Garonne.
Marissa.

Bog. Ebro. Danube.

Loire.

Liger

Mosa
Padus Rha, or Araxes Rhenus Rhodanus
Sabrina

Meuse.
P6.
Volga. Rhine.

Rh6ne.
Severn. Save.
Seine.

Savus

Sequana Tagus
Tamesis Tanais Tiber
Vistula

Tagus.
Tbanies.

Don.
Tiber.
Vistula.

Mare Siculum, on the east coasts of Sicily. Mare Ionium, at the entrance of the Adriatic, between
Mare Myrtonm, about

the

Mare Mare

Cilicium, along the coast of Cilicia. Phce.nicum, or Syriacum, down the coast of Phoenicia,
It
is

south of Italy and the Peloponnesus. the east coast of the Peloponnesus, at the entrance of the /Egasan Sea, or Archipelago. Mart: Crcticum, about the island of Crete. Mare Carpatliiam, or R/todiense, between the islands of

Syria, and Palestine. Sidonium.

called

by Dionysius

Mare

Mare /Eyyptium, or Pharium, on the Mare Libycum, the whole length of

Africa,

coasts of Egypt. the north coast

ol
1 )

Scarpento and Rhodes.

Mare Lyvium, along the coast of Lycia, in Asia Minor. Mare Pamphylium, along the coast of Pamphylia.

the Straits of Gades (Gibraltar the shores of Libya, Africa Proper, Nuraidia, including and Mauritania.

from Egypt

to

SECT.

III.]

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ANCIENT

Macedonians,
Ancient frames.

ASIA.
THE WEST.
Modern Names.
1 _.

also that the military valour of the

IN
18. Bosphorus 19. Colchis

and the bold retreat of the ten thousand Greeks, were so conspicuously displayed. But what is of more consequence than either, it was in Asia that the Almighty condescended to enter into covenant with his creatures, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and afterwards ruled over their Here were posterity as their God and King.
:

C.rcassm.

j
'

(R USSla in Ana.)

20 Iberia
21. Albania 22. Armenia 23.

and part of Daghis{ Georgia,

1

Mesopotamia
.

(Ditto.) (Ditto.) Turcomania.( Turkey in Asia.) Diarbekr. (Ditto.)

Part of Daghittan.
e

tan.

the prophecies of redemption from the consequences of Adam's fall, through a mediatorial sacrifice, published and typically exhibited and here finally, in the fulness of time, did Jesus, the Son of God, appear as the Messiah, who should restore all things ; and, by the sacrifice of himself, obtained an everlasting salvation for all that believe in his name. Thus highly was Asia, the lot of Shem, honoured in ancient times; though now degraded and subjected by the sons of
;

24. Syria.

Syria Proper { Phoenicia .

/.

. .

Sham
'

or
>

Scham
11

(Ditto.)
in

Canaan.
IN

Pa e s(ine 1 u Sham. I

1.10

included

(Ditto.)

THE SOUTH.
Choristan.
~\

25. Persia

( Susiana ...... < Carmania ....

(Gedrosia
26. Arabia

..

Kerman. Makran.
Bcrii Arbistan.

J.

(Persia.)

C Deserta ...... Petrrea ......

Arabia Petraea.

Yemen, or Yaman, or Yemam.

f Intra

Gangem

M
\
*

ul

Japheth.
ancients generally divided Asia into two very unequal parts, viz. Upper, or the Greater Asia, and Asia Minor; the former of which only is the subject of the present Section. Asia may be considered as comprising Upper the following great divisions
:

27 India

?? Deccan.

Em )ire
l

'

H'ndoostan,

'

<

The

( Extra

Gangem |
I

TI bet Siam, Pegu, Malacca, Cochmchina.

ISLANDS OF ASIA.
IN

THE INDIAN AND EASTERN OCEANS.

. .

Taprobana(d) (uncertain)
or Jabadii

IN
Ancient Names.

THE NORTH.
Modem

Terra Incognita
Scythia intra
Scythia

N<
j
..
.

SJh
Siberia,

^"

Names.
A>

"^

Ceylon, or Sumatra. umatra Sabadii, (uncer- f | Borneo. tain i [ Celebes. Jabadiu (uncertain) ....... Java

KamtS "

Maniol* (uncertain)

Ma nilla s.
. .

j
l
,,

Imaum extra Imaum

damans.

Philippines, or
,.

An-

Siberia, Tobolsk.

and part of Irkoutsk.

Sarmatia

Massageta
Serica

Calmuk Tartary, Usbek Tartary.

IN

& Circassia.

Satadubae.or Sa\yru\x(uncer-~) tain) ....... .. .. perhapsf

Sindae ...................

The

Isles

of Ja P an or Andamans.

Sunda

Isles,

Barusss .................

Chinese Tartary, or Cathay.

The

Asiatic Islands in

Moluccas. the Mediterranean are described un-

THE EAST.
-

der Asia Minor.

ea ' "ther, Sinarum Regio, generally ( China and CorT to D Anv.lle.part i.it-ludr,i vith TerraJ ^cord.ng of the kingdom of Siam, and Incognita.. ) I, Tonquin.

SEAS, GULFS,
Mare Erythraeuni .......... Sinus Arabicus, or Red Sea
. .

6fc.

MIDLAND.
Sogdiana
Bactriana
10.

Margiana
1

11. Hvrcania 12. Media 13. Assyria 14. Babylonia 15.

Part of Tartary Al Soghd. Bukharia, Balk, and Gaur. Part of Chorasan. (Persia.) Part ^ Chorasan, and Cor5 can. I (Ditto.) Part of Irac-Agemi. (Ditto.) Kurdistan. (Turkey in Asia.)
:

Sinus Avalites ............ Sinus Persicus ............ Sinus Gangencticus ........ Sinus Magnus ............
!Sln iv

Caspium ............
Asphaltites, or Salt Sea

Indian Ocean. Arabic Gulf. Straits of Bab el-Maud ib. Persian Gulf. Bay of Bengal. Gulf of Siam. Caspian Sea.

Mare

Dead

Sea.

PRINCIPAL RIVERS.
Acesinus, or Acesines ......

Chunaub.
Arras. Bardez. Frat.

p art

|,j

'

Irac-Arabi. (Ditto.) Part of Irac-Agemi, and Cu| mis. 1 (Persia.)

16. Aria, or Ariana 17. Drangiana

I
i

Part of Segestan and Chorasan. (Ditto.) Sablustan, and part of Seges{ tan. \ (Ditto.)

Araxes .................. Raris .... ................ Euphrates ................ Ganges .................. Hydaspes ................ Hydraotes ............... Hypauis .................
it is

Ganges.
Behut. Rauvee.

Ptolemy says that over-against this island is a group of isles ; by which he is supposed to indicate the collection now known by the but appellation of Maldives
(d)

1378 small

impossible to decide that by Taprobana he actually intended Ceylon neither can the modern names of the other islands be assumed with greater certainty.
;

VOL.

I.

UU

3.30

ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.
ama.
Modern Names.

[CHAP. iv.

................ Indus .................. Jordan .................. ........ Lycus, in Armenia in Syria .......... Lycus, Orontes ................ Phasis .......... * ....... ............ : ..... Tigris
I

lyphasis

Setledge. Sinde, or

Tchenaw.

Jordan.

Grecian monarchy ; and when that was dissolved, several new kingdoms arose, which successively fell into the hands of the Romans.
to the

Nahr-kelb.
Asi.

Faoz.
Busilensa.

Zabus, or Lycus, in Assyria.

Zab, or Zarb.

MOUNTAINS.
Caucasus, between the Euxiue and Caspian Seas ........
,,
.

( Caucasus, in the government t SQ Ufid be l on |ing to llusI

Imaus, in Scythia ........ <

f Allay, and otlier mountains of Siberia ; sometimes called die mountains of Thibet. (_

western parts of Asia Minor were the receptacle of most of the ancient migrations from Greece, and many flourishing kingdoms ;uxl commonwealths were established on those coasts, at a very early period, which obtained the names of .^Eolia and Ionia, from the two principal nations who settled there. The north-west corner of Asia Minor also contained the kino-dom of Troy, rendered memorable by the immortal Iliad of Homer. The whole now forms part of Turkey in Asia.

The

Lebanon,

in

Syria

........
. .

Libanus.

The
1.

". Horeb

} in Arabia Petraja

{ ^ | Horeb.
,

oai

following were its divisions IN THE NORTH.

~)
.

Ancient Names.

Modern Names.

2.

............ S.nope. Paphlagonia .......... j

Bithvnia

SECTION

IV.

f Galaticus
3.

.... 1
> Amasia.

Pontus < Polemoniacus

( Cappadocius

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ASIA MINOR. ASIA MINOR, called by Ptolemy, Asia Proper,(e)

IN
4.

THE EAST.
Amasia.

and by the moderns Anatolia, Anadoli,

Armenia Minor ........

or Natolia, consists of a large peninsula, having the Pontus Euxinus on the north, the Euphrates on the east, the Mediterranean on the south, and the ^Egaean Sea on the west ; and is about 400 miles in its greatest extent from east to west, and 350 miles from north to south. It was tributary to the Scythians for upwards of 1500 years; was the seat of the kingdom of Croesus ; and was for a long time subject to the
Persians. When Alexander overthrew the empire of the latter, it became subject

MIDLAND.
5. Galatia 0.
1. 8. 9.

..............

Part of Natolia, Karaman, and

Amasia.
T>

Cappadocia
Cataonia

c Part of

v Karama

Phrygia Major .......

Pait

f Natolia

and

J I

Kara -

man.
'

10. Isauria

11

TLycaonia ............ ) Koma .............. J Part of Natolia. Lydia

IN
12. Mysia,

THE WEST.
Bursa.

Medes and

or

Phrvgia Mi-

different acceptations of the word Asia have created confusion among writers. In reading the ancient historians, or geographers, the following terms are frequently met with The Greater and Lesser Asia Asia Proper, or Asia properly so called ; the Lydian Asia ; Proconsular Asia; and the Asiatic Diocese. It has been already observed, that the ancients divided the whole continent of Asia into the Greater or Upper Asia, and Asia Minor, or the Lesser Asia; of which Upper Asia forms the subject of tlie preceding Section. Asia Minor, in its most extensive sense, comprehended many provinces, as described above but that part of it which included Phrygia, Mysia, Caria, Maconia, or J.ydia, was Asia Proper, or Asia properly so called,* in
(e)

The

much

which
being

limits /Kolia

and Ionia arc supposed

to be included, as

Proconsular Hellespont ; and this seems to be Ptolemy'* Asia Proper.^ Augustus made Pontus and Bithynia a pi;etorian province, and Asia a consular one, containing all that part of Asia which lay on the west side of the river Halys, and mount Taurus. Constantine the Great reduced the extent of Proconsular Asia, and a distinction was made between that and the Asiatic Diocese; the former being governed by the proconsul of Asia, the latter by the lieutenant of Asi;I. Theodosiiis the Elder transferred the Consular Hellespont from the lieutenancy of Asia, and added it to the proconsulate; and under Arcadius, Proconsular Asia was abridged of the inland part of Lydia. The Asiatic Diocese is sometimes taken in a more strict sense, as distinct from the Proconsular Asia ; and sometimes in a very extensive one, as

Ly

comprehended partly in Lydia, Han Asia comprehends only Lydia,

and is that Asia alluded and by St. John in the Book of Revelation. \ The Proconsular Asia, so called from its being governed by a proconsul, comprehended Lydia, Ionia, Caria, Mysia, Phrygia, and the
Cic. in

partly in Mysia. Ionia, and ./Eolia; to in the Acts of the Apostles,^

comprehending

it.

Archbishop Usher

felt

the importance

of a right apprehension of these particulars, so forcibly, that he thought the subject worth an express treatise, in vthich he has examined minutely all the acceptations of the term Asia
Proper.)]
$

Ren.

i.

4,

11.

Ttolem.

lib.

v.

cap. 2.

Or<. pro Flacco.

Acts,

vii.

6, cl sea. ju. 16, et scq.

||

Usher's Geographical and Historical Diiyuiiitiou

t\f At'.a

properly

eal'cd.

SECT. IV.]
Ancient Names.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ASIA MINOR.

Modern Namei.
Names.

S3 1
Modern tfamu.

13. jEolia
.

14. 15.
.
;.

ni a
.

}
[-Smyrna. i

Cestrus Coralla

Cana

16. Doris

J IN THE SOUTH.
Part of Smyrna.
"J

Cydnus Eudon Eurymedon

Glaucus
GrallICUS
\ ( Ustvola, Ousvala, or Sou-souGhirli.

17. Lycia

18 19

i.

Pisklia

Paniphylia..." C Trachea _...

.

Udana.
(

Halys

Kizil-ermark.

20,
'

Clllcla

Hermus
Horisius
Hyllus, Phryx, orPhrygius..

Kedous, or Sarabat.

icampestris...J

ISLANDS OF ASIA MINOR.

IN Tenedos Lesbos
Psyra Chios

THE KGK\fi

SEA.

Hypius
Hyssus. Indus
Iris

Tenedos, or Denetho,
Mitilini.

lekil-ermak

Lamus
Scio, or Kio.

Lethzeus

Samos
Icaria

Samos.
Nicaria.

Patmos
Leros

Patimo. Lero.
Calraine.

Calymna Cos
Astypahea Nisyrus Telos
IN

Lycus, in Bithynia Lycus, in Ionia Lycus, in Phrygia Lycus, in Pontus Macestus, or Macistus

Keuleisar.

Cos.
Stanpalia. Nisari.

Mreander
Marsyas
Melas, in Cappadocia Melas, in Paniphylia

Madre, or Maudre.
Karasau, or Koremoz

Piscopia.

THE MEDITERRANEAN.
Rhodes.
Scarpanto.

Orymagdus
Pactolus,

Rhodes
Carpathus Casus
Megisthe, or Cisthene

Chrysorrhoas,

or 7

Tmolus
Parthenius
Pinarus, or Pindus

Bartine.

Cheledonia

Cyprus

Cyprus.

Pyramus Rhyndacus
San^rius,Sangaris,orSagaris
Scaraander, Scamandros, or Xanthus
Selinus
? j
f

Shagan, or Deli-sou. Geihoun.

SEAS, GULFS, tyc. IN THE NORTH.

Pontns Euxinus Bosphorus Thracius
Propontis

Scamandro,

Palx-Scaman-

Black Sea. of Constantinople. Sea of Marmora.

Straits

dria, or Kirkc-Keusler.

Sidenus

Vatiza.

Tembrogis

ON THE WEST.
Hellespontus
Dardanelles.

Thermodon
Tripolis

Termah, or

Valiza.

Mare JEgaeum
IN
Sinus Glaucus

Archipelago, or Levant.

Xanthus, or Sirbes

THE SOUTH.
Gulf of Macri.
Mediterranean Sea

INLAND LAKES.
A pollonia,
in

Mysia

Loubat.
Cabangi.

Mare Pamphylium, Mare Internum

Sinus Issicus

part of the
J
j

Ascanius, in Bithynia
Caralis, in Pisidia

Goul

Igridi.

Bay of Scandaroon.

Tatta, in Phrygia Trogilos, in Pisidia

Goulbug.
Haji Gusl.

PRINCIPAL RIVERS.
jEsacus
.Ssepius, or jEsapus

MOUNTAINS.
Amanus, between
Cilicia

and

Susu.
Spica, or Spiga.

Syria

|
Anti-Taurus.
>

vEsopus Alander
Beris, or Baris
Billis,

Pursak. Is-Barteh.
Falios.

Anti-Taurub, in Cappadocia Carambis, between Bithynia

andGalatia
Chim<era, in Lycia Cia^us, in Citicia
.

v K

emp..

or Billaeus

Caicus
Calbis

.'i.-gus, in

Calvcadanus
Carinal Caiaractes Cayatcr, or Ciiyatnio Cerasuntis

Kelikdni.

ll\|>ius,

Lycia between Bithynia and

Gaklia
Dodenboui. Kitcheck-Meinder.
Ida, in Crete

$
Ida, or Psiloriti.

Ida. in Troas

Gargara.

Laertes, in Cilicia

uu 2

33-2

ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.
Kamn.

[CHAP. iv.

Malem
Santa Crete.
1 i

is

Olympus, in Cyprus and Olympus, betw'een Mysia

Phrygia

pus

bounded on the north by the Mediterranean; on the east by Arabia, the Arabic Gulf, and the Indian Ocean and on the south and west by
;

Ophlimus, Orminuis,
Parjadrcs,

in

Pontus
1
Iil(liz . tlaghi .

the Atlantic.
to south,
j

in Bithynia

between Pontus and Cappadecia Sacer, in Pontus Scydisses, in Pontws louia and Sipylus, between

Aggi-dag.
7
j
)

Lydia Taurus, throughout the peniusula

Taurus
Tekeh.

5
in

Teches
Timolus, or Tmolus,

Lydia

Bou/dag.

Its greatest length, from north bout 4:100 miles; and its greatest breadth, from east to west, about 3500 miles. On the north-east it is joined to Arabia by an isthmus, (JO miles across, which some of the Ptolemies endeavoured in vaiu to cut, in order to form a communication between the Mediterranean and the Arabic Gulf. In ancient times, this division of the globe contained several kingdoms and states, eminent
is

for arts, sciences,

SECTION

V.

power, commerce, and riches. and Ethiopia were particularly celeEgypt brated and the republic of Carthage, that
;

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF LIBYA, OR AFRICA. THIS portion of the earth, which, as we have shewn in a former .Chapter, fell to the lot of Ham and his posterity, was by the Greeks called Libya, a name derived either from the Lehabim, Lubim, &c.who settled on the northern coasts, or from the Hebrew ink (LAAB) corresponding with the Arabic lub, which signifies a dry, parched country, such as this quarter peThe name of Africa seems culiarly presents. to have been unknown to Herodotus, Aristotle, Strabo, and indeed most of the ancient Greek writers: but Dr. Hyde thinks it may be found in the Phoenician np~on (HOBQRCA) pronounced Havarca, or Havreca; or from np*ON (ABRCCA) i. e. The Barca,. or The country of Barca, or the Orientals for the most part proof Varca; nouncing the second letter of their alphabet, B, somewhat like a v; and which the Romans, who appear to have borrowed the name from the Carthaginians, corrupted into Africa. However this may be, Herodotus mentions some traditions of certain of the ancients having sailed round the Libyan continent, by steering westward from the Red Sea, and entering the Mare Internum, or Mediterranean, by the after a perilous navigation pillars of Hercules, of three years.(f) The continent, or rather peninsula of Africa,
to have been undertaken (f) This voyage is said by order of Pharaoh Necho, about 6G5 years before the Christian
aera;
it

commerce

itself, extended her of the then known every part world, not even excepting the remote shores of our own island. Yet only a small portion of this extensive continent was known to the Greeks and Romans, viz. the kingdom of Egypt, and the northern coast, comprehending little more

formidable rival to
to

Rome

than what

is now called Barbary. What was known to the Romans, was

divided

into Africa

Proper and Africa Interior. Africa Proper comprehended only the Car-

Africa Interior included thaginian territories. Numidia, Mauritania, and the nations to the south. The only kingdoms, besides Egypt, with which the Romans had any connection, were those of the Numidians, the Mauritaniaus, and the Gaetuli. There indeed appears to have been some intercourse between them and the Ethiopians, but these latter always preserved their
liberty; for

we

find their <|ueen

Candace spoken

of in the

days of the Apostles,

when

the

Roman

power was

at its greatest height, and when the nations above alluded to had become provinces

of the Empire.

The Romans maintained

Africa
till

their

power

in

about A. D. 426, when fionifacius, of their dominions in this quarter, governor being compelled to revolt by the treachery of Aetius, called in Genseric, king of the Vandals in Spain, to assist him, who accordingly passed
in the south, as before

they set out.

At the time these

navi-

and ou

sailed, the

sun became more and more vertical,

their return, the travellers related that, as they till at length

appeared to them iu the north, and seemed to recede (Venn them but as they returned, it moved gradually to the southward, and, after becoming once more vertical, appeared again
:

gators lived, the age and rage for miracles had certainly not ceased yet so impossible did their account appear, that they were deemed impostors. Modern voyagers, however, can while astronomers and testify to the truth of their narrative, can account for what then appeared so extraorgeographers
;

dinary a

phenomenon.

SECT. V.]

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF
became master of About the year 534,

LIBYA,

OR AFRICA.

333

into Africa, in 427, arid soon

all

provinces. the Vandals were conquered by Belisarius, who reannexed the African provinces to the Eastern But in 647, the Saracens, after having empire.

the

Roman

ject to excessive rains, which cause immense floods and torrents, that sweep away whole

conquered Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt, (which was not anciently included in the meaning of the word Africa) broke into Africa, like a torrent, and quickly subdued it. In !)36, the vast empire of the Califs was divided into seven kingdoms, and the African states retained their independence long after the rest were subdued by the Turks
:

but these they invited to their assistance, in the beginning of the 16th century, when they were afraid of falling under the yoke of Spain, and

with their inhabitants, cattFe, &c. is very dry, and so sandy, that several parts, in pretty high winds, the inhabitants are overwhelmed and smothered in burning showers the sea-coasts, however, are free from this inconvenience ; whence they are better peopled, and more fruitful. The produce of the country at large is sugar, salt, gold-dust, ivory, sandal-wood, many sorts of excellent fruits, admirable drugs, rich gums, pearls of inestimable value, and most common necessaries. The animals are lions, leovillages,

The

soil

by them they were enslaved.

The equator divides this continent almost in the middle, so that the greater portion of it is the in the torrid zone, l>etween the tropics heat is therefore intense, and almost insup;

pards, panthers, elephants, rhinoceroses, camels, dromedaries, tigers, crocodiles, zebras, horses, monkeys, civet-cats, ostriches, parrots, and serpents of various descriptions and di-

mensions. The ancient divisions of Africa, according to the plan laid down for the other quarters, were
the following
:

portable to Europeans, which is still farther increased by the vast deserts of sand, by which the rays of the sun are reflected; yet such is the force of habit, that the natives not only bear this heat without inconvenience, but were frequently seen by Mr. Parke, to kindle large fires to warm themselves by, in the early part of the morning, though, according to his own estimation, the heat of the atmosphere then exceeded by far whatever he had experienced in the south of Europe. The natives are altogether unacquainted with the phenomena of ice, hail, or snow, and would as readily credit the possibility of marble flowing in liquid streams, as that water should lose its fluidity and become a solid mass by the mere effect of cold. On account of the great heat of the air in this country, the ancients imagined it coidd not be but modern travellers have disinhabited that the air is more temperate under covered and about the equator than it is nearer to the tropics for, under the line, they have often heavy showers of rain, which, added to the circumstance of the days and nights being always equal, tend very much to cool the air. And, besides, the sun passes lightly, stopping but for a very short time perpendicularly over the inhabitants under the line whereas, when it reaches the tropics, by staying longer above the horizon, it makes the days longer than the nights, and causes a proportional increase of heat. At particular seasons, this country is sub; ; ;

Ancient Names.

JUorftrn

Names.

r
Inferior,

or \

Lower Egypt; Bahri,

or Rif.

Memphis )
Heptanomis, y .,
or
polis ....

HermoVosttmi.
~\

2. ./Ethiopia St a Interior (inc

11
(

Superior, or

\ Upper Egypt.
Said,

Thebais..

..)
-

S)
.

'

Nubia and Abyssinia. Guinea &c

Trl P oh and Barca
,
.

4.

Libya

J Cyrenaica
Interior..
. .

Marmarica
.

..

"

. .

5.

Phazania

6. Africa
7.

Proper

j
I

Berdoa, and Deserts. Fezzan. Tu " is " nd P art of Beled-id>.

Gend.
and Beled-ul-

Numidia
Mauritania

Algiers. ( Ciesariensis. f Part of Algiers,

<
(_

8.

Tingitana

Gerid. Fez.

9. Gaetulia

Morocco, Dareh, &c.

Sudan, or Negroland. Bornou.
Ajan.

10. Nigritia 11. Garamantis 12. Barbaria, or Azania .... 13. Agizymba 14. Ophir

Country of the Zirabas.

Sofala.

ISLANDS OF AFRICA.
IN
Melita
Lotophagites, or Meninx, or

THE MEDITERRANEAN.
Malta.

Girba
(g) D'Anville, and many of the ancients, reckon Egypt, to the banks of the Nile, a portion of Asia. Some consider it as distinct from both Africa and Asia.

334
IN
Ancient

ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.
THE ATLANTIC.
.

[CHAP. iv.
Uiderii Xames.

Ancient Names.

Nama.
.

Insulae

Fortunat* (uncertain)

Modern Kamrt. Canaries, or Madeira,

or

Hesperidae, Gorgadae, GorO gonis .................. J Cerne (according to Polybius) Arguin, or Ghir. Cerne (according to most! ar Mad writers) ............... J

Cape BUg

rfe

Verd

Is , es

Cinyphus Daradus Gir Laud Mulucha Molochath, or Malva

Nigir
Paliurus

Wadi-Qualiam.
Sanaga, or Senegal. Gazel, or Bouruon.

Mulvia.

Niger. Nahil.

ON THE EASTERN COAST.

Menuthias, according to| Arrien ................ J
(

Raptus
Savus, or Zabus Serbetes Stachir
Isles
;

Coavo. Zab.
Ser, or Isser.

Gambia.
Subu.
Wad'-el-Berber.

One of
g

the

Comora

or

Ditto,

accoidmg

to

Ptolemy

Subur
Triton

}
1
j

perhaps Madagascar>

Dioscorides (generally reckoned with Arabia) .......

Tusca, or Rubricatus

Ubus

SEAS AND LAKES.

Syrtis

MOUNTAINS.
Acabe, in Upper Egypt .... Alabastrum.in Heptanomis. . Anagombri, in Libya Ancorarius, in Mauritania ..
Arenae, in

Syrtis

Major ........ '..... Minor .............

Gulf of Sydra. Gulf of Cebes.

Arabic Gulf. Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.
Il-Kerun, or Caroon.
j

Kolzim.
Tibesti.

Sinus Arabicus, or Red Sea . Sinus Avalites ............ Sinus Barbaricus .......... Mceris Lacus .............

Waneseris.
... A

Upper Egypt ....

Mauritania)
|

Atlas,

Mareotis Lacus ...........

Palus Tritonis ............ ) Palus Libyae .............. 5

between and Gastulia

"15&J*
..

Aurasius, in Mauritania ....

,

Gebel Auras.

"'

v E1 low - deah
,

Calcorychu, in Mauritania
'

. .

PRINCIPAL RIVERS.
^gyptus, or Nilus ........
Nile.

Chuzambari, in Libya D urdus, in Mauritania

Garaphi, in Mauritania
....
. .
.

Ogdamus,

in

Lower Egypt

Ampsagas ............... Andus ..................

Bagradas, in Africa Proper Bagradas,
in Tripoli
.

Wad-il-Kibir.

Pentadactylum, in Ethiopia . Phruresus, in Mauritania ....

Porphyrites, in
r

Mergada, or Mesjerda. {

.......

^^
Shelliff.

Smaragdus,

in

Tmodos,

in

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt Upper Egypt .

.

Porphyry.

Maaden Uzzumurud.
Tibesti.

Chyualaph ...............

Velpi, in Libya

Eyre.

CHAP,

v.]

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

&c.

335

CHAPTER

V.

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM, A. M. 2008, TO THE EXODUS, OR DELIVERANCE OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT, A. M. 2513.

ABRAHAM,
his

name

at

Section, (h) His father, Terah, the 9th in deof Eber. scent from Noah, and the 18th from Adam, resided at Ur, a city of the Chaldees,(i) where he is reported to have been a maker of idols :(j) an d here Abram also lived till Jul. Per. 2788.1 2788.^ A.M. 2078.1 about the 70th year of his age, PostDil. 4-21. f when, in consequence of a divine B. C. 1926. } communication to him, Terah

Abram, for such was shewn in a former first, was, a descendant ofShem, in the line
or rather
as

He would shew him,(l) where he should be blessed, and his children be rj u Per. 2793. multiplied to a great nation: to JA.M. 2083.
which
l.

removed with
in

Charran,(k) afterwards died in the 205th year of his age. The funeral rites were scarcely over, when (Jod commanded Abram to leave his father's house and his kindred, and to go into a country
(li)
(i)

Haran, or where he shortly Mesopotamia,

all

his

family to

Post Dil 426 these promises was also added j that most considerable one, above " in all others, that him should all the families of the earth be blessed ;" words which Abram, no doubt, understood as referring to the promised Seed of the woman, who should descend through him. Abram cheerfully obeyed this divine call, and taking Sarai,(m) his wife, and Lot, the orphan son of his elder brother, with all his servants and cattle, he set his face towards the land of Canaan, which he entered by Sichem, orShechem, then inhabited by the Canaanites; and stopping in the plain, (n) or at the oak of Moreh, there God appeared to him, and pro-

name, neither did they exist as a people, at the time of which we are now treating. Cliesed, the son of Nahor, the second son of Tfrah, was head of a family called Cliasdim, whence the XaxJaiot or Chaldeans, of the Septuagint and other later versions. These Cliasdim settled on the south bank of (lie Euphrates, -and in the days of Moses were a considerable nation, and in high repute for their astronomical and astroMoses, therefore, writes proleptically, logical proficiency. in calling L'r a city of the Chaldees, as it was in his day's, though not in the days of Abraham. (j) See before, page 300. (k) In most versions, and our own among the rest, the country of Haran, and Haran the eldest son of Terah, are spelt alike, whence it has been concluded, that the (alter gave his name to the former. But, besides that Haran, the son of " died in Terah, Ur, the land of his nativity," (Gen. xi. -28,) before his father removed to Charrau it is" to be remarked that in the original, the words are the differently written
of,
;
;

The Cbaklees

See before page 299. here spoken

had not

this

some Ur, of the Chaldees, and from his quitting Haran writers insisting that his residence at the latter place was merely a temporary stop, occasioned perhaps by the infir:

and death of Terah; and others as strenuously mainthat the remove from Ur to Haran was the act of Terah, and that Abram received no special call till after his father's death, when God desired him to leave his father's But Dr. Hales (in his Analysts house, <Src. (Gen. xii. 1 5.)
mities
taining,

" The conformably to Stephen's declaration, (Acts, vii. '2) God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he Dr. Hairs \\as in Mesopotamia, before lie. dwelt in Cliarran," supposes to be indefinite, to go into (y) a land(not tlieland, as in our translation) which God should shew him the second call (recorded Gen. xii. 1) is definite, though rendered otherwise in our translation VINH (HO-ARPTZ) should be rendered THK land, instead of Aland; and in the beginning of the " The Lord had " The Lord said." should
: ;

of Chronology) very judiciously takes into his view, and argues in favour of

BOTH

circumstances
calls:

TWO

the

first,

place beginning with n (cheth) equivalent to the Greek ^ (c/u) as rendered Acts, vii. 2, 4; and the person with n (lie) corresponding to the European li. This Haraii, or Charran, is
called

With these critical alterations, the sentence will run: " Now the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto THE LAND that I will shew thee."
(m) See before, page 300. rendered plain in our translation (Gen. xii. 6.) should rather be translated oak, as iu the Septuagiut.
(n) Jl^N (EI.LON)

verse,

said,"

be,

Padan-aram, Gen. xxv. 20. xxviii. -2. xxxi. 18. compared with xxvii. 43. xxix. 4. The call of A brain is variously dated from his (1)

leaving

14

336
mised which

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

to give that land to his

[CHAP. T.

posterity

on
to

occasion

JEHOVAH.

Abram reared an Abram afterwards pitched

altar

his tent

Egyptians were charmed with Sarai's person, and even the king himself was captivated. For her sake, he shewed extraordinary favour
to her pretended brother, so that Abram soon found himself in possession of vast numbers of

between Bethel and Hai, or Ai, where he built another altar, whence he again removed southward, sojourning only for a short time at
various stations.

Soon
/

after

Abram's

country was visited avoid its consequences, Abram, ul. Per. 2794.} L M. 2084. f who still travelled with his back >ost Oil. 427. ( towards the place whence he i.C. 1920. J came,(o) removed into Egypt but lest the beauty of his wife, Sarai, who, though about 65 years of age, still retained her comeliness, should expose him to the hazard of his life among the Egyptians, should it be known that she was his wife, the crime of murder being looked upon as less heinous in those days than that of adultery,(p) he resolved that, in their journey, she should pass for his sister. As he had anticipated, so the event proved he had not been long in Egypt, ere the
; ;

Canaan, the with a great famine, and to

arrival in

sheep and oxen, camels and asses, men-servants and maid-servants, besides gold, silver, and other valuable things. But he had lost her, for whom he was alone solicitous Sarai had beea taken into the Harara(q) of Pharaoh,(r) to the intent that she might be numbered among his wives or concubines. From this dilemma, into which Abram had brought himself by his forebodings, God was pleased to extricate him, by visiting the family of Pharaoh with such unusual plagues, that at length he could have no doubt of their cause. The king, therefore, sent for Abram, and, after sharply rebuking
:

delivered up Sarai to as pure as she had come into his house ; him, at the same time, he gave strict orders that they should not be molested, but suffered to depart
for the deception,

him

with

all

their wealth.

o teacher, and probably received its name manifested himself here in that character, instructing Abram in the dispensation of providence and This oak is grace, which He was about to bestow on him. also celebrated on various other accounts here Jacob hid the strange gods and the ear-rings, or amulets, which his family had among them, when he was going to Bethel ; (Gen. xxxv. 1 4.) here was Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, buried (Gen. xxxv. 8.) here also Joshua set up a great stone as a witness, just before his death 27.) and here (Josh. xxiv. 25 was Abimelech, the son of Gideon, made king (Judges, ix. 6.) Nicholas of Damascus pretends, that Abram vent from Chaldaea with a great army, and that he stopped and reigned some time at Damascus, before he went to Sichem. Josephus speaks of a village in his time, near Damascus, called the habitation of Abraham.*
signifies

Moreh

because

God

from righteousness." Abram, it is also to be remembered, was as yet a young convert, and had not obtained the glorious title above quoted. monarchs and great (q) In the eastern countries, where the

men

into the

indulge in a plurality of wives, when a woman is received Haram, or apartment for women in the seraglio, she undergoes certain courses of purification and training, .o make her more acceptable to her lascivious master: these purifications generally last a whole year, and sometimes much longer; so that sufficient time, upon the ordinary practice in such cases, was allowed for Pharaoh to enrich Abram, and
for the

(o) Heft. xi. 15. (p) The fear of Abram was, that,

knowing him

to

be the

house of Pharaoh to be plagued, without danger to the personal chastity of Sarai though her mind must have been in daily hazard of being bewildered amid the impure and libidinous orgies in which it was endeavoured to initiate her. (r) Pharaoh was a title common to all the kings of Egypt, till the termination of the first monarchy by Cambyses the it is said to signify, in the ancient Egyptian language, Persian
; :

husband of

Sarai,

the Egyptians,

who

highest abomination, would murder free from her connubial obligation, after which they would be free to take her; (Gen. xii. 11 13.) but he does not seem to have considered the inconvenience to which his stratagem would expose him all his anxiety, for the moment, appears
:

held adultery in the him, in order to set her

" Great King," and is supposed to have been King," or introduced into the country about 72 years before! he epocha in question, by the Cuthite shepherds, when they overran, " If the and conquered Lower Egypt. meaning," says Dr. A. Clarke, " be sought in the Hebrew, the root, ins

"

As to have been for his life, and this excluded every other. to the allegation that she was his sister, it was a truth, she being the daughter of his father, by another mother; but being truth disguised, it was tantamount to falsehood ; the greater relation between them, of husband and wife, in which every minor consideration of < onsanguinity was absorbed, being suppressed an equivocation that admits of no excuse, and would be so much the more astonishing in " the father of " the very fault of the faithful," did we not know that it is human nature," since the fall of Adam, to be " very far gone
:

(PHRA)

a name which signifies to be free, or disengaged ; such freebooters as the 'Cuthite shepherds might naturally assume." Besides the common title of Pharaoh, each sovefirst of the reign had a particular name, as Salatis, the

shepherd-kings, Baeon, Aphacnas, Apophis, which of the kings of Egypt this event occurred, it is impossible to determine, not only because his particular name is not mentioned by Moses, but likewise by reason of the great confusion which has obscured their chronology, and the succession of their kings Archbishop Usher, however, ventures to call him Apophis, the third of the Cuthite dynasty ;
:

&c.

Under

Joseph. Antiq.

lib.

i.

cap. 8.

Euseb. Prep.

lib. ix.

cap. 16.

Mceris then reigning at

Memphis and Thebes.

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

On
lr;lvi
' 1

337

turned to his former place, hePost Dil. 429. f tween Hethel and Hai, and there, ost. B C. 1918. j U pon the altar he had formerly built, offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving for his
.

Jl. Per. 2700..-) 2086 ( A. M.

.

*'W*> A
J

)n ""

safety.

or Persia, and his allies, Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, or Assyria, and Tidal, king of nations, or of Syria, invaded the vale of Siddim, in rjul. Per. 2001. which Lot dwelt, in order to \A.M. 2001. reduce the kings of Sodom, Go- ) PostDil. m.

Hitherto, Lot had resided with his uncle ; but their respective herds being grown too numerous for the land, frequent contentions arose

morrah,
Bela,

C> Admah, /eboiim, and who had revolted, after enduring the yoke
<'

wherefore Abram resolved to separate himself from Lot, in an amicable manner; and having given him his choice of the whole country, Lot chose the

between their shepherds

of Chedorlaomer for twelve years, Lot was taken among the prisoners, and, with all his property, marched away before the conquerors. But when Abram was informed of the disaster,

fertile plains of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were watered by the river Jordan, though the inhabitants were sinners of the most flagrant

description.
Jul Per

^197 ^

When Lot had

appeared
to

departed,

God

he applied to his friends Mamre, Aner, and Eshcol, who readily gave him their assistance, which, joined with 300 of his own servants, enabled him to rescue his nephew for, marching in pursuit of the conquerors, he ^overtook
:

A. M. 2087. ( Post Dil. 430. f" B.C. 1917. )

all

Abram, and bade

eyes
the to consider to give him

him

cast

his

around

w hole

he saw as his

horizon, and own, promising

his posterity every place on which he should set his foot; and, the more fully to confirm his faith, he was commanded to walk through the land in the length and breadth of it. His descendants, also, God promised, should be as numerous as the dust of the earth; though as yet he had no child.

and

Soon afterwards, Abram left the neighbourhood of Bethel, and having made several short lodgings at various places, he at length took up
his residence in the plain, or Mamre,(s) which is in Hebron
built

by the oak of and there he

;

an altar unto Jehovah.

In the course of

ten years' residence in this place, he contracted a friendship with three of the greatest men of the country, -viz. Mamre, (who gave his name to all that region,) Aner, and Eshcol. This alli-

them at Dan in the night, pursued them as far as Hobah, on the left of Damascus, and having rescued Lot, with all his family, servants, and cattle, brought him back to his former habitation. The king of Sodom had perished in the but on the return of conflict, in the slime-pits his successor, probably his son, came Abram, out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh, or the King's Dale, and to congratulate him upon his success, offering him all the booty, the men and women only excepted but the patriarch Here declined accepting the least share of it. also Abram was met with refreshments for his valorous troops by Melchizedek,(t) king of Salem, and priest of the most high God, by whom he was blessed and to whom Abram But what most gave tithes of the spoil. contributed to Abram's comfort, on this occasion, was the appearance of the WORD OF THK LORD, (u) who assured him that He was his " shield, and his exceeding great reward. "(v) It is probable that Abram, on his return home,
; ; ;

ance,

Abram
(t)

ultimately, proved very serviceable to for when Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, ;

(n)

might begin to fear, lest the routed enemy, who certainly must have had great resources to be
Salim, in St. John's Gospel, (chap. iii. 22.) there can be little doubt, from Psalm Ixxvi. 1, 2, that the seat of this prince's kingdom was Jerusalem. The bread and wine distributed by Melchizedek, (Gen. xiv. la.) are only to be understood as refreshments given to the weary soldiers; and not, as the cat in i/ some have imagined, sacramental emblenis
:

() See note

page

33-5.

disputes have been maintained, not without acrimony, on the subject of this extraordinary personage, to whom St. Paul alludes as a type of Christ (Heb. vi. 20, vii. The Jews will have him to be Shem, in which they 1 4.) are joined by many Christian writers; while the Arabians deduce him from Pdeg and nothing certain can be offered But thus much may be apainst any of tlieir conjectures.

Many

of bread being an ordinary scriptural expression for

ing.

feast-

advanced, that his nainepiy O ?Q(MnLCHl-TSPDCK)ri(/AfeoK* Inn;/, or king of righteautneu ; his other, as prienl of the most high God; and his residence, d:\0 (SHni.c'Ml which tn make, u-fin/,' or signifies perfect, or peace ; are all indicative of the Messiah. As In Salem, the city of Melchizcdck, though there is a place on the bank of the Jordan, called
l

" In the was (u) beginning was the WORD, and the with God, and the WAS Goo." (Jv/in, i. 1 ; see H|M> Rev. \ix. 11 13.) This is the iir.>t instance ol God ve'.eal iij himself by his Won D, whom ihe ivi'dci uili n-udiiy recos;iii-e as the second Person in the Triune God Head.

WORD

WORD

(v)

Gen. xv.

1,

compared with John,

i.

1.

VOL.

I.

xx

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

able to subjugate so

[CHAP. r.

many kingdoms mid states,

should come in force upon him, to avenge their disgrace: it was therefore a very seasonable relief to his mind to be thus assured of divine He had also been protection and favour.
his promise both he arid his of a numerous posterity, seeing wife were in the decline of life he being about 85, and Sarai only ten years younger and he did not like the idea of his steward, Eliezer of Damascus, although a faithful servant, being God therefore again Jul. Per. 2803. * his heir. A. M. 2093. (^ assured him, that he should be Post. DM. 436. ( succeeded by a son of his own C* -? and then bidding him begetting look to the stars of heaven, assured him that his descendants should surpass them in num" And ber. Abram believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness (\v) nevertheless he could not refrain from asking for some sign of the fulfilment of this promise,

doubting

how God would

fulfil

pigeon and a turtle-dove, and offer them up. accordingly killed the beasts, clave them in the midst, and then placing the pieces opposite to each other, he laid the birds, undivided, upon tliem. This done, he awaited the event, in the interim watching the sacrifice, and driving away the wild fowls that attempted to settle upon it. As soon as the sun began to a deep sleep fell upon him, succeeded by set, a horror of great darkness; during which it was revealed to him that his posterity should

Abram

according to the custom of those times; and God, in compassion to his weakness, bid him take an heifer of three years, a goat of three years, and a ram of three years, (x) with a
(w) Gen. xv. 6.
(x)
'

sojourn and be afflicted in a strange land, four hundred years ;(y) but that at length God would punish their oppressors, and bring liis children, in the fourth generation, into the Promised Land ; and that Abram himself should die in a good old age. The communication the patriarch saw a smoking being ended, furnace and a burning lamp passing between the victims, and which in all probability consumed tliem. " The same day," adds the sacred historian, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates."(z) Thus
which was 30 years after the when he set out from Haran,
first

The

three years old," may be also rendered " thrice told ;" and therefore Onkelos reads it " three heifers, three goats, and three rams ;" and he has been followed by other Jewish commentators. This is the most ancient instance of the ratification of a treaty, or covenant, by sacrifice, on record, if,

original,

Rom iv. 3, 9, 22. Gal. 6. James, 23. noV^O (MesHuLesHcTH) translated

iii.
ii.

promise made to Abram,

;

go into Canaan, and 400 which two years prior to the deliverance of the Israelites sums make up the 430 years spoken of, Exod. xii. 40, 41. Upon which latter text, it may be here observed, by the bye,
to

indeed,

be not the original institution of that ceremony. Jarki says, " it was a custom with persons making covenant with each other, to divide a heifer exactly in the midst, and then laying the pieces opposite to each other, the
it

Solomon

" the sojourning of ihe children of Israel, and of their fathers, which they sojourned in the land of Canaan, and in the land of Egypt, \\as 430 In support of this argument, we find that, though years."
that the Samaritan Pentateuch reads
:

contracting parties passed between them, entering one at each end, and meeting in the middle, where they made the covenant oath. This practice, whether it originated in the covenant between God and A brain, or not, was common to

not in continual slavery, the sons of Abraham were frequently the subjects of oppression, and often reduced to a state of servitude. Isaac, besides the mocking which he endured from Ishmael, was, when arrived at man's estate, oppressed in Gerar, his wells were filled up, and himself forced from them. Jacob served and was op(Gen. xxvi. 14 22.)
pressed by Laban for nearly 40 years; (Gun. xxxi. 30 41.) Joseph was sold as a slave by his brethren, and was taken into a strange land, where he underwent an unjust persecution for his very virtues (Gen. xxxvii. xxxix.) and if the Israelites lived in peace and plenty during the first years of their abode in Egypt, they fully experienced the truth of the prediction in the miserable oppressiuns which followed, of at least 50, perhaps 100 years' duration. These, however, are only parthe natural sense of the words indicates ticular instances with Isaac, generally, that the seed of Abraham, beginning shall be for 400 years as strangers in a lai:il wherein they had no possession but as soiourners, during some part oi \\hich they should be oppressed, aiHicted, and at length brought under bondage; but when ;his tenn should have expired,
;

both Jews and Gentiles. The pigeon and turtle-dove were not divided and in the Levitical dispensation, birds are expressly forbidden to be cut in two they are to be merely opened, that the entrails may be taken out. Levit. i. 17. (y) Various opinions have been given as to the mode of reckoning these four hundred years: but we shall only take .St. one, which bears the nearest resemblance to probability. " and shall Augustin, and others, contend that the words serve them, and they shall afflict them," (Gen. xv. 13.) should be read parenthetically, and not positively, and then the " whole sentence will seed
; ;

shall be a stranger in run, Thy (and shall serve and be afflicted) four hundred years;" i. e. " They shall not possess the Promised Land, till the expiration of 400 years" from some given i-pocha; "and during that time they shall be subject to It only remains, therefore, to fix oppression and thraldom."

land not

their's

they should find a

(z)

happy deliverance.

Mr. epocha, and at least half the difficulty will vanish. Ainsworth reckons from the period when Ishmael, the son of
this

fulfilment of this promise, though long delayed on account of the frequent rebellion of the Israelites, received it*

The

the

bondwoman, began

to

mock

Isaac, the child of promise,

viii.

accomplishment in the reigns of David ami Solomon. 3, &c. 2 Chron. ix. 20.)

(2 A'a*.

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

339

was this new and glorious covenant ratified, between God and Abram, who, highly pleased with such vast promises, went to communicate what had passed to his wife.
Sarai, sensible that according to the course of nature she could not become a mother hera pracself, resolved upon being so by proxy She tice not unusual in that age and country.
;

therefore, with some difficulty, prevailed upon Abram to take her handmaid Hagar, an Egyptian, as his concubine, that if he had a child

at the same time, he assured her, that she should soon be delivered of a son, whom slitshould call Ishmael ;(b) that his posterity would multiply exceedingly, and that both he and they should prove fierce and warlike, ; that his hand should be against every man, and every man's hand against him and that he should dwell in the presence of his brethren.(c) Hagar suffered herself to be persuaded and in memory of
;
;

this surprising vision, called the well Beer-lahai-

and bring it up by might adopt as her own.(a) But when Hagar found herself pregnant, she became insolent towards her mistress so that Sarai, unable to brook the insults of her slave, whom she had elevated by her preference, broke out into bitter complaints against her husband, and charged him with giving countenance to her haughty rival. Abram, to convince her that he was no way left Jo blame, it to her, to do as she pleased with Hagar; and she exercised her power with so much harshness,
her, she
it,
;

" well to the Living One, who roi;(d) q. d. seeth me :" she also invoked the name of the Lord, in the words, "Thou, God, seest me;"

adding,

"

Have

I also

here looked after him

that seeth me?"(e)

Soon after her was delivered of a

angel's
;

return, Hagar son, whom she called Ishmael, according to the

word and Abram, who was now 86 years of age, and had no expectation of another son, brought him up as heir to
all his

substance.
to appear to
(f)

that,

unable to bear the tyranny of her mistress,

When Abram had

God was pleased
as the

to fly;

and the indifference of her master, she resolved and accordingly set out privately. On the
road to Sur, or ,Shur, leading to Egypt, she down by a fountain to refresh herself, where she was found by an angel of the Lord, who desired her to return and submit to her mistress;
(a) In the times to which the history here points, concuthe concubine was binage was as common as marriage accounted a kind of secondary wife, and her children were deemed legitimate. Yet if she had been previously the servant, or rather the slave, of the first wife, she still continued subject to her, and her children were accounted as the children of her mistress, as was the case here between Sarai and Hagar the former desiring to have a son by her servant, that she might nurse it as her own. Rachel and Leah adopted the same practice, and gave their
; :

attained his 99th year, him the Gth time,

Almighty God,

and

after exhorting

sat

to perfect obedience, renewed the promise that he should be the father of many nations, as a symbol of which God changed his name

him

from

Abram

to

Abraham. (g)

God
1

then re-

had been seeking divine protection, the words may be read, " Have I not also looked after him that seeth me ?" t. e. " I have looked," &c. But as the word >irtN (ACHORJ) here
rendered simply after,
in other places, signifies the last days, or after-times, it may here be rendered, without violence, " Have I " I have here," or here, also seen the final purposes of him who seeth me." Some would have the words, " Have I also looked after him that seeth me," to indicate, that till

handmaids

to Jacob,

when

themselves.

Gen. xxx. 1

respective they despaired of bearing children 13.

(b) From yew (JISHMA) derived from you? (SHOMA) he heard, and "?N (EL) God: " because," says the augel, " tinLord hath heard;" i.e. heard her complaint; whence it is

probable that Hagar was engaged in prayer, when the ansel and, indeed, her subsequent conduct shews her to have been actuated by the fear of God. (c) This prediction has been exactly verified in the history of the Uedouin Arabs, the descendants of Ishmael, who, to this very ciay, lead a wandering predatory life, and have never been subjugated, notwithstanding the various efforts of tinmost powerful potentates and captains among the Egyptians, Abyssinians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Turks^ to that purpose. (d) This well was between Kadesh and Bered; (Gen.
visited her
;

this moment Hagar had lived carelessly, and without the knowledge of God. But this is scarcely probable. (f) Gen. xvii. 1. 'TO "?N (EL SHaDai) God all sufficient. (g) Many conjectures have been offered on the etymology of this name ; but none appear to be quite satisfactory. QV2N (AB-RQM) signifies an exalted father; and DiTON (ABRoHaM) which is the same word, with only the addition of one letter, n (he) is generally taken as signifying the father of

a multitude, because the Almighty assigns as a reason for the " a father of many nations have I made thee," (Gen. change, " a father of a xvii. 5.) D'U'JiQivaN (AB-HQMON-GOJtM) multitude of nations," of which expression many suppose the name to be a contraction ; but then it should rather be Abhamon, than Abraham. Some have supposed that the addition of the n (he) to A brain's name, and the introduction of it into Sarai's, was an honour put upon them by God, it being one of the letters of the mysterious Tetragrammaton, or

xvi. 14.)
(e)

This exclamation has been variously rendered

if

she

incommunicable name of God, contained in four letters, niiT JCHovan) whereby they were in a degree associated with the Deity, having a part of the divine name given to them.

xx

-2

S40

SACK HI) HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

He

[CHAP. v.

nevu-d, or confirmed the covenant, which

x
1 1

M made \\ith him, and 111 H Jul. Per. 2817. ^ had formerly A. M. -2107 ( gave him the sign of circumcision, Post. Dil *">> i to be put upon himself and all the B.C. WOT.J males of his household on the eighth day after their birth; without which no one could be included in the promise. The promise of the land of Canaan to him and his posterity was also renewed, and a son by Sarai, whose name was on this occasion changed to Sarah, (h) was also promised, whose name should be called Isaac, and with whom Overthe covenant should be continued.
tl I I
' I 1 1 I
I

>

the tent. This was an intimation to the patriarch, that his guests wen- somewhat more than he had taken them to be; for how, otherwise, could they so soon have learned the name of his wife? The heavenly visitor, for such indeed

he was, proceeded: "1 will certainly return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son." Sarah, who heard
these words within the tent, laughed for joy, mixed with doubt for which she was rebuked " Is by the heavenly speaker, saying, any thing too hard for God?" Sarah finding herself discovered, was alarmed, and endeavoured to excuse herself by a denial that she had laughed: but her guest fixed it upon her " Nay, but thou didst laugh;" and immediately the three strangers arose to pursue their journey towards Sodom, Abraham going with them a part of the way, as their guide. It was in the course of their walking, that one of the three travellers revealed himself fully to Abraham, as JEHOVAH, and informed him that the heinous sins of Sodom had reached up to heaven, and that He was resolved to destroy it. Here the other two parted company, and went on towards the
; :

fell

whelmed with these joyful tidings, Abraham on his face, and rejoiced in his heart.(i)

He also entreated for his son Ishmael, saying, "Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee!" To
which God replied, that Ishmael should have but that Isaac alone, a numerous posterity
;

whom

Sarah should bear within the year from that day, was to be entitled to the covenant and promise and that in his seed all nations of the earth should be blessed. Abraham still dwelt in the plain Jul. Per. 2818.1 A.M. 2108. ( of Mainre, when he circumcised Post Dil. 401. himself and all the males of his j lUOG.J household: and very shortly afterwards he was favoured with a seventh visit from the Almighty. Abraham was sitting at the door of his tent, to enjoy the breeze in the shade during the heat of the day, when he perceived three persons, whom he took to be tra;

devoted city; but Abraham remained talking with the Lord, entreating that the city should be spared for the sake of some righteous persons who might be found there. Abraham
fixed his

number
it.

first

at fifty
city,

and the Lord

promised to spare the

righteous in
veral times,
first

should

He

find fifty

approaching .towards him. He immediately rose, and went to meet them, inviting them, in the most hospitable manner, to sit down and rest themselves under a tree near his tent, "while he provided some refreshment for them. His invitation was accepted he brought them water to wash their feet, according to the usage of the times, and then ordered a feast to be
vellers,
;

Encouraged by this merciful compliance, Abraham renewed his suit five sereducing his number each time,
to forty-five, then to forty, thirty, twenty, lastly to ten; and upon every application,

and

number he spoke

he received a like gracious answer, that if the of, should be found in the the whole should be spared for their sake. city,

prepared they had eaten, one of them asked Abraham where was his wife Sarah to which he replied, " Within, in
for them.(j)
;

When

When Abraham had procured grace for Sodom, on condition of so small a number as ten righteous persons being found there, he thought surely the city was safe, and left off his enalludes, John, viii. 50, see my day; and he saw

(h)

'T>2>
i*

(saRal) signifies

my

princess; and rpfiy

'

a change of' the last letter !~l, <lered princess : the former indicating her fannlv alone; the latter, her digiiitv a- the mother of nations. " Abraham fell (i) Gen. xvii. 17, upon his face and This laughter was doubtless the effect of ," A-c. laugher joy at what he heard, not of contempt, as some would construe at the it, improbability of a son being born to him who was
<>nl\
1

which

(SRaH) for may be reusway over her own

" Your father

it,

Abraham

rejoiced to
in

and was glad."

his

And

comme-

moration of
Isaac,
(j)
i.

this gladness

of heart,

son was to be called

e.

laughter.

confused knowledge of

persons to

Abraham and

this visit of three divine Sarah, probably gave rise to the

year, and' of Sarah, who was in her 90th. Shis laughter, or rejoicing in faith of the promise, our
in his lootli

To
Lord

heathen traditions of the visit of Jupiter, Neptune, and Mercury, to II>neiis, which led to the birth of Orion and to that of the visit of Jupiter and Mercury to Philemon aud
;

Baucis.

CHAP.

V.]

TO THK EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

of their
all his

341

treaties whereupon the Lord left him, and lie returned to his tent. But Abraham had been too sanguine, as will appear from the sequel. While Abraham was interceding on behalf of the inhabitants of Sodom, the two persons who
:

had accompanied Jehovah, and who appear

to

have been ministers of his vengeance, pursued their way, and entered the city, still under the disguise of travellers, towards the close of the day. At the gate they found Lot sitting, who immediately saluted them, and courteously invited them to pass the night under his roof. At
they seemed inclined to stay all night hi the street: but upon Lot renewing his invitation, they consented, and went home with him, where he made them a feast. But before they could retire to rest, the wretched inhabitants of the place, having heard of their arrival, surrounded the house in a tumultuous manner, demanding that they should be given up, for the purpose of a crime to which the name of the city still attaches. Alarmed for the safety of his guests, Lot went out of the house, and endeavoured to dissuade the multitude from their purpose; and in his honest zeal to prevent an infringement of the rights of hospitality, he even proposed to
first,

visit to Lot, and desired him to collect family together, and leave the city, for the Lord would destroy it that very night. Lot, therefore, went out to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, warned them of the impending judgment, and desired them to go with him. But they believed not. They had probably heard of the tumult, and. considered this warning as the effect of a dotard's fright at the danger to which he had been exposed. By the time that Lot returned, the day began to dawn, and the angels desired him to take his wife, with his two daughters who lived with him, and to fly from the city, lest they should be all consumed in the general destruction. Lot was now at a hard push he had great riches in Sodom ; herds and flocks in its vicinity, and
:

daughters, who were dear to him, though marAll these he must leave ried to Sodomites. and leave to certain ruin. He did not discredit
the angels' threatening, but he hoped it might be averted; he therefore lingered, and thereby exposed himself to the danger of suffering with the wicked. But the Lord was merciful to him, and the angels seizing him, his wife, and two daughters, by the hand, they brought them without the gate of the city, and commanded them to fly for their lives, desiring them not to tarry in any part of the plain, nor even to look behind them, but to escape to the mountains.

give up his two virgin daughters, to gratify their horrible propensities. His expostulations, however, though given in the mildest manner, did but enrage them and although he had called them " Brethren," they stigmatised him with " " a demanded how he dared stranger, being to set himself up as a judge of their actions, and threatened to deal worse with him than with the strangers, whom he endeavoured to Part of the multitude, therefore, protect. pressed upon him, while others attempted to force the door of his house, to get at the stranBut the celestial inmates, who knew gers.
;

Here Lot began to expostulate, and begged that he might be permitted to retire to a small city in the neighbourhood, then called Bela ; but which afterwards received the name of Zoar, on account of his earnestness for its being
spared, (for
request, that their
till

stroyed,) because

was otherwise to have been deit was very small. (k) To this the angels assented, and assured him
it

what was passing without, came forth to rescue Lot from his danger, and having got him
securely within doors, they smote the people with blindness, so that they sought in vain to find the door, which they had proposed to break. The angels now revealed the purport
(k) Gen. xix. 22. Zoar signifies a little city. Probably Lot had some property there, which made him so anxious to otherwise he might have thought of flying to his go thither uncle Abraham, then resident in the plain of Mainrc. " But his wife looked hack from behind (1) Gen. xix. 2C, and she became a pillar of salt." From the various her, .acceptations of the word, which we render pillar, some
:

commission should not be executed he got thither, which he did by sun-rise, accompanied only by his two daughters for
;

on the road his wife, contrary to the angels' injunction, looked behind her, and was immediately struck dead.(l) When Lot was safe within the gates of Zoar,
have supposed that she wa.x turned into a heap of stones ;* others into a pillar, devoid of resemblance to the human shape: while others will have her transformed into a statue, retaining the perfect form of a woman. I The matter of this monument of divine vengeance is also equally contested
I-

some suppose it to have been of rock-salt, which lasts a long time, and is not subject to be wasted or dissolved by
t S(ptuagint. t Hietou. Oukelos.

Sulpic. Sever.

342

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

tains, to

[CHAP. r.

the threatened judgment began upon the sinners of Sodom, for the Lord rained upon them brimstone and fire out of heaven, until the city was consumed. The other cities of the plain, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, were likewise included in the overthrow; and when Abraham rose up early in the morning, anxious to know the event of his intercession, he looked towards the sun-rising, and beheld, to his astonishment and horror, the smoke of those unhappy cities The rising in columns as from a vast furnace.

which he had at first been directed to with his two daughters. In this retreat, escape, we have to deplore an instance of human frailty, over which we would willingly draw a veil, did not impartiality require it to be exposed and the more so, as the inspired historian, from whose records the whole of the present history is extracted, has not thought fit to conceal it. The daughters of Lot, desparing of ever having
;

husbands, and yet desirous of perpetuating the

family of their father, who was now growing old apace, concerted together how they might have children by him ; and accordingly they gave him an intoxicating draught, and lay with him successively, first the elder, and then the

on which they stood, sunk from its level, and formed an extensive hollow, vs Inch being afterwards filled by the stream of the river Jordan flowing into it, constituted what is now called the Dead, or Salt Sea, or Lake Asearth, also,
phaltites.

Zoar, Lot beheld the awful catasand finding its effects reaching to the trophe,

From

could not conceive himpromise of the angel. He therefore left the city, and took up his abode in a cave among those very mounvery walls of the
city,

self in safety, notwithstanding the

younger. The consequence was that they both conceived, and each had a son ; that of the elder daughter was called Moab, from whom the Moabites descended, and that of the younger was called Ben-ammi, from whom came the Ammonites, as will be seen in a future chapter.

now return to Abraham, who, soon after the destruction of Sodom, left the plains of
and dangerous on account of the wild beasts and serpents perhaps more so from the depredations of the Arabs. Among all the opinions on this subject, the probability that the remains of this unhappy woman were either buried amid the ruin which turned the plain into a gulf, or were submerged by the accession of waters which flowed into it, has never been adverted to. Travellers have always looked for this remarkable monument on the borders of the This Asphaltic lake, where it NEVER teas to be found. assertion, though opposed to all former notions, is of easv proof: thus, Bela, or Zoar, whither Lot was allowed to retreat for safety, lav to the south, or rather south-east of the country between them was a plain, as may be Sodoln " Flee unto the mouninferred from the charge of the angels, in all the plain;" joined with Lot's entreaty tains, nor stay " little for this city," i. e. Bela, one of the cities of the plain, This city is spared agreeably to his devoted to destruction. ;ns the petition, and he is charged to hasten thither, for, "I cannot do anything till thou be come thither." angel, To Bela, therefore, Lot would naturally fly by the nearest way, that is, across the very plain, which afterwards sunk, and became the bottom of the Dead Sea, rather than by a circuitous rout, along what is now the coast of that lake. The judgment fell upon his wife by the way, and her remains, as in the general already stated, must have been involved
;

We

the weather.

Aben Ezra and

salt.

with

fire

mixed with

Grotius think she was burnt But others take the word suit as

||||

relating not to the matter of the pillar or statue, but either to the place where it stood, and then it means only that it was in a salt or barren soil ; IT or else to its permanency ; as a

covenant of salt is elsewhere used to express a lasting or perpetual covenant.\\ Hence the rabbins say this statue was designed for an everlasting monument of divine justice, which is to remain till the day of judgment.** They add, that
it is continually licked by the cattle, yet it is always miraculously repaired again; ft and that it has not only the lineaments of a woman, but also the distinction of sex, &C.JJ which fable some Christian writers have not scrupled to adopt. Later commentators are of opinion that there was no miracle whatever in the case; but that she either turned back out of curiosity to see the burning, and inhaled some of the poisonous vapours, of which she died ; or that the horror of the sight, when she looked back and beheld the terrible destruction of the place she had but just quitted, struck her motionless like a statue, so that she died of the fright. But this is opposed by the assurance of the angel, that he could do nothing till Lot was in Zoar consequently the burning had not commenced when the judgment fell upon his Jowife, who looked behind her on their way to that city. sephus asserts that the pillar was standing in his days, and that he actually saw it; HIT but he, as well as many others, was probably deceived ; for more credible travellers assure us that they never could discover any remains of it,

though

about this remarkable monument, because rione ever saw it, and at
:

though they sought very assiduously for them the country people also assuring them that there was no such thing, or that it stood somewhere in the mountains, where access is
;

should disagree not to be wondered all have sought for it in the wrong place; while, in the rage for miracles, each has adopted "the current tradition of the times in which he
devastation.

That

travellers,

therefore,
is

visited the spot.

tf Tertuliian, or
iv.
llic-

Watsii. Miscel. torn.

ii.

Howel'*

Hist, of the

Bible,

vol.

i.

\
y

p.

46.

author of the poem Carm.

tie

Sodoma.
'

Irenaeus,

lib.

A.s in 1'sulm

evil.

34.

cap. 51.

JVum6.

xriii.

**
tt

19.

Sec Cleric. Dksert. de Slalua salina.

Itin. p.

.f'TM-ilU'lH 1'tll-nin,,.

H. Elieier. Bcnjumta.

44.

CCH. six. 22. Radzivil. /finer. Micros, p. 95. cap. 7. no. 24-

$
HI

ff A "

'<!-

liu -

ca l'- 11-

Brocliard.

Dur.

Tente. &nct. p.

i.

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUvS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

to

.343

be out of reach of the stench of the vale of Siddim, which seems to have continued to burn for some time, and went to dwell in the south, in the district of Gerar, between Kadesh and Shur, or Siir, in where he met the country of the Philistines with an adventure much similar to what had Sarah still passed for befallen him in Egypt.

Mamre,(m) probably

supplied them with water sufficient to serve till they should corne to the next spring, or well, to which he gave them directions; but it seems they missed the way, and, having exhausted their water, were reduced to the last extremity, wandering in the desert of Paran. Ishmael

and notwithstanding her age, 90, and her pregnancy according to the promise, she retained charms sufficient to captivate Abimelech, (n) king of Gerar. She was therefore taken to his harem but the Lord, in a dream, threatened him and all his house with immehis sister;
;

diate death, unless he should restore her undefiled to her husband, who was a prophet dear unto him, and who, in case of her restoration, should pray for him, and be heard, so that he should not die. In consequence of this revelation, Abraham received his wife again, with considerable presents. At length the time arrived when Jul. Per. 2818.") A. M. 2108. Abraham was to receive the child
,(

mother, expecting every molast, withdrew, that she might not have the pain of seeing him expire through a want which she was unable to relieve. Here, as on a former occasion, God sent his angel to comfort her and he shewed her a fountain of water, either miraculously opened on the occasion, or which she had overlooked in the confusion of her grief: from this she replenished her empty bottle, and giving some to her son, he j-evived. And now God was pleased to renew his assurances that Ishmael should become the head of a great people as we shall see fulfilled hereafter, in the history of the
fainted, ment to

and

his

be his

Ishmaelites.

About this time, (that of the dismissal of Hagar and Ishmael,) Abraham concluded a
treaty of alliance with Abimelech, king of Gerar, chiefly with a view to the property of a well,

< O f promise. Sarah brought forth ' the long-expected son, and called his name Isaac ; and Abraham circumcised him on the eighth day. Sarah suckled the child herself, the usual time; and weaned him, probably, when he was three, or five years old, Abraham making a feast on the occasion. The birth of Isaac, and the consequent rejoicings, could not but excite the jealousy and envy of Hagar and her son Ishmael, the latter of whom had attained about his 14th year, when Isaac was born : he became therefore the object of their derision, (o) or, as St. Paul calls it, of their persecution. Sarah, (p) with the keenness of a mother's observed eye, Jul. Per. this, and complained of it to her 2820.") A.M. 2110. ( husband, insisting that the bondPost Dil. 453. woman and her son should be dis-

Post Dil. 451.

961

which Abraham had digged, but the subjects of Abimelech had seized. On this occasion,
he

made

the king a considerable present of

and sheep, and they mutually swore to observe the treaty. In commemoration of this treaty and oath, the well received the name of Beer-sheba,(q) which was afterwards commucattle

nicated to the country in its vicinity. In this Abraham planted a grove, or an oak, place, and built an altar; and here he dwelt many
years.
tests

ere great as were the /-j u Per. 2843. Per 284 3. which Abraham': faith j A. M. 2133. I's had been put, the most consi- 1 Post. Dil. 470. 1871. For derable was reserved for th P U.C. the
i. l.
.

Many and
to

94 -- | J

carded

for ever.
;

grievous to mael but

:

Abraham for he loved his son IshGod commanded him to yield, and

This was very

present time: Isaac, the son of his old age; Isaac, the son whom he loved ; his only son Isaac, he was ordered by God to take to a certain mountain, which should be shewn him, and there to offer him up as a burnt sacrifice. (r)

early in the morning, but not without an ample provision, " bread and signified in the Hebrew phrase, water." It is not to be doubted that Abraham

Hagar and Ishmael were dismissed

The

tried patriarch, without murmuring or expostulating, resolved to obey; and actually set out the next morning after the command came,

(m) Gen. xx. 1. (n) Abimeloch seems to have been the title, rather than the name of the kings of Gerar, as Pharaoh was of the sovereigns of Egypt, and Caesar of the Roman emperors.

(q)

(o) GCTI. xxi. 9, et seq. Gen. xxi. 31.

(p) Gaf. iv. 29.

mUTINS (BEER-SHeBA)

"the well of

swearing," or,
(r)

"of

the oath."

Gen.

xxii.

344

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

l>y

[CHAP. r.

accompanied

and two young men, and other requisites for the with the wood
his son

and confirmed

.solemn occasion ; leaving the result to God. On the third day, Abraham perceived the place to ap;<>ii-tt d liy God for the dreadful sacrifice, ii mount Moriah. Leaving, therefore, his

all his former promises by oath, " that in his seed should all the particularly nations of the earth be blessed." And because lie could swear by no greater, he sware

riimself.(s)

To commemorate

by

this

seasonable

luo sen ants at the foot of tltf mount, he, with Jiis sm>, ascended its summit; Isaac bearing the wood and the tire which were to consume
:

observing the requisites for but no appearance of a victim, sacrifice, inquired of his father, where was the lamb for the burnt-offering? This question must have

him.

Jsaac,

interference of the providence of God, Abraham called the place Jehovah-jireh ; to which the " In this mount inspired historian has added, shall the Lord be seen."(t) Abraham then rejoined his servants, and retumed home to

Beersheba, where he shortly afterwards learned that Milcah, his brother Nahor's wife, had

touched Abraham to the quick, and would have overturned a faith less strong than his. But having long since .learned to acquiesce in " God will the divine will, he calmly replied, provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering." Arrived at the summit of the mountain, Abraham raised an altar, and laid the wood in order

borne a numerous issue,(u) from among whom, he determined, at a fit opportunity, to send for a wife for his son Isaac.
After this
at ease for
trial,

Abraham

lived

some time, till it was disturbed by the death of Sarah, in the 127th year of her age. She

rj ul. Per. 2855. \ A.M. 2145.

Post Oil. 488.
)

upon between paternal feeling and pious obedience he discovers the dreadful secret to Isaac and Isaac cheerfully complies, yielding his hands and his feet willingly to be bound, and himself The father and to be placed upon the altar. son mutually embrace, and bid each other fareit.
:

And now came

the dreadful conflict

died at Kirjath-Arba, otherwise called Hebron, while Abraham was at Beersheba.(v) The
patriarch,
grief,

repaired to

on receiving news of this calamity, Arba, where, after having vented his he purchased the cave of Machpelah,

well.

The son

see, or shrink
father,

averts his face, that he from the fatal blow;

may

not

with holy resignation to

and the the will of God,

frequently called the double cave, with the field in which it was situate, and all the trees growing thereon, for 400 pieces of silver, of Ephron the Hittite, as a place of sepulture for himself and family, for ever; and there he deposited the

remains of Sarah.

raises, with his aged hand, the knife that is to cut off the blossom of his hopes as to this world.

at this juncture, God, who ever watches the extremities of his creatures, called to him from heaven, and desired him to stay the blow

Abraham's attention was next turned towards procuring a wife

/-j u l. Per. 2858. \

A.M.

2148.

But

adding, that it was withheld his only son from him.

enough, since he

had not

Abraham

immediately unbound Isaac, and perceiving a ram caught by the horns in the neighbouring thicket, he immediately laid hold of it, and
instead of Isaac, for a burnt-offering. Whereupon God called to him a second time,
offered
it,
(s)
(t)

to be faithful in the business, to bring the woman with him, and by no means to consent that Isaac should leave Canaan, to take up his

forhissonlsaac,whomheresolved jPostDil. 491. to choose from the daughters of He his brother Nahor, residing at Haran. and having therefore called his steward, (w) made him swear upon the seal of the covenant

residence with her at Haran, he sent him with considerable presents to negociate the matridays: but it is more proresidences at both places, on account of his numerous herds and flocks, and that Sarah died at one place, while he was necessarily at the other

of our translation reads, rWl'~nin' (jPHovaH-JtREH) " the Lord will see," or " provide ;" and iu the text PINT niiT ~l!"Q (BeHnR JCHOvaH-JtREH ) " in the mount of the Lord it shall he seen." But the above translation is to be preferred, as having reference to the atoning sacrifice offered by Christ in after-ages, on part of
xxii: 14.

Gen. Gen.

xxii. Hi.

Hvb.

vi.

13.

Sarah lived separate

bable,
that

in their latter

The margin

Abraham had

looking after them.

Kirjath-Arba, (Gen.

xxiii.

2.) signifies

very mount. See the Genealogical Table at the head of Chapter III. Section I.
I

liis

the city of the four; which name .^oine of the ancient Jews supburial place of Adam, pose it to have received from its being the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; or, according to others, of Eve,

(u)

(v)

The

54

miles,

distance between Beersheba and Arba was about whence some have supposed that Abraham and 4

But it more probably had its Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah. name from four brothers, of the race of the Anakini, who See Joshua, xv. 13. Judyes, i. 10, dwelt there.
(w) Gen. xxiv.

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

mother and brother; after which the evening was spent in feasting and mirth. The next morning, Abraham's servant, anxious to acquit
himself of the obligation of his oath, desired to be dismissed, and with some difficulty obtained it; her mother and brother wishing her to remain with them a few days longer. But he was urgent, and the damsel not unwilling they therefore sent her away, after they had wished her the usual blessing of fecundity and gave her Deborah, her nurse, to be her attendant.
: ;

The steward, who was a pious arrived at a well, near the city, towards man, the close of the day, when the women were accustomed to come out to fetch water ; but not
monial treaty.
to

knowing demand, he prayed

to

whom to address himself, nor whom

to

God

to give

him a

token of the person intended for Isaac's spouse. This was granted, and Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, youngest son of Nahor by Milcah, was indicated as the bride elect: for while he was praying that the woman whom God should choose, might, on his requesting a little drink for himself, oflfer also to water his cattle, Rebekah came out with her pitcher to draw water. To her he first addressed himself, requesting a little water from her pitcher, and
the result was according to his prayer she gave to drink, and then drew water for his camels, and filled the troughs from which they also drank. The steward, not doubting the success of his mission, gave her a handsome present of golden ear-rings and bracelets, and then requested to be lodged at her father's house, as yet, however, unknowing of what kindred she was. Rebekah, in return for these civilities, told him her family, and ran home to relate what had befallen her. The steward was immediately fetched to the house, and enter:

him

they arrived in Canaan, and drew near Abraham's abode, Isaac was walking in the fields, enjoying his evening's meditation, which was disturbed by the appearance of the camels and company in the distance. Isaac immediately recognised them, and went forward to meet them, to learn the result of the embassy. As he approached, he was seen by Rebekah, who being told by the steward that it was Isaac, she alighted and throwing a veil over her face, according to the manner of young damsels,
to
;

When

tainment and lodging were provided for himself, his camels, and those who were with him. But before he would partake of it, he opened his commission, stated the great riches of his master Abraham, that Isaac, the son of a miraculous birth, was his heir, and that he was come to demand Rebekah in marriage for him. This account, joined to his own address, and the valuable presents he had made, immediately obtained the consent of her father, and her brother Laban, and the steward then proceeded to present Rebekah with the jewels, silver and gold, and the fine raiment he had brought with him making also considerable presents to her
;

waited to receive his first compliments. Isaac was charmed with her extreme beauty, and modest demeanour, and taking her to his mother's tent, made her his wife. Thesacred historian having thus gonethrough a regular series of the most important transactions in the life of Abraham, as connected with the covenant of peace, now seems to pause, in order to advert to some circumstances of

minor consequence in the patriarch's history. His marriage with Keturah,(x) by whom he had six sons,(y) though related after the marriage of Isaac to Rebekah, could hardly have taken place at so advanced a period of his life as 141 years, when at a hundred he could It scarcely believe that he should have a son. is therefore most likely that Keturah was a secondary wife,(z) taken during the life-time of Sarah; but as her offspring were in no wise
She therefore put her slave Hagar in her own place, as her proxy and when Ishmael was born, she received him as her own, and brought him up as such, for about 13 years, nothing doubting that he was the heir of promise, till undeceived by In all this, Keturah was in her own miraculous pregnancy. no degree concerned and therefore, to avoid interruption in the course of the narrative, she is left unnoticed, as well as the other concubines of Abraham (for he had many) and their
; ;

Gen. xxv. 1. For their names, see the Genealogical Table. (z) The object of Moses being rather to describe the progress of Abraham's faith, than the particular events of his natural life, he has introduced the history of Hagarand Ishmael, in its due order of time, as being immediately connected with his subject, which the account of Keturah and her sons was not. The child of promise was to be the son of Abraham and Sarah but having waited beyond hope for the accomplishment of the promise, Sarah endeavoured to bring it about by the only apparent means left in her power, that of adoption a practice by no meaus uncommon iu those times.
(x)

(vl

children, (Gem. xxv. G.) till the concluding section of the in the same way that history, when they are briefly noticed, oilier biographers notice the wives and progeny of their

heroes, at the fqnclusiou of their lives.

TUe

expression.

VOI*

I.

YV

34fJ

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

(he olher;

[CHAP. v.

connected with the promise, thry are unnoticed till the close of the But however this history. may be, Abraham dismissed them from the paternal abode, with appropriate portions, that they might not interfere with Isaac's inheritance; and they went to the east of Beersheba, and settled in Arabia, where they became the heads of several powerful tribes, of whom the Midianites are most conspicuous in

and that the elder should serve the

younger.(a) her
forth

When

the time of

over

holy writ.
Jul. Per. 2868. )

This year is remarkable for the death of Shem, the second son of ( PostDil. 501. C Noah, at the age of 600. 1846 j saac and H e bekah continued
A.M.
2i5.

to live happily together, at Hebron, for upwards of 19 years, before any indications of progeny appeared, notwithstanding that Isaac had frequently entreated the Lord for his wife. Rebekah finding an extraordinary struggle within her, inquired of God concerning it and w as answered, that two nations were striving within her that she should be the mother of two sorts of people, one of which should be stronger than
; ;

Ksau;(b) and he was followed the younger, holding his heel, who was called by Jacob.(c) The former, as he grew up, became a great lover of hunting, and the favourite of his father Isaac, who was fond of his venison, and who, perhaps, admired his robust habits and manly candour, in preference to the domestic life, and insidious temper of Jacob, who \\ as the darling of Rebekah, and imbibed too much of her spirit, as will appear in the sequel. (d) ' \
.

whom she named

When Esau and Jacob had fjui. Per. 2803. C Jul. p er attained their fifteenth year, the ) A.M. 2183. was afflicted with the death ) Post Dil. 526. family 1821. of the patriarch Abraham, in the (.B.C. His funeral obsequies 17oth year of his age. were attended by Isaac and Islnnael, by whom his remains were deposited in the cave of Machpelah, near those of his wife Sarah. (e)
Creation

(Gen. xxv. 1,) " Then again Abraham took a wife," &c. would have been better rendered f)D'l(vauosepH) " he added" unto his wives and concubines. The Jews, indeed, pretend, that Keturah was the same with Hagar, whom Abraham recalled after Sarah's death but the arguments on which this supposition is grounded, are too weak to need refutation. " a Hagar is nowhere called wife," as Keturah, but plainly, " " Hagar, Sarah's maid," or Hagar, the bond-woman." 20. (a) Gen. xxv. 21
;

of which

it

gives an account.

There

is

also

an

A/xnii/i/pse attributed to him by the Sethiaus, a sort of hereHis tics lhat sprung up in the earliest times of Christianity.

(Ksau, or F.sav) the meaning of which is ralher has been derived by some from r\Wy (ASOH, or /IASSOH) to make, or perform, or, as many will have it, to perfect ; because Es.au was born hairy, and as it were perfect or because he was more robust than his brother. He is likewise called Slieir, Sehir, or Seir, from Ijny (SHAAaR)
(b)
itt'i'

obscnre:

it

and Origen is mentioned by St. Athanasius; speaks of an apocryphal took pretended to be written by him, wherein two angels, a good one and a bad one, are introduced disputing about his salvation or damnation. The Jews make him also the composer of some prayers, as well as of the 90th Psahn, and of a Treatise against Idolatry. The Indian fire-worshipers, who think him to have been the same with their great prophet Zoroaster, attribute those books to him, which they call the Zend, Pazvud, and Vitstnh, containing all the principles of their religion.
Axuninpiitin
likewise given us a history of this pabut so mutilated that it would hardly !>e thought they were descended from him by Islnnael, did not the Scriptures assure us that they are so. Abraham, according to them, was the son of Azar, and grandson of Terah.
triarch,

The Arabians have

hairy; and als-o Edom, (red) from his selling his birthright to Jacob, for a mess of red He is called (Gen. pottage. xxv. 27,) "a man of llie field," CITO U?'N (AISH saotH) one who supported himself and family by agriculture and hunting. (c) 3|-y JAACOB) from Dpj/ (AKOB, or AEKCB) to supplant, also the heel; i. e. to overthrow by tripping up the a name indicative of the action w'ith which he came heels; into the world, and prophetic of his subsequent conduct in
extorting the birthright from his brother's necessities (Gen. xxv. 2934.) as well as in fraudulently obtaining his father's
blessing, (Gen. xxvii.)

life,

heathens have also a long tradition of A brilliant's though vastly different from that of Moses, and fraught The with many wonderful additions of their own invention.

The eastern

Persian fire-worshippers to this day express a great veneration him they call him Zeerdoost, or Zoroaster, which signifies the friend of Are; becausewlicn he was thrown, as they pretend, into the furnace by Nimrod's order, the flames, instead of him, caressed and embraced him in a friendly
for
;

Gen. xxv. 2734. xxvii. 6, et seq. (e) Abraham's history has been embellished with a great many notorious fictions by ihe Jews, Arabians, and Indians suilia* Ins making a long abode in Egypt, and teaching astronomy and other sciences there; his inventing the Hebrew characters and tongue; his being the author of several book,, particularly one mentioned in the Tutmuit, and highly
(d)
;

consuming

valued by

st\ era!

learned rabbins, called Jctziiah, ot The

manner. The ancient fathers of the church have highly celebrated him on account of his great faith and obedience; and the marly rologies have given him a place among tlieir saints, The church of Koine has likewise on the Otli of October. ordered an otfice for him, and they address him in particular for those who are at the point of death. It is reported, that the tomb of Abraham having" been discovered near Hcbrou, his body, and thote of Isaac and

14

<

HAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

As Esau

347

returned from the exhausted with fatigue and hunger, under some peculiar circumstanees, it should seem, that have not been recorded, hut which rendered the procuring of food more than ordinarily difficult, or desirahle, he perceived his brother Jacob with some red pottage of lentiles, and begged him to give him some, he being ready to perish with hunger. This request, however reasonable between brethren, Jacob resolved to turn to his own advantage and therefore, before he would part with his pottage, made Esau swear
Jul. Per.

2909.* } A. M. 2 1!!!).' ( Post Oil. 542.* f B. C. 1805.0

field

famine obliging Isaac to r j u i> cr 2030.* seek a newhabitation, he thought \ A. M. 2220.* of going into Egypt ; but God 1 Post Oil. ji;a." 174.* directed him rather to go to C B C
i.
.

Gerar, where Abimelech, who had formerly

entertained Abraham, or his successor of the same name, would receive him with kindnegg. At the same time, God promised to bless him, and to give him a numerous progeny, according to the oath which He had made to Abraham,
his father. (g) In going into the country of the Philistines, Isaac was seized with the same fear that his father had been overtaken with, and

to forego the privileges of his birth, in his favour. Esau, supposing himself at the point of death,

readily consented to part with what appeared to him no better than a nominal title because, if he died so shortly as his fears indicated, the
;

into a similar snare, in endeavouring to avoid said of Rebekah, " She is my sister;" but Abimelech soon detected his dissimulation, and after reproving him for it, gave strict orders to his people, that neither Isaac nor his wife
fell
it.

He

who seems, from the whole of his history, to have been of an open generous disposition, knowing they were born twins, did not scruple
to

birthright would naturally devolve upon his younger brother. Or, it might be, that Esau,

should be molested, on pain of death. Isaac continued with the Philistines, till his prodigious increase of wealth gave them umbrage, and they began to persecute him, by

make

his brother a partaker in that birth-

only a momentary Jacob, however, tutored by his preference. had a higher object in view than mother, merely sharing the privilege; for when Esau observed that, being at the point of death, the birthright could be of no consequence, Jacob, unmoved by the faint condition of his brother, made him swear to forego all claim upon it, before he would suffer him to taste of his pottage. Esau therefore complied with his brother's desire, ate of the pottage, and, as the text has it, despised his birthright to
right, (f)

which he had

up his wells as fast as his servants dug them besides many other ill offices. At length Abimelech sent him a positive order to remove; but the message was couched in such civil terms, that Isaac, who was unconscious of any evil intent against him, only removed to another of the same country, and dwelt in the part Here new contentions arose valley of Gerar. between the Philistines and Isaac's servants ; so that he was obliged to shift from place to place, till at length Abimelech, remembering
filling
;

formerly made with perceiving that Isaac was favoured with God's special Messing, thought fit to renew the covenant; on which occasion a

perhaps

the

covenant

Abraham,

and

Jacob, were discovered whole and uncorrupted. likewise some gold and silver lamps hung up

There were
in

the cave,

a brother in distress ; Esau was extremely culpable for not prizing, even before life itself, the hjgh privileges to which he

which was

visited

by multitudes."

The Moslams have such

they make it one of their four pilgrimages; the three others being Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem and the Christians built a church over the cave, which the Turks afterwards turned into a mosque. Mos. Ben Maimon, and after him the learned Spencer, relate, that Abraham was brought up in the religion of the Zabeans,
this place, that
;

a veneration for

was born, in which there can be no doubt that his father Isaac had instructed him. The birthright, which Jacob was
so desirous of obtaining, is generally supposed to include autlwrity and superiority over the rest of the family ; a double portion of the paternal inheritance ; the peculiar benediction of the father and the priesthood, or right of offering sacrifices, And (previous to its settlement in the family of Aaron.) besides these, so far as Es^tfu knew, the promise of the Land of Canaan, and of the Messiah, was attached to the first;

logers,

are supposed to have been great astronomers, astro&c. and, by discovering the power and influence of the stars and heavenly bodies, came at length to worship

who

them.

2934. Although the conduct of Jacob on occasion can never be too harshly censured, as being draught with mean selfishness and unnatural brutality towards
(0 Gen. xxv.
this

born for, though it had been revealed to Rebekah, that " the elder should serve the younger," it does not* appear that she had made Isaac acquainted with it. Privileges such as thcsi',
:

Esau should have more highly appreciated

liaving

known

their value,

though his not can never exculpate the sinister

;

dealing of Jacob with him.

Ben

Sholraali, ap. D'Herbclot.

(g)

Gen. xxvi.

YY 2

34

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE "BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

and when the food was ready,
to

[CHAP. v.

sumptuous banquet was prepared by Isaac for the king and his chief officers. Ou the same day, word was brought to Isaac, that his servants had found water, upon which he called
the place Sheba.(h)
Jul. Per. 2918.

suffered himself

in Esau's best clothes, and the skins of the kids to be put upon his neck and upon
his

be clad

hands,

lest his father

should touch him.

In

The tranquillity which this new alliance procured Isaac, was soon A. M. 22oe! ( PostDH. 551. f after disturbed by Esau marrying B.C. 1796. j two Can aanitish women : Judith,
^

this disguise he went into his father's chamber, with the fictitious dish of venison, calling upon

him

the daughter of Beeri, and Bashemath, the daughter of Elon, both Ilittites.(i) Great as was the grief caused by this transaction to Isaac and Rebekah, the fond father

might bit -ss Isaac was succeeded stratagem and Jacob purloined the blessing, deceived, though not without considerable doubts on the
him.

to arise

aud

eat, that his soul

The

was soon reconciled; and

still considering Esau as his heir, according to the right of primogeniture, he reserved his blessing for him, Avhen he supposed himself to be approaching his end. Accordingly, in the 117th year of his age,(j) when his eyes had become dim, so that he could not see, and his strength \vas reduced to faintness and feebleness, he called for Esau, and & fter reminding him of the uncerJnl. Per. 2935.* } A. M. 2225.* ( tainty of life, desired him to go Post. Oil. 568.* f out into the field with his bow

part of the father, who thought the voice was Jacob's, but the touch of his hands, and the smell of the garments, were those of Esau. Unable, however, to extricate himself from this perplexity, he proceeded to confer the paternal " God benediction, saying, give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and Let people serve plenty of corn and wine. thee, and nations bow down to thee ; be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be everyone that curseth thee ; and blessed be he that blesseth thee."

an j q U j[ver, to procure venison, him in a savoury manner, that he might eat and bless him, before he died.(k) This discourse was overheard by Rebekah, who, knowing the vast importance of the paternal

1779.* J
it

and dress

for

benediction, resolved to procure it, at all hazards, for her favourite Jacob. She therefore, as soon as Esau was gone out, directed Jacob to fetch two kids of the goats, from the flock, that she might dress them according to his father's palate ; telling him that he should then take them in to his father, in the character of Esau, and obtain the blessing. This enterprise
first alarmed Jacob, who represented to his mother, the danger he should be in of detection, in which case, instead of a blessing, he should incur a curse. " The curse," replied the in" be triguing mother, upon me Only obey

at

Scarcely had Jacob retired from his father's presence, when Esau came in with his dish of savoury food, and invited him, in the most dutiful manner, to partake of it. The imposition of Jacob was immediately discovered, and Isaac, remembering the artifice of his younger son, and the falsehoods he had uttered, trembled exceedingly nevertheless he could not recal the blessing. " I have blessed him," said Isaac, " and he must (shall, or will) be blessed." Here Esau broke out into bitter of his brother's injustice, observing complaints that he had now been twice supplanted by him; first, in the affair of the birth-right, and secondly, in his father's blessing: then, in an agony of soul, not to be described, he inquired if his
;

my voice, and fetch the kids." Jacob complied

" but one blessing? Behold," " I have made him Isaac, lord, ami replied thy all his brethren have I given to him for servants with corn and wine I have sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee ?" At length the father

had

(h) This place is generally supposed to be the same where Abiroelcch and Abraham had formerly concluded their treaty; but some old maps have two places of this name Beersheba, ,r the well (he oath, beloiiyns; to Abraham; and Sheba, or Beer -.licki Nova, belonging to l-,aac.
:
<

daughter, the third wife of Esau, called, chap, xxvili. !), Mahalath. The reason of this variation cannot he accounted
for.

I'

lint in chap, xxxvi. 2, the first of (i) G:n. xxvi. 3-1, :'>. those wives is called Aholibamah, daughter of Anah, daughter (or rather, according to the Samaritan and Septuaint, as well a* chap, xxxvi. 24, of our translation, son) of Zibcon, the livittuiid the second culled Adah, daughter of I'Jcn, the Hittite; while the name of Baslieiuath is to Isumad's
;
i.-,

(j) Chronologers, who allow of only 20, or 21 years, for Jacob's residence in Padan-aram, place this transaction 20 years later; but Dr. Kennicntt, who makes the sojournment of Jacob with Lahau, of 40 years' duration, gives the date as above. Ou this subject, some farther observations will be

found
(k)

in its

properlplace.
xxvii.

given

Gen.

CHAP.
tears

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

oil

349

and importunities of Esau so far prevailed, that Isaac gave him an assurance that his dwelling should be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above that he should live by his sword, and serve his brother; but that he should ultimately shake oft' the
;

yoke.

With a discontented mind, Esau retired; and his resentment wrought so strongly upon him,
that he threatened to kill Jacob, as soon as their father should die, an event, which the

which had served him for a pillow, by pouring upon it, and he called the place Beth-el, or the House of God. Here he likewise made a vow, that if God would indeed grant him His protection, feed, clothe, and bring him back safe to his father's house, JEHOVAH should be his God he would pay tithes of all that he and the stone now set up should be God's had, house. He then went on his way cheerfully, and arrived safe at his uncle Laban's.
;

When Esan

perceived that his brother

was

whole family seem to have been in daily expectation of, though he actually outlived the transaction sixty-three years. This threat coming to Rebekah's ears, she advised Jacob to go privately to Haran, or Padan-aram, and reside with her brother Laban, till Esau's resentment should abate at the same time, she urged the necessity of the journey upon Isaac, to prevent their son following the example of Esau, in taking a wife from among the women of Canaan. Isaac acquiesced in this representation, and after charging him not to marry in the land where they then resided, desired him to go to Haran, and procure a daughter of his mother's house for a wife. He then blessed him again, committing him to the protection of the God of Abraham, whom he prayed to restore him to the land given to that patriarch and dismissed
:

gone, and found that his father had charged him to marry into his mother's family, he endeavoured to compensate for his own misconduct in this respect, by adding to his former
wives, another, from the stock of Abraham he therefore went to Ishmael, and took his
:

him.(l)

As Jacob's journey was to be kept a secret from Esau, he was forced to go alone, and without equipage his staff being the only goods he took with him.(m) Towards the close of day, he arrived at a place called Luz, where, for want of a lodging, he was forced to lie all night in the open fields, with only a stone for his pillow. Here he saw, in a dream, a ladder, from earth to heaven, and angels reaching ascending and descending upon it, whilst the Lord stood above, promising to protect him whithersoever he went, to bless him with an innumerable progeny, to bring him back to the hind which he was now leaving, and confirming to him all the promises made to Abraham. Jacob awoke from his divam surprised and frightened,
:

daughter Mahalath,(o) the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife soon after which, he seems to have left the paternal abode at Beersheba, and to have taken up his residence in mount Seir, in the land of the Horites, where he became very powerful, as will be seen when we corne to the history of his descendants, the Edomites. When Jacob arrived in the country of Haran, he met with shepherds tending their flocks near a stone well, and asked them if they knew Laban, the son of Nahor? They replied, that they did know him, and that his daughter Rachel would presently be therewith her flock. When she arrived, Jacob very gallantly rolled away the stone from the well's mouth, and watered her sheep for her. This done, he told her his name and kindred and, saluting her, wept for joy. Rachel ran to tell her father of whom she had met with, and he came with all speed to fetch him home, where he entertained him with great kindness and Jacob, willing to make himself useful, engaged himself in his
;
; ;

service during his stay there.

crying out,

and

Surely the Lord is in this place, not!" Rising then from his hard bed, he set up and consecrated the stone (n)
1

"

knew

it

When Jacob had been with his uncle about a month, as a visitor, Laban, who had perceived his usefulness, proposed that if he remained, he should receive some wages for his services ; remarking that it was not just to take his labours without reward, merely because he \\ashis kinsman: he therefore desired Jacob
(o)

(1)

Gen.

xxviii.

(n)

On

(m) Gen. xxxii. 10.

Gen.

xxviii.

in chap, xxxvi. 3, she

is

called Baslie-

the subject of consecrated stones, see the Intro-

math.

duction, page 214.

350
to

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

Levi,(r)

[CHAP. v.
r j u l. Per. 2945.* 2235.* ) A. M. 1 Post- DiL 578.* ' B- c> 1769.*
,

name some terms; and he immediately offered

to serve

him seven years to have his daughter Hachel to wile. Laban accepted the proposal, and the ardour of Jacob's love made the seven

because she hoped her husband would now be joined as

strongly in affection to her as he was to her sister: and the fourth

years servitude appear but as a few days. The seven years being expired, Jul Per "942 *"}

was named Judah, (s)

in

acknow-

Jul Per 294fl

A.M.

-j-Jo-2.'

Jacob demanded

his wife;

Laban

accordingly made a feast, to 1772.* ) which he invited his friends and neighbours, and the nuptials were publicly celebrated but Jacob, who had formerly circumvented his brother, was on this occasion himself outwitted, and that in a most tender point. For Laban had an elder daughter, named Leah, of personal charms greatly inferior to her sister, and as he had found Jacob to be a valuable servant, he determined upon getting seven more years' servitude from him, by unfairly substituting Leah for Rachel in the evening of the nuptials; and the next morning when his nephew and son-in-law complained of the deception, he pretended that it was contrary to the custom of the place to give the younger daughter in marriage before the elder but promised if he would fulfil Leah's week, he would also give him Rachel, on his undertaking to serve seven years longer. Hard as were these terms, Jacob loved Rachel too well, not to submit ; he acknowPost. Dil. 575.* f
:

ledginent that good conies from \ A. M. 22361* the hand of God, and that she 1 Post. Dil. 579.* ' 1768.* was bound to praise Him. After B>c this, she left offchildbearing for a season. This prosperity of Leah, could not but excite the envy of Rachel, and her mortification so overpowered her judgment, that she even reproached Jacob with her sterility, saying, " Give me children, or else I die "(t) But Jacob sharply replied, by asking if she thought him to be in God's place, who alone could fulfil her desire ? She then proposed that he should take her handmaid Bilhah, and endeavour to make her a mother by proxy to this he consented,
!

and

Billiah brought forth a son, r j u l. Per. 2947.* whom Rachel called Dan; (u) al- j A.M. 2237.* Post. Dil. 580.* leging that God had judged in 1 ' B -C1767.* her favour. Bilhah afterwards

had a second son, and Rachel r j u p er named him Naphtali, (v) to ex- )A.M.
j.

2.949.*

2239.*
'
-

press the

violent struggles she ) Post Dl1 58 2 -*

-

had Lad with her

sister.

The second term

ledged Leah to be his legitimate wife, by cohabiting with her for a week, according to the practice of the country, and then he received Rachel, of whom he was so fond that Leah found herself neglected and despised. God, however, made her amends by giving her children, and withholding them from Rachel.

of seven years being

now

During the
Jul. Per. 2043.*
")

first

^ ean

four years of their marriage,

annually presented Jacob

A. M.

2233.* f with a son : the first she called Post. Dil. 576.* f Reuben,(p) a name indicating that B.C. 1771.* } t he Lord had looked her

accomplished, Jacob continued to reside with Laban, or in his neighbourhood, for the space of 20 years,(w) but in what capacity does not appear: he, however, served him in some manner. Leah perceiv ing the advantage which Rachel had obtained by giving her servant to Jacob, and supposing herself to be past childbearing, followed her example, and gave her handmaid Zilpah to her husband, and she r j u i.p e r. 2950.* bore a son, whom Leah named V\.M. 2240.*
Post. Dil. 583.* Gad,(x) or a troop, not doubting 1 v. B -C. but more would follow; which was accordingly the case: for, fj u Per. 2952.* two years afterwards, Zilpah had A. M. 2242.* Post. Dil. 585.* a second son, and Leah called
l.

affliction,

upon and that therefore her husband would

kind towards her the second she named Simeon, (q) because, she said, the Lord had heard her: the third she called
:

now be

him Asher,(y)

to

commemorate

B. C. {Jul.

1762.*

her present satisfaction.

(u)

(p)

P 1N
1

">

(REUBeN)

see ye, or behold

a son; for Jehovah

(DON) judging.

hath looked.
(q) JtiOtf
(r)
'I ?

(SHiMEON) hearing. (Levi) joined. The Levites,

iiis

descendants, were

joined to the priests in the service of the tabernacle, in lieu of the first-born of all Israel. Numb. iii. 41, 45. (s) rrnn (JCHUDOH) a confessor, or one isho
1

(NaPHTaLl) my wrestling. (w) See Dr. Kennicott on Gen. xxxi. 38, et ser/. whose to the usual chronology has been here adopted in preference which makes Jacob's residence with Laban altoopinion,
gether but 20 years.
(x)

(v) 'bnDJ

From Judah
(i)

the Gen. xxx.

Jews have

acknowledges.

TJ'Na (BA-GOD) a troop cometh; or

TO (Baoai))

with

their

name.

a troop. (y) "TON (ASHCK) happiness, or blessedness.

CHAP.

V.J

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

'

quence
A.M.

Wheu Reuben the eldest SOU of Leah, was about l.'J years ol ( the fields in the PostDil. 589.* age, he went into B.C. 1768.* 3 ti uie O f wheat harvest, where he brought them to finding sonic niandrakes,(z) Rachel no sooner saw them, than his mother. she was seized with a desire to have them. But Leah told her, it was too much, for her to take her husband and her son's mandrakes also: wherefore, to pacify her, and purchase the she should have her fruit, Rachel agreed that The consethat night. husband's company M as that Leah bore a fifth of this bargain
Jul Per

*05G-)
2-24(5!*

A.M.

God would
years,

but at length (iod listened to her petitions, and gave her a son, to whom, with a r Jul. Per. 2!K. kind of prophetic spirit, she gave \ A.M. 22;>!>. the name of Joseph, (d) saying, 1 Post Dil. <;o-2.
also give her another. C.B-C.
174.3.

Jul Per. 2957.*

2-247!*

of her having given her liand3 maid to Jacob. Leah afterwards bore a sixtl1 SOU) wnom slle Called Jul. Per. 2959.* ~) I Zebulun,(b) observing that now, A.M. 2249.* Post Oil. 592.' f without doubt, her husband B.C. 1755.* j W o U ld become attached to her, for the sake of the six sons she had borne him. The next > 6al> slle als S ave Jul Per. 2960*^) A.M. '2250!* ( birth to a daughter, and called Post. Dil. 593.* her name Dinah. (c) After which ^ B.C. 1755.* 3 she had no more children.
PostDil. 590.* B. C. 17 37.*

and called him lssachar,(a) alleging that he was the reward

son,

Jacob had now been with Labaii about 34 and finding himself without any adequate establishment for the support of his numerous family, was desirous of returning to his father's But Labaii, house, to obtain an inheritance. though he Mas of a covetous disposition, and seems hitherto to have suffered his sen ices to go unrewarded, was too well acquainted with the advantages he had derived from Jacob's management, to suffer him easily to depart. He
therefore proposed to hire his continued exertions for wages, and left the specific nature of them to Jacob's own appointment. '\ his proposal was accepted, and Jacob stipulated that he should have for his hire, all the speckled

aud spotted among the cattle and goats, and all the brown Notwithamong the sheep.
standing this agreement, the avarice of Labau prompted him frequently to infringe upon the terms and Jacob, who was rarely to be out;

Rachel had all this time, about 26 years, remained inconsolable for the want of children
;

witted, hit upon an expedient that soon transferred all the best of the herds and of the Hocks to himself, (e) Laban could not but be vexed
of the ordinary colour. By this stratagem, Jacob not only obtained a much larger proportion of cattle than could in the usual course of nature have fallen to his share, but also
the strongest and best. (Gen. xxx.) Here Jacob is still maintaining his character of a supplanter, and securing that by craftiness, which God had determined to bestow upon him of free favour: see GV/. xxxi. 10 12. Great as was his latter end, his early aberrations from the strict line of integrity imiht ever be deplored. God had designed to make Jacob superior to his elder brother Esau (Gen. \\v. 23.) but Jacob, at the expense of his fraternal character, extorted the birth34.) and right from his brother's necessities (Gen. x\v. 20 afterwards purloined the paternal benediction by an atrocious fraud, and falsehood of the most unblushing kind (Gen. xxvii.) And to these must he added the turpitude of the means by which he transferred the property of his father-in-law to himall

Gen. xxx. 14. Various are the conjectures concerning (DUDAIM;) but as no solution, even tolerably satisfactory, has been found, it is not necessary Whatever they were, they were to dwell upon the subject. highly prized by both Leah and Rachel. man of reward, from "OU> (a) *)2VW (issocHaR) the (SHeKeK) vcagts, with the prefix 1L" (ISH.) The whole of this account is very obscure. Besides the uncertainty respecting the mandrakes, it seems strange that Leah should allude to her giving her handmaid to Jacob, rather than to her parting will) In r mandrakes, which were the purchase of her hus(z)

these mandrakes,

awm

b.md'* favour.
(b) p^Ht
biiiid
(

ZCBMLU N) a dwelling : she now expected her hus-

to forsake Rachel, and give himself wholly to her comSome writers place the birth of Joseph prior to that pany.

of Zebulun.
(r;

run (.DINOH) the feminine of

pi

allusion, perhaps, to Leah's victory over her sister, attributed to the decision of God.
(d)
(e)

(DON) judgment: in which she

spv (.JOSCPH) adding. This expedient consisted in laying in the water-troughs, t\vi<;> of hazel, poplar, and chesnut or plane, from which part of the rind had been peeled, so as to give them a sneaked appearance. The cattle, when they came to drink, v.ere so struck will) tliis unusual sight, that the ewes conceived and brought forth young marked with the appearance of tiie rods, or twigs. This, perhaps, would have been invariably tiie case ; but in order to avoid giving Labaii too much dissatisfaction, he sometimes removed them but only
;

as above related. From ail which, it may be inferred*, Jacob was hitherto an unconverted character: he had, indeed, been bred up in ihe exterior form of religion, and had not cast it oft', as it is likely his brother Esau had done; but still he continued ignorant of its power upon the heart and life of the true believer: nor can lie be allowed any real claim
self,

that

to that character

till

the a Hair at Peniel; (Ge,n.

;

\.\\ii.)

there

his stratagems and subterfuges failed abh to inert tiie threatening danger

the weakly cattle

tame

to drink,

and they brought forth

he found himself unami then he threw ; and himself wholly upon the protection of tbe Almighty having dime 3 o, and prevailed by his prayers, his name Jacob was alnogjlcil lor tin honourable appellation ot ISKAK.L: to winch epocha must be referred the commencement of his If this reasoning be admitted, it will supersede spiritual life.
:

352

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

do him hurt
;

[CHAP. v.

at seeing himself thus circumvented, and endeavoured to turn the effects of the stratagem

against Jacob, by frequently changing the conditions of his servitude; but all was in v.iiu Jacob continued to prosper, so that he got also men-servants and women-servants, camels, oxen, and asses. At length he overheard the sons of Laban, complaining that he had deprived them and their father of all their sub!

but acknowledged that God had upon him. And then he added, that how strong soever might have been Jacob's desire of returning to his father's house, it could not warrant the purloining of Iiis gods. To the
laid a restraint

they should he began to conattempt to seize his property, sider of the best means of effecting his escape back to Canaan ; and while he was perplexed on this subject, a vision from God warned him to be gone. Having acquainted his wives with h* s design, and got their consent Jul Per 2975 "} to follow him, he set off with all A. M. 2265. ( Post Dil. 608. f his flocks and servants, on his B.C. 1739. } j ourne y towards Canaan, while Laban was engaged in sheep-shearing at some distance from him, which gave Rachel an opportunity, unknown to Jacob, of taking with her, her father's teraphim, or household gods.(f) Laban did not hear of this flight till the third day after, when he set off in pursuit of the
stance.

Alarmed, therefore,

lest

part of this address, Jacob objected his Laban, if made acquainted with his intention of returning to Canaan, would have but as to the theft forcibly detained his wives of his gods, he denied all knowledge of it ; and desired him to search all the tents, and to bring out and expose to all the people with them,
first

fear that

whatever he should discover belonging to him declaring, that with whomsoever the property was found, he should be put to death. Laban lost no time to avail himself of this permission, and beginning with Jacob's tent, continued his search till he came to that of Rachel, who, in the hurry of the moment, had hid them under
:

the

litter or furniture of the camels, and sat When Laban entered herself down over them. her tent, Rachel excused herself from rising to pay her respects to her father, by alleging that

On apparently breathing revenge. the seventh day, he overtook Jacob, on the mountains of Gilead ; but having, the night before, been warned of God, in a dream, to do him no hurt, nor even to speak roughly to him, he contented himself with expostulating, in moderate terras, on his incivility in stealing off
fugitives,

the customary infirmity of women was upon her ; which prevented farther scrutiny. Laban having declared his ill success to Jacob, the

reproached him for his unjust as well as for the ignominious method suspicions, he had pursued in searching over his household, after he had been assured that none of his
latter sharply

secretly, carrying his

tives,

daughters away like cap-

and not suffering him to take leave of them and their children, so that he might have dismissed them with an equipage suited to their rank, with the usual ceremonies of music and dancing. Laban also alluded to his power to
the multitude of apologies and extenuations that have been written in his defence, or with a design to palliate actions which must ever be considered as inexcusable. What these teraphim were, has been much (f) Gen. xxxi. debated ; but they are generally admitted to have borne some rest-in blance to the human form, and that they were consulted as oracles. For this purpose they were constructed under particular aspects of the planets, from which, according to the Jews, they partly received their efficacy, as they did partly from the cabalistic characters engraved upon them. That

property had been stolen. Nor was the intention of Laban, of which Jacob appears to have been perfectly aware, to send him away destitute, unnoticed for after recapitulating his long
:

and

services during twenty years in Laban's house, his fourteen years' servitude for his daughters, and his six years' service for his
faithful
cattle,(g) with the arbitrary

mode

in

which

his

pole-star, &c. hence some have conjectured them to have been tables or instruments that served the purposes of judicial astro-

Jacob was ignorant of this theft, is evident from his undaunted challenge to Laban, to search his luggage; declaring that whoever they were found upon, should be put to death. (Gen. xxxi. 32.) Wheu Jacob afterwards discovered them, he buried
them, together with the ear-rings worn as amulets, or charms, under the oak of Shechem, prior to his remove to Bethel. (Gen. xxxv. 4.) In the Persian translation, these teraphim are called astrolabet, instruments for taking the altitude of the sun, the a

logy ; a science, falsely so called, to which many Christian professors have been addicted, and to which Laban and his daughters may upon equal grounds be permitted to have Ir.td an attachment, \\ithouttheir being absolute idolaters. Kaclicl seems to have conveyed them aw ay, to prevent her father disco\ ering the route by which Jacob went. Terah, the father of Abraham, is by some supposed to have invented the teraphim, and given them his own name: and Mr. Bryant thinks " lunar amulets," or types of the ark, in the form they were

of a crescent. The doctor's (g) See Ur. Kcnnicott on Gen. xxxi. 3841. hypothesis is here adopted, because, however at variance with the current mode of calculating the time that Jacob spent with Laban, it appears more consonant with the spirit and idiom of the original, than the present reading of our English version though eveu that, with due attention to the divisions
:

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

353

wages had been repeatedly changed, he added, " Except the God of my father had been with
of the sentences, will yield the same meaning to say nothing of the difficulties which it removes in the chronology of this of the period, as will clearly appear from a comparison annexed Tables. The strength of the Doctor's argument lies
:

me, and rebuked thee yesternight, thou hadst now surely sent me away empty."
having well earned his wages through the twenty years when lie served but he makes a far greater merit of having for another twenty years assisted him without wages, and even with some losses: and therefore, with particular propriety, he reminds Laban ot that set of twenty years in the first place.
;

in the following extract :

Upon Laban's pursuit of Jacob, when Jacob is vindicating his past behaviour, he mentions twenty years twice; which two sets of twenty, if really different, make forty. Each mention of the twenty years is introduced with the
which word, when repeated, is used in oppoas when we say, this and or by way of distinction ' Thus, Exod. xiv. 20, so that that, the one or the other. Eccles. vi. 5, ' This hath the one came not near the other.' more rest than the other.' And with the two words at a great ' one dieth (25) and another dieth,' distance, Job, xxi. 23, in Gen. xxxi. at verse 38, Jacob says to Laban, &c. So here,

"

word

Hf (zeH);

sition,

(Gen. xxxi.) 38, 'Tnis TWENTY thy ewes and thy sbegoats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock hare I not eaten. 39. That which was torn of beasts, I brought not unto thee I bare the loss of it of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day or stolen by
is

" Our translation now

I

YEARS HAVE

BEEN WITH THEE;

O3Nrou?c3nu;j;nt(zeH ESRIM sHnNnu ANOCI IMCHO) during the ONE set of twenty years, I was with thee, &c. meaning the time in which he lived, not in Laban's house,
~\ny

day the drought consumed me, departed from mine eyes. 41. THUS HAVE I BEEN TWENTY YEARS IN THY HOUSE: I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle and thou hast changed my wages ten times.' " The alteration here is
night.

40.

Thus I was;
by night
;

in the

and the

frost

and

my sleep

THE

ONE TWENTY

YEARS

recommended this 38. DURING I was WITH thee, thy ewes and
'
:

but in his neighbourhood (Gen. xxx. 36); not as a servant, but a friend : AFTER he had served in Laban's house fourteen years for his daughters, and BEFORE he served six years for his cattle. But then, as to the other twenty, he tells Laban,
at verse 41, varying the phrase very remarkably "I'msy "jnOH nitt? D'~iU?y 'b nr (zen LI ESRIM SHONOH ueBeireca ABOD-

thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rains, &c. 41. DURING THE TWENTY YEARS, FOR MY-

OTHER

SELF, IN THY HOUSE, I served,' &c. " The same, distinction is expressed in chap. xxx. 2J), 'Thou knowest how I have SERVED THEE, and how thy cattle was WITH ME;' i. e. 'how I behaved during the time I was with thee as thy servant ; and how thy cattle fared
during the time they were with

TeYCa) during the OTHER twenty years ['"? (Li)] FOR MYSELF [for my own benefit] IN THY HOUSE, I served thee FOURTEEN years and six years, &c. And during this last period, though only six years, he charges Laban with changing his wages ten times. So that Jacob insists upon
TABLE
I.

me

as thy friend."

life of Jacob, was first noticed by Mr. Skinner, in a Dissertation, published in the year 1765 ; upon whose hints, Dr. Kennicott afterwards enlarged. The following Tables are chiefly compiled from Mr. Skinner :

This

fault in the

chronology of the

CHRONOLOGY OF

JACOB'S LIFE

AND FAMILY, ON THE SUPPUTATION OP

HIS

HAVING BEEN TWENTY YEARS WITH LABAX.

40 63 77 84 85
86 87 88 89

354

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

[CHAP

Laban, conscious that his proceedings could not be justified, endeavoured to divert Jacob's attention to another subject, and therefore proposed a treaty of alliance, and to erect a monument as ;i lastin,;; memorial of their pacific Jacob agreed aheap of stones dispositions.
;

also exacted a promise from Jacob, that hp should use his daughters kindly, and not add This heap Lulum any other wives to them.

Chaldaic tongue, Je;;ar-saliadutha, and Jacob, in the Hebrew language, named it Galeed both words signilying the heap of
called, in the
;

was

raised, upon which they ate together, according to the usage of the country in like

witness.

Laban

also

added

to

it

the

name of

cases, and then sware perpetual amity towards each other, covenanting that neither would pass by that heap to the injury of the other: Laban

Mizpah, which indicates a watch-lower, saying " to Jacob, The Lord watch between thee and me, when we are absent from eacli other." After this, Jacob offered a sacrifice to God upon
Mr. Jackson supposes that some of the sons of Benjamin, are expressly numbered (Gen. xlvi.) as going iuto Kn\pt with Jacob, might have been born afterwards in Egypt.

From the foregoing Table it appears, that Judah was 13 years old, Er 9, and Onan 8, at the time of their respective marriages; that Shelah was marriageable at 10; and Benjamin, at 23, must have had 10 sons and a daughter. There are also other difficulties in this mode of computation, which the intelligent reader will no doubt discover, and which must be deemed insuperable: though, to get rid of them, Archbishop Usher and Bishop Lloyd assert, that Jacob was married almost as soon as he arrived at Padan-aram ; while
TABLE
II.-

who

From these difficulties, the chronology is delivered by the theory of Mr. Skinner and Dr. Kennicott, who place Ja'cob's removal to Padan-aram 20 years earlier, accord ins; to the mode contained in the foregoing extracts, and more fully exemplified in the follow ing Table
:

CHRONOLOCY OP JACOB'S LIFE AND FAMILY, ON THE SUPl'UTATION OF

HIS BEING FORTY YEARS

WITH LABAN.

II
i

40 57 58 63 64 65 66 67 68 69
71

72 74 78 79
81

83 86 87 88 89 91

97

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

tin(lie next, fall upon one of them, the other might escape. This done, he betook himself to earnest prayer,

day \vas closed with a solemn ticast; and morning Lahan returned to at Padan-aram, after taking an liis residence affectionate adieu of his daughters and their
the mount;
children.

acknowledging the great goodness thai God had shewn to him, notwithstanding his own
un\\ orthiness
;

for,

said he, " with

my

staffonljr

became acquainted with. He theremessengers to him in mount Seir, about 120 miles distant, to inform him of his prosperity while in Padan-aram, and to let him know that he was now on his return home. This message, though it bears the air of a mere com-

sooner freed from his apprehensions about Laban, than he began to be terrified at the reception he might meet with from Esau, whose power among the Horites he probably
110

Jacob was

now

first

fore sent

pliment, was, without doubt, intended to divest Esau's mind of any suspicions that he was returning to Canaan, in order to seize on the wealth of their father Isaac, at the time of his decease, by shewing that he had enough without it. However this may be, Jacob awaited the return of his messengers with considerable anxiety ; during which time he was favoured with a vision of angels, whom he called " God's host :"(h) and to the place he likewise gave the name of Mahanaim, or hosts. What answer(if any) Esau returned to Jacob's embassy, is not recorded ; but only that the

over this Jordan, in my way out ; and no\v I am become two bands." Confiding, therefore, in the displays of divine mercy that had already been manifested in his favour, and pleading the divine promises, he besought God to deliver him and his from the hand of Esau.(i) The next morning, he resolved to send a very handsome present, to meet his brother on the road, from the success of which he .should be able to anticipate his intentions it being a maxim among the inhabitants of those countries, that to accept a man's present is to receive himself into favour, from which time all hostilities and former animosities are buried in oblivion. With this view, he set apart 200 she-goats, 20 he-goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 30 she-camels, with their colts, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 she-asses, did
I

plass

messengers came and told Jacob, they had seen his brother Esau, and that he was now on the road towards him, accompanied by 400 men. This intelligence struck Jacob into a panic for he could not conceive that his brother should undertake so long a journey, and with such a retinue, with any other than hostile intentions.
;

which he sent forward in and charged the drivers, each separate droves, as he came up to Esau, to deliver the drove into his hands in a submissive and obliging manner, and to say it was a present from his brother Jacob, who was also behind, and would The same shortly salute him face to face. or the next morning before break of day, night, he sent all his property, with his wives and children, over the brook Jabbok, himself
colts; all

and 10

He knew

himself too weak to pretend to tight with such an army, and his company was too
large

remaining behind alone, for the advantage of Here he was visited, in the private prayer. form of a man, by the same divine person whom he had seen at Bethel, (j) and he wrestled with
the day began to dawn, when the stranger, perceiving that he prevailed not, desired to be gone ; but he first gave Jacob an intimation of his divine power, by touching the hollow of his thigh, and putting it out of joint.

him

till

and too cumbersome

to leave

He hope of escaping altogether by flight. therefore resolved to divide his company and cattle into two bands, that if the enemy should
It does not (h) Gen. xxxii. ]. appear from the text, that any communication took place between Jacob and this host but it was probably sent to assure him of the divine protec:

him any

tion.
(i)

See Psalm xxxiv.

Bethel, (Gen. xxviii. 13.) and who had also visited him in Padan-aram, (Gen. xxxi. 13.) in which latter place, (verse 11) he is called the Anyel of God, the name by which Jacob

0',

7.
first

afterwards invoked a

Read

tins

12. specimen of" This is perhaps the true epocha of Jacob's conversion and, accordingly, we shall presently find his name, as well as his disposition, changed, and we read no more of his
;

most eloquent, but simple prayer, the the kind on record, at large, Gen. xxxii. 9

subtlety.
(j) This divine person is called a man, Gen. xxxii. 24; but in verse 30, Jacob declares that he has seen he there;

blessing upon the sons of Joseph. (Gen. xlviii. 16.) Hosea (chap. xii. 4.) also identifies the Angel over whom Jacob prevailed with the God of Bethel. From all which, it is inferred, that the MAN with whom Jacob wrestled, the LORD, JEHOVAH, whom he saw at Bethel, the ANGEL who appeared to him, while with I.uhan, were all one and the same, the Second Person in the blessed Trinity

GOD

the Lord Jesus Christ; to whom also are referred the visit ^ made to Abraham and Isaac, as afterwards to Moses aud the

fore recognised

him

for the

same

whom

he had beheld at

prophets.

zz2

350

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

[CHAP. v.

Jacob then became more earnest, and declared that he should not depart till he had blessed him whereupon he changed his name from Jacob to Israel, (k) observing, that as he had had power with God, so should he also prevail OUT men. (1) Jacob then asked his name, but he declined telling it, or rather bid him not inquire after it,(m) and having blessed him, he departed. Jacob, convinced that he had been visited by God, called the name of that place
;

the i'rrlings of both were wrought to the highest pitch, and neither could speak till tears of joy

came

to

their

relief,

and
;

instances

of brotherly

then nothing but love and friendship

Peniel, or Penuel,

i. e.

" the face of

God :"(n)

and when he attempted to

journey, in

proceed on

his

order to join his company, he discovered that he halted upon his thigh, and that a lasting token was left of this memorable vision; upon which account, his posterity never eat of the sinew which is upon the hollow of the thigh; and some, more scrupulous than the rest, abstain from the joint itself. By this time, the sun had arisen, and Jacob beheld his brother approaching at a distance, with his 400 companions. He therefore proceeded to arrange his company into the most commodious order, either for the reception of his brother, or the safety of those who were most dear to him.(o) Putting, therefore, the two handmaids, Bilhah and Zilpah, with their children, in the van, and Leah and her children in the centre, he set his beloved Rachel and her son Joseph in the rear ; and having given the necessary orders for their conduct, he advanced before them all to meet his brother.
the latter

passed between them in which, it must be confessed, the open frankness and candour of Esau are far superior to the timid caution of Jacob. Esau then inquired what company it was that he saw behind his brother, and was told were Jacob's wives and children; they which they advanced, and bowed as they upon passed him by, in the order they had been placed in first the handmaids, then Leah, and Esau then asked the meaning lastly Rachel. of the droves which he had met in the way to which Jacob replied, they were a present intended for him. But he refused to accept it, " I have saying, enough, my brother keep that thou hast unto thyself." Jacob, however, could not be satisfied till Esau had taken his present because he knew that the continuance of his friendship was not obligatory without it: he therefore pressed him, and he received it.
; ; ; ;

farther to shew his brotherly affection, Esau proposed that they should travel together,
Still

As Esau and Jacob approached each other, bowed himself seven times to the

ground; but Esau ran forward, caught him in his arms, fell upon his neck, and kissed him:
(k)
"Itt?

probably with a view to rejoice the heart of their aged and infirm parent, Isaac, by appearing before him so unexpectedly, reconciled. But Jacob cautiously excused himself; observing, that the children and cattle could not keep pace with him, without being too much fatigued and therefore he desired him to go before, while he would follow leisurely, as the children and flocks would bear, and that he would wait on him in his own country of Seir.(p) Esau then very courteously offered to leave some of his
;

This name

"?!Ott?'

(YtsnaEL)

is

variously derived from

fear of his brother

Esau

but

it

was assured

to him,

and to

(saR) a prince, or mu? (saRaH) he ruled as a prince, and b*t (EL) God ; or from UJ'N (ISH) a man (dropping the K) and nNI (HAm) he saw, hi* (EL) God. The latter is preferable, as more nearly agreeing with the name which Jacob gave the " I have the WjD
place,

his children ultimately.

seen
soul
xxxii.

God
is

2830.
r

(PCNIEL) face of God; saying, face to face, and my life is preserved," or " my redeemed," as the original might be rendered ; Gen.

Whereexpression of the A ngel, (Gen. xxxii. 29.) that thou dost ask after my name?" is of the same divine person to import with that addressed by the same Manoah, (Judges, xiii. 18.) and may in both places be read " Ask not after my name;" to which, jn the imperatively, " because it is secret," or a reason is added, latter
(m)

The

"

fore

is it

" wonderful."

place,

See Isaiah,

ix. 6.

" His name

shall be called

" as a (1) Our version (Gen. xxxii. >!!.) reads, prince hast thou pow er with God and with men, and HAST prevailed ;" " thou but the original might be more literally rendered by hast had power with God [DTl ?NDj;(iM ELOHIM) thestrong God]; and with man [DTWN Dj; (IM ANOSHIM] weak feeble man] SHALT thou also prevail." This reading agrees much better with the facts of Jacob's life, and the history of his
1

whom the blessing equally belonged, though The victory over his enemies was not theu prospcctively. actually obtained, for he was at that very moment in dreadful
posterity, to

WONDERFUL," &c. words Israel and Peniel. (n) See a former note on the (o) Gen. xxxiii. never appears to have taken place ; (p) This visit to Seir but whether on account of Jacob's fears, or from unforeseen It is, however, certain circumstances, cannot be decided. that Esau left Seir, and resided with Jacob in Canaan for xxxv. 29. xxxvi. 08.) which may have some
years, (Gen. been the reason of Jacob not keeping his promise. Perhaps Esau went directly to Canaau, to inform Isaac of Jacob's

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

3*7

with him, as a guard, or as attendants; but this Jacob also declined, as an unnecessary compliment. Upon which they parted in a very friendly manner; Esau returning by the way of Seir, while Jacob by easy journeys proceeded the nearest way to the land of Canaan; but before he crossed the Jordan, he pitched his tent at a place afterwards called Succoth,(q) and abode there for some time, perhaps for the purpose of recruiting the strength of his cattle and people, after so long a inarch, prior to or their entrance into the Land of Promise he waited here pending the negociation perhaps for the purchase of a piece of land, which he bought of the children of Hamor, king of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of money,(r) on which we shall next find him settled. Having crossed the Jordan, and entered upon the promised land, Jacob took up his abode at Shalem, a city belonging to the Shechemites, whose chief was Hamor, the father of Shechem. Here he bought a field, as above related, and erected an altar to the Lord, which he called
:

men

for the present they chose to dissemble. When, therefore, Hamor came to urge the suit of his son, entreating Jacob and his sons to give Dinah

be the wife of Shechem, and inviting them to intermarry with his people, to accept the freedom of the country, which he offered them, and to dwell and trade among them; which
to

were seconded by Shechem, who was them to name their own so they would but give him their sister; terms, the sons of Jacob, making religion a cloak for their malice, insisted that all the males among the Shechemites should submit to the rite of
offers

also present, desiring

supposing that so high a with, but at the same time pledging themselves that if their terms were acceded to, they would intermarry and dwell among them as their own people. Hamor
circumcision
;

little

demand would be complied

and Shechem made no objection to this proposal, and having assembled their subjects at the gate of the city, they so wrought upon them, by representing the advantages likely to accrue
from a friendly league with persons so wealthy
as the family of Israel, that the

El-Elohe-Israel.(s)

men

of

Shechem

Jacob, or rather Israel, as he

must hereafter be called, had not been above seven or eight months among the Shechemites, an accident befel his family, which caused when
His daughter Dinah, now to remove. about 16 years old, went out to visit those of but being her neighbours of her own age seen by Shechem, son of the prince of the country, he enticed her to listen to his addresses, and she became defiled. (t) Enjoyment, however, did but increase the young prince's passion, and he requested his father to solicit her This was complied with, for him in marriage.

unanimously resolved to undergo the painful operation, and every one was circumcised. But on the third day, when the Shechemites were reduced to a state of debility by the fever consequent upon the wounds they had so cheerfully
submitted to, Simeon and Levi, unknown to Jacob, entered the city with their brethren and attendants, sword in hand, and slew all the males, with Hamor and Shechem among them ; made captives of their wives and children,
in

him

seized their sheep, their oxen, their asses, and a word, all their wealth, as well in the field as in the house, and taking their sister Dinah, whom they found in Shechem's house, retired

But when arid application made accordingly. Jacob's sons heard of the transaction, they were filled with anger, and resolved upon avenging the honour of their family: though
he approach, and probably to secure the inheritance where remained, in amity with his brother, till after their father's death, when he returned to Seir, for the same reason that Lot had before parted from Abraham, because their flocks and herds had become too numerous for them to dwell together. from DDD (SHCCOTH) booths, or tents, under (q) So called which Jacob and liis family resided; there being then no town or city at that place: but one was afterwards built, which bore the ancient name of the place. The same name, and for a similar reason, was given to the place of the first encampment of the Israelites, after they left Rameses, at the epocha of their exodus from Egypt.
;

glutted with revenge.

When Israel heard of what had been done, he reproved his sons for their barbarity, and told them, that the fears of the other iuhabitIt is uncertain whether Jacob (r) Or a hundred lambs. paid the price of this piece of land in kind, i. e. in lambs, or in pieces of money, each worth a lamb, or having, as some suppose, the figure of a lamb stamped upon it.

the

20. This is generally rendered "To God, Israel;" but it might be better translated "The In either case, it marks [is] the God of Israel." the strong sense that Jacob had of the gracious dealings of a mighty God towards him. It appears also to be the first occasion of his using his new name of Israel.
(s)

Gen.

xxxiii.

God of mightv God

(t)

Gen. xxxiv.

.-,58

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

[CHAP. v.

antsof thccoimtry being thus excited, they would no doubt, shortly fall upon, and destroy the

oni,(v) which Israel afterwards changed to to Benjamin. (w) Having buried rj u i. p er 2!7<>.
.

whole family. And this, in all probability, would ha\e been the case, had not God interposed, and put the fear of Israel upon all his neighbours, so that none dared to molest him.

the mortal remains of his beloved j A. M. 226/ Rachel, and reared a monument ) Post Dil OJ) -^ to her memory, which still existed iu the days of Moses, Israel, with a heavy
-

And still farther

commanded him

He had

to quiet his apprehensions, God to remove to Beth-el, where formerly appeared to him, when he fled
;

heart,

moved onwards, and pitched

his tent

from the rage of Esau his brother, and to dwell Israel obeyed but there, and build an altar. before he set out, he made those of his household give up all their strange gods, (teraphim) which they had either brought from Padanaram, or taken among the spoils of the Shechemites, together with the ear-rings, worn by them as charms, talismans, or amulets, and he buried them under the oak which was by Shechem. He likewise ordered all his people to purify themselves, and to change their garments, be-

beyond the tower of Edar; where a fresh misfortune befel him ; for Reuben, his eldest son by Leah, was guilty of incest with Bilhah, the

handmaid of Rachel, The next remove of

Israel's concubine.(x) Israel was to his father's

residence, in the plain of Mamre, before Kirjath-Arba, or Hebron, where he probably found

Esau waiting his arrival; and they all li\ed together in harmony till the death of Isaac, which did not take place till 22 years afterwards,
(y)

cause he was going to a holy place after which he set oft'with his whole family, through the midst of Canaan, none of the inhabitants daring to pursue, or to molest him, and he arrived safe at Luz, or Beth-el, where he built an altar, and called it El-Beth-el, (u) and set up again the stone on which he had formerly rested his head,
:

and poured upon it a drink-oflering, or libation, and oil. Here God appeared to him again, and confirmed upon him the blessing of Ins fathers Abraham and Isaac.

Israel had abode with his father and brother about the space of ten years, his tranquillity was interrupted by the loss of his beloved son Joseph, then about 17 years of age. His great tenderness towards this sou, and the preference he had always given to his mother Rachel, had excited the envy of the sons of Leah, which did not fail to degenerate into downright hatred as he advanced in years. The sons of Bilhah and Zilpah also looked upon him with an evil eye, for his having told their father of something he had seen amiss in their conduct, while he was with them, tending their flocks.

When

From Beth-el,

Israel shortly

removed,

in

order

to visit his father, but when he had proceeded as far as Ephrath (afterward Bethlehem) Rachel

was taken in labour of her second son, and it went so hard with her that she died. Before she
expired, she gave the child the
(u)Gen. xxxv.
7.

name of Ben-

This animosity was also heightened by Israel making him a coat of a certain description, (z) as well as by Joseph's telling them some of his dreams, which seemed to foreshew that he should one day get the superiority of them, (a)
Ben Uzziel states that Kcuben, (x) The Targum of Jonathan vexed at seeing Bilhah preferred, after the death of Rachel, by Israel, before his own mother Leah, overthrew her sopha or couch, which was set up opposite to that of his mother; and that this was imputed to him as if he had lain with her, because it equally dishonoured his father. 29. xxxvi. (y) Gen. xxxv. 27
.

'JNTW'JN (EL-BETH-EL) f/te house of the

In the next verse notice is taken of strong, or mighty God. the death of Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, aud her burial under an oak in Beth-el, which has been generally understood as

connected with Israel's history. But as it is hard to conjecture how she could have been in his family, to say nothing of the great age which she must have attained, had she died at the time now spoken of, it is more consistent with probability to suppose that she had died at some previous period, and

now it is mentioned merely because Israel and his family had arrived at the place where she was buried, called Allonbachuth, t. e. the oak of mourning, or weeping, as her death had been greatly regretted, and a general mourning had taken
that

place on the occasion, in the household of Isaac. (DcN-AUNt) son of sorrow, or of affliction. (v)

3Wp

(w) i'G'"p (BeN-JflMIN) son of my right-hand, q. d. the son peculiarly tlrar to me. The Samaritan calls him n'Q'~p (BCN-JUMIM) son of days, or of old age, as in chap. xliv. 20; which Houbigant contends is the true reading.

Called in the text, (Gen. xxxvii. 3.) a coat of many colours, or rather a coat of colours, the word many having been added. It was a habit of distinction, though we know it not the precise meaning of the expression may, however, receive some illustration from the Roman custom of clothing their youths with the toga prutf.cta, which was of white, with purple; this they wore till they were striped or fringed 17 years of age, and then exchanged it for the toya cirilis, or white. toga pura, which \\iis altogether One of these dreams was, that he saw in a wheat-field, (a) his sheaf standing erect, and their sheaves bowing down before Another was, that he saw the sun. it, and paying it obeisance.
(z)
:

CHAP.

V.]

TO
Soon

Till-,

EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYIT.

so that he appears to been ignorant of Joseph's fate till he found While him, 22 years afterwards, Jrt ISgypt.
c.eal
;

Jul Per

(Joseph and Benjamin remaining 6ia I at home) went to Shcehem, to B.C. 172.J ft .,| t| H r flocks on the piece o( ground which he had purchased on his lirst arrival in Canaan; and being anxious for their welfare, after they had been some days absent, lest the people of the country should rise upon them, and avenge the assassination of Hamor and his subjects, Israel resolved to send Joseph to inquire after them. Joseph accordingly set but not finding them at the place expected, off', lie was directed by a man whom he met But to Dothan, where he discovered them. no sooner did they see him unprotected, and at a distance from his father, than, with un-

2980 ^

after this, Israel's ten sons

the truth from him

A.M.

227<>! (

iia\e

PostDil.

>(

.j

uttering useless complaints for the Joseph, the rest of his brethren vtere employed in rending the envied coat of distinction, and dipping it in the blood of a kid, that they might afterwards rend the heart of their father by making him believe that Joseph had perished by some wild beast. Nor was their stratagem in vain: Isratel recognised his son's
loss of

Reuben was

paralleled malevolence, they resolved to destroy iiim, and to tell their father that some evil beast

had devoured him; "and then," said they, "we shall see what will become of his dreams!" This sanguinary design would doubtless have been carried into effect, had not Reuben, who seems to have joined them just at the critical moment, proposed that he should rather be put into a neighbouring pit, where, though he must be starved to death, they would not incur the
ignominy of shedding a brother's blood. To this they assented, and Joseph, after being stripparty-coloured garment, was acdown into the pit, from which cordingly Reuben had resolved to draw him out secretly, in order to convey him safe to his father. But the providence of God, which over-rules the designs of men, good or evil, ordered it otherwise. For while they were eating, at no great distance from the mouth of the pit, a company or caravan of Ishmaelites passed by, with .spices

and immediately drew the conclusion wished: "Joseph," cried he, "is without they doubt rent in pieces!" And he rent his clothes, put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days his sons, to fill up the measure of their cruelty and hypocrisy, in the mean time endeavouring to comfort him. But he refused consolation, declaring that he should go
coat,
:

down mourning to the grave.(b) The next material transaction

that

we meet

ped of

his

let

with in Israel's family, is the incest of Judah with his daughter-in-law Tarnar.(e) Judah had married a Canaanitish woman, the daughter of Slmah, by whom he had three sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah. Of these, the elder, Er, was married to Tamar, but being cut off for his wickedness, before he had any children by her, she was given in marriage to his next brother Onan, according to the custom of the country in similar cases. Onan, kno\\ ing that if he had children

by Tamar, they would be accounted

as his

and balm from Gilead, bound for Egypt: to them Judah proposed they should sell Joseph, and Reuben being withdrawn to some distant spot, the suggestion Was adopted Joseph was accordingly taken out of the pit, and sold as a slave to these merchants, who bore him preSoon after, Reuben sently out of their sight. came to the pit, but when he missed Joseph, he broke out into the most bitter lamentations, which made his brethren more careful to con;

brother's, adopted an unnatural mode to prevent it; for which God cut him off also. Shelah was next to marry Tamar, but being as yet too young, Judah desired her to remain at her father's house till he should become of a proper age. But when the time came, he neglected to send for her, as, indeed, he seems to have been afraid lest Shelah should be cut oft' as his brethren had been. Tamar, therefore, resolved to make him fulfil his contract of raising seed to her deceased luisband in another, but extraordinary manner. For hearing that Judah was going from Adul!am to Timnath, to look after his sheep-shearers, dis wife being recently dead, she laid aside her widow's garments, and veiling herself in the
nought his father, mother, and brethren, were to bow themselves to the earth before him ? This interpretation, however, lid but increase their malice, and they resolved to make

The

moon, and eleven stars, doing homage to him in a similar way. latter dream he also told his fatlier, who, versed as he was in visions, could not hut think it indicative of some fu-

ture greatness that awaited him, thought it convenient, in order to allay the growing envy of his brethren, lo rebuke

away with him on

(b)
(c)

the

first

opportunity.

him before them, asking him,

in

a jeering manner,

if

he

Gen. xxxvii. Gen. xxxviii.

3135.
14

360

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

whose

[CHAP. v.

attire of a harlot, placed herself in the open road by which he was to pass. Judah saw her, and supposing her to be what her habit bespoke, made a bargain with her, and promised to send her a kid as the price of her favour: to ensure the fulfilment of the contract, she required a pledge, wherefore he gave her his signet, his bracelets, and his staff'. The only person privy

service he manifested such diligence and integrity, and was so successful in whatever he put his hand to, (for God was with him) that
his

was his friend Hirah, the Adullamite, and by his hand, when he reached Timnath, he sent the kid to redeem his pledge: but the supposed harlot had fled, and no tidings could be heard of her.
to this transaction

master soon committed the care of all his concerns wholly to him. Joseph was of a and his master's wife of an comely person, unchaste disposition he was, consequently, the subject of continual temptation to wrong his master, and to dishonour the religious principles in which he had been educated by his pious
:

father.

informed that Tamar was with child, by an adulterous intercourse upon which he peremptorily ordered her to be burnt,(d) and she was accordingly brought forth to meet her doom. But on the way, she sent a messenger to her father-in-law with his signet, and bracelets, and " Discern, I pray thee, whose these staff, saying, are by the man to whom they belong, am I Confused and horror-struck at with child." what he had done, Judah confessed that she was more righteous than himself, because he He had withheld from her his son Shelah. therefore took her into his house, and ever afterwards treated her as his own daughter. When her full time was come, she brought forth

Jul Per

2088

")

Some months after, Judah was

These principles, early implanted in mind, however, assisted by the grace of God, enabled him to persevere in his integrity,
his
in spite of the allurements

A.M.

2278. ( Post Oil. 621. f 1720. j B. C.

his

ten a certain day, the family being

and solicitations of abandoned mistress. Between nine and years had elapsed in this manner, when, on

twins, of whom the elder was called Pharez,(e) and the younger Zarah.(f) It is now time to return to Joseph, whom the history left in the hands of the Ishmaelite

merchants, on their

way to Egypt.

When

they

arrived in that country, he was sold to an officer of the king's guard, named Potiphar,(g) in
(d) It is uncertain whether Judah pronounced this sentence a magisterial capacity, as head of a family ; or whether

fj u ]. Per. 2995.* abroad, Joseph was left alone in S A M. 2285." the house with his mistress, and j Post DLL <>28.* 1719 -* she addressed him so passionately ^ B- c to comply with her desires, and held him so tightly by his garment, in order to detain him, that, to escape from her embrace, he was obliged to throw it off. Foiled in her purpose, her was converted into malice, and designs passion of the most dire revenge now only occupied her soul. She therefore began to make a loud outcry, which bringing together some of the people who were employed without, she told them, that the Hebrew servant, whom their master had introduced into the house, had attempted to violate her person ; and, exhibiting the garment, declared that, upon her crying out, he had fled, leaving it behind him. The story easily gained credit, so that, by the time Potiphar returned home, all mouths were clamorous for the punishment of the supposed
-

in

he intended her to be taken before a magistrate of her own country where the crime of adultery was punishable by fire. In either case, he seems to have been glad of an opportunity to get rid of her, or he would have delayed the punishment her delivery, according to the practice of most till after
nations.

an eunuch, in which sense it is taken by the Septuagint, and the Jews commonly understand it so: it being, even to this day, a common practice with the eunuchs of the court to have not only a wife, as Potiphar On the other hand, it is had, but even harems of women. argued that the word is used here in an extensive sense, so as to comprehend any officer of the court, whose business drew
translation, properly signifies

(PHaRexz)one who has made a breach, on account of the mode in which he broke into the world before his bro(e) V~)S

ther.

highly probable that tbe mother perished in consequence of this breach. or sprung up, "because," says (f) mt (ZOROCH) risen,
It is

See Gen. xxxviii. 28, 29.

Mr. Ainsworth, " he should have

first,

him near the king's person. His other designation CDTDQn "Hi; (soR-Ha-TnBaCHiM) rendered "captain of the guard" literally " whence some have supsignifies "prince of the butchers him to have been the king's chief cook ; while others, posed considering the inhuman nature of his office, as chief of the guards of an eastern despot, insist upon the propriety of the
;

risen, i. e. have been born but for the breach which his brother made." The occupation of (g) Gen. xxxvii. 36. xxxix. 1, et seq. Potiphar, or rather his quality, has been much debated by commentators: the word D'lD (SORIS) rendered officer in our 1

translation as

it stands. The former of these suppositions seems to be discountenanced by the chief cook, or confectioner, rtSN (OPHCH) rendered "chief of the bakers" in our version, being sent to prison, soon after Joseph had been shut up there, as will be seen in a subsequent page.

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

and to his office; but that the cook would be beheaded and gibbeted. He then related his own story, that lie had been stolen away from his father's house, sold as a slave, and unjustly shut up in prison on an unfounded charge and
;

Hut, whether Potiphar discredited delinquent. the tale, or whether his afleetion lor Joseph instead prevented his proceeding to extremities; him put. to death, as was customary of
in

having case of adultery,

lie

contented himself with

.shutting

P'i*"> where his exemplary conduct so gained upon the keeper, that he and had the care shortly became his lieutenant, who wen' mostly persons of of the prisoners,

him up

'"

prayed the cup-bearer, when reinstated in his former situation, to remember him, and do him such good offices as might lie in his power.

According
for

to

Joseph's prediction,

the event

distinction, (for mitted to him.(h)

Jul Per 2i)96.*~)

it

was the

king's

prison) comin this situ-

While Joseph was

ation, the king, offended with A.IVI. -2-28(i!*( Post .Oil. 6i9.* f two of his chief servants, his cup1718.* j B.C. bearer(i) and cook, (j) sent them

they were placed under and he attended upon them, Joseph's custody, When as they were persons of quality.(k) had been some time in prison, they each they had a remarkable dream in one night, and as the Egyptians paid great regard to dreams, and spared no cost nor pains to have them interpreted, these men were, on the morrow, parto
prison,

where

on the third day, being Pharaoh's pro\ed; the king made a feast, to which all birth-day, his servants were invited the cup-bearer and cook, of course, were absent, which occasioned their cause to be mentioned before the king, who ordered the former to be restored, and the latter to be executed. But, as is most generally the case with men in prosperity, the cup-bearer forgot his friend Joseph, and Joseph remained
:

in prison.

Nothing material had occurred

in the family of Israel, since the loss of Joseph, till this year, when

Per 2998> 2288. 1 Post Oil. osi.

j u]

/-

\ \.

M.
-

Jul. Per. 2097.*

A.M.

ticularly pensive,

-2287.*

were

debarred

because they the customary

means of gratifying their curiosity by applying to an interpreter. \\ lien Joseph was made acquainted with the cause of their dejection, he gently reproved them for being so anxious about what belonged alone to God, and who could explain the mystic meaning of their dreams without the aid of magicians: at the same time he desired them to relate their dreams to him. This was complied with, and
Joseph immediately told them, that in three days they would be brought to trial that the cupbearer would be restored to the king's favour,
;

PostDil. f>3-* f

171G venerable patriarch Isaac (.B- c It may be concluded, died, aged 180 years.(l) that the latter part of his life passed in a state of absolute debility, as well of mind as of body ; since we find him to have been blind and feeble, and daily expecting his death, when he blessed Jacob, and sent hirn to Padan-aram, 63 years before; neither have we any account of his rejoicing at the return of his two sons in cordial harmony with each other, surrounded with a numerous progeny nor is any notice taken of his giving a benediction to his grandchildren before his decease ; all which would have

the

undoubtedly been mentioned, had they taken place; and taken place it is to be presumed
human being! This is none other than a glorious angel!" By this means Zuleekha put an end to their ill-natured reflecbut being unable to prevail upon upon her passion Joseph to gratify her desires, she got him sent to prison, where he expounded the dreams of the chief butler and baker. (i) npU7 (SHCKCH) translated butler in the English version, Gen. xl. 2. (j) HE3N (OPHCH) a cook, or confectioner ; translated baker,
tions
;

(li)

The

Mohammed

Asiatics call the wife of Potiphar, Zuleekha; and describes her as the daughter of Pharaoh. The

Persian poets, who represent Joseph as the most beautiful and pious of men, and Zuleekha as the mo.-i chaste and excellent of women, till her reason was bewildered by the bewitching charms of Joseph's person and wit, carry on a kind of Platonic passion between them, till the death of Potiphar, when Zuleekha, grown old, is miraculously restored to youth and beauty, and becomes the wife of Joseph. Mo-

ibid.

hammed,

in

his

Koran

Joseph, in which he is of men, and Zuleekha so passionately in love with him, that the whole city cried shame upon her. In order to excuse herself, Zuleekha invited the ladies of the court to an entertainment, and contrived while they were eating to introduce Joseph; whom they no sooner beheld, than they were struck with amazement at his beauty, and in their confusion cut their fingers instead of the food, exclaiming, " This is not a

(sarat xii.) gives a long history of represented as the most accomplished

(k) Diodorus Siculus relates that all the officers, of whatever degree or capacity, of the ancient Egyptian monarchs, were taken from the most illustrious families of the priesthood, no .slave, or common person, being ever permitted to serve in the king's presence. Joseph, therefore, out of re-

spect to their high birth, "served them" himself, as being the greatest honour his situation would permit him to paj

them.
(1)

(?en. xxxv. 28.

VOL.

I.

3A

362

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

[CHAP. v.

been they would, had not his mental powers the dissolution of his cordecayed long before His mortal remains were buried poreal frame. soon sons in the cave of Machpelah by his
;

which, Esan retired to his old habitation on mount Seir, leaving Israel in possession of
after

the promised Canaan. two full Joseph had continued a prisoner for after the release of the ungrateful cupyears bearer, when the king had two remarkable so dreams,(m) the interpretation of which the magicians, that they were conpuzzled strained to acknowledge the inefficiency of their The king was disconcerted at this science. declaration, and, in proportion to the difficulties in the way of interpretation, the greater was his The desire to have their meaning unfolded. thus percourtly cup-bearer, seeing his master
plexed,
Jul Per.

thought

2909.1
2289. f
(53-2.

A.M.
Post
Dil.

good opportunity to himself with him, and ingratiate therefore spoke of Joseph as a
it

The two dreams were both indicath e of to do. the same things. The se\en fat kine, and the seven full ears, denoted seven years of great plenty, which would be followed by seven years of such excessive dearth and famine, denoted by the seven lean kine, and the seven withered ears, that the former time of abundance would be totally lost sight of, amid the universal distress the repetition of the dream also indicated its immediate accomplishment. He therefore recommended the king to appoint a wise and expert man to be overseer of his whole kingdom, who should take care to build granaries, and send officers into every province, to lay up a fifth part of all the corn of the seven plentiful years, as a supply for the succeeding years of famine. Thus Joseph became at once an interpreter of dreams, and a counsellor of the king ; and as he could not possibly have foreseen the consequences to himself, his advice must be considered as the effect of divine
:

B.C.

a true interpretation. The king hereupon lost, no time in sending for Joseph, and he was brought in haste out of the prison, into the presence of Pharaoh. The king began the conference, by telling Joseph, that having heard of his skill in the interpretation of dreams, he had sent for him, to interpret two To this that nobody else could unravel.
gj ven

1715.

young man who had formerly

ni

inspiration.

Joseph modestly replied, that, independently of himself, God should send an answer of peace to the king. Pharaoh immediately related his dreams one of which was, that he saw seven
;

The king and all his court were surprised at the wisdom of this young stranger, who was then but .30 years of age ; and they concluded that no one could be so proper to set over the kingdom, and to carry the proposal into execution, as himself, who was well acquainted with the necessity of the case, and had so urgently recommended the measure. Joseph was therefore made overseer of Pharaoh's house, and orders were issued that he should be obeyed in all things, as if he were actually the so\ereign of the country. The king took the ring(n) from
off his

kine come out of the river, followed by seven lean kine; and the lean kine devoured the fat, without any improvement in their appearance. The second dream was of seven full ears of corn springing up, followed by seven dry and withered ears, which devoured the full ones. With his usual modesty, Joseph declared that God had shewed the king what He was about
fat

own finger, and gave it

to him,

caused him

to

be clothed

a gold

in vestures of fine linen, (o) and put chain about his neck ; he also gave

him the new name of Zaphnath-Paaneah,(p)

bestowed on him, in marriage, Asenath, the daughter of Poti-pherah,(q) priest, or prince of On,(r) made him ride in the second chariot, which was next to the king's ; and caused
but it would appear as " sackcloth when comwith fine Irith linens." pared (p)This name, which is purely Egyptian, has been variously translated, "A revealer of secrets," "The treasury of glorious comforts," and by Jerom, "The saviour of the world." Dr. A. Clarke supposes it to designate the office to which
factured :"

(m) Gen. xli. (n) This ring, without doubt, contained the royal signet, with which all public acts were sealed. (o) Fine linen, in ancient times, was very scarce, and worn "But if," says Dr. A. only by persons of high dignity. Clarke, "the rine linen of Egypt," in which Joseph was " was such as that which invests the bodies of the arrayed, mummies, and these in general were persons of the first distinction, and consequently were enveloped in cloth of the
finest

quality, it was onry fine comparatively speaking, Egypt being the only place at that time where such cloth was manu-

Joseph was elevated, as prime-minister. this Poti-pherah to be (q) Many expositors have supposed the same with Potiphar, the former master of Joseph: but there is no ground for such a notion. of the sun, of the Greeks* (r) The Hehopolis, or city

m\p.

v.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

1

heralds to run before him, crying

knee."(s)

"
,

Bow

the

Joseph, thus exalted to the pinnacle of power, took a progress through the whole kingdom,
built granaries, appointed officers in every place,

with /- j,,i. p er 3007. the pressure SA.M. ^<7. of the famine, hearing that corn 1 PostDil. <ao.
Israel,

who,

in

common

his neighbours,

fell

was

to

be purchased

in

Egypt,

C.

B C
-

17 7

sent ten of his

sons thither, to

and ordered

application, were over, he found his stores filled beyond the During power of calculation. Jul. Per 3000.*"} this period, his wife Asenath ( A.M. 2200.* PostDH. 33.* f brought him forth two sons; the B.C. 1714." } fi rs t 'of whom he called

things with such prudence and thai before the seven years of plenty
all

Ma-

nasseh,(t) intimating that God had made him all his toils, as well as his Jul Per 3002 *1 forget father's house ; and the second A. M. 222.* ( PostDil. 635.* f he named Ephraim,(u) because B.C. 1712.* ) God had made him fruitful in

keeping Benjamin with him at home.(v) On their arrival in Egypt, they repaired to the place where Joseph was superintending the market, and he immediately knew them ; though they did not recognise him. His increase of stature, since they sold him, a lad of seventeen, but now in the prime of manhood his splendid attire after the Egyptian fashion and his in the Egyptian language, through the speaking medium of an interpreter, to foreigners; all concurred with the little expectation they had of
; ;

buy some

the land of his affliction. The seven plentiful years were Jul. Per. 3ooe. ) A.M. 9090. ( succeeded immediately by the Post Oil. 639. f seven of famine and so extensive ; 170J was the effect of the dearth, that it spread over all the neighbouring countries, Canaan among the rest, so that the people

were obliged to resort to Egypt to buy corn. soon, therefore, as the Egyptians were pinched for want, they applied to Pharaoh for relief, but he desired them to go to Joseph, which they did, and he opened the stores for the sale of corn, not only to them, but to all who came from other countries himself superintending the distribution and sale, and lodging the receipt in the king's

As

ever seeing him again, to prevent the discovery of his person. Approaching him, therefore, with the reverence due to the second person in the kingdom of Egypt, they bowed themselves down before him, with their faces to the eartli ;(w) thus beginning to accomplish Joseph's dream of his brethren's sheaves making obeisance to his sheaf. Desirous to be informed of the fate of his father and younger brother, without discovering himself, Joseph adopted a stratagem that should make them speak all he wanted to know. He therefore asked them, in a rough manner, whence they came, and who

treasury.

And then, scarcely giving them they were? time to answer that they were from the land of Canaan, come to buy food, he charged them with being spies,(x) come to see the nakedness, or weak state, of the country. So unexpected
(w) This act of reverence, frequently noticed in the scriptural writings, consisted in the party falling on his knees before his superior, and then bowing down the head, till the

"Bow the knee," by the (s) TCis' (ABRCCH) rendered Septuagint, and thence copied into our own version, is probably an Egyptian word, of unknown signification. The
have compounded it of 3N (AB) father, which would indicate lhat Joseph, (RfflK) tender; through tender in years, was a father in respect of his wisdom aud provident care of the Or it might be compeople. pounded of 2N (AB) father, and 1~O (BReK) blessing, an epithet equally applicable to Joseph for his endeavours to lay up a store of the blessings of plenty against the seven years of famine and distress.
Jews, however,

and

"["1

forehead touched the ground between the knees. of prostration is still practised in the East.

This mode

(x) The predatory tribes of Arabia frequently send out as traders, to examine such places as they spies, disguised wish to attack ; and if, upon their report, the enterprise

(t)

mwo

known

(MamaSHcn)forgctflness.

Why Joseph, who

is

to have retained his affection for his father

and brother

Benjamin, should forget his father's house, or why he should not have sent to inform his father of his safety, is unaccountable, when he could so easily have done so.
(u) DHDN (EPHRaiM) fntitfulness ; from (roRil) to be fruitful. Between these two sons, the lot of Joseph, in the Laud of Promise, was afterwards divided.
(v)

ms

Gen.

seems to promise a tolerable booty, they fall upon it at the weakest points, plunder the inhabitants, violate or carry off It is their women and children, and drive away the cattle. under this character, that Joseph charged his brethren with being spies and from their answer, that they were all one man's sons, they wished him to infer the groundless nature of the charge, because so many brethren would hardly come upon so dangerous an errand, in which a whole family might be cut off at once. Joseph appears to admit the inference, and therefore keeps Simeon as an hostage, till they prove die their other brother, whom allegation to be true, by bringing home. they said they had left at
;

xlii.

3 Aii

364

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

;

[CHAP. v.

an accusation forced them to justify themselves

stating some particulars of their family they declared that they were all one man's sons; that they hail had another brother, who was now no more, and that one still remained at home with their father. This was exactly the information that Joseph wanted; but, to carry on the stratagem, and to get a sight of his uterine brother Benjamin, he declared solemnly that they should not go away, till their younger brother appeared before him, to verify what they had stated ; and then he would believe them to be honest men. To shew that he was in earnest, he desired them to send one of their

by

scheme of Joseph, whose bowels yearned towards his brethren, so that he was obliged to retire and weep, while they were bewailing their untoward fate. At length he returned, and taking Simeon from among them, ordered him to be bound before their eyes. He then sent them away, having previously directed each man's money to be tied up with the corn
in their respective sacks. their way home, they halted to bait their

On

asses, in the

and one of them discovering mouth of his sack, they were

his

money

all terror-

company home

to fetch their brother;

which

struck, concluding nothing less than that it had been put there by order of the Egyptian lord, to form a pretext for enslaving them on their

they shewing a reluctance to do, knowing that Israel would not part with him, Joseph ordered them all to be shut up in prison, where they continued three days. At the end of this term, perceiving the perplexity they were in, Joseph sent for them, and said, in a milder tone than he had before assumed, "This do, and live; for I also fear God (y) let one of you remain bound with me, whilst the rest go home with
:

Onward, however, they went, with heavy hearts, and reaching Israel's abode, acreturn.

provision for your family; and when you return with your younger brother, he shall be safely surrendered, and yon shall justify yourselves in so doing." Struck with dismay at this propo-

they remembered their inhumanity towards Joseph, and acknowledged their guilt to each other, not doubting but this misfortune had
sal,

them in consequence. Reuben, also, reminded them of the pains he had taken to dissuade them from shedding their brother's blood; from which it appears that they had concealed from him, as well as from their father, the real state of the case. This conversation among
befallen

quainted him with their strange adventures nor were their fears at all allayed, when, on emptying their sacks, they found each man's money tied up in a bundle among the corn. Grieved as the good old patriarch was at the loss of Simeon, he was much more so when he learned that Benjamin must go to ransom him. He accused his sons of unkindiiess towards him, in speaking so openly of their family concerns, charged them with having bereaved him of Joseph (/) and Simeon, and now they would also take away Benjamin. All this was too much for him, and he positively declared that Benjamin should not go down to Egypt; for should any mischief befal him, it would inevita" bring down his gray hairs with sorrow to bly
;

the grave."

themselves, in the Hebrew language, was in the presence of Joseph, though they supposed that he did not understand them, because he spoke to them by means of an interpreter. The deep compunction they felt, and the lamentations they made, had almost overturned the

The supply of corn which they had brought from Egypt, being nearly exhausted, Israel began to urge the necessity of a second journey but Judah observed that it would be useless to go without their younger brother, and to try the experiment might be dangerous since the governor had told them peremptorily that they
; ;

should not see his face,(a) unless that brother were with them. This excited fresh complaints

them that lie was no idolater, as (y) Joseph hereby assured the ligyptkng were, but that he worshipped, as well as them, the one living and true God. (z) It does not appear from the history, that they now revealed the secret of Joseph's disappearance, though it is probable the terror of their minds might have prompted them to a confession. But whether it were so or not, Israel's " Me have allegation, ye bereaved," (Gen. xlii. 30.) nntsl he considered as a kind of crimination upon them, for Joseph's catastrophe, because he was on a journey to them, when he

and with this to be killed by a wild beast he joins the circumstance of sending Benjamin away, as a consequence of their needlessly sa\ing they had a younger

was supposed

brother at

home.

To which
asking,
say,

pertinently reply, by that the man would

"

they \ery possibly foresee Bring your brother down ?"

hitler

" Could

position,
\ve

(Gen.
(a)

xliii. 7.)

Gen.

xliii.

signifies that the

This is an Eastern expression, and 5. party shall be subject to the resentment and

indignation of a superior.

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

they had now brought it again, together with a farther supply for the purchase of fresh provision.

and various expedients were pro on him to suffer Benjamin to posed with them: Reuben offered to give his owi
from
Israel,

to prevail

The

steward,

who was probably

privy

sons as hostages to his father, that he would take care of him, and bring him bark; Judah also proposed himself as his surety but
I\vo
:

to Joseph's intentions, bid

concern upon the subject,

them to be under no and to consider the

and Simeon would probably have remained a prisoner in Egypt till the day of his death, had not the famine pressed so hard upon Israel and his family, that they were in danger of starving. Hunger therefore obtained what Israel relucno other considerations could his consent, and in order to concitantly gave
in vain;
:

as the gift of the God of their father. time they had reached the house, when', still farther to assure their minds and quell their apprehensions, the steward brought out Simeon

money
By

this

unbound to them he also gave them \\ater to wash their feet, with provender for their asses, and then, having informed them, that they were to dine with his lord, who would be back by
;

the favour of the Egyptian governor, dehis sons to take the man a present of such rarities as Canaan produced, with double money for the purchase of corn, and the money Then also that they had found in their sacks. them his blessing, he dismissed them, giving with a misgiving exclamation, " If I am bereaved, I am bereaved." When Joseph knew that his brethren were arrived a second time in Egypt, he desired his
liate

sired

noon, he left them. In proportion as their fears subsided, their wonder increased at what they saw and heard.

They, how ever, set about preparing their preby laying it out in the best order, against Joseph came home at noon. When he arrived, they presented it to him in a respectful manner, and all the eleven brethren bowed themselves
sent,

before him, so import of his

fulfilling, unconsciously, first dream. Joseph

the

full

and to prepare an entertainment, that they might dine

steward
to

conduct them

accepted

to his house,

with him. Abandoned to despair, they now gave themselves up indeed for lost; they had had no public communion with the governor, but were turned over to one of his officers, who had brought them from the market-place to the governor's palace, the same, probably, in which they had seen Simeon bound they therefore concluded that now they were to be made slaves; and, what was worse than all, Benjamin, the stay of his father's age, whom they had with so much difficulty prevailed upon him to part with, even Benjamin was with them, and would be involved in their doom. In a state
:

their present very courteously, their welfare, and particularly

inquired after if their father

him a very affectionate benediction. Here his feelings became top powerful for him any longer to remain in their presence, and he retired to give them vent in a flood of tears. Having
himself, and washed his face, he and ordered dinner to be served) making them sit down at a table by themselves,

were still alive. Then casting his eyes upon Benjamin, he asked if that were their younger brother, of whom they had formerly spoken; and being answered in the affirmative, he gave

recovered
returned,

short of distraction, they therefore addressed the steward, and assured him that from the first, their only design in coining to Egypt was to buy food; that they knew not how the
little

according to the seniority of their birth; while he sat at another by himself, as his high dignity privileged him; and his Egyptian attendants and guests at a third table, by themsehes, it being an abominatiou(b) to the Egyptians to
eat with the Hebrews. The sous of Israel could not but marvel at the order in which they

money had been conveyed

that taking
it

into their sacks, but

to

be the

effect of

some mistake,

had been placed, and

jection, prior to

still

more, when they

The aversion (b) fien. xliii. 32, compared with xlvi. 3-1. of the Egyptians to eat with the Hebrews, as well as with shepherds, is variously accounted for: some attribute it to their excessive pride, which made them despise all nations besides their own: others to the occupation of the Hebrews, who, being shepherds, ate of the very catlle which the Egyptians worshipped (see E.wnl. viii. 20.) others suppose it to have arisen from the recollection of the injuries inflicted
:

reason

till they were expelled by Amosis, a few years the elevation of Joseph. Most probably, if the were not purely political, if arose from the lie-

brews eating flesh, and sacrificing some of the animals which the Egyptians worshipped for it is known that, in a subsequent period of their history, they objected to u.se even
;

upon the country by the Hyk-sos, or Jliny-S/tvp/irnls, who overrun their country some ages before, aud held it ill sub14

a knife that belonged to a Greek, because they suspected it might have been employed to cut the flesh of some itf those animals which they held sacred.

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

observed that the governor sent their dishes from his own table, to each one in the same order, till he came to Benjamin, the youngest,
portion was five times as much as any of the rest; which was an usual mark of honour to whom it was sent. Thus encouraged with
;

[CHAP. y.

whose

word for, indeed, they had no doubt but that Benjamin had been guilty of the theft. Joseph first broke the silence, by asking how they could be guilty of such an action, when they must be sure of being discovered for they
;

good fare, they shook off their fears, and ate and drank, and were merry, till declining day warned them to retire.
next morning, soon as the sun rose, the sons of Israel were dismissed, with their asses well laden with corn ; but first the steward, by Joseph's command, had put all the money into their sacks, as before ; and into Benjamin's, he likewise put his lord's silver cup. Scarcely had without the city, when they saw the they got h en h e c ame ste w ard eagerl y pursuing th em with them, he upbraided their dishonesty in tip requiting good with evil, and purloining the cup of the governor, who had so nobly entertained them. Conscious of their innocence, and indeed scarcely comprehending the drift of his accusation, they began to expostulate, observing, the thing was impossible for, said they, " is it likely that we, who brought back the money, which we found in our sacks, should be guilty of so base an action as to steal your lord's cup, and that too after he had so sumptuously entertained us?" Still farther to demonstrate their freedom from guilt, they desired him to search their baggage, declaring, that whoever it should lie found upon, should be put to death, and themselves would submit to become slaves. To this the steward answered, that only the culprit, who had taken the cup, should return to Egypt as a slave, but that the rest should be
.

The

could not but suppose that such a man as he was capable of divination. Judah, who had taken Benjamin under his peculiar care, then began to plead for the supposed offender and after expressing his grief and consternation at the discovery, entered into a detail of his father's excessive fondness for the young man, the great difficulty they had to persuade him to part with one he so tenderly loved, and the danger of his He also grieving to death for the loss of him. alluded to his having become surety for his
;

brother's safety, and therefore humbly offered All himself, instead of Benjamin, as a slave. which he urged in such pathetic terms, and with such tender concern for his father's peace, that Joseph could no longer refrain himself. His tears began to flow, while his bowels yearned towards Benjamin, the son of his mother, w ho stood trembling before him as a culprit. He
r

therefore, in

free to pursue their journey. This was agreed to the search began with the eldest, and proceeded downward to the youngest. Eleven of
;

the Egyptian language, hastily ordered all the by-standers to withdraw; and then turning to his brethren, exclaimed, in the Hebrew tongue, " I am Joseph Does my father yet live ?"(c) Thunderstruck at his words, they were incapable of answering; neither dared they look towards him. They found themselves in the power, and at the mercy, of an injured brother, and that brother lord of the land, from whom there was no appeal. They were there" fore troubled at his presence." When Joseph had a little recovered himself, he desired them to draw nearer to him ; repeating that he was
!

the brethren had been searched, and no cup found ; this, indeed, they expected and in proportion as the business advanced towards a close, they felicitated themselves upon its happy conclusion when, lo in the last sack, even in AmazeBenjamin's, the cup was discovered ment and grief deprived them of utterance; they rent their clothes, and relading their asses, they
;
:
!

Joseph, their brother, whom they sold into Egypt. Then falling upon Benjamin's neck, he kissed him ; after which he embraced them all round, telling them not to be grieved at what they had done, but to consider it as arising out of the providence of God, that he should be sent before into Egypt, to preserve the lives of many, who would otherwise have perished by the famine. He next observed, that as there were yet five years to come of the dearth, it

traversed back their

ful silence.
It

way

to the city, in

mourn-

early ; so that when came to Joseph's house, he had not left it, they to attend his daily avocations, but was still at

was yet

and them to come and sojourn there till the time of the general affliction should be accomplished, and he would settle them in the land

would be

better for his father

down

into Egypt,

home;

cast themselves at his

2

being admitted to his presence, they feet, without uttering a

(c)

Gen.

xlvi.

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

All this discourse they listened but could scarcely credit the

.367

of Goshen. (d) to attentively,

He therefore testimony of their own ears. " assured them, saying, Behold, your eyes again see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, (hat it is my month that speaketh unto you." Alluding to his speaking in the Hebrew dialect, without He also the intervention of an interpreter. them to tell their father of all his charged glory and power in Egypt, and to hasten his
journey.

then dismissed them, after having strictly charged them not to quarrel by
pieces of silver.
the \vay.(e)

He

Their journey, without doubt, was now performed more briskly than before; and when they arrived in Canaan, the first care of Israel was to look out for his favourite Benjamin. And when they told him that Joseph was alive, and that it was he, who, as governor of Egypt, had caused them so many frights, his heart fainted, for he believed them not. But the approach of
the Egyptian chariots, and the sight of the presents which Joseph had sent him, soon convinced him that he was under no delusion ; his " It is spirit revived, and he exclaimed, enough that my son Joseph is still alive I will go and see him before I die!"
!

The newsof Joseph's brethren being in Egypt,

quickly reached the ears of the king, who, pleased with an opportunity of gratifying his favourite minister, to whom he owed so much, desired him to give his brethren plenty of corn with them upon asses, and to send them aw ay with waggons to fetch their father, their wives, and their little ones; and to place them, on their arrival, in what part of the country he thought fit ; at the same time promising that they should never want provisions, nor any favour He also desired them that he could bestow. not to be careful about removing their ordinary household stuff, for the good of the land was before them, and every thing requisite to their comfort should be freely supplied to them. Joseph gladly obeyed the king's orders,
r

Israel and his family imme- /- j u i. p e r. 3008. 2298. diately prepared for their jour- \ A. M. Post Oil. 641. ney ; arid he set off by the way y of Beer-sheba, where his fathers, Abraham and Isaac, had lived so long and Here he stopped, and offered sacrihappily. fices to God;(f) and here God appeared to him;

encouraged him to go down to Egypt; promised that he should become a great nation in that country; that he should end his days
peacefully near his son Joseph, by whose hands the last friendly office of closing his eyes, should be performed and that in due time his posterity should return to Canaan, and have full possession of the land. Thus divinely comforted and assured, Israel
;

and, besides the chariots, or waggons, and provisions, sent ten asses laden with the most choice commodities of Egypt, for his father; he likewise gave changes of garments to each of his brethren ; but to Benjamin he gave, besides five changes of raiment, 300
Goshen, called also Rameses, Gen. xlvii. 11, and Ejcod. which latter name it seems to have acquired subsequently from a city, called Raamses, Exod. i. 11, built by ihe Israelites during their servitude and oppression, is generally plated on the south-western borders of Canaan, between the Arabian Gulf and the Nile: and as DU?3 (cesueM) signifies rain in Hebrew, Jerom and others have derived JU?J (GOSHCN) from the same root, under an idea that it was so called, because it had rain, which the rest of Egypt, generally
(cl)

proceeded on his journey, with his sons, their wives and children, (g) and all the cattle and
It is probable that the Goshen, here referred to his work.t spoken of, was a province of Lower Egypt, and the Goshen mentioned Joshua, xv. 51, a city of Canaan though they have been much confounded, and mistaken one for the other. con(e) He probably feared they might enter into some
;

xii.

37,

had troversy as to the greater or less degree of guilt they Or they respectively incurred, in selling him for a slave. might be jealous of the preference given to Benjamin above the rest.
(f) (g)

speaking, has not, being watered by the overflowing of the Nile. Josephus* considers Heliopolis, or On, the city of Poti pherah, Joseph's father-in-law, the placeof the Israelites'
residence.
to

Gen.

xlvi.

Moses mentions two numbers of

souls

in

Jacob's

But Mr. Bryant, who considers On, or Heliopolis, be the same with Zoan, and the capital of Goshen, contends, that the part above described has always been a frightful desert, and therefore, seeking elsewhere for a spot which Moses describes as particularly fertile, he fixes upon the southern extremity of ihe Delta, betweenthe two main branches of the Nile. For his reasonings on this subject, the reader is
*
t

and seventy ;t family, at his descent into Egypt, viz. sixty-six,* while" Stephen, quoting from the Septuagint, speaks of the whole number of kindred, when he settled them in

To reconcile this Egypt, as amounting to seventy-Jive.^ discordance, commentators have made various calapparent culations, among which Dr. Hales's is the most worthy of
attention
;

Joseph's

it is

as follows
all
t

" Moses states that

Gen.
xlvi.

the souls, that came with Jacob into

t

Antiq.

Jib. ii.

cap. 4.
i.

26.

Ancient Mythology, vol.

p.

43. vol.

ft. p.

105,

et JOf .

Analysis vf Chronology, vol.

Hid. ver. 27. ii. p. 159.

*&*?

n. 14.

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

other goods that he had
!>aine<l
iti

[CHAP. v.

Canaan.
Egxpt,

When hen-ached
;

tin-

the land of confines of

lie sent Jiulsih forward, to apprise of his approach upon which, Joseph imJoseph mediately set off in his chariot, and met his father in the land of Goslien; where their mutual

Israel and his family were thus blessed peace and plenty, under the provident care of Joseph, the Egyptians were experiencing all the dismal effects of the famine, so that, being drained of all their money, they were obliged to sell, first their cattle, then their houses, lands,
\\ hil>t

willi

joy at once more embracing each other,

maybe

better COttCeiVed than expressed. >\ hen the, congratulations were over, Joseph, in order to keep his brethren separated from the Egyptians, charged them to tell the king, before whom he intended to introduce them, that their occupation from their youth had been that of shepherds, a calling held in the highest detestation by the people of the country. (h) Accordingly, when Joseph presented five of

them to Pharaoh, they answered his questions as Joseph had instructed them; adding, that the pressure of the famine in Canaan had forced them to come with all their cattle into Egypt, and therefore begging that he would appoint them the land of Goshen for a dwelling; which Pharaoh readily complied with. Joseph likewise introduced his father to the royal presence; and Israel blessed the king, wishing him abundance of happiness ; being asked his age, he replied, that though he was 130 years old, his troubles had been so many, that he came After vastly short of the days of his ancestors. this, Joseph conducted his father and brethren to the land of Goshen, where he took care to supply them with all the necessaries of life, during the whole time of the famine.(i)
Egypt, vliii-lt. issued from Ids loins, (except his sons' wives) were <>G souls and this number is thus collected Jacob's children, 11 sons|| and 1 daughter. .12 souls. Reuben's sons 4
;
:

at length themselves, to procure the means of subsistence. This not only brought all the treasure of Egypt into the king's cotters, but rendered him sovereign lord of all the land, as well as of all his people, except w hat belonged to the priests, which was held so sacred, that Joseph was obliged to leave it untouched, and to allow them a sufficient quantity of provisions from the royal stores, free of expense. Having thus reduced the Egyptians to the most abject state of vassalage, Joseph distributed them into cities throughout all the country; where the corn was laid up, that they might receive an ample supply, which they could not get in the country parts while the miserable multitude submitted to any hardships, to avoid being starved to death. The last year of the famine being arrived, Joseph reminded the Egyptians of the approaching return of fecundity to the land, and gave them seed-corn from the stores, that they might sow it, exacting from them, as a condition, that they should ever afterwards give a fifth part of the produce to the king, for having saved their lives; a law which continued in force for several centuries afterwards, till a new regulation and division
;

and

of Israel's twelve sons,

meon's

also, as

we may
;

Simeon's sons I.evi's sons

Judith's

3 sons and 2 grandsons

Issachar's sons

3 5 4

by a Canaanitess These nine wives, therefore, added to the sixty-six, ive m-rcnty-Jive souls! the whole amount of Jacob's household that went down with him to Egypt, critically corresponding
for

Judah's wife was dead,*' and Sicollect from his youngest son Shaul It and Joseph's wife was already in Eg>pt.

uith the statement in the New Testament, that his father Jacob, and all his kindred,
'

Zebulun's sons 3 Gad's sons 7 Xsher's 4 sons, 1 daughter, and 2 grandsons 7 Dan's son 1
Naphtati'a sons Benjamin's sous
.

The expression, all his kindred,' inseventy-five souls.' cluding the wives, which were of Joseph's kindred, not only of the by affinity, but also by consanguinity ; bein;;
probably
families of Esau, Ishmael, or Kcturah." It has been supposed that the list or census of Israel's 27, was not complete till about family, inserted Gen. xlvi. H

Joseph sent amounting to

'

. .

4 10
,

Total

.0(5

Ifto these sixty-sijt children, grandchildren, and greatgrandchildren, we add Jacob himself, Joseph, and his two sons, the number will be seventy, the whole amount of Jacob's In this statement, the wives family which settled in Egypt. of Jacob's sons, who formed part of the household, are omitted ; but they amounted to nine ; for, of the twelve wives
H

"

the time of his death, 17 years after his actual descent into But this conjecture, though likely enough, is not so Kgypt. essential as some writers hold it to be, in order to reconcile, with probability, the ages of some of Israel's sous at the time

of their marriage; as will appear on comparing the dates of their births given in the Genealogical Table at the head of this chapter, with the time when they went into Egypt. (h) See note (b), p. OO'-i.
(i)

Gen.

xlvii.

Joseph, being already in

Egypt,

is

not reckoned.

* Gi-n.

i-xxviii.

I'-'.

tt

Gtn.

xlvi.

10.

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

will

369

were made, as
of the country.
Jul. Per.

be seen

in thegfeneral history

3025. ") A. M. 2315. f Post Dil. USB. f

When
in

Israel

had resided 17

B.C.

Egypt, he found his years failing, so that he could strength 1689. } not k u j couc i uti e himself to be

near his end.

He

therefore sent for Joseph,

and

reminding him, that notwithstanding all the advantages they had derived from their sojournment in Egypt, it was not to be looked upon as their home, God having promised to himself, as well as to his fathers,
after

He as any of his really begotten sons should. then desired them to be brought near to him ; Joseph did so, placing Manasseh, the eldest, towards Israel's right hand, and Ephraim, the younger, towards his left. But the patriarch crossed his hands in putting them forth to bless them, laying his right hand upon Ephraim, and his left upon Manasseh. Joseph, supposing this to proceed from inadvertence, was about to
rectify

own, so that each of them should Ktaud at the heads of distinct tribes, in as perfect a manner

Isaac and Abraham, to give him and his posterity the land of Canaan, which they were therefore to look upon as their inheritance, he made him swear not to bury his mortal remains in Egypt, but to carry them into the land of Canaan, and lay them with those of his fathers.

it by removing his father's hands to their more natural position; but Israel would not

allow him, declaring, that though the elder should be a great people, the younger should

Joseph was sent on information that his father was dying ;(/) whereupon, taking with him his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, that they might receive the benediction of the dying patriarch, he repaired to the land of Goshen. Israel, on seeing the sons of Joseph, began to recount the glorious promises which God had made to him, relative to his numerous posterity's inheriting the land of Canaan and in conclusion, alluding
after this interview,
for again,
;

Soon

be greater. Having blessed Ephraim and as well as their father Joseph, he Manasseh, called for the rest of his sons,(k) and bestowed upon each a prophetical admonition and benediction in which he disinherited Reuben, his first-born, for the insult he had offered his father in the case of Bilhah, and divided the privileges of his portion among Joseph, Judah,
;

and Levi giving to the first the birth-right, to Judah the kingdom, and to Levi the priest:

hood.^)

to

of his beloved wife Rachel, declared, that out of respect for her memory, he would adopt the two sons of Joseph as his
the
(j)
(1)

death

also exculpated himself from all and participation of the guilt of knowledge Simeon and Levi, in the murder of the Shechemites and declared that the regal power
;

He

should remain with Judah, till Shiloh, the Redeemer, should be sENT.(m) To his other
Then
didst thou defile

Gen.

xlviii.

(k)

Gen.

xlix.

According to the Targums. (m) This prophetic dying benediction (Gen. xlix.) the first of the kind on record, which is conceived in the most figurative language, is written in hemistichs, and may be literally translated in the following form where each line is generally
:

My
5.

couch

is

gone

They have
6.

made

to correspond with a line of the or where, for original the sake of metre, this rule is departed from, the variation is
;

marked by bracing two

lines

together.

The

italic

words
7.

brethren! treacherous design Into their secret did my soul not come : In their confed'racy Was mine honour not united In their anger they slew a man,j
fulrill'd their
!

SIMEON and LEVI,

are supplied in the translation.

And

Verse 2. Assemble yourselves together, and hear, O ye sons of Jacob! Hearken unto Israel, your father.
3.

in their pleasure they murder'd a prince. Cursed was their anger,

For

it

w as

fierce

And
For
I will

their excessive wrath, 't was inflexible !

REUBEN, my

first-born thou art;

divide

them out

in

My

might, and the prime of Excelling in eminence,

my

strength,
8.

And

in Israel will I disperse

Jacob, them.

And

excelling in power: Unstable* as water

JUDAH,

1
j

Thou

shalt never excel!

To

the bed of thy father, thou went'st up

I

thou'rt he whom thy brethren shalt praise. In the neck of thine enemies, thy hand : The sons of thy father Shall bow themselves to thee. j
;

(PIS (mciiaz) pouring out; a term frequently applied in Scripture to Script ons of persons ol dissolute and licentious characters ; as Judges, ix. 4. Jer > eremiah, xiiii. 14, 32. Zeph.Vii 4. t In these three places the sentence is abruptly broken, as in Gen. xxxv S>s>, " Reuben went and lay with liilhah, his lather's concubine; and

has already been noticed (page 3.S8) to which some colour " couch is gone,' 1 be given by the marginal reading ot'Geii. xlix. 4, as adopted above, "instead of the textual one of " He went up to my couch."
this transaction

seems

to

My

f
<;

U7'N (AiSH)anoWe,

viz.

Shechem.

(Joi. xxxiv.

hrael heard

."

The

"W

light in

which Jonathan the Xargumist looks upou

(SUR) o prince,
i.

viz.

Hamor, the

lather of

Shechem.

See Kennicort,

Dissert,

p.

56.

VOL.

I.

3u

370
sons,
Israel

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

also gave suitable admonitions
dition;
years,

[CHAP. v.

prefigurative of their future temper and

con

and then expired, having first renewed

By
the

at the age of 147 his charge to them

9.

A
From

lion's

w help

is

Judah

25.

God

of thy father,
thee,

the prey,

Lying down,

son, hast thou ascended. he couch'd like a strong lion,

my

For He helped

And

like a lioness

And God all-sufficient, He blessed thee.

The And The The
blessings of the heavens from above, blessings lying in the deep beneath,

Who
10.

shall

arouse him?

From Judah shall the sceptre not depart, Nor a teacher from his offspring, l'ntil that SHILOH come And to him the peoples shall be gather'd.
;

26.

blessings of the breasts and of the womb. blessings of thy father have prevail'd Over the blessings of th' eternal mountains,

11. Bimiing his colt unto the vine, And to the choice vine the foals of his ass; In wine he washed hi.i garments, His clothes in the blood of the grape. 12. Red .-hall his eyes be with wine,

And the desirable things Of tlf everlasting hills

:

These shall be on the head of Joseph, On his crown who was sever'd from his brethren.
27.

And
13.

white shall his teeth be with milk.

ZEBULTJN

shall dwell seas,

It

BENJAMIN is a rav'nous wolf, In the morning he shall devour the prey, And in the ev'ning the spoil shall divide.

At the haven of the

A
And
14. 15.

haven for ships shall he be: his border to Sidon shall extend.

ISSACHAR,

like

a strong ass,

Between two burdens couching; That good resting-place when he saw, And the land that was pleasant to look on,

And
10. 17.

His shoulder he inclin'd to the load, a servant became unto tribute.

DAN
As of

Isr'el

people shall judge, one of the tribes. serpent shall Dan be

the high-way
;

his

has been supposed by very eminent critics, that in the symbols applied to his sons, Israel had in view the twelve signs of the zodiac ; and that Joseph's dream of the eleven stars, with the sun and moon, doing him obeisance, also referred to those ancient astronomical characters, which were even at that early period well known in Egypt and Chaldaea. In pursuance of this idea, General Valiancy has endeavoured to trace out the analogy between those signs and the sons of Israel, or rather, between them and the figurative allusion of Israel their father ;|| which Dr. Hales.lT by a trifling alteration, has reduced to a form more generally
characteristic

Upon

applicable, according to the following scheme 1. Aries. NAPHTALI, "b/IEU, changed by a play upon In our translation, he is the word, to r6lD (TOLCH) a ram.**
:

cerastes* that lies in the track, To bite the heels of the horse, So that backward his rider shall fall.
18. [For thy salvation, 19.

a Airad;tt and by Bochart, whose translation is adopted in the foregoing verses, an oak. " a 2. Taurus. ISSACHAR, called by his father strong
called
ass," D"1J ~lQn

Lord, have

waited !]t

(cHaiwoR GeRaM)
into an ox, to

literally

" a strong-limbed

GAD

shall

be by an army attacked,
in return.

And
20.

he shall attack

From ASHER his bread And royal dainties shall

shall be fat,

he yield.

21.

NAPHTALI an oak is that spreads, And beautiful branches produces.!

JOSEPH is the son of a fruitful (vine) The son of a fruitful (vine) by the spring The daughters^ shoot over the wall. Him they sorely afflicted, And with him contended,
In hatred the chief archers beheld him:
:

to the sign of changed the bull. The reader may, perhaps, think this a little farfetched but the inventors of the theory excuse themselves, upon the score of both animals being useful in husbandry: neither are we quite certain that the ass was not the original index of the constellation. 3. Gemini. SIMEON and LEVI, brethren in revenge and ass,"
;

accommodate him

bloodshed. 4. Cancer.

ZEBULUN, "
"
:

a haven for ships," denoted by

like

22.

a crab.
5. Leo.

JuDAH,

23.

24.

But

his

bow

in strength

remained,

And the arms of his hands were strengthened, By th' hand of the Mighty One of Jacob,
By
the

his bread shall be fat ;" denoted by AsHER Virgo. :he virgin gleaner, with a full ear of corn in her hand. 1 7. Libra. DAN, " an adder, or cerastes, biting the 8. Scorpio. j heels of the horse," may form a tolerable substitute for the scorpion, which, on the celestial sphere, is of the centaur Sagitactually represented as biting the heels which we now call Libra, the balance, tarius: and the

6.

couching "

a strong lion."

Name

of the Shepherd,
Israel:

was

sign originally Chelte, the claws of the Scorpion.

'The Rock of

>

9. Sagittarius.

JOSEPH, whose "bow abode in

strength,"

by the V ulgatc, which

critics.
t

(snernii'iiov) rendered adder in our translation, and cerastes latter is preferred by Bochart and other eminent
of Israel
is

&
||

Or

Bochart's translation. branches.

tic Rebus Hibcrnicis, vol. vi. part 2, p. 343. Analysis nf Chronology, vol. ii. p. 105.

Collectanea

wholly unconnected with all that goes before, and all that follows after. It probably arose from certain prophetic views which he at this moment enjoyed, but which he lias not explained.
Tliis pious ejaculation

If

** Buxlorf's Kab, Lex. tt Gen. xlix. 21.

CHAP.
to see

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

cade
in

371

him buried with his ancestors, in the cave of Machpelah, before Mamre, in the land of
Canaan.

to stop for seven days, which were spent mourning for the loss of the deceased, in so

When Joseph perceived that his father had breathed his last, he fell upon the dead body,
full vent to his grief, he bathed it with his tears, and kissed it.(n) When the paroxysms of his passion had subsided, he began to prepare for the performance of his promise respecting the funeral, and gave orders The Egyptians to have the body embalmed. also mourned for Israel during the 70 days that the operation of embalming lasted. Being in mourning, during which time it was unlawful for any person to approach the royal presence, Joseph begged of some of Pharaoh's officers to acquaint the king with his father's death, and the king immediately his dying commands him leave to go with the body into Canaan, gave and also commanded the chief officers of the household, and the grandees of the kingdom, All Israel's to attend the funeral procession. none staying behind but family likewise went, The cavalcade their wives and their little ones. of a great number of chariots, and a consisted For some reason, vast multitude of horsemen. which has not been explained, they made a circuitous journey, through the land of Edom, round the Dead Sea, through the territories of the Midianites and Moabites,(o) till they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, on the banks of Here Joseph caused the cavalthe Jordan.

where giving

lamentable a manner, that the inhabitants of the land, the Amorites, gave the name of Abelmizraim to the place ; i. e. " the mourning of the Egyptians." They then crossed the Jordan, and proceeding to Mamre, deposited the remains of the patriarch with those of his ancestors, iu the cave of Machpelah. (p) On Joseph's return to Egypt, his brethren, remembering what they had formerly done to him, and knowing the unlimited power with

which he was invested, began to dread lest he should now, that their father was gone, take ample vengeance on their past misconduct and cruelty. They therefore sent a humble message to him, saying, it was their father's earnest request that he should forget all past injuries;
guilt, and prayed But Joseph was of another spirit; he wept while the matter was spoken of; and when his brethren, who seem to have accom-

they also acknowledged their

forgiveness.

panied the messenger, threw themselves at his feet, he raised them up, with the most cordial tokens of reconciliation and favour, and promised to provide for them as long as he lived. Joseph survived his father about sixty years ; when he found death approaching, he sent for
his

brethren, (q)

with the same prophetic

Jacob had done

) ^ B -Caccording to his promise, would,

told them, x- Ju Per 3079 2309! spirit that j A. M. PostDil. 712. before, that God,
i

and

1035.

is

well personified by the celestial archer, with his bow bent, and the arrow drawn up to the head the former being then
in its full

power.

BENJAMIN. On the Egyptian sphere, 10. Capricorn. this constellation was represented by a goat, led by Pan, " with a wolf's head. Benjamin is a ravening wolf."
" waters from an urn.
12. Pisces.

11. Aquarius. REUBEN, unstable as waters," or " pouring out like waters,"* represented as a man pouriny out

GAD, whose name

reversed,

makes DAG,

a Jish.

Bethel, and which the Ebionites adopted as canonical ; also a testamentj called The Testament of Jacob, reckoned among the apocryphal addenda to the Scriptures by Pope Gelasius. The Jews likewise use some prayers every night, which they pretend were composed by him. They also attribute to him the fourteen Psalms of Degrees, which, they say, he composed while in Laban's service. The Mohammedans allow him to have been not only a prophet, but the father of all the prophets, except Job, Jethro, and Mohammed. They likewise believe, that the regal dignity did not depart from his posterity till the times of

The
ment

curiosity of these conjectures was the only inducefor their insertion; whether the reader will choose to

adopt them, must depend upon his own judgment. (n) Gen. 1. (o) As these were all relations of the deceased, it is probable, that Joseph preferred this route, to give them opporwhich perhaps they did at tunity of joining the procession the threshing-floor of Atad, where a renewal of the mourning
;

John the Baptist and Jesus Christ; and that the twelve tribes of the Jews sprang from him, as their own did from Ishmael. Jacob gave name to two places in Canaan, viz. the <//,
and iheybrrf, or bridge, of Jacob the former was still known by that name in our Saviour's time; and a church was subIt sequently built over it, dedicated to St. John the Baptist. was near Shechem, and its waters were much resorted to by sick persons, under an idea that they were indued with miraculous powers for the restoration of health. As to the
;

took place.
(p)

The Jews

attribute

certain works

to this patriarch,

ford, or bridge,

its

situation

is

uncertain.

prophecies recorded by Moses, as his dying sayings ; such are the treatise, intitled Tke Ladder to Heaven, containing an explanation of what he saw in his dream at
besides the
* See before, page 369, (note *.)

(q) This must be understood of such or their children; for, as Joseph was the
Israel's sons,
it

is

probable that few,

if

of them as survived, youngest but one of any, of his brethren,

iu the first degree,

were

alive at this time.

3 B 2

372

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

:

[CHAP. v.

certainly bring their posterity out of Egypt, and give them the land of Canaan he therefore
In the former hut to lay his body in a coffin, and to country, deposits it in some secure place, till they should be able to convey it to the sepulchre of his

charged them not to Imry him

however, they were prevented from doing, for almost two centuries afterward s.(r) After the death of Joseph, the Israelites lived,

fathers.

after this conversation, he died, at the age of 110 years, and his brethren had his body embalmed, in order to preserve it till

Soon

some years, in security and ease in Egypt, increasing prodigiously in numbers, and becoming proportionally powerful for the land was tilled with them.(s) The generation that
for
;

they could

fulfil

their

promise to him

which,

had known Joseph and his eminent services, was now passed away, and a new king(t) arose, who knew him not, and who beheld their growking to have been an Assyrian, who had seized the government of Egypt, and consequently disregarded what had passed in former times because the prophet Isaiah says, " My people went down into Egypt to sojourn, and "an Assyrian oppressed them."tt But we do not find in the
this
;

of Joseph were taken care of by Moses,* the Israelites went out of Egypt ; and on their arrival in Canaan, under Joshua, they were deposited, not in the cave of Machpelah, but in Shechem.t in the parcel of ground, which Israel had long before purchased of the children of
(r)

The bones

when

he bequeathed, on his death-bed, to Here, says Jerom, the Israelites raised a most Joseph. noble monument to Joseph's memory ; and it was still to be It should seem that Joseph, like Been in that writer's days.|| an old courtier, had grown out of date, at the period of his death; or the Egyptians would have honoured him, as well as his father, with a public funeral, and solemn procession. But even before his decease, a new sovereign had arisen, who disregarded his past services, as much as one who arose afterwards contemned his memory. According to the

Hamor ;J and which

Egyptian chronicles any Assyrian kings, either before Moses, or for above 1000 years after, unless the name Assyrian be extended to the Cuthaeans, or Hyc-sos. Neither could it be to Mephres, in whose ninth year Vincent supposes

Usherian computation, Joseph was promoted by Mephragmuthosis, served under him, and his two immediate successors Tnthmosis, or Thmosis, and Amenophis II. and died in the Rut this is mere conjecture. reign of Orus. " i. land," ver. 7, Goshen is By the term (s) Exod. understood but it may rather indicate, that they generally had spread themselves throughout the kingdom ; so that, being dispersed, they were more open to the tyranny of their Had they remained together, their numbers might enemies. have been a match for any force that the Egyptians could For the Egyptians were aware that have sent against them. " more and mightier" than themselves, (ver. 9.) they were name of this king, nor (t) Moses having given neither the the date of his reign, renders it impossible to decide who he
;

Joseph have died, and the" bondage to have begun immediately: for the text informs us, that it was a new kin;/, who kiu-w not Some suppose him to have been Amenophis, Joseph. because Eusehitis places the birth of Moses in the 18th year of his reign, as does also Jerom. H Dr. Shuckford endeavours to prove, that the invasion of the Hyc-sos, or King-Shepherds, alluded to in a former note, did not take place till after Joseph's death, and that the persecution broke out soon these people being utter strangers both to Joseph afterwards As these Hyc-sos came from the east, and, and his people. as Mr. Bryant|||| endeavours to prove, were of Balnjltnrish origin, the opinion of Dr. Shuckford seems to derive considerable support from the before quoted passage from Isaiah ;
:

Babylon and Assyria being, in scripture-language, frequently But according to the hypothesis used in a synonymous sense. adopted in our history of Egypt, upon Mr. Bryant's principle, this Assyrian is not to be understood of the tirst Hyc-sos,

who invaded Egypt, but of a prince, or dynasty of that The Abb6 nation, who afterwards obtained the kingdom.
Lenglet Dufresnoy places the edict of Pharaoh, for drowning the Hebrew children, (which must have been some years after the beginning of the persecution) in the 45th year of Sesostris, whom he also calls Rameses, and continues the oppression during the remaining 14 years of that monarch, the (>(> years of his successor Rhampses, and the reign of Amenophis III. in whose second year they were delivered. He also places the descent of Jacob into Egypt in the 2d or 3d year of Arinais, after whom he places Rameses, 1 year 4 months, Ranifso Miamun, (5(J years 2 months, Amenophis II. 19 years (> months, and Sesostris, or Rameses, already alluded to, whose reign he states at o9 years.UfF But Dr. John Blair, in his C/iroitnlogical Tallinn, places the edict in the 14th year of Horus, or Orus, the successor of Amenophis HI. and the exodus of Israel in the 13th of Cherres. Neither of the last-mentioned From this view of the various writers quote their authorities. opinions that have been propagated, the reader will see the impossibility of attaining any thing like satisfaction on the subject. In the history of Egypt, this subject is more largely
$
Illl

was, or when the persecution of the Israelites began and, as usual, in the absence of authentic information, conjecture has been busy on the subject. \rehbishop Usher mentions seven kings between Joseph's death, and the accession of this
:

who knew

not Joseph; and, following Mercator, he thinks the This king, lie persecution began under I'aiiicses Miamun. says, reigned <i'2 \turs and two months, during which, being alarmed at the number and strength of the Israelites, he began to oppress them with a cruel bondage, laying upon them, besides their continual labour and tillage of the ground, the building al.-o of royal magazines, storehouses, and the whole cities of Ramasis, or Ramesis, and Pithom; the former deriving its name from the king, as the latter probably did from the queen.K This account is greatly discountenanced by the assertion of Pliny, that I'ameses reigned in the time of the Trojan war, nearly 300 years after the death of Moses ;"* though it is not improbable that he may allude to some other, as there were many of the same name. Cajetan supposes
Exod.
xiii.

19.

t
|l

CfCK. ilviii. 28.

-her, sub

A.M. 2427.

**

Jrufiim, x.xiv. 3t. { Gen. xxxiii. 19. llirrun. I/IL. llc'ir. in Genes.

Slmckiurrl.
!Hi/lA<>/.

Connect, vol.
i.

ii.

vol.

p.

5661.

p. 506. vol. vi. 119.

torn.
i.

Pliny,
ft

lib.

xxxvi. cap. U.

If
edit.

'iublt-ttes

Clinmologiquet,

page*

4i.'(i,

4J7, in-12mo.

Pr,

tt /suiu/i, Hi. 4.

Enseb.

Hicroo. in Chrmit.

1778.

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

and they
built for

373

ing importance with jealousy and inquietude, the conquest of the lest they .should attempt country themselves, or join with its enemies, in case of a war breaking out. He therefore consulted with his counsellors as to the best means f avertm g so imminent a danger; Jul. Per. *3i3i.~\ A. M. *242i. ( and the result of their conference Post.Oil. *764. ( was, that the Israelites should be
*1583.J

Pharaoh, tre:isure-citie,(w)

But the more Pithom(x) and Ilaainses-(y) they were afflicted, the more did they multiply and grow. Finding, after the experience of at
least ten years, that neither the hardships laid upon them, nor the cruelties exercised towards

them, by his
the

officers

and subjects, could prevent

as
fast

Israelites

multiplying

as

ever,

upon them
bour.(u)

"

gradually weakened, by imposing heavy taxes and immoderate laaftlict

They

over them, to

therefore set task-masters(v) them with their burdens

:

Pharaoh sent for the two chief Hebrew midvtives, and strictly charged them to destroy all the male children of their people, as soon as they were brought forth ; but to save the
Egyptians were emboldened to proceed to farther extremities, they actually reduced them to a state of the most abject Their fears being thus turned into selfish views, slavery. they afterwards refused to part from them, because they bad found their advantage iu their slavery. Philo says, tli Israelites were made to carry burdens above their strength, and to work night and day that they were forced to be workers and servers that they were employed in bricktill
;

examined, and a scheme proposed, after Mr. Bryant's hypothesis, from v\ Inch it appears, that Joseph and his family arrived in Egypt, under Amenopliis II. or Memnon, of the 18th dynasty; that the oppression began with the 19th dynasty, who were of Cuthean origin, under Sethos-iEgyptus,
or Scsostris
;

that the edict for drowning

was issued by

Ilhampses, or Rameses-Miamun ; and that the exodus took place under Amenophis III. the father of RamesesSetbou.

conduct of Pharaoh and had nothing extraordinary in it. They had seen the Israelites, from a small indigent family, that had sought refuge in Egypt during a time of famine, increase to a numerous and formidable host, of whose warlike temper they had had some specimens, in the attack,
(u) Politically considered, the his counsellors on this occasion,

making, digging, and building and that if any of them dropped dead under their burdens, the survivors were not suffered to bury them.t Josephus says, they were made to
;

dig trenches and ditches, to drain rivers into channels, to wall whole towns, casting up dykes and banks to keep off inundations; that they were set to erect fantastical pyramids, were obliged to learn several laborious trades, and were con fined
to perpetual restless labour.} And Eupolemusadds, that the Egyptians, to make them appear more odious, obliged them

unsuccessful as it was, of the Ephraimites upon the Gatliites, one of the cantons of Canaan, even before their father's If the members of a single branch durst adventure death.*
in

upon such an enterprise, what had the Egyptians not to fear from the combined efforts of the whole race? Besides this,
the religion of the Israelites,
idolatry ; their riches they had
strict

so

union

among

opposite to the Egyplian themselves, the great

;

to wear a particular garb, as a badge of their slavery But, without seeking farther, we shall find from the account of Moses, that their servitude was of the most sordid description, so that their lives were embittered by reason of their daily
.

oppression.

||

They were forced

to

work
;

in

mortar and brick,

amassed during Joseph's

fatigable industry, their bodily strength as in military prowess, they were evidently superior to the Egyptians; could not but excite a jealousy in the mhid of the

lifetime, their indein all which, as well

and

add

sovereign, which would to this, the national

communicate

itself to his courtiers

they were compelled to seek for stubble instead of straw, without the least diminution of their tasks, of which, if they chanced to fall short, and they could not possibly do otherwise, their overseers were severely beaten for it. 11 Thus did the Egyptians
in all

manner of

service in the field

contempt of the Egyptians for

all

endeavour to reduce them;

other nations, and their detestation of persons following the pastoral lite, wliolixed upon the animals that were worshipped in Egypt; to say nothing of the envy that their prosperity might excite, nor of the recollection that Pharaoh might have of the miseries formerly inflicted on the the

country by Shepherd- Kings (if he were not actually himself of' that race); and we shall find abundant excuse for the poKcy of the measures adopted, though not for the want of humanity with which they were exercised. The intolerant spirit with which his precautionary measures of security were carried into execution, brought ultimately upon his country the desolation which he endeavoured to avert. (v) D'DD '~uy (SORE MOSXIM) translated task-masters,
perly signifies tax-gatherers, or i-ollfi-tors of tribute; burdens are mentioned afterwards, under another

by exacting an enormous secondly, by laying heavy burdens on them to weaken their bodies, and thereby to prevent their generating and increasing; and lastly, when these means had failed, by destroying all their male children as soon as born.**
first,
;

tribute to lessen their wealth

in

prothe

" to may be intended," says Dr. A. Clarke, signify places where Pharaoh laid up his treasures;" for which purpose the " And if the />i/,-amids seem to have been designed. origin of the pyramids be not found in the book of Exodus, it is nowhere else extant, being lost iu their very remote antiquity."

(w) ni33DD >tj? (ARE MisceNOTH) translated store-cities, our version, is called the city of Miscenoth by Calmet: but if it be derived from pD (socaN) to lay up in store, " it

may

therefore

conclude,

name) that heavy taxes were at

we
first

imposed upon the

with a view to impoverish them in their substance; to which they making no resistance, the
Israelites,
1 Cfcrai.
t
vii.

Supposed to be the Patumos of Herodotus. The same as Rameses, already spoken of, mentioned in Gcre.xlvii.il, by anticipation; the capital of Goshen. The Septuagint adds to these cities, " and On, which is
(x)

(y)

Heliopolis
Erorf.
||

;"

a reading also found in the Coptic version.

14.
Eiorf. T.

21.
cap. 9.

Philo

in Vit. Minis.

i.

13,
i.

Aiitiq. lib. u.

Eupolrm. ap. Euseb. Prrp.

"* EnxL

passim-

16, 22.

374

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

alive.

[CHAP. v.

daughters

God more than

But these women, fearing the wrath of the tyrant, paid no

regard to his commands. Provoked at their disobedience, Pharaoh ordered them to be again brought before him, when he asked them, in a threatening tone, how they had dared to disobey his orders. To which they replied, that the Hebrew women, unlike the Egyptians, did not so much stand in need of their assistance ; for being of robust constitutions, they brought forth, before the midwives could come
to them.(z)
ul. Jul. Per. *3i4i.i Per.*3141.-)

design of the strength A.M. '2431. ( privately destroying ,.M. *243i. f Post Dil. "774. f of the ost Dil Hebrews, Pharaoh now B .C. *1573.J resolved to ps , carry his puipose into
in his

Thus thwarted

pm
,.

execution in a more open manner, and accordingly issued an edict that every male infant of the Israelites should be thrown into the river
Nile, where they must be either drowned, or devoured by crocodiles. This order was obli-

gatory upon his own subjects as well as upon the unhappy objects of his cruelty ; so that whenever a Hebrew male child was found by

an Egyptian, he was seized and unrelentingly cast into the waters and it is probable that suffered in this way during the three or many four months that this decree remained in force. But the Divine providence, which could neither be frustrated by private artifice, nor by open
;

or cradle of bulrushes, over with slime and pitch, to render it impervious to the water, and having put the child therein, they laid it among the flags that grew on the banks of the river, leaving Miriam at a convenient distance to watch the result.(b) At this juncture, the daughter of Pharaoh came down to the river to wash ; where seeing the ark, as she walked along the bank, she sent one of her attendants to fetch it. On opening the little vessel, the babe began to weep ; and his tears, added to his beauty, operated so powerfully upon the tender passions of the princess, that she determined to preserve him, notwithstanding her father's decree ; for she perceived that it was one of the Hebrews' children, and knew that it was exposed there for Then inquiring fora nurse, Midestruction. who had been an accurate observer of all riam, that had passed, came forward, and asked if she should fetch one of the Hebrew women ? Being answered in the affirmative, she ran and told her mother, who, full of joy, came as one knowing nothing of the matter, and received her son to nurse for Pharaoh's daughter, that princess promising to reward her for her pains. She also, in reference to the situation in which she found him, gave him the name of
little

prepared a

ark,

which they smeared

all

MOSES, (c)

violence, made this edict the means of Pharaoh's educating the very child who was designed to be the deliverer of the people whom he so anxiously wished to destroy. Amram, the son of Kohath, and grandson of

As the princess must have possessed great influence at court, to be able thus to counteract the king's express command, it is highly probable that this event induced her to exert it to procure the repeal of the edict for we hear
;

had married Jochebed, his father's sister,(a) by whom he had a daughter, Miriam, and a son, Aaron, prior to the sanguinary decree for destroying the males and some time after its promulgation, they had Jul. Per. 3143.^ A. M. 2433. ( a second son, Aaron being then Post Dil. 770. ( three years old, and Miriam, as
Levi,
;

Per-' conjectured, about ten. new-born son to be a goodly ceiving child, his parents took extraordinary pains to conceal his birth but at the end of three months, they found themselves in such danger of a discovery, that they were obliged to give
is

71

this

But, however this operation. may be, Moses was carefully tutored by his parents in the knowledge of the religion of the Israelites, and their hopes of being delivered from bondage, and settled in the Land of Promise. The term of 400, or 430 years,(d) was also now near its expiration, and the signal care of Providence, in sending a deliverer to rescue him from a watery grave, could not but excite their hopes that this child was destined
its

no more of

him up

to his fate.

With aching

hearts, they

more than ordinarily conspicuous part. of a proper age, Jochebed took her son to court, where he was received by the king's daughter, adopted as her own, and put under
to act a

When

(z) For this courageous conduct, Moses informs us, rewarded themidwiveswithanuinerous posterity. Exod. (a) Exod. ii. l. vi. 20. (b) Exod. ii.

God
i.

21.

" Because," (c) fWQ (MOSHBH) drawn out: drew him out of the water." Exod. ii. 10.
(d) Sec note (y),

said she,

"

page 338.

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

in all the learning

37-5

proper tutors to he instructed of the Egyptians, (e)

forty years of age,(g)

Moses went

to visit his

Notwithstanding the splendour of Pharaoh's

court, the affluence and ease in which Moses lived, and his being probably considered as

brethren, and observing an Egyptian, probably one of the task-masters, maltreating an Hebrew, he was lircd with indignation, so that, per-

ceiving no one to be near, he

fell

upon him and

heir apparent to the crown, he could not but sympathize with his afflicted brethren, and feel desirous for their emancipation. Impressed

with this sentiment, he sometimes ventured to them, and, where it was in his power, to relieve them from the severities of their oppression, though at the hazard of his own life. Indeed, according to the testimony of St. Paul,(f) he contemned the riches of Egypt, and when he came to years of maturity, rejected the title of the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and chose rather to be accounted an Israelite, being persuaded that God would in due time appear for them, and bring them to the land which he had
visit

slew him, and buried his carcase in the sand. (h) This transaction was not so secret as Moses imagined ; for, upon a second visit to his brethren, when he saw two of them striving against each other,(i) he interfered with a view to reconcile their quarrel ; but the one who had done his brother wrong, instead of submitting to his mediation, reproached him with the

murder, asking, if he designed to kill him, as he had killed the Egyptian ? Finding, therefore,

that the fact

was known, and dreading

left

Pharaoh's resentment, Moses

rj n per 3133,
\

promised to their
(e)

fathers.

When

arrived at

land of Midian.(j) And it was iPostDil. 816. 1531 well that he did so for the report '- B> c
-

Egypt

secretly,

and flew
;

to the JA. M.

2473.
-

Acts, vii. 23, 24. Heb. xi. 24 26. Egypt was at this the only nation on earth where learning was cultivated period Abu'l Faragus says, that with any success, or to any extent. the princess, whom Josephus calls Therrauthis, delivered him to the wise men Janees and Jirabrees, (called by St. Paul,*

Tharbis, daughter of the Ethiopian prince,

;

fell in

love with

Jannes and Jambres) to be instructed. These same Janees and Jimbrees are supposed to be the magicians who afterwards imitated the miracles that Moses performed before Clemens Alexandrinus says, that Moses was Pharaoh. arithmetic, geometry, physic, music, and the use of taught
hieroglyphics, otherwise called enigmatical philosophy ;f to which Philo adds astronomy, which he learned of the Chaldaeans, as he did the Assyrian characters of the Assyrians. This writer also pretends, that the best masters were sent
for from Greece, to instruct him in the liberal arts and But at that period, Greece rather stood in need sciences! I of masters from Egypt, than to be able to furnish Egypt, or indeed any country, with them.
(f)

Heb.
is

xi.

2426.

(g) Acts, vii. 23.

not stated that Moses had, at this time, received any commission from God, or even any notice that he was to be the deliverer of his brethren yet most commentators take it for granted that he had; and upon this principle But it orlers less violence justify the death of the Egyptian.
(h) It
;

to the text, to suppose that Moses was only actuated by the momentary impulse of indignation, at seeing his brethren so ill used. Josephus, who lias i;n on a long detail of several

remarkable particulars of the liie of Moses, during the forty years that he abode in Egypt, mentions, among others, his having been put at the head of Pharaoh's troops, by advice, of a divine oracle, at a time when the Ethiopians, whom Mr. Bryant supposes to have been the descendants of the expelled Ihf-sos.i had made an irruption into Egypt, and subdued a considerable portion of it. But he defeated, and drove them back into their own country, and forcing them to take refuge iii the city of Saba, he there that besieged them
:

Moses, and promised to give up the city to him, on condition that he would make her his wife to which Moses agreeing, the city was put into the hands of the Egyptians. It is thought that Stephen had an eye to something like this in the history of Moses, when he describes him as mighty in deed, as well as in words.^ Philo, however, in his history of the life of Moses, takes no notice of such an adventure. (i) Jonathan Ben U zzicl, in his Targum, says, these persons were Dathan and Abiram. Father Berruyer** thinks they were the Jannes and Jambres, whom St. Paul describes as withstanding Moses, tt because they would not acknowledge him to be a proper judge of their quarrel, when God had made him a judge of His people. But this is very improbable for, besides that it appears that only one of the two refused his good offices, there is not the least evidence that Moses had, as yet, been called to the office of a deliverer, much less of a judge. Jannes and Jambres, as already hinted, are rather to be looked for among those magicians, who, by imitating some of Moses' first miracles, discredited his divine mission, and hardened the heart of Pharaoh and his courtiers, so that they refused to hearken to him. (j) The land of Midiaii, here spoken of, lay in Arabia Patrxa, on the eastern coast of the Red Sea, and must be distinguished from another of the same name, by Arnou, on the east borders of the Dead Sea: some writers suppose the Midian of Reuel, or Jethro, to have been colonized by the descendants of Midian, fourth son of Abraham by Keturah, whom he sent into the east country, |J and who settled in ilie neighbourhood of the Dead Sea. But Calmet is of opinion, that the Midianites here alluded to, were of the race of Cush, eldest son of Ham, because Aaron and Miriam reproach Moses with having married a Cushite, (Xipporah, daughter of Reuel) which they would not have \eiitareii to do, hau she been of the stock of Abrahain.HH Yet, as calumniators seldom
j|

scruple to distort plain facts, to

** Hisloirt du Peu/ilc dc Dicu,
torn.
ii.

make them
]).

suit their

purpose,

}
j|

2 Tim. iii. 8. Philo in Vit.

Antitj. lib. U.

t $

Clem. Alrx.
Miithiili'ff/,
vii.'

lib.

i.

25.
$t

vol. vi. p.

221.

n
i-j

cap. 9.

f Acts,

22.

2 Tim. iii. 8. Translated Ethiopian, Kumb.

Cm.

xxv.

16.

xii.

1.

^1j

Caliuet. Diet, art, Midiao.

376

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

[CHAP. v.

of the slain Egyptian was soon brought to the king, who issued orders for his apprehension, that he might be put to death: but Moses eluded the vigilance of those who sought for him, and arrived safe in the territories of Heuel,(k) prince and priest of Midian.

them for not having brought him home; and ient them to invite him into his house where
:

On his arrival in this country, Moses met with an adventure similar to Jacob's, at the fountain whither the young women of the place Moses usually repaired to water their flocks. had directed his steps to a well in the plains of Midian, and while he was there, refreshing himself with rest and a cooling draught from the spring, the seven daughters of Reuel came with their flocks, to draw water to fill the troughs or trenches dug for that purpose, that but some churlish their sheep might drink who arrived at the same time, drove shepherds, away their sheep, and put their own to drink the water which they had drawn. Moses, who had been bred up at court, considering this as a breach of decorum, by interfering, enabled It the damsels to water their flocks in peace. should seem that they had been frequently exposed to insults of this nature for when they returned home, their father asked how it happened that they were come back so soon ?
:

well pleased with his entertainment, that he expressed a willingness to take up his abode with them, and to undertake the charge of their sheep. This was readily agreed to, and so well did he conduct himself, that

Moses was so

daughter Zipporah in mardue time, he had two sons, the eldest of whom he called Gershom, because he was an alien in a strange land; and the younger he named Eliezer, because God had helped him, and delivered him from the sword of Pharaoh .(I) While Moses thus lived in security with the prince of Midian, the Israelites were groaning under their burdens. The king of Egypt died; but their grievances experienced no abatement under his successor or rather they were aghis
in

Reuel gave him

riage,

by whom,

gravated, so that they cried to the God of their fathers, by reason of their severe bondage. Nor was their cry in vain He, whose ears are
:

always open, and His hands ready

to help his

people in times of distress, heard their petitions, and prepared to send them a deliverer.

told him, that an Egyptian, who had prevented the shepherds from molesting them, had also drawn water for them, and helped the watering of their flocks. Reuel then inquired where they had left the generous stranger chid

They

Moses had now been an exile in ,- Jul Per 322 3. ale the land of Midian for the space \ A.M. 2 -.13. of forty years, when, one day, hav- ) Post Oil. B.)(). f, 1491. -pastled his flocks round the east- I B.C. ing ern branch of the Red Sea, down the back of the desert, as far as mount Horeb,(m) his attention was suddenly attracted by an appearance of
died,
serve,

the circumstance of they might ground their aspersion upon in the country of the Zippcr-ali being born and brought up
Cusliilfs birth
in the same way that Moses himself, from his and education in Egypt, was called au Egyptian.* sometimes translated (k) Exod. ii. 18, "wojn (REUEL) as Numb. x. 29, because the second letter y (din) is Raguel, sometimes used as a vowel, and sometimes as a g, ny, or gn. In Exod. w. 1, iv. 18, and xviii. 1, he is called Jethro; in and in Judges, iv. 11, Holtab: but. Jmlt/es, i. 10, IheKenite; the latter, on comparing it with Numb. \. '29, will appear to be a mistake of the son for the father, which may he corrected two places to have been originally alike, by supposing the Hobab the son of Raguel, the father-in-law of Moses," and " the sou of that the words, Raguel," have been omitted by some early transcriber, which is not improbable; or rather, (CHUTON) on the signification of which the by translating "
;

and then Jethro his son, whom Moses continued to would be jnn (CHOTON) brother-in-law to Moses. The

'

whole difficulty of these various names, applied, as is supposed, one person, will therefore be set aside by an appropriate translation of this word, according to the sense indicated by the general tenor of the places where it occurs. in the land of (1) In this interval of Moses' residence Midian, be is supposed to have written the history of Job, a descendant of Huz, son of Nahor, Abraham's brother, according to some or, as others will have it, the same with Jobab, in the line of Esau, as will be more fully examined under the history of the Edomites. Moses is also supposed to have penned the book of Genesis about this time. (m) Subsequently called the mount of God, from the appearance of God upon it, Exod. iii. 1, 2. xviii. 5, and Sinai,
to
;

\m

father-inlearned are not agreed, brother-in-law, instead of " sonlaw." The same word, Gen. xix. 12, 14, is rendered as Gen. xxxiv. . Deut. vii. 3. in-law ;" and in other places, Jmhua, xxiii. 12, it simply indicates affinity by marriage.

The

alteration of Reuel to Jethro,

Exod.

ii.

1,

depends upon

from TOD (SCNCH) a bush; because it was in a bush, Horeb flame of fire, that this appearance was made. consists of a mountainous ridge, with two remarkable peaks, or summits, of which one obtained the name of Sinai, whence the law is supposed to have been promulgated, and the other Exod. xix. 20. xxiv. 1518. Dent. v. 2
3'D, in a
;

For during the 40 years the rendering of the same word. that Moses abode in Midian, we may well suppose that Reuej
Etod.
ii.

19.

It was situate in tinretained the original name of Horeb. south part of the peninsula formed by the two branches of the Red Sea.

CHAP.
fire

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

which was nevertheless So extraordinary a pheno-

377

resting on a bush,

not consumed. (n) menon did not fail to excite his curiosity ; but as he approached, more fully to examine it, a voice called him by name from the midst of the fire, desiring him to stand at a distance, and to take off' his shoes (the eastern mode of saluting a superior) because he stood on holy ground. The heavenly vision, for such indeed it was, then announced Himself as the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. The curiosity of Moses was now turned to consternation; he put off his shoes as commanded, and covered his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

upon the ground, and it became a serpent; but upon taking it by the tail, as he was desired, it returned to its natural state of a rod: ami upon putting his hand, at the command of God, into his bosom, it became leprous, but was restored on his returning it into his bosom, after it had been withdrawn. These two miracles Moses was ordered to repeat before his brethren, a* tokens of his divine mission if they would not attend to the first, he was to have recourse to the second; and if they disbelieved both, he was to take some water from the river, and, pouring it upon
:

The Lord

still proceeding, told him that He had heard the complaints of his people in Egypt, and was come down to deliver them, and to bring them into a good land, flowing with milk and honey, even the place occupied by the Canaanites and their tribes, which had formerly been promised to their fathers and that he, Moses, was the person by whom all this was to be performed. From the weight of such an undertaking, Moses endeavoured to
;

should become blood. begged to be excused, and entreated the Lord to send some one else, better qualified than himself, for so great an undertaking and so urgent was he in his suit, that God's anger was kindled, and He bid him peremptorily to go upon His errand, and to take with him the rod, on which the miracle had been performed, and by which he was to perform
the ground,
it

Moses

still

longer daring to disobey, Moses made the best of his way back to Midian, and re-

many

others.

No

excuse himself; he pleaded his insignificance to appear before the king, by whom he was condemned as an outlaw he represented the
;

improbability that the Israelites would listen to him, and second his exertions for their enlargement ; and he feared that his want of the powers of eloquence and persuasion would render abortive whatever plans might be laid down for him to act upon. But God overruled all these objections: adverting to the miracle of the bush burning without being consumed, He assured him that the Israelites should cerHe detainly worship in that very mountain clared His mystical name, I AM, by which Moses was to inform the Israelites of his commission assured him that they should hearken to what he said ; while the king of Egypt would harden himself against his message, and thereby bring down many grievous judgments upon the country and appointed his brother Aaron to be his spokesman ; at the same time declaring that Aaron, under the influence of a divine In the impulse, was on the way to meet him. course of this conversation, the Lord wrought two miracles, to strengthen the faith of Moses He bid him cast his rod, or shepherd's crook,
: ; ; ;

quested Jethro, his brother-in-law,(o) who had probably by this time succeeded his father Reuel, to let him return to Egypt, to see his brethren to which Jethro readily consented.
;

While Moses was preparing for his journey, God appeared to him again, in Midian,(p) encouraged him to go about the business w ithout fear, since all those were dead, who had sought to take away his life; and gave him instructions as to the manner in which he was to execute his mission.
retreat of Moses in Midian, or a little before, Aaron, his brother, had perhaps married Elisheba, sister of Naashon, both de-

During the

scended from Judah, by their father Amminadab, the grandson of Hezron and when the Almighty ordered him to go and meet Moses at Horeb, on his return from Midian, she had borne him four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.(q) Eleazar also had married a
:

daughter of Putiel, who had made him father of Phinehas all of whom were to act conspicuous parts in the subsequent events of the
;

history.

Moses having taken leave of his brother-inlaw, set out upon his return to Egypt, with his wife and two sons ;(r) but he had proceeded no
(p)

(n)

Exod.

iii.

()

See note

(k,)

page 376.

(q)

Exod. Exod.

iv. vi.

19. 23.

(r)

Exod.

iv.

20.

VOL.

I.

3c

378

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

idle contrivance to obtain a cessation

[CHAP. r.
to

great distance, when the Divine anger was kindled against him, for neglecting to circumIt is supposed that either himself cise his son. or the child was seized with some dangerous disorder ; but when Zipporah understood the cause of it, she performed the operation with a

sword; the king attributed the whole

an

sharp stone, and the distemper left him.(s) Arrived in mount Horeb, Moses was met by his brother Aaron, and when their mutual embraces were over, he acquainted him with the commission he had received from God. Aaron, after expressing his joy at the news, promised to be obedient in all things to the divine will and on they went towards Egypt, where, upon their arrival, they assembled the elders or chiefs of the families of the Israelites, and declared to them the joyful tidings of approaching emanat the same time they performed the cipation miracles of changing the rod into a serpent, and the serpent again into a rod causing the
; ; ;

from their labours; and, so far from complying, he ordered the task-masters to lay heavier burdens upon them, and instead of providing them with straw, as heretofore, to make them go about the country to collect such stubble as they might find, but still to exact the usual number of bricks. This order was punctually obeyed by the merciless task-masters, who failed not to inflict corporal

punishment upon the Hebrew overseers, whenever the required tale of bricks was deficient. Finding themselves in such ill plight, the overseers went in a body to the king, to represent
the unreasonableness of requiring as much work to be performed now that they had to go about seeking for straw, as when that article was pro-

hand to wither, and restoring it and turning water into blood, as God had commanded Moses, to establish his credit and authority among them. These first essays were received with incredible joy by the whole assembly, every one bowing in gratitude and adoration to the Divine goodness, which had at length taken pity on their abject condition. But short-lived was their exultation, and
;

vided ready for their use. But Pharaoh told them they were idlers that no straw should be As given them; and abruptly dismissed them. went out from the king's presence, they they met Moses and Aaron, who, perhaps, were
;

waiting to know the result of the application ; and they immediately inveighed against them, in the anguish of their souls, as the cause of
oppression, which was likely to end in despair and death. It would have been only in vain for Moses to have offered any thing,
this

new

equally evanescenttheir gratitude, as will quickly

either in his own defence, or by way of comfort to them at that time ; he thought it more advise-

Having opened their commission to appear. the Israelites, Moses and his brother had next to. appear before the king, which they lost no time in doing. But when Moses addressed him with "Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness;" Pharaoh " Who is that I
scornfully replied,

able to apply himself to God, and in the most humble terms to expostulate upon the ill success of his first message. To this complaint God was pleased to give him a gracious answer, full of assurances of his love and compassion towards his people: 'He bid Moses go and tell them that all Egypt should speedily see
that He deliverer

should obey His voice?

know

Jehovah, not Jehovah,

neither will I let Israel go ;" and when Moses urged that the God of the Hebrews had ordered them to go three days' journey into the wilderness to sacrifice, and that disobedience might bring upon them the pestilence or the
This circumstance is very obscurely 26. (s) Ezod. iv. 24 Commentators, as described, and more obscurely translated. usual, have been busy in conjectures, each endeavouring to It has been give his pecular turn to the translation. thought that Xipporah was under the influence of an ill temper, when but it is much more reasonable to she 'circumcised her son the opposite supposition, that she performed the cereadopt mony with all decorum, using the customary expression, " Thou art now, by me, made a circumcised child," or, " Thou art now. to me a joyful circumcised sou;" the original
:

was their God, and would be their and protector that He would conduct them into the land which He had pro;

that He had appeared and Jacob, in His character of God Alniighty,(t) but would now appear for

mised
to

to their fathers

Abraham,

Isaac,

them, in his character of Jehovah.(u.)

in

All

being susceptible of either translation, preferably to the words our version, " Surely a bloody husband art thou to me." It is supposed that Zipporah went no farther with Moses, but returned to Jethro, who afterwards brought her and her two children to Moses when encamped near Sinai, after the deliverance of the Israelites. Exod. xviii. E.rod.\i. 3. (t) 'TuH7N(EL-SHaDaj) God All-sufficient. (u) Criticism has run wild on this expression: for it is certain that the name JEHOVAH was known to the Israelites Even before the flood, the name. long before this period.

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

demand of
Israel's release.

379

these divine promises, however, were not sufficient to assuage the anguish of the disheartened and they refused to pay any attenIsraelites
;

To

confirm their

pretensions to a divine commission, Aaron', at ,M oses' instigation, threw the rod, already

Moses, when he endeavoured to speak This iriade Moses very reluctant to to them. to Pharaoh, and he would have go again excused himself, on account of some defect,
tion to

or natural impediment, in his speech. God, however, told him that he should be as a god to Pharaoh ; that Aaron, who laboured under no such difficulty, should be his prophet, or speaker ;(v) and that he should be endowed with power to perform miracles, which, on account of Pharaoh's obduracy, should be greatly multiplied, till at length the Israelites should come
forth.

In conformity with this new commission, Aaron presented themselves a second time before Pharaoh, and renewed their

Moses and

upon the ground, and it became a But- Pharaoh was not to be won by serpent. miracles of this kind he sent for his wise-men and sorcerers ; and they imitated the miracle, by casting down every man his rod, which also became serpents: yet did Aaron obtain this superiority, that his rod devoured all their's an advantage, however, that proved of no utility for the present: Pharaoh was hardened, and seems only to have considered it as the effect of superior skill in magic, (w) This miracle was soon followed, therefore, by another, viz. turning all the running and This standing waters of Egypt into blood. was also imitated by the magicians ;(x) so that Pharaoh remained as unconvinced and unrespoken
of,
: ;

occurs in the Mosaic writings, Gen.

xv. 7,

ii.

4, et al.

and

in
it.

Gen.
Per-

who could assume

God

reveals Himself to

Abram

expressly by

haps

known known

(Exod. vi. 3.) it implies, that as God was by His promises, so uow He would be to them by the performance of those promises. Moses, by exercising the judgments of (v) Exod. vii. 1. God upon Pharaoh, was as terrible as a god to him; and Aaron, by his communications, acted the part of a preacher,
in this place

to their fathers

all shapes, change the appearance of the subjects on which they acted, or suddenly convey one thing away, and substitute another in its place ; and that God permitted them thus to act, that His superiority might more fully appear in the sequel, by binding up their powers, and the

or interpreter. (w) The invention of magic has been pretty generally attributed to Cush, the eldest son of Ham ; but whether it consisted in any real power derived from infernal spirits, or was merely a display of legerdemain, is much disputed. It has been said that these magicians, favoured as they were by the court, might easily have substituted serpents for rods, there being plenty of serpents to be found in the country,

and they well knew how to deprive them of their power to do mischief, as we see among the jugglers of modern times. In like manner, they might pretend to convert water into blood, and to produce fror/s : for if in these, as in other instances, Moses gave previous notice of his design, they had time enough to provide a quantity of blood, and a number of But beyond this, their frogs, sufficient for their purpose. power could not go it stopped where all tricks of dexterity must stop at the failure of proper materials to work with. Therefore, when Moses produced lice from the dust of the (ground, the magicians, who had it not in their power to collect a sufficient quantity of these insects, were compelled In acknowledge that the finger of God was in the miracle. In the succeeding plagues of flies, &c. they found themselves under similar incapacities; because (lie powers of nature were shaken, over which they had no control. On the other hand, it is contended, that if the magicians had only imitated the three first of Moses' miracles, by sleight of hand, the sacred historian would have spoken of it otherwise than he does and instead of saying, " the magicians also did in like manner with their enchantments,"* he would have exposed
;

powers of those invisible spirits through whose agency they The names of the magicians are thought to be Jannes and Jambres, concerning whom many traditions and fables are related by the eastern writers, and who are represented by St. Paul as withstanding Moses. t (x) Here it has been asked by the incredulous, if all the water was turned into blood, at the word of Moses, where did the magicians get water to operate upon ? The inspired historian has answered this difficulty, long before it was started for he informs us, that the Egyptians, finding they could not drink of the water of the river, digged round about it for water to drink. Here, therefore, tlie magicians would find a ready supply, without sending, as some have supposed, to the coasts for sea-water. Besides this, it may be inferred from the 20th verse, that the waters of the river (Nile) only were at first affected, though the plague might be afterwards extended,
acted.
;

according to the threatening in the 19th verse, to all other even such as the Egyptians had brought waters in the land into their houses for domestic purposes. The waters of the Nile arc described by travellers as peculiarly salubrious and
;

pleasant,

insomuch that the Turks excite

salt, in

their

thirst

by

order to enjoy the pleasure of drinking it. There is, therefore, as Mr. Harmer observes, an energy in the words of Moses, " the Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river," which we cannot well conceive.} The conversion of the water into blood was not a mere appearance given to the element, but a real change of it; for it liirame putrid, so that all the fish died, and the si ream sent forth fetid exhalations. The continuance and removal of seven days after its first infliction, this plague are not stated it was followed by the plague of frogs, from which Pharaoh begged to be delivered, promising to let the Israelites go;

swallowing

It is therefore concluded, by the advocates the deception. of this latter opinion, that the magicians had familiar spirits,
Exod.
vii.

Moses entreated
This being the
t

for him,

and the judgment was removed.

rol.
iii.

first

time that Pharaoh had humbled himself,

p. .W*.

11, 22.

vii. 7.

2 Tim.

iii.

8.

Banner's Obsrnotwaa,

380

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

[CHAP. v.

new message was therelenting as before. fore delivered to him, and a swarm of frogs(y) threatened, that should fill the whole kingdom, and render their ovens, beds, and tables, loathsome and it came to pass accordingly, at the
:

restrained

they could not imitate the miracle

time appointed. Still, however, did the magicians strengthen the king in his unbelief, by their imitation of what Moses performed. do not read how the former plague of blood was removed ; but on this occasion we find

We
to

Pharaoh sending
let Israel go,

for

Moses, and promising

if lie will

but deliver him and the

Moses country from these noisome reptiles. took him at his word, desiring him to name the time when they should be removed and accordingly on the next day not a frog was to be found alive in the whole land. To shew, how;

ever, that the miracle was real, their dead bodies were suffered to remain, and the Egyptians gathered them up in heaps, in order to carry them away; during which time the stench

and they acknowledged that this was the finger of God. (a) However, Pharaoh not regarding their words, Moses and Aaron met him the next morning, as he was going down to the river, and told him, that his obstinacy would only bring more and worse plagues upon him, the next of which would be such mixed swarms of flies, (b) as would darken the air; in which judgment, God would put a difference between His people and the Egyptians, and that there should none be found in the land of Goshen. Accordingly, by the next morning the air was filled with those insects, whose bite was so venomous and painful, and the mischief they did to Egypt so intolerable,(c) that the king was constrained to send for Moses and Aaron, to tell them that he would give them leave to sacrifice to their God, provided it were done
within his dominions. They answered, they could not avail themselves of this permission, without imminent danger of their lives ; for they should be obliged to sacrifice such creatures as the Egyptians worshipped, who would therefore be ready to stone them, as guilty of the most horrid and abominable sacrilege. They therefore insisted upon going three days' journey out of the land, that they might safely per-

from their putrefaction became so great, that

it

went near

to infect the air.

But when Pharaoh

found himself delivered from this plague, he paid no farther attention to his promise.

Moses finding himself the dupe of the crafty monarch, proceeded, according to his divine
instructions, to bring
;

down

the third plague

upon the Egyptians accordingly he ordered Aaron to touch the dust of the earth with his rod, and it was immediately converted into lice,(z) by which both men and beasts were so infested, that their lives became grievous to them. Pharaoh had recourse to his magicians,
as before, that they might invalidate the assumption of Moses to divine authority, by performing

form their God's command. This answer, which gave him just reason to suspect that they had a mind to go away for good, put Pharaoh
nonplus; but at length he consented that they should go, provided it were to no great distance from Egypt, and they would promise faithfully to return in a little time. Moses hereupon assured him, that he would immediately go out, and entreat the Lord for him but
to a terrible
;

a similar prodigy.
it is

But now

their

power was

probable tbat the bloody waters were also then restored to their natural purity, and not before. The plague upon the waters, therefore, may be supposed to have continued
nine days.

wasps, &c.

way

The second plague of frays had prepared the for this fourth, of flies. The carcases of the dead frogs, scattered all over the land, or collected into heaps, became

D'jmDJf (TZepaReDElM) a word of doubtful etymology, rendered frogs by nearly all the interpreters; but some, mentioned by Abu Ezra, think the froi-ndile. is meant.
(y)
(z) D'33

appropriate repositories for the eggs of insects, whence, in due time, they issued to the annoyance and terror of the inhabitWe do not read of any supernatural power exerted ants.

(KMINIM.)

rendering of this Septuagint and Vulgate, gnats; and others the reading of the Chaldce Targum, Joscphus, Bochart, Ac. lice, as in the Pain of body, and loathing of soul, would English version. be equally induced by either. Some suppose, that instead of (a) Ejcod. viii. 18, 1!). endeavouring to imitate Ihe miracles of Moses, the magicians attempted to remove them, but were unable.
;

Commentators are divided as to the term some preferring the reading of the

by Moses preparatory to this plague; he announces its Had Pharaoh relented approach, and s-o it comes to pass.
the same power which removed them were hatched, could have overruled the ordinary course of nature, and prevented their issuing into being. The ancient Jewish interpreters, instead of flies, suppose all kinds of beasts and reptile*, as lions, tigers, serpents, &v. are But the intended; and Mr. Bate thinks the raven is meant. usual acceptation of Jiiex, that is, oj all descriptions, is to be preferred, as evidencing the power of God to inflict terrible judgments by the meanest instruments.

prior to

its infliction,

after they

(b)
all

Siyn (Hf-ARcB)

is

supposed

to express a multitude of

kinds of insects;

hornets,

beetles,

gnats, dragon-flies,

(c)

Psalm

Ixxviii.

45.

CHAP.

V.}

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

381

No but cautioned him to keep his word. had his prayer obtained a sooner, however, reprieve, and delivered the kingdom from those venomous insects, than the king drew on another plague by his obstinacy and breach of
promise.(d) This next judgment fell on all the cattle of the Egyptians, the greatest part of which died by the next day, whilst that of the Israelites remained unhurt. But this not touching the near enough, the next that followed was king more effectually felt by him. It was a violent and painful boil, which broke out upon man and

These thunders, lightnings, and especially the hail,(f) which were the more extraordinary, because it seldom or never rains in that part of Egypt, so alarmed the proud king, that he sent for Moses and Aaron, and expressed himself
such terms to them, as might have passed tokens of real conversion he begged to be delivered from the noise of those dreadful thunders; and promised not to detain them and their people one moment longer. Moses, though he gave no credit to this promise, yet eiur> to obtain a speedy cessation of the thunders; which he accordingly did but Pharaoh and his council no sooner perceived that the storm was over, than they returned to their old way.(g)
in

for sure

Pharaoh, according to custom, had recourse to his magicians, who, being themselves smitten with the boils,(e) dared not appear before Moses and Pharaoh continuing still obstinate, Moses was sent to threaten him
beast.
;

Whereupon Moses was

sent to threaten

them

with a more terrible one, in which the voice of the God of Israel should be heard in thunder, and his vengeance felt, in such dreadful storms of hail, as had not been known since the founHe gave him but one day to dation of Egypt. consider of it, assuring him, that the next day would prove a dismal one to the Egyptians, unless he consented to dismiss the Israelites
before that time, between
tians

with such an inrinite number of locusts as should cover the face of the earth, and eat up There what the hail had left undestroyed. were some about the king then, who took the liberty to represent to him the damage that his kingdom had already received ; that Egypt was already destroyed, and that it was high time

whom and the

Egyp-

put such a difference, that the land of Goshen should be entirely free from the terrible punishment, by which Egypt would be half destroyed. Moses accordingly lifted up his rod towards heaven on the next

God would

Hebrews were sent away to serve their God. Pharaoh was now persuaded to let them go, but having sent for Moses and Aaron back, to inquire who of them were to go, and who to stay, he was so highly provoked at their insisting upon taking with them their wives, children, cattle, and all that they had, that he could not forbear upbraiding them with their ill intenthe
tions,
art,

morning: whereupon the thunders, lightnings, and hail, followed one another so thick, that Egypt was laid desolate by them. The hail was of such prodigious size, that it killed man and beast, broke all the trees, and deThe wheat stroyed all the barley and flax. and the rye escaped, because they were only not sufficiently grown. As for the land of Goshen, it was as free from this, as it had been from all the former plagues.
(d)
(e)

which, though concealed with so much and cloaked with the specious pretence of
did yet but too plainly shew, that

religion,

they had no mind ever to return into Egypt He warned them of the danger they again. ran themselves into, and advised them to content themselves with taking only the men, and to leave their wives and children behind ; and after threatening them severely, he caused them to be thrust from his presence.(h) Moses was no sooner got out, than he lifted
wives and little ones, might go into the desert to sacrifice, and hold a feast to JEHOVAH, their God, was strictly conformable to the faith and practice of the Egyptians, in their for Herodotus informs religious institutions and assemblies that the Egyptians held the chief of their six annual vis, festivals at Bubastis, in honour of Neith, the Diana of the
:

Exod.
This
is

viii.

whence some
(f)

the last time that the magicians are mentioned have supposed that they died under this painful
;

and loathsome disease.

The damage done by events, is too well known in

the ordinary course of this country, to need any comment. But here it is to be remembered, that it fell in a place where such a phenomenon was perhaps never before witnessed consequently, the terror it excited must have been
hail,

in

chiMmt

in boats, men, women, and on one of these occasions, the people assured him there were not fewer than 700,000 adults of both sexes
(
i

reeks

whither they repaired

that

proportionally greater.
(g) E.tod.
\\.

(h)

The

request of Moses, that the Israelites, with their

assembled, besides children ; that during the voyage, some of the men played upon flutes, some of the women upon, tastenets, while the rest were employed in singing and clap-

382

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

and that they might go with
be
left

[CHAP.

v.

up

rod over the land of Egypt. This was followed by an east wind, which blew all the night, and brought such a numerous swarm of locusts(i) by the next morning, as had never been seen before and these, spreading themselves all over the land, quickly devoured every blade of grass, and every thing that Pharaoh did had escaped the storm of hail. to own his fault, not fail to send for Moses, and beg for one reprieve more; but, having obtained it by means of a west wind, which blew all the locusts into the sea, he continued
his
;

their wives

and

children, but insisted that their flocks should

behind.

Moses

therefore, after

many

Moses emphatically expresses by that may be felt." During the three days that it lasted, the Egyptians neither saw one another,
;

as inflexible as ever. Egypt was presently after smitten with such horrid darkness, that it a " darkness

proper expostulations, observing Pharaoh's unwillingness to consent, told him in express terms, that they would take all their cattle with them, and that not a single hoof should remain in Egypt. Pharaoh could not hear so bold ft demand without the highest resentment. He caused them to be thrust from his presence with the utmost indignation, threatening, that if he dared to come before him any more, it should certainly cost him his life. Such impothreatenings had nothing in them that could frighten a man like Moses only it is supposed, that it was at this last interview that he signified to the king the finishing stroke of the Divine vengeance upon all the first-born of men and cattle throughout Egypt; which should cause such a consternation among all his subjects, that they should come with bended knees to the Israelites, and beg of them to depart out of their country ;(k) whilst God would still shew such regard to the latter, that they should enjoy their usual calmness and tranquillity, not a dog daring to open his mouth against any of them. Moses had no sooner finished this last prediction, than he retired to his people into the land of Goshen, where the Israelites celetent
;

qor did they dare to stir out of their place whilst the land of Goshen enjoyed its usual day-light. The horror of this obscurity, which could not be removed by the common methods then used to supply the absence of the sun, caused such
dreadful apprehensions in the king and all his subjects, and was so heightened by the dismal outcries of men, women, and children, that their consternation may be much easier ima-

gined than expressed. (j) The king, according to custom, sent for Moses and Aaron, and told them, that he was willing to grant their request,
ping their hands ; and that when they arrived at Bubastis, they sacrificed a vast number of victims, and drank much wine. Such being the practice of his own Pharaoh people, could not be surprised at the request of Moses only he
:

vaunting in wisdom was reproved with disgrace

for they that promised to drive away terrors and troubles from a sick soul, were sick themselves of fear worthy to be laughed at.
:

resorted to subterfuges, to prevent the Israelites going at all. Moses apparently alludes to the practice of the Egyptians, in
saying,
until

" We know not with what we must serve Jehovah, we come thither :"* i. c. " We must have all our cattle with us, for we know not how much, or how little, will be
required of us in sacrifice."
(i)

Exod.

x.

peculiar horror of this state of darkness, is very forcibly described by the author of the apocryphal Book of Wisdom: " They (the Egyptians) were shut up in their houses, the prisoners of darkness, fettered with the bonds of a loiis; night. They were scattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness, being horribly astonished and troubled with (strange) apparitions: for neither might the corner that held them keep them from fear; but noises (as of water) falling clown, sounded about them; and sad visions appeared unto them, with heavy countenances. No power of the fire could
(j)

The

them light: neither could the bright flames of the stars endure to lighten that horrible night only there appeared unto them a fire kindled of itself, very dreadful for being muili terrified, they thought the tilings which they saw, to be worse than the sight which they saw not. As for the illusions of art and magic, they were put down, and their
give
:

For though no terrible thing did fear them, yet, being scared with beasts that passed by, and hissing of serpents, they died for fear: for wickedness, condemned by her own witness is very timorous, and always forecasteth grievous things. They sleeping the same sleep that night, which was indeed intolerable, and came upon them out of the bottom of hell, were partly vexed with monstrous apparitions, and partly fainted for a sudden fear, not looked for, came upon them. Whosoever there fell down, was shut up in a prison without bars. For whether he were husbandman, or shepherd, or a labourer in the field, he was overtaken for they were all bound with one chain of darkness. Whether it were a whistling wind or a terrible sound of stones cast down or a rebounding echo from the hollow mountains these things made them to swoon for fear. The whole world shined with a clear light only over them was spread a heavy night, an image of that darkness which should afterwards receive them."t Something of the same nature is implied in the expression of the " He cast Psalmist: upon them the fierceness of His anger,
:

among
2513.

wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angejs The strong language of these passages tliem."J supersedes every wish for amplification on the subject. Vide Lsher. Annul, sub A. M. (k) Exod. xi. 8, et seq.
Wisdom
Psalm

F/n>il. *.

26.

Sr

also chap. T. 1.

vii.

16.

viii. l. in. l.

x 3, 11.
.

xvii.

Ixjcviii.

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

383

brated the passover that very night, (1) accordit was in this night ing to God's command; and that Moses bid them borrow what je\vvls, also, fine raiment, and other precious things they could, from their Egyptian neighbours, assuring them, from God, that they should find them the best very ready to accommodate them with tilings they had.(m)
Vide Usher. Anna!, sub A. M. 2013. Villet. e.t ul. Before we enter into the institution (m) Exod. xi. and xii. of the passover, which was attended with the last and most dreadful plague, the death of all the first-born, it will not be amiss to inquire, how long a time Moses took in bringing all the plagues upon Egypt, especially because some clironoothers to twelve months ;t logists have spun it out to ten,* and whereas Usher, whom we profess to follow, has included them all within the space of one month. { About the 18th day of the sixth month, (which, in the year following, and after, was reckoned the twelfth month,) was
(1)

The people, whom so many dire judgment* on the Egyptians had rendered more tru< tiililc. received Moses' orders with the utmost respect, and went to put themselves in readiness to execute them.(n)
night, which was to prove so joyful to and so fatal to their enemies, being come; them,

The

God
to

sent his destroying ministers,

who smote

be hurt of the thunder, lightning, and hail, should be advanced by the 8th day, to be devoured by the A longer term than a month is necessary. The ceremony of eating the passover, as well as the method of doing it, had been prescribed by God, and by Moses
sufficiently locusts.

communicated to the Israelites, during the transactions between him and the king of Egypt, though they are post-

poned
those

to the twelfth chapter, to avoid breaking the series of

wonders which

account of

this institution is

God had wrought by him. The prefaced with a command from

sent theirs* plague, of the

WATERS TURNED INTO BLOOD,

which ended seven days

after.

About the 25th day, came on the second plague, of FROGS, which was removed the day following.|| About the 27th day, came on the third plague, of MCE.1T About the 28th day, Moses threatened them with fourth plague, of FLIES, and other vermin, which came OH the 29th day, and were all taken away on the 30th.** About the 1st or 2d day of the next month, Abib, (which was afterwards made the first month of the year) Moses brought theffth plague, of MURRAIN UPON THE CATTLE/tt About the 3d day, the sixth plague, of BOILS AN D BLAINS, broke out upon man and beast, and upon the magicians. JJ About the 4th day, Moses foretold them a seventh plague, which was brought upon them on the 5th, of THUNDER, RAIN, AND GRIEVOUS HAIL, MIXED WITH FIRE, with
a.

God, that the month Abib, which was then the seventh of the year, according to the common or civil computation, should from thenceforth be reckoned as the first month of the year in the sacred calendar ; and that all the other feasts, which were afterwards to be instituted, should be This injunction was to regulated by that of the passover.
be perpetual; but on this night they were to sprinkle the blood of the lamb upon the two side-posts and lintel of their doors, that the destroying angel might leave their houses

untouched, when lie passed over the land to destroy the firstborn of Egypt, and to execute the divine vengeance on their gods, whether it were their princes, who, in the language of
Scripture, are often called gods, or those animals which that In memory of which great superstitious nation worshipped. deliverance, they were to keep this feast of unleavened bread seven days, that is, from the fourteenth day at even, until the
twenty-first day at even

which their flax and barley were smitten, but their wheat and rye were not hurt, not being yet out of the ground.

among them

Whence

Nic. Fuller,

lib.

iii.

Misccl.

1.

observes, p. 389, that

this plague

happened

in the

About the 7th day, plague, and accordingly sent it the day follow 'ing, viz. that of LOCUSTS, to destroy what the hail had left ; which plague was removed about the 9th day.|j|| Upon the 10th day, (the 'Mtk of April, according to the Julian calendar, upon Thursday) was instituted the feast of the passover, and unleavened bread i. e. the paschal lamb
;

month Abib. Moses threatened them with an eighth

during which, whosoever was found bread, whether Israelite or The first and last of stranger, was to be cut oft' from Israel. these seven days were to be kept holy, and free from all manner of work. Lastly, no stranger was to be admitted to eat of the passover, unless he consented to be first circumcised.
;

eating of leavened

for the Israelites, they were strictly to remember this great and glorious night, and to instruct their children in the meaning of this institution, that they might likewise perpetuate

As

the

was chosen, but not killed, till the 14lh day.HU Moses now (viz. on the 10th day) brought upon them the
ninth plague, of three days' DARKNESS;-"* and, upon the 14th day, (or Monday, May the 4th, with us) the last time he spoke with I'haraoh, Mosesforetold the tenth plague that should come upon him; namely, the DESTRUCTION OF ALL THE

FIRST- BORN; which came to pasathe night following; and then, turning himself away in great anger, departed from him. "Hi In the evening of this day was the passover celebrated. JJJ Upon these dates we have to remark, that most of them are incapable of proof. Besides which, it is very improbable
that the wheat
Boorh. ap.
t Jud,i-i
I'r-

and

rye,

which were not up on the

olli

di:\,

properly reduced to three heads viz. first, to gather themselves from all the corners of the kingdom into the land of Goshen ; it being unreasonable to suppose, that such a vast multitude, amounting to upwards of two millions and a half of souls, could be all contained in that little spot of ground ; so that it required no small dispatch to communicate the orders of their departure to them all. Secondly, To get all the rich things they could from the Egyptians and this required secrecy, since it is not probable, that the Egyptians would have proved so generous, if they had suspected, that this journey was any other than a Thirdly, to religions one, that was to last but a few days. eat the passover at the time, and with all the ceremonies, that had been prescribed and this was to take up some time, four
(u)
;

memory of it to future ages. These commands may be

Villet.

** Rod.

viii.

Annul,
$ Enid.

il.id.
vii.

Vide Usher An. sub A. Vide utiani lYnx-r. ct \ illct. in

||

M. 2513. Genobrard,
ID;-.

et al.

&
*

Ibid. ver.

18

24, 29. 32.

tt
[II

Eiod.

ix.

3, 5, 6.

ft Jbid. ver. 8,

el MI;.

Krorf. x.

419.
25
29.
3. et scq.

Iff Ibid.

xii.
1.

331.

Ibid. x. 21, et seq.

xii.

trt Ibid. ver.

and

xi. 1,

;;.

25.

Ibid. viii. 10.

Ibid.

vc-r.

17.

tft Exod.

128.

$J6 /did.

xii.

384
all

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

their

[CHAP. v.

the first-bora throughout the kingdom with immediate death, from the first-born who sat on Pharaoh's throne, to the first-born of the imprisoned captive, and even to that of the meanest animal in the land and there was a great lamentation among the Egyptians. The first expedient of the affrighted monarch,
:

dead, and laden with their spoils, they began march under the conduct of -Jul. Per. 3223. Providence, and of Moses, to the (A.M. 2513. number of six hundred thousand Post. Dil. 8 jfi. men able to bear arms, besides An. Exod. 1.
I

was

to send for

Moses and Aaron who, being

;

Rameses, not far from his capital city, were soon brought to him; when, instead of his usual threatenings and upbraidings, he was urgent and pressing for their departure, with The their children, cattle, and all they had. likewise were no less impatient to Egyptians see their backs. The Israelites found them as ready to lend their most valuable things, as themselves were to borrow and Moses, who was too well acquainted with Pharaoh's changeable temper to stay till he relaxed, made all the haste he could to put it out of his power and, having settled the best order he could among
settled at
; ;

B.C. 1401. old men, women and children, servants, and an innumerable multitude of strangers, who followed them in their march.(o) As soon as they were arrived at Succoth,
tribes

Moses made them encamp according to their and families, which was likewise the order in which they had been directed to march. Whilst they continued at Succoth, which was their first encampment, Moses was commanded by God to consecrate the first-born of

men and
were
to

beasts to him,(p) the first-born of

men

that vast multitude, in the general confusion that then reigned, he gave the signal for their departure long before break of day. Leaving therefore the Egyptians to mourn for, and bury their
However, Providence so ordered it, that they ready on that night. And the Psalmist tells us,* that notwithstanding the great number of their old men, women, and children, there was not one feeble person among all their
days were
at least.
all

be redeemed at the price of five shekels of the sanctuary, which was worth double the common one, that is, about two shillings and three-pence each ;(q) which money was afterwards to be given ,to the priests. (r) Moses had still another care, which was to settle the order of their march in so regular a method, that there might be no confusion or
quarrel
all

among

that vast

and mixed multitude,

tribes.

continued in Egypt from the time of Jacob's first coming thither, to this very day, (which was the same day of the same month and week, viz. Monday.t) the space of
(o)

They had

regard the women; for if the first fruits of a marriage proved a female, no redemption was to be paid for her. Secondly, as to that of beasts, it extended only to the clean the unclean were to be either redeemed by a clean one, as an ass by a lamb or they might be killed, and thrown away. This redemption was founded not only upon the right which
; ;

two hundred and fifteen years, though Moses, computing it from the first coming of Abraham into Canaan, reckons it four hundred and thirty years, as has been already shewn.} There was yet one main thing wanting, viz. the securing of
sufficient quantity of provisions for all that multitude and perhaps they expected to have had time enough to get it before their march but the Egyptians drove them away with such desperate eagerness, that the people were forced to carry their paste with them unleavened, with which they baked themselves cakes upon the coals; and what other provision they could get, they took with them undressed, and marched from Rameses, Moses' dwelling-place, to their first encampment at Succoth. Josephus tells us,|| that their dough, and other provisions, which they carried from Egypt, lasted them a whole month but it is not likely, that they would load themselves with so much luggage, which in all
;

God has over all his creatures, but more particularly upon the account of his havingsparcd the first-born of the Israelites, when he smote those of the Egvptians, which was, as it were, the seal and finishing stroke of his wonderful judgments on that proud and cruel nation. They were ordered to teach the reason of this law of redemption to their children and grandchildren, that their posterity might never be at a loss to account for it, nor the wonders which were wrought in favour of them be forgot. Among all the cares which Moses and Aaron had, they did not forget to bring Joseph's coffin and bones with them, pursuant to the oath which that patriarch
had exacted from them.
in a

new sumptuous

cart, or

conduct of the tribes

children.lT

tell us, they placed them open herse, under the guard and of Ephraim and Manasseh, his two

The Jews

probability they knew not how to preserve so long, when they had so much better things to carry, out of the spoils of the Egyptians.
(q)
(r)

(p) E.cod. xiii. Or 3s. according to Prideaux.

See Introduction, p. 231. This law, concerning the first-born of men, did not at

They likewise affirm, that every tribe brought the bones of the heads of their family with them: but though they are not always to be credited in matters of this nature, and Josephus does not seem to have dreamed of such an act of filial piety, or else he would in all probability have recorded it; yet St. Stephen seems to allude to some such tradition among them, when he said, that Jacob and the fathers went down into Egypt, and were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre which Abraham bought of the sons of
Emraor.**
$

Ptalm cv. 37. Usher's Ann. sub A. M. 2.513. | Eiod. xii. 40. See note (y.) p. 338.
t

>,W.
Ads,

xii.
||

Antiq. lib.

ii.

cap. 15.

f Vide
*'

Ellc
vii.

Shemoth
15, 16.

Jitbbah. sect.

HDISn ONt

et rabbiu.

mlt

IS

HAI>. V.J

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

to face

and that they might be ready

about and

stand in their o\vn defence, in case of a pursuit, or of their meeting with any difficulty or obstruction from the nations through whose terri-

nal the wilderness, near the borders of Etham was situate, where they arrived

which on the

second day after their departure out of Egypt. This route Moses made them take, designing
probably to get to Mount Sinai by the point of the Red Sea;(s) but God desired him on the next day, to turn towards Pi-hahiroth, which
lies

were to pass. To prevent these, orany other accidents which might make the people think of returning to Egypt, God was pleased
tories they

to take the nearest way to the land of Canaan, that is, through the land of the Philistines, but to wheel about along the coasts of the Red Sea towards Arabia Petraea. He likewise made them march, not as fugito order
tives, in

Moses not

between the Red Sea, and Migdol and Herein God was pleased to Baal-zephon.(t)

lar

confusion and disorder, but like a reguarmy in battle-array ; in which order they

shew his care for them in another miraculous manner: for though he might have notified to them when and whither to inarch, or when-- to halt and encamp, as he conveyed his other commands, by the mouth of Moses and Aaron
;

went from Succoth to Etham, towards Arabia Deserta, which is therefore called in the origi(s)
(t)

considering the untractableness of their temper, and how apt they would be to murmur
yet,

Erod.

xiii.

Very little is known of the geography of all these places. Succollr was a place, not a town, or city: he word signifies tents, or booths, aud seems to have been applied to this spot,
I

about mid-way between Cairo and Suez. But Dr. J. Blair prefers the south-east island, formed by the branches of the Etham is admitted to be the Nile, as the land of Rameses.

consequence of the Israelites setting up those kind of temhalted there to collect together porary lodgings, while they such stragglers as had not had previous opportunity of joinas well as to form themselves ing them in the land of Ranieses, into regular nun c.hing order. They had assembled together at a very short notice in Rameses, and they had been hastily " thrust out of Egypt," in the middle of the night, without A resting-place was therefood, and in a tumultuous manner.
in

fore necessary, as well for the purposes above-mentioned, as for baking tlie dough, which they had brought out of Egypt with them, for their sustenance and as no town offered itself for their reception, they set up booths, and called the place
;

by a name commemorative of the event. Josephus calls it or Latopolis, which Mr. Letopolis, a mistake for Litopolis, identifies with the more ancient Abaris, between Bryant Phacusa, on the east bank of the Nile, just below the Deltaic division of the stream, and the spot where Babylon was afterwards built, when Cambyses invaded Egypt: the last-named writer, however, supposes Phacusa to be the Rameses, whence
the Israelites set out, and Succoth to be to the eastward, in the wilderness ;t others think Succoth was in the region of Of Ranieses, Mr. Sale Troglodytes, by the Red Sea.J " observes, though there seems to be mention made of two, and them differently pointed in the Hebrew, yet, if they differ, it is only that the one was a province, and the other The city was built by the Israelites, the chief town of it."

Bouton or Bouthora of Herodotus, though its situation is disputed: Dr. Shaw makes it the same with Suez; but Mr. Bryant thinks it was much nearer to Egypt.- The Egyptian name, this last writer supposes, to have been Otham]! as it is rendered in the Scptuagint; but being situated in a narrow pass, it was denominated Be-Otham, the pass, or entrance of Otham, contracted, by long usage, to Bouthain. Pi-hahlroth, translated, by the Septuagint, *<* r/* Ei^fl, " over against the mouth of Haarotli, or Hiroth," or the opening of Haaroth, is thought by the same writer to designate the opening from the pass above-mentioned, or the opening or mouth of a canal: some identify it with the city of Ileroum, or Heroopolis, variously placed at the northern extremity of the Heroopolitic branch of the Red Sea, aud on the borders of the Fossa Regnum others take it for the same with Strabo's but Dr. Phagroriopolis.il near the former site of Heroopolis
: ;

Pi-hahiroth considerably to the southward, on the western bank of the Sinus Heroopoliticus. The name of Migdol signifies a tower, which Mr. Bryant considers the same with Heroum and Clysma, on the west bank of ihe Heroopolitic branch of the Red Sea, while Dr. Shaw places it midway between Succoth and Pi-hahiroth. The former writer conceives it to have been the original residence of the Caphtorim, and that it was also called Caphtor, which
signifies a tower upon a promontory, whence those people were denominated. Baal-zephon appears to be wholly unknown to the ancient geographers. The Rabbins, and after them Grotius, believe it to have been an idol, set up to guard the confines of Egypt. Eusebius rather takes it for a

Shaw removes

during their bondage, and it seems to have received its name from Rampses, or Rhameses, the son of Sethos jEgyptus, the new king, according to Mr. Bryant's hypothesis, who knew not Joseph. Its situation is unknown but from the circumstance of Herodotus speaking of Papremises in Lower Egypt, and Pliny joining the Ramisesans and Patamians with the Arabs, on the borders of Egypt, Calmet conceives that Pitliom and Rameses were on the east of the Delta, on the confines of Arabia. Dr. Shaw, therefore, makes Rameses the same with Grand Cairo, and he places Succoth to the south-east,
:

but Jerom has omitted it in his transDr. Shaw and D'Anville follow Eusebius Dr. J. Blair makes it the same with Arsinoe and Suez : while Mr. Bryant removes it to the eastern shore of the Red It seems to have been a Sea, opposite to Migdol, or Clysma. place dedicated to the worship of the sun ; but amid so many and discordant opinions, with only conjectures for their fouu,dation, it is impossible to draw any accurate conclusion.
city,

near Clysma
;

;1T

lation.**

Of modern writers,

* Gen.
t

xxxiii. 17.
Ani'uj. lib.
ii.

Joseph.

cap. 15.

Bryant's Ancient Nytlwt.

vol. vi.

338>342.

Vide Simler, Willct. Unit. Hat. vol. iii. p. 387 note

Lib. xiv. ap. Calm. Dissert, in Loc. and Willet in Lac. Loc. Hcbr. ** V idiCalm, Hiit. V. T. Comm. in Eiod. xiv. and Dissert, on the
||

1i

0, (8vo.

edit.)

of the

Red

Puwajo

Sea.

VOL.

I.

3D

,386

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

the wilderness
to expect,

[CHAP, v.

against

them at every supposed wrong step, he condescended to conduct them by a more visible way. namely, by a pillar of light, or tire, in the a night-season, and by a column of smoke, or
cloud, during the day.(u) In the mean time, God,

who knew what was

transacting at

Pharaoh's court, and what measures that monarch, and his no less infatuated subjects, were taking to pursue them, commanded Moses to turn from Etham towards

; and that they had now nothing but the most cruel death in that dismal place. This ungrateful language, to which Moses had already been used, though nothing so much as he was afterwards, rather moved his pity than his anger but he, looking upon it as the effect of their extreme danger, and instead of upbraiding them cowardly temper, with it, comforted them with the assurance, that this would be the last time of their seeing
;

between the sea and Migdol, over-against Baal-zephon and to encamp before it. For by this time the Egyptians began to repent of their parting with the Israelites, and losing the benefit of their servitude; and, thinking that they might easily catch them entangled between the mountains, and fatigued with their march, they had prepared a considerable army, together with six hundred
Pi-hahiroth
;

which

is

He had no sooner dismissed them, than he went and made his application to God who was immediately pleased to order the people to begin their march towards the sea, directing him at the same time to stretch out his rod over it, and assuring him, that the waters would forthwith divide themselves, and make way for them to go through it as on dryland; whilst of the choicest chariots, besides all the chariots Pharaoh, and his whole army, venturing to purof war that could be found in Egypt, and a vast sue them, should be finally overwhelmed by its waves. Moses obeyed he stretched out his multitude of officers and soldiers, who were all Pharaoh put him- rod, and the waters were immediately divided, in full march after them. self at the head of this army, and led it with standing up on a heap on either side, and formsuch speed, that he overtook them at Pi- ing as it were a solid wall on the right hand hahiroth, and encamped there in sight of and on the left, of the channel thus miracuthe Israelites This was followed by a strong but, whether it were, that his lously opened. was too much fatigued with their march, east wind, which dried up the bottom of the army or that he thought himself sure of them, there passage, and rendered it as firm as a regular no visible way for them to escape him, highway. While this was doing, the Israelites being unless they flung themselves into the sea; or were beginning their march towards it, and the that Providence prevented his immeangel of the Lord, who conducted them in the lastly, diate falling upon them; nothing hostile \\as pillar of fire, removed from the front to the rear undertaken against them that night.(v) of their army, and stood between them and the On the other hand, the Israelites, whose Egyptians so that the column of cloud and fire produced a double effect, by giving light to spirits were broken down with the weight oi their bondage, could not behold the Egyptian the Israelites in their march, and casting a so near, without the utmost darkness over Pharaoh's camp, to prevent his army, encamped consternation and dread and, instead of having perceiving what was going forward in that of recourse to that mighty arm, that had so visibly the Hebrews. (x) By the time that the Israelstretched itself out in their favour, they ran in a ites had proceeded half way across this miracutumultuous manner to Moses' tent, complaining lous passage, the Egyptians began to move forthat he had brought them to be butchered in ward in the pursuit, probably not knowing, amid
;
;

the Egyptians.(w)

(u) This column of fire and smuke never forsook them during their forty years' wandering iu the wilderness ; bul was their constant guide throughout their forty-two eiicampmcnts, and directed them when and whither to inarch, according as they saw it before them; and when to halt, when they perceived it to stop. Whether given to them al their first, second, or third march, at Succoih, oral Etham, it is not easy to guess at from the text.*

were, by the sea, on one hand, by impassable mountains, own army, on the other, and for want of arras, a> \\ell as of courage, as incapable of fighting as they were of H\ing. lie might think it more advisable to force them to yield themselves prisoners by famine, than to cut them in pirves, since by the one he reduced as he might easily have done them to their former slavery, but by the other he ran th
as
it

und

his

risk

of losing a considerable part of them.

()

It

is,

indeed, most likely, that, seeing them

* LnoJ.
xiii.

hemmed

in,

(w) Exod. xiv. 10, ct seq.

(x)

vcr. ult,

Exod.

xiv.

CHAP.

V.]

TO THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

one promiscuous ruin, under the irresistiweight of the incumbent flood ; so that not so much as one of them remained. (a) When broad day-light appeared, the Israelites beheld with wonder and amazement, the carcases and rich spoils of their enemies cast up by the waves upon the sea-shore : they therefore feared the Lord, and believed at length, that Moses was divinely commis-in
ble

the natural darkness of the night, rendered more dismal by the blackness of the cloudy pillar, whither they were going, nor suspecting the danger into which they were rush-

however, were far enough and readied the opposite shore And now, to use the words in perfect safety. of the inspired writer, "the Lord looked unto
ing.
Israelites,

The

from

their grasp,

the host of the Egyptians," who by the time of morning watch, (y) had advanced into the midst of the sea, " and troubled them, and took off their chariot-w heels :" by which we may understand that He sent forth dreadful lightnings and thunders, attended with vast inundations of rain,(/) which frightening the horses, made thorn become ungovernable, so that they overthrew the chariots and broke their wheels. Confused and dismayed, the Egyptians would have betaken themselves to flight, saying " Let us flee from the face of Israel, for JEHOVAH But fighteth for them against the Egyptians." at that moment, Moses, by the command of God, lifted up his rod over the sea, and the waters immediately fell in upon the despairing multitude with a horrible crash. Horsemen and their horses, footmen and their arms, charioteers

sioned.(b)

Moses embraced the happy frame of mind which now possessed the Israelites, to celebrate this miraculous victory, and to inspire them with the deepest sentiments of gratitude
to their Almighty Deliverer, by the musical performance of an ode, composed by him for the occasion in which he extols the greatness of God's power, displayed in this signal victory, and His boundless mercy towards His people. In performing this ode, the earliest specimen of epic poetry extant, the Israelites were divided into two great choirs Moses and Aaron being at the head of the men, and Miriam at the head of the women. Whilst the former sang the the women answered alternately to canticle, each verse, by repeating the first stanza and accompanied the words with the sound of timbrels, or tabrets,(c) and with dancing, (d.)
; ; ;

and

proud vehicles, even Pharaoh himself, with the grandees of his court, were all buried
their
(y)

About four o'clock

Ixxvii.

in the

morning, perhaps just peep

of day. (z) Sec Psalm

(a)

1420.

Exod. xiv. 27, 28. (b) It were an idle waste of time to enter into all the arguments and opinions that have been published, to prove dial the passage of the Red Sea had nothing in it of the miraculous. Moses, as if he had anticipated the objections of infidels, and mis-believing believers, has bestowed particular pains upon his description and those who will not receive it, must not be expected to be convinced by any additional arguments. The precise place, indeed, where the Israelites but from remaining crossed, is not now to be ascertained
;
:

and that after leaving the bottom some time dry, the As to sea again came back, and covered it with great fury." the east wind, it was probably the scorching samiel, or simoom, of which some notice has been taken in a former chapter. (c) A musical instrument similar to the tambourine of the
there
;

present day.
in licmistichs, or

This ode, in the original, is written 21. half-lines, the usual form of Hebrew poetry; and as the reader will doubtless be gratified in seeing it in
(d) Exod. XT. 1

Those who are traditions, it may very nearly l>e guessed at. curious to investigate the subject, may consult Dr. Shaw's
and his Travels.^ Certain old travellers} have affirmed, that the ruts of the chariot-wheels are still miracuas far lously preserved, not only upon the sand, but even

Supplement

English metre, the following arrangement and translation from The marginal figures Dr. Kennicott, is here introduced. refer to the parallel passages in the English Bible ; where it should be observed, that the Ode properly ends with the 18th verse; that the. 1'Jth is a recapitulation of Pharaoh's pursuit and overthrow; and the 20th is the chorus sung by Miriam and the women. It was necessary to premise thus much, because, as Dr. Kennicott remarks, the Jewish critics have carried their ideas of the song to the end of the IJMli
verse, in

into the sea as the eye can penetrate, notwithstanding all endeavours to deface them; which they attribute to a petriBut this we rather consider as a fying quality in the waters. Mr. Bruce describes the part of the sea figment than a fact. through which the Israelites passed, as four leagues (12 English " the miles) broad, and, quoting from Diodorus Siculus, says,

which they have been followed by others

whereas

verses 19, 20, and 21, arc but a prose explanation of thu manner in which the ode was performed, and the occasion

of

it.

" MOSES.
1.

Part
for

I..

Troglodytes, the indigenous inhabitants of that very spot, had a tradition from father to son, from their very earliest and remotest ages, that once this division of the sea did happen
* t Page 343, el stq. Cap. viii. f Paul Oros. Greg. Turon. and oUitn. Vide Calmct, Dluert. in Lac.

"

will

sing

to

JEHOVAH,

he hath triumphed

gloriously;

The

horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

tfcis

of $ See a farther dcscriptioa volume.

wind, in chap,

vi.

ect, 3.

of ihii

3D2

388

SACRED HISTORY, FROM THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM,

&c.

[CHAP. v.

Thus were the seven days' festival, ordained in memory of this eminent deliverance, joyfully
concluded; the first and last of the days, which were to be observed with more than usual solemnity, being, the one signalized by the death of the Egyptian first-born, the other by the miraculous passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, and the total over2.

throw of Pharaoh and the strength of his kingdom. Here, pursuant to our plan, we must for a time leave the Israelites, in the enjoyment of and while they their newly acquired freedom
;

are celebrating the praises of their God, take a view of such other nations as date their origin within the two first periods of ancient history.
10.

become to me for salvation: This is my God, and I will celebrate him The God of my father, and I will exalt him.

My

strength and

my

song

is

JEHOVAH

And

he

is

11. 12.

Who

Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them; They sank as lead in (lie mighty waters. Who is like thee, among the gods, O JEHOVAH?
!

3.

" Jehovah Jehovah

is

mighty in battle \ (Perhaps a chorus sung

!

is

his

name

by the
the

Men.)
13.

is like thee, glorious in holiness Fearful in praises performing wonders! Thou stretchest out thy right hand, the earth swal!

loweth them!

"

CHORUS, by Miriam and "

(Perhaps suny
to

Women.
hath

Thou, Thou,

in

thy mercy, leadest the people,

;

whom

thou

Jirst in this place.)

hast redeemed

21.

"

sing ye

JEHOVAH,
!

for he

triumphed

in thy strength, guidest to the habitation of thy

holiness!

gloriously

The

horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

" " 21.

CHORUS, by Miriam and

ye to

the

Women,
hath

" MOSES.
4.

Part

II.

sing

JEHOVAH,

for

he

triumphed

" Pharaoh's chariots and his host,

the sea
;

hath he cast into

Sea.
14.

The

gloriously ! horse and the rider hath he

thrown

into the sea.

5.

And his chosen captains are drowned in the Red The depths have covered them, they went dow n
(They sank)
to the

" MOSES.

Part IV.
;

bottom as a stone.

6.
7.

Thy Thy And

right hand, Jehovah, is become glorious in power; right hand, Jehovah, dasheth in pieces the enemy. in the greatness of thine excellence thou over-

" The nations have heard, and are afraid Sorrow hath seized the inhabitants of Palestine, la. Already are the dukes of Edom in consternation And the mighty men of Moab, trembling hath seized
;

Thou
8.

throwestthem that rise against thee; sendest forth thy wrath, which consumeth them as stubble Even at the blast of thy displeasure, the waters are gathered together: The floods stand upright as a heap: Congealed are the depths in the very heart of the sea.
:

them
1C.

All the inhabitants of Canaan do faint. Fear and dread shall fall upon them ;

Through the greatness of

still

thine arm,

they shall be

as a stone

17.

"
21. "

18.

CHORUS,
ye
to

by
!

Miriam and
for

the

Women.
triumphed

Till thy people, JEHOVAH, pass over;|| thou hast redeemed. Till the people pass over, Thou shall bring them and plant them in the mount of

whom

sing

JEHOVAH,

he hath

The
The

thine inheritance place for thy rest, which thou,

:

JEHOVAH,
thy

hast

gloriously

made

The

horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

sanctuary,

JEHOVAH, which

hands have

established.

" MOSES.
}).

Part

III.
;

" The enemy said

'

"
18.

shall divide

/ will pursue, I shall overtake the spoil, my soul shall be satiated

'
:

GRAND CHORUS;

by ALL.

"JEHOVAH FOR EVER AND EVER SHALL REIGN!"

'

with them

draw my sword, my hand

shall destroy them.'

|(

Jordan.

CHAP.

VI.]

HISTORY OF EGYPT.

389

CHAPTER

VI.

HISTORY OF EGYPT, FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY, TO THE OVERTHROW OF PHARAOH, IN THE RED SEA, fc.
SECTION

I.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. SITUATION AND EXTENT. DIVINAMES. OASES. THE DELTA. CITIES. SIONS. THE NILE.
to the modem distribution of the eastern hemisphere, Egypt belongs to Africa; but the ancients were not agreed on this point some ascribing it to Libya, others to Asia, or Arabia; some divided it between those countries, making the Nile their common boundary; while Herodotus places it as an intermediate
;

ACCORDING

from the aborigines, are distinguished to this As however (if the origin of the name day.(f) must indeed besought for in the Greek language) the word A.yv!moj was used to denote a blackish colour, it seems more likely that the country was so called on account of the dark colour of its waters, the swarthy complexion of its inhabiFor this tants, and the blackness of its soil. reason, other names, of similar import, were given to it by the Greeks ; as A* j* and MfXa^/SoAt/?
f :

they called MAO, or M!\; by the Hebrews it was called Sihor ; and by the Ethiopians, Siris ; all of which signify black. Plutarch
itself,
:

the river

country, pertaining to neither.

Egypt may certainly claim as high as any nation in the world, it having antiquity been peopled by Misraim, generally called the son of Ham, though the word more properly designates a whole tribe, of which the progenitor was Masor, Metzor, or Mysor, the grandson
In Scripture language, it is therefore called Misraim, and the Land of Ham. As to its other name, Egypt, by which it is more familiarly known to us, some derive it from au ancient monarch named JEgyptus but this etymology is disputed by those who derive it from the Greek A, a country, and Krro>-, of the Copts, that is, the Land of the Copts, by which name the native inhabitants, or rather those who are supposed to derive their descent

NAMES.

intimates that the natives called their country Chemia, because its soil was very black, like the pupil of the The Jews still call eye.(g)
also
it

Mizraim; the

Arabs,

Mitzir, or Mitzri,(h)

and Turks, Mesr, which the Greeks write

Mesre and Mestraea.

;

The

natives

call

it

of Noah.(e)

El Quiber; the Syrians call the Egyptians, JEgophtes the Mohammedans of Egypt call the country El Hibt, or El Kupti, or Kupti, without the article, in which they are followed

by the resident Christians ; and the Ethiopians describe it by the name of Giptu, or Gibetu.(i) In all which the names of Misraim and Coptos( j)
appear
to prevail.

SITUATION AND EXTENT. Egypt is bounded, on the north, by the Mediterranean on the east, by Arabia and the Red Sea on the south,
;
;

(e)

See before, page 316

i.

also Bryant's

Ancient Mytho-

logy, vol.

p. 8, et at.

is much disputed by Scaliger, P. Sollier, (f) This, however, John De Leo, Vansleb, and others. vol. iv. p. 298, rather derives (g) Mr. Bryant, Mythol. Chemia, or Chamia, from Cham, rendered Ham in the English 'translation of the Pentateuch. (h) Masor, from which these are derived, signifies a fortress;

and Bochart

of its natural strength.

thinks the country received this name on account See also Perizon. Oriy. JEgypt. p. 6.

Davity, page 2.5G. Coptos was an ancient city of Upper Egypt its name is variously derived from Cibth, or Coblim, princes in the very earliest times of the monarchy ; but whose names do not appear in the lists transmitted by the ancient historians. Plutarch says, it received its name from the circumstance of Isis here cutting oft" one of her locks, on receiving news of the death of Osiris; the word signifying, in the Egyptian But Vansleb derives the name Copht, tongue, privation. from Copt, the sou of Misraim, and head of the Caphtorim.
(i)

(j)

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
by Ethiopia
deserts.
;

[CHAP. vr.

The breadth

and on the west, by the Libyan of its coast on the Medi-

terranean, from east to west, is about 600 miles; but proceeding southward it narrows very much, so that in some places, the ridges of mountains on either side of the Nile, do not leave so much as a day's journey across the plain between them. In length, from the Mediterranean in the north, to the town of Phylae in the south, it
is

The first of these divisions received the name of Theba'is, from its principal city Thebes, called in Scripture Pathros.(n) This is the most southerly of the three divisions of Egypt, lying next to Ethiopia, and is nearly as extensive as both the other two, including the country on both sides of the Nile, as far as the Heptanomis its most northerly cities, being Lycopolis on the west, and Antseopolis on the east which agrees tolerably well sides of the Nile
;
;

computed

at

600

miles.

ancient geographers are not agreed as to the bounds of this country :(k) some will have the Delta only, or that part which is encompassed by the arms of the Nile, to be Egypt properly so called ; others make it reach westward to the greater Catabathmus, or the valley that divides it from Cyrenaica, which would comprehend Marmarica and Ammonis; but the generality of them fix the western boundary at Plinthine, a town beyond the lake Mareotis, and the eastern at Ostracine, beyond the lake Sirbonis, and at Heroopolis, near the head of the western branch of the Red Sea. Syene, Elephantine, and Phylse, cities almost under the tropic of Cancer, have been variously spoken of as the most southern limits.

The

with the present extent of

Al

Sa'id.

The second

division

was called Heptanomis,

from the seven nomes, prefectures, or governments, into which it was divided.(o) It comprised all the country, on either side of the river, from Theba'is to the division of the Nile which formed the Delta. Some of the ancients make this tract a part of the Theba'is and some of the Eastern geographers also give the same
;

extent to

Al

/Said.

The
tion of
at its

Delta, which occupied the fairest por-

Lower Egypt, consisted of a number of islands, formed among the streams of the Nile
confluence with the sea: the two principal branches ran off from the main stream in opposite directions, so as to form with the Mediterranean Sea an imperfect triangle,

DIVISIONS. Ancient Egypt is by some divided into Upper and Lower; by others into three parts, viz. Upper Egypt, or Theba'is Middle Egypt, or Heptanomis; and Lower Egypt, the greater part of which was comprised in the Delta. These were subdivided into
;

smaller provinces, or governments, by the Greeks called Names, but by the natives Tabir. The number of them has been computed at But of this we cannot be certain for 36.(1) wherever there was a city, the Greeks added a nome, which has very much confused and em;

barrassed the geography of the counuy.(m)

(k) The lonians, according to Herodotus, comprehended only the Delta under the name of Egypt; the country to the south they called /Ethiopia: hence Memnon, who reigned at Abydus, in the Thebais, is represented as an ^Ethiopian.* Strabo, who confounds Egypt, properly so called, with its acquisitions under the Ptolemies, makes it include Manmirica and Ammonis, or the territory of the priests of Ammon, who had a celebrated oracular temple in a fruitful spot, standing like an island midst the arid waste of sands in the Libyan desert. Ptolemy treats successively, and in the same chapter, of Marmarica, Libya, and Egypt;" but he distinguishes their respective bounds.' He also, on the side of Palestine, joins Casiotis, so called from Mount Casius, the Palus Sirbonis, vith its source, and the cities, or towns, of Ostracine,
* Homer.
Iliad, lib.

some idea of the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet A, delta, whence its name. These islands abounded in towns and cities beyond any country, of the same extent, upon earth. They were finely planted, and the communication between them was maintained by On the side of means of boats and barges. a large region appears to have been Libya, originally overflowed by the waters of the Nile, which having no outlet on that side, rendered the country swampy, and unfit for the purposes of habitation at the same time that the staggiving
;

Khinocorura, and Anthedon, to Egypt. But Strabo, followed by Jerom, describes the two latter as belonging to Palestine, The first maritime city on this side of Egypt, should therefore be Ostracine; and on lli<- side of Arabia, Heroopolis, an

above described.
(1)

Strabo, vol.

ii.

" the environs of It was, however, really a province, under the every city." jurisdiction of a governor or lieutenant of the king. (n) Isaiah, \\. 11. Jer. xliv. 1, 15. Ezek. xxix. 14. xxx. 14.
(in)

p.

1135.

Diod. Sicul.

lib.

i.

p.

3-3.

Epiphanius defines the

word M^O?,

as

k.

a differ(o) Strabo, however, says it contained 16 nomes ence probably occasioned by the addition of new nomes to those it originally comprised, as were in particular those of Oasis, two cities, wot properly in Egypt, but ou the border* of Libya.
;

SECT.

I.]

CITIES OF THEBAIS.
Thfbais..

391

nant waters infected the air with impure exhalations. At length an ancient king, during the recess of the Nile, undertook to have the waste mud dug out, and with it to form a mound, so as to prevent the exuberant waters any more from descending to the lower country. AH that Avas above, he formed into a vast lake, comprehending the space of upwards of 100 This lake contained many square miles. islands and temples and was called Moms, a name it is supposed to have received from the but the word king by whom it was made rather denotes a marsh, and alludes to its pris;
:

This island was deemed sacred, from an opinion that Osiris was buried there. The ruins of a magnificent temple are still to be seen. Elephantine, [Djeziret-el-sag, or Isle of Blosformed by the waters of AY*w*.vJ another island the Nile, a little below, i. e. north of the cataract Both these belonged origK above alluded to.
ter

The inhabitants of the latnally to Ethiopia. Here are were called Elephantophagi.
Syene, in ruins, [at a small distance from

several fine ruins.

the Lake of the Marsh ; as the tf. d. region below, which had been converted into dry ground, was called Scithiaca, or the Sea The part of the Delta, also, wit/tout Water. which existed in the first ages, was marshy, and probably extended no farther than Pelusiuin, or Mount Casius, on the one side, and Paretoninm on the other; the whole coast forming a continued curve from the last-named town to Gaza. But the continual accessions of earthy particles brought down by the waters of the Nile, gradually increased its basis, so that the lower region had every \ear an additional barrier towards the sea, and new islands frequently arose from the prevalence of the floods above. Of all this the natives availed themselves, and what was thus given to them
tine stnte.

Aswan] situate under the tropic of Cancer, is by many writers deemed the southern boundary of Egypt. Here was a deep well, for observNear this place are ing the summer solstice. the remains of several ancient buildings, and
quarries of granite, or of Syenite marble ; all the country to the east, the islands and bed of the Nile, being of red granite. The quarries of Basanite, or Baram, are also near this town; consisting of a hard black stone, of which were made vases and other domestic
utensils. (q)

Ombi, or Ombos, or Onebos, [Koum-Ombo, or Hill of Ombo] where are considerable ruins of an ancient temple. The inhabitants were remarkable for their veneration and worship of the crocodile. ./Elian relates that they possessed the art of taming this animal, and that
they kept them in ponds, where they would

by nature, they impnned by

art.

Besides the Delta, Lower Egypt, which reached from Heptanomis to the Mediterranean, comprised the Mareotis and Alexandria on the west, and Casiotis, with Augustimanica, and some other territories towards Arabia, on the
east.

obey their

call.

Apollinopolis Magna, [Edfii] where are the magnificent temple, was built in The inhabitants had a honour of Apollo. mortal enmity to crocodiles and their worruins of a
shippers. Elethyia, or city of Lucina, had an altar to that goddess, soiled with the blood of human
sacrifices.

In the following review of the cities of Egypt, we begin witli the extremity of Upper Egypt, and proceed in regular gradation to Lower Egypt, and the Delta. The modern names are distinguished by [Italics] enclosed. IN THE THEBAIS. Phyla:, in a small island of the Nile,(p) just above, that is, south of the Lesser Cataract, was the utmost limit of the

CITIES.

The temple

is

nowtotally destroyed.

Latopolis, so called from the fish lalits, formerly worshipped there, [about 3 miles N. E. of Asna, or JJsite, i. e. the Illustrious] Pallas
tiful

had a temple at this place, of which some beaufragments of the sculpture still remain.
between two

(p) Pliny places Phyla: on llic west side of the river, ovcrBut Strabo, who visited these places, says, againt Syene. be went from Syene to Phylae by land, to avoid the cataract. Pliny must therefore be mistaken. (q) At a small distance from this place, are the ruins of a magnificent palace, which cannot but astonish the beholder.

Scarcely less than an ordinary city in extent, it has four avenues of columns, leading to as many porticos. At each

alternately. stone, is 70 feet in height; and the whole number of columns, in the four avenues, is reckoned at five or six thousand, ina.iy of which are now prostrate.

stand two colossal pillars of porphyry, of fine black marble, armed with maces. The avenues consist of columns, set three and three together in a triangle, on one pedestal ; on the capital of each triangle, are aspliinx and a tomb, Every column, consisting of a single
irate,

figures,

592

HISTORY OF EGYPT.

[CHAP. vi.

Chnumis, or Cnuphis, so called from the god Cnuph, who was there worshipped. Thebes, [Luxor, or Aksor] called by the Greeks Diospolis Magna, or the great city of Jupiter, built, as some say, by Menes; or, according to others, by Osiris, or by Busiris, was the capital of Upper Egypt, and the original seat
of the government.
this
it

found, on burning the remains of the plunder, amounted to 300 talents of gold, and -2300 of
silver,(u)

Even

in Strabo's time, this city

was

was the most powerful

In the days of Horner,(r) city in the world ;

described as having a hundred gates, through each of which issued, in time of war, twenty thousand fighting men, and two hundred chariots ;(s) hence it obtained the name of Before it Hecatompylos, or Hundred Gates. vas ruined by Cambyses, its extent was no lesa than 450 stadia, or 52i miles ;(t) and its wealth
is

was so immense, that after it had been pillaged by the Persians on that occasion, what was
book x. ver. 381. Dr. Pococke, when he visited the ruins of Thebes, could or remains of walls round the site of the perceive no signs and therefore, as there could consequently be no gates city where there were no walls, he inclines to the conjecture of
(r)

Strabo describes the city as lying chiefly on the east side of the river; but in the days of its splendour it occupied both banks, and included Diospolis, Memnonium, and perhaps Hermenthis, [ErmCHt] as There were anlikewise the ancient Coptos. four remarkable temples at Thebes ; one ciently of which is described by Diodorus as a mikand a half in circumference, and 45 cubits in and Dr. height, with walls 24 feet thick Pococke thinks he was much liclnw the truth. (w) At a place called [Biban-el-melnkc, \. e. the Gate, or Court of the Kings] are the sepulchres of the kings of Thebes ;(x) and at a
eighty furlongs in length. (v)
:

place in that neighbourhood, towards [Mediticlother gates are in a more ruinous condition, but exhibit From these gateequal marks of stupendous magnificence. ways were walls, extending not only to the other gates, to make the entire closure of the edifice, but also to enclose the Of the particular courts between the gates and the temple. other entrances, Dr. Pococke thinks the western to be the most stately of the kind that ever was built in Egypt: within it is a large open court, having on each side, at the first entrance, a terrace, 80 feet broad on either side of the middle
;

Iliad,

The

(s)

Pomponius Mela, and some others, that, by the hundred each of gates, Homer meant so many palaces of princes, whom, upon any emergency, could equip for the field the number of troops and chariots above stated or that the words of Homer relate to the gates of temples. The former
;

of these two opinions is preferable because Homer speaks of the hundred gates, the chariots and men, immediately after noticing the great wealth of the houses of the Thebans, not Mr. Browne, however, who visited this place their temples. in 179'2, thought he found sufficient vestiges of walls to establish " From the to the above. of the a belief
;

" may be seen an insulated mass, temple at Aksor," says he, towards the south, which has apparently been a gate; and some other imperfect remains may be discovered, with a telescope, in the directions west and north, under the same circumstances; so that, from the situation of these ruins, to each other at three cardinal points, precisely opposed it seems extremely probable, that they were three of the gates

contrary

top

great

walk, to the interior of the temple, vas a colonnade, the pillars of which were above 40 feet high, and eight in diameter, with vase-like capitals and square stones, like pedestal*, on the At the farther end of these pillars, are two tops, for statues. colossal statues of red granite, on pedestals, four feet wide, and six feet long ; the pilasters behind the statues are adorned with hieroglyphics. Beyond this, which was probably the ante, is the inner temple, in which are 1C rows of pillars and 18 the other. Every part of this temple is one

belonging to the ancient city." " ad Dionys. (I) Eustath. (u) Diod. Sicul. (v) Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 1170.
(w)

lib.

iii.

p. 43.

way, adorned, within and without, with hieroglyphics. On each side of the grand entrance into the temple, are t\u> obelisks; and farther to the east, two others, all of red granite. At the eastern extremity, is a small granite room, with an apartment on each side of it. This is supposed to be the place allotted to the noble virgin, who was annually consecrated to the There are likewise other apartments on each side of
deity.

temple there were eight principal entrances to three of which were vestibules of considerable length, with sphinxes, two of them having no less than sixty statins on rach side. To one of the entrances were four grand gateways, leading to the temple, about 35 feet deep, 150 in length, and, before the ground was raised as it is by the accumulation of sand and earth, brought by the inundations of the river, they must have been from 50 to (JO feet in height. At one end is an entrance to them, and a flight of stairs that leads up to the opening over the middle door, these buildings being From this part, another flight of steps open in the centre. leads up to the middle of the other side of the building, and
this
;

To

the temple, which perhaps served for the priests, as well as About 160 feet eastfor the victims intended for sacrifice. ward, is another large building, consisting of several small

lands at the top. Of the four principal gales, the first is of red granite, finely polished, and beautifully adorned with bkroglypfaica on each side of the gate, are colossal
;

apartments on each side of a spacious colonnade, probably intended for the officers of the temple to the north, without the enclosure, are the ruins of buildings, with a grand gate before them, which seems to have led to the temple. The ruins of this temple are to be seen near Carnack; and four miles to the cast of that village, are the remains of another and near it is temple, of which only the grand gate is entire a sphinx, about four feet high.* that they (x) Diodorus Siculus says of these sepulchres, were never exceeded by any thing of the kind there are, he but the Egyptian histories says, 47 of them spoken of in and in his only 17 remained in the days of Ptolemy Lagus,
:

figures,

wiU hieroglyphics uudcr them, about 15

ieet

above ground.

Pocockc'

Travels.

^ H -

c ~ q -

^ ,A
-

SKCT.

I.]

CITIES OF THEBAIS.

3J)3

Haboii] are the two colossal statues of Memnon.(y) Cambyses, in his return from Ethiopia, burned the city, pillaged the temples, and carried off, among other plunder, the celebrated the tomb of Osymandias.(z) golden circle from Thebes never recovered its original Though power and splendour after the devastations committed by the Persians ; it was a considerable place under the Ptolemies, and was besieged for three years by Lathurus, to whom the citizens refused to submit. Being, however, at length taken, the inhabitants were mostly put to death, and the place was abandoned to the licentious fury of the army, which left every where

said to have inscribed his learning, which was afterwards copied and explained by the second These monument*! Hermes, in several books. were remaining in the time of Proclus,(a) or not long before ; though they cannot now be distinguished amid the heaps of ruins.

Apollinopolis Parva, [Kous] formerly powerand for many ages the depot of the commerce of the East. Here are the ruins of a
ful,
j

melancholy traces of its cruelty and avarice. In the age of Augustus, Thebes had again become a place of some consequence but it was plundered and finally destroyed by Cornelius Gallus, whom the emperor had sent into Egypt as praefect, but who pillaged the country, and
;

From this conspired against his benefactor. Thebes has only exhibited the ruins of period, its former magnificence, among which are scatIn certain subtered some miserable villages. terraneous apartments near this city, were the celebrated pillars of Hermes, upon which he is
own
time most of them were destroyed. These sepulchres consisted of grottos excavated in the rock, with long rooms, or galleries, under the mountains. The galleries were, or rather their remains are, about 10 feet wide, and as many in height, four or five within each other, from 30 to 50 feet long,

temple, with a Greek inscription, by Cleopatra and Ptolemy, in honour of Apollo. Coptos, [Kept] on a river of the same name, which ran into the Nile, received its name, as already stated, from the grief here expressed by Isis, on hearing of the death of Osiris ; in token of which she cut off her hair, and was followed But it does not appear that by her priests. stood here at that time ; for Isis was any city then at Caene, though the river obtained the name in commemoration of the transaction, and from it the town was named, when built in some subsequent period. Ptolemy Philadelmade a road from this place to the port phus of Berenice, on the Red Sea, across a barren sandy country, 257 miles in extent, by which

wares and merchandise were transported on

absolutely spoke, when the sun's rays came to its mouth. The two colossal statues above alluded to, one of which is supposed to be the wonderful one in question, are carved out of a very particular kind of hard porous granite. They stand about 30 feet distant from each other. That to the north has been broken off at the middle, and built up with five tier of
Its pedestal is 30 feet long, and 27 broad; the height of the statue, from the bottom of the foot to the top of the knee, is about 29 feet ; from the bottom of the foot to the ankle, two feet and a half; to the top of the instep, four feet. The foot is five feet broad, and the leg four feet deep. From these dimensions, it appears, that the whole statue could not have been much less than 80 feet in height. The

and from 10

to 15 feet high. They generally lead to a spacious room, in which is the tomb of the monarch, with his figure cut in relief on the lid, or painted at full length on the stone the sides and the ceilings of the rooms are sculptured with hieroglyphics, and some of them are painted the latter
: ;

stones.

retaining their freshness, as if newly executed, though at least 3000 years old, on a moderate computation.
(y)

Memnon, king of Abydus,

son of Tithonus and Aurora,

led his troops to the assistance of Priam, and was slain by Achilles before the walls of Troy. He is said to have been the inventor of letters. After his death, his subjects erected

a celebrated statue in honour of his memory, which had the wonderful property of uttering a melodious sound every day at sun-rising, similar to the tone produced by the breaking of the string of a harp, by overwinding it. This was said to be effected by the rays of the sun, when they fell upon it. At the setting of the sun, and in the night, the sound was This statue, which was of a gigantic size, and lugubrious. represented the monarch sitting on his chair of state, was overthrown by Cambyses, when lie laid waste the country. It was afterwards set up again ; and Strabo, who visited the spot in company with Gallus, the Roman pnrfcct, says he heard the sound, though he could not decide whether it proceeded from the base, the statue, or the people about it.* Philostratus has gone so far as to affirm, that the statue
Strabo,
lib.

Besides pedestal of the other is 33 feet long, and 19 wide. these, there are several other ruins of statues, of nearly similar dimensions, which probably served as an avenue to the temple; particularly the remains of two, of black granite; one of which has, by some travellers, been supposed to be the celebrated statue of Memnon, rather than either of those
already described.! (z) Of all the ancient monuments of the kings, for which the city of Thebes was so renowned, those of Osymaudias were the most splendid : consisting of vast courts, porticoes, shrines, temples, a library, his own tomb, and other buildings. The golden ring, above 'alluded to, encircled his tomb, and was 30'5 cubits in circumference, and one cubit thick. It was and shewed the rising and divided the of the

by

days

year,

setting of the stars,

with their aspects, according to the

sect.
i.

Egyptian astrology. J
(a) Proclus.
t

apud Burnet.

cap. 2.
Sicul. lib.
i.

Pococke's Travels.

Diod.

p. 44.

VOL.

I.

3 E

394

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
sea
;]

[CHAP. vr.
higher,

camels, from the Red Sea to the Nile, and thence by that river to Alexandria ; so that Coptos soon eclipsed Apollinopolis, as a geneThe only remains of this city, which ral mart.

and

still

was the promontory of

Drepannm,

[Ras-Zqt'nuu'.\

was destroyed by Diocletian, are some square

of red granite; pillars, with broken entablatures, a small temple almost destroyed ; a large bason, and two bridges over the canal, that conveyed the water from the river into the bason. On the road from Coptos to Berenice, Ptolemy constructed stations, furnished with wells and cisterns, for the refreshment of travellers, called
in addition to
lodite,

Returning to the Nile, we find, above Coptos, on the west of the river, the city of Tentyra, Dcitde.ra] whose inhabitants were remarkable
!

Hydria and Hydreumaltt, i. e. Watering-places; which general appellation, each had a particular name, as Jupiter, Apollo, Trog&c.

North of Berenice, on the Red Sea, was Albus Portus, at the distance of 1800 stadia, according to Arrian; above that was Myos-Hormos, (that is, the Port of the Mouse) or Aphrodites,

enmity to crocodiles, and their skill in ensnaring and destroying them. They also waged war with the worshippers of those animals, particularly with the people of Ombos.(b) The ruins of Tentyra are to be seen at [Awara] about a mile from the river Hermenthis, It stood in the midst of a larg[Erment.] plain, and seems to have been between three and four miles in circuit.(c) Caene, Caenopolis, or Neapolis, [perhaps. Kena] about a mile from the river Coptos, where Isis received the news of Osiris's death, as before related. It was a small but very ancient place, and is mentioned by Herodotus
for their

and Ptolemy.
Uiospolis Parva,

by the Greeks to as having risen from the foam of the Venus,

(b) At Rome, the Tentvrites were employed to take the crocodiles, with nets, out of the ponds, where they were kept as curiosities, and shew them to the people; which they did, Hence some of the without receiving the least injury.

name analogous

[Siifung-e-al-Jiahri, to that given

i.

e.

Sea Sponge, a

[How] where
i.

Jupiter
its

v\;t>

worshipped. Abydus,(d) [Madfune,

e.

buried in

own

ancients supposed them to possess au occult ascendancy over that animal ; but Seneca, more justly, attributes their safety to their temerity in facing and attacking so dangerous an enemy while others, with more prudence, placed all their
;

safety in flight.

Among the antiquities of this ancient city, are found of a temple, or palace, of surprising height and dimenpart The back part of this structure consists of an immense sions. wall, without apertures, built of large stones of greyish granite; and covered with basso-relievos, larger than the life, of the Egyptian idols, with their respective attributes. Two lions, of while marble, as large as horses, stand with above half the length of their bodies out of the wall. The side of this edifice,
(c)

which

is above 300 paces in length, is also filled with similar sculptures, and has three lions jutting out, as large as the In the midst of the front, is a porch, sustained by former. of prodigious size on each side of this porch, pilasters square
;

heads on two large wings extended on each side. Though more than half buried in the ruins, the height of the columns may be, in some measure, judged of by their circumference, according to which, they should be at least 44 or 45 feet high ; or 120, including the base and capital. The porch leads into a large square hall, in which are three door-ways, opening these lead still into others, also into different apartments supported by a great many fine columns, but dark, and full of rubbish. At some distance from the front, is a large arch, of a beautiful order of architecture, about 40 feet high, where seems to have been the first gate. The ruins of this edifice have formed a kind of mountain on one side, on which the Arabs formerly built a large town, whose ruins are still visible. The tradition of the country is, that this was a temple of that it had as many windows as there are days in Serapis and that they were so disposed, that, each answerthe year ing to one degree of the ecliptic, the sun every day saluted the deity who resided there, through them, in order, one after
;

the other.*
(d) This city had a celebrated oracle of the god Besa, which was either consulted viva voce, or by writing; but as the absentees did not always take the precaution to get back
their written questions, along with the responses, some of them fell into the hands of the emperor Constantius, who

runs an extensive piazza, supported by three rows of columns, one of which could scarcely be fathomed by eight men, and covered with a flat roof, consisting of stones six or seven feet This appears to have broad, and of an extraordinary length. The columns, composed of vast been formerly painted. blocks of granite, and covered with hieroglyphics in relief,

imagined that he perceived

to the welfare of the state.

have each, on

women's

appearing

cornice, a capital, representing four heads, with their head-dreses, set back to back, and like tin' fiico of a double. Janus. These heads are
I

heir

punish those

whom

sentiments inimical therefore sent one Paul, to he should judge to be disaffected. This

among them

He

in suitable proportion to the

magnitude of the pillars, and are surmounted by an abacus, or square table of stone, over each in height, and somewhat pillar, above six feet longer than Around the pia/za, broad, on which the roof is supported. runs u cornice of singular construction and in the centre, over the porch, are two monstrous serpents, resting their
;

his power, laid a thousand snares to entangle the unwary; and even made it criminal to wear certain superstitious amulets, or to pass the night near a sepulchre, &-c. so that the devotees were at length constrained to abandon their oracle, aud it fell gradually into

man, intoxicated with

oblivion.
* Sicard.
p. 133,

Mem,

ties

Minion;, tome

ii-

p.

158.

Lucas. Vfyagcs, tome

ii.

tetf.

SECT.

I.]

CITIES

OF

TIIEBAIS.

OASES.

ruins] the residence of

Menmon, and once

second

city of the Thebais.

the In Strabo's time,

it was only a village, but still remarkable for the ruins of Memnon's magnificent palace. Strabo mentions a fountain at this place, to which the descent was through a series of caverns, the stones being of a remarkable size and structure ; also a grove, called Acanthus, sacred to Apollo. Dr. Pococke supposes it to have stood about three miles west of the river, where the village of [El-Serbi] now is. Ptolema'is-Hermii, [Menshia] formerly a city of considerable note, in the norae of This, or

ship of wolves, because, says Diodorus,(g) they drove back the ./Ethiopians, when they invaded Egypt, and pursued them as far as the city of Elephantine, on the borders of their own Some writers have supposed this country. have stood where the present town of city to

[Monfaluf] is built. Hieracon, or Hieraconpolis, i. e. the city of hawks, [Pesicon] where the hawk was worshipped, and
its altars.

human

sacrifices

were offered on

Cusa [Cussie] the most northerly of the cities of the Thebai's, of which nothing remarkable
known. Having thus noticed all the cities and towns of any consequence in Thebais, it will be proper to pay some attention to the Oases, which
is

Thinis,
to

is

said,

by Strabo,

to

Memphis.

The site of the

have been equal city of This, once

the capital of a kingdom, is unknown. Panopolis, or Chemmis, or Cheramis, [Ekmim, or Akraim.] It had the first of these names from Pan, who is said to have attended Osiris in his expedition against the Ethiopians ; and therefore was worshipped, says Diodorus, in

writers include in the divisions of Egypt, though in reality they were situate in the

many

Libyan Desert.
OASES. The name of Oases was given to certain portions of fertile land, rising amid the vast desert, where they appear like islands in an

According to that Egypt. every temple Pauopolis and Cheramis were the writer,(e) same city, the former being its Grecian, the latter its Egyptian name; but Herodotus(f) This city was forseems to distinguish them. merly the residence of sculptors, statuaries, and manufacturers of flax. It was the birth-place of Danaiis, as also of Lynceus, one of the fifty sons of JEgyptus, whose adventures are well known in Grecian fable. Here was likewise a temple dedicated to Perseus, who discovered his parentage at Chemmis, after the adventure of the Gorgons in Libya.
in

ocean of burning sand. They were well watered by springs, and covered with perpetual verdure, while the country round about presented nothing but an arid waste. Of these spots there were three principal ; Oasis Magna,
Oasis Parva, and Oasis Ammoniacus. Oasis Magna, or the Greater Oasis, called by the Greeks the Island of the Blessed, [El-Ouah,
or El-Wali\
is

situated nearly

in

the

same

devotion of

Crocodilopolis, [Atrib6,] celebrated for the its inhabitants to the animal whose
it

name

were involved of Tentyra.

bore; in consequence of which they in frequent wars with the people

Antaeopolis, of

which no remains are extant.

This city

Aphroditopolis Parva, [Itfu] sacred to Venus. is omitted by Ptolemy, but mentioned

others.

by

Hypsele,

Abotes
the

of [Sciot/i] three leagues N. \_Abnti<f] and four from Selinon, [_Siliii\ latter on the east side of the Nile.

W.

parallel with Abydus, 60 leagues N. W. or, according to Herodotus, seven days' journey from Thebes. It was well watered, abundant in wine and dates, and covered with palms of its fields were fertile, never-fading verdure and nothing was wanting but society to render life comfortable. But on account of its diffiof access, it was, in the decline of the culty Roman empire, made a place of exile; and such were the dangers of the journey, on account of the moving sands, the want of a certain track, the wild beasts and venomous reptiles, that of those who were banished
:

thither,

Lycopolis, or Lycus, i. e. the city of wolves, [Siut, or Osyut] was remarkable for the wor-

few had the happiness to arrive there, but perished miserably on the way.(h) Oasis Parva was situate in the vicinity of the

(e) (f)

Diod. Sicul. lib. i. cap. 18. Herod, lib. xi. cap. 91.
Lib.
i.

the city of Oasis.

;

(g)

cap. 88.
(lib.
iii.

(h)

Herodotus

cap. 26.) says, the Samians, of the

invaded Egypt, and planted a colony in This is the first exploit recorded of those people but we are quite in the dark as to its time aud circumstances.

^schrionian

tribe,

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
It was but lake Moeris, in the Heptanomis. little known. Two villages, [El-Kasr, and El-

[CHAP. vr.

some suppose

Hindan] are supposed to occupy its site though it to have been where [Giob:

MaiiaV] now stands. Oasis Ammoniacus, [Sant Rieh(\)\ 12 days' journey, or about 150 leagues, N. W. from Thebes, was situate in the country of Marmarica, though Pliny, in enumerating the nomes of Egypt, reckons the Nomos Ammoniacus. It was, as already stated, celebrated for its temple dedicated to Jupiter Aminon, and more
particularly for the oracles there delivered ; to consult which, the superstitious of all countries braved the dangers of the desert, and frequently perished on their way. Diodorus(j) says that

square, (1) Herodotus affirms them to have been originally a colony of Egyptians and Ethiopians; and says that they spoke a language composed of words taken from both those nations. (in) Cambyses, when in Egypt, sent a vast army from Thebes, to pillage the temple of Ammon, which reached the Oasis Magna, but perished in the sands about midway between that place

and Ammoniacus.
set out

Alexander, more fortunate, from Memphis to consult the oracle, reached it in safety, and returned as will more
;

the district where this temple stood, though surrounded with deserts, was watered by dews

nowhere else in all that country. It was agreeably adorned with fruitful trees and In the midst stood springs, and full of villages. with a triple wall; the citadel, encompassed the first or innermost of which contained the
that
fell

palace of the ancient kings of Ammonia, the temple, and the sacred fountain for lustrations ; the second wall encompassed the apartments for the women and children ; and within the third were lodged the household troops. Without the citadel, at a small distance, was another temple, shaded by tall trees ; near which was a " the fountain of the spring, called Fans Solis, sun," because it was subject to extraordinary changes, according to the time of the day being wann in the morning and evening, cold at noon, so as even to have ice upon its surface; and extremely hot at midnight. species of fossil salt was said to be naturally produced here, being dug out of the earth,
;

We now return to so called, and entering the Egypt, properly Heptanomis, [ Vostani] from Theba'is, the first place we meet with is Antinoe, [Eneea^(o)] founded by the emperor Adrian on the followThat prince having made a ing occasion. voyage to Besa, a town on the right bank of the Nile, anciently consecrated to a deity of the same name, superstitiously conceived that he must offer a human sacrifice in order to proThis desire he communicated long his days. to his favourite Antinous, who immediately offered himself for the purpose, was accepted-,
THE HEPTANOMIS.
To hide this abominable barthe emperor gave out that Antinous hud barity, been accidentally drowned in the Nile; publicly
and immolated.
bewailed his loss
;

fully

appear

in the

proper place.

and

to

do honour

to his

me-

mory, enlarged the town of Besa, raised it to the condition of a city, and changed its name to Antinoe ; where a temple was afterwards erected and dedicated to the deceased favourite, and the empire was crowded with his statues.
Hermopolis, [Ashmunein(o)] called also Hermopolis Magna, the great city of Mercury, to distinguish it from another city of the same, name, in the Delta, was celebrated for bring the place whither the ibis(p) were sent to be

sometimes as much as three fingers in length, and transparent as crystal. It was used by the
Egyptians in their pure than ordinary
sacrifices,
salt,

embalmed.
Cynopolis, or City of Dogs, opposite to Co, [Samalut] was dedicated to Anubis, son of Osiris, worshipped under the emblem of a dog, or rather of a man with a dog's head.
According to a current tradition in Ihe country, this is derived from Ishman, son of Mizraim. (p) These birds were held so sacred, that to kill one, even inadvertently, was to incur the penalty of death. They were
(o)

more and was even deemed

as being

a present worthy of kings.(k) As to the inhabitants of this district, which was 50 stadia
(i)

Abu'l Feda

calls this district,

or nome, Al-Vach.

(j) Lib. xvii.

Arabic name

(k)

The sal-ammoniac,

or muriate of ammonia, of modern

-chemistry, is an imitation in name, or quality, of this celebrated mineral.

(1)

Died. Sicul.
lib.

lib. xvii.
ii.

(m) Herod,
there,

(n) Called also

useful in destroying serpents. Josephus relates, that Moses, when going upon the Ethiopian expedition, already alluded and to, took with him a vast number of these birds in cages when he arrived in the country where the serpents abounded,
;

which

is

much

Shek-Abadf, on account of a burying-place

revered.

he
his

let

them

men was

out, and they destroved them, so that not one of bitten by them.

SECT.

I.]

CITIES

OF MIDDLE AND LOWER EGYPT.

307

Oxyrynchus, [Behnese, or Abu-Girge] where a fish of the same name, honoured all over
Egypt, was particularly worshipped. Heracleopolis Magna, or the City of Hercules, on an island, called by Strabo, the Great Island, formed by the main stream of the Nile and a canal, which is frequently attributed to Joseph but which, from the description of Herodotus and Diodorus, seems to have been lake Moeris though that name is applied tije
; ;

other materials in the construction of AlexanThis city is sometimes placed in the dria.

Meptanomis, was on the Acanthus, had a temple

it

and sometimes in Lower Egypt:

borders of both. a little northward of Memphis, dedicated to Osiris, and a grove

inbre generally, and particularly by Strabo, to an extensive lake into which this canal, and another to the west of it, empty themselves. Here the ichneumon, or Egyptian rat, the mortal

enemy of the

crocodile,

was worshipped.

Arsinoe, [Faiume] originally called Crocothe lake Moeris of Strabo dilopolis, south of and Ptolemy, where the sacred crocodile was Four leagues It is now a heap of ruins. kept. S. E. of this city was the Labyrinthus-MendisRegis [Haiiara] or Labyrinth of the Kings, of which some particulars will be found in a sub-

of the Thebaic acantha, from which the city derived its name. now come to LOWER EGYPT, [Bakri, or and the Delta, where being unable as Rif] hitherto to follow the course of the Nile, on account of its various ramifications, we shall begin on the west, and proceed in a lateral direction across the country. In the Mareotic nome, called Mareotis, from the lake Marea, or Mareotis, [Birk-Mariou] we find the following places mentioned by ancient writers Plinthine, Monocomium, or

We

Monocaminum,

Cobii,

Almyrae,

Hierax, Ta-

posiris [Abousir,]

sequent page. Aphroditopolis Magna, or the City of Venus, divine honours were paid to \Aifieli\ where Venus under the form of white cow. stood Nilopolis, of which no vestiges remain, of the island, between on the north extremity the Nile and Joseph's Canal, at an equal distance from both whence Ptolemy calls it an interamnian town. Memphis, supposed to have been built by Menes, the first king of Egypt, though it is sometimes attributed to Uchoreus, was for many ages the metropolis of the whole kingdom. (q) Strabo and Pliny place it 15 miles S. of the Delta, but there are not the least remains now to be seen of it, so that its site cannot be even
;

Phomotis, Marea [Marion,] Apis, Paraetonium, Antiphra, Paeonia, and Mareotis [Si-wa/t ;] but there is nothing relating to them worthy of notice.

Between the lake Marea and the Canopic branch of the Nile, stood the renowned city of Alexandria, built by Alexander the Great, on the site of the ancient Rhacotis after whose death the Ptolemies chose it for their residence,
;

it became the metropolis of Egypt. It was built, say the ancients, in the form of a Macedonian cloak, and occupied an extent of 15 miles. The royal palace, which was a fifth part of the city, stood by the sea, in a

so that

pleasant situation ; and, besides the apartments of the princes, contained the museum, the library, and the depository of the dead bodies of the kings. Here the remains of the

place called [Mesr] under the guessed Arabian califate, was supposed to occupy the
at.

There were is mere conjecture. magnificent temples at Memphis ; among the rest, one consecrated to Apis, who was there worshipped under the shape of an ox,
spot
;

but this

founder were at first laid in a coffin of gold, which was afterwards exchanged for one of glass. (r) On the shore, where the ancient palace stood, are still to be seen considerable remains
of stately buildings, with several pieces of porIn the days of phyry, and other fine marbles. Augustus, this city was reckoned next to Rome, for the grandeur, magnificence, and number of its buildings ; yet very few remains of them are to be seen, the materials having been transported to other places, and many of them employed in erecting the modern city.(s)
In this city, literature has twice had to deplore irreThe Ptolemies were, for the most part, encouragers of science and learning, and had collected a
(s)

many

kept and fed at this place. Not far from Memas will be phis, stood the great pyramids,
:

noticed in the proper place. Cambyses pillaged and Alexthis city, and killed the sacred ox ander is supposed to have used the stones and
(q)

The Thebais, which seems

to claim a prior antiquity,

being originally reckoned as part of ^Ethiopia. in which this (r) The stone envelope, or sarcophagus, coffin was laid, is supposed to be now in the British Museum.

trievable losses.

library,

amounting to upwards of 700,000 volumes.

This

398

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
this
city

[CHAP. vi.

island of Pharos, when- stood the celebrated lighthouse, from which ail others have received their name.(t) Tlii.s island, extending east and west in a bay about three leagues wide, formed the two ports

Near

was the

At a

island called Antirrhodes

small distance from the shore was an but it has long ago ;

of Alexandria; the port Eunostus [the Old the Great Port [the New Port] to the west, and Port] to the east. In the time of the Ptolemies, this island was joined to the continent by a mole and a bridge. The sea has now gained on the west side, where are seen, under water, the remains of cisterns cut in the rocks. The tower of Pharos was built by Ptolemy Soter, the son of Lagus, and was reckoned among the It was a square seven wonders of the world. of white marble, on the top of which structure fires were kept constantly burning for the direcThe It cost 800 talents. (u) tion of sailors. architect employed by Ptolemy in this work was Sostratus of Cnidos, who by a crafty device endeavoured to usurp the whole glory of
it

ceased to exist, having been entirely destroyed by the encroachments of the sea. About three miles and a quarter from Alexandria, stood the city of Nicopolis, [Kasr-Kiassera,
its
i.

e.

the Castle of the Ccesars]

which had

the victory obtained by Augustus over Antony, and was greatly embellished by the conqueror. Near this city was Eletisis, where the celebrated interview took place between the Roman Popilius Laenas and Antiochus Epiphanes, when that proud monarch was obliged to submit to the republic. Canopus, [Abaukir, or El Bekiet-] is placed by Strabo on the sea-side, about 120 stadia from Alexandria. It is said to have been built by the Spartans, on their return from the Trojan

name from

to himself.(v)

The

of this tower are much disputed. (w) been demolished many ages since.
immense
collection
in

height and dimensions It has

war, and to have had its name from Canopus, the pilot of Menelaus, who died and was buried It was a place of infamy, on account here.(x) of the dissolute lives of the inhabitants. Serapis was worshipped here, under the figure of a huge vase with a human head and a large belly.(y)
marble, and then filling up the hollow with plaster, painted it the above-mentioned In process of time, inscription. the plaster, with Ptolemy's name, wore off, and then the " Sostratus the Cnidian, the son following words appeared : of Dexiphanes, to the Gods the Saviours," &c. This being engraved in the marble, lasted as long as the tower itself. (w) Nicholas Lloyd, from a manuscript copy of the Greek scholiast on Lucian, says it was a square structure of a furlong, or 600 feet, on each side and so high, that it could be seen at the distance of 100 miles. Eben Adris, an Arabic writer, while Josephus, who say.s it was 300 cubits, or 450 feet high : describes the tower of Phaselus, at Jerusalem, as being 40 cubits, or 60 feet square, and 90 cubits, or 135 feet in height, adds, tha.t it was like the tower of Pharos at Alexandria, Neither of thi-sc though much larger in circumference. the two former seem accounts can be deemed satisfactory to overrate the matter and if Josephus's estimate be accurate, how did it happen that the tower of Phaselus was so little
; :
;

was deposited in two different quarters of the quarter called Bruchion, were 400,000 the city: volumes, and the remainder in the Serapium. When Julius
Caesar was besieged in Alexandria, he set fire to 50 galleys and these drifting towards the quarter of Bruchion, consumed part of the palace, with the library and its contents. The Serapium remained untouched; and there Cleopatra to her by Marc deposited the 200,000 volumes presented from the library of Pergamus. These, with others Antony, added from time to time, rendered the new library at Alexandria more numerous and considerable than the former, and subsisted till A. D. (342, when the city was taken by the Saracens, and the books burnt by order of the calif Omar. John the Grammarian, a celebrated peripatetic philosopher, being in favour with Amrou, the Saracen general, interceded to have the library spared, and Amrou wrote to the calif to know his pleasure: but the answer was, " If those books contain the same doctrine as the Koran, they are useless, the Koran itself containing all necessary knowledge ; but if they
in the port,

on

contain any thing contrary to its precepts, they ought on no account to be preserved." They were, therefore, distributed among the public baths, where, for the space of six months, they served to supply the fires of those places, of which there was an incredible number in Alexandria. this island as far distant from the (t) Homer* supposed continent, as a ship could sail with a fair wind in a day ; but he was mistaken, the distance not exceeding 900 paces. the amount was somewhat (u) If these were Attic talents, more than 165,000 sterling; but if Alexandrian, double that

noticed, while that of Pharos, less in its dimensions, was reckoned among the wonders of the world ?
(x) Such is the Grecian account ; but it may be justly questioned, whether Menelaus, or his pilot, were ever near this

or if they were, whether Menelaus, a foreign prince, would, or could, have built a city in the dominions of the king of Egypt. The fact is, that the word Canopus, or Canobus, is Egyptian, and signifies golden soil, or land . a name given to it, in all probability, on account of its delightful situation, and the magnificence of its temples. order of (y) When Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, by
place
;

sum.
(v)

He had

been ordered to engrave on

"
it,

King Ptolemy

to the Gods the Saviours; for the Benefit of Sailors:" but instead of " King Ptolemy," he cut his own name in the
Odyis.

A,

ycr. 354.

the emperor Theodosius, destroyed the temple of this idol, and was about to overthrow Serapis himself, the people expected that so impious a deed would be followed by nothing less than the dissolution of the universal frame of nature: but what was their surprise, when the head was knocked off, to behold a swarm of rats issue from the hollow

^N

SECT,

i.]

CITIES

OF LOWER EGYPT. THE NILE. THE DELTA.

moon! The Nile enters Egypt almost under the tropic of Cancer, pouring down its waters by seven cataracts ;(a) and having passed through the Theba'is and Heptanomis, divides itself a little below (i. e. to the north of) Memin Ilia

On the narrow tract between the sea and the canal that runs from Alexandria to Canopus, were Zephyrium, Taposiris Pan a, and Thonis, Supposed to have been so called from a king of that name, who received Menelaus and Helena, on their return from Troy.(z) South of Canopus. and still on the west side of the Canopic branch, were Schadia, Hermopolis Parva, [Demen/tur ;] Gyna>copolis. the city of women [Seiamun ;] Andropolis, the city of men [SAabur;] Anthylla, the city of Latona ; Nitria, situate in a desert, in the vicinity of some natron lakes, in a country called by Ptolemy Scithiaca ; Scete, [As/tit;] and Terenuthis, [Teranti\ where the nitre (called natron by the country people) collected in the lakes, was embarked on the Nile. Carcasnra, Cercesura, or Cercasorum, [Ek-Sas\ stood on the west bank of the Nile, just at the point of the division of its streams into the two principal branches ; and a little to the north of it was a town called Latopolis, of which nothing is known beyond the name. THE DELTA. As the Delta, to which we are now come, is comprised within the branches of the Nile, a short account of that river will form an advantageous introduction to the topography of the province. THE NILE. The sources of the Nile were so utterly unknown to the ancients, that they deemed it impossible to discover them this
:

phis, at the city of Carcasnra, into

two large

arms, which afterwards forming seven channels, emptied themselves into the sea by as many mouths. These seven mouths,(b) much spokeu of by the ancient writers, were, reckoning from the west, Ostium Canopicum, sometimes called the Heracleotic, [Mautlic,] Ostium Bolbitimun,

Ostium Sebennyticum, Ostium Phatniticum, or Pathmeticum, Ostium Mendesium, \Dibe, or Pescltiera,} Ostium Taniticum, or Saiticuni, [Eiimme-Faregge,'] and Ostium Pelusiacum. Besides these, there were the two Pseudostomata, or False Mouths, of Pineptimi and Dioclos, so called because they were too small to admit of large vessels. Some accomit of
the annual overflowing of the Nile will be found under the head of Natural History. CITIES IN THE DELTA. Metelis, \_Missil, or Foua\ on the Canopic branch, called Bechis iu the time of Stephanus. Naucratis, said to have been built by the Milesians, stood somewhat south of the place where the great channel divides itself into the Canopic and Bolbitine branches. Sa'is, [Sd] once the metropolis(c) of Lower Egypt, had a celebrated temple of Minerva, before which was placed a room, or chapej, cut out of a single block of granite, measuring, on the outside, twenty-one cubits long, fourteen

difficulty by travellers, and the springs of this celebrated river are ascertained to be in ./Ethiopia, where, indeed, the ancients, amid their conjec-

has,

however,

been

removed

modern

had they been less addicted to the marvellous, might have more rationally, if not truly, have placed them, than where many of them did,
tures,

broad, and eight high within, above eighteen cubits long, twelve broad, and five high. Two
;

thousand men were three years employed in bringing this wonderful chamber down the Nile

The bay vase, where they had long concealed their nests ! of Canopus, better known by the name of Aboukir, has been rendered memorable in modern times, by the destruction of
the French fleet by the British Admiral,
first

so as to keep
this

In it parallel with the course of the stream. manner, they would rush headlong down the fall, to the

Lord Nelson, on the

and

of August, 17!).
lib. xvii. p.

Strabo, Proteus.
(z)

5aO.

He

is

also called Cetes

(a) The people of these parts used to entertain strangers with a surprising spectacle of dextrous temerity, which is said to be still practised by their descendants two of Iliem would get into a small boat, one to guide it, the other to keep it clear of water; after suffering themselves to be for some time driven about by the agitated waves, they steered the vessel through the narrow channels between the rocks, and suffered themselves to be hurried down the watery precipice by the
:

if unaccustomed to the be dashed to jiieces, or swallowed up by the waters, when, on a sudden, they would reappear at a good distance from the spot whence they fell, as if they had been shot from a powerful engine.' (b) These seven mouths are now reduced to two principal ones, that of Rosttta, or Rashid, the ancientOstium Bolbitiuuin, and that of Damietta, or Dlmydt, the ancient CMiumPhatnicuni: the rest are choked up with sand, and the waters of the river rind their way to the sea through upwards of thirty small channels, during the inundation, most of which become dry

great terror of the spectators, who,

sight,

would conclude them

to

when

the waters abate.

(c) Strabo, lib. xvii. p.

Srnec.

552.
Qtuat.
lib.

torrent, directing,

however, their

little

vessel with their hands,

JVrt.

i. cap.

5.

400

HISTORY OF EGYPT.

[CHAP. vi.

from Elephantine.(d) Near Sai's was the asylum of Osiris, where he was supposed to have been buried Isis having deposited several
:

coffins in different places, to prevent from finding his body.

Typhon
little

On the Tanitic branch was Tanis, [San] which some geographers place on a small island at the mouth of that branch. It is supposed to be as ancient as Nineveh, and has been considered
as

the

residence

of

the

first

sove-

for the oracle of Latona, as well as for the temples of that goddess, and of Apollo and Diana. Between the Sebennytic channel and the
first false

North of Sai's more to the north Butos, celebrated

stood Cabasa; and a

reigns.^)

Between the Tanitic and Pelusiac branches, was the city of Sethrium, Sethrum, or HeraThese are the chief cleopolis Parva [SethronJ]
cities

of the

Delta,

mentioned

by ancient

mouth Pineptemi, were Pachnamunis,

writers.

\Tekebi] Hermopolis, Sebennytus, [Semeimurl] Tava or Taua, [Taua] and Thermuthis. From the city of Sebennytus, the Sebennytic Channel

EAST OF THE DELTA where Egypt was bounded by Arabia Petrsea and Palestinewere several cities of considerable notoriety ; of which the most remarkable were the following
:

took

its

name.

Between the channel Pineptimi and the Phatnic branch, were Zois, or Xois, on a small island of the same name; Onuphis, [Uannb] Cynopolis, where the dog was an object of adoration; Athribis; \_Atrib] and nearer the lastnamed channel, Thmuis, [Tma'ie\ where divine honours were given to the goat; Aphroditopolis, Leontopolis, [Tel-Essabe, i. e. Hill of the Lion}

Bubastis, or Btibastus, called Phi-beseth in Scripture,(f) [Basta(g)] on the most easterly branch of the Nile; which, from this city, was called the Bubastic river. Here was a magnificent temple,

dedicated to Diana, who, in

from Osiris, whom some accounts state to have been here buried in a wooden ox. However this may be, it certainly contained one of the
largest temples that ever was dedicated to Isis. This city was destroyed by Diocletian, on account of a revolt of its inhabitants.

whose inhabitants worshipped the lion; and Busiris [usir.~\ In the last-named city, the tyrant Busiris, supposed to have been killed by Hercules, is said to have reigned ; but Strabo insists that no such prince ever ruled in Egypt, and the name is rather thought to be derived

the Egyptian language, was called Bubastis. The inhabitants paid divine honours to cats; and when any of those animals died, they were

embalmed, and honoured with a sumptuous

funeral.
all

At the annual

feast of

Diana, almost

Egypt

repaired to Bubastis

by water. Diirin-

Mendes [Ashmun-Tanah] gave name to the Mendesian mouth of the Nile, on which it stood, and was so called, on account of the divine honours paid there to the goat. At some distance from it, on the sea-side, was the city
of Tarichea.

the voyage, nothing was seen or heard but mirth and revelry ; the men played on the flute; of the women, some beat time with castanets, others clapped their hands, while the rest On danced and .shewed themselves naked. passing a city, they approached the shore, and railed against the inhabitants with loud outcries, particularly of the women against those of their own sex. On these occasions, not less

than 700,000 persons met at Bubastis, to celebrate the festival.

Five leagues south of Bubastis, was Pharbaethus [SclbeisJ] Phacttsa, or Phaccusa, stood on the east bank of the Bubastic channel, north of Bu-

Between the Mendesian and Tanitic branches,

a small distance from the former, stood Pauapliysis and Diospolis, which some writers suppose to be the same place. [Manzalf] now stands about their former site.
at
It is (d) Herodotus, lib. ii. tap. 173. supposed to have been cut out of one of the islands of the Nile, near Elephan-

At this place, began the Canal of the which united the Pelusiac branch, or Kings, Bubastic branch, with the Red Sea. This work was commenced by Sesostris, or, as some
bastis.
in the angle formed by the two principal branches of the Nile.t (f) Ezeh. xxx. 17. Dr. Pococke supposes it to have stood (g) So D'Anville Dr. J. Blair places near the present village of Benalhasxar. it at Pibeset, within the cut called Sesostris' Canal.

Goshen,

tine, \vliereare
(e)

many

quarries.

has likewise beon mentioned as (he Zoan of the Scriptures;* but Mr. Bryant, who lias taken great pains to hew the fallacy of this notion, places Zoan and the Land of
It

Kumb.

ilii.

22.

fsalm Uxviii. 12.

Isaiah,

U. 11, 13.

Etek, xxx. 14.

Uythohgy,

vol. vi. passim.

SECT.

I.]

CITIES OF

LOWER EGYPT.
to

401

by Necho, carried on by his successors, and finished by Ptolemy Philadelphia. (h) South of Bubastis, and on the same river, on an eminence, called Views Judaeoruni, \Telel-Jvdieh, i. e. the hill of the Jews,] was the city
say,

of Onias, so called from the Jewish priest of that name, who obtained leave of Ptolemy Philadelphia to build a temple there, in opposition to that at Jerusalem. Still more to the southward was a city, called On, in the days of the Pharaohs, and Heliopolis, under the Greeks, both words signifying the City of the Sun, [Ain-S/icins, i. e. Fountain of

where that luminary was worshipped a magnificent temple ; as was likewise the This city was supposed by the bull Mnevis. ancients to be founded by Actis, son of Rhoda little to the north and Helios, or the Sun.
the Sun]
in

was Phagroriopolis.
worthy of notice on the cast was BabyOld Cairo.] Uiodorus says it was built by some captives from the Chaldaean Babylon, who having escaped from their masters, fled to a hill, whence they made frequent excursions, and plundered the country; but having at length obtained their pardon, and the gift of the hill itself for their habitation, they built a city on it, which they called after the name of their native of a canal between this place.(i) Ptolemy speaks and the Red Sea, which he calls the Canal city

The

last city

Nile, in Lower Egypt, lon, [Baboul, or Hablion, a canton of

bank of the

All that remains of this canal is a channel, called by the Arabs [Khnlitz] which traverses Cairo, and communicates with a small lake[Birket-cl-Had<>i, or Pilgrims' Lake] about One of the 10 miles eastward of the Nile. three Roman legions that guarded Egypt was stationed at Babylon. Pelusium, \Tineh] the birth-place of the celebrated geographer and astronomer Ptolemy, stood in a marshy soil, about 20 stadia from the sea, on a promontory. Its name originated in its situation, n^o? signifying mud; in which sense it is called by the prophet Ezekiel $'', (k) the Hebrew word for the same mixed element, or rather for its cold damp property.(l) The same prophet calls it the strength of Egypt ; and in effect it was always considered as the key of the country on the side of Canaan ; for whoever was in possession of this town, had an uninterrupted access to Egypt. Between Pelusium and Rhinocorura, or Rhinocolura, [El-Arish(ni)] the first town of Palestine, or the last in Egypt, the following places are spoken of, by Ptolemy, Strabo, and other geographers, as standing on the sea-coast: Ayger-Chabrae, Gerra, or Gerrum, Pentas-

Adrian.

chaenos,

and Ostracine,

\Straki].
exist,

have long since ceased to

and

their

But they names

of Trajan,

who

an Arabian

either made or repaired it: but writer,(j) rather attributes the work

are scarcely remembered. Farther inland, between the west point of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, was Heroopolis, or the City of Heroes ; called also

Patumos by Herodotus, Auaris by Josephus, and Pithom by Moses.(n) It is said to have

Romans, as we learn from Virgil* and Martial. t Indeed, the legumen of Egypt were always excellent and how much they were regretted by the distrustful Israelites, is well known. (m) Memorable as being the first place where the British military had an opportunity of a personal encounter with Buonaparte, and where his proud career first received a check from the gallantry of our countryman, Sir Sydney Smith, A. D. 1800. Mr. Bryant, however, cannot admit that (n) Exod. i. 11. Heroopolis was either the ancient Auaris, Avaris, or Abaris, or the Pithom of holy writ. Abaris was the strong city in which the Shepherd-Kings made their last stand, and whence they were ultimately dislodged by Aiuosis, when the city was For reasons, which the reader will find in the destroyed. sixth volume of his Mythology, I Mr. Bryant places Abaris, which he carefully distinguishes from Auaris, or Avaris, near the spot where Babylon, and subsequently Old Cairo, were afterwards built and Pithom, which lie identifies with Onium.
;
;

(h) This work was frequently interrupted, from an opinion that the waters of the Red Sea were higher than those of the Nile ; in which case the country would have been overflowed,

waters of the Nile would have been spoiled. completed, this canal was 100 cubits in breadth, and of a depth sufficient to bear the largest vessels. At Herooor, at least, the

When

way to the Red Sea, it branched into the lake Amari, i. e. of bitter waters, [Sheib] which was rendered Its sweet bv the introduction of the waters of the Nile. channel is now dry, and nearly filled up with sand.
polis, in its
lib. i. p. 52. Strabo also (lib. xvii. p. 555.) (i) Diod. Sicul. supposes it to have been founded by some Babylonians, who obtained leave of the Egyptian kings to settle here. Josephus (Antiq. lib. ii. cap. 5; says, it was built in the days of Cambyses, king of Persia, on the site of the ancient city of

Latopolis.
(j)
(1)

Quoted by D'Anville.

(k)

Ezek. xxx. 15, 16.

Ammianus Marcellinus, however, (lib. xxii. cap. 40) derives the name of this city from Peleus, the father of The Achilles, who built it, as he says, by order of the gods. lentiles of Pelusium were in great estimation among the

little

to the eastward of

it

Avaris he places at the angle of

the Canopic
Georgic.
lib.

and Sebemiytic channels.

i.

ver. 228.

t Lib. xiii.

Epig.

9.

Paje 341,

et

,<f

j.

VOL.

I.

3F

402

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
built

[CHAP. vr.

been

Israelites during their capticalled [Adgeroute, or Adjercute,} fort, vity. is supposed to occupy the spot on which this city formerly stood.

by the

general, the airis so remarkably dry in the interior of the country, that flesh-meat exposed to it

North of Heroopolis were Daphne, [Safnas] where Sesostris was entertained by his treacherous brother, on his return from his eastern expedition, and narrowly escaped being burnt alive; with Magdolum, Sela, Thaubastum, [Habasc/t] and Serapiu.
the extreme point of .the western branch Red Sea was Arsinoe, or Cleopatris,(o) where the canal of the kings, already [<SVc] spoken of, fell into the Red Sea. This was the eastern limit of Lower Egypt, towards the Dr. Shaw supposes it to be the Etham, south. others the Baal-zephon, of Moses ;(p) but Mr. Bryant believes Etham to have been between the Red Sea and Memphis.

does not putrify, even in summer, but becomes hard and dry like wood.(r) This aridity is, the swelling of the Nile, however, tempered by and the copious night dews that are precipitated from the atmosphere, whither they have been
first

raised
it

by the heat of the day.

In

Lower

On

of the

sometimes rains in winter, and snow Egypt, lias been observed at Alexandria; but this is a rare occurrence. On the coast, this dryness of the air does not prevail on the contrary, the dampness is such that iron cannot be exposed for 24 hours without becoming rusty. This latter effect has been attributed to the saline particles with which the air of that part is
;

The only places remaining to be mentioned, are those spoken of by Moses ; viz. Rameses, Raamses, or Rhameses ; Succoth, Migdol, Baal-zephon, Pi-hahiroth, and the land of Goshen. But as each of these, from the great contrariety of opinions, would require an extensive disquisition, the limits and nature of the present Work forbid them to be meddled with. On the Map, at the head of this Chapter, they
are placed Bryant.(q)

according to Dr.

Shaw and Mr.

impregnated. In Upper Egypt, it scarcely ever rains. Neither are the dews regular throughout the summer, the parched state of the country not affording sufficient vapour till about the 24th of June, when the river has begun to swell. There are two summers: the first, which occupies the months of March, April, and May, is a very unwholesome and sickly season, on account of the excessive heats and parching winds; but in the second, in June, July, and August, during which time the country is inundated by the Nile, as well as in the autumn and winter, the air is much cooler, and the weather more constant so that Egypt becomes one of the most delightful countries in the world.
;

SECTION

II.

CLIMATE. NATURAL HISTORY OF EGYPT. FERWINDS. THE SAMIEL, OR SIMOOM. INUNDATIONS OF THE NILE. TILITY.
GULFS.
LAKES.

SALT LAKES.

SOIL.

MOUNTAINS.
ANIMALS.

VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS.

Earthquakes are rarely known in this country; and the natives are almost strangers to the phenomena of thunder and lightning. WINDS. The periodical return of winds from a certain quarter is a very striking pheno\Vhen the sun apmenon in this country. the tropic of Cancer, they shift from proaches and in June they always blow east to north
;

air and climate of Egypt not only from the height of are extremely hot, the sun, which in summer approaches the /enith, but from the want of rain, and the vicinity of those burning deserts by which it is surrounded on all sides but the north. In

CLIMATE.

The

from the north or north-west: they continue northerly all July, varying sometimes towards the east, sometimes towards the west. About the end of July, and during the whole of August and September, they blow directly from the north, and are but of moderate strength, though

somewhat weaker in the night than in the day. Towards the end of September, they return to
subject,
(r)
is

(o)

Strabo

(lib. xvii. p.

553) seems to indicate Arsinoe and

cities.

referred to the last-named gentleman's Ancient

will meet with full gratification. says, that, in the deserts, dead carcases found thus dried ; in which condition they

Cleopatris as two distinct

(p) (q)

Mythology, where he

Exod.

xiii.

20.

The

reader,

Numb, xxxiii. 68. who is curious to inquire

M. De Volney

farther into this

are frequently become so light, that a person

may

lift

the

body of a camel

with one hand.

SECT.

II.]

CLIMATE. WINDS.

SIMOOM. FERTILITY.
HOT WINDS.
Egypt

403

the east, though they do not absolutely fix On that point, but blow more regularly from it than from any other, the north excepted. As the sun approaches the southern tropic, they become more variable and tempestuous, blowing most commonly from the north, north-east, and west, which they continue to do throughout December, January, and February ; during this season the vapours raised from the Mediterranean are condensed into mists, and sometimes into rain. Towards the end of February, and in March, they blow most from the south. During part of March, and in April, they blow from the south, south-east, and south-west ; sometimes from the north and east; the latter becoming most prevalent about the end of the last-named month, and continuing during the whole of May. To the long continuance of the north winds, formerly called the Etesian,(s) Egypt probably owes its extreme dryness, as well as part of the inundation by which it is
fertilized. From April to July two immense currents seem to strive against each other in the atmosphere, the under one blowing from the north, the upper one from the south. By the former, the vapours are raised from the Mediterranean and the south of Europe, whence they are carried over to Abyssinia, and there fall in vast deluges of rain while, by the latter, the superfluous vapours, or those raised in Abyssinia itself, are driven northward towards the sources of the Euphrates. Here the clouds coining from the south, descend into the lower region of the atmosphere, and dissolving in torrents of rain, produce an inundation of the
:

In addition to these ordinary infested with the destructive blasts common to all hot countries that have extensive sandy deserts in their vicinity. These have been distinguished by various jiames, as poisonous iri>ids, hot winds of the desert, Samicl,
winds,
is

the

wind of Damascus, Kamsin, and Simoom.

In Egypt, they are denominated winds of fifty days, because they most commonly occur during the fifty days preceding and following the equiThey always come from the south, nox.(u) and are attributed to the motion of the atmosphere over the vast tracts of burning sand, where it cannot be supplied with a sufficient quantity of moisture. When they begin to blow, the its usual serenity, assumes a dark, sky, losing heavy, and terrific aspect ; the sun lays aside its

wonted splendour, and becomes

violet

tinted with a This alarming phenomenon is occasioned by the vast quantity of fine sand carried along by these winds, not to any real haze or cloud in the atmosphere and so exces-

hue.

sively

subtile is this sand, that

it

penetrates

every

where.

The motion

of

this

wind

is

always rapid, but its heat, though considerable, is not excessive, till it has continued for some time. Its pernicious qualities are occasioned by its avidity of moisture for it dries up and shrivels the skin in an instant, and if inhaled, produces suffocation and death, by its action on the It usually lasts three days and is lungs. (v)
; ;

continues longer. altogether insupportable The danger is greatest when the wind blows in squalls, and to travellers who happen to be exif it

Euphrates similar to that of the Nile, and immediately succeeding it.(t)

year, a word applied to any quarter, at stated periods. (t) Mr. Bruce, from whom this account is taken, had an opportunity of ascertaining this fact in June, 1768; for, being then on a voyage from Sidon to Alexandria, he observed great numbers of thin white clouds moving rapidly from the south, and in direct opposition to the Etesian winds.
(s)

posed to its fury without shelter.(w) FERTILITY. This country was once called " the Granary of Rome ;" and it still chiefly
The only chance of safety to persons thus r\;vi rd, is throw themselves flat on the ground, the moment the blast appears in the distance, covering their mouth and nostrils with a handkerchief, or to bury the face in the sand. Camels, by a natural instinct, thrust their noses into the sand, and keep them there till the squall is over. Such inhabitants of towns as have an opportunity, shut themselves up in their
(w)
to

winds,

From the Greek tree, a Wowing from whatever

not, however, blow constantly during that but their recurrence is most frequent at that season. Indeed, should they prevail only half that number of dajs, an universal destruction would be the consequence.
(,u)

They do

time

by The danger is greatest to suppression of perspiration. persons of a plethoric habit, or who have been exhausted by
j

(v) Its extreme dryness is such, that water, sprinkled on the floor, during the prevalence of this wind, evaporates in a few seconds all the plants in the district over which it are withered and stripped of their leaves ; and the j) asses, nhabitants are instantaneously affected a fever, from tin;

houses, or retire into pits made in the earth, till the destructive is gone by. Mr. Bruce was more than once overtaken by this wind, in traversing the desert. On one occasion, which was the first, the pillars of moving sand with which it was accompanied, sometimes appeared to move slowly; at other times, with incredible swiftness. Frequently the tops, when they had reached an immense height, so as to be lost in
blast

fatigue..

the clouds, suddenly separated from their bodies, and dispersed themselves in the air and sometimes the whole colunm broke off in the middle, as if separated by a cannon-shot. The size of these flying mountains was such, that, at the distance of about three miles, they appeared to be 10 feet io
;

3F2

404

HISTORY OF EGYPT.

[CHAP, vi.

The excellence of its supplies Constantinople. fruits and other productions is greatly celebrated by ancient writers nor is Moses him;

self

behind them

ini

The most in grain of all kinds> especially rice. fertile parts are the Delta, and the province now called Al Feyytun, or Fiaume, supposed to be the ancient Heracleotic nome.(y)
INUNDATIONS OF THE NILE.

this respect.(x)

It

abounds

dation, and the consequent plenty or scarcity of the ensuing year, the gradual rise of the water was very minutely measured, either by wells sunk, or by pillars, called Nilometers,

erected for that purpose.

former

in

There was one of the Upper Egypt, near Syene and one of

The annual

inundation of the Nile, on which depends the about the .summer fertility of Egypt, begins solstice, and continues to increase till after the

autumnal equinox; when it begins gradually to decline, till about the end of December, by which time, the waters are confined to their
usual channel. If the waters did not reach the height of 16 cubits, or at the least 15, they did not cover the country, and a dearth ensued. (z) The better to judge of the progress of the inunin diameter.

the latter at Memphis. very ancient column, erected for the same purpose, in the days of the emperor Heraclius, is still to be seen in the castle of Old Cairo.(a) The overflowing of the Nile is of such consequence to the country, which without it would quickly become a barren waste, that we shall not wonder at the labour and pains of the Egyptians to commemorate the event, and to keep it in continual remembrance. One of the means adopted for this purpose was the erection of certain monstrous colossal statues, called Sphinxes, having the head of a woman and the
from thriving
in

The

next day, they were of a smaller

size,

but

Egypt.

The merchants are

therefore obliged,

more numerous.

The sun was now obscured by them, and

the transmission of its rays gave them a dreadful aspect, resembling pillars of fire. This was pronounced by the guide to be a certain indication of the approaching Simoom, or
blast
;

and he directed,

that,

on

his giving the signal, all the

company should prostrate themselves, and keep their faces close down in the sand, to avoid the pernicious effects of

On his calling out inhaling the vapour. usual signal on this occasion, they all fell
recommended, but Mr. Bruce turned for quarter whence it came, which was the
appeared
like a haze,
;

"Simoom!"

the

down as he had a moment to the

It south-east. or fog, of a purple colour, but less bright than the purple of the rainbow apparently about 20 It moved with yards in breadth, and four from the earth. such rapidity, that before he could turn about to fall on his

every year, to send to Malta for their garden seeds; for though the plants do very well at first, yet, if their seeds be preserved and sown, they always come up slender, tall, and weak. (z) We are assured by modern travellers, that the river begins to rise in May, but no public notice is taken of it till the 28th or 29th of June, by which time it has attained the height of six or eight pikes, (a Turkish measure of about 26 inches) and then the public crier announces it through the capital and other cities ; which he continues to do daily, each time proclaiming how much it has increased, till it reaches the height of 16 pikes, and then they cut down the dam of the great canal, called Khalij, at Bulak, which passes through the midst of Cairo, whence it is distributed over the lands. If the water increase to the height of 23 or 24

face,

over,

he felt its vehement heat and even after it had passed which was very quickly, the air that followed was so hot and stifling, that it seemed to threaten suffocation. Mr. Bruce
;

paid severely for his curiosity for he unhappily inspired some of the deleterious blast ; by which means lie almost lost his voice, and became subject to an asthmatic affection of the lungs, from which he was not entirely freed for two years In all the three cases which Mr. Bruce obseryed ol after. this phsenomenon, the blight came from the south-east, while the sandy pillars, its precursors, seemed to keep to the westward. The heaps of sand left by the latter, when they fell, or that were raised by the whirlwinds that carried them up, were
;

judged most favourable, but, beyond that, it does not only by overthrowing houses, and cattle, but by engendering a great number of drowning The dam is always opened with much solemnity, in insects. the presence of the basha and his principal officers, attended by a multitude of people; this being one of the greatest
pikes,
it is

much

mischief;

festivals in

In former times, the Egyptians, at this sacrificed a virgin, or, as some say, a boy ceremony, annually and a girl, to the Nile, as a tribute to the river, for the But when the Turks became benefits they derived from it. masters of the country, they put a stop to so inhuman a

Egypt.

practice.
is

12 or 13 feet in

height, exactly conical, tapering to a fine point, with their bases well proportioned. A wind, or blast, of the

above description, is supposed to have been the agent, or messenger of destruction, which cut oft" the Assyrian army,
before the walls of Lachish, in the days of Hezekiah.*

Gen. xiii. 10, the land of Egypt garden of Jehovah."

(x)
(y)

is

compared

to

" the

speaks of a species of gourd, called Kara, which, in 24 hours, will send forth shoots of four inches in length. This he ascribes to the saline properties of the air, already alluded to ; but the same cause prevents exotics
*

M. De Volney

Comp. 2

Kings, xii. 7, 35. Jer.

li,

1.

call it) present Nilometer (or Mikyds, as the Arabs castle, and consists of a large square reservoir, surrounded by a handsome gallery, sustained by 12 marble which form arches ; with a balustrade for the protecpillars, In the midst of this tion of those who look into the water. bason, through which passes a canal, drawn from the Nile, is mi octagonal pillar, of white marble, divided into 22 equal the first of which is subdivided into 24 portions. parts care is taken to During the time of the inundation, great observe the rising of the water upon this standard, and to This work is so exactly proclaim it through the city every day. and accurately levelled, that the water in the reserfinished, voir is neither higher nor lower than that in the river.
(a)

The

in the

same

SECT.

II.]

THE
;

NILE.

RED

SEA.

405

body of a lion indicative of the passage of the sun through the signs of Leo and Virgo during
the time of the increase of the waters. (b) In order to distribute the waters more equally and efficaciously over the lands, the inhabitants have cut a vast number of trenches and canals, from one cud of the country to the other. But as some places lie too high to be watered by these means, recourse is in such cases had to
engines.(c)

The Nile also differs from most other rivers, in that they generally spoil the land which they overflow, by carrying offthe finer particles of earth and leaving only stones ; but, on the contrary,
this river fattens the soil
tity

or on artificial mounds ; the communication, while the country is under water, being carried on by means of causeways or boats. The ancients being ignorant for a long time of the true cause of the inundation of the Nile, which, contrary to other rivers, overflowed its banks in summer, and was lowest in winter, they made several subtle conjectures on the But it has long since been known subject.(e) to be occasioned by the great rains, which falling in Ethiopia, about the springs of the Nile, swell that river into a sea, first lay Ethiopia

by depositing a quanof mud or slime upon it, which makes it

under water, and then proceed down to Egypt. Ptolemy Philadelphus first ascertained this for he sent persons to examine, who were eye;

extremely fruitful, without other manure. (d) The Egyptians have not the laborious task of ploughing, digging, or breaking the clods; but when the river has retired within its accustomed limits, they mingle a little sand with the earth, to correct its rankness, and then they strew their seed, with little pains, and almost without
ordinarily sow in October and and within two months the ground November; is covered with all sorts of grain and pulse The same their harvest is in March and April. of ground yields, in one year, three or piece

charge.

They

witnesses to the fact.(f) The waters of the Nile are so muddy, that they require time to settle, or even filtration, before they are fit for use. During the three months immediately preceding the inundation, they are absolutely putrid, and full of worms. Yet the natives, who have scarcely any other, deem them salubrious and nourishing, and even excite their appetite for drink, at all times pretty keen in so warm a climate, by swallowing salt.(g)

This

river

is

well stocked with fish

its

and the

four different sorts of fruits, produce; first lettuces and corn, and after the harvest, kinds of pulse as are peculiar

or other garden cucumbers, then

melons, and such

to the country.

For security from drowning during the time of the overflow, the cities, towns, and villages, are all built either upon natural rising grounds,
Sphinxes are still to be seen in parone near the pyramids, much spoken of by the ancients, being of prodigious size, and cut into the rock itself;
(b) Several of these
;

horse, waters. GULFS. The Red Sea, or Arabic Gulf, bounds the east side of the Theba'is and Heptamomis. About lat. 28 N. it divides into two branches the eastern, w hich belongs to Arabia, was called the ^Elanitic Gulf, from the city of ^lana, or Eloth, at its northern extremity; the

crocodile

and hippopotamus, or
banks, or in

river

breed on

its

ticular,

At present, or rather, it is the rock shaped into a Sphinx. the head and neck on'.y appear, the remainder being buried Tlievcnot* states it at 26 feet in in the accumulated sand. height, and lo from ear to ear: but Plinyt asserts, that its head was no less than 102 feet in circumference; the height 2 feet above the belly ; and the body 143 feet long. It was supposed to be the sepulchre of king Amasis.
Archimedes' screw was formerly used for this purpose, it obtained the name of the Egyptian pump but now wheels are in general use, which carry a rope, on which is a series of earthen pots, each holding about seven or eight quarts; this rope being stretched upon two wheels, the lowermost in the canal or well, and the upper one over the land to be irrigated, when the wheels are set in motion, the water is raised in the pots, which empty themselves on arriving at the top, and then descend for a fresh supply.
(c)

(d) The superstitious Egyptians carried their ideas of the fecundity of this slime so far, that they believed it capable of producing animals as well as vegetables And they pretended, that every year, on the waters' retiring, vast numbers of mice were bred in the mud ; some of them appearing alive, and formed so far as the fore -part of the body only, the remainder being inanimate and without motion, as having not yet quite put oft' the nature of the earth.*
!

(e)

For which, see Heredotus,

i.

lib.

ii.

cap. 20

27.

Diod.

Sicul. lib.

whence

p. 33, ct seq. (f) These rains fall regularly in Ethiopia during the months of April and May, at the same time that the monsoons iii

India cause the Ganges and Indus to overflow. (g) In order to purify this water, the Egyptians rub the vessels in which it is kept, with bitter almonds, and then it becomes light and good though the principle on which this
;

ingredient acts, is not obvious. t Unglazed vessels, filled with water, are kept in every apartment which, by continual evaporation through the pores, render the contained fluid
;

very cool, even during the greatest heats.

Diod.
Sicul. lib.
i.

Voyngei, partie

i.

chap. 5.

Nat. Hat.

lib.

xvi. cap. 12.

p. 9.

Volney.

406

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
land, on

[CHAP. vi.

western branch pertained to Egypt, and was called the Heronpolitic Gulf, [yam !*SupIi\ from the city of Heroopolis in the vicinity of its
apex.
andria,

which the unwary traveller no sooner set his foot, than he was irretrievably lost. In this manner whole armies have been deceived,

LAKES. was separated from the sea by a narrow neck of land, called by Ptolemy, Tcenia. It extended from the west towards the south, and seems to have been merely a reservoir for the waters of the Nile, -with which it communicated
through a canal, during the period of the inundation. Strabo describes it as 150 stadia in It was formerly and 300 in length. breadth,
navigable
* ;

Mareotis [Sir k- Mar tout] near

Alex-

Typhon, the murderer of Osiris, the fable, was submerged in this according to lake ; whence the Egyptians called the small mouth by which it communicates with the Mediterranean, the breathing-place of Typhon, It also bore the name of Barathra, or the proIn the days of Pliny, this lake found gulfs.

and perished.

was much reduced in its dimensions now quite choked up with sand.
river, called in

and

it

is

In the neighbourhood of this lake was a

the Scripture the torrent, or river

but

is

now

dry, except after great

rains.

Moeris, an artificial lake, formed, as already noticed, for draining the low lands west of the Nile, generally supposed to have been made by a king of the same name, but more probably so denominated from its situation in a

of Egypt, and marked as the boundary of Canaan :(k) but geographers are not agreed as to its situation. Jerom places it between Rhinocorara and Pelusium ; several make it the same with the torrent of Besor ; Calmet will have it to be the Nile and Bochart makes
;

marsh. (h) Strabo and Ptolemy, who have been followed by most geographers, place this lake north of Arsinoe, on the west of the Nile, where there is still a large lake called [IIKeroun, Birket-el-Kerun, Fe'ium, and the Caroon Lake ;](i) but Herodotus and Diodorus make what is generally called it the same with

The Joseph's Canal, [Bathen, or the deep.] former of these is of the figure of an irregular
The latter lozenge, reaching east and west. is a mere canal, running parallel with the Nile,
with which it communicates at each end.(j) South of Il-Keroun, and connected with it by a canal, is a fresh-water lake, now called
\Gara.~]

run into the Sirbonic lake. SALT LAKES. Near the city of Nitria, iu the desert, west of the Delta, are two celebrated lakes of natron, or nitre they are about three or four leagues in length, and about a quarter of a league in breadth, with a solid For nine months in the year, stony bottom. these lakes are dry but in the winter, a reddish violet-coloured water oozes from the earth,
it
; ;

At the entrance of the Nile are several lakes, of or inland seas, formed by the broken land which the principal now are Berelos, between Rosetta and Damietta, about 30 miles long, and 10 broad; and Menzaleh, about 60 miles long, and from two to twelve broad. Sirbon, Serbonis, or Selbonis, [Sebaket-Bardoil] at the foot of Mount Casius, was, accord; :

ing to Diodorus, 200 furlongs in length, very Round about it were narrow, but very deep. of loose sand, which being driven on the heaps surface of the lake, or rather of the bog, by the south winds, gave it the appearance of firm
See before, page 391. the ferryman, who wafted passengers across it, as more particularly described in a subsequent page. (j) Some farther particulars of this lake are given under the head of Artificial Curiosities.
(li)

the lakes to the height of five or six the return of the summer's heat, this is evaporated, and leaves behind a bed of salt, not less than two feet in thickness, and very hard, which the natives break to pieces with The whole soil iron bars, for use and sale.(l) of the surrounding country is so impregnated with salt, that upon digging to any depth, brackish water is always to be met with, impregnated in some degree with the mineral alkali, as well as with common salt. So great is the propensity of the SOIL. Egyptian soil to produce salt, that when the gardens are overflowed for the sake of watering them, the surface of the ground, after the evaporation and absorption of the water,
fills

and

feet.

On

appears as if glazed over with found in the wells contains marine salt, and a little nitre.
(k) 8.

salt.

The water
alkali,
fer-

mineral

The black

Gen. xv. 18. Numb, xxxiv.

5.

Joshua, xv. 4. 2 CAron.

(i)

From Charon,

vii.

(1)

M. Volney

estimates

the quantity

annually from these

lakes, at not less than

of salt procured 30,000 quintals.

SECT.

II.]

SOIL.

MOUNTAINS. VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS.

407

mould of Egypt differs essentially from the soil in other parts, and is supposed by M. Volney to be derived from the interior of Ethiopia, by means of the waters of the Nile ; though some of it must certainly be the result
tile

of vegetation and cultivation. If Egypt be now less productive than formerly, the change is rather to be attributed to the indolence of the Turks, who are masters of the country, and the

broken spirit of the natives, who groan under the yoke of their oppression, than to any degeneracy in the soil. MOUNTAINS. The Nile, from its entrance into Egypt, was bordered on either side by high lands, which about the neighbourhood of Memphis receded to the east and west, and left the plain called the Delta, through which the several branches of the river found their Behind these high lands, passage to the sea. or mountainous ridges, were other hills, some detached, others in continuity. Of those which obtained particular names, we find in the Thebais, on the east, Mount Basanite, near Syene, remarkable for its quarries of a hard black stone, called Baram, already noticed.(m) Smaragdus, [Maaden-Uzzumured, or Mine of Emeralds] near the Red Sea, was celebrated Near the profor the emeralds there found. (n) of Drepanum [Ras Zufrane] were other montory mountains containing quarries of porphyry. On the west of the Nile, in the Theba'ic division, in the vicinity of the greater Oasis, was a series of hills, or elevated ground, called Tinodes, or sand-hills. In the Ileptanomis, east of the Nile, and on the borders of the Red Sea, were several mountains that contained quarries of alabaster ; now known under the several names of GebelGliareb, or Mount Agrib ; Docan, Kolzum, Kelcil, Safarane, and Ghobeibe, or Geivobee; above which is the Attakuh ridge, running across from the Red Sea to the Nile, where Pharaoh supposed the Israelites had entangled themselves, when he resolved on pursuing On the west side of the river are thern.(o) the mountains of Fiaumc, or Fiume, near the

In the Delta, are no mountains of cons&i quence but on the east side of Pelusium is a remarkable ridge, resembling a heap of sand, called Mount Casius, which projects into the sea, and is now known by the name of [Kus.] On this mount was formerly a temple, dedicated to Jupiter, called on that account Jupiter Casius; and here the ashes of the great Pompey were buried by his freed-man Philip. This mount, in common with some others, received its name from Casius, a person in the fourth
;

generation of Sanchoniatho. Ptolemy places a town here, of the same name with the mount of by any other [(.'((I iek;] but it is not spoken ancient writer.

VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS
EGYPT.

PECULIAR

TO

are very rare in this country ; towards the deserts of Libya, are some yet forests of palm-trees; and near Tentyra is one of wild dates, called doms, whose fruit, though extremely hard, is much admired by the natives. Of all trees, the palm is the most common ; there are likewise some cedars, though not so large, nor so frequently to be met with, as in Syria ; several sorts of fruit-trees and a great thorny tree, called al-hilaji, from which it is supposed the ancients made those boats
;

Woods

mentioned by Herodotus. (p) This is not, however, a country where trees can be said either
to

abound

or to flourish.

Of the minor

description of vegetables, the

kinds were numerous, but the following are the most worthy of notice. The reed papyrus, or byblus [ulberdi] grows on the banks of the Nile, and shoots out a stalk nine or ten feet high the trunk is composed of a great number
;

Caroon

lake.

fibres, which produce small the leaves are like sword-blades and for keeping wounds open, while the the stalk cure such as are not inveterate. The pith of the stalk, or, as some say, the inner rind, worked into a white paste, was afterwards made into paper, almost in the same manner that the pulp of linen rags is manufactured into the same article in Europe. In ancieut times this plant not only served the Egyptians for food, but it also supplied them with

of long flowers; are used ashes of

narrow

(m) See before, page 301. In (n) Mr. Bruce, however, sought in vain for this mine. the iU-d Sea, lat. 2o" 3', at a small distance from the southvc.st coast, he says, there is sin Mand, called the Muviitcin of Enitraltlii ; but none of these precious stones are to be met " i'u in it; though he supposes they were formerly to be

obtained trom three pits which he observed, where he found many pieces of a green pellucid substance, veined, softer than rock crystal, but harder than glass. This he conjectures to lia\e been the sinaragdus of the Romans.
(o)

(p)

Exod. xiv. 3. Herod, lib. ii.

408

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
ritory of

[CHAP. vi.

materials for clothing, for their boats, and for domestic utensils; as well as with crowns for
their gods, and shoes for their priests. The flax of Egypt, especially one sort of
it,

Egypt produces every thing that either or Asia can boast as corn, rice, cotEurope ton, flax, indigo, saffron, sugar, coffee, senna, rhubarb, aloes, opium, oranges, lemons, figs,
;

so extremely fine, and was dressed and spun so curiously, that the threads could It grew in so great scarcely be seen.(q)

was

Durdates, almonds, cassia, plantains, &c. ing the three months that the Thebais is under water, the Delta possesses fields covered with
rice, barley, vegetables,
is

plenty,

that

the

inhabitants

enough

to clothe their priests,

had not only who wore no-

also the only part of

It and winter-fruits. Egypt where the same

thing else, and people of high rank ; but also to make shrouds for their dead,(r) and to export to foreign parts ; it being in great request throughout the East. The superfine sort, called and bi/ssnt,; was often dyed of a purple colour, Mas so dear, that none but the rich could

produces two crops of grain within the year; one of rice, the other of barley.(w) ANIMALS. Besides camels, horses, asses, mules, sheep, black cattle, and other domestic
field

quadrupeds

Egypt has many wild animals

wear
lily.

it.(s)

The lotus [al-bashnm] is a species of the wateron the water, and cover the flowers, which are numerous, were formerly woven into the crowns (t) or wreaths of conquerors. The middle or pulp of this plant, as well as the root, dried, furnished the ancient Egyptians with a farinaceous substance, which they converted into bread :(u) and the Arabs of the present day eat the stalks and heads raw, and drink a liquor prepared from the plant; both which are moist and
Its leaves float
:

particularly tigers, hyaenas, crocodiles, lopes, apes with heads resembling dogs' heads, called cynocephali, hippopotami, cameleons,

ante-

its

surface

yellow lizards, and a species of rat called the ichneumon, remarkable for its industry in destroying the eggs of the crocodile, as well as
its

enmity to

cats.

The crocodiles are often killed by the natives, who take them with a strong iron hook, baited with a piece of meat. The flesh of the animals is white and fat and when young, is said to be The inhabitants of Elephantis very delicious. The Tentyrites are formerly fed upon it.
;

cooling.

a shrub, having leaves somewhat like those of the olive, but shorter and broader, and of a more pleasant colour. The flowers, on account of their agreeable odour, are thrown by the inhabitants into their reddish teint, extracted from this baths. plant, is used by the women for colouring their
is

The henna \al-cannft]

nails.

Besides these, Egypt has other plants, whose or roots afford food in so great abundance, that they are almost sufficient to maintain the inhabitants without the use of corn.(v)
fruits

Indeed the labouring people formerly lived almost wholly upon them. In general, the terHist. lib. xix. cap. 1. This is, however, (q) Plin. Nat. suspected to be an exaggeration ; for none of the mummies that have reached this country, and some of them are supposed to be the remains of very eminent characters, have been enveloped in any linen that might be compared with the See note (o) p. 3C2. coarsest of our linen cloths. (r) See the foregoing note. (s) Hence, probably, our Lord's allusion, in the parable of " Lazarus and the rich man, who was clothed in purple and

reported to have been very bold and dexterous in hunting these animals ; they even ventured to leap on their backs in the water, and, clapping a stick across their mouths, as they opened them to bite, they managed them with it as with a bit and bridle, and brought them to land ; so that these creatures were terrified even by their voice and smell.(x) The small or land crocodile,(y) found near the Nile and the Red Sea, is about the size of a lizard, and has a round tail covered with scales it feeds mostly on odoriferous flowers ; and because the flesh is esteemed in medicine, great numbers of them are annually exported to Venice and other places.
:

(u) This lotus is different from the on which the Lotophagi subsisted.

fruit

of the same name,

The murmuring Hist. lib. xxii. cap. 15. (v) Plin. Israelites in the wilderness, though daily supplied with as

AW.

much manna as their wants required, could not help regretting the cucumbers, and the melons, &c. of Egypt, of which, though in a state of slavery, they ate freely.* (w) Savary's Letters on Egypt.
(x) Plin.

fine linen." Luke, xvi, 19. (t) The ancient crown was simply a band, or of leaves, and subsequently of other materials.

fillet,

at first

(y)

Supposed

Nat. Hist. lib. viii. cap. 25. to be the scincus of Pliny

*

tftid.

Xumi. x.

15.

16

a E

x
fi

SECT.

III.]

ANIMALS. ARTIFICIAL CURIOSITIES.

is

409

The hippopotamus
;

common

in

Upper

Egypt, especially in the vicinity of the cataracts but is seldom met with in Lower Egypt. The ichneumon, or Egyptian rat, is of the size of an ordinary cat, with short legs, a nose like that of the hog, and a tail similar to the fox's. Its food consists of lizards, serpents, snails, cameleons, rats, &c. it is therefore useful to the inhabitants in clearing the land of those sort of vermin ; but more especially so in its natural instinct as an enemy to the crocodile, hunting out its eggs when buried in the sand,

and breaking them, though without eating them. It is also said that the ichneumon will
frequently watch its opportunity, when the crocodile is asleep with its mouth open, to jump down its throat, where, after devouring the liver,

; being the only animal lint here, as the latter is in amity, with which is too often the case in the friendships of the for world, self-interest is the prevailing cause the mouth and gums of the crocodile are continually infested by numbers of leeches, which torment him perpetually but the trochilus, who feeds on these insects, very kindly clears them away from time to time, the crocodile lying with his mouth wide open for the purpose, and the bird undauntedly putting in his head in search of the intruders.(b) The lakes at the mouths of the Nile are abundantly stocked with fish, though of not more than seven or eight different kinds two of which the inhabitants send salted to Syria,

towards the crocodile

of which it is immoderately fond, it will gnaw its way out through the belly of the animal. (z) It bears an irreconcileable enmity to cats. Among the feathered tribe are ostriches, eagles, hawks, pelicans, and water-fowl of various kinds of the latter, the ibis is the most remarkable. This bird is of the duck kind, and was deified by the ancient Egyptians, on account of its usefulness in destroying the flying serpents, which are brought by the south winds These serpents are from the Libyan deserts. like water-snakes, with wings similar to shaped those of the bat, and at the proper season the ibis go in flocks to the frontiers of Egypt, to wait their approach, when they fall upon them as they fly, and devour them ere they pass the Egyptian border. This bird was held so sacred among the Egyptians, that even the accidental killing of one was punishable with death. When they died, and their bodies were found, they were embalmed, and buried in earthen jars with great ceremony. There are two kinds of the ibis one, of a deep bjack colour, and about the size of the heron, is the ibis which kills the ser: ;

Those who live Cyprus, and Constantinople. near these lakes have a great plenty of fish, as the Israelites formerly had (c) but as the heat of the climate will not admit of their being carried, fresh, far from where they are taken, the inhabitants of Cairo [Al-Kahira] are obliged to be content with such as the Nile affords. The bed of that river being very full of mud and slime, communicates an unpleasant muddy flavour to the fish bred in its waters, with the exception of four sorts, the latos, [kesher, or
;

the oxyrynchus, [cashouc,] the lepidotus, are [Aonst,] and the phagrus, [karmud,} which
lates,]
all

excellent.

SECTION

III.

PYRAMIDS. ARTIFICIAL CURIOSITIES. RINTH, LAKE MCERIS. CATACOMBS.

LABY-

pents above mentioned, and is seldom found except in Egypt ; indeed it pines away and dies, if carried elsewhere. The other kind is white, only the head, neck, and the ends of the wings and tail are black, the bill and legs resembling those of the stork ; they are very common. (a) The trochilus, [salcsalc] is also a bird peculiar to the Nile, and remarkable for its friendship
Lucas. Voyage, tome ii. p. 245. Herodot. lib. ii. cap. 20 27. Lucas. Voyage, tome page 246.
(z) (a)

Various opinions have been on the etymology of the word pyramid ; given among which the most common is, that it is derived from the Greek m>f, Jire, in allusion either to the shape of these structures, broad at the base, and tapering to a point at the top, like a flame or to their being dedicated to the Others, sun, the source of light and heat.(d) supposing them to have been originally intended for granaries, think they had their name from are more commonly vvfos, wheat ,-(e) though they considered as tombs.
;

THE PYRAMIDS.

(b) Herodot. ubi supra.

ii.

(c)

Numb.

\\. 5.

(d) Bryant's
(e)

VOL.

I.

3G

Mythology, vol. i. p. 129, 130. Vossius. Etym. Ling. Lat. voce Pyramis.

410

HISTORY OF EGYPT.

[CHAP. vi.

In several parts of Egypt, these structures are to be met with, particularly in Upper

Egypt but those which have been mostly noticed and described by travellers, stand on the west side of the Nile, not far from the supposed site of the ancient Memphis, where they are found to the number of about twenty ; of which the three largest stand pretty near together, and the rest are scattered in the desert.
;

There were

also

some

others, if

we may

credit

the testimony of ancient writers, of which no traces now remain. The builders of these pyramids have also furnished matter for dispute, without a chance of its being determined. Josephus, who has been followed by most modern writers, supposes them to have been built by the Israelites,

during their severe bondage, under the tyranny of the Pharaohs.(f ) Others pretend that they were erected by the patriarch Joseph, as granaries, in which to store up corn during the seven
years of plenty, against those of dearth (g) Herodotus attributes the first, or largest, of the three most remarkable pyramids, to a prince,
.

whom

and Diodorus, by both historians attributed to Cephren, brother and successor to Cheops, or Chemmis and the third to Mycerinus, son of Cheops. (i) But Diodorus
he
calls

Cheops,

(h)

Chemmis.

The second

is

confesses that there is very little agreement as to these pyramids, either among the natives or historians ; some saying that the largest was built by Araueus, the second by Amasis, and

Pliny, that the vanity of the undertakers justly merited. (k) The Arabs assign other founders to these three pyramids, different from those mentioned by the Greeks. Some say they were built by JAn Elm Jan, or Gian Ben Gian, universal monarch of the world before Adam ; others attribute them to Joseph; some to Nimrod; some to queen Daluka ; and others to the antediluvian inhabitants of the country.(l) The that the eastern pyramid is the Copts report sepulchre of king Saurid ; the western of his brother, or son, Hujib, Hargib, or Aujib; and the coloured one, that of Fazfarinum, a son of the last-named prince. The Sabians, whom Mr. Bryant derives from the Cutheans, or KingShepherds, or Hyc-sos, pretend that one of the three pyramids near Memphis, is the sepulchre of Seth ; the second of Hermes, (or Enoch ;) and the third of Sabi, the founder of their sect. Yet the general notion is, that they were built before the flood, by king Saurid. (m) As the ancients have omitted to speak of several pyramids still remaining in the Libyan desert, so, on the other hand, have they mentioned the founders of some others not much inferior in magnitude, which have long since ceased to exist. Herodotus describes one of 40 fathoms, (or 240 feet,) which stood at the end of the labyrinth, with large figures of ani,

to

the third by Inaron;(j) an uncertainty,

says

and a subterraneous passage which seems to be the same that Strabo (o) calls the tomb of Imandes, or Osymandyas, according to Diodorus, (p) and
mals
in sculpture, it;(n)
:

The Scriptures, however, seem (f) Antiq. lib. ii. cap. 5. to be against this opinion for they expressly make the slavish employment of that people, to have been in bricks anA mortar, and the building of cities ;* whereas these pyramids are
;

mostly

of stone.
Vrb. voce nt>p^iJi{, Nicetas, Nonnus, &c. overthrown by the want of capacity in these buildings, as well as the length of time they must have occupied in the erection. (h) MY. Bryant supposes Cheops to have been the name of the pyramid itself, and not of its founder: hi which view, he derives it from Clia-Ops, the house of Ops, or the sun, the Ophite deity of the Egyptians, worshipped under the
(g)

The

Stcph. opinion

De

is

when she lived for Herodotus has shewn, that these pyramids were in being long before her days.|| This story is probably derived from another, cir. that Cheops, abovementioned, having exhausted his treasures in building the first and largest pyramid, prostituted his own daughter, commanding her to get as much money as she eould. This princess, at the same time that she obeyed her father, contrived also to leave a monument of herself, and demanded of each of her visitors, over and above the price of her favours in money, a stone towards the structure which she designed. By this means, she was enabled to build a pyramid, which stood in the midst of the three, within view of the great
the time

symbol of n serpent.t "

Herodot. lib. ii. cap. 120. Diod. Sicul. lib. i. p. 41. This last, some of the Greeks pretended to have been built by Rhodopis, or Rhodope, a courtesan, whom Sappho called Doricha, unstress to her brother Charaxus :| but this is very improbable, as well on account of the expense, which would have been too great for any private individual, as from
(i)

(j)

pyramid, and extending the length of a plethoron and a half (about 150 feet) on every side of the base. (k) Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xxxvi. cap. 12. (1) D'ilerbel. Bibl. Orient, p. 311. Kirch. GEdip. vol. i. (in) Merat Al/vraan. apud Greaves. Elm Act! Al Hokm. p. 74. (o) Lib. xvii. p. 5, 7. (n) Herod, lib. ii. cap. 148. (p) Lib. i. p. 44.
\

*
t

F.io'i.

i.

11,

14.
vol. 1. p.

Slnilio, lib. xvii.

Diod. Sicul.

lib.

i.

Ancient

p. 41.

MyUwkgy,

130.
|i

Hcruilot.

lib.

ii.cap. 126.

$ Herodot.

SECT.

III.]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PYRAMIDS.

differs

411

probably built by that king, though he

iroiH

Herodotus as to its dimensions, making each side 400 feet, and the height as much.
Pliny also mentions several pyramids near the
labyrinth, (q)

Mcrris,

who

lived

after

Osy-

mandyas, but long before Cheops, or Chaops, also built two pyramids, on an island in (lie lake which bears his name, one for himself, the other for his wife.(r) The pyramids of Cheops and his daughter, or son, seem to have followed next in order of time ; and after all, Asychis, successor of Mycerin us, built one of brick, with a singular inscription, cut in stone, to the fol" lowing effect Compare me not with the pyramids of stone ; for 1 as far excel them, as Jupiter docs the other gods for, striking the bottom of the lake with long poles, and gathering the mud which stuck to them, thereof they made bricks, and formed me in that manner, "(s) As to the date of these singular and immense buildings, it is only certain that they are of the most remote antiquity ; since Herodotus, who lived about 450 years before the Christian a-ra, was able to obtain so little satisfaction in his
:
:

on a rocky hill, in the sandy desert of about a quarter of a mile from the plains Libya, of Kgypt, above which the rock rises 110 feet, or better, with a gentle and easy ascent. The north side of the pyramid, measured with a radius of ten feet, taking two several stations, was found to be 093 feet. The other sides were examined by a line, for want of an e\ en level, and a convenient distance for placsituated

ing the instruments. The altitude, measured perpendicularly, was 481 feet; but if taken as the pyramid ascends, inclining, it is equal, in respect of the lines subtending the several angles, to the latitude of the basis. As to the figure of this pyramid, it may be best conceived by supposing four equilateral
triangles mutually inclining till they meet in a point, for so the top appears from below, the area of whose basis contains 480,249 square

or something more than eleven acres. ascent to the top is by degrees, or steps, the lowermost of which is nearly four feet in
feet,

The

inquiries relative to them ; and Diodorus, lived about 50 years before the same

who

and three; in breadth, and, running about the pyramid, made, when the stones were The seentire, a narrow walk on every side.
height,

epocha,

supposed the great pyramid to have been built at least a thousand years prior to his time.(t) The dimensions and descriptions of the three largest of the Memphian pyramids have been given by several writers, ancient and modern, who differ pretty much from each other in their several accounts: and as it is impossible to reconcile them, or to say which has been most accurate in his observations, the follow ing account is chiefly drawn from one source, the relation of Mr. Greaves, who seems to have endeavoured to be correct. The first and fairest of these three pyramids, says this writer, is
(q)

similar to the first, benching In the same manner is the third row placed on the second, and the rest in order like so many stairs, rising one above another to the top, where there is a square area
is

cond degree

in nearly three feet.

two which are wanting

consisting of nine stones, besides at the corners. By reason of the dilapidations of time and weather, these steps cannot conveniently be ascended, except at the north-east angle, or on the south side. The steps, which are of massive and polished stones, are said to have been hewn out of the Arabian mountains,(u) which bound the Upper Egypt on the east; they are so
1.3TS feet,

of

Nat. Hist.

lib.

xxxvi. cap. 13.

" Senas

radiciirn oras

obtinenteg;" angular.
(r)

whence they have been supposed

to

be sex-

a furlong in height, one half in llie water, the other halt' above it; and on the top of each vuis a marble statue, of colossal magnitude, seated on a
tin-one.*

These pyramids were each

Diod. Sicnl. lib. i. p. 57. This conjecture seems to be moderate for it only makes them synehronical with, the time of Saul and David when letters had been in common use for about 400 years, supposing Moses to have been the inventor. In this case, it would surely have occurred to
(t)

far too

Dio'lorus speaks of three (s) Herod, lib. ii. cap. 14H. other pyi-iimids, reputed to have been erected by rhemmis, (or Cheops) Ccphren, and Mycerinus, for thoir wives. These, likewise, are not now to be seen, unless they should be some of those in the desert, which correspond in dimensions with those given by Diodorus but if these primes really built them for their queens, it may excite surprise that they should
;

the founders, to perpetuate their names, by inscribing them on their respective pyramids; and their not having done so, seems to refer them to some period when the use of letters

was unknown.
(u) The quarries of Thebais, and those of Ethiopia, have also been named as the places that furnished the stones for these works. But some modern travellers have conjectured, that they were dug out of the rocks on which they are built. Wansleh thinks the great pyramid to be the rock itself, shaped into the pyramidal form, and cased with stones. It
* lierodot. et Diud.
tiii SH;>;X.

have placed them so far from their own, and at sut li remote and unequal distances, of several miles, from each other.

G2

412

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
gallery
is

[CHAP.
five feet,

that the breadth arid depth of every step is one The number of the steps is 207, single stone. or 208. The entrance into the pyramid is by a square narrow passage, which opens in the midst of the north side, on the sixteenth step, to which

almost
;

the height about as

much, and the length 1 10 feet. At its end are two passages one low and horizontal, or level with the ground; the other high, and rising like
the former. At the entry of the lower passage, on the right hand, is a well, spoken of by Pliny, who states it to be 80 cubits in depth, and supposes that the water of the Nile was admitted into it by means of some secret aqueduct.(v) This well is circular, rather more than three feet in diameter, and lined with white marble ; the descent to it is by fixing the hands and feet in little open spaces cut in the sides within. Perhaps this well led to the subterraneous vaults described by Herodotus as being formed within the hill on which the pyramid is built ;(w) it is now almost filled up with rubbish, not being above 20 feet deep.

there

is

an ascent of 38
of earth.

feet,

by means of an

ar-

tificial

mound

The

stone that covers

this entrance is nearly 12 feet long, and above at an eight feet wide. The entrance declines of 26 degrees, and is 3<rr feet in breadth,

angle
is

by 92r

in length.

At

the end of this passage,

another, similar to the former, but a little rising: at the meeting of these two passages, the sand, driven in by the wind, has so accumulated, that it is necessary to slide under the roof, with the belly close to the ground, which

a man not very slender cannot easily effect the space left to pass through being in some places There being no winless than a foot square.
;

Leaving
forward,

this well, and proceeding straight at the distance of 15 feet, another

dow or other outlet in this pyramid, except the entrance already spoken of, it is necessary for and the visitors to take in lights with them air, for want of circulation, is of so mephitic a In quality as almost to occasion suffocation. this passage, M. Savary discharged a pistol, the noise of which repeated in the cavities of this immense edifice, awakened thousands of bats, the free denizens of the place, who came flying about the ears of himself and his companions, and extinguished several of their wax
;

itself, opening against the former, and of similar dimensions, the stones of which are very massive, and exquisitely This passage runs in a level of 110 joined. feet, and leads to an arched vault, or chamber, standing due east and west, half full of rubbish, and the air infected with a grave-like odour. The length of this chamber is not quite 20 feet, the breadth about 17, and the height somewhat less than 15. The -walls are entire, and plastered over with lime; the roof is covered

passage presents

tapers.

Having passed this strait, the visitor meets with a hole on the right hand, about 89 feet in but length, of various height and breadth whether occasioned by decay, or made through curiosity, in expectation of finding some hidden
;

On the left hand, the narrow entrance, the ascent is by adjoining climbing through a steep passage, 8 or 9 feet in height, which opens at the lower end of the first gallery, the pavement of which, consisting of smooth polished white marble, rises with a gentle acclivity : the sides and roof being of
treasure, does not appear.

with large smooth stones, not lying flat, but and meeting above in an angle.(x) Returning back through the before-named narrow horizontal passage, and climbing over it, the visitor enters the second gallery, on the left, divided from the first by the wall which contains the entrance to the last-mentioned
shelving,

passage.

This gallery

is

nowise

inferior,

in

unpolished stone,

less

that of the pavement.

hard and compact than The breadth of this

art, or richness of materials, to the most sumptuous edifices rising at an angle of 20 degrees, its length is 154 feet from the well below, but, if measured on the pavement, somewhat less, by reason of a little vacuity, of about 15 feet, already noticed, between the well and the square hole the height of this gallery is 20
:
:

curiosity of

has also been supposed, but without due authority, that the pyramids wore originally cased with marble, which the latter lun<'< <>f lvj\|)t took away, to adorn their palaces,*
(v)
Plin.

AW.

Hint. lib. xxxvi. cap. 12.

lib. ii. The founder of the cap. 127. pjrasnid, says this aulhor, conveyed the water of the Nile into * Sicwd. Man, des Miss, totme ii. p. 28k

<w) Herodotus,

these vaults by a trench, and formed a little island in the midst of the water, on which he designed to place his sepulchre. (x) On the east side of this room, about the middle, Greaves says, there seems to have been a passage leading to some other place; but neither Thevenot nor Le Bruyu could discover it.

SECT.

III.]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PYRAMIDS.

*

413

On the horizontal faces of these benches, near the angle where they close with the wall, are small spaces, cut in right-angled parallel figures, set on both sides, opposite to each other; intended, probably, for some other purpose than mere
ornament. This gallery is lined with white polished marble, very evenly cut in large tables, and the joints so nicely closed, as to be almost imperceptible. The polish of the marble, and
the acclivity of the passage, makes this gallery very slippery and difficult to pass through; there are, however, certain holes made in the floor, about six hands' breadth apart, into which the

and its breadth 6r n feet, of which one half be allowed for the way in the midst, there being- a stone bench, on each side of the wall, 1-nrco foot in breadth, and as much in depth.
eet,
is

to

gallery, already noticed, sculptures or engravings are observed throughout the whole edifice, though the Arabians pretend that all sciences are inscribed within the pyramids, in hieroglyphics.(z) This square passage, which is of the same width with the rest, is nearly nine feet in length, being all of Theba'ic marble, most exquisitely cut, and leading to the north end of a very

figures in the

second

no

sumptuous and well-proportioned room. The distance from the end of the second gallery to this entry, running upon the same level, is 24
feet.-

This

magnificent

and spacious chamber

passenger

may

set his feet, while

he holds by

the bench with one hand.(y) In ranging the marble tables on the side-walls of this gallery, the courses, seven in number, overhang each other about three inches, the bottom of the upper course flagging over the upper side of the one next below it, in order, as they descend. From this gallery, the visitor passes through another square hole, of the same dimensions with the former, which leads into two small antechambers, or closets, lined with a rich and speckled kind of Theba'ic marble. The first of these chambers is almost equal to the second, which is of an oblong figure, 7 feet in length, and 3 in breadth ; the height being 10 feet, and the floor level. On the east and west sides, within 2 feet of the top, which is somewhat larger than the bottom, are three semicircular niches, or small seats. The inner antechamber is separated from the outer by a slab of red speckled marble, hanging in two mortises, like the leaf of a sluice, between two walls, better than three feet above the pavement, and rather less than two feet below the roof. From the second closet, the outlet is through another square hole, over which are five lines, cut parallel and perpendicular; besides which, and the right-angled parallel
(y) M. Savary says, lie found it necessary, in this place, to crawl on his knees, while he supported himself on each side with his hands against the sides, the slight notches on the

stands, it should seem, in the very heart and centre of the pyramid, equidistant from all the sides, and almost in the midst between the basis and the top. The floor, sides, and roof, all consist of large tables of Theba'ic marble,

one upon the other, and of so that each range appears to be equal heights, one immense block, hollowed out to form the chamber. The slabs which constitute the ceiling are of stupendous length, lying flat, and traversing the apartment, like so many huge beams, on which rests the superincumbent mass of the pyramid. These stones are nine(a) in those at the east and west ends being number, narrower by one half than the others. The of the chamber on the south side, taken length at the joint or line where the first and second
laid in six ranges

covirses meet, is 34^r feet

and

its

taken in like manner on the west side,

feet; the height Wl feet. In this stately room

breadth, is 17?V

is the sarcophagus, intended for the tomb of the founder, whom Herodotus calls Cheops, and Diodorus, Chemmis, as already related though he was never laid there.(b) This monument, which is of the same kind of speckled marble (having black, while, and red spots) with that which lines the whole chamber, consists of a single block, hollowed out, and is as sonorous as a bell. It seems once to have had a cover, which is now The figure of this tomb is that of an gone.
;

but his (a) M. Savary reckons them seven in number; survey seems to have been made with too much rapidity. He
calls the

chambers so many caves.

inclined plane being insufficient to stop the foot, slip might have precipitated him to the bottom.
(z) Cornelius,

and a

single

(b) This priuce, and his brother and successor, (who also built a pyramid) were so tyrannical in their sway, that,

engraved his victories

or rather yElius Callus, is also said to have in the pyramids. Xiphil. in Cas.

dreading the rage of the multitude, their relations buried their bodies iii some "secret place, where nobody could find them.*
Ilcrod.
lib. ii.

Auy.

cap. 129.

414

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
;

[CHAP. vi.
its

it is cut altar, or two cubes finely set together smooth and plain, without sculpture or engravit is 7 feet 3| inches in length, height 3 feet 33 inches. Within, it meafeet in length; 2rr sures, on the west side 6 fleet in breadth at the north end ; and '2*fr feet It stands due north and south in depth. (c) in its length, and almost at an equal distance from all the sides of the chamber, except the eastern, from which it is twice as remote as from the rest. Underneath, a little hollow space has been dug, and a large stone in the pavement has been removed, at the angle next adjoining it, probably in the hope of finding some hidden treasure ; it being an ancient superstitious practice to conceal money in and about In the north and south sides of sepulchres. the chamber are two inlets, opposite to each other, seven-tenths of a foot broad, and fourtenths deep, evenly cut, and running in a straight line upw ards of six feet into the thickness of the wall that on the south side is larger than the one opposite, though not so long, and somewhat round; and from the blackness within, it seems to have been a receptacle for lamps. M. Savary says some pieces of broken vases lie about the apartment of the tomb; and he speaks of another hall beneath, not quite so large, in which he observed the entrance to a conduit, filled with rubbish. The only thing remaining to be observed of this pyramid, is the remarkable echo within its chambers, which Plutarch(d) describes as repeating a sound four or five times but which

3VI.

Savary experienced

effects

in

firing

jistol,

as already stated.(f)

ing.

Outwardly,

and

in

The second pyramid, about the flight of an arrow distant from the first, towards the south, is described by Herodotus, Diodoms, and most inferior to the former in magnitude others, as though Strabo supposes them to be of equal magnitude and Mr. Greaves coincides in that Herodotus says it has no subterraopinion. neous chambers, neither is the water of the Nile conveyed into by any secret canal. This pyramid has no entrance is built of white
;
;

it,

stones, not near so large as those of the first ; the sides do not rise in degrees like that, but are

smooth and equal on the surface and the whole fabric, except on the south side, appears
;

to

be quite

entire.

a more modern
less

traveller(e) says

answers no

then ten or twelve times very distinctly.

north and west sides of this pyramid, are the priests' chambers, alluded to in a former note. They consist of two very elaborate of architecture, 30 feet in depth, and pieces about 1400 in length, cut perpendicularly in the rock, and squared by the chisel. They run parallel with the two sides of the pyramid, at a convenient distance from it ; and meet in a The entrance is by square holes right angle. hewn in the rock, much of the same size with the narrow passages of the first pyramid, each leading into a square chamber, arched with the natural rock. In most of these apartments is a passage opening into some others, but dark On the north side, and filled with rubbish. without, is a line engraved in the ancient sacred characters. The third pyramid is about a furlong distant from the second, on an advantageous rising of
and consequently were appendages, not to a tomb, but to a temple of the deity. He therefore concludes, as observed in a former note, that this pyramid, as well as the and as to the monument others, was an altar or temple which led to this note, he supposes it to have been a trough, or reservoir tor water, drawn by means of the well from the " " The Nile. delighted in priests of Egypt," he observes, and they probably came by the subterraneous obscurity where they performed passages to these dark chambers their lustrations and other nocturnal rites."*
priests,
:

On the

(c) From these dimensions, it appears that this tomb was intended fora person of the ordinary stature and bulk which at once discredits the notion, that the pyramids were built by a gigantic race, a tradition current in Egypt and Arabia. Mr. Br\ant contends, that the Cuthitcs, or descendants of Cush, better known in Egyptian history by the title of Hyc-sos, or King-Shepherd* are the same with the Titans and Giants of the Greeks ; which latter people, by allegorizing their power and tyranny, transformed their persons into monsters. It has already been remarked, that Cheops was rather the name of the deity to whom this edifice was dedicated, than of the person who built it; an opinion that is greatly " the strengthened by what Herodotus says, lib. ii. cap. 128:
;

(d)
(e)

Pint.

De

Placitis P/tilos.

lib. iv.

cap. 20.

were built by the shepherd Philitis, and by people pyramids held in abomination by the Egyptians ;" that is, the Hyc-WM, or Cuthite shepherds. ho cannot admit this Mr. Bryant,
cditici:

to have been intended tor a plai-p of sepulture,

a-ks

what need there could have been in urh CUM' tW <!!, and for passages of communication leading to other build'. * The apartments, he doubts not, were for the apartments

Lucas, tome i. p. 4">. the pyramids, (f) For farther information on the subject of the reader is referred to the works of Herodotus,. Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Pliny, Prosper A Ipinus. Paul Lucas, Iklon or (iyllius, Father Sicard, Maillet, Thevenot, Pococke, tirraves, Dr. Shaw, Norden, Nicbuhr, Liewcnstein, Savary,
Voluey, Denon, and Bryant.
* Ancient Mythology,
vol. v. p.

197, 198.

SECT, in.]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PYRAMIDS AND LABYRINTH.

ri\er; for

415

the rock, which, from a distance, makes it seem equal to either of the two former, though really

This was built by Mycerinus, whose name, according to Diodorus, was engraved on the north side but it has long since been effaced by time. It is built of a clear white stone, and is about 300 feet square at the base.(g) Near the mummy-pits is a fourth pyramid, which seems never to have been finished it has 148 steps of large stones, like the first pyramid, is 643 feet square, has an entry at the fourth part of its height, on the north side, with one passage to the interior, 3k feet broad, 4 feet high, reaching 267 feet downward, and ending in a hall, 25 feet in length, and 11 feet in breadth, covered with a sharp-arched roof.
less.
; ;

which purpose the well in the first But pyramid might have been constructed. Mr. Greaves conjectures that an upright tower was first built in the centre, to the sides of which the rest of the structure was added,
like so
till

many buttresses, still lessening in height, at last they came to the lowest degree. Herodotus relates that Cheops employed
Arabian quarries,
fetching the stones from the 10,000 every month ; and adds, that in his time there was an inscription, though it be now worn out, upon the first

100,000

men

in

pyramid, declaring
in radishes, onions,

how much was expended

and

In the corner of the hall

is

another passage, or

garlick, for the workhis interpreter told him amounted ; to 1600 talents of silver.(i) Diodorus makes the number of men employed in the building

men which

gallery, parallel to the horizon, three feet square within, and 9s feet long, which leads to a second chamber, 21 feet in length and 11 in

360,000,

and Pliny 366,000.

in the
first

Twenty

years

were spent
a bridge

work.

breadth, with a very high arched roof, having at the west end a square window, 241 feet from the floor, which looks into a passage, tolerably broad, high enough for a man to walk upright in, and reaching, parallel to the horiAt the end of zon, 13 feet 2 inches in length. this passage is a hall 26 feet 8 inches in length, and 24 feet 1 inch in breadth, with an arched roof; the floor is the natural rock, which on all sides is rough and unequal, lea\ing only a small smooth space in the centre, encompassed by the rock, and much lower than the entry or the foundation of the into the room,

pyramid, Herodotus mentions considerable than the pyramid itself; but no remains are now left. He describes it as 40 stadia (about five miles) in length, 60 feet broad, and 80 feet in altitude in
little less

Near the

the highest part.

It

was of polished

stones,

and ornamented with the

animals carved upon it. of 10 years. Of the other pyramids, in various parts of Egypt, it is to be remarked that they were not all of the same form ; some being round, and almost like a sugar-loaf, others rising with a less inclination, and not so pointed at the
top.(j)

figures of various This was the work

How these
were
ages
;

built,

ponderous and amazing structures has been much contended in all

nor is it now of material consequence to enter into the question. Herodotus says the stones were raised by means of wooden engines; Diodorus and Pliny, by the help of mounds, which the Egyptians pretended to be of salt and nitre, which were afterwards dissolved and washed away by letting in the water of the
1

This structure, from Duedalus is reported to have copied that of Crete, was, in the judgment of Herodotus, more admirable than the pyramids.

THE LABYRINTH.

which

There were three buildings of

;

this kind, at the not distinguishing least yet ancient writers, them, generally speak of one only; which has occasioned great confusion and disagreement Its situation is said to ha\e in their accounts.
ihc fabulists have made the sons of Tithea, or t/ie earth, otherwise Ge, whence they are also termed Geantcs, Giyantcs, Or Giants. These pyramids seem to be nothing more than an improvement upon the original mound of earth, and were consecrated to the same purposes, the. worship of t/t<' x"x. These altars (i. e. those of earth) were styled tit-aia, a breast of earth, and tit-an, or tit-anis, from the great fountain of
light, styled

Greaves'* Description of the Pyramids, p. 100, e t scq. |>art i. chap. About (i) 310,000 sterling; or, according to the of the Editors of the Universal History, calculation </. 413,333. Gs. (j) Mr. Bryant* observes, that the Cuthites raised certain mounds of earth, on which they sacrificed, and which wencalled Tirana, a compound terra, signifying a woman's breast, but ii])j)lied to these hills on account of their figure: the worshippers themselves obtained the name of Titans, whom
(g
)

(li)

Tlievenol's Voyages,

(>'.

An, and Anis.

Hence many places were

called

TtfOMts, and Tita/ia, where the worship of the sun prevailed. And the word pyramid, derived from itvf, Jirc, secuis to

Ancient Mythology, vol.

iv. p.

6),

cl al.

indicate the

same

intention.

416 been
in the

HISTORY OF EGYPT.

'

[CHAP, vi

Heracleotic norae, near the city of Crocodilopolis, or Arsinoe, a little above (i. e. to the south)(k) of lake Mceris. Pliny places it in the very lake itself, and says it was built by Petesuccns, or Tithoes though Deinoteles would have it to be the palace of Motherudes ; Lyceus, the sepulchre of Mo?ris; and others, the temple of the Sun which last opinion seems to be preferable for here it was that the priests delivered their oracles, in all the blackness and horrors of perpetual night.(l) Manet ho relates that Lachares, or Labares, the successor
; ;
:

of wonder, as he passed from a spacious hall to a chamber; thence to a private cabinet; then again into other passages out of the cabinets, and out of the chamber into the more spacious rooms. All the roofs and walls were encrusted with marble, and the latter were adorned with

sculptured figures. The halls were surrounded with pillars of white stone, finely polished ; and at the angle, where the labyrinth ended, stood a pyramid, noticed in a former page as being
destroyed. (q) To this description of Herodotus, Strabo and Pliny have added the following particulars It stood in the midst of an immense square, surrounded with buildings at a great distance ; the porch was of Parian marble; all the other Within were the pillars, of marble of Syene. of the several deities ; with galleries, to temples which the ascent was by 90 steps, adorned with many columns of porphyry, images of the gods, and statues of the Egyptian kings, of a monstrous size. The whole edifice was of stone; the floors laid in vast tables, and the roof appearing like a field of stone. The met and intersected each other with passages so much intricacy, that it was impossible for a stranger to find his way either in or out, without a guide : and the several apartments were so contrived, that, on opening the doors, a terrible noise, resembling thunder, was heard within. This fabric was so 'solid, that it resisted, during many ages, not only the ravages of time and the atmosphere, but also the rage of the inhabitants of Heracleopolis, who, worshipping the ichneumon, the mortal enemy of the crocodile, the principal deity at Arsinoe, bore an irreconcileable hatred to the labyrinth, where those sacred animals were interred ; and there:

of Sesostris, provided a labyrinth for his monu-

ment; and Diodorus writes that Mendes, or Marus, also built one with a similar intention for himself: but this seems to have been different from what the same writer describes a little after, and which probably is the same with the labyrinth of Herodotus; they both agreeing as to its situation, and that it was the

work of twelve kings, among whom Egypt was once divided who built it at their common
;

charge, and were buried

in it.(m)

All these accounts, it will appear, are contradictory to each other: we must, therefore, confine our description to the labyrinth of the twelve kings, which is supposed to have been a kind of pantheon, or universal temple of all the Egyptian deities. It was also the place of the general assembly of the magistracy of the whole nation, where every nome, or province,

had
the

its

peculiar palace.

Herodotus reckons
;

number of these palaces to be twelve (n) but Pliny makes them l(j,(o) and Strabo 27.(p)
Herodotus relates, that the halls were vaulted that they had an equal number of doors, opposite to each other, six opening to the north, sixth to the south, and all encompassed by the same wall; that the edifice contained 3000 chambers, 1500 in the upper part, and as many under ground ; and that he viewed every room in the upper part, but was not permitted to inspect those below, because the sepulchres of the holy crocodiles, as well as of the kings who built the labyrinth, were there. The vast varieties of ways out, by innumerable passages and returns, afforded him a thousand occasions
;

on every occasion, to destroy Pliny, about 50 years before the days of Alexander the Great, by Circummon, an eunuch in the court of king
fore they strove,
It
it.

was repaired, according to

the building with thorn, boiled in oil, while the arches of square stone were erecting. Since the days of Pliny, the Arabs have also helped to ruin this edifice yet a considerable

Nectanabis,

who supported

beams of acacia, or Egyptian

(k) The ancients, in speaking of Egypt, always reckoned the Delta as the lowest part, whence proceeding to the south, they speak of places as lying above those which were situated on their north.
(1)

(ra)

(n)

Herod, lib. ii. cap. 148. Herodot. ubi supra.

1165.

Diod. Sicul.

lib.

i.

p. 55,

(o) Plin. lib. v. cap. 9. lib. xxxi. cap. 13.

Ancient

Mythology,

vol. v. p,

162y

(p) Strabo, lib. xvii. p. (q) See before, p. 410.

SECT.

III.]

LABYRINTH. LAKE M(ERIS. CATACOMBS.

remaining, almost at the south

417

part of

it

is still

end of the lake Moeris [liirket-el-Kerem, i. e. the lake of Charon] a little to the east, and about 10 leagues from the ruins of Arsinoe; but it seems to be no more than a fourth part of the inner edifice, which, in all probability, had four fronts, and twelve halls corresponding to
them.(r)

arising from the fishery in it, amounting to a talent of silver(v) every day, to his queen for

her ointments, or what in

modern times would

This lake, relative to which some particulars have been already given, is stated by the ancients to have been 3600 stadia in circumference,(s) though later accounts describe it as not above half a league broad, and a day's journey in length, being in circuit about 12 or 15 leagues a difference to be accounted for, (if both these descriptions pertain to the same lake, which may be justly doubted,) by the circumstance of its being now much reduced in its dimensions from the accumulating soil, which the inhabitants have not the industry to prevent: one place in particular, whence the water has receded, having become a dangerous quicksand, wherein men and cattle are someM<ERIS.
:

LAKE

be called pin-money. In the middle of this lake was an island, about a league in circuit, on which, as already noticed, were two pyramids but nothing can now be discovered of them though some travellers relate that the island is covered with ruins of temples and tombs, with large figures of men and animals. On the farther side of the lake are some low mountains, with grottos, formerly used for sepulchres.(w) CATACOMBS. In various parts of the desert, on the west side of the Nile, are found many repositories for the dead, beneath the surface of the soil. These have been by travellers called catacombs and mummy-pits. Those most known are about nine leagues from Cairo, and two miles from Zaccara, whence they extend to the pyramids of Pharaoh, about eight miles distant. The entrance to these re; ;

times

lost.

This lake is not fed by the sea, but by water derived from the Nile, though a canal(t) cut for the purpose, 80 stadia long, and 300 feet broad, by which the water flowed into the lake during six months of the year, and back again to the there are two consiriver during the other six derable springs in the lake, which prevent its ever becoming quite dry. When the water is at its lowest ebb, several fine ruins are discovered at the bottom of the lake. Of the founder of this vast reservoir, notice has already been taken ;(u) to which may be added the tradition that Moeris gave the revenue
:

is by small square holes, called wells the country people. At the bottom of one by of these, sometimes 40 feet below the surface, are several square openings, on either side, into passages, 10 or 15 feet wide, which lead to chambers from 15 to 20 feet square. All these are hewn out of the rock, which is of white free-stone, and runs all over this country a few feet below the surface of the sand. They extend a great way under ground, so as to be beneath the city of Memphis, and in a manner undermine its environs. In the midst of each of the four sides of the chambers is a bench, cut out of the rock, upon which the embalmed At the head of these bodies, or mummies, lie.

positories

(r) The country people .call these ruins, the palace of Charon, concerning whom they relate the following story that being a person of mean extraction, and resolved to get money by any means, be took up his abode near the lake above alluded to, and exacted a certain sura for every corpse that he ferried over for interment. This he continued to do, but at length refusing passage unmolested, for several years to the dead body of the king, unless the u.-ual sum was paid him, the imposition was taken cognizance of by the court. He, however, contrived to persuade the reigning prince, that it would conduce to the advantage of the crown, to continue him in this post by royal authority and an edict was, in consequence, published, not only confirming Charon in his old employment, but even appointing him prime minister; so the office of ferryman, on the lake Mceris, became the ^iat rust post in the kingdom. Here Charon amassed such vast riches, that he was at length powerful enough to mount the
: ; ;

Charon, for security, lodged in the labyrinth, or whether his given to it on account of its proximity to the scene of his history, is uncertain.

name has been

(s)

Herod,

lib.

ii.

cap. 149.

Diod. Sicul.

lib.

i.

page 49.

Pomponius Mela makes the circuit of this lake no more than 20 miles, which is thought to be a mistake. It must also be
kept in mind, that writers are not agreed as to the identity of lake Moeris; and in their descriptions they frequently confound the two collections of water that have been named as it.
(t) This canal had, originally, immense sluices for letting the water in or out ; the expense of opening which was no

less

than 50 talents (about

0087. 10*.)

(u) See before, page 391.

(v)

About

193.

15s.

sterling;

or,

as

some

calculate,

258. Qs. 8d. (w) Lucas, ubi supr.

throne, after having assassinated his sovereign.*

* Lucas's Voyage$, tome
iii.

Whether

p. 63, et ieq.

VOL.

I.

418

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
and intention of
detail of all the

[CHAP. vi.

bodies there is commonly an idol, at the feet the image of a bird ; and on the walls are
st'M ral hieroglyphics, perhaps serving for Besides the principal bodies, there epitaphs. are others of smaller si/.e, and particularly of From twenty-five children, lying on the floor. to thirty of these chambers, sometimes, communicate with each other, and the descent lo them all is by one well. In some of the apartments the mummies are found in tombs, hollowed out of the rock in the sides of the

chamber.
to be the ancient are several curious grots, cut in the Lycopolis, side of a rocky mountain. One of them is large

Near Osyut, supposed

contain GOO

this Work, to give a particular admirable works of the ancient Egyptians. Some account of the ruins of their ancient cities has already been given in the geographical description of the country, from which somewhat of an estimate may be formed of the power, magnificence, ingenuity, and perseverance of these people ; of whom it has been justly remarked, that their very spoils form in modern times the principal ornament of Rome where is scarcely a column, or an obelisk worthy of notice, that was not originally carried thither from Egypt.
;

enough

to
It

horsemen

in military

has been chiseled out, and is suparray. ported by square pillars left in the process of
excavation, as is practised in stone quarries in our own country. In this extensive grotto are several small seats; and the walls appear to have been once decorated with paintings of several deities, which are now nearly defaced. In the same mountain are many other grottos, more beautiful than this, ranged in order, with doorways answering to each other on opposite sides on the doors are several images of the ancient idols of the country, in basso-relievo some with a staff in their hands, as if guarding the entrance. In these grottos have various apartments been made, and some wells sunk and at the farther end are catacombs, hollowed in the rock, containing a great number of bodies, as well as tombs adorned with bassorelievos, most of which have been disfigured Lucas, who went into more by the Arabs. than two hundred of these chambers, considers them to be upwards of a thousand in When these caverns were cut, or number.(x) for what purpose, it is in vain to expect any
; ;
:

SECTION

IV.

ANTIQUITY, GOVERNMENT, LAWS, RELIGION, CUSTOMS, ARTS, LANGUAGE, LETTERS, HIEROGLYPHICS, LEARNING, AND TRADE, OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.

ANTIQUITY. It has already been observed, that scarcely any nation can vie with the EgypFor though all tians in point of antiquity. owe their origin to Noah and his sons, none beside have such strong proofs of their immediate descent from that patriarch for, whether Mizraim were a person or a people, he was, or they were, the next in succession to Ham, who,
:

in

common with his brethren Japheth and Shem, was saved in the ark with his father Noah. It was very likely that Ham retired to
Egypt, immediately after the malediction of Canaan, (y) long before the general dispersion

mankind and that as his posterity increased, some migrated to various parts, while the Mizraim remained in Egypt, under the various names of Thebans,(z) or Diospolites, (who seem to have been in the direct line of Misor)
of
;

from history; though it is highly probable that they were depositories of the dead, but the bodies have been since removed. The
light

country people, always superstitious, and making a miracle of whatever they cannot comprehend, believe them to have been the work of daemons, who deposited great treasures in them; and, in search of these riches, perpetual dilapidations are committed on the fabric. It would be impossible, within the compas*;
(x) Lucas, uln supr. tome ii. p. 76. (y) See note (f), page 2iKt.

Tanites, Egyptians, Pathrusim, Casluhim, Caphtorim, &c. most of whom subsequently removed and settled elsewhere particularly the Casluhun, and their descendants
Thinites,
;

or

the Philistim, or Philistines. The Egyptians themselves, however, for want of letters, and mistaking the hieroglyphics of their ancestors in the earlier ages, were ignorant of their true descent, and, arrogating to themselves an antiquity even beyond that ol"
(z)
lib.
i.

From 0Cj, a
ver.

ship, or ark.

Nonnus, apud Apollon,

22U.

1ECT. IV.]

ANTIQUITY.- GOVERNMENT.

419

the creation, pretended .they wore the first men in the world, and that all others had proceeded from them, as they themselves had from their native soil. On this mistaken notion they built their history, and reckoned an extravagant number of years, during which they boasted that their kingdom had flourished under the administration of their native
these;

How far they were justifiable in high pretensions will be examined in the next section, in treating of their chronology.
kings. (a)

As the Egyptians were GOVERNMENT. the most ancient of the natives, so were among they the first who discovered the true principles of government, the art of making life easy, and the people happy and that the pursuit of virtue was the foundation of every society. Their laws and institutions were not only highly reverenced by those who lived under their immediate influence, but by other nations, particularly the Grecians, whose first philosophers and
;

lawgivers travelled into this country to learn wisdom, and borrowed thence the best of those institutions which they afterwards established
at

most distinguished birth, who alter Inning had a suitable education, were, at the age of 20, placed about the king's person. The hour of the king's rising, that for his eating, the quality and quantity of what he ate or drank, in short whatever pertained to him, was governed by certain rules and in consequence of this regularity, and the care taken of their education, there were few among the earlier sovereigns of the country who could be denoThe first thing the minated bad princes. (c) was to attend to the comking did in rising, munications from various parts of his dominions he then repaired in state to the temple to sacrifice, where the priest, after invoking a blessing upon him, gave an exordium to the people, in which he expatiated on the royal virtues, and then admonished the king himself Extracts were against the commission of evil. also read before him, from the sacred records, of the lives and actions of the most celebrated men who had gone before him, that he
: :

home.

might be thereby instructed to govern his state by their maxims, and regulate his administration according to the established laws.
administration of justice was confided a tribunal of 30 judges, taken from the three chief cities of Heliopolis, Thebes, and Memphis, ten from each they were men of the best reputo
;

The government was

kings,
in

hereditary,

and the

The

with their subjects, were obliged to conform to the established laws of the land, both in public affairs and in private life. No slave bought with rnoney,(b) nor a servant born in their house, was allowed to enter the royal presence but they were constantly served by the sons of the priests, of
;

common

tation,

life. They elected a president from among themselves, whose place, as an inferior judge, was supplied by the Their salaries were paid city that sent him.

and irreproachable

v<>

In the days of Psammetichus, however, they are said have acknowledged the Phrygians to be their elders, upon the following occasion Psammetichus, who is supposed to have been contemporary with Manasseb, about the year 050 15. had tried several fruitless experiments to ascertain who were the most ancient people, and which the most ancient At length he took two infants, just language in the world. as they were born, and gave them to a shepherd to be brought up, commanding him to suffer no person to speak a word in their hearing, but to nurse them in a solitary cottage, and
(a)
:

(.'..

they could take more subwhen the shepherd one day entered the cottage, the children ran to him with out" Of this he at first stretched arms, crying Becos, becos !" took no notice ; but afterwards observing, that they frequently repeated this word at his going in, he acquainted the king with it, and by his order brought them into the royal presence. P.iamiueticlius having himself heard them pronounce the same word, ordered inquiries to be made whether any nation used it and finding that the Phrygians called bread by that name, he and his subjects allowed it as a proof of the superior antiquity of that people, and the genuineness of their language; supposing the children to have been led by nature to ask for
nourish them with goats' milk
food.
till

stantial

At two

years' end,

bread in the original tongue. Herodotus,* from whom this story is borrowed, remarks that the Greeks, among other ridiculous things, reported that these children were brought up by women, whose tongues had been cut out by the king's order. The Scholiast of Aristophanes tells a similar story of another Egyptian monarch, called Scsonchosis, who reigned long before Psammetichus. (b) Perhaps it was on this account that Joseph, in making " coiue near," himself known to his brethren, desired them to " I am whilst he told them, Joseph your brother, whom ye SOLD into Egypt. t This part of his adventures was unknown to the king, and he was desirous of keeping it a secret, lest the prejudices of the Egyptians should be excited against This is only conjecture, but it is at least specious. him. Why else should he have accompanied this declaration with
so

much
(c)

caution

This observation of M. Rossuet must be limited to the of the first dynasty after the. expulsion of the shepherds, kings and their predecessors of the Diospolite or Theban race. Their successors, from ^gjptus, with whom the oppression of the Israelites commenced, were bad enough !
Herod,
lib.
ii.

sufr

i;ii(.

Gen.

xlir.

4.

4-20

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
king,

[CHAP. vi.

by the

who allowed

the president a

stipend proportioned to his superior rank ; and to distinguish him more visibly from his brethren, lie wore a gold chain about his neck, to

as well as unjust, by the Egyptians, to despise anyone, whose labours, of what kind sot-Mr, contributed to the general public good. Such
class of labourers, who farmed the lands of the three superior orders at an annual rent and the classes of merchants, mechanics, shepherds, pilots, sailors, or mariners but no

were the
;

which was appended an image of precious The process of this stones, called TRUTH. court was by writing, without the assistance of a pleader ; so much were the powers of
eloquence over the passions distrusted: nor was a man suffered to speak in his own behalf, lest he should obtain any unfair advantage
over his adversary by more artful speaking, or The plaintiff a bolder method of delivery. his complaint in writing, a therefore preferred copy of which was given to the defendant, who delivered in his answer in the same way. To this the plaintiff put in his rejoinder, and the

one was permitted to choose his own employment, each individual being obliged to transmit to his children the profession he had received from his forefathers. LAWS. Generally speaking, the laws of the Egyptians were simple, equitable, and tending to unite the people, who were all obliged to

make them

their peculiar study.

The

penal

Each party having thus given in two writings, the court took them into consideration, and after consulting together, proceeded to give sentence, the president turning the effigies of TRUTH towards the party This in whose favour judgment was given.
defendant his replication.
tribunal was thought to be nothing inferior to the Areopagus at Athens, or to the Senate at

code was rigorously observed, as well for the maintenance of public tranquillity, as the proand among its tection of private property enactments the following were most remarkable
;

for antiquity or usefulness.

1. Perjury was punished with death; it beinir an offence against the gods, as well as subversive of the bonds of human society.

Sparta.

2. Murder was also punished with death; as was likewise the neglect to rescue a person violently assaulted, or killed on the public

Every nome, or province, had its particular governor, who watched over the concerns of The lands were his immediate jurisdiction. divided into three parts of which one was allotted to the priests, and the revenues were devoted to their maintenance, and the expenses of sacrifices and public worship. The second portion belonged to the king, and was set apart
;

road.

In the latter case, the party,

if really

unable to give assistance, was obliged to discover and prosecute the offenders ; or, for neglect, he received a certain number of stripes, and was kept without food for three days.
False accusers underwent the same punishthat would have been inflicted upon the accused, had the falsehood not been detected.
3.

ment
4.

for the charges of his wars, the support of his dignity and splendour, and the rewarding of The third persons of distinguished merit. allotment belonged to the soldiers, who, accord-

As every Egyptian was enjoined to have name and profession registered by the governor of the nome in which he lived so to give in a false registry, or declaration, was only
his
;

ing to Herodotus, (d) amounted to 410,000. They had each twelve nrotiref(e) of land ; and being so liberally provided for, they were encouraged to hazard their lives in their country's defence, and the safety of the nation was entrusted to men who had a real interest in it. Though the king, the priests, and the soldiery, thus appear to have formed the three orders of the state; there were nevertheless inferior classes of citizens, who equally possessed the public esteem ; it being deemed unwise,
lib. ii. sub init. aroura was rather more than three-quarters of an English acre, being th square of 100 cubits.

be expiated by death. Parricides were put to a most cruel death and parents who killed their children, were conto
5.
:

demned

to

embrace

their

dead bodies

for three

days and nights together. 6. In capital punishments, pregnant women were not executed till after their delivery, that
the innocent might not suffer with the guilty.

Mutiny and desertion were punished with anil those who bedegradation and disgrace secret designs to the enemy had their trayed
7.
;

(d)
(e)

Herod,

An

tongues exit out. 8. Coining false, money, using false weights, \vithjorgeries of every description, were punished with the loss of both hands.

SECT. IV.]

LAWS. RELIGION.

421

9. Adultery was punished in the man with 1000 lashes, inflicted with rods; in the woman with the loss of her nose. And the ravisher of a free-woman was rendered incapable of

Among their commercial laws, we meet with the following 1. Every claim for money lent was considered as null, if the claimant could not produce an acknowledgment in writing; provided the supposed debtor would make oath that he was When the not indebted to the claimant. debt was admitted, or proved by the production of the necessary document, the interest was never to exceed double the principal, or sum lent, and the goods only of the debtor were
:

repeating his crime.

in his name to the chief of the band, and promised to deliver into his hands all the booty he should make. When a person had been robbed, therefore, he sent to the chief a written description of what had been stolen, as likewise of the day, hour, and place, when and where it

this information, the property found, and restored to the owner easily on his paying a fourth part of its value. RELIGION. In ancient Egypt we behold the theatre of the most gross and ridiculous and idolatry that ever people were given up to much as its inhabitants excelled other nations in the wisdom of their laws and constitutions,
lost.

was was

Upon

his person being claimed by the city or place where he lived, which had a greater interest in him, and a right to his serthe Egyptians vice both in peace and war the policy of sacrificing an not comprehending useful member of the community to the avarice or spleen of an individual creditor. man might borrow money on the pledge 2.
liable to seizure
;
:

they yet more surpassed them in bigotry and superstition. Idolatry was so ancient among them, that the Greeks confessed they borrowed from them not only their religious ceremonies, but the names of almost all their gods. It has
already been stated as

highly probable

that

Hani

retired early to this country, before the

of his deceased father's body, which was put into the hands of the creditor and if he did not redeem it, he was himself deprived of sepulchral honours, nor could he have liberty
:

to bury

was

any person descended from him which This law was accounted infamous.
;

made by
of money.

Asychis, to promote the circulation

their laws relative to marriage less

Nor were

general dispersion of mankind. Here, secluded from the converse of Noah, Shem, and the worshippers of the true God, and, it is to be suspected, as destitute of real devotion as he was of filial piety, he soon gave himself up to the false religion which he had learned among the antediluvians whence the Egyptians might be truly said by Herodotus, to be the first people who erected altars, images, and temples, invented festivals, ceremonies, and transactions with the gods by the mediation of others, and first gave names to the twelve gods.(f )
:

The priests were allowed only one singular. wife, but all other persons might marry as many Brothers were permitted to as they pleased.
marry
their
it

The Egyptians gave

different
:

ranks

and

own

sisters

and

in the

marriage

contract
the
icife.

was always
in
all

husband should

was reckoned illegitimate, though begotten on a slave bought with money:

child

No

stipulated that the things be obedient to

the Egyptians considering the father to be the sole cause of generation. There was also a remarkable custom, which had the sanction of law, with regard to the Egyptian robbers and sharpers, who were such by profession. Whoever entered their gang ga\ e
cap. 60. interpretations of these two fictitious Some suppose Osiiia to dciiics, are almost without number. In: the moon, or the Nile, lost or destroyed in the sea, vhich they call Typlion, the treacherous brother of Osiris ; and then Jsis is the earth in general, or simply the land of Egypt
(f)
lit*, ii.

of these, the first were their celestial and eternal gods, as Osiris, or the sun ; /*w,(g) or the moon ; Jupiter, or the spirit by which all creatures are animated Vulcan, or fire Ceres, or the earth ; Ocennus, (by which the Egyptians meant the Nile) or moisture; and Minerva, also called Xeith, or air. Those of the second order consisted of terrestrial and mortal deities, or men who had merited the honours paid to them by the benefits they had conferred on mankind in
; ;

orders to their numerous deities

their life-time.

dually, several of

These must have arisen grathem having been kings of

same with Pluto or Bacchus, and P-wr/iiae, Cijbfle, &c. Others,

Herodot.

(<)

The mythological

lie the efficient cause of all things, But all these notions matter, or n:iture in general. appear to be of a dale subsequent to the first institution of idolatrous, or false worship, in Egypt.

others, that Osiris is the /six the same with ('./;>, again, imagine Osiris to

and

/s-i's

422

HISTORY OF EGYPT.

[CHAP. vi.

Egypt, ages after the establishment of idolatry the country and as it was customary to flatter them with the titles and names of their gods while living, they were worshipped as such after death. We 'accordingly find several of these secondary deities hearing the same names with those of the first, or celestial order, while others had proper names of their own, as the Sun, Chronus, or Saturn, (by some supposed to be Ham himself, by others, his father Noah) JR/iea, Jupiter, or Ammon, (also supposed to be
in
:

Jiuio, Vulcan, Vesta, Hermes, or Mercury, Venus, Pan, Arueris, Nephthys, &c. Serapis is supposed to have been introduced by one of the Ptolemies, at Alexandria; while others take him to be Osiris, under another name, who was also called Bacchus. There was also Typhon,(\\) or the sea, called likewise Selh, Bebon, and Smy, the author of all mischief, as his brother Osiris was the fountain of all good. The bodies of these mortal deities(i) remained in their sepulchres on earth but their souls were supposed The other to shine in the stars of heaven. more remarkable or principal deities of the

Ham)

exception of some of the principal gods, who were honoured throughout the kingdom, the worship of each deity was confined to one or hence there were two cities or provinces almost as many gods in Egypt as there were cities, which the Greeks designated by the names of the deities therein worshipped. This diversity was sometimes attended with very ill consequences, especially among such cities whose deities were naturally enemies to each other; and involved the people in inveterate We are told quarrels, and destructive wars. that this arose out of the policy of by Diodorus, one of their kings, who, observing the people to be of a seditious humour, contrived to dis:

by enjoining upon each province an object of worship, and a course of diet, different from all the rest; so that the Egyptians, being divided among themselves, could never afterwards unite, so as to be dangerous
unite them,
to the ruling power.(j)

But notwithstanding

this polytheism,

they

were Anubis, Hurpocrates, Orus, and Canopus. But the extravagance of these people is more particularly exemplified, in the
Egyptians
divine honours they bestowed on brute animals, as bulls, crocodiles, dogs, wolves, cats, ichneumons, or rats, the bird ibis, and the fish oxyrynchus even vegetables were not exempt, as leeks, onions, and the water-lily lotus ; all this was attended with so great variety and disagreement among themselves, that, with the
:

are said, in reality, to have acknowledged one supreme God, the Maker and Ruler of the world, whom they variously designated by the

name

of Osiris, Serapis, Isis, and Neith. The inhabitants of the Thebais are reported to have worshipped only the immortal and unbegotten Cneph, or Emeph ; from whom they supposed a secondary god to have proceeded, representlit ha, a name at ing the world, called present used by the Copts for the supreme Being.(k) Osiris was worshipped throughout Egypt, under the figure of a bull,(l) or the emblem

no other than Cush, the known by the various names of Culliites, Ilyc-sos, King-Shepherds, &c. invaded Egypt, and held it many years in subjection; the Mizraim, or
(h) Tliis Ti/f)hon was, probably,

(1)

elder sou of

Ham, whose

posterity,

whom

The Egyptians worshipped two

bulls

one at Memphis,

family of Ham, retiring in the mean time into Upper Egypt, or Ethiopia, as will be seen hereafter. Typhou was held in universal detestation for the evils he brought upon his famiK and nation and so were the Cuthites. Typhon waged war with the gods, and forced them to seek shelter in various places: the (.'nthiles wrested the sceptre from the hands of the Mizraim, destroyed their idols, and overthrew their altars.
;

the custom of deifying mortal men, probably (i) From arose the practice of embalming dead bodies, an honour at first confined to such as received the apotheosis, then extended to sovereigns, and, by degrees, made general. It was too

shocking, even to these gross idolaters, to pay divine honours to a putrid carcase, and therefore they exerted their ingenuity to avert, as long as possible, so disgusting a consequence. Or they endeavoured to give the bodies of their deceased gods a kind of fictitious perpetuity. (j) Diod. Sicul. lib. i. p. 00.
(k) Plutarch.

DC Isid.

they called Apis, and one at Heliopolis, named Mnevis: this last v\ as black, and the honours paid to him were inferior to those given to Apis. Bulls were sacrificed to both. The Apis was to be the calf of a cow incapable of bearing another, and no otherwise to be impregnated than by thunder. His body was to be black, except one square of white on the forehead he had the figure of an eagle on his back, a double li>t of hair on his tail, and a knot, like a beetle, under his tongue. When he died, the most bitter lamentations were made over His funeral was frehim, and a general mourning ensued. attended with such a heavy expense, that his keeper quently spent much more than all his substance in the ceremonies. When this was over, the priests sought for another and w hen they fonn:l a calf with the requisite marks and qualifications, he was led to the city of the Nile, and fed there for 40 days, during w Inch time he was visited and attended only by women, though they were never afterwards permitted to see him. At the expiration of the 40 days, he was transported in a vessel, with a gilt cabin, to Memphis, and turned into the grove of Vulcan, where good pasturage, and a number of heifers, were
; ;

et Osir. p. SOU.

provided for his entertainment.

(i

The

pretence for

all this,

SECT. IV.]

GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS.

423

of a sceptre and an eye, or the figure of a

hawk.
Isis received divine honours under the figure of a woman, with the horns of a cow upon her head, holding the sislrum, a kind of cymbal, in her right hand, and a pitcher in her left the horns signifying the crescent of the moon, the sistrum the perpetual motion that is in nature, and the pitcher the moisture and fecundity of the Nile. Sometimes, however, she is represented as C'ybele, without the horns, and her
:

Anubis was painted with the head of a dog, because he accompanied Osiris in his celebrated expedition, clothed in the skin of that animal. He was also the guard of Osiris and /st's.(o)

Hence the worship of the dog.

Jfnrpocrates, the son of Jsis, after the death of Osiris, was represented with his finger on his mouth, as the god of silence. He was always placed near the statues of Osiris and Jsis, to
intimate, that their having once was not to be spoken of.

been mortals,

of breasts, to express her power of all things. An ox was her sacrificial victim, and she was particularly honoured at Busing. Serapis was represented under the figure of a man, with a bushel measure on his head, indicative of plenty, ilis right hand leaned or. the head of a serpent, with its body entwine*; about a figure having the heads of a dog, a lioi:, arid a wolf. In his left hand was a measure of a cubit in length, in allusion to the rising of the

body

full

nourishing

Orus, frequently confounded with Apollo, was the son of Osiris and Isis, and was represented as a child in swaddling clothes. Canopus, the pilot of Osiris's ship, was represented by a large jar, or vase, with a human He is suphead, and scarcely any feet.(p) posed to have been the emblem of the Nile, fiis soul, after death, animated the star which
still

bears his name.(q) pilot of Menelaus.

He

is

also called the

Nile.

Jupiter
iiuin

under the

sometimes represented of a ram, and sometimes as a figure with a ram's head. (in) Goats were sacriThebes, from him had a celebrated the Libyan desert, as

Amman was

Pan was worshipped by the inhabitants of \!e>ides,(r) who held him to be one of the eight most ancient gods. He was represented with
the face and legs of a goat, and sheep were offered to him in sacrifice. To the moon, when at the full, the Egyptians offered swine ;(s) as they did also to JJacc/tus: that animal being considered as unclean, and

ficed to him, principally at called Diospolis; and he

oracle

and temple

in

already described. (n)

was a notion that the soul of Osiris migrated into a bull of and by a successive metempsychosis, passed from the body of one bull to another, as often as one died and another was found.* It sometimes happened, that manv years elapsed between the death of one Apis, and the discovery of another; in this case, the whole nation remained all the time in a state of mourning and affliction, because their god had deserted them but when, at length, a calf of the right sort was found, the event was celebrated with the most extravagant and fantastic demonstrations of joy. According to Marrcllinus.t there was a determinate period for the worship ui Apis and Mnevis, at the expiration of which, they were taken to the Nile, and drowned. Mr. Bryant considers these sacred bulls as emblems and corrupt memorials of the ark, and the preservation of the human race by its means. Apis he takes to be an Egyptian term for father ; and Mnevis, or rut lu- r Mncuas, he derives from Men, the moon, and Neuas, the patriarch Noah.J
;

forbidden to be sacrificed to any other deities.

(n)
(o)

this description,

See before, page 306. This deity is sometimes confounded with Hermes, or

Mercury, called by the Egyptians Thoth, Tenth, or Theuth; and then the dog's head may indicate his sagacity. of this whimsical emblem is said to have (p) The occasion been a victory obtained by his priests over those of the Chaldaic god, fire. The Chaldeans, who were the same with the Cuthites, or Hyc-sos, so much detested by the others to Egyptians, carried about their god, defying all to engage in combat with it, and consuming all that were put
till at length the priest of Canopus, taking an earthen ; with water-pot, full of holes, which he carefully stopped up wax, rilled it with water, painted il all over, and placing the head of an old image on the top, produced it as a god, ready It was, accordingly, to encounter that of the Chalda-ans. placed in the fire ; but the wax no sooner melted, than the water gushed out, and extinguished the hitherto invincible deity of the invaders.||

the test

(m) The occasion of this representation is said to have been, that Hercules was desirous to see Jupiter, who was unwilling to be seen ; but at length yielding to the hero's importunity, he enveloped himself in the fleece of a ram, and then shewed himself.^ Other accounts say, that Jupiter imrt'aled himself under the form of a ram, when Typhon waged war against the gods, and made them fly from heaven.
*

vol. iii. (q) See before, page 398, and Ancient Mythology, page 389. a (r) Mendes, in the ancient Egyptian language, signified and Pan was the tutelary deity of goatherds. goat;

aflbrd a swine, moulded a piece (s) Those who could not of dough into the shape of that animal, and offered it iu
sacrifice.
ii. cap. 65. $ Herodot. lib. Suidas in Caiiop. Rutfm, Hist. Eccles.

Herudot.

lib.

ii.

cap. 65.
vol.
iii.

Lib. xxii. p. L2j7.

I]

Ht/tM.

p. 1*83, ct seq.

lib. JJ.

42-1

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
hawks and moles,
which
latter there

[CHAP. vi.

The festival of Bacchus was accompanied with the most obscene ceremonies. The Egyptians did not confine their solemn festivals to annual periods, but had several times in the year appointed for that purpose, when they visited, with great devotion, the several cities where the particular deities were
worshipped
;

to Butus; dogs, bears, (of were but few in Egypt,) and a small kind of wolves, not larger than foxes, were buried wherever they happened to be found.(u) The death of domestic animals, as cats and dogs, occasioned the whole family to which they had belonged, to go into mourning and
;

as,

Busiris for Isis ;

Thebes

for

Jupiter; Bubastis for Diana ,-(t) Sais for Mini'i-ra; Heliopolis for the Sun; Butus for La-

Mars, &c. preposterous worship was also paid to the bulls Apis at Memphis, and Mnevis at Heliopolis to the goat at Mendes ; the lion at Leontoiia;

Papremis

for

topolis;

the

crocodile

at

Crocodilopolis,
;

or

Arsinoe, near the lake Moeris ; the fish Oxyrynchus in the city of the same name the vulture at Latona the ichneumon, or Egyptian rat, at Heracleopolis the wolf at Lycopolis the dog at Canubis and the cat, the ibis, the hawk, and other animals, in different cities where, whilst living, they respectively had lands set apart for their maintenance they were attended by persons of both sexes of the highest rank, who provided victuals for them, consisting of the
; ; ; ; ; ;

choicest dainties, as the finest flour boiled in ; cakes, of several sorts, made with honey; the flesh of geese, roasted and boiled ; or living birds for such as fed on raw flesh ; they were washed in hot-baths perfumed with the most odoriferous herbs, and anointed with costly ointments they lay upon the richest carpets, and other noble furniture; and, that nothing

milk

of a fire, there was a general lamentation among the Egyptians, on account, of the cats who perished in the flames. If a person killed one of these sacred animals designedly, he was punished with death; if accidentally, his punishment was referred to the priests but to kill a cat, a hawk, or an ibis, under any circumstances, was death without mercy ; the superstitious and enraged multitude hurrying away the unhappy victim to execution, sometimes even without any formal process.(v) Various reasons have been assigned to these superstitions justify, extenuate, or defend of the Egyptians ; though the priests generally affected silence on the subject, and referred to certain mysteries, unlawful for them to reveal. For want, therefore, of a knowledge of the truth, theorists have ranged the field of conjecture, till both themselves and their partizans have been bewildered. The first reason alleged was from the fabulous tradition, that the gods were obliged to conceal themselves under the forms of various kinds of animals, to avoid the rage of Typhon, after he had murdered Osiris :(w) and that afterwards, in gratitude for the benefits conin case
:

might be wanting to render them happy and comfortable, they had harams of the most beautiful females, of their several species, provided for them, to which the Egyptians gave the title of concubines, bestowing extravagant attendance and expense upon them. When they died, their bodies, wrapped in fine linen, were anointed with oil of cedar, and other aromatic preparations, as a preservative from putrefaction, and buried in sacred coffins. All dead cats were taken for interment to the city of Bubastis;
(t)

ferred by them upon mankind, it was ordained by the ruling powers, that the creatures whose shapes the gods had assumed should be well

maintained while

living,
is

and honourably buried

derived from the primithe Egyptians, by

when they died. The second reason

tive use of

standards
different

among

companies were distinsome guished from each other, by the figure of became an object of animal, which afterwards adoration, on account of the superiority they

which the

Some

another place

particulars of these festivals have been given in see page 400.

;

(u) Tliis last honour was paid to these animals with such scrupulousness, that when the Egyptians returned from foreign wars, they frequently brought home with them dead cats and hawks, in order to bury them ; which they did with great demonstrations of sorrow, and at considerable expense,

the entreaties of some ing him to be given up ; and neither men sent by the king, nor the fear of the Romans, principal with whom a peace was then negociating, could save the

man's

1*

life.

the irruption of the (w) This tradition probably points to a little before the birth Shepherd-Kings, which took place of Abraham; Egypt having been then a kingdom about 258

tlnmyh, at the same time, they frequently wanted necessaries. (v; A Roman having inadvertently killed a cat, the mob immediately collected about the house where he was, demand-

or 350 years.
* Diod. Sicul.
lib.
i.

p. 75.

SECT. IV.]

IDOLATRY AND TEMPLES OF THE EGYPTIANS.

12S

obtained, in being thus reduced to order, over their undisciplined enemies ; and which they might attribute to the animals whose emblems they fought under. Thirdly, The great utility of the several

animals to mankind.
Fourthly, That the animals were symbols of the gods, and that the worship paid to them, did not end in them, but in the supreme Being, whose image and works the Egyptians reveThus renced wherever they met with them. considered the hawk, the crocodile, and they the asp, as emblems of the divine nature the
;

The ancient Egyptians are said to have been addicted to the horrid practice of offering human sacrifices to their deities.(y) In Lo\\t r Egypt, red-haired men, as well as red oxen, were the victims, because Typhon was reputed to have had red hair men of this complexion were therefore immolated at the tomb of Osiris; and as few or none of the native Egyptians had hair of this colour, strangers were usually
:

of his penetrating sight, the crocodile because it has no tongue, an organ for which God has no occasion, and the asp as not being subject to old age, and moving without the assistance of limbs in like manner the cat and the beetle were looked upon as symbols of the divine power; the former on account of her fecundity and tenacity of life and the beetle as possessing the powers of generation within itself, the Egyptians supposing there was no female of the species. The Egyptians were the first people who assigned each month and day to a particular deity, and observed the time of each person's nativity, by which they judged of his future
:

hawk on account

selected for the purpose.(z) Men were also sacrificed at Heliopolis; and to Juno, or Lucina, at a city in Upper Theba'is, called by the name of that goddess, who was worshipped there under the emblem of a vulture.(a) Historians are silent as to the worship of leeks and onions, and perhaps the satirist Juvenal has rather exaggerated the fact but it is certain that some cities most scrupulously abstained from certain vegetables, as lentiles, beans, and onions ; the latter of which the priests abominated, because, of all plants, the onion alone would thrive in the decline of the moon. Some also pretend that their aversion arose from Dictys, the pupil of Isis, having been drowned while seeking for them in marshy
:

places.
last

fortune.

They

carefully

registered

all

pro-

digies, with an account of their consequences ; supposing that on their recurrence, the same event would follow predictions, however, they referred to the gods, whom they consulted by their oracles, of which they had many ; as those of Hercules, Apollo, Minerva, Diana, Mars, and Jupiter ; that of Latona, in the city of But us, was most reverenced, in the earlier times, as was that of Serapis, latterly, at AlexThe sacred animals, also, had their andria. several oracles, as the apis,(x) the gout, the /Vow, and the crocodile.
:

structure of the Egyptian temples is the thing worthy of notice under the present head. The first thing that presented itself, on entering, was an avenue, or stone pavement, a

The

pletheron (about 100 feet) in breadth, and three or four times as long, with a row of sphinxes on each side, twenty cubits distant from each other. This avenue led to a portico, behind which was a second, and sometimes a third. The temple itself consisted of a spacious court, and a well-proportioned chapel ; in which, if there were any image, it was of some irrational animal ; but as the earlier Egyptians did not use images in their temples, this was rarely the case.
however, that Husiris was not the proper name of a king, but of the tomb of Osiris, so called in the Egyptian
language.*

The manner of consulting the apis was by observing which chamber he entered, of two prepared for him his going into one being construed as a good omen, and his or, otherwise, the inquirer entering the other as a bad one offered him food, which, if he accepted, the answer was concluded to be favourable, but the contrary if he rejected it.* Manetho, apud Porphyr. (y) Diod. Sicul. lib. i. p. 79. De Abitin. lib. ii. cap. 55. Euseb. Prccp. Evan. lib. iv.
(x)

into

thus sacrificed, were called Typhothree were offered every day during the dog-days, being burnt alive, and their ashes scattered in the air. Amosis abolished this barbarous practice, and ordered so many wax images to be substituted for men an honour which the
(a)

The unhappy men,

nian

Plutarch. .De hid. et Osir. p. 380. (z) Hence the fable of Busiris, who was said to sacrifice strangers upon their arrival on his coasts: it appears,

cap. 16.

Greeks attributed to Hercules, who arriving in Egypt was seized, and about to be sacrificed, when he rescued himself, and slew all who were present. t
* Diod. Sic. ubi
sitpr.

* Plin. Nat. Hist.

lib.

iii.

cap. 46.

Am,

Marcell.

lib. xxii.

cap. Ii.

Herod,

lib.

ii.

cap. 4o.

VOL.

I.

426

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
Few
nations preserved their ori-

[CHAP. vi.

CUSTOMS.
ginal laws
;

time
In

fast

approached when

they should be

Egyptians ordinances of a higher nature, was little if at all, superior to their attachment to their own usages in more trivial matters: a new custom among them being no less than a
prodigy.

and customs so long as did the and their exactness in observing

numbered with

their forefathers in the dust. their households and in their persons,

;

using frequent ablutions and purifications. They scrupulouslyavoided eating with strangers, as unclean and from the same principle it probably was, that they adopted the painful operation of circum:

they were cleanly to an extreme

They were extremely careful of the education of their children, but they brought them
up with great frugality, feeding them on the During their cheapest and coarsest diet. childhood they went nearly naked, and barefooted. The priests instructed them in the sacred and common characters, geometry, and
arithmetic yet few of the inferior classes, except the tradesmen, were able to read and write. To render them useful members of society, they began at a very early age to learn the trade or calling of their forefathers every
;
:

cision. (d)

The great virtue of the Egyptians was gratitude by an over extension of which they seem to have been led to honour their princes as
;

gods.

Hence

also

the great

respect they

shewed towards the remains of their ancestors, and their constant endeavour to testify their thankfulness to every person and thing from which they derived benefit. In their diet, the inhabitants of some parts abstained from animals that were eaten in
others,

class being obliged to bring

its

peculiar avocation. they never taught their children ; but they exacted of them the most profound respect

up its children in Music and wrestling

shipped

according to the deities they worthey never eating any that were con;

towards their elders, and obliged them to rise from their seats and retire on the approach Their manner of of an aged person, (b)
salutation was by bowing very respectfully, letting the hands fall as low as the knees.

While the women were employed in trade and business abroad, the men remained at home, to spin, and attend to the domestic affairs, (c) Men carried burdens on their heads women, on their shoulders. They kneaded dough with their feet, and tempered
;

mortar with their hands.

publicly
in

They
and

the

streets,

ate their meals occupied their

houses in common with their cattle. In all and in many other customs, they seem which, industriously to have acted in contradiction to
the rest of mankind. In their great convivial festivals, a coffin, or the figure of a dead body, was laid upon the table, before they took their wine, to remind them, in the midst of their gaiety and mirth, that death was the ultimatum of life, and that the
This practice, Lycurgus,
at Sparta.

secrated to their favourite deity. They all, however, agreed in their aversion to swine's flesh, which they accounted so impure, that if a man accidentally touched an animal of that species, he immediately plunged himself, with his clothes on, into the river.(e) They ate fish, pickled, or dried in the sun; as also ducks, quails, and smaller birds, preserved in salt, without any farther preparation. Other birds and fishes they either boiled or roasted ; biit the heads of all animals were accounted accursed, because, in the sacrifices, after the priest had laid his hands upon the head of the victim with many execrations, it was thrown into the river with an imprecation that the evils impending over the persons sacrificing,might fall upon it ; they therefore never ate of this part of an animal.

The Egyptians
eat barley or

considered
;

it

a reproach to

wheaten bread instead of which used a fine flour, by some called olyra, by they But those who others zea, and by ns spelt. dwelt about the marshes fed on several plants, as the lotus, of which they made a kind of bread, and the papyrus.
than probable, that they imitated
it

(b)

who had been in Egypt,

intro-

from the

Israelites,

or

duced

from the Ishmaelites.

performed
to
it.

(cl This perhaps gave occasion to the law which exempted son* from the care of providing for their parents, and enjoined that duty on ihc daughters. (d) Herodotus and Diodorus say, the Egyptians had this

till

the operation was not says, " Both sexes were subject the age of fourteen.

Ambrose

(e)

their temples

Swineherds were not permitted, on this account, to enter neither would the Egyptians intermarry with
;

practice

among them from time immemorial

but

it is

more

them.

SECT. IV.]

CUSTOMS. CLOTHING. FUNERALS.

EMBALMING.

427

Their usual drink was, and still is, the water of the Nile; but they had a superior kind of beverage, called wine by Herodotus, made of barley, for at that period there were no vines cultivated in the country; and* it is to the Egyptians that we are probably indebted for the invention of beer. The clothing- of the Egyptians consisted of a linen vest, culled calasiris, fringed at the bottom; over which was worn a white mantle of woollen cloth ; but it was reckoned profane to enter the temples in this mantle, as it was to bury the dead in woollen. The priests

And as the dead bodies, in another. of the means they used, were of consequence long duration, they spared neither cost nor labour in building or excavating their sepulchres, which they termed eternal mansions; at the same time that they were little solicitous about
into
their houses,

art, to preserve the body as as possible, that the soul might be obliged long to continue longer with it, and not soon pass

endeavoured, by

because they lodged

short time.

which they denominated inns; in them a comparatively

wore linen garments and shoes, which they took particular care to wash often. And for cleanliness, they shaved all parts of greater their bodies once in three days, and bathed constantly, twice by day, and twice by night,
in cold water,

The Egyptians
tality

with much superstition. not only asserted the immorof the soul, but they believed that when

person of consideration died, the the family, with their heads and faces covered with dirt, their breasts bare, and their waists girt, leaving the body at home, marched through the city, attended by all their female relations, lamenting the deceased, and beating themselves in a violent manner.

When a women of

The men
after the
till

the

body was corrupted, the soul entei-ed into some other animal, and after a complete

also, in another company, mourned same method. This was continued the corpse was interred and during all
;

metempsychosis through the various scales of being belonging to the air, earth, and water, returned again, in the revolution of 3000 years, into a human body. For this reason, they
(f)

that time, they abstained from bathing, from wine, and the more delicate meats, and laid aside their best apparel. After the first lamentation, the body was carried to the embalmers, (f )

who

having performed

their

office,
little

These embalmers had three

different

modes of

pre-

covered with gum.

All this was performed with so

serving bodies: one, very exquisite and expensive, cost a talent of silver; the second, more generally used, cost 20 minae, or the third, used only for poor a fourth of the former sum In the first of thesa, the operators people, cost but a trifle.
;

injury to the body, that the hair was preserved on the brows and eye-lids, and the resemblance of the countenance remained so perfect, that the features of the individual were capable of

began by drawing out the brains through the nostrils, with a bent iron, and filling up the cavity with spices. Then one, whom they called tlte scribe, marked, on the left side of the abdomen, where the incision was to be made and the paras;

The second method was by injecting oil of recognition. cedar, by the ordinary way, into the bowels, without opening the body ; after which, the corpse was laid in nitre for 70
and then the oil of cedar being let out by the way it was injected, it brought along with it the entrails, shrunk and the nitre having consumed the flesh, and left only putrified the skin and bones. The body was then delivered to the The third and relatives, without any farther preparation. last method consisted merely in cleansing the bowels by injected lotions, of less value than oil of cedar, and salting the body for 70 days. The embalmers had various models, or patterns, in painted wood, which they shewed to the reladays
;

chistcs,

whose

office

it

was

to

make

the incision, cut open the

body, as far as the law ordained, as marked by the scribe, with a sharp Ethiopic stone and having done so, he immediately retired, with all possible expedition, pursued with stones and execrations from those who were present, to turn the curse upon him, which they supposed themselves to have rncurred, in permitting him to inflict a wound upon a dead Yet were the taric/icutce, or embalmers, highly body. esteemed ; they conversed with the priests, and with them were admitted into the more sacred recesses of the temples. When these came to dress the dissected body, one of them, thrusting his hand through the incision, drew out the intestines, leaving the heart and kidneys; another cleansed the entrails, va-lud them in wine of palms, and perfumed them with aromatics. The abdomen was then tilled with pounded myrrh, cassia, and other odoriferous drugs, frankincense only excepted and the incision being sewed up, the body was rubbed over with oil of cedar and other ointments, for above 30 days successively ; or, otherwise, it was soaked in nitre for 70 days, the longest term allowed. At the expiration of this lime, the body was thoroughly washed, and bound with fillets of Jine linen over every part ; which were afterwards
; ;

the deceased, together with a bill of charges for the several modes, that they might choose for themselves.* The coffins, in which these preserved bodies, or mummies as they

arc called by the Arabs, were laid, as found by modern travellers, are very thick, generally of sycamore, which does not rot so soon as other wood ; though some are of stone, and others of cloths gummed together. The top is generally cut into the shape of a human head, with a face paiuted on it, resembling that of a woman; the rest is one continued trunk, with a broad pedestal at the bottom, to enable it to stand Some of them are handupright in the proper receptacle.

The bodies, as now hieroglyphics. found, are wrapped in a shroud of linen, of about the fineness of canvass, upon which are fastened divers scrolls of the same
somely painted with
"

IKiodot.

lib.

ii.

cap. 85, et seq.

Diod. Sicul.

lib.

i.

3 i-2

128

HISTORY OF EGYPT.

[CHAP. vi.

returned it to the relations. The corpse was then put into a coffin, shaped like the human figure, and set upright against the wall of the rditice designed for the purpose. Several of the Kn\ ptians kept the dead bodies of their ancestors in their houses above ground, in magnificent
apartments, where they sometimes walked, and examined the lineaments of those who died ages before they were themselves born and often they
;

was then deposited in the family sepulchre, if there were any such if not, it was kept at home in the manner above related. Such as
;

were forbidden to be interred, either for crimes committed, or debts unsatisfied, were laid up
privately in their own houses. When the sovereign of Egypt died, the whole kingdom went into mourning, the people rending their garments, and the priests shutting up

brought the dried corpse of a friend as a guest to their tables. But the more general method was to deposite the body in some public receptacle. When the corpse of the deceased was prepared for the sepulchre, his nearest relations gave public notice of the day when he was to cross the lake Moeris, in order to his interment, to which the judges and all his friends were At the appointed time, above forty invited. assembled, and sat in a semicircle, in. a judges The vessel, certain place beyond the lake. whose ferryman was called Charon,(g) being hauled up to the shore, the coffin, containing the body, was embarked in it, and wafted across the lake: but before it was suffered to be landed, every one was at liberty to accuse the deceased. If the accusation was proved, the judges gave sentence accordingly, and the body was denied the honours of sepulture but if the charge appeared to be groundless, the accuser was
;

the temples, and suspending the sacrifices and religious festivals and solemnities for 70 days. Companies of 200 or 300, men and women, with dirt on their heads, and girt with a linen garment, marched in solemn procession, twice every day, during that interval, singing the praises of the deceased in mournful dirges, and commemorating his virtues. All this time, they abstained from flesh and wheat, as likewise from wine and all delicacies neither did they bathe themselves, nor sleep upon beds. On the last day of the mourning, the funeral pomp having, in the mean time, been prepared with suitable magnificence, the body was exposed to public view in the coffin, at the entrance of the sepulchre, where the actions of his life were
;

recited,

accuse him.

and

if

and every one was at full liberty to The priests pronounced his eulogy, he had reigned worthily, the assembled
:

It most frequently occurred severely punished that no accuser appeared, and the relations, laying aside their lamentation, began to recite the praises of the deceased ; but they never noticed his descent, because all the Egyptians reputed themselves equally noble. The body
.

multitude joined in their applauses but if his reign had been unjust or oppressive, they boldly declared their disapprobation. Inthis lattercase, he was denied the honours of a public funeral ; a mark of infamy which several princes actually incurred, and suffered the penalty of after their
deaths. (h)

material, painted with sacred characters, generally running down the belly and sides, or else placed on the knees or legs. The head is covered with a kind of head-piece of linen, fitted

The piece of money, than seven grains English.* which the ancients are said to have put into the mouths of the dead, to pay Charon his fare, has been sought for in
less

with plaster, on which the features of the person are reprethe feet have likewise a cover of sented in gold gummed linen, painted with hieroglyphics, and fashioned like a high
:

The whole body is slipper. linen, beginning at the head,

swathed with narrow bands of and ending at the feet, to the quantity of not less than 1000 ells upon one corpse ; those that cover the head and face being so neatly laid on, as not to prevent the shape of the eyes, nose, and mouth, being disOn the breast is a kind of breast-plate, formed cernible. with folds of linen cut scallop-wise, richly painted and gilt, on which is usually the bust of a woman, with her arms extended. Within the bodies which have been examined, are found medicaments of the colour, scent, and consistence of pitch, or bitumen, which yield to the heat of the sun. In the skull of one of these bodies, was found about two pounds of this preparation. The tongue of one being weighed, was
* Thevenot. Voyages, panic
i.

that the greater part of these emit is said balmed bodies have, under the tongue, a small plate of gold, worth about two pistoles. J Besides the three sorts of mummies above described, there are three other kinds 1. Bodies found in the sands of Arabia, dried by the air, and preserved 2. Bodies found on the entire, without the assistance of art. sea-coast, where, being exposed to the heat of the sun, and repeatedly soaked in the briny waves, they become not only

vain ;t though

dry, but even so hard, as to bear a strong resemblance to 3. Bodies dried and preserved by the peculiar petrefactions. properties of the sand found in certain districts, or veins of

the earth.
(r) page 417. Nothing could be more excellently contrived for the encouragement of virtue, and discouragement of vice, than

(g)

See note

(h)

Gassend.

chap. 6.

Greavet. Pyramiilogr. p. 49, 50.

De Vita Peiresc. lib. iv. Burrctini iipud TheveiK*. Relat. pattie

i.

p. 25.

SECT. TV.]

CUSTOMS.

ARTS AND SCIENCES.

420

If any Egyptian, or even a stranger, was found killed by a crocodile, or drowned in the

upper more than 4 feet. The ovens are first heated about the middle of January, by burning camels' or buflalos'

inhabitants of the place where the shore, were obliged to embalm it, in the best manner, at their own cost, and place it among the consecrated monuments ; but none of his friends, nor indeed any other than the priests of the Nile, might touch it, he being considered as something more than human, and the priests interred him with their
river, the

dung

in the

hearths,

body came on

morning and night. This is continued till the middle of February, by which time the ovens are so hot, that the hand can scarcely be suffered against the walls. The eggs are now into the ovens, and the business is conput tinued till the end of May, when it ceases for the season. The eggs, to the number of 700O or 8000, are first put into the lower ovens, upon mats, in two layers, one upon the other; except immediately under the hearths, where they lie

own hands. Of the sepulchres,

ruins.

in

which the Egyptians

been and

deposited their dead, notice has already taken among their artificial curiosities

The last article worthy of attention among the customs of the Egyptians, is their method of hatching eggs in ovens, by which means they raised prodigious flocks of poultry, fowls, and geese ; the latter of which was one of their first objects of food. The places still used for this purpose, and which are probably very similar to those of ancient days, though we have no account of them,(i) consist of buildings with a long avenue in the midst, on each side of which are the ovens, generally 14 in number, on the ground. The bottoms and sides of these are of sun-dried bricks, upon which are spread mats, and the eggs are laid upon the mats. The tops of the ovens are flat, and covered with sticks, except two long channels, or hearths, of the before-mentioned kind of bricks, three or four inches in depth, wherein the fires are made to heat the eggs lying under them, in the lower Above the lower ovens, are as many ovens. others, of the same kind of bricks, but arched at the top, where are some holes, to be stopped up or left open, as occasion may require, for the regulation of the heat. The upper ovens not only have mouths opening into the long entry,
but they also communicate with each other, and are every one of them furnished with two The depth of the before-mentioned hearths. of the lower oven is about 2* feet, that of the

The fire is made in the hearths of the upper ovens, whence the heat is communicated to those on the ground. At night, when the fire is renewed, the eggs are shifted ; those which were under the hearths being removed to the sides, and vice versa. Having continued 14 days in the lower ovens, the eggs are then transferred to the upper, and no more fire is used. They are now carefully turned four times every twenty-four hours, and on the 21st or 22d day, the chickens are hatched. The first day they do not eat ; the second day, they are fetched away and fed. The master of the oven has a third of the number of eggs brought to him, and he is bound to deliver to the owners two-thirds in chickens for their eggs consequently he has to sustain all losses from accidents or miscarriages out of his own
in a triple tier.
:

share.

ARTS AND SCIENCES.

The Egyptians

justly

claim the invention of many useful arts and liberal sciences ; though they failed in carrying them to so high a degree of perfection as might have been expected the honour of these they attributed to Hermes, or Mercury, of whom they had more than one. Geometry owed its rise to the setting out and measuring their lands, the bounds of which were annually disturbed by the inundation of the Nile. Astronomy was from very early times studied by the Egyptians; who being well acquainted with
:

this mode of treatment towards dead bodies and it issued in an earnest endeavour in both princes and subjects to deserve tin good opinion of their fellow-citizens, lest their dead bodies should be abused, and their memory stigmatized uith eternal infamy. The Greeks took all their fables con:

and contempt of the profligate whereas, in Egypt, the reward of the good, and the punishment of the wicked, after death, was not fabulous or imaginary, but really and daily distributed in public, in the sight of all men.* not contented with the (i) Diodorus merely says, that,
;

and punishments of men

ccrning the infernal ferry-man, the judges, and the happiness after death, from this practice of the Egyptians ; though, as Diodorus observes, instead of bringing uen to amendment by those fables, they incurred the ridicule

ordinary way of natural increase, they did not suffer their hens and geese to brood, but hatched the eggs by artificial

warn tli.
*

Djod. Sicul.

lib.

i.

p. 82, ct sej.

430
the

HISTORY OF EGYPT.

[CHAP. vr.

motions, periods, and stations of the planets, had registers of their observations but the for an incredible number of years of their chief uses made of this branch
:

they

pursuits,

knowledge, were for directing their agricultural and perfecting their judicial astrology. Medicine is generally ascribed to the invention of /Kscula|>ius, supposed to be the same with

Tosorthrus, or Sesorthrus, a king of Memphis, and by some taken to be the first Hermes. Athothes, successor of Menes, is also said to have written a treatise on anatomy ; and Isis i> ^aid to have invented several medicines, the use of which she communicated to her son Orus, or Apollo ; whence she was called the goddess of health. The Egyptian chemists are said to have pretended to possess the secret of the ^vw/r/ elixir, and the philosophers stone; the former capable of prolonging life, and restoring youth as often as administered; the latter of transmuting the more perfect metals into gold. Anatomy

was very early cultivated in this country ; some of the kings ordering dead bodies to be dissected for the perfection of this department of medicine. Their natural philosophy, of which considerable notice has been taken in a former Chapter,(j) was the foundation of the Grecian physiology ; for it was to Egypt that the Greeks repaired for knowledge, and Pythagoras learned from the Egyptian priests the system of philoBut the sophy which still bears his name. science, for which the Egyptians were peculiwas magic,(k) which some was taught the antediluvians by the pretend fallen angels, (1) preserved by Ham at the deluge, and transmitted by him to his posterity the Mi/rann though others ascribe the invention to Hermes, after whom it was improved The real by Nechepsos, king of Egypt.(m)
arly celebrated,
;

temples, and those stupendous monuments, the pyramids. Nor was their navigation of the Nile at all inferior to their other sciences. Their ships of burden were constructed of the acantha, or Egyptian thorn, from which they cut small planks, about two cubits square, and, setting them together in the manner of when the tiles, fastened them w ith long pins whole was thus well compacted, they erected benches for the rowers they had a rudder, which passed quite through the keel, a mast of acautha, and a sail made of the papyrus, which latter plant also supplied them with bands for securing the inside of the vessel, in lieu of ribs of bent timber. As these vessels were not very proper for mounting the river against the stream, they were always towed up, except when the wind was very brisk, and in a favourable point. When they came down with the current, a hurdle of tamarisk, strengthened with bands of reeds, was fastened with a rope to the prow of the vessel, and let down into the water; to the poop, by means of another rope, was fastened a heavy stone, pierced for the purpose through the middle and thus the stream bearing on the hurdle, which was lighter than the vessel, carried the whole down with great expedition ; while the stone, astern, kept it steady.
:

LANGUAGE, LETTERS, HIEROGLYPHICS, AND LEARNING. The Egyptian is supposed to have

been one of the original languages that sprang out of the confusion of Babel ; but how it got into the country, is not very certain ; for we cannot allow either Ham or the Mizra'i'm, nor
perhaps even Canaan, to have been concerned in that undertaking.(q) Indeed it seems much more likely, that the language of the Mizra'i'm

was corrupted by the Cuthite Shepherd-Kings,

soon, or immediately dispersion of the Babel-builders, than that they should wholly extirpate it, especially when it is remembered, that such of the natives as retired into Upper Egypt, still retained somewhat of their independence and that, at length, they became powerful enough to expel the invaders whence it may be inferred, that the ancient Egyptian language consisted of one of the Babel dialects graded upon, or intermixed with, the primitive tongue of the Mixra'irn. But
after, the
:
:

when they overran Egypt,

grounds of this science, it is impossible to determine but it certainly was more ancient than the days of Joseph, and its professors pretended to the interpretation of dreams, (n) as
:

means of a cup ;(o) and time of Moses, they exhibited some very extraordinary supernatural powers, or feats of For the skill of the Egyptians dexterity. (p)
well as divination by
in the

in architecture,
ture,

we need

mechanics, painting, and sculponly refer to the ruins of their

(k) Plin. lib. xxx. cap. 1.
n. 3.

f.j)

(1)

See before, page 237. See note (w), page 379.

(n)

Gen.

xli.

8.

(<>)

Gen.

xliv. 5, 15.

(m) Philastrium. Brixiens, H<eres.

Auson. ep. 19.

See note (w), page 379. (q) See before, page 419.
(pi

SECT. IV.]

LANGUAGE. LETTERS. HIEROGLYPHICS.

431

however this may be, we find, so early as the days of Joseph, that the Hebrews and Egyptians could not understand each other without

practised in the Hebrew, and by most Oriental nations. As to the present Coptic alphabet, it is evidently an alteration of the Greek, with a

himself,

the intervention of an interpreter ;(r) and Joseph on his promotion, received a new

name.(s) " It has been said, that though most other nations are supposed to have received letters from the Egyptians, yet they themselves, perhaps, learned them of their neighbours, the Ethiopians ; among whom letters were in use very early, and whose vulgar character became the sacred one of the Egyptians. ''(t) These
Ethiopians, according to Mr. Bryant's hypowere the Cuthites, who, during their residence in Lower Egypt, introduced a material reformation, if we may so say, in the national religion and manners, erected pyramids and pillars, and inscribed upon them their sacred mysteries. Whether the native Mizrai'm had any previous knowledge of letters, or whether they invented them during their confinement in Upper Egypt, or composed a new alphabet when they recovered the lower country, as an improvement upon those left by the Cuthites, more adapted for general purposes, and the genius of their dialect, is uncertain ; though Nor would it, the latter seems most probable. be too much to say, that Egypt derived perhaps, all its science and noble structures from these invaders; though the Mizrai'm, while they found the benefit, denied the authors hence the mutual claims of the Egyptians and Babylonians to precedence in antiquity, which being of a doubtful nature, both nations endeavoured to
thesis,
:

considerable use of hieroglyphical reprevarious animals, parts of the human body, and mechanical instruments. This was the most ancient of their modes of inscription ; and from it seems to have issued a third set of characters, called hieroglyphical, used by the priests, somewhat resembling those of the Chinese the invention of these last characters is attributed to Hermes ;(w) but
sentations of
:

made

few characters added, to express what that could not it probably got into general use under the Ptolemies to which the encouragement given to the Greeks, long before, by Psammetichus, led the way. Besides their two alphabets, the Egyptians
:

be of Egyptian, otliers of Chaldaean origin some suppose him to be the patriarch Joseph, others contend that he was Moses.
to
;

who this Hermes Some will have him

was,

is

much

disputed.

The Egyptian learning was partly inscribed on columns, and partly committed to writing
in

sacred books.

The

latter

contained the

government. These were kept the priests, the only depositaries of the by who had colleges or Egyptian learning, in various parts of the kingdom, academies,
for the instruction of the people. The priests also registered every remarkable event in these

religious rites, the secrets of

the laws of the kingdom,

and

make good

their pretensions, by respectively endeavouring to out-calculate each other.

books, together with all miscellaneous and philosophical subjects or discoveries, that they might be transmitted to posterity.

Of

these literary monuments, the pillars and

;

Both the ancient Egyptian alphabets are now lost; or if the forms of any of their letters
old inscriptions, they are unintelliand cannot be deciphered. gible, only know, that the common alphabet consisted of 25 characters,(u) and that they were written from the right hand to the left,(v) as is still
in

books, some were obvious, and easily to be understood by the people but all that related
to religion
latter,

remain

We

were dark and mysterious. The former were always ready for inspection the
;

characters not commonly understood, were laid up in the inner recesses of the temples, and communicated to very
written
in

(r)
(t)

Gen.

xlii.

23.
lib.
iii.

(s)

Ibid.

xli.

4..

Diod. Sicul.

(u) Plut.
(v)

DC

Isid. Kt

page 144. Osir. page 374.

ii. cap. 3G. (w) These were, probably, the sacred characters already alluded to: and, if so, the circumstance strengthens the supposition relative to the origin of the Egyptian alphabets; because we may perceive a gradual approximation towards simplicity, in the symbolic or mechanical representation of

Herod,

lib.

First, a complete idea was expressed by an hierotoo cumbrous for glyphic; but as this was found to be extensive use, characters were substituted to represent words; and these, in their turn, gave way to letters, by which the number of symbols was lessened, and the powers of expression widened. Mr. Bryant, however, is positive that the and brought thence hieroglyphics were invented in Chaldiva, and that letters remained uninto Egypt by the Cuthites of the law on mount Sinai. known till the

ideas.

promulgation

432 few
so that

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
;

[CHAP. vi.

it is to be suspected even the themselves were soon ignorant of the priests true import of the rites committed to their In addition to all this, their superiatendency. doctrine was concealed from popular investigation, and even fron popular conception, by

allegories, enigmas, and fables; as if it was thought that, to express things in a familiar

and easy manner, argued want of acuteness or that modesty forbade the exposition of In a word, naked truth to the commonalty.
;

the Egyptians excelled all other nations in the obscurity of their fictions, wherein the traces of truth were so faint and illegible, that they required a more than ordinarily sagacious head to discern between realities and figments; so that upon every temple the apophthegm

seemed

Ignorance is the mother of devotion." Notwithstanding this ignorance, in respect to divine mysteries, in which the people were kept by priestcraft, the Egyptians must ever be considered with pleasure as the inventors of Architecture, Arithmetic, Mechanics, Sculpto
ture,

be inscribed,

"

Egyptians therefore justly claim priority in the invention of commerce, and they acknowledged themselves indebted for it to Osiris and Hermes.(x) Psammetichus, before he obtained the crown of Egypt, had gained great riches by trade ;(y) and when the Erythreans, or Edomites, had monopolized the sovereignty of the Red Sea, and forbad the Egyptians to use any ships of war, or more than one merchant ship at a time upon those waters, the Egyptians were so sensible of the advantages of trade, that they built a vessel large enough to supply the place of many of the ordinary kind. Thisevent should not be placed later than during thesojournmeiitof the Israelitesin the wilderness. The Egyptians are said to have had a great aversion to the Mediterranean Sea, which they called Typhon, because it swallows up the sacred waters of their Nile ; but it is more likely that this hatred arose from the early piratical excursions of the Greeks, by whom their

Painting,

to the

human

race.

and other sciences beneficial And they were likewise

the

first

people

who made

a collection of

books, to which they gave the significant appellation of the treasure of physic for the soul, as containing wherewith to dissipate ignorance,
that most dangerous disorder of the mind, the source of all other evils.

and

were frequently plundered. endeavoured as much as possiThey, therefore, ble to exclude foreigners on that side, and when any such were caught upon the coasts, they were immolated at Busiris, at the tomb of Osiris, as already related, or they were condemned to perpetual slavery. The Greeks, in return, represented the Egyptians as a barbarous nation, where the laws of humanity and nor could the two hospitality were unknown
coasting
;

towns

people cordially coalesce for

many

ages after

TRADE AND NAVIGATION.

at

It

is

uncertain

what period the Egyptians began to apply themselves to these objects ; but it can hardly be doubted, considering the excellent situation of their country for the purpose, that they did not very early become addicted to them. Indeed the colonies they sent into Greece, when the natives of that quarter were sunk in ignorance and barbarism, forbid any other The west of Asia, the south of conclusion. Europe, and the north of Africa, were open to them by means of the Mediterranean; while the Red Sea invited them to explore all the In the days of regions of the eastern world. Joseph, we also find it a kind of general mart, to which the Ishmaelites and Midianitish merchants repaired to barter the commodities of the East for the products of the country. The
(x)

Psammetichus had opened the northern ports, and invited the Greeks to settle in Egypt.
Amasis,
tions

who

after

reigned about four or five generaPsammetichus, and was a great

friend to the Greeks, permitted them to build the city of Naucratis, for the residence of their
; yet even this prince would not allow them a settlement in any other part of

merchants
his

they were also obliged to -sail the Canopic branch of the Nile, and if by by accident a vessel of theirs entered by any other mouth of that river, it was sent back, and an oath was required of the owners that they were forced in against their will ; or, if the winds proved adverse, so that the vessel could not return, it was detained, and the goods were unladen, and sent to Naucratis by the

dominions

to

it

river vessels.(z)
Died. Sic. lib. i. page. 0. Herod, lib. ii. cap. 178, 179.

Huet
vii.

Hist, du

Comm,

et

de la ffaviy. des Anciens,

(y)
(x)

chap.

SECT. V.]

CHRONOLOGY OF THE EGYPTIANS.

433

Notwithstanding the Egyptians carried their hatred towards sailors to so high a pitch, that they would not converse with them, and though they were not fond of travelling into foreign countries, lest they should introduce,
strange customs aud luxuries (a) yet were they so far from of sea affairs, that they had a being ignorant class of men among them, who followed no other occupation ; and the Greeks acknowledge that they learned navigation from them.(b) Sesostris built a formidable navy of four hundred ships of war, for his expedition to the southern seas ; and also a very large vessel of cedar, 280 cubits long, gilt without, and inlaid

cessors of those unfortunate men collected such fragments of their ancient annals as had escaped the general ruin, and they endeavoured to supply the chasms from tradition, or from monumental inscriptions: but, being unable to
distinguish clearly between truth and fiction, or to discern between real history and mystical representations, they so blended their materials, that their narrative of the first trans-

on

their return,

before

unknown

actions of their princes may rather be called a romantic allegory than a sober relation of
facts.

which he dedicated to Osiris, at And it is to be presumed that in Thebes.(c) times the Egyptians improved an succeeding art which even in those early times they had
with
silver,

carried to such a degree of perfection.

heterogeneous mixture, later writers have laboured with great pains and ingenuity to discover the pure ore ; but with scarcely any tolerable success for, destitute of any sure ground on which to begin their operations, the greater portion of what they advance consists of a dry investigation, embellished indeed with a considerable display of learning, but supported only by a train of
this
;

Amidst the dross of

SECTION

V.

CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS; FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THEIR MONARCHY, TO THE OVERTHROW OF PHARAOH IN THE RED SEA, AND THE EXODUS OF THE AND THENCE TO ISRAELITES, A. M. 2513 THE REIGN OF MYCERINUS, SON OF CHEOPS.
;

And although suppositions and conjectures. the Israelites had such intimate and interesting connections and transactions with the Egyptians, during the space of 215 years that they abode among them, yet do we receive little or no assistance from the sacred writings relative to the Egyptians ; the inspired historian not having deigned to speak of Egyptian affairs,
beyond what concerned
his

own

nation,

nor

IT has already been remarked that the Egyplike the Chinese, claim an excessive their priests pretended to have antiquity records for ten, twenty, or even fifty thousand years; though the fact really is, that their records were nearly all destroyed by Cambyses, when, with infuriate rage, he desolated the country, overthrew the temples in which the records were deposited, and slew the priests.
tians,
;

When

the ravages of

war had ceased, the

suc-

by any other than Under the general title of Pharaoh, or king. these circumstances we are obliged to make up the history of these people from such fragments as have been left by Manetho, Herodoothers of the ancients, tus, Diodorus, and mixed as they are with extravagant legends, or veiled with mystic allusions. As to their we shall generally follow the chronology, Usherian system, yet in particular instances assuming the liberty of departing from it. With the exception of Sir Isaac Newton(d) and Mr. Bryant.(e) chronologers are agreed
to designate their princes
Kings, after whom he places Sesostris, the same, he thinks, with Osiris, and Sesac, or Shishak ; he also reckons Mencs the third in succession after him, and supposes the last-named prince to be designated under the various names of Menes,

(a) In these two points, as well as in many others, there is a remarkable coincidence of character between the ancient Egyptians and modern Chinese.

This ship, if the account be not fabulous, must have nearly doubled the size of a modern first-rate vessel of war. But it rather seems to be a legendary allusion to the ark of Noah. (d) This celebrated writer cannot allow of any king of all Egypt, till after the expulsion of the Hyc-sos, or Shepherd(c)

(b) Euripid. in Troad. Diod. Sicul. lib. i. p. 50, 52.

Memiion, (or Osymandyas) Osimandes, Isniandes, Imande, Arminon names given by the ancients to as many individuals.* (e) Mr Bryant insists that Menes was no other than the
Mines,
Minevis,

Minxus, Minies,

Amenophis,

Enephis, Venephes, Phamenophis, Osymanthyas,

VOL.

Chronology of the ancient Kingdomi tmcndtil,

p.

354.

I.

3 K

434
that the
first

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
mortal

[CHAP. vr.

reigned in Egypt was account the same as Ham, while others identity him with Misra'i'm. But he had been preceded by a race of immortals, which have been variously' taken as pointing to the antediluvians, or to the revolutions of the heavenly bodies; the priests having mistaken the astronomical calculations of their ancestors for historical facts and chroFrom the time of Menes, the nological series. Egyptian chronology is filled with a list of 330 kings, who reigned 1400 years, but did nothing Nor is it till the irruption worthy of notice. of the Shepherd-Kings, that we meet with any distinct piece of history. But before we enter upon the history itself, it is necessary to exhibit the lists of the dynasties and kings, as they are found in ancient authors. The chief

who

Menes, or Menas,

whom some

assisted

Old Chronicle and Manetho, perhaps by some personal information. Accordto these chronologers, the number of the ing to 31, extending from dynasties amounts Menes to Darius the Persian, who was conBut it has quered by Alexander the Great. become a question whether some, and, if any, which, of these dynasties were synchronical or, if not, whether some are not In this spurious. inquiry many modern writers have deeply engaged; among whom should be mentioned
the
;

with peculiar respect, Petavius, Scaliger, Perizonius, Kircher, Sir John Marsham, Sir Isaac

Newton, and the

latter

late

Mr. Jacob Bryant; the

persons to whose authority writers principally appeal, are, 1. The anonymous author of what is called the Old Chronicle, which has been

preserved by Syncellus, and is thought to be of very ancient date. 2. The dynasties of Manetho, of Sebennis, a if Egyptian priest in the days of Ptolemy Philadelphus ;(f ) whose chronicle has been copied, or altered, in various Josephus, Julius Africanus, and Eosebiog. 3. The chronology of Eratosthenes of Cyrene, who has transmitted a canon of the Theban kings only. To these may be added the accounts of Herodotus, Diodorus >Siculus,and the catalogue of Syncellus; though the latter is for the most part compiled from

in some things too sanguine, has done more towards the elucidation of this most intricate subject than all his shall first prepredecessors put together. sent the dynasties of the ancient writers above alluded to, and then notice the hypotheses of the moderns, and endeavour to deduce therefrom a genealogical table, novel indeed in some of its details, but consistent upon the whole with what are deemed the best autho-

of

whom, though

We

rities.

ways, by

A LIST OF THE REIGNS OF THE GODS, DEMIGODS, (OR AURIT.E) AND DYNASTIES OF EGYPT, FROM THE OLD CHRONICLE, ACCORDING TO SYNCELLUS.(g)

GODS.(h)

To

assigned no time, he being uniformly apparent night and day. Helius, the son of Hephaestus, reigned three myriads of years. Then Chronos, and the other twelve divinities, among whom

Hephscstus

is

are Osiris

and Typhon, reigned 3984

years.

lunar deity, who was probably worshipped in some Thinite He was the same with the Mneues of Diodorus,t temple.* and the Meen of Herodotus ; which Mr. Bryant derives from the compound Men-Neuas, and refers to the same person,

Chronus and 12 other deities, as exhibited in a former chapter.)) Syncellus imagines, that Manetho was misled by it, in the immense number of years of which these reigns are
the whole amount being no less than 3t>,o'2o; but Syncellus was himself misled, as well as Manetho; for he applied this number to the dynasties of Egypt, as many other writers have done. larnblicus, who studied the Egyptian history very closely, notices the same numbers, but applies them to the volumes written by Hermes: so that it appears, what some have applied to the duration of the monarchy, others have supposed to be the number of books written by Hermes ; whereas, in reality, they bore no, relation to either, but were an artificial calculation of a cycle of 100 What, therefore, beyears, each consisting of 3(J.>] days. longed to an ancient ephemeris, has been misapplied to historical computation, and days have been reckoned for
said to consist;

was called Minos, Min-noas, represented under the emblem of the Men-tmir, or Mino-Taurus and reverenced under the symbol of the sacred bull. In t>y the Egyptians all which Mr. B. perceives an uniform allusion to the history of Noah. t

who,

in Crete,

(f)

it affords the great outlines of the Egyptian chronology. The numbers and titles of the are not precisely the same as in other <!ynasties, indeed, accounts; and it falls oft' towards the end, where the greater Syncellus is suspected precision might have been expected. of having made alterations in it, lo serve the purpose of some Mr. Bryant thinks it was originally favourite nystem. nothing more than part of a yearly calendar, or almanac, containing calculations of the celestial motions; the months and holydays; and the reigns of the kings. It begins with the Supposed reigns of Hephaestus and the sun, and then of

(g)

See Introduction, page 15. Concise as is this record,

years.

This might well raise the Egyptian chronology to an unwarrantable height, and make it precede the creation by
(h)

many

names of the gods and demigods, as given by Manetho, see before, page 27-3.
vol. iv. paj;r
l;;t.

ages. For the

An:
Uyiltut. vui. iu.

'-ii,
j>.

vol. iv. p.

414.

Died. SicuUi

b.

i.

p. 8t.

!t8:i, f(

wj.

Sec bel'u bel'urc, iHfi/l/ll)/.

SECT. V.]

DYNASTIES,
DEMIGODS, OR AUKITjE.

AND CHRONOLOGY.
revolutions of the heavenly bodies^ and the been mistaken for periods of their returns, have

Years.

These were eight

in

number, who reigned

217

DYNASTIES, OF WHICH THE FIRST 14 ARE LOST.

Dynasty.
Generations.

MESTR/EI.

XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII

15 of the Cunic, or Royal cycle

8 4 14 5 8 6 3 2
Tanites

Memphites Memphites
Diospolites Diospolites Tanites Tanites
Diospolites

XIX

XX
XXI
XXII
XXIII

XXIV

XXV
XXVI
XXVII
XXVIII

3 Saites 3 Ethiopians 7 Memphites

5 Persians Lost

443 190 103 348 194 228 121 48 19 44 44 177 124

chronological calculations; days have mistaken for years; and the sun, moon, and 12 months, have been personified, and added to the list of the kings, contained also, as at present,
in

been

the almanac. The whole amount, therefore, of the years of the dynasties, is reducible to the 2140 before stated, with an allowance for the 28th, and the addition of 19 for the reigns of

XXIX

Unknown
1 Tanite

39
18

XXX

Darius Ochus, Arses, and Codomanus(j) all which will carry us back from the reign of Alexander, to about the year after th-2 Flood 500, according to the old Samaritan, or 600 accordor 143 ing to the present copies and Eusebius; the Deluge, according to the years before Usherian computation in the former cases, the chronology hardly goes high enough in the But if it be admitted latter, it extends too far.
;
:

To these should be added the 31st dynasty, of three Persians, ending with Darius Codonianus, who was conquered by Alexander the Great ; for with this every other catalogue conThe whole sum of the 30 dynasties is cludes.
stated to be 36,525 years, though, upon casting up the particular numbers, as above, they will amount to no more than 2140 years, exclusive of what may be allowed for the 28th dynasty. To reconcile this, it has been proposed to include the 30,000 years of Helius, the 3984 of Chronos and the other 12 divinities, and the 217 of the demigods, in the computation; for these, added to the 2140 years of the dynasties,

that

Ham reigned, or rather lived, in Egypt, from the time of his leaving the society of his
father

and brethren, till his death, either of the former numbers will serve the purpose, without, attempting to correct or alter the years assigned to some of the dynasties though many scruples are justly to be entertained with respect to them. By this hypothesis, we shall have Ham
;

and the Mizra'i'm, who are perhaps the Chronos and 12 other divinities of the Chronicle, residing in Egypt, under the patriarchal government,
till

his death; when the Auritse, or Cuthites? descendants of Cush, the elder son of Ham, who had remained in Chaldaea till the dispersion, claiming the

would amount

to 36,341, leaving 184 years for the lost 28th dynasty: and to make up the 14 dynasties wanting at the beginning, they are supposed to be included in the 15 generations of the Cunic cycle. But these 14 dynasties, as will presently be shewn, never existed, the 15th being really the first: and the 36,525 years are an astronomical calculation of the cycle of 100 years, each containing 365 days and a quarter.(i) The whole of this chronicle appears to have been copied from an ephcmeris, in which the

country as their patrimony,

invaded

and obliged the Mizra'im to seek in the remoter parts; some of whom refuge settled at Thebes, and there, at length, became With powerful enough to repel the invaders.
it,

these Mizra'im, the dynasties begin, under the denomination of the Cunic or Royal cycle, to the Shepdistinguish them from their enemies after held in herds, a term which they ever the Cuthites reproach, though it was assumed by to the 217 years as a title of honour.(k) As
Arses reigned 2 Egypt from Nectanebus in his 9th year. Alexander in his years; and Codomanus was conquered by but he had lost Egypt the preceding year. fifth year was first assumed (k) The title of shepherd, as a sovereign,
;

(i) The Egyptians had two sorts of years, one consisting of'300 days, with five supplementary days: this year was used in Lower Egypt ; but in Upper Egypt, they had another which was heliacal, and styled Theban, consisting of 305 " days 6 hours : for, says Diodorus, they add to the twelve

months
( j)

complete days and one quarter."* Ochus reigned 21 years over the Persians, and recovered
five
lib.
i.

universal dominion;* after him it was taken by other Chaldsean kings, and was also retained by those of the same family
*
CAron. Abydenus, apud Euseb.
p. 5.

to usurp an by Nimrod, son of Cush, when he attempted

Diod. Sicul.
p. 180.

p. 46.

Macrob.

Sat. lib.

i.

cap. 14.

p.

178. cap. 15

3 K 2

436

HISTORY OF EGYPT.
last extremity,

[CHAP. vi.

ascribed in the chronicle to the demigods, Auritae, or Cutheans, they are synchronical with as many of the first Cunic kings, and are therefore not to be taken into the account.

they fortified themselves, and were besieged but being at length obliged to surrender and evacuate the country, the fortifications were thrown down, and the surrounding
;

According to Josephus, Manetho (whose canon of gods and demigods has been given in
a former chapter)(l) represents the Cuthites under the name of Hyc-sos, or Royal Shepherds, as invading Egypt in the reign of a king named Timaus, and holding it in subjection during 511 years, when they were besieged in their strong-hold Avaris, by Halisphragmuthosis, and finally expelled by his son Thummosis, or Tethmosis; upon which they betook themselves to Judea, and there built Jerusalem. After this, he speaks of a second set of people, who also sojourned in Egypt, in the reign of Amenophis, and were treated as slaves, because they were infected with the leprosy. They nevertheless increased in numbers, and were employed, first in the stone-quarries, with the Egyptians, on the east side of the Nile but, on account of their uncleanness, they were afterwards separated, and sent to the (juarries of Arabia, where they laboured under great
;

was left desolate, the Mizraim not caring themselves upon a spot that had been the chief scene of their enemies' worship, which seems to have been that of fire, and where,
district
to fix

probably, their own rites had been profaned. Before this sentiment had abated, Joseph and his brethren appeared in Egypt, and the latter obtained the rejected spot, pursuant to the counsel of Joseph, who was well acquainted with the prejudices of the Egyptians. The ultimate settlement of the Israelites in Judea, and their

having Jerusalem for their capital, may have given occasion to the tradition from which Manetho wrote, that Jerusalem was built by the expelled Hyc-sos or there may be reality in
:

inconveniences; till, upon their remonstrance to the kiii^, they were permitted to occupy Avaris, the former residence of the Shepherds, which at that time lay desolate. Here they chose, for their leader, a priest of Heliopolis,

the assertion, for we know that the latter were widely diffused after they left Egypt, and the land of Canaan, which was not fully occupied at that period, would naturally invite them to settle there but nothing certain can be affirmed on so distant and undefined a transaction. The fragment, from which the foregoing extract has been made, is valuable, because it furnishes a clue to the Egyptian chronology, and the aeraof the monarchy. It states, loosely enough, that the shepherds resided in Egypt
:

whose name was Osarsiph.(m) This priest them to pay no regard to the gods of enjoined
the country, nor to the sacred animals of the Egyptians; but to sacrifice and feed indifferently; and to confine their connections to their own community. Having thus enlisted himself with these people, he changed his name to

Moses. (n)
In this fragment, the histories of the ShepherdKings, and the Jsraelitish Shepherds, are evidently blended, as are the histories of Joseph and Moses. The first set of people were the Aurita>, or Cutheans, who built a city, called
after themselves

Auris,

but fcbingted by the

:

Greeks
who came
1:111!

into A\aris

and Abaris

here, in their

years: but what shepherds? For we find, the canons of the princes of the Hyc-sos, by that their reigns amounted in the whole only to 259, as given by Manetho, Josephus, and Syncellus 284, according to Julius A frit-anus ; 103, or rather 10<j,(o) according to Eusebias and 217(p) according to the Old Chromtte. are therefore led to conclude, that the 511 years comprehend both races, beginning with the invasion of the Hyc-sos, and ending with the exodus of the Israelites. Upon this ground, therefore, we venture to place the irruption of the Jlyc-sos, Cutheans, or Aurita.-, in the year of the world 2002, (q) six years before the birth of Abram, and :34(i years
')11
; ;

We

into F-i:>pt.

this profession,
ii/irjihrt'iljt,

and most of
particularly

All their ancestors were esteemed of their nods were staled pastors
Dioiiusiis,

Orus,

1'an,

Xetitli,

and

()

See before, page. 27">. Mr. Bryant thinks this word to he a mistake narrangement of Sar-Osiph, the Lord Oniplt, or Joseph. Mythol. Yol. iv. p. 325.
(I)

(ni)

Contra Apion, lib. i. sect. II, 20. Eusebius in his Caunn reckons 100 but in his Chronology he states them at 103. mistake for 271.* (p) Mr. Bryant conceives this to be a took place A. M. 2") 13, (q) The exodus, <' the Israelites from which deduct "ill, and 2002 will be left for the period in Archbishop Usher places the shepherds' iuvaquestion.
(n) Joseph.
(o)
;

*
Mytliol.

ol. iv. p.

4J8.

SECT. V.]

INVASION OF THE HYC-SOS.

according to the Usherian comThis is the true epocha of the regal

437

after the flood,

government in Egypt, and the commencement of what the poets have improperly termed
the golden age:(r) for prior to this event, the the patriarchal progeny of Ham lived under unless we apply to him, what government, has been related of Chronos, that he was the Whatever is first mortal who wore a crown. of kings and gods before this conquest related of the Hyc-sos, who are no other than the demi-gods of the poets, must be accounted as fabulous, or pertaining only to the chiefs of families, who were probably also the priests or it may possibly point to the history of the
:

putation.

37 years, which is the interval between the departure of the Hyc-sos, and the arrival of Jacob and his family. Of these 37 years, had resided 21 in Egypt, before he sent Joseph for his father ;(t) therefore the expulsion took place about 16 years before he was sold to Potiphar. The interval given by each of the other supputations may be found iu a similar mode: according to Julius Africanus, it is 12
years; Eusebius, 190; and the Old Chronicle, 79. Hav ing thus endeavoured to settle the epocha of the Egyptian monarchy, we proceed to the canons of its kings, as given by ancient writers,
viz.

Mauetho, of whose dynasties two versions,

antediluvians, assuggestedinaformerchapter.(s) It now only remains to fix the time between the expulsion of the first shepherds, and the
arrival of the second, or Israelites,

varying considerably as to the names of the kings, their order of succession, and the length of their reigns, have been given by Julius Afri-

which must

be done by an inverse calculation from tln> epocha of the exodus of the latter. At this in period, the Israelites had been 215 years which term deducted from the 'ill in Egypt, question, leaves 296, being an overplus, upon the computation of Manetho and Syncellus, of
1920, or 82 years earlier; but lie agrees with as to the term, 2">!> years, of the dominion of the Hyc-sos in Egypt.* Bishop Cumberland Sir John Mar-ham makes places the invasion A. M. 1937/t and as he brings it it precede the exodus only 159 years: 15 jears before the death of Joseph, he describes the third " the new king, who knew not Joseph," prince of this line as and who oppressed the Israelites :J but we shall, in passsion

Herodotus, and Diodorus are too scanty to afford Siculus, information Josephus and any satisfactory who derived their information from Syncellus,
canus and Eusebius
;

whose

lists

Manetho, though the latter is rather too arbiand Eratosthenes, who has trary and fanciful
;

given a

list

of Thfcban

kings,

unnoticed by

Manetho.
of Cus/i, and relates to the worship introduced and the dominion they possessed. In like manner, the Auritiehave been supposed to have some allusion to gold, and hence the seculum aiti-eum of the Latins ; but the Auritae, who are the same with the Cutheans, derive their name from 1 N (AUR, UR, OUR, OR) light and fire, which they worHence the Orus of the Egyptians, a title of .ihipped.
age, the
atjt>

A.M.

Manetho and Syncellus

by

his sons,

the

Min.il

ing through the dynasties, find another monarch,, equally a stranger to Joseph and his services, and who changed the name of the country, by giving it his own, ^Egyptus. Sir Isaac Newton brings them still lower down, placing their irruption B. C. 1070 (A. M. 2934, according to the

(s)

See before, page 275.

Usherian computation) which makes the reign of Saul.

(r)

it

contemporary with

17 years old, when sold into Egypt.ff 30 when (t) promoted by Pharaoh,** and he had seen seven years of As these are merely round numplenty and two of famine, tt bers, and it cannot be supposed that the events succeeded
each other precisely at the periods of complete years, the above calculation is to be taken with some latitude for odd mouths, weeks, or days.
||

He was

golden aye, yuo<; %fv<rto, or xfva-uoi, has arisen out of a mistake of the words ytro; x vff ">*> or X vyiio '< l le Cuthcan
'

The

Annal

p. 3.

Paris edit. 1673.

sect. viii. p.

Remarks
Klitirt

m Simchon.

p.

170.

Bryant's Mythol.

tol. iv. p.

Canon CArvnic.

102.

C'/HVTO/.

Orn. xxxvii.

Z.

209. Qtn.

ill.

46.

ft Gfll. 1\v. 6.

438

CANONS OF THE EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES AND KINGS;

CANONS OF THE EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES AND KINGS;
I.

[CHAP

vi.

FROM MANETHO.(W)

TOME
According
to

I.

II.

FROM HERODOTUS.

Africanus.

According

to Euscbius.
:

FIRST DYNASTY: 8 Thinites, or Kings of This 253 years.

;

FIRST DYNASTY

8 Thinites ; 248 years.

Years.

Years.

1.

Menes(x)

reigned 62

1.

Menes
Cencenes

reigned 60

Meen

2. AthothisCy) 3. Cencenes

57
31

2. Athosthis

3.
4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

4. Vcnephes(z)
6.

6.
7.

Usaphaedus Miebidus

Semempsis

8. Bienaches

23 20 26 18 2G

Venephes Usaphaes Niebes

Semempsis
Ubienthes

27 39 42

20 16 18 26
248

253

SECOND DYNASTY:
9 Thinites; 297 years. l.Boethus
2. Cieachos, or Kaeachus(a) 3. Binothris
4.

SECOND DYNASTY:
38 39 47 17
41
1.

9 Thinites; 302 years. Bochus

Chous(a)

2.

3. Biophis
4.

Tlas

5. Sethenes

5.
6.
7.

6. Choeres
7.

Nephercheres

8. Sesochris(b)

.N.

17 25 48 25
297

N. N. N. N.
.48 .30

8. Sesochris(b) 9. Cheneres

302

THIRD DYNASTY:
1.

THIRD DYNASTY:
28 29
7
1. 2.

9 Memphitcs; 214 years. Necherophes

2. Tosorthrus(c) 3. Tyris
4.

8 Memphites; 198 years. Nacerochis Sesorthus

The

other six are unknown.

Mesochris

5. Soiphis

17 16
19

6. Tosertasis 7. Achis
8. Siphuris, or Siphouris 9. Cerpheres, or Kerpheres

42 30 26

214

198

supposed page 275.

(w) For Manctho's Catalogue of the Gods and Demigods, to have reigned before the Flood, see before,

reigns before Menes, or Menas, viz. 1. Ham, otherwise Saturn, or Osiris I. the Zoroaster of the Bactrians, and the Orosraades of the Persians : 2. Misraim, son of Ham, called

(x) Menes is said to be the first mortal who reigned in Egypt ; he succeeded the demigods and was killed by an hippopotamus ;* a fate nearly similar to what befel Achthoes,
;

they are, therefore, supposed to be the same person. But, instead of being destroyed by this animal, of his preservation, as Mr. Bryant it was, in reality, an emblem " Menes the observes. Eusebius calls him Thebanite, the " the Ionian." The Arkaean ;" which is, by interpretation, story relates to the preservation of Noah and his family in
in the

llth dynasty

the ark.

Kircher, in his (Edipus jEgyptiacusrf places eight

t

Syncell. p. 54, 65.

Vol.

i.

cap. x. sjntag. 1, p.

83103.

and Osiris, founder of Tanis Faunus, or Seruch, otherwise Hermes Trismegistus, son of Jupiter Picus contemporary with Abraham: 4. Vulcan, contemporary with Abraham and 6. Sothis, Sochis, or Sosis Isaac 5. Sol, son of Vulcan 8. Horus, or Thoth, sometimes called the 7. Osiris and Isis son of Trismegistus, the last of the gods. This he calls the Theban Dynasty, and makes it equal to the 16th of Euscbius. He then begins the Shepherd Dynasty, which, in one place, he calls the 17th, and in another the 18th, with Menas, followed by Mithrus, Osiris, Vcxores, Apis, and Epaphus
also Jupiter Picus, Zoroaster,

and Thebes

a.

Mercury,

SECT. VI.]

FROM VARIOUS WRITERS.

FROM VARIOUS WRITERS.

43<>

III.

FROM DIODORUS

SICULUS.

IV.

FROM JOSEPHUS.
lib. i.)

V.

ACCORDING TO SYNCELLUS.
(Chronog. p. 91, et
seq.)

(Contra Apian,

Year*.

Menas, or Mneves 52 of his descendants, during a period of 1400 years.

1.

Mestraim, or Meues

..3.5

2.

Curudes, or Cudrus

63

which six names he conceives to belong to one person, the founder of Memphis, the first who erected obelisks dedicated to the sun, and the same that is generally called Misraim. is supposed to be the same with Thoth, or (y) Athotis Hermes he wrote some books of anatomy, and was an adept The palace at Memphis was built by this in medicine.
;

prince.*
(z)

built the pyramids at Cochome.* In his reign, the bull Apis began to be worshipped at Memphis, as did Mnevis at Heliopolis, and the goat at
(a)

He

In the 12th dynasty, we meet with Sesostris, whose height, according to Eusebius, was four cubits, three palms, and two The similarity of the names of these two princes, digits. Sesechris and Sesostris, with their respective dimensions, Euseleads to an opinion that they were the same person. bius also says, that Sesostris was next in order to Osiris but how came lie then in the 12th dynasty? Indeed, the various names of Sesochris, Sesosis, Sethoosis, Sesonchosis, Sesonchoris, Geson-goses, and Sesostris, which we meet with in
;

Mendes.* (b) This prince is said, by Syncellus,t to have been of very and three in breadth. large stature, measuring five cubits high,
* Svneell.
p. 54, 55.
t

apply to the same individual. is called (e) by Syticellus, the Egyptian jEscumedicine. He also invented lapius, excelling in the art of tlic art of building with hewn stones; and improved letters,
these canons,
all

Tosorthrus

Page 56, 57.

in \eutcd

by Athothis.t

440

CANONS OF THE EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES AND KINGS;

I.

[CHAP. vi.

FROM MANETHO.
II.

FROM HERODOTUS.

According

to Africauu*.

According

to

Eusebius.

FOURTH DYNASTY:
8 Mempkites
1. Soris
;

FOURTH DYNASTY:
17 Memphites
Years.
;

284

years.

448 years.
Years.

29
3

1. 2.

2. Suphis I.(dJ ..................

N. N.

3. Suphis II ................. ...66 4. Mencberes ................... 63 6. Khatoeses 6. 7.

8.

3. Supliis

The remainder unknown.

.................... 25 Bioheres ..................... 22 Sebercheres .................. 7 Thamphthis .................. 9

284

448

FIFTH DYNASTY: 9 Elephantine* ; 218 years.

1. 2.

FIFTH DYNASTY
28 13 20
7

Usercheres

31 Elephantiites 1. Othoes
2.
3. 4.

years unknown.

Sephres

N.
N.
Phiops
rest are

9. 5.
7. 8. 9.

Nepherchercs
Cheres

4. Sisiris

6. Rathuris

Mercheres Tarchercs

...20 44 9

The

100 and it is to be remarked that Othoes and Phiops are the 1st and 4th kings in the 6th

unknown

Obnus

44 33
218

dynasty of Africanus.

SIXTH DYNASTY:
1. 2.
3.

SIXTH DYNASTY:
.36 .53 7 .94
.

6 Memphites ; 203 years. Othoes

Phius

Memphites ; 203 years. The names of the sovereigns, except the last, unknown, as well as the number
of them.

4.

Methusuphis Phiops

5. Mcntesuj>his 6. Nitocris (Qee)(e)

.12

Nitocris (Queen)

Nitocris (Queen.)

203

203

SEVENTH DYNASTY:
70 MempMtes ; 70 days.(f) Names unknown.

SEVENTH DYNASTY:
5 Memphites
;

75 days.

Names unknown.

EIGHTH DYNASTY:
27 Memphites ; 146 years. Names unknown.

EIGHTH DYNASTY
Names unknown.

5 Memphites ; 100 years.

NINTH DYNASTY:
19
1.

NINTH DYNASTY:
4 Heracleopolites
1.
;

fjcracleots

409

years.

100 years.

Achthoes, or Othoes(g)

Achthns

The

rest

unknown.

The

rest

unknown.

TENTH DYNASTY:
19 Heradeots ; 185
years.

TENTH DYNASTY:
19 Heradf.opolites ; 185 years. Names unknown.
former page, was rather the name of the deity to whom the pyramid was dedicated, than of the prince who built it.f (e) This princess is represented as a most illustrious and beautiful woman, but of a cruel disposition who built the third pyramid near Memphis, which Herodotus attributes to Mycerinus, a name not in Manetho's canon.*
in a
;

Names unknown.
(d) Suphi'i

is reported to have seen the gods, tit' \vliirli he wrote a sue ml book, greatly esteemed among repenting, He likewise said to have built the largest the r.<;\|>liaii5.
1

pyramid mar
appear

M<-iiijilii>,'*

attributed by Herodotus to Cheops,

the CheminU, or Chembes, of Diodorus, names which do not in the canon of Maiitlho. Cheops, it has been shewn
Sjnccll. p. 56, 57.
t

Sec before,

p.

410.

Synctll. p. 58.

Herodot.

lib.

ii.

cap. 134.

15

SECT. V.]

FROM VARIOUS WRITERS.

FROM DIODORUS.
IV.

441

III.

FROM JOSEPHDS.

V.

FROM SYNCELLUS.
Year

3. Aristarcbus

34

Busiris I.

N."

N. N. N. N.
N. N._

4.

Spanius

36

7 of

his descendants.

.N.7 6. N. 6 .N.j
**********

.72

Busiris II.

Osymandyas.

N. N. N. N. N.
_

7. Serapis

23

7 of his descendants.

Uchoreus.

12 generations.
which cannot be looked upon as a (f) Tliis dynasty, genuine race of kings, most probably refers to the daily of a set of priests. The four succeeding dynasties are of little better character. (g) Achthoes, a most inhuman prince, after exercising
.'.

great cruelties towards his subjects, went mad, in. was killed See a preceding note on Mencs. The by a crocodile.* an identity catastrophe of these two kings seems to indicate
I

of person.
Syncell. page 59.

VOL.

I.

3 L

442

CANONS OF THE EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES AND KINGS

I.

[CHAP. vr.

FROM MANETHO,
II.

FROM HERODOTUS.

According

to

Africanus.

According

to Eusebius.

ELKVENTH DYNASTY:
16 Diospolites; 43 years.
Years.

ELEVENTH DYNASTY:
16 Diospolites 27 16
43
;

43 years.
Years.

The
16.

first

15 unknown

The

Amemenemes

15 unknown 16. Amraenemes

first

27 16

Moeris

43

TOME
TWELFTH DYNASTY
1.
:

II.

TWELFTH DYNASTY:
7 Diospolites; 245 years.
.

7 Diospolites; 160 years.

Geson-goses, or Sesonchoris(h)
.

2.

Ammanemes

3. Sesostris(h) 4. Lachares(i) 5. Ammeres(j)

46 38 48
8

1. Sesynchoris(h) 2. Ammenemes 3. Sesostris(h) 4. Labaris(i)

46 Sesostris(h). 38 48 Pheron 8
)
\

6. Amineneiues(.j) 7. Scemiophris (Queen) (j)

8 8 4 160

5.N
6.

M05
245

7.N

THIRTEENTH DYNASTY:
60 Diospolites ; 184 years. Names unknown.

THIRTEENTH DYNASTY
;

60 Diospolites 453 years. Names unknown.

FOURTEENTH DYNASTY:

Lost.

FOURTEENTH DYNASTY:
76 Xoites
;

184, or 484 years.

:

Names unknown. FIFTEENTH DYNASTY

Names

Diospolites ; 250 years. and number of sovereigns un-

known.

SIXTEENTH DYNASTY:
5 Thebans ; 190 years. Names unknown.

FIFTEENTH DYNASTY:
G Phoenician Shepherds
1.

SEVENTEENTH DYNASTY:
4 Phoenician Shepherds
1. Saites
;

2. 3.
4.

284 years. 19 Saites.(k) or Salatis 44 Byon, or Ba?on(l) 61 Pachnan, or Apachnas 50 Staan^ra)

;

2. B.

anon

106 years. 19 43

3. 5.

Archies

49

4. Archies

Aphophis(<Aesu;M of Africanus} 14 . 30
.
.

6.

Aphobis (the third of Eusebius). 61

284

IOC

SIXTEENTH DYNASTY:
32 Greek Shepherds; 618 years. Names unknown. (n)
(b)
(i)

See a former note on Sesochris, in the 2d Dynasty. Lachares, or Labaris, chose the labyrinth, near Arsinoe,

for his sepulchre.* (j) These three, which are omitted by Eusebius, appear to have been originally in Manetho's canon
:

Mr. Bryant supposes Salatis to be the title, rather dynasty. than the proper name, of the first of these princes. Tzoan, or Zoan, the name of the province where lie fixed his residence,
signifies the Shepherd province ; which two latter words, changed

do not
perhaps

they were supplied by Africanus. (k) With this prince, the regal state of Egypt properly Infills; all the preceding names must, therefore, be considered as spurious, or to relate to some other persons than This should therefore be considered as the first sovereigns.
*
Syncell. page 60.

and Melech al Tzoan, from by the Greeks, the name of His name Salatis is derived, signifies the Shepherd-King. seems to have been Said, or Sait, whence the province where he dwelt was denominated the Saite province, a name still
:

retained by the present occupiers of Egypt.* has arisen out of a blunder of transcribers (1) This name
* Ancient Mythol,
vol. vi. p.

375,

et seq.

SECT. V.]

FROM VARIOUS WRITERS.

FROM DIODORUS.
IV.

443

III.

FROM JOSEPHUS.

V.

FROM SYNCELLUS.
Yearj.

Myris.

7 generations, among
syches, the lawgiver.

whom was

Sa-

Sesoosis

I.

8. Sesoncliosis

9.

Amenemes

. .

49 29

Sesoosis II. His successors

generations.

unknown

for

many
10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.
19.

Ainasis, or Amosis

Acesephthres Achereas
Amiyses, or Armiyses

Chamois
Amesises

N
Use Rhameses Rhamessomenes

2 13 9 4 12 65 14 50

29 15
31 23 19

20. Thysimares

Rhamesseseos 22. Rhamessetneuo 23. Rhamesse, son of Baetes 24. Rhamesse, son of Vaphres
21
.

39 29

25. Concharis

Timaus, or Timeus.
Six Pastor Kings
1. Salatis 2.
3.
;

259 years 10 months.

Yrs.

M.
26. Silites 27. Baeou 28. Apachnas 29. Aphophis(o) 30. Sethos

19
7

44 Apachnas, or Aphachnas .... 36

Baeon

19 44 36 61 60 29 24

4.

Aphophis

61 50 49
1

5. Janias(ra)
6. Assis

Sl.CertusI
2
32. Aseth..

259 10

the
2t/

name of the second prince being unknown, King is unknown) was written to fill up the

B. anon, (the

space, which

was subsequently converted into Baeon, Byon, Bnon, &c. and so passed for a proper name. The error is as old as See Sir J. Marsham's Chronology, page 100. Josephus. Eusebius has preserved the right reading. (m) Mr. Bryant thinks Staan to be a corruption of Tsaan, changed by the transposition of a letter ; in which case it is

the same as Salatis, also a corruption of Al Tzain. Janias, the 5th in Josephus's list, (taken from Manetho) he conceives .to have been originally Zanias, the same as Tsain and Al Tsain, by the Greeks called Salatis.

This dynasty is an interpolation, as is likewise the 17th. and others suppose Aphophis to be the Pharaoh who promoted Joseph but Sir John Marsham thinks he was drowned in the Red Sea.
(n)

(o) Syncellus

L2

444

CANONS OF THE EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES AND KINGS

I.

[CHAP. vi.

FROM MANETHO,
II.

FROM HERODOTUS.

Accontinij

to

Afrieanus.
Years.

According

to

Eusebius.
Years.

SEVENTEENTH DYNASTY:
43 Pastor Kings, and 43 Thebans, 151

Names of both

year*. races

unknown.

EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY:
1.

EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY:
16 Diospolites ; 348 years.
1 j

10 Diospolites ; 2(i3 years. Amos, Amosis,(p) orTethmosis,

son of Asetli

_
13
21

1.

Amosis(p)

25
'. .

2. 3.

Chebros

2. 3.

Chebron
Aimuenophis
Miphris Mispbragmuthosis

13
21

Amcnophthis
Amersis
Misaphris
Mlsi)linii;inuthosis,
II.(P)
-.

4.
fi.
(i.

22

13
or

4.
"i.

Amosis

7 or, 20

12 26 9 31

1.

Tuthmosis

8. 9.

Amenophis, or

Memnon

Horns
Acherres Rathos Chebres Acherres
1

10. 11. 12. 13.

14.

II

9 31 37 32 6 12 12
5
1

G.
7.

Tuthmosis

8.
9.

Amenophis Horus
Achencherses

36
12

10. Athoris 11. Chencheres(p) 12. Aclierres 13. Cherres

14.

Armeses

Armes, or Danaiis

39 16 8 15 5

1 5. Raininesses
16.

Amenoph.

.19

15. 16.

Ammeses, or jEgyptus

Memopbis

60 20
348

263

NINETEENTH DYNASTY:
6 Diospolites ; 209 years.
1. Setlios
2.

NINETEENTH DYNASTY:
5 Diospolites
51
1. Sethos
2. 3.
;

194 years.

Rhapsaces

.... 66

Rhapses

3. Aninieneplithes 4. Kameses 5.

20 60
5
7

Ammenephthes

55 GG 40

Cetes, or Protcus(r). ...... Rhemphis, or Rhampsinitus

Ammenemnes

4.
5.

Ammenemmes
Thuoris(q)

26
7
TJionis
.

6. Thuoris(q)

209

194

TOME
TWENTIETH DYNASTY:
12
Diospoliti-s
;

III.

TWENTIETH DYNASTY:
12 Diospolites; 178 years. Names unknown.

13-3 years.

Names unknown.

TWENTY-FIRST DYNASTY:
1.

TWENTY-FIRST DYNASTY:
7 Tanites
;

iTunltes; 130 years. .' Smedes

usenes, or P.suneses

130 years.
20
41
4

20
-4C

1.

2. 3.

Smcmlis Psusennes

3.

Nephelcheres

4
9

Nephercheres

4. Amenenoplilliis

4. Ameiiopiitliis

(p) Afric-anus places tlie

exodus of

Israel

under Amosis;
;

Eusel/ms under Chcncheres.

Vfricanus calls
ver. 2!M.

him the Polybus of Homer

Od. xx.

Perizonius supposes Proteus and Sethos to lie the.sime. Newton thinks Proteous to have been no more tl;;m a president, or ovcrnor of Lower Egypt, under Ament pliis, whom he identities with Menes.
(r)

Sir Isaac

15

SECT. V.]

FROM VARIOUS WRITERS.

FROM DIODORUS.
IV.

r>

III.

FROM JOSEPHUS.

V.

FROM SYNCELLUS.
Years.

EGYPTIANS.
Yrs.

M.

1.

Halisphragmuthosis

Amasis, or Ammosis. Actisanes, the Ethiopian.

2. Tethinosis
3. 4.

25

33. Amosis, or Telhmosis

22
13
15 11

Mendes, or Marus.

5.

6.

Chebron Amenophis 1 Amesscs (Queen) Mephres

Mepliramuthosis, or Mis- 1 phragmuthosis 3

13 20
21 12

7
J)

34. 35. 36.

Chebron

Amephes A menses

7.

luter-regnum, during 5 generations.

8. 9.

21 10

(See No. 38.) 37. Misphragmuthosis 38. Misphrcs

39. 40. 41. 42. 43.

10. 1 1. Acenclires 12. Rathosis

Thmosis Amenophis Orus

II.

13. Acencheres 1 14. Acencheres II 15. Armais 16. Ramesses 17. Harnesses Miamun 18. Amenophis III

9 B 30 10 36 5 12 1 9 12 5 12 3

Tuthmosis
Amenoplithis

Horus
Achencheres
Athoris
8,
;

16 23 39 34 48 ... 25 29
2(5

44. Chencheres 45. Acheres 46. Armaeus, or Danaiis

or 30

4
1

9 68 8 17 19
13 4 20 45

66 19

2 6

47. Rhamesses, or 48. Amenophis 49. Thuoris 50. Nechepsos

^gyptus

5 1. Psammuthis

Proteus
P.hemphis, son of Proteus
,

19. Sethos jEgyptus

N
f.
v.

20. Illianipses 21. Amenophis IV. 22. Rameses Sethon.

52. 53. Certus II 54. Rhampsis 55. Amenses, or 5G. Ochyras

Amenemcs

26
14 27 50 28 39

six generations

among whom was

Nilus

N.

57. Amedes 58. Thuoris, or Polybus 59. Athothis, or Pliusanus 60. Cencenes

61. Vennephes
62. Sussacim

42 34

63. Psuenus, or Sonipsuerus (-See No. 65.) 64. Ainnicuophes

-J.">

65. Nephecheres 66. Saites

9 6
15

446

CANONS OF THE EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES AND KINGS

I.

[CHAP. vi.

FROM MANETHO,
^

II.

FROM HERODOTUS.

.According

to Aj'ricanus.
Years.

According

to Euscbius.
Years.

6.
(5.

Osochor
Pinaches

5. 6.

Osochor
Psinaches

6
9

7.

Susenncs

30

7.

Psusennes II

35

130

130

TWENTY-SECOND DYNASTY:
9 Bubastites ; 120 years.
1. Sesonchis

TWENTY-SECONB DYNASTY:
21 15
1
.

3 Subastites ; 49 years. Sesenchosis

. .

21

Osoroth 3. N. 1 4. N. V
2.
5.

2.

Osorthon

15

29

N.)
The
rest

6. Tacellothis

unknown

13 42
120

3. Tacellothis

13

49

TWENTY-THIRD DYNASTY:
4 Tanites ; 89
1. Petubates 2.
3. 4.

TWENTY-THIRD DYNASTY:
40 8 10
31 3 Tanites ; 44 years. Petubastes 2. Osorthon, or Hercules
1. 3.

years.

Cheops, or Cheopses Cephrenes Mycerinus

50 56

25

Osorcho, or Hercules

9
I

Psammus
Zet

Psammus

89

44
Asychis.

TWENTY-FOURTH DYNASTY:
1 Suite
;

TWENTY-FOURTH DYNASTY
6
1 Saite ; 44 years. Bochchoris, or Bonchoris

6 years.

Bochchoris

44 Anysis
:

TWENTY-FIFTH DYNASTY:
3 Ethiopians
1.
2.
;

TWENTY-FIFTH DYNASTY
8 14 18
1. 2.
3.

40 years.

Sabbacon

Sevechus 3. Tarcus

3 Ethiopians; 44 years. Sabbacon Sevechus Taracus..

..12

Sabaco

12 ..20
44
Anysis restored.

40

TWENTY-SIXTH DYNASTY:
9
Saites
;

TWENTY-SIXTH DYNASTY:
9 Saites ; 108 years.
Sethon.

150J years.
Yrs.

M.

Ammeris

12
7

1. Stephinates
2.

Nerepsos

3.

Nechao

4.
6. 6.

Psammetichus

Nechao

II

Psammuthis

6 8 54 6 G

2. Stephanathis 3. Necheptos 4.

6
8
1

Nechao
Nechao

[The 12 Kings, 15
Psaimnetichus

years.].

5.

Psanmietichus
II

6.

7. Psamimithis, or

Psammetichus

II.

45 6 17

Necus Psammis

7. Vaphris(s) 8. Amosis
9. Psanimacherites

19 44 6

8. Vapbris(s) 9, Amosis

25 42

Apries(s)

Amasis, or Anamasis Psammenitus.

150

168

Herodotus and Diodorus close

lists

their

with the Persian invasion.

(s)

Supposed to be the Pharaoh Hophra of Scripture.

SECT. V.]

PROM VARIOUS WRITERS.

FROM DIODORUS.
Years.

447

III.

IV.

FROM JOSEPHUS.

V.

FROM SYNCELLUS.
Years.

See No. 69.) 67. Psinaches 68. Petubastes

69. Osorthon I
70.

9
44 9
10

Psammus

71. Concharis..

72. Osorthon II.

.21 .15

73. Tacelophes

.13

Chemmis, or Chembes
Cephren, orChabryis Myceriuus, or Clierinus.

50 56
. .

(See No. 68.) (See No. 69, 72.)

..

(See No. 10.)

Gnephachthus.

Bocchoris ....

74. Bocchoris

44

Sabaco

75. Sabacon 76. Sebechon 77. Taraces

12

12 20

Inter-regnum, 2 years.

N.
78. Amaes 79. Stephinathes 80. Nacepsus 81. Nechaab 1 82. Psammetichus
83.
.

[The 12 Kings, 15 years.]. Psammetichus .........

NO
N.
f

Nechaab

II

38 27 13 1 14 9
Psammetichus 11.17

> 4 generations.

84. Psammulhis, or

NJ
Aries

Amasis

85. Vaphres 86. Amasis .

.34 .50

N.

448

CANONS OF THE EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES AND KINGS.

I.

[CHAP. vi.

FROM MANETHO,
IV.
-i

FROM SYNCEM.US.

According

to

Africanus.

According

to

Eusebivs.

TWENTY-SEVENTH DYNASTY
8 Persians ; 124
1.

TWENTY-SEVENTH DYNASTY:
8 Persians; 120 J yearn.
M.
1. 2.
Yrs.

years.
Yrs.
.

M.

Cambvses

6 36 21
7

2. Darius, son of Hystaspes 3. Xerxes the Cireat

4.
6. 7.

3 Smerdis 3. Darius, son of Hystaspes .... 36 4. Xerxes the Great 21

Cambyses
false

The

[Syncellus does not reckon the Persian princes among the sovereigns of Egypt. In fact, they never were so completely masters of the country, but that the Egyptians had in some corner a leader,

whom
2 7

Artabanus

Of this
5.
6.

5. Artaxerxcs

41
2
7

Xerxes

II.

Artaxerxes Longimanus Xerxes II.

40

they looked upon as their king. character were Amyrtseus and

others.]

8. Darius,

Sogdianus son of Xerxes

7.

'19
124
4

8. Darius,

Sogdianus son of Xerxes

19

120

TWENTY-EIGHTH DYNASTY;
1 Suite
;

TWENTY-EIGHTH DYNASTY:
1 Saite
;

6 years.
Years.

6 years.
87. Amyrtaeus

Amyrtoes

... 6

Aiayrtanus, or Amyrtaeus

TWENTY-NINTH DYNASTY:
4 Mende&ians ; 20 J
1. 2.

TWENTY-NINTH DYNASTY:
5 Mendesians
;

years.
Yrs.

21 J years.
Yrs.

M.
Nepherites 2. Achoris
3.
1.

M.
88. Nepherites 89. Achoris 90. Psammuthis
(i

Nepherites Achoris

G 13
1

13
1

13

3. Psaramutliis

Psammuthis
Anapherites

2
4

4.

Nephorotes

4.

4
1
91. Meiias

5. Mutliis.

20

21

THIRTIETH DYNASTY
3 Sebennytiaus
1. 2.
3.
;
'

THIRTIETH DYNASTY:
3 Sebennytians ; 20
Years.

38 years.

years.
Yearg.

Nectanebes

18
2

Nectanebes

10
-2

Teos
Nectanebes
II

2. 3.

Teos
Nectanebes
II

92. Nectanebes 93. Teos

8
2

18

8 20

LIST OF
<rom (From
Kent
1.

THE THEBAN KINGS.

of Eratosthenes.) (t)
Year*. Years.

the

Laterculus

2.
:5,

4.
5. G,

Mcnes,(u) or Mines Athothes I. (u) Athothes II. Diubies

<>'2

13. Rauosis

,J9

Peruphos Toegar-Amachiis-Momchiri, or
Tu'garanius Stcechus Gosormies, or ElesipantHfl

32 19 18 79 6 30
'2G

14. Biyris 15. Saophis 16. Sensaophis

17.
lii.

13 10 ... 29 27
31
:$:!

Moscheris Musthis

20. Semphucratcs 18 27. Chuther-Taurus 7 28. Meres, or Meures the Philosopher 12 29. Choma-Ephtha 11 30. Anchunius-Ochy, orScuniosorhnsiiO

7.

19. Pain nms Archondes 20. Apappus the Great

3o 100
1

8.
9.
ID.

Mares

21. Echescus Caras 22. Nitocris(v) (Queen)

2:$.

Anoyphes
Chnubus-Gneurus

20

Myrtwus

11 Sirius
12.

18 27

24. Thyosimares 25. Thyrillus, or Thinillus

G 22 12
8

31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 30.

Penteathyris

(J

Stamencmes
Sistosichermes

23
.j,>

Maris
Siphoas Hermes

13

5
14

N.

37. Phruron, or Nilus 38. Amurthasus, or Amythanteeus

5
-03

(t)

Apud

Syucell. p. 92, et seq.

(v) Ibid.

(u)

See the 1st Dynasty of Manetho.

Dynasty

6.

SECT. V.]

ORIENTAL HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS.

449

The disagreement of these several canons, as well in the successions and names of the princes, as in the years of their respective reigns, at the same time that it has puzzled chronologers of all ages, since the true history of Egypt was lost, has given rise to a multitude of hypotheses, in order to reduce them to a plausible chronological series, so as to agree
with each other, and to accord with such lights as the Scriptures afford relative to the Egyptian kings. Some chronologers reject the whole scheme of Manetho's dynasties, as fabulous ;(w) others,(x) with Eusebius(y) at their head, omit the first 10 dynasties, and begin with the 17th, or dynasty of Phoenician Shepherds, which is certainly the first authentic piece of history that we have of Egypt ; ye,t these writers differ among themselves in their

even in Europe, in the Oriental languages, than in the Greek. Yet we are so accustomed to refer to the latter for information respecting ancient times, that all others lie neglected and Some persons, indeed, have enterdespised. tained considerable prejudice against the Eastern writers, as if they delighted only in fables ; but the truth is, they are more methodical and copious than what we have remaining of the Greeks ; and though they may be equally extravagant in their conceits, they are not more destitute of truth, which in either case must be sought for with care, amidst the trash of miracles and prodigies, the inteference of gods and the supervention of genii, the amazing feats of heroes, and the magic productions of enchanters. The Oriental writers divide the ancient Egyptian monarchs into three classes; the first of these are said to have reigned before the creation of Adam, and among them they place Gian Ben Gian, to whom they ascribe the pyramids.(a) The second class of Egyptian kings reigned before the deluge the first of whom was Kraus, or Nakraus, the fifth in descent from Adam, in the line of Seth. This man, taking a dislike to those among whom he was born, collected a company of seventy-eight persons, and with them removed into the country, since called Egypt; which he cleared of its woods, and built there the city of Mesr, so named from his father, and made it the capital of his new Some writers will not allow him to kingdom. of the lineage of Seth, but of Cain, have been He is or some other of the sons of Adam.(b)
;

computations. Before we proceed to notice the various systems by which it has been attempted to reduce the Egyptian history within the bounds of probability, and to reconcile it to the scriptural chronology, it will be proper to advert to the accounts contained in the oriental writings, where the kingdom of Egypt is made nearly coeval with the creation, an idea that has been adopted by many Europeans, but by none so warmly as by father Kircher,(z) from whose writings, on account of their singularity and scarceness, some considerable extracts will be here made. The Oriental historians differ materially from the Greeks, in their accounts of Egyptian
affairs, and there are many more original histories of the country before us, to be found,

Among these, we may particularise Father Petau, Doctr. Temper, lib. ix. cap. 15. Perizonius (x) Calvisius, Usher, J. Capellus, and Bryant. esteems the first 14 or 15 to be fabulous. Eusebius has very properly rejected the 16th and 17th dynasties of Ar'ricanus but he has run into an error himself, by introducing a dynasty of anonymous Diospolitcs.and another of Thebans, as his 15th and 16th. (y) Chron. Grac. page 89. (z) Athanasius Kircher, a Jesuit of Fulda, and professor in the university of Wurtzburgh, whence he retired, first to to France, and afterwards to Rome, published in the latter
(w)

dynasties,

it is

necessary to introduce his theory

in this place,

De

and

to let

him have precedence of writers of more popular

al

celebrity.
(a)

Tarikh

Thabari.

(Edipus JEgypiiacws, in which he undertook to unravel the enigmas of the Egyptian mythology, and to explain many of the hieroglyphics. This, of course, led him to an examination of the chronology and history of the sovereigns of Egypt, and in that pursuit he made considerable use of the Oriental writings from this connection, as well as the peculiar view he takes of the
city,

in 1G52-3, a

work,

iirtitled,

According to Ahmed Ebn Yusef, Seth settled in the land of Egypt, which was then called Bablun, where he and the descendants of his brother Cain dwelt together; only the Sethites resided in the mountainous parts, while the sons After of Cabil, or Cain, remained in the plains and valleys. Seth, Cainan possessed Egypt, and after him Mahalaleel, who was succeeded by Jared, the first man that Seth instructed in the sciences and arts which knowledge Jared transmitted to his son Enoch, called by the Arabians, Idris, Adris, or Osiris. According to this statement, Enoch will appear to have been the most ancient Osiris of the Egyptians; for whatever the Greeks have written of that sovereign, and of his benefactions to the human race, the Arabs and Cbaldaaaus
(b)
;

attribute to their Adris.

VOL.

I.

150

ORIENTAL HISTORY OF THK EGYPTIANS.

nothing worthy of notice.
prince,

[CHAP. vi.

represented as of gigantic stature, and to have reigned H!0 years; but the year of his accession is not given. (c) This Nakraus is also
said to be called skilled in magic,

Loudiauain succeeded him, but performed

(Jhasalim, or Ilasalim, son of the last named is celebrated for his invention of the

Amasns, and to have been by means of which he per-

formed many wonderful things; among others, he made two idols of stone, and placed them in the heart of his capital, and if any man guilty of theft approached them, he found himself bound by a secret charm, and drawn insensibly between them both, where he remained a
prisoner in their embraces.(d)

Kraus was succeeded by his son Natras, or Nathras, or, as some call him, Tegar. Like his father, this prince was skilled in magic and he
;

built a city in Egypt, called Salcha, besides three others, supported on pillars, beyond the coun-

In these cities he placed gartry of Elvahat. and obtained great renown for his risons,

wisdom and wonderful deeds. (e) Mesram, the son or brother, and successor of Nathras, was a great magician. Among other feats, he tamed a lion, and rode upon his back. He was also conveyed upon his
throne by daemons to the middle of the sea, where he caused a beautiful tower to arise, and in it he placed an idol of the sun, on which

Nilometer, which passed in those days for :i wonderful effect of magic. On this occasion, he is said to have assembled all the artificers and geometricians of his kingdom, and having erected for himself a house on the banks of the Nile, he made a small pool in the middle of it, which he filled with water, that had been previously weighed and over the mouth of the pool, he placed two brazen eagles, male and female. On the first appearance of the river rising, the house was set open, and all the priests were assembled before him. The chief priest then muttered some incantations OUT the eagles, till one of them began to sing: if the male sang, it was a token that the waters would rise to a sufficient height but if the
; ;

female, the omen was deemed inauspicious, and the waters were deficient of the requisite quantity to irrigate the land. This prince also built a bridge over the Nile, in the country of

Nubia.
Harsal, Husal, or Usal, the son of Chasalim, reigned with great lenity towards his subjects ; and in his days the patriarch Noah was

he inscribed his name and the description of his kingdom. He also constructed a brazen statue, with an inscription upon it, to the following
effect
:

born.

"
I,

" the great and powerful Giant, the revealer of

MESRAM,

skilled in the art of imagery, " inventor of various talismans, and the maker of speaking

"

secrets,

stupendous figure upon the sea, " that all who shall hereafter be born, " may know that no king will ever be like me."(f)
set this

" have

images,

Gancam, whose days Idris, or Enoch, was translated. (g) He was succeeded by his son,
in

Mesram was succeeded by

Aryak, who
excelled
all

his son

in the occult sciences; and angels Harut and Mari.it descended

his predecessors in his reign the

from heaven to converse with the daughters of men.(h) His son,

(c) Ebn Abd vil Hokm. apud Ciaf. in Mirabil. Pyramid.

Jadonsac, who succeeded Harsal, (i) first thought of extending the benefits of the Nile, by cutting canals, to convey the waters to the inland parts of his kingdom, which had nowbecome very populous, and stood in need of such assistance. Semrond received the crown from his father Jadonsac, and transmitted it to his son Sariac, or Sarkak but neither of them performed any deeds of note. Sahaluc, or Sahlic, son and successor of Sariac, was a great monarch but his glory having been eclipsed by that of his son Saurid, his deeds have not been transmitted. Saurid, or Surit, was remarkable for his wisdom, justice, and extensive dominion. By some, he is said to have been the first who
: ;

Ebn

Greaves, Pyramid. Murtad

Almaschaud, apud Kircher, (Edip. cap. 8. synt. i. p. ('<>. (e) Ibid. (f) Gulaleddin, apud idem. ibid. (g) Ibid. Ebn. Abd al Hokm. ubi supr. Khondemir in Khelamat Alakhar. Mirabil. Pyramid,
(d)
JF.yyjit, vol.
i.

Mohammed Ben

See also Lib. Enoch, apud (h) See before, page 267. Fabric. Pseudepigrap/t. Vet. Test. D'Herbelot. Bibl. Orient.
art.

Edris.

Mirabil. Pyramid.

Kircher, following Mohammed Ben Almaschaud and Gelaleddin, omits Jadonsac and Semrond, and introduces Tatrasan, as the son and successor of Usal, who was himself succeeded by Sarkak !ut he gives no history of his reign.
(i)
:

9KCT. V.j

ORIENTAL HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS.

floor, to catch the eye of any greedy intruder, and draw away his In the second attention from the vessels. he deposited whatever related to pyramid, civil history, laying up the books and records in vessels similar to those in which the jewels were contained, and securing them in a similar manner. In the third pyramid, he collected such things as had reference to ecclesiastical and in all history, and the sublime sciences he laid up vast treasures with whatever was fit for the reception of a prince, who should thither for shelter; and in the middle fly of them he appointed convenient places for the interment of himself and his domestics. (k) At the end of a long reign, when he found death fast approaching, he called for his soil, and after making before him a long discourse on the duties of kings, and of the regard he owed him as his father and his sovereign, he
: ;

caused canals to be digged, (j) which others, ;is \ve have already seen, attribute to Jadonsac. He also first erected pyramids, upon the following occasion He dreamed that the earth
:

abundance about the

and on their faces, prostrate the stars falling from heaven, and all nature A year tilled with discord and confusion. afterwards, he had this dream a second time, and it so alarmed him, that he called together tlir most learned among the priests, with all the wise men, and professors of the occult sciences in Egypt, and having communicated to them his dreams, besought them to give him the inter-

was subverted, with that he saw the men

all

its

inhabitants,

After consultation, they declared pretation. that a mighty deluge was about to cover the earth, and that the effects it would produce had been revealed to him in his dreams. When

the king had heard and considered this declaration, he caused pyramids and other immense structures to be erected, as places of refuge for himself and his domestics, as well as for sepulchres wherein to preserve their bodies after death. He also designed to cover the walls and roofs of these buildings with hieroglyphical lectures, explanatory of all the various sciences known to the Egyptians, for the use of posterity. These were to be accompanied with the figures of the stars, and the celestial signs, with their effects and significations ; the secrets of nature, the productions of art, the virtues of drugs, and the fundaIn pursumental propositions in geometry. ance of this project, he built the three great pyramids, caused them to be covered with silks of various colours, from the summit to the base ; and on occasion of their being completed, he ordained a general festival, which lasted a considerable time, and to which all the inhabitants of Egypt resorted. The festival over, the king caused thirty large vessels to be made of a kind of artificial green stone, and placed them in the lowest part of the eastern pyramid. These vessels he filled with jewels and precious stones of all descriptions, and on
their lids he

gave his

concerning his burial, corpse to be embalmed with spices, and laid in the pyramid he had destined for himself; the chamber wherein it should be deposited he desired might be strewed with
final directions

ordering

his

camphor and sandal-wood

and

his

richest

armour, with whatever things of value he had used about his person, to be left in the same All which directions were punctually room.
attended
to.(l)

poured melted lead, to keep thorn

a

secure.
safety,

As
he

farther precaution for their scattered pieces of gold, in great

Hargib, or Augib, or Hugit, the son, or, as some writers call him, the brother of Saurid, governed according to the precepts of his predecessor, being no less careful to secure the good will of his subjects by a mild and paternal administration, than to promote their prosperity by wisdom and justice. He built the first of the pyramids of Dehasoura, and, in imitation of his father, deposited therein immense wealth, His and a vast quantity of precious stones. favourite science was chemistry; and he is reported to have possessed the art of transmuting the baser metals into gold, with which he filled his treasury, after he had adorned his kingdom with many magnificent structures. He reigned 99 years and when he died, he was interred in one of the pyramids. Man-aus, Men-aos, or Mank-aus, son and
;

(j)

Apud

Kircher, supra.

These, and many other particulars, as the manner of building the pyramids, &c. are said to be taken from the ancient books of the Cophts ; wherein it is also recorded, that
(k)

Saurid reigned 300 years before the deluge, and that he The pyramids, it will be recolgoverned Egypt 107 years. lected, have already been attributed to Gian Ben Gian. Ebn Abd al Ilokm. ubi supr. Mirab'd. Pyramid. (1)

45-2

ORIENTAL HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS.

[CHAP. vi.

successor of Hargib, despising the examples of hi.s t\vo predecessors, became a monster He slew for pride, cruelty, and insolence. the most deserving of his subjects, violated the women of quality, and squandered, in the most which profligate licentiousness, those treasures his ancestors had set apart for the public service. His extravagance was so unlimited, that he even built palaces of gold and silver, and brought into them canals from the Nile, whose bottoms were covered with precious stones, that glittered through the water in the To maintain all this, eyes of the spectators. he had recourse to tyranny and oppression, so

letter^ under pretence of enforcing the counsel But instead of doing so, given to Darmasel. he joined himself to Noah, and matched his daughter into the prophet's family, by marryWhen the deluge ing her to Chaus, or Ham. came, Egypt was overspread with libertinism and luxury, and the king Firaoun was so excessively inebriated, that he had not a perfect idea of his danger till the moment when he was swallowed up by the waters, and drowned. The description given by these writers of the

whose affections he had were greatly rejoiced on hearing entirely lost, that his horse had thrown him, and that he had broken his neck in the fall. Of Ecros, or Aphrus, son of the last-named prince, we have little or no account; only it is prothat his
subjects,

deluge, is very frightful ; and they affirm, that the waters continued upon the earth for eleven months ; and that it took place 2156 years after the creation,(m) being exactly a century earlier than the time fixed by Pezron, who pretends to follow the Septuagint. From the foregoing extract, it appears that the kings of Egypt, before the deluge, were 18
in

number,

viz.

bable that he was as great a tyrant as his father, from the course taken by his subjects for their
security for, on his death, or deposition, they set aside the hereditary succession, and elected to the government a person of their own choice, but of the royal family, called Ermelinous, or Malinus, who governed with moderation and justice; so that on his decease,
:

own

1. Kraus, Nakraus, or Amasus, reigned 2. Natras, Nathras, or Tegar.

3.

180 years.

Mesram.

[Idolatry introduced.]

4.

Gancam.
Aryak.

5.

[Enoch translated.] [Harut and Marut, apostate angels.]

6.
7.

Louchanam.

Chasalim, or Hasalim. [Nilometer invented.] 8. Harsal, Husal, or Usal. [Noah born.] 0. Jadonsac. \Canahfirst made.]
10. Semrond. 11. Sariak, or Sarkak. 12. Sahaluc, or Sahlic. 13. Saurid, or Surit, reigned 107 years. 14. Hargib, Augib, or Hugit, reigned 99 years. 15. Man-aus, Men-aos, or Mank-aus. 16. Ecros, or Aphrus. 17. Ermelinous, or Malinus, head of a new dynasty. 18. Firaoun, or

the Egyptians submitted to his cousin, Firaoun, by some called Abn Ama Pharann, the last monarch who ruled in Egypt before the deluge. He was a tyrannical prince, and,

under his administration, religion and justice were nearly forgotten. On being informed that Noah was preaching repentance and amendment of life, and that he threatened the disobedient with destruction by water, he wrote to king Darmasel, in whose dominions the prophet dwelt, to put him, to death, and to burn the vessel, or ark, that he was building. However, the high-priest of Egypt, who had read and considered the sacred books carefully, being fully persuaded that Noah was a true prophet, and that what he had threatened would certainly come to pass, procured himself to

Abn Ama

Pharaun.

[Deluge.]

But Kircher reckons only 15, which he supposes to be equal to the same number of dynasties wanting in Manetho s Catalogue, (n) and he conceives, that the first dynasty after the flood, is equal to Manetho's 10th of Thebans, according to Eusebius. Kircher's list runs as
follows
1. 2.
:

be sent as the messenger with the king's

Nakraus, or Amasus, priest and magician. ditto. Nathras, or Natras, 3. Mesram, inventor of image-worship. 4. Aryak. [Harut and Marut. Enoch born.] (o)

Mirabil Pyramid. Al Soyuti. (m) Tarikh. al Thabari. old Egyptian Chroitirfi; (n) This should rather be the where Ihe fourteen first d\ nasties are actually wanting in Manetho, it will be seen on reference to the foregoing pages, they are supplied, though in a very unsatisfactory manner. in his text (o) Kircher's Table of Kh.gs is here followed
:
:

he places Aikam (probably the same with Gancam) between Mesram and Aryak, and says Enoch was translated in his days, though he appears doubtful whether Aikam were the successor or the lieutenant of Mesram. His placing the birth of Enoch under Aryak is evidently erroneous ; but there are many transpositions of a similar nature in his history.

SECT. V.]
6.
<{.

ORIENTAL HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS.

[Noah
born.]

4-13

Hasilim, inventor of the Nilomctcr.

Husal.

7. Tetrasan, who first constructed canals, 8. Sarkak, first builder of pyramids, (p) 9. Sahaluc.

&c.(p)

10. Surit, or Surid.(p) 11. Hugit, or Ilugith. 12. Man-aus, Men-us, or Manak-aus. 13. Aphrus. 14. Malinas.

Of these
able

proved, or rather retrieved it, building for the place of his residence, and the capital of his dominions, a large and beautiful city, which he called Masar, or Mesr, i. e. the great city; the same that afterwards obtained the name of
six kings,

nothing memor-

Memphis. (q) While

this

related.

he had a son born, whom he also called Masar, or Mesr, and to him, at his death, he left the

work was carrying on,

15.

Abn Ama
deluge.

Pheraun,

who was drowned

in the general

The princes omitted in this second list, are Gancam, in whose days Enoch was translated, and who is said to have been the son of Mesram, and father to Aryak Loiichanam, son of Aryak Jadonsac, who is probably the same with Tetrasan, as the same invention, that of making canals, is ascribed to both and ScrnShould the number rond, the son of Jadonsac. of 15 be preferred, though it is difficult to say why it should be, it may, with more pro; ;
;

kingdoin.(r) Some Oriental writers vary in their accounts of this second settlement of Egypt, and attribute it entirely to Masar, to whom, they say, it was

solemnly assigned by his great ancestor Noah, with whom he was a great favourite, on account
of his superior genius and capacity, added to his inuocency of manners: insomuch that Noah, on his interposition, retracted, so far as related to him, the bitter curses he had vented against Ham, his grandfather, and his posterity; and, in a pathetic address to God, Noah besought Him to bless and preserve this young man, and to give him all the riches of the land of the river.

be considered as equal to the 15 generations of the Cunic cycle, than a substitute for the 15 dynasties, including that cycle, wanting in the Chronicle.
priety,

of Egypt, or those who reigned after the deluge ; of whom the first was Bansar, or Beisar, the son of Chaus, Charn, or Ham, by the daughter of the Egyptian high-priest, above spoken of. When Noah, and those that were with him, came out of the ark, the high-priest requested him to send their grandson, Bansar, with him into Egypt, telling him, at the same time, such wonderful things of the pleasantness, fertility, and riches of that country, as quickly induced Noah to grant his request. On their'arrival in his native country, the priest explained to Bansar the nature of the Nile, the necessity of cutting canals, the peculiar method of cultivating and improving that soil, the means of opening the pyramids and other sacred edifices, with the mode of understanding the true sens* of the inscriptions, and of acquiring the sciences, which (he antediluvians had possessed. Under the direction of this priest, Bansar
settled
in

We now proceed to the third class of the kings

However this may be, Masar seems to have established the form of government that afterwards subsisted in Egypt, built various cities,
and amassed great treasures. Towards the close of his life, he divided the kingdom into
several petty sovereignties ; of which, he gave one to his son Coptim, or Kibt, whose descendants are called Copts, or Cophts ; this portion

name of Copt, or Egypt to hi.s son Asmounous, or Esmun, otherwise Ashmun, he gave Upper Egypt, or Theba'is, with all the country east and west of Copt: to his son Abribus, or Athrib, he bequeathed the flat country between Memphis and Sais, with tinfens beyond Barod and to SaV he gave all that between Sais and the sea. On each of them lay he laid an injunction, to erect a handsome
received the
:

city in his respective territory, for his residence, and to be diligent in improving the adjacent he died, his sons, pursuant to country. his instructions, laid his body in a cave, 150

When

this country,

and wonderfully im.

cubits in length, which they filled with treasures and precious stones, and caused an inscription,
cap.
tag.
viii.
i.

(p) In his text, Kirchcr takes no notice of Tetrasan and Sarkak, beyond naming them, but attributes the bnlldiii" of the pyramids, and the making of canals for distributing the
\\atrr, ot the Nile, to Surit, or Surid
lie

syntag.

i.

p.

6-'),

CO,

compared with cap.

ix.

s\n-

p. 7t.

includes Surit
is

among

the six

memorable

though, in hi, catalogue, princes of whom nothing

;

related.

See his (Edipus Jtijyp/iacus,

vol.

(q) Some of the Oriental writers say, that Bansar, or, as they call him, Beithir, or Bosiris, and his son;-, were 30 in number, whence the city was called Memphis, which, in the Egyptian language, signifies thirty. Tarikh al Thabari. (r) Myrabil, Pyramid.

1C

454

ORIENTAL HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS.

[CHAP. vi.

upon a plate of gold, to be placed the marble monument, where the body upon was laid, to the following purport:
"

" The son of Chaus, the son of Noah, "

MASAR,

the son of Bansar,

liis sister. Hereupon Tulis directed that she should be brought to his palace, and thither she was accordingly conveyed. But no sooner did the king put out his hand, with intent to touch her, than he found it suddenly shrunk

"

Died,

Aged seven hundred

years,

from the days of the Deluge."

Masar is reported to have been a most wise, having never done any just, and pious prince towards his subjects, nor bent his knee wrong
;

and withered. Apprehending, therefore, that he had been deceived, he besought Sarah to pray for him, that his hand might be restored ; which she did, and the king drew back his hand sound and well. Tulis then enjoined her
to explain the relation that subsisted between, her and Ibrahim ; and she told him plainly that she was his wife. On this, the king complained that Ibrahim had deceived him, in

free from care, sorrow, the course of nature he was by removed to another state, having first seen a multitude of his own progeny, and leaving several flourishing kingdoms to his children.(s)

to

any idol

he lived

or sickness,

till

Masar was succeeded by his son Coptim, of whom, and his successors for many generations, it is only known that they followed each other
in the subjoined order
:

saying she was his sister but Sarah replied : " He did not delude thee, O king for, inasmuch as I am of the same religion, 1 am his sister in God, and the sister of every man who believes the unity of the Godhead :" this answer so
:
:

Coptarim, son of Coptim Budesir, son of Coptarim ; Gad, or Gadim, son of Budesir; Sedeth, son of Gad Mancaous, son of Sedeth ; Casaous, son of Mancaous Marbis, son of Casaous ;
; ; ;

pleased the king, that he sent for Ibrahim, and

was instructed in his religion. This king, \vc are also informed, had an only daughter, a princess of great endowments, and of a mild

who was extremely pleasant temper, delighted with Sarah's company, and would
and
have

Asmar;
Citin
;

made her many

rich

presents,

had

Elsabas, son of Citin ; Sa ; who built the city of Sais, and settled the Egyptian
constitution
Malil, son of Sa
;

Hadares

Cheribas, son of Hadares Calcan.

Totis, Tulis, or Tautis, son of Calcan, was on the Egyptian throne, when Ibrahim, or Abraham, came into the country with his wife Sarah, whose beauty, though she was then past her bloom, astonished all beholders. On their arrival at Mesr, the capital of the kingdom, intelligence was conveyed to Tulis, that a stranger had made his appearance, having in
his

not Ibrahim ordered her positively to decline them. She was, however, prevailed upon to a female slave, whose name was Hagar, accept and who was afterwards the rival of Sarah, and the mother of Ishmael. After the departure of Ibrahim and his wife, Tulis became a most intolerable tyrant, so that his daughter, perceiving he had lost the confidence and affections of his subjects, poisoned him, lest they should change the succession, when he had reigned 70 years: and, after a short interregnum, she ascended the vacant throne, being the first female who had reigned over the

Egyptians.

company had ever been beheld. The king immediately sent for Ibrahim, and having demanded of him what relation the woman stood in towards him, Avas answered by the patriarch, that she was
Mirabil. Pyramid. Al Soyuti. (s) Khondimir ubi supr. Abenephius, however, relates this second establishment of the Egyptian kingdom in a different manner According to him, Misraim, (the same with Masar, or Mesr) the son of Ham, and grandson of Noah, was the first king of Egypt after the flood he was instructed in the sciences by his father Ham, and governed according to the practice of the
: :

woman,

the most beautiful that

The name of this princess, according to some, was Juriak, or, according to others, Charoba. She governed with great art, poised
the

power of the soldiers by that of the priests, and by a dexterous management of all parties,

secured to herself a reign of domestic tranantediluvian kings ; for he had heard of their mode of administration, as well as of the sciences of the first men, from his father, who had been in Egypt before the deluge, and returned thither afterwards Ham had also been acquainted with the kings and governors of the line of Cain, and from them had learned magic, enchantments, and the art of making idols; all
:

which he communicated

to

Misraim and bis children.

SECT.

V.]'

ORIENTAL HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS.

It

455

quillity.

was under her

her daughter,

who succeeded

historians affirm the entered Egypt, which they held in subjecThe action for a considerable time, (t) counts of the monarchs of that dynasty are but among them we find the very imperfect
:

reign, or that of her, that some Amalekites to have

following :(u) Riyan, who is said to have differed from all his predecessors of the Amalekite race they being idolaters in religion, and tyrants in administration ; whereas Riyan was a worshipper of the true God, and a very just and equitIn his time Joseph came into able prince. Egypt, of whose adventures and government many long and singular stories are told, some of which have already been noticed in the history of that patriarch. (v) Darem, the son and successor of Riyan, was altogether unlike his father: his impiety was such, that he despised the divine providence, and oppressed his subjects. He did not, however, hold the regal dignity long, but was drowned, say the historians, by the just vengeUnder the ance of God, in the river Nile. of this prince, the death of Joseph is reign
:

but was succeeded by his grandson, Kabus, who reigned in the time of Moses.(w) Valid, or VValid, brother and successor to Kabus, is by most Arabian historians said to be the king of Egypt, who opposed Moses, and perished in the Red Sea. He is generally called an Arab, of the tribe of Ad', though some maintain that he was an Amalekite. This prince is represented as a most (x) cruel tyrant, though a man of great abilities, and crafty in his plans. He pretended that the Israelites were all slaves, because Joseph, who brought them into Egypt, had been himself a slave, purchased with Egyptian money, and, consequently, his kindred could be no better than himself. Under this pretext, he refused to give them their liberty, when Moses demanded it for them. But if he treated them harshly, his own subjects experienced no better usage for, after impoverishing them by excessive taxes, and wasting them in many romantic exacted divine expeditions, he at length honours from them and though one of the worst of men, he endeavoured to make himson,
:

placed.

to some, Darem was succeeded Cathim, also of the Amalekite race; he was by a very magnificent prince, and gained himself renown by the variety of noble buildings with which he adorned the country. Instead of the two last princes, many of the Oriental writers allege, that Riyan left no

According

In the height of his god. the angel Gabriel presented himself power, before him, under the form of a shepherd, and complained that he had a servant, upon whom he had heaped continual favours ; notwithstanding which, he had deserted him, and was endeavouring to do him a mischief. When the king heard this, he desired the supposed shepherd to have his ungrateful servant apprehended, and he would order him to be thrown
self pass for a
Maliu, son of Adris; Harbata, son of Maliu ; Holken, son of Harbata,

(t) The eastern historians are unanimous as to the invasion and conquest of Egypt by the Anialekitos, who appear to be the same with the Cutheans, Ilyc-sos, or Shepherd-Kings but they (lifter materially as to the time when this conquest
;

was macie. Some will have it so early as the days of Cophtarim, the third sovereign of Egypt after the Deluge and they are very circumstantial in relating the particulars of their invasion and expulsion. Others bring this revolution so low as the time of Abraham, or even lower; and, according to them, Joseph was i-i:ir, or prime-minister, to a prince of the Amalekite race. These variations, however, are not greater than what are to be observed in the ancient Greek historians, and
;

who reigned almost a century. Leaving no sons, he was succeeded by his brother, Malia, son of Harbata; Tautis, son of Malia, the Pharaoh who took Sarah from
Abraham
;

Hazubah, daughter of Tautis, the first woman that reigned in Egypt Amaaz-Alpba, daughter of Mamum, son of Malia; Alualid, of the race of Amalek, sou of Lud, the son of
;

Shcm
Al Riyan,

modern
(u)
(v)

theorists.
al

Tarikh

Thabari.

Mirabil. Pyramid.

in whose reign Joseph interpreted the king's dreams.

came

into

Egypt, and

The foregoing succession is See before, page 361. related by some of these writers Mesra, say they, differently was succeeded by his son Copt, who built pyramids, and On his death, his brother Esmun reigned many years.
:

(w) Khondemir.
(x)

Soyuti.

Those who contend for his being of the race of Ad', will not allow him to be the grandson of Riyan, who has been

mounted the throne, who was followed by his In-other Atrib, ;md he by his brother Sai. This latter was succeeded by bis sou Adris, or Tedaris, whose successors were

The name already reckoned among the Amalekite princes. Valid, or Walid, is a title, rather than a proper name, signifying such an one, and is used by the Oriental writers for any
prince,

whose

real

name they

are unacquainted with.

456
into the

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS,

Red
Sea.

VI.

The

shepherd-angel re-

quested to have the king's signature to this order, to which Valid assented ; and, the
angel having written it, he actually subscribed it. Afterwards, at the passage of the Red Sea, when the king found himself in danger of drowning, he cried to the Almighty, and sought for mercy and forgiveness ; then Gabriel appeared; and, producing the writing with his own signature, said to him, " Thou art the rebellious slave; and thus is thine own judgment executed on thyself !"(y)

From this time, queror, and put to death.(a) the oriental agrees better with the western history, as will appear in its proper place.

Upon this history, in connection with tin; accounts of Manetho, Berosus, Herodotus, Diodorus, Philo, Joseplms, and Eusebius, father Kircher has raised an hypothesis, of which the following is a compendium. He begins with the antediluvian kings of Egypt, as already noticed and then proceeds to those who reigned after the Flood, beginning with Ham.
;

Walid

was

succeeded

by

his

daughter

Daluka, a woman of great wisdom, who surrounded the city of Mesr with walls of amazing extent, and stupendous thickness. According to some writers, she was not the daughter, but a distant relation of the last king and they farther state, thatupon herdeath she bequeathed the crown to a prince of the ancient Coptic
;

" OF

THE DYNASTY OF HAM, FIRST GOVERNOR

OF EGYPT.

" In the year of the world, 1656, according to the Hebrew computation, when the human race, renovated through the three branches of Noah's family after the deluge, had spread

race,

whose name was

this

l)arkun.(z)

he was a young of an excellent disposition, who ruled with man, great wisdom and beneficence. After him, the Oriental historians mention the names of five or six sovereigns, without any account of their
king
it is

Of

said, that

actions, excepting only Ashyaf,

appears to then follows another considerable chasm in the history, the last king spoken of being Feraoum al Araj, or Pharaoh the Lame, who, being-

who

have been the Shishak of the Scriptures

themselves on all sides, amounting in number to 72 families, found the province of Babylonia insufficient for their subsistence and convenience ; the heads of families, whom we shall call princes, were obliged to remove in search of new settlements in different parts of the world. " In this first disjunction of the sons of Noah, Asia became the portion of Shem and Europe of Japheth while Ham had Africa, of which
; ;

invaded by Nebuchadnezzar, called by the Eastern writers Baltaknassar, was, after a long siege in his capital, Mesr, taken by the conAl Soyuti.

is the key. In Egypt, therefore, Ham, of the human species, pitched his tent, and in a short time, such was the prolific quality of the soil, air, and waters, he saw the progeny of his sons spreading around, in immense numbers,

Egypt
first

(v)

Khondemir. Tarikh

al

Thabari.

Mirabil.

Judis, son of

Darkun

Pyramid.
(z) (a)

Mirabil. Pyramid.

Thabari. Mirabil. Pyramid. Other writers relate, that after the overthrow of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, Egypt was left destitute of illustrious men, capable of assuming the reins of government a woman, therefore, remarkable for her prudence and sagacity, was Her name was Daluka, the elected to the vacant throne. she had then attained the age of 1GO daughter of /aim she reigned 20 years, which time she employed in years, and the erection of public buildings, particularly a wall,' that em onipassed all Egypt, on which she placed guards at the distance of every three miles, to watch against the incursions of enemies, and to give timely notice of danger, by means of be communicated from post to post, signals, which might the whole extent of the kingdom, in the short throughout space of an hour. \\lien Daluka had reigned 20 years, one of the grandees of the country, named Darkun, the son of Batlus, was placed
al
: ;

Khondemir.

Tarikh

Lakos, brother to Judis, who reigned 30 years ; Marnia, brother to Lakos Estmarres, son of Marnia, expelled for his crimes, and the
;

dynasty changed

Bathulus, son of Menkiel, who reigned 40 years ; Bulus, son of Bathulus Manakiel, brother to Bulus; Bula, (the Shishak of Scripture) son of Manakiel, who reigned 120 years, and took the king of Jerusalem but being vainglorious, the Almighty struck prisoner him with the leprosy, and he was at last killed by a bear, who dashed his bruins out ;
;

Marnins, son of Bula Karkura, son of Marnius, who reigned 60 years ; Lathis, or Lakis, brother to Karkura ; Phuis, son of Lachis, who reigned in Egypt, when Nebuchadnezzar marched against Jerusalem; at which epocha, the Arabians conclude their history of tux ancient kings of Egypt.
;

upon the throne, whose successors were the following

SECT. V.]

ACCORDING TO KIRCHER.

437

till at length the straitened land of Egypt could not contain them. Leaving, therefore, Ethiopia

as a wanton; yet they dedicated a city to him, called C/tem-myn, from which all their other

to his sou Cush,

Egypt

to Misra'i'm,
;

Libya

to

Phut, and Phcenice to Canaan Ham, with a great number of his grandchildren, passed into Persia, which then comprehended all the coast that borders Egypt on the east, i. e. Arabia. He afterwards went into Media, and built the city of Bactra, from which the whole province afterwards received its name of Bactria. This Ham is the celebrated king of
the Bactrians, called Zoroaster, the inventor of magic and of all superstition, the same with the first Saturn and Osiris of the Egyptians, and the Oromazes, or Oromasdes, of the Persians, the son of Ccelus, whose name xpa; was afterwards taken as the root and foundation of all idol-worship. (b) On this Ham, the subject, Berosus thus speaks elder of the first three tribes, from his constant study of magic and sorcery, obtained the title of Zoroaster: he hated his father Noah, because, while that patriarch was ardently affected
'
:

have received the name of Cliem-inynites. posterity, however, renounced his detestable practices and doctrines, except that they allowed of marriages between brothers and sisters.' Genebrardus also adds his testimony to the following effect Zoroastres-Cham explained the fatalities of human affairs, and the motions of the stars he introduced magic from its three sources, medicine, mathematics, or this he astrological divination, and religion divided into theurgy, or the power of working
cities
Ills
' ; ;
:

miracles by means of prayer to God, and witchcraft, or necromancy, by which future events are revealed by converse with the dead. He reduced Bactria and Persia into one kingdom,

where he

left

Ostanes and Astrampsychum,

celebrated for their knowledge of magic ; and is said to have been at length conquered by Ninus.' To this Alnephius adds: Ham, the son of Noah, the first of the human race, taught the Egyptians the worship of idols, and intro'

towards his younger children, he despised Ham, on account of his evil practices. Watching, therefore, his opportunity, which soon presented itself, while Noah was under the influence of an intoxicating draught, he laid his hand upon his father's nakedness, and muttering over him a magical spell, rendered him impotent.' The same writer farther adds, 'This
publicly corrupted the human race, by allowing and practising the congress of sons with mothers, brothers with sisters, fathers with daughters, men with men, or even with brutes. For these irregularities and crimes, he was expelled by Janus, a man of great chastity and modesty ; and he obtained the name of Chemesenua, q. d. Ham, or Cham, the infamous and shameless generator;' the word esen, among the
'

duced
stars.

evil arts

and

the penetration of the fates,

He

also

magic and by means of the deceived many by his charms

superstitions, as

Ham

incantations, so that he procured divine honours to be paid to himself, whence he was called Zor-aster and Osiris, that is, an ever-burning fire, or the living image of a star. He was the first king of Egypt, Persia, and

and

Media.'

The immediate successor of Ham was his son Misra'i'm, a bad son of a bad father. He
was the Jupiter Zoroaster, or Egyptian Osiris, and promoted those elements of magic and the unlawful arts, that he had received from his
father.

"

He

invented the magical signs, with

;

Aramaean Scythians, signifying infamous, or shameless; and enna denoting sometimes s/tameless, and sometimes a generator, or propagator.

method of making amulets and, by means of his incantations, even drew the stars from heaven on which account he received divine
the
;

Hence the Egyptians represent their god Saturn

(b)

honours from the Egyptians. Genebrardus says, he was the Osiris of the Egyptians, whom they believed to be chosen for the government
'

CEdipus jEgyptiacus, vol. i. cap. x. syntag. i. p. 83, We see here an example of the practice, which, in the histories of Assyria andGreece, we shall have occasion to notice more fully, of the migrations of tribes, and their achievements, being attributed to individuals. Kircher follows the general notion, that the Ethiopians were of African origin
et seq.
;

and

says, the Ethiopians were the first inhabitants of the earth ; their migration from their first settlement on the banks of

appear in the following history, that they originated in Asia, most probably in Babylonia, or Chaldava, whence they passed into the vicinity of Egypt. Diodorus, lib. iv.
it

but

will

the Indus, is placed about 20 years after the death of Joseph, which agrees with the time of Belus, the father of SethosjEgyptus, the first persecutor of the Israelites, the king who mew not Joseph, from whom the country received the name of Egypt, and whom, Mr. Bryant conceives, to have been of Cuthean descent, as more particularly explained in a subseiirni
I

page.

VOL.

I.

3N

458
of the heavens

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS,

;

[CHAP. vi.

num

and the Chronicon Alexandridescribes him as an Egyptian, who afterwards inhabited the eastern countries. With him impiety again overspread the world, for he, as prime-minister of the powers of darkness, He is called invented astrology and magic. Zoroaster by the Greeks; and to him the apostle Peter darkly alludes, when he speaks of the human race, after the flood, relapsing into impiety.' Opmeerus calls him Osiris; and, to Tibullus, notwithstanding all the according wickedness attributed to him by the before-cited writers, he was a benefactor of the human race; for, besides many sciences and arts essential to the sustenance of life, which he had learned
from his father Ham, and grandfather Noah, and which he communicated to his contemporaries, he was the discoverer of agriculture.

of hieroglyphics. By these means, he concealed the sublimer tenets of philosophy and theology from the knowledge of the lower orders ; and afterwards obtained the king

dom.(d)
" OF THE DYNASTY OF THEBANS ; " BEING THE REIGN OF THE GODS,

AND

THE 16TH DYNASTY OF MANETHO AND

EUSEBIUS. (e)
" After the death of Misra'im, began the of Thebans, or the 16th power among dynasty the Egyptians. Eusebius places the beginning of this dynasty in the 22d year of INinus in Assyria, and the 23d of JSgialufi, at Sicyon, then the prevailing power in Greece it lasted 190 years. It also began about the latter part of Abraham's life. But who these Thebaus were, it is exceedingly difficult to judge, as scarcely a vestige of their history remains. It may, however, be collected from various sources, that they lived in that renowned age when the Egyptians boasted they had the gods reigning among them. These sons and grandsons of the three sons of Noah, principally of the offspring of Ham, had received from their forefathers a knowledge of God, of angels, evil daemons, the world and its constitution, the mysteries of natural philosophy, the virtues and properties of stones, herbs, and animals, with some knowledge of the sea ; all which they carefully concealed from public observation, till, on the increase of the human species, they gradually made them known for the benefit of mankind, and, in return, the undiscerning multitude paid them divine honours. This error, which originated in gratitude and veneration, was confirmed by the miracles they performed by their incantations and magic spells,
:

He was

likewise the first legislator of the Egyptians, and founder of cities, of which the first he built was called Tanis, afterwards the seat

of the Pharaohs, celebrated in the sacred writings for the astonishing miracles performed there by Moses, and called in Hebrew, Zoan. He also laid the foundation of Thebes, in Upper Egypt, which, being enlarged and im-

proved by succeeding monarchs, chiefly by Busiris, became remarkable as the most splendid and the largest city of all Egypt, and the most eminent seat of the kings, being encompassed by no less than a hundred gates, whence its

name Of 'ExarovmAo;. " From this city,

the
;

after the

death of Misra'im,

Thebans were accounted the governors of Egypt yet from what can be collected from the Chronicon Alexandrinum, and Eusebius, Misra'im lived up to the times of Ninus and Semiramis, and at his death, he left sons, who governed Egypt 190 years, and were denominated T/iebans,(c) from this city. " The scribe and counsellor of Misra'im was Mercurius Trismegistus, celebrated for having
restored to
its

which enabled them to undertake and execute works, and to predict events, apparently beFrom yond the compass of human powers.
these men, so celebrated iu their age, proceeded every superstition, with the profession of unlawful arts ; and to them every fabulous relation, of either Egypt or Greece, owes its origin. In

been handed rupted by Ham and Misra'im ; upon which he founded the knowledge of letters and the use

purity the knowledge that had down by his ancestors, but cor-

(c) On the subject of Thebans, and the origin of their name, see Bryant's Mytliology, vol. iii. p. 403, et al. (d) For some farther particulars of this remarkable personage, see Obelisciis Pamphylius; and for more of Mizraim and his different names, see (Edipus JEyypt'mcus, vol.
i

cap. 8. syntag. 2.

(e) In the original, the name of Africanus is used, instead of Eusebius but this is evidently a mistake ; because the 16th dynasty of Africanus consists of Grecian shepherds, while that of Eusebius is of Thebans they are both anonymous. In what follows, it will also be seen, that Kircher uniformly refers to Eusebius, and not to Africanus,
; :

SECT. V.]

ACCORDING TO KIRCHER.
whom
proper
order;
the

I",!

a word, these are the gods, or heroes,

appropriation of several

the priests, upon the testimony of Diodorus, assert to have ivigwd little less than 18,000 years, the last of them being the son of Isis.

names

to their particular objects; the registry

Their names were

Coelus,

Noah.

of letters ; the settlement of the honours and sacred rites to be paid to the different gods ; the discovery of the motions of the stars, and the division of time. For these beneficent

Saturn,
Jupiter,
Isis,
J=

Ham.
Misraim, and his wife,

TS

Typhon,
Hercules,

Mercury,
Osiris,

Rhea. Nimrod. Ninus, and some others in the line of Ham, whose names are lost in the obscurity of
the
tiraes.(f).

Horus,

" MisraYm was succeeded by Hermes, otherwise Mercury, or Faunus, son of Jupiter Picus, a descendant of Ham, according to the Chronicon Alexandrinum, the author of which, in his dedication, speaks of him in the following ' terms On the death of Picus, or Jupiter, his son Faunus, of the stock of Janus, who was also called Mercury, had governed the kingdom of Italy 35 years he was a wise and skilful man, a mathematician, and the first that discovered a gold-mine in the west. This prince, observing that many of his brethren, sons of Jupiter Picus by various mistresses, were envious of his prosperity, and had plotted his destruction, packed up an immense quantity of gold, and, leaving Italy, repaired to his kinsmen in Egypt, the descendants of his uncle Ham, by whom he was honourably received. During his residence in this country,
: :

means of some divine verse, or prayer, obtained from heaven the art of fabricating iron armour. Vulcan,' says Diodorus, seeing a tree among the mountains struck by lightning and set on fire, took the hint, and with great alacrity supHe then plied fuel to maintain the flame. called for his neighbours to see what he had done, and obtained the merit of an invention But this by which fire might be preserved. was not all for, in answer to his prayer, the celestial fire descended, and making the mountains glow with heat, pointed out to him
'
'

honours were heaped he was worshipped in common with Osiris, or Misra'im and, in the absence of her husband, was appointed to be the counsellor of Isis, or Rhea, the wife of Misra'im.' " After Mercury, the Chronicon Alexantfriinim, places Vulcan, the artificer, who, by
acts, the highest possible
;

upon him

the method of getting a livelihood by the fabrication of armour, for defence and security in war for before his time, men fought only with their nails and with stones. For this discovery
:

he was esteemed worthy of a place

the gods.' After
' '

among

he assumed

great consequence, went about

clad in cloth of gold, taught philosophy to the Egyptians, and accompanied his lectures with predictions of many future events. The Egyptians, therefore, not only proclaimed him the god Mercury, but appointed him the
minister to receive their gifts on consulting the oracle, and to communicate the answers ; in which capacity he soon obtained the title of the god of gold, and the lestoicer of riches.

the translation, or apotheosis, of Vulcan, his son Sol was raised to the throne. He lived,' says the Chronicon, 77 days above four times 4400 days ;' (which Kircher makes equal to 12 years, 3 months, 4 days.)(g) The Egyptians had then no other mode of computing time than by the revolutions of days
'

and nights, till their kings began to levy taxes upon them, and then they extended their calcu-

lations to the

number of twelve months.

is

Sol,

the son of Vulcan,

And

always confounded with

this Mercury, who came into Egypt, while one of the race of Ham, called Mesrem, or Misra'im, reigned there, was, on the death of that prince, created king, and enjoyed a splendid reign of 38 years.' Diodorus Siculus says the invention of many things is attributed to him ; as, 'the reduction of words into their
(f) Kircher, CEdip. JfLgypt. vol. i. cap. 10. syntag. i. p. 80 et seq. The order here given differs materially from what the same writer lays down iu a subsequent page.

he was an excellent king, a philosoand a strict observer of justice in his pher, administration. He ordered a woman, taken in the act of adultery, to be led and exposed through all Egypt, and to be otherwise severely so that the Egyptians were ever punished afterwards more circumspect in their morals,
:

Horus

(g)

(Edip. JEgypt. ubi supr.

3N2

400
till

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS,

which

[CHAP. vi.
:

at length adultery, which had been common among them, came to be punished with death.
rise to the fable

This circumstance gave

discovering Venus

of Sol

in the

arms of Mars, as may

at large in the writings of Palaphatus. " After Sol, the Chronicon reckons some other kings ; as, first, Sosin, Sothin, or Sochin ; then Osiris, then Horus, and after him Thulen, whom Eusebius calls Thuoris, and Herodotus, Thonis. " In such a confusion of names, and diversity of ambiguities, it is difficult to establish any thing as certain; especially when it is considered, that what the Chronicon puts in the first place, Diodorus reckons in the last. For, after enumerating the gods of the Egyptians, whom he represents as ranging over the whole earth, sometimes in the likeness of men, sometimes in the shape of the sacred animals, and sometimes under other similitudes, he speaks of some who were originally mortals, but who, for their wisdom, and the benefits they conferred upon mankind, were admitted to immortal honours. Some of these, he says, reigned in

be seen

all destroyer of evil, and guardian of good titles are likewise bestowed Osiris. upon By the wife of Noah, we may understand Rhea, whom the same writer calls Tidea (or rather Thetis) and Aretia; earth, the universal mother, by whom Crelus, or Sol, (Noah) became the father of all things: and hence the fable of Osiris and Isis. In the Saturni, we recognise Shem, Ham, and Japheth ; of whom, Ham, being for his lasciviousness changed into a ram, was called Ammon,(h) and by the Egyptians, Saturn. Nor can we contemplate the impetuous, violent, and cruel temper of Nimrod, and his cunning in usurping the dominion over his brethren, without beholding the ground of the contention between Typhon and Osiris. And, upon a careful comparison of the deeds of the heroes of this age, with the histories of the Egyptians, it will be impossible not to perceive that they would furnish ample materials for all the legends of this country, as well as of Greece. (i)

" OF "

THE DYNASTY OF THE SHEPHERDS

Egypt, and are designated sometimes by their as celestial gods, at others by their proper names thus Sol, Saturn, Rhea, and Jupiter, are frequently called Ammona; besides Juno, VulSol is said to have can, Vesta, and Mercury. of the Egyptians, both in his been the first king
titles
:

THE 17TH(j) OF MANETHO AND EUSEBIUS. " The Theban dynasty was succeeded by
from were

that of the Shepherds, so called, either their being of the stock of Jacob, who
;

own name, and as the celestial luminary of day. Many of the priests assert that Vulcan, the
inventor of fire, was the first sovereign of Egypt, being raised to that dignity for his invention after him, they place Saturn, who married his sister Rhea, and by her became father to Osiris
;

shepherds by profession, of which opinion are Eusebius and Genebrardus or, as Manetho writes, because their principal riches lay in
these kings were, or what their to discover, yet it appears names, certain that the empire of the Pharaohs began with them. The first prince after the gods, is called erroneously in the Chronicon, Sesostris, unless indeed the name has been mistaken by transcribers for Sesosiris, i. e. the seed of Osiris, with which correction it may stand ; otherwise it is contrary to history and the opinion of all chronologers. Others call the first king
flocks.
it

Who

is difficult

and

that he

but a still greater number pretend was the parent of Jupiter and Juno, whose virtues obtained for them the government
Isis
;

of the world. " All these things, with the exception of their order, the Egyptians might adopt without violence or inconsistency so that by Sol, or Crelus, we may understand Noah, who, says
:

otherwise Serapis, afterwards transthe gods, because he flourished about the beginning of this dynasty others
Apis,
lated

among

Berostis,
is,

Chaos; seed of the world soul of father of the greater and lesser gods the world, moving the heavens and the earth the god of peace, justice, and holiness
Sol);
;

was Coelus and

called

Olybama and Arsa

;

(that

head and some choose to begin with Osiris. Herodotus and Diodorus, whom we prefer following, have Next after the decided on Meen, or Menas. Menas is stated to have gods,' says Diodorus,
place Mesrem,
or
at its
;
'

Mefrem

'

(h)
vol.

Or

rather,

Am-On,

title

s^mhol
i.

Ham

was worshipped. 16

of the sun, tinder which See Bryant's Mythology,

(i)

(j)

Kireher, itbi supr. In the original, this

is

erroneously numbered the 10th

p. 3, 10.

dynasty.

SECT. V.]

ACCORDING TO KIRCHER.
ground amid this labyrinth of difficulties, two points require to be established iirst, That Menas, Mithras, Misra'im, Osiris, and Uchoreus, of whose reigns in this dynasty
:

Mithras, and Misra'im, to whom Pliny says the invention of obelisks is to be attributed, is not very easily decided especially as Menas the moon, and Mitres the sun ; nor may signify whether he was one of those deities held in such veneration by the natives, of whom one Neither was called Osiris, the other Isis.
;

reigned in Egypt ; he instructed the people in the rites of religion, and introduced the use of tables and couches, by which he inured them But to the luxuries and refinements of life.' whether Menas, first of the Egyptian kings, and Pharaoh, be the same with Mitres,

s ure

various testimonies are given, are individual ; secondly, That they

only one were the

first data, it is to be remarked, that whatever is told of Menas by Diodorus, is related by Pliny of Mitres, or Mithras thus, speaking of the obelisks, he
:

founders of Memphis. " On the of these

'

says,

the

kings

dedicated those

buildings,

Herodotus nor Diodorus mention king Mithras;

yet Eusebius assigns him the fourth place in the dynasty of the Politani ;(k) so that, amidst so much obscurity, we are left entirely to conHerodotus attributes the building of jecture.

while Diodorus affirms it to Menas have been founded by Uchoreus, about 535 years after the building of Thebes and Eusebius, following the fables of the Greeks, who all believe Epaphus to have been an Egyptian,

Memphis

to

which we rather unappropriately call obelisks, to the sun, of whose rays they are an imitation, as their Egyptian name indicates. The first was built by Mitres, who was the first king of the city of the sun (Heliopolis, or Thebes ;)(m) he was commanded to erect it in a dream, and he placed an inscription upon it to that effect.' From this it may be collected that Mitres was the first king of Egypt that he is consequently the same with Misra'im that, being admonished by a vision, he, with the help of his counsellor
;

relates that Memphis was built by Epaphus, Herodotus also the son of Jupiter and Io. the ox Apis was called Epaphus by the says

Greeks and this name will signify whatever Apis might have been among the Egyptians, whether a man or a beast, a real person or an ideal symbol. Pindar also testifies that many and cities in Egypt were built by Epaphus indeed the transition from Apis to Epaphus is We read that Memphis was founded by easy. the first who was accounted a god in Apis, Egypt, and who was called Serapis thus the ox Apis, the god Apis, and Apis the founder of Memphis, are all expressed by the Greeks So that whether it by one term, Epaphus. were Apis, or Uchoreus, or Epaphus, or whether these be all one person, variously named by the Greeks and Egyptians, we learn
;

Hermes Trisinegistus, instituted the worship of the sun, and appointed the proper sacrifices. The same things are related of Menas, as may be gathered from Diodorus, who says: ' First, after the gods, reigned Menas in Egypt he taught the people to worship the gods, and to consecrate things to them. He also introduced the use of tables and couches.' It is here seen, that both writers represent their respective prince as first king, first worshipper of the gods, and appointer of sacrifices there may, however, be this difference the former might
:
:

that the same transaction took place for it follows in Eusebius, that Memphis was built by him A. M. 3700,(l) according to the computation, of the Septuagint, or, according to the Hebrew, A. M. 2109. To establish some
:

be ordinarily called Menas, from his worshipping the moon; the latter Mithras, from the worship of the sun and of fire, which he also taught the Persians and Arabs, to whom he From these prewent, after he left Egypt. it will not mises, appear surprising, that some should have made Osiris, others Vexores, or Vechores, first king of Egypt, when Osiris is continually confounded with Mithras, as may be fully proved from the Obeliscus Pamphiliun. Genebrardus, following Sabellicus, suspects
It should Dynasty. probably be A. M. 3400, the date assigned by Kirelier in bis Tables to the reign of Mithras. Helio(in) This interpolation of our author, is erroneous polis, the city of the sun, was in Lower Egypt, or the Delta, the same with On of the sacred writings; but Thebes wu* in I'pper Egypt, and was frequently called Diospolis, or the
:

(k)

That

is,

the 18th dynasty of Diospolites, or Tlicbans,

:

where Miphris, probably a viariation of Mithras, occupies in Africanus, the fourth place, in Eusebius Misaphris, the

same person, stands the

fifth in

order.

(1) This must be an error, as it would bring the foundation of Memphis to about 10 years after the departure of the Israelites, who are here supposed to constitute the Shepherd

city of Jupiter.

462

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS,

'

[CHAP. vr.

that Vexores, or Vechorius, was the same with Vexorus, the victorious Osiris, as he is called king of Egypt, who carried his arms even to It is then taken for granted that Pontus.' Mithras, Mitres, and Menas, are the same with Misra'im, the son of Ham, whose counsellor was Mercurius, his wife Isis, and his

ped under the name of Serapis. Of tliese three kings, who had all some connection with the
metamorphosis of the ox, nothing is easier than to compose one Epaphus, especially as the Egyptians themselves agree to fix it on him ; and this only because they knew him to have flourished about the same time that
built Memphis, where, after him, they the ox Apis. All this was done during kept the reign of Menas, Mithras, Osiris, Vexores, and Vechorius, or Uchoreus, which are all comprehended in one. Now Osiris, as well as the Mithras of the Persians, who has been proved to be the same with Menes, was worshipped under the form of an ox ; nor is it surprising that the Egyptians should have

son Horus Mesramuthisis.

But should

it

be

Menas

wished

to

lunar deity, be done without violence

identify Menas with Isis, as the it may, amid so much confusion,

;

for

it

appears from

Diodorus, that Osiris, committing the care of the kingdom to Isis, travelled over the whole world ; and in his absence, the name of Isis, or Luna, might, through inadvertence to her sex, be mistaken for Menas, as first king of

Egypt.
"

The second
Menas
;

point for discussion, respects

the building of Memphis.

it

Herodotus attributes
;

Josephus is of the same opinion as is also Genebrardus, who calls him Minosus. It remains therefore to reconcile their testimonies to that of Eusebius, who gives the honour to Epaphus. In order to this, it must be remembered, that about the same time that Menas first held the government of Egypt, Inachus also laid the foundation of the kingThis Inachus had a dom of the Argives. named lo, and a son, called Phodaughter, roneus. 16, on account of the resemblance of her shape to that of an ox, had her name and Phoroneus, who was changed to Isis succeeded his also called Phoroneus-Bos, father in the kingdom of the Argives, and was himself succeeded by his son Apis, who, resignto
;

their first king promiscuously Menas, Mithras, Osiris, Vexores, or Vechorius, Epaphus, and Apis, according to the common maxim, that whatever is equal in its parts is equal in its whole: for through the resemblance of these things, although they be somewhat different, they express but one idea ; yet have these names, and others of the like affinity, been

named

mistaken by writers. (n)

" OF
"

THE DYNASTY OF POLITANI, WHICH LASTED 348 YEARS. THE 18TH(o) OF MANETHO AND EUSEBIUS, CALLED DIOSPOLITES.

" After the 17th(p) dynasty of the Shepherds, follows the 18th(o) of the Politani, so named, because under this dynasty the constitution and government became united and complete and
:

ing the kingdom to JLgialus, (or rather ,Argus) passed over into Egypt, with all his family, and there obtained divine honours, being worshipThis writer is not very explicit in (n) Kircher, ubi supr. his propositions, though his conclusions are upon the whole well founded. The various names given by writers to the

hence Manetho, according to Eusebius, begins the line of the true kings of Egypt, or those properly called Pharaohs, which he continues
through the succeeding dynasties.
introduced

among

the

first

Egyptians, or Mizrai'm, by the

founder of Memphis, consist either of

titles of honour perwho built it, or to the deity worshipped taining to the prince there. Menas, or Mnevis, was worshipped at Heliopolis, or On, the city of the sun, as Apis was at Memphis ; and they

who are frequently called Arabians by ancient writers; and we learn from Pliny,* that Juba, in his that Memphis was built by history, particularly maintained
Cutheans, or Auritse,

were both dedicated to Osiris, the solar deity, who, among other titles, had that of Helius. Mithras, or Mitres, was a Chaldxan deity, whose worship was brought into Egypt by the Cutheans and was the same with Osiris, or Arez, the god of day. Instead of reigning at Heliopolis, he was there worshipped ; and the obelisks, said to be raised by him, were dedicated to him. He was also called Orus, from "I1N (AUR) was sometimes prefixed, light, orjire, to which the title Uch, signifying lord, or prince ; and thus Uch-Orus meant no more than the god of light. This worship, as already hinted, was
;

We see then the foundation of the city traced of the heavenly persons who introduced the worship which the priests, either mistaking the hieroglyluminary, annals, or from mere affectation, attributed to the
Arabians.
to

phical

more on

For object worshipped, under his several denominations. this subject, see various parts of Bryant's Ancient
that all the

Mythology, where it is satisfactorily proved, of these supposed ancient kings, of matchless fame, are nothing more than titles. the 17th, in the text, but (o) In the original, this is called the 18th in the lists.
(p) 16th, in original.
*
flat. J/ist. lib. vi. cap.

names

29.

SECT. V.]

ACCORDING TO K1RCHER.
"

463

"

At the head of this dynasty, Manetho places

to the

The kingdom

Amosis, whom Eusebius calls the first Pharaoh, a title common to all his successors, as Caesar
emperors, Sultan is among the Turks, and Sophi among the Persians. It was during the reign of Amosis, that Jacob, oppressed with famine, came into Egypt, to his son Joseph, who was then next to the king in power and the government of the country. After a reign of 25 years, Amosis died, and was succeeded by Chebron; who 13 years aftei'wards, left the throne to Ammenophis, the Pharaoh, whom the Scriptures speak of, as a stranger to Joseph,(q) and the first oppressor of the Israelites, according to Genebrardus. On the death of this prince, the kingdom devolved
II. or, as others call him, Mesrem, or Mesphris, confounding, as they Mithres, continually do, wherever a resemblance of names occurs, this king with Mitres, Menes, or Mefrem I. From Diodorus and Herodotus, we learn that he is the same with Myrns, to whom the former also attributes the erection of the gates (probably palaces) of Memphis, and the construction of the lake Mceris. To him, likewise, is ascribed that stupendous structure, the labyrinth, though Diodorus asserts it to have been made by Menas, or Marus however this may be, he was certainly the author of the pyramids, one of which he erected for himself, and the other he dedicated to the memory of his wife.(r) " Mephres, or Myrus, was succeeded by Mispharmuthosis, or Mephranmtosis II. the fifth sovereign of the Politani dynasty, though
:

same
in the

whom

next fell to Tuthemosis, the Genebrardus thinks was drowned

in his pursuit after the Israelites,

Red Sea,

was

Roman

though it is more likely to have been Cenchres. Tuthemosis having governed 9 years, appointed

Ameuophis

who promulgated the edict Hebrew male children and

;

II. by some called Memnon, or Menas, as his successor. " This Amenophis is said to be the Pharaoh

for

to

drowning the him are attri-

buted the celebrated statues of Memnon.

He
may,

was succeeded by Horus

II.

whom we

on Mefrem

with Diodorus, identify with Busiris ; it being a mistake to suppose either that he was the founder of Thebes, or that Thebes was founded in his time. This confusion of names seems to have arisen from the circumstance of the first Horus having deposited the limbs of Osiris, which had been scattered by Typhon, and collected by him, in a wooden ox, and his having built a city, afterwards called Busiris ;(s) and the error of Diodorus, who says that Busiris built the city of the sun, called Thebes, and yet attributes its foundation to Horus, might easily creep in from the ambiguity of the names, so that Horus might be taken for Busiris. Horus, or Osiris, after he had reigned 38 years,(t) resigned the sceptre to Acenchres, after whom it fell into the hands of Achores.(u) " About this time lived another Mercurius Trismegistus, who, being contemporary with Moses, has, by many, been confounded with him, or his father-in-law Jethro; and endless disputes have been the consequence among
.

historians.

he and Mesra should more properly be taken back to the preceding dynasty, as the successors
of the gods.

Cenchres,(v) the successor of Achores, is supposed by Eusebius to be the Pharaoh who opposed Moses, and, after a reign of 16 years,
by

"

not Joseph, and oppressed the " and all Joseph was dead, Ins brethren, and all that now Joseph was 30 generation ;"* years old when he was promoted,! ho had been governor of gypt 9 years when he sent for his father, and lie died at the age of 110 :t the interval, therefore, between the descent of Jacob, and the deatli of Joseph, was 71 years, to which some addition should be made for the time his brethren lived after " all that him, with But the of Amosis generation."
(<])

The

king,

who knew
till

whom

Israelites,

did not arise

alter

hlu-vn elsewhere.
(r)

they began to be oppressed, as will be more fully

and Chebron amount to only 38 years, and Ammenophis reigned only 21, making a total of 59 years; an interval far too short for the purpose of the history. But this is an error into which many chronologers have been misled by the names of tlie princes, Amosis, under whom the Israelites are supposed to have descended into Egypt, and Ammenophis,
1

reigns

Eiod.

i.

68.
5

Gm.

46.

Gen.

1.

%>,

Africanus makes this prince's reign 13 years, Eusebius Josephus 12 years, 9 months it is therefore difficult to conceive how such immense works could be undertaken and completed in so short a period. Synccllus, indeed, gives him a reign of 23 years, but even this appears too limited. (s) That is, the tomb of Osiris. (t) Africanus makes the reign of Horus 37 years; Eusebius 3fi JosephtisSfi years, 5 months and Syncellus 48 years. (u) This prince is called Rathos by Africanus Athorisby Eusebius and Syncellus; and Hiithobis by Josephus. His is reign variously stated at 0, !), ->!), and 39 years, as may be seen on reference to the preceding canons. (v) In the dynasties of Africanus, Eusebius, &c. it will be seen that he is called Chebres, Clu-ncheres, and Aceiicheres I. His reign is stated at 12, 10, and 2U years.
12,
:

464

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS,

his predecessors in glory

[CHAP. vr.

was drowned in the Red Sea, with his whole army. He was succeeded by Acherres, who \vas followed by Cherres and after him came
;

Danaiis, called by Eusebius Armes, or Armaeus. This prince was deposed by Ramesses, who is therefore accounted a tyrant by the Egyptians ; yet his power was such, that, as Eusebius thinks, he changed the name of the country, which, till then, had been called Aria, to his own, ^Egyptus, which it has retained even to

the present day. " About this time, Phosnix and Cadmus, from Thebes, in Egypt, into Syria, laid passing the foundations of Tyre and Sidon. " The last king of this dynasty was Amenophis, or Memphtas, who restored the kingdom to its former splendour, after it had been nearly

ruined by the plagues brought upon it by the vengeance of the Almighty, inflicted by the hand of Moses. But while he was labouring to restore the obelisks, and the sacred worship,

and mighty deeds. After a reign of 33 years, he lost his sight, and died. The deeds of this prince have been magnified almost beyond conception, not only by the priests, but also by the Egyptians at large: and so lasting was the impression of his glory upon the public mind, that, many ages after, when the Persians had got possession of the kingdom, and Darius, the father of Xerxes, would have had his statue placed above that of Sesostris, the high-priest openly opposed it, declaring that the king's deeds had not equalled those of Sesostris. On this occasion, Darius was obliged to dissemble his displeasure at the opposition, lest he should occasion a revolt; and therefore, with an appearance of good humour, replied, that, should he live long enough, he would take care to be behind him in no one virtue. It

was under

he was removed by death, and left his designs to be completed by his son Sothis.(w)
" OF THE
"

Sesostris, that all the arts and sciences, particularly that of the hieroglyphics, attained their zenith ; and as his deeds were magnanimous, so his death was honourable.

DYNASTY OF LARTHES.

THE I9TH OF MANETHO AND EUSEBIUS, CALLED DIOSPOLITES.

" This dynasty received its title from the The first king second sovereign, Larthes.(x) was Sothis, or Zethus, the son of Amenophis. As above hinted, he -restored the order of
religious worship, and built, according to Pliny, four obelisks. He was succeeded by his sons,

who had

reigned some time with him, and they likewise built four other obelisks. " Sothis, dying, was succeeded by Larthes II. called also Ranses, or Rameses and he was followed by Sesostris, who excelled all
;

" After Sesostris, the sceptre fell into the hands of his son Amenophis, or Pheron.(y) otherwise Noncorius. He assumed his father's but in no respect inherited his glory name, like him, however, he was afflicted with blindfrom the effect of hereditary ness, either as the priests relate, it Avas a punishmalady, or, ment from the gods, for his impiety towards the Nile. " On the death of Pheron, the throne was occupied by Thuoris,(z) or, as he is called by Herodotus, Thonis, by others Thules, and by Homer, Polybus, who recovered to Egypt the whole of Africa. (a) Thuoris was the last of the Larthian kings, and reigned at the time
:

(w) The last kings of this dynasty appear to have been interpolated from the beginning of the next. Armes, Armaeus, or Danaiis, was the brother of ^Egyptus ; they reigned toRamesses, gether 5 years, and then Danaiis was expelled.
or, as

Eusebius

calls

and appears

to be the
:

Sethos-jEgyptus

him, Ammeses, was surnamed jEgyptus, same with Sethos, called by Josephus for it is more reasonable to conclude, that

the Egyptians, who are distinguished particularly by Manetho from the Misraim, should have begun with a new dynasty, than that they should form a part of an old one. as no such

here introduces an anecdote of Thuoris, Jesuitical fiction, to induce a belief that the ancient Egyptians acknowledged the doctrine of the He relates that, after the reduction of Africa, Trinity. Thuoris went in great state to the temple, and addressed the " Oh oracle to the following eftect: thou, who presides! over fire, thou true and blessed being, who tcmperest the course of can any one the sky tell me, could any one before rae To which the after me conquer all things for himself?" oracle replied :
(a)

Our author

which savours much of a

conceive whence Kircher got this title ; in any of the catalogues, not even in his own ; though, in his text, he calls the second prince of this dynasty, Larthes II. (y) We seem here to have got back to the 12th Dynasty of Manetho, but with considerable variations. (z) Here we return to the 19th Dynasty.
(x) It
is

difficult to

name appears

First GOD, then the WORD, and with them the SPIRIT; " All these exist together, and come distinctly into ONE, " Whose power is without end. " Do thou measure surely with thy foot the uncertain path of life." From what authority Kircher has made this quotation, does

"

not appear.

SECT. V.]

ACCORDING TO KIRCHER.
:

465

of the destruction of Troy for Homer relates that Menelaus and Helen were entertained by him on their return to Greece. " Eusehius reckons 375 years from the 23d end of this dynasty of the age of Moses to the after which, Egypt, having lost her kings, was
;

governed by some particular families for 177

years.

" OF THE 20TH, OR DIOSPOLITE DYNASTY. " About the time that the Israelitish kingdom was divided between RehoJul. Per. 3739.) A.M. 3029.1 boam and Jeroboam, (b) while 975.J Egypt was without her kings, some of the higher families assumed the government, of whom Cetes, called by some ProHe flourished in teus,(c) has the first place. the Trojan war, and is repreEgypt during sented as skilful in the arts, particularly the inagic art, by which he was enabled to transform himself into whatever shape he pleased, as a lion, a boar, or other animal, a tree, or even a flame of tire. This fable, says Diodorus, though maintained as truth by the priests,
originated in the insignia and ornaments worn by the kings of Egypt they carrying on their heads, in token of their superiority, sometimes the head of a bull, or of a lion, or dragon sometimes the branch of a tree, and at others,
:

ceeded in their order; but of their names and actions nothing is recorded except that Nilus, one of them, gave his name to the river, which before had been called vEgyptns an honour conferred upon him, for the great benefits resulting to his subjects from the trenches he caused to be made in advantageous places, for receiving and preserving thewaters, at the time of the annual inun;

dation.

" After these follow, according to Diodorus, Chemmis, Cephren, and Mycerinus, builders of the celebrated pyramids: but the erection of these structures should more properly be referred to the dynasty of the Politani, during the reign of Cherres, whose name seems to have been confounded with that of Chemmis.

THE 21ST, OR MEMPHIAN DYNASTY. (CALLED TAMTES BY MANETHO AND EUSEBIUS.)

" After the 20th dynasty, which consisted of a kind of interregnum, of 178 years' only continuance, the regal government was re-

" OF

fire

(probably incense.) On the death of Proteus, his son Rhemphis assumed the government. He was a weak and covetous man, and spent his reign in amassing treasures, by laying heavy imposts upon his subjects so that when he died, he left, in the stead of glorious achievements, more gold and silver than ever Egyptian
"
;

sumed, under propitious auspices, by Smendes, otherwise Simandius, or Osymandyas,(d) called by some Smerres, and by the Jews Shishak :(e) it is therefore wrong, under this name of Shishak, to transfer the empire of Sesostris to this For a particular account of the properiod. monument of Simandius, his almost digious incalculable stores of silver and gold, the furniture of his library, &c. the reader
is

referred to

monarch had collected

'

before, amounting,
talents.

it is

said, to forty

thousand After Rhemphis,

Diodorus.(f) " Simandius was succeeded by Pseusennes, and he by Nephercheres, upon whose death After a Amenophis ascended the throne. reign of nine years, this last-named prince was succeeded by Osochor, who was followed by

six other governors suc-

Psinaches, as
salcm

he was by Pseusennes

II. (g)

is

our computation, following Eusehius, the 20th Dynasty probably began, and the Trojan war ended, about the times of Jephthah and Ibzan.
(b) This, according to

much

too late

(c) Cetes, or Proteus, is, by many, considered the same with the Sethos of Manetho, and the Scthos-yEgyptus of Josephus, whose history has been already adverted to. Syncellus calls him Certos.

in the fifth year of Rehoboam,* though, according to what has preceded, there were 7 or 10 kiii^-s, and of course so many generations, between Cetes and Smendes. In his catalogue, however, he makes the beginning of the 20th

Dynasty, that is, the reign of Cetes, or Proteus, synchronical with the judges Jair, Jephthab, &c. (f) See the Grecian history of the Egyptians, in a subse-

(d) Here is another transition from the 21st Dynasty of Eusebius, to a prince who, according to Diodorus, reigned many ages before Proteus and Nilus.
(e)

quent page.
nes
(g) The 20th Dynasty of Manetho closes with PseusenII. the names that follow, those of Cephrenes, \sychis,

Of

Our author
:

nism Cetes

for,

in

makes Smendes the same with Shishak, who

is here guilty of a most egregious parachrohaving, in the 20th Dynasty, placed the reign of the times of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, he now

and Anysis, are borrowed from Herodotus; Chcrphes does not appear in any of the lists, unless he be the same with Cheopses, or Cheops, Chembes, or Chemmis; and Osochor, or Hercules, is transposed from the 23d Dynasty of Manetho.
* 1 Kings, xiv. 25.

pillaged Jeru-

VOL.

I.

3o

406

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS,

[CHAP. vi.

whose death made room for Cherphes, followed by Cephrenes, and Osochor, which last is also called Hercules and on his death, the priests,
;

contrary to their former practice, Asychis, or Anysis, for their king.

elected

" OF THE 22D, OR SAITE DYNASTY.

(CALLED
"

BUBASTITES

BY

MANETHO AND

EUSEBIUS.)

According to Eusebius, the first king of dynasty was Sesenchosis, or Senschoris, the son of Siparis, who, as it is said, was exalted by the Egyptians, after his death, to the rank of a god, under the name of Serapis, a
this

corruption, probably, of his real name Siparis. Senschoris was followed by Orsothon, whose successor was Vachelotis, (or Tacellothis ;) but as neither of them performed any act worthy of remembrance, they were contemptuously spoken of as unknown and inglorious.

he never put the laws in force against those who were condemned to death, but compelled them to labour in the cities upon public works, with chains upon them, so that the state derived considerable emolument from those who otherwise would have been lost to society. By their means, he constructed several bulwarks, and dug convenient canals and thus, while he mitigated the weight of punishment, he converted its useless severity into the highest benefit. On being warned in a dream, several times repeated, that unless he should kill all the Egyptian priests, and cast forth their carcasses, with his own hands, his reign could neither be long nor happy he called the priests together, and after relating his dream, resigned the sovereign power unto them; declaring that he would rather meet the stroke of fate, than do mischief to any one.
;

He

then retired into Ethiopia, and was suc-

"

OF THE 23D, OR TANITIC DYNASTY.

first

ceeded on the Egyptian throne by Sebycus, (or Sevechus,) called by Herodotus, Sethon ; and after him reigned Taracus, an Ethiopian,
of unknown fame.
"

of these kings was Petubastes, so called from the city Bubastus ; on his death,

"

The

OF THE 26TH DYNASTY

OR,

DYNASTY OF

succeeded Orsothes, (or Orsothon,) also called Hercules after whom the sceptre devolved to Psammus, who reigned 20 years ;(h) and from him it passed to others but as they did nothing worthy of praise, no notice is taken
; ;

THE TWELVE.
(CALLED SAITES BY MANETHO.) Merres, (or Ammeris,) an Ethiopian, was the first of this dynasty and after him reigned successively Stephanitis, and Nechas, or Ne"
;

of them
" OF

by THE 24TH DYNASTY OR, DYNASTY OF THE LAWS.)

;

historians.

cheptos.

On

the decease of the

latter,

the

Egyptians were two years without kings, and the country became a scene of confusion and
anarchy. " On this occasion twelve of the principal men were appointed to administer the government, and after they had reigned together 15 years, the supreme authority fell into the hands of one, named Psammetichus, who reigned 44 years, and left the throne to his son Apries. according to Herodotus, or Aries according to Diodorus though Eusebius places two kings, Nechao, or Necephes, and Psammuthis, between Psammetichus and Apries, or Vaphris.
;

(CALLED SAITE BY MANETHO.) Bocchorus, or rather Bou chorus, sax ( ,!, one of the Egyptian legislators, engrosses this dynasty to himself; for it does not appear that he had any successors.
'
<,

" OF "

THE 25TH, OR ETHIOPIAN DYNASTY.

or,
is

sometimes called, represented as an Ethiopian, began this dynasty by the conquest of Bocchorus. According to Diodorus, he was supeis

Sabacon,

as he

Sabazius,

who

rior to

all

other kings, for his attention to the

This prince, Apries, reigned 25 years, and was, next to Psammetichus, the most fortunate of
the sovereigns of that age, at least till the last year of his reign, when he experienced a
Herodotus, indeed, speaks of Asychis, as Diodorus does of Genephachtlms, after Mycerinus, but it is impossible to decide whether they belonged to the dynasty.

duties of religion, his liberality, integrity, and attention to the observance of the laws. Yet
(h) Africanus, Eusebius, and Syncellus, make his reign only 10 years, as does Kircher himself in his catalogue. He has no successors of this dynasty in any of the canons.

SECT. V.]

ACCORDING TO KIRCHER.
was was
" OF

407

course of the war between the Tyrians and Sidonians. " Arnasis, or Anamasis, the successor of and reigned 55 Apries, was a good king, before the Persian He died just years.(i) invasion, under Cambyses, about the 63d
fought, in the

It reverse, and was deposed by Amasis. battle in his days that the great naval

THE 30TH, OR MENDESIAN DYNASTY.

30TH

(COMPOSED FROM THE 29TH AND DYNASTIES OF MANETHO.)

"

prince of this dynasty was Psamwhose reign Plato flourished. He was succeeded by Nepherites, who was followed by Nectabo, or Nectabenus.(m)

The

first

muthis, in

Parmenides Olympiad,(j) being that in which the prize in the races. Carmarinaeus obtained
" OF "

"OF THE 31sT DYNASTY;

EVENITjE.

OR,

DYNASTY OF

THE 27TH, OR PERSIAN DYNASTY.

this dynasty, the
its

Under

kingdom of Egypt

(PART

OF

MANETHO'S

SOTH

DYNASTY OF
by Theo,

SEBENNYT.E.)
" This

native sovereigns to the Persian monarch, Cambyses, foreigners. having reduced the country by main force, appeared to have declared war, not only against

was

transferred from

dynasty

is

occupied

(or

the men, but against their gods and religion ; for he overthrew the altars, broke down the statues, levelled or defaced the most superb of the pyramids and obelisks, and destroyed the
public edifices, with
fire

abdicated, and fled into Africa. Teos,) In his days flourished Aristotle, the disciple of Plato.
" OF

who

THE 32D, OR LAST EGYPTIAN DYNASTY.

and sword, wherever

"

(PART OF MANETHO'S 30TH DYNASTY.)

Nectabenus, (or Nectanebes,) the only sovereign of this dynasty, was reputed to be a great magician and enchanter, and obtained, by means of his incantations and spells, a knowAmong other ledge of many future events. kinds of divinations, that practised by means of a bowl full of water was his favourite. According to Joseph Ben Gorion, when Artaxerxes Ochus was preparing to take possession of Egypt, which had been ruined by the magical operations of Nectabenus, this prince, having secured all the gold and precious stones he could get hold of, fled in disguise to

he came. " Egypt remained under the dominion of the Persians from the 5th year of Cambyses to the time of Xerxes the son of Darius, an
interval of 150 years.

" OF

THE 28TH DYNASTY, OR DYNASTY OF

XERXES. (k)

" After the successors of Cambyses, the kingdom of Egypt fell to Xerxes, who was followed In their time, by several of his own name. celebrated writers, as Hieronymus of many
Syracuse,
./Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Herodotus, &c. flourished, and Plato was born.

" OF THE 29TH, OR EGYPTIAN DYNASTY. (THE 28TH, OR SAITE DYNASTY OF MA-

NETHO).
"
off

Macedon,(n) where, by the influence of his the wife of Philip, the spells, he so fascinated sovereign, as to persuade her that she reigning should shortly conceive a son by Jupiter Ammon, who should govern the whole world.

Under
the

this dynasty, the

Persian

yoke.

Amyrthaeus, after

whom

Egyptians threw first king was reigned Nepherites,

The

Having thus prepared the queen's mind by he next caused her to dream of the god Ammon, by means of his enchantartful insinuations,

and

lastly Achoris.(l)

ments, whilst he himself, during her sleep, lay

and Nepherites, Nephorites, or Anaphorites, is his successor. \fter him, Eii'ebius has Muthis, called Minas by Syncellus, not noticed by our author, nor by Africanus, and with him
Instead of him, Kircher has introduced he also calls Nectanebus in his catalogue, and who is the first in Manetho's 30th Dynasty. (n) Eusebius and most other writers say, he went into
the dynasty ends.

(i)

Eusebius makes
it

makes 43

this prince's reign 42 years ; Africanus 44, Syncellus 50, and Kircher, in his catalogue,

years.

(j) In the

(k) This
(1)

4th year of that Olympiad. a division oi'Manetho's27th, or Persian Dynasty. Afrkanoi aim Eusebius reckon Ani\rth<cus in the 28th
is

Sectabenus,

whom

Dy

>'>

Nepherites and Arhoris they place in the 29th. Kaiuiuutuib is tlie third in Mauetho's 29th Dynasty,
:

Ethiopia.

30

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS,

with her, and begot, a son, who called Alexander the Great.(o)

[CHAP. vi.

was afterwards
trans-

"

Egypt stood from the creation to the flood, and thence to the coming of our Saviour which
;

From Nectabenus,

the

kingdom was
;

ferred to the Persians, under Artaxerxes Ochus,

who was -succeeded by his son Arses after whom, his son Darius Codomanus reigned (i
death, Alexander the years,(p) Great laid all Egypt, as well as the whole empire of the Persians, under his dominion. On the death of this conqueror, which took place at Babylon, in the 34th year of his age,

and on

his

four great epochas, riz. 'first, from the creation to the flood ; and in this interval may be placed the first dynasties, according to the Arabian accounts secondly, from the flood to the birth of Abraham, which may be supposed to include the reigns of the gods, or the dynasty of heroes t/tird/y, from the birth of Abraham, that is, from the reign of Horus, the last of the gods, to the year in which

period

comprehends

empire was divided, and Egypt fell to Ptolemy, in whose family it continued for nearly three centuries, up to the time of Cleowhen it passed into the hands of the patra, Komans, and from them to the Mohammedans, gradually fading in its glory upon every change. " These are the thirty-two dynasties, under which Egypt was governed; 17(q) of which, beginning with the 16th, are taken from the Greek historians, and the other 15 from the Arabian records.
his

Ochus the Persian obtained possession of

Egypt; this may be called the reign of the The fourth and last epocha is, Pharaohs. from the accession of Ochus to the nativity of Christ, which may be denominated the reign
of the Ptolemies.
All this will appear more chronological table of the kings of Egypt, from to Julius CaBsar, placed in their order, with the years of each reign, synchronised with the years of the world and from the flood, as well as with illustrious characters and remarkable events in other parts of the earth."(r)
clearly in the subjoined

Ham

"

It

appears, therefore, that the

kingdom of

some other enemies of Alexander,

This story was probably invented by the Egyptians, or in contempt of his assuming the title of son of Jupiter Ammon. (p) These three Persian monarchs, Artaxerxes Ochus, Arses, and Darius Codomanus, constitute the 31st Dynasty
(o)

of Eusebius and other writers: Tpiaxori jSao-tXtioy'.- Euseb. Chron. p. 17. Syncell. p. 77,
(q) Called
(r)

2->(>.

21

in the original.
i.

CEdipus JEgyptiacus, vol.

cap. 10. sytag. 1, p. 103,

SECT. V.]

ACCORDING TO KIRCHER.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE KINGS OF EGYPT, ACCORDING TO KIRCHER.()

" The Reis;n of the Gods, or Heroes, called by Manetho, the Sixteenth Dynasty of the Thebans; begiuning with Confusion of Languages, and continuing to the Descent of Joseph(t) into Egypt.
A. M.
|

tlie

PostDU

Memorable Events, and

A.M.
Illustrious

Men,

According to Genelmirdus and the Hebrew Text.

KINGS OF EGYPT.
In Sacred History.
the same with Saturn and Zoroaster. 2. Misraim, son of Ham, the same with
1.

according to
tke

LXX.
and

In Profane History.

Eusebius.

1656

Ham, son of Noah,

Noah

plants colonies.

1810

154

Ashur and Nimrod.

Confusion Peleg. guages.
of Ian-

Jupiter and Osiris

I.

Beginning of the Assyrian 2242, the monarchy. jear of Cush, the El hiopian, assumes the flood. the government.
Ninus.

1948

292

3.

Mercurius.(u) or Faunus, otherwise Seruch, suruamed Trismegistus.

Abraham.

Vulcan. 5. Sol, son of Vulcan. 6. Sosis, Sothis, or Sochis.

4. 7.
8.

Abraham begets Isaac, in his

100th year,
in Gerar.

Noah

dies.

Ninus dies, and Semiramis fonnds the Babylonish,

or Assyrian empire.

Osiris

and

Isis.
;

Melchizedek, high-priest.

The

Horus, or Thoth supposed to be the son of Trismegistus, and the

last

power of the Janigenae

begins in Italy, as does that of the Sicyoni in

2006

350

of the gods.

Greece.

THE SEVENTEENTH DYNASTY

Menas.

of Shepherds; continues 103 years.

Inachus, the first king,(w) noticed in profane history.

2109

403

Mitlirus.
Osiris.

Isaac.

3400

Jacob descends into Egypt.(v)

Ileubeii born.

Vexores.
Apis.

Epaphus.

Misraim.

Memphis

built.

The

foregoing six names are all applied to a single individual, whom

we

call

Saturn the Younger. Rhea, or Isis. Mercury, her counsellor. Mesramuthis, son of Isis and Osiris. Horus.

Mercurius
inventor

Trismegistus,

of

letters

hieroglyphics,

and which he

engraved upon obelisks, for the good of posterity.

(s)
(t)

Ibid,
It is

page 103.
;

impossible to ascertain the author's meaning here for Joseph does not appear in his columns till the 18th Dynasty ; although, in the 17th, he places the descent of Jacob into Egypt, 180 years before the arrival of his son. It is also worthy of remark, that in the text of the foregoing page, Kircher describes this, his second epocha, as reaching from the Deluge to the birth of Abraham, with which the last date in the margin of this table nearly coincides ; though, in the column of Sacred History, he has introduced the birth of Isaac considerably higher up, even before the death of Noah; and yet, in the 17th dynasty, the first year of Isaac is rightly placed against A. M. 2109. (u) In his text, it will be observed, Kircher begins his Theban Dynasty with this Mercurius; but here it com-

work, where the names and events are unaccountably transThus, Noah died two years before Abraham was posed. born, and yet the death of Noah here stands after Abraham's 100th year; and Melchizedek, who appeared 17 years before the birth of Isaac, here stands after that event.
Similar transpositions and errors appear throughout these
tables. after the (v) The date assigned to this event, is the year birth of Isaac, and 189 years before the descent occurred. It is also placed before the birth of Reuben, though Reuben was sold into Egypt, had arrived at manhood before

Joseph which led to the removal of the whole family of Israel thither; and Misraim, who has already appeared in the
former dynasty, as the son of

Ham,

is

here placed after

Jacob and Reuben.

(w) And yet, in the preceding dynasty, Ninus, ^gialus, and Semirarnis.

mences, two generations higher, with Ham. The two columns illustrious persons, &c. are given as they appear in his

we

find

Cush,

470
"

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS,

[CHAP. vi.

Reigns of the Pharaohs, called by Manetho, Politani, beginning with the Descent of Jacob into Egypt, and ending with the Invasion of Artaxerxes Ochus.
A. M.
Illustrious Persons,
according to the LXX.

A. M.

P.t

Oil

according to

Genebrardus and
the

KINGS OF EGYPT.
18TH DYNASTY, of
1.

I
348

Memorable Events, and

In Sacred History.

Hebrew Tent.

In Profane History.

and
Eusebius.

Politani.

2289

633

2. 3.
4.

Amosis Chebron Amenophis

Mefres, or Myris

25 13
21

Isaac dies.

Joseph sold by his brethren

3470
Sparta founded.

12 26
9 31 38 12
9 16

Moses born. Moses receives

commission.

his

divine
Israel-

2360

704

5.

Mispharmuthosis

Job

flourishes.

The

Sphereus, king of Assyria.

Orthopolis, king of Sicyon.

3550

ites

persecuted.

6. 7. 8. 9.

Tuthemosis

Edict for drowning the He-

Amenophis Horus
Acencheres, or Acencris
. . .

brew children.

Hermes Trismegistus
about
this time.

lived

Memnon's

statue.

10. Achoris

Prometheus.
Argus. Cecrops.
Deucalion's flood, and Phaeton's conflagration.

2476

820

11. Cenchres

Moses, at the age of 80, becomes the chief of the Hebrews. The 10 plagues.
Jethro, whom some take to be the same with Trisme

3690

12. Acherres.

2544

888

13. Cherres 14. Arnieus, or Danaiis .... 15. Ramesses-^gyptus .... 16. Menophis, or Meuuphta

15
5

Moses

gistus. in the Desert, at the

Corinth founded. Commencement of the kingdoms of Lacedaemon and Dardania.

3710 3780

head of the
Joshua.

Israelites.

68 40

Ehud.

19TH DYNASTY, of Larthes.

2714
1058
1. Zethus, or Sothis,

201

who

Othniel. After the death of the Israelites Othniel, were in servitude 18 years, with the synchronical years of Ehud.

Sidon and Tyre founded by Cadmus and Phoenix.

Tros reigns

in

Dardania.

built

Amphion.
55
Indian expedition of Dionysius, or Liber Pater.

the
2.

pyramid Ramcsses, son of erected a pyramid

first

Sothis,

66
33

2893

1237

2947

1291

founder of a pyramid 4. Nuncorius, son of Sesostris, built a pyramid 5. Thuoris, Thonis, or Thules
3. Sesostris,

Orpheus.

Deborah and Barak.

40 7

Abimelech.
Jair.

Tola.

Sphinx and CEdipus. Argonautic expedition.

Jephthah.

Troy taken.

395

20TH DYNASTY, of Diospolites. 178 Abdon.

1. 2.

Ibzan.

Cetes, or Proteus

Proteus, son of Cetes

Samson, by many supposed to be the same with Hercules.

The
2996
1340
3.
1.

last seven are, by some, supposed to have reigned

Nilus

Chemnes
Cephren Mycerinus
After these were other kings,

5. 6.

282 14 19 4 20

After Samson, the government devolved on Eli, the

high-priest, for 40 years. Samuel the prophet.

12 Labours of Hercules. Ascanius reigns at Lavinium, builds AlbaLonga, and is succeeded by Silvius Posthumus, sou of .Eneas and
Lavinia.

Saul.

whose names are unknown.

==
(x)

David.

1544

in original.

(y)

In the origiual 3006.

The date

intended by the author is ascertained by adding 282 years to the sera of Zethus, the first of the 19th Dynasty.

SECT. V.]
A.M.
the

ACCORDING TO KIRCHER.
U
Memorable Events and
Illustrious

471
Men,
A.

M.

Post
|

according to Geni-brardiis uml

KINGS OF EGYPT.
In Sacred History.

according to the LXX.

Hebrew Teit

In Profane History.

and
F.uscbim.

21sr DYNASTY, of Memphites 3020 1304

1.

Solomon.

Smendps, or Simandius..
Pseusennes
I

2C
41 4

Rehoboam.
Abia. Jehu.

2.
3.

Asa.

Nephercheres

3272

1388
<*)

4. 5. 6.

Amenophis Osochor
II

Psinaches 7. Pseusennes

9 6 9
35

Susachim, or Shishak, the same with Smendes, invades Judea, and pillages the temple.
Tyberinus-Silvius reigns in Italy. From him the river Tyber received its name.

4200

Joram.

Elijah.
Elislia.

Zechariah.

3278

1622

22o DYNASTY, of
1.

Suites.

Senschoris, or Cheops

21 15

Joash.

Amaziab.

Amulius-Sylvius
Italy.

reigns

in

2.

Osorthon
Vachelotis, or Tacellothis

Aventinus-Sylvius, the Latins.

king of

3.

13

Amos and

Jonah.

Procas-Sylvius, king of the

Latins.
43fi()

3278

1G22

23D DYNASTY, of
1.

Tanites.

2. 3.

Petubastes Orsothes

25
Zechariah.
Amulius-Sylvius, king of the
Latins.

Psammus

. .

10

3300

1644

24TH DYNASTY,
the
1.

or Dynasty of

Laws.
.

Olympiads begin. Romulus and Remus.

43
Ahaz.

4420

Bocchorus

Rome

founded.

25TH DYNASTY, of
1. 2.

Ethiopians.

Sabucon, or Sabazius

Hezekiah.

Romulus surrounds Rome with a wall, and erects a

temple.

4460

3380

1724

3.

Sebycus Tarachus ....

Hosea and Isaiah. Manasseh.

Midas reigns

in Phrygia.

2GTH DYNASTY,
1
.

called

DuodeSyracuse founded.

ccmvirorum.

Merres
Nechas, or Necheptos

12
7

Numa
Amon.
Josiali,

2. Stephanitis

3.

killed

in battle

by

Pompilius. Tullus Hostilius. Ancus Martins.

4510

Twelve kings 3435

1779

4. 5.

Psainmetichus

15 44

Nechas.
invades Nebuchadnezzar Judea, and destroys the

Tarquinius Priscus, founder of the Capitol.

Nechao, or Necephes .....

Psammitcs, or Psammuthis Vaphres
.

The

circus built

by Tarq.

Priscus.

6.

12

7. Apries, or

30 43

temple. Daniel, Hananiah, Azariab, and Mishael.

Servius Tullius.
Stesichores, Alcaeus.

Sappho,

and

8. Anaiuasis, or

Amasis.

4610

3568

1892
(a)

27TH DYNASTY, of
1.

Persians.

47th Olympiad.

Cambyses, and

his successors

36 48

Ezekiel.

Jesus, or Jeshua,

Marseilles built. Solon, Thales, JEsop, Croesus,

the son of Josedek, and

2.

Anaximenes.

Darius Hystaspes

Zerubbabel.

Eclipses of the sun foretold

!yrus slain

by Thales. by Thomyris.

3.

Artabanus

18

Zechariah, Haggai, and

lachi.

Ma-

ythagoras.

(z)
it will

One
also

of these dates

is

wrong, but there

is

no clue by which
date.

to discover the error.

(a)

The 22d and 23d

b observed, begin both with the same

Dynasties,

This should probably be 1912.

472
A. M.
Post Oil
|

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS,

Memorable Events, and
Illustrious

[CHAP. vi.
Men,
A. M. cording to
lit-

according u Genehreirdus and the Hebrew Text.

KINGS OF EGYPT.
In Sacred History.

IAX.

In Profane History.

and
Eusobius.

3(595

2039

28TH DYNASTY, called Xerxium.

1.

Xerxes

V
or

20 40 2
Esdras.

Tarquinius Superbus banished, and the consular go-

4670

2. Artaxerxes-Longimanus,

vernment begins at Rome.

Esther and Ahasuerus.

Xerxes VII f Xerxes VIII

3.< Sogdianus, or Xerxes IX. [8 months. 4. Darius Notli us, or Xerxes X.

Herodotus, Pindar, Hiero, Sophocles, Xeuxis, Ileraclitus, and Zeno.

Socrates born.

4720

S749

2073
(b)

19

Government of the Maccabees.

29TH DYNASTY, of Egyptians.

Amyrthaeus, the Saite 2. Nepherites 3. Achoris
1.

Nehemiah rebuilds the walls

6 12
of Jerusalem.
Esther and Mordecai.

Pherecydes, Hippocrates, and Gorgias. Beginning of the Pelopouuesian war. Eudoxus of Cnidus.

4790

Egypt reduced by the Per-

30TH DYNASTY, of Mendesians.

1.

Psammuthis
Nepherites

Diogenes the Cynic.

4 months
. .
.

2.

Dionysius the Tyrant. Plato. Speusippus. Military Tribunes at Rome. Evagoras.

Isocrates.

3.

Nectabo, or Nectanebus

31ST DYNASTY, of Evenitee.

1.

Theo
32D DYNASTY.

Aristotle.

Demosthenes.

8350

1604

Nectabenus, the

last

Egyptian
11!

monarch

Artaxerxes Ochus. Philip, king of Macedon. Alexander the Great.

4840

"
3730
(c)3768

NEW KINGDOM OF
Lagus
Pliiladelphus

EGYPT, UNDER THE PTOLEMIES.

Septuagint translation.

3808 3833 3850 3873 3909 3937 3953

3971

2074 2112 2162 2177

2104 2217 2253
2281

1. 2. 3. 4.

Ptolemy Ptolemy Ptolemy Ptolemy

Euergetes Ceraunus, or Philopator

40 38 26
17 24 36 29 17 8 30 24

Antioch founded. 1st Punic war, Alexandrian library.

4K80 4920 4980

2d Punic war.
Judas Maccabeus. Alcimus. Bacchides. Jonathan Maccabeus.

2297 2316

Ptolemy Epiphanes 6. Ptolemy Philometor 7. Ptolemy Euergetes 8. Ptolemy Physcon, or Soter 9. Ptolemy Alexander, with his mother Cleopatra
.

5.

5020
Carthage destroyed.
Prodigies seen at Jerusalem^

5100
Jugurthine war.

10. Ptolemy Auletes

Herod Ascalonites.
5150

Cleopatra

4006

2350

The kingdom
the
Ca;sar(d)

transferred to
Julius

Romans, under

Nativity of our Lord.

From the foregoing extracts, it appears that Kircher has adopted the opinion of the Arabians, (or rather of the Coptic originals, if anysuch they had, from which they copied,)that the Egyptian monarchy existed prior to the Deluge. The princes of this period appear to have been the patriarchs in the line of Seth, from Adam to Noah, and certain heads of families in the line of Cain,
(b) (c)
(rt)

beginning with Nacraus, and ending with Abn Ama Pheraun. But these kings, as they are called, belong equally to the Egyptians, the Chaldaeans, and the Phrenicians who all claim an antiquity coeval with the world itself; and in their several histories, we have only so many traditions, through different hands, of the This subject having been same persons.
;

This should perhaps be 2093.

These dates should be 37702114. From the 8th Ptolemy downwards, the

duction. The date assigned to the transfer of the kingdom to the Romans, is also wrong ; as Julius Caesar took Alexseries

of kings,

and the years of their reigns, are erroneous, as will appear on comparing them with the Chronological Tables in the Intro-

andria, A. M. 3957, was killed at Rome, A. M. 3960; and the final reduction of Egypt was by Octavius, or Augustus,

A. M. 3974, according

to the

Hebrew computation,
2

SECT. V.]

ACCORDING TO KIRCHER AND MARSH AM.

of,
is
it

473

already treated
diluvians,(e) it here.

the history of the anteunnecessary to enlarge upon

in

in

man, Sir John Marsham, produced a work,(g) which he endeavoured to reduce the whole 30

In his account of the dynasties, Kircher has many peculiarities thus, he begins with the Kith dynasty of Manetho, which, according to Eusebius, consisted of five unknown Thebans or, according to Africanus, of 32 nameless Greek Shepherds ; and there he introduces the reign of the gods, beginning with Ham and Misra'im, and making up the remainder, to the number of eight, from Manetho's table of the He congods, as given in a former chapter.(f ) sequently omits the first 15 dynasties, or he supposes them to be equivalent to his 15 antediluvian generations, where, to preserve his number, he seems to have curtailed that of the Arabian writers, who reckon 18. His 17th of Shepherds, which differs from those dynasty of Africanus, Eusebius, and Josephus, consists of names formed from the mythology of the In his text, he calls these princes, country. the first of the Pharaohs and yet in his tables he gives that title to those of the next, or 18th The rest of his catalogue is made dynasty. of selections from Eusebius. As to his up
:

dynasties to the scripture chronology, by supposing them to be, in many cases, not successive but collateral. The commencement of the monarchy he attributes to Menes, whom he takes to be the same with Ham, six years after the flood ; and on the death of that
prince, who reigned 62 years, he supposes the country to have been divided into the four distinct kingdoms of Thebes, This, Memphis,

and Heliopolis

besides some others of minor ; consideration. In this state Egypt continued for little short of seven centuries, when the

themselves masters of Pastor-kings made but the kingdom of Thebes; and on the expulsion of these intruders, nearly Jive hundred years afterwards, the whole fell under the dominion of a single monarch. In pursuing this scheme, the learned author makes considerable use of the list of Eratosthenes, whose authority has been preferred to that of Manetho, because he was no but a Cyrenean, a man of Egyptian priest, eminent learning, and keeper of the Alexanall

collateral events, they are generally dates, at variance with matter of fact, as well as with his own theory. Many of these errors have

and

been noticed

in the foregoing notes;

and the

rest are so obvious, that it would be useless to Whether they have been the point them out.
effect of design or carelessness, is

the

hard to say author was striking into a new track, unknown to former historians, and it is not surprising that in so uncertain a pursuit he should have been sometimes bewildered ; this may apologise for some of the inconsistencies that appear in his text; but as to the tables, they admit of no apology, as only a few hours' revision might have made them what the author designed they should be. With all its faults, however, the scheme of Kircher merits attention, as an original effort to combine the history of the Arabians with the fragments left by the Greeks, and to reduce the number of dynasties within the compass of the scrip:

drian library, who took his catalogue from the sacred records of Thebes, or received it from the scribes there. But it is highly probable that this catalogue, as well as the dynasties of Manetho, has suffered by time and transcribers ; and there are doubtless many mistakes in the names, as well as in the numbers the sum total, as reckoned up by Syncellus, being 1075, which does not agree with the particulars as they now stand for if
:

they be carefully cast up, they

to

will

be found

ture computation.

About 20 years after the Egyptian (Edipus had made its appearance, our own country-

amount to only 1055. Sir John Marsham has also put great confidence in the series of Syncellus ; although that writer has been charged witli partiality in picking here and there names and numbers, and sometimes adding both of his own invention, in order to accommodate his canon to the sacred chronology. As the scheme of Sir J. Marsham has met with much approbation, as well as some cenfrom the learned world ; and mere sure, description cannot convey an adequate idea of its merits the following tabulated view is here introduced, for the more explicit elucidation of his plan.
;

(e)

See before, pape 270.

I.

(f )

See before, page 275.

(g)

Canon Chronicus jEgyptiacus, &c. published

in

1G72.

VOL.

3 P

474

CHRONOLOGY OF THE EGYPTIANS,

TABLE OF THE KINGS OF EGYPT,
ACCORDING TO THE HYPOTHESIS OF
[The References
to Dynasties,

[CHAP. vi.

SIR

JOHN MARSHAM.
to be

&c. shew where the princes are

found

in

the preceding

lists.]

A.M.

SECT. V.]

ACCORDING TO SIR JOHN MARSHAM.

THEBES.
Years.

475
HELIOPOLIS.

A.M.
2076 2079 2084
2101
210-5

THIS.
Years.

MEMPHIS.
Years.

Ycari.

Saophis(ft)

29

lltli

year of Sethenes ....

64th year of Suphis

Mencheres(<y)

II.. ..

39th year of Amesises.

4 9 20
Sensaophis(6). 3

14
19
>< >
*

63

**
17

42 47 Abraham
N.(c)

visits

27

40
Chceres(/)

2107 2114
2 24
1

10 20
Moscheris(6) 11

8
Nepherchteres(y')

25

2132 2142 2149 2103 2 Hit 2107 2189 2193 2196 2197 2205 2206 2207 2208 2218 2225 2227 2231 2239 2253 2202 2270 2281 2289 2298 2320 2325 2326
23.JO

31

9 19
Sesochris(/)

23 27 29 36 40 54
Rbatceses(<7)

Egypt. 13

5
7
Use(e)

50

11

25

18
Musthis(6)

48

33

2 5

15 16
19

22 23
BicheresQ;) Sebercheres((/)

19 29 36 50
Rhameses(e)

.29

12
7

27
31

41

4 26
Rhamesso-Menes(e)
. .
.

45
48
Cheneris(/) 9

5
Tliamphthis(r/)

1J

Pamnius-Archondes(6) .35
2

9
was suc;

4
5

30

2
Othoes.(A)

10
11

He

12

13 23 30 32 A pappus the Great(6) 100 9 23 32 40

51

10 11 12 22 29
Necheroplies(i)

2 ceedcd by Phius but 3 the duration of each

13 14 15
Thysimaris(e)

4 reign

is

uncertain.

31

Methusuphis(A) Phiops(A)

11

100

26

3
7 15

18 20 24
Ramesses-Seos(e)

13

23

The kingdom of This united

to that of

Thebes.
'...

59 68 90 95 90 100
Nitocris, (b, It)

29 38 52 57 65 74 96
Mentcsuphis
Nitocris,
(h) 1

14

18 Ramesses-Menos(e) 15 Joseph sold into Etjypt. 39 Ramesses-Tubacte(e) 9 Joseph promoted. 18 Jacob settles in Egypt. 25) Ramesses-Vaphres(e)
(i

(Queen)

(b,K)

7
11 12 13

2331 2332 2338 2319 2353 2354 2359 2300

1 Aghescus-Ocaras, or Echescus Caras(6) 6 Queen of Memphis, Thebes, and This Myrtaeus(6) reigned 16 years over Thebes, This, and Memphis, when he was forced 12 [to retire to Thebes, by the Shepherd-Kings, where he reigned six years longer. THEBES. 16 SHEPHERD-KINGS, IN LOWER. EGYPT. .... 6 Salatis(i) Myrtjrus, as above, conquered Lower Egypt, at the head of 240,000

5 reigned 6 years at Meni6 phis, and at Thebes.

19
Concharis(c)..
5,

Expelled by the Shep[herd Kings.

Th\ osimares(6)
10."

12
8

2309
2:172

7 He fixed his resilience at Tunis. 16 Joseph dies, at the age of 110.

19

[Arabs, reigned 19 years.

Thinillusii)

2373 2380 239 2405 2417

212Ji

2
.SciiiphiH.-rate.sv6)
(

Beon()
18

44

2431
2 102

24H8 2504 2513

7 huther-Tanrus(6) Meures, or Meres(6). ... 12 11 Choma-Ephtha(,6) Anchunius-Ochy(6). . .00 4 J5 Pente Athyris(6) 10

.

8 26 33
Apachnas,(/^ who oppressed the Israelites 19
3,}

8tameneraes(A)
10

23

15 Edict for drmcnimj the Hebrew male children. Aphophis(Aj drowned, with his army, in the Red Sea, 37 53
Jauius(A) [Ejcodus of the Israelites.]

in

2513

61

50

(6)

Eratosthenes.
!>ynasty 3.

(e) Syiifellus.

/')

Dyna>lv

2.

(</)

The remainder

of this dynasty will be found

(k')

among

the kings of

(A) Dynasty Dynasty 4. Memphis, marked (d).

(j.

Josephus.

P2

47U
A.M.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE EGYPTIANS,

KINGS OF THEBES.
Years.

[CHAP. vi.
IN

SHEPHERD KINGS,
55
1

LOWER EGYPT.
Years.

2.V27

Sistosichermes(&)

5th your of Janius.

2503 25U2
201-2

37
Maris(6)

Assis(A")

49

43
5 5 63

20
Smedes(7)

31
Siplioas-Hermes(A)* Phrurou, or Nilus(6) Ainythantceus, or Amurthicus(6)

26

2025 2030
26115

14

19 24
Pseusenes(Z)

2638 2084 268 2697 2698 2703 2712 2723 2726 2736 2763 2766 2774 2784 2706 2815 2820 2821

4 50 54 63 6
15

".

Ncphelcheres, or Nephercheres(/) Amenophthis(/) Osochor(/)

46 4 9 6
9 14

Araosis(e)

25

2
Pinaches, or Psinaches(f) Suseunes, or Pseusenes II. (7) 12

..."
13

Chebron(A)
Ainenophis l.(k) Aniesses (Queen)(k)

27
21

Petubates(m) 11

40

4
12
Mephres(it) Misphragmuthosis,(A) assisted by his son,

38 Osorcho, Osorthon, or Hercules(j)

8
10

Psammus(w)
12 Zet(m) conquered Lower Egypt, and reigned
[25 years

31 13
Expelled by Misphragmu[thosis

20
25

and Thummosis.

Thummosis,(A) son of Misphragmuthosis

SOVEREIGNS OF ALL EGYPT.

Years.

A.M.
of
this division,

Years.

A.M.

Years.

2830

Amenophis II. (A) son of Thummosis, finally expelled the Arabs, who returnin the being to Egypt

were Boc-

remained subject to the

3277

choris(p) and Nechus,(<y) father to Psarametichus. Sabbacon,(o)or So, the Ethi-

3590
8

of his reign, had continued there 13 years,

ginning

opian

3285
30 36

Sevichus.(o) son of Sabba-

2800 2896 2908 2917 2920

_*).n

reigned .......... . . Orus(A) ................

con

Achencheres I .(A) ........ 12 Rathosis(A) .............. Achencheres 1 1. (A) ...... 12 Achencheres III.(A) ...... 12 Armais(A) .............. ,4

3299 3315 3317 3334 3388 3403

Taracus(o)

Anarchy

The

twelve kings (r)

2045 2946 3012 3032

3091 3151 3189 3216

Ramesses-Miamun(A) .... 66 Amenophis IH.(ft) ........ 20

Sethos,(n)

Psammetichus !.(*) Pharaoh-Necho, (s) sou of Psammetichus 15 Psammis, or Psammethus,(<) son of Necho 5
[Pharaoh-Hophra] son of Psammis, deposed by Nebuchadnezzar .... 25 Subject to Nebuchadnezzar 2 44 Amosis(s) Psaminenitus,(i) son of AmoApries,(<)

14 16 2 17 54

3601 3604 3608 3615 3628

Persians for 112 years. threw off Amyrtjeus(tt) the Persian yoke, and 11 reigned 3 Pausiris(,r) son of Amyrtaeus

Psammetichus !!.()
Nephereus(i/) Achoris(y)

4
7

13
1
.

Psammuthis(y)
Nepherites(y) [4 months]
.

3629 3629 3641

Nectanebes I.(z) 12 2 Tachos, or Teos(z) He was deposed by his subjects, for want of energy
against the Persians.

3408

or Sesostris,

or

Shishak .............. 59
IUinmpses,(w)sonofSethosks 60

3643 3654

Nectanebes
;

II.(z)

12

Amenophis 1V.() or Memnon ................ 39 AmmeBeme*(*) .......... 27

Thiioris(rt)

3433 3435 3479

Egypt again subjected by the Persians and never again had a native prince, except of the family of the Ptolemies, who were of

.............. 17

After his death, in 3233, the kingdom was divided for 44 the priii' years; among

had reigned only six months, when Egypt was invaded by Cambyses,() after which the country
sis,

3072

Macedonian origin. Egypt conquered by Alexander the Great.

* After Siphras, Eratosthenes has an anonymous reign of fourteen years, omitted by Sir J. Marsham. and Dynasty 18. (A) Josephus. (/) Dynasty 21. (n) Dynasty 19. (m) Dynasty 23. (e) Syncellus, 24. (q) Nechao I. of Dynasty 26. (s) Dynasty 26. (/) Herodotus and Diodorus. (p) Dynasty (o) Dynasty 25. '27. in any of the former catalogues, Herodotus. () Dynasty 28, and Syncelius, No. 87. (v) Dynasty (x) Not (t) with some slight variation of the spelling. (2) Dynasty 30. (y) Dynasty 29,
(6)

Eratosthenes.

SECT. V.]

ACCORDING TO SIR JOHN MARSHAM.

477

hypothesis, the 5th dynasty, of Elephantine^, which serins to refer to some short-lived kingdom, that was ultimately in that of Thebes, is omitted, as are merged likewise the 7th, 8th, Oth, 10th, llth, 13th, 14lh, Kith, and 20th, which are anonymous, and either are spurious, or relate to minor divisions of the country, of no long duration. The 22d is likewise omitted for the last-named reason. The 12th dynasty is for the most part amalgamated with the 19th, as is the 15th of The Africanus with the 17th of Eusebius. 21st and 23d are joined with the Shepherd Dynasty, which prolongs the reign of those usurpers to 461 years, under 17 princes. The catalogues of Josephus and Eratosthenes are used as far as they go, with the exception of Timeus, at the head of the list of the former of these writers; and the series of Syncellus is followed as far as Concharis, the '25th on the list. The whole, thus selected, forms a

In

this

Nor can we so Hyc-sos had before resided. well appreciate the jealousy of Pharaoh and his courtiers at the increasing wealth and numbers of the Israelites, with their fears lest
they should join an invading enemy, upon the supposition of their being of the Pastor race, as we can if we understand them to be Egyptians, daily threatened with a renewed invasion of the Hyc-sos, still hanging upon their borders in Arabia. From these, and other considerations, the detail of which would protract the subject too much, we conclude the hypothesis in question to be not the best that might be formed, though it exhibits considerable ingenuity. (b)

After Sir John Marsham, the arrangement of the Egyptian chronology was at- C A. D.

tempted

by Father Pezron, who, by

\ 168 7-

tolerably plausible scheme ; but who can say that it is a just one, or that the selection and transpositions are preferable to all others that might be made? Indeed the learned author was himself fully sensible that his scheme was

following the larger computation of the Septuagint, has taken more latitude; so that he allows the duration of the Egyptian monarchy

2614 years, from Menes to Nectanebes. He likewise goes on the same foundation with

such objections for he complains of a most barren field of investigation, having where are to be found only names and numbers ; and at the same time he acknowledges the difficulty of arriving at any certainty, when a set of unmeaning terms present themselves, without any collateral history. very principal objection to this gentleman's hypothesis is that, contrary to the narrative of Manetho,(a) it places the arrival of the Israelites in Egypt prior to that of the Hyc-sos, or Auritse, while their exodus fails under that very race with whom Manetho has confounded them the objections of the Egyptians to the Hebrews, for being shepherds, and the ground of Joseph's accusation of his brethren as spies, are thereby considerably weakened to say nothing of the express declaration of Manetho that Amenophis granted the second set of sojouniers the district of Avaris for a settlement, where the
liable to
;

Sir John Marsham, in making the first seventeen dynasties collateral instead of successive ; and he supposes the Mestreans, or offspring of Misra'im, the first inhabitants of Egypt,
to

the

have been honoured by their posterity with titles of gods and demigods but, though they peopled the country, they formed no kingdom there, till Menes, who began his Sesostris he reign 648 years after the Deluge. makes contemporary with Deborah, judge of
;

Israel.

several

the plans of these two great men, other writers, of less notoriety, have formed chronological schemes of their own, differing in some respects from them, as well as from each other but the chief anxiety of all, is to fix the times of Menes and Sesostris ; which, when they have done, they seem to imagine that the rest follows as of course. One mistake, however, as Mr. Bryant(c) well
:

From

observes,
in this

is

common
:

to all

who have engaged

dark scrutiny

preconceived

they proceed upon some notion, which they look upon

(a)

ApudJosepb. Contra Apion,

the-

lib.

i.

sect. 14, 26.

author should be charged with want of consistency in thus pronouncing upon the hypothesis in question, after having suffered' it to appear, preferably to all others, in his laic edition of Lavoisne's Atlas, it is necessary to remark, that Sir John Marsham's plan had been originally adopted 1
(b) Lest

by M. Lavoisne, in the first edition of that work, and it was not judged expedient to substitute any other in the second, lest it should tend to confuse those junior readers for whose use the work was chiefly intended.
(c)

Mythology,

vol. iv. p.

404.

478

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS,

Hence an
inverted
;

[CHAP. vi.
series has frequently

as a certainty, and bring every thing else to Snrh are the reign of Inachus, the this test. flood of Ogyges, the landing of Danaiis in Greece; the reign of a certain king when Joseph arrived in Egypt, or rather by whom he was promoted; and the reign of another when the Israelites were delivered. They set out upon these assumed facts as first principles,

historical

been

and hence those who copied from the

though they are what most require investigation ; and then they force all other history to make it accord. In most lists of the Egyptian kings, Menes is found at the head; many writers suppose this personage to have been Mizra'im ; others think he was Ham others, again, that he was Noah.(d) And as these lists go down as far as Alexander the Great, the dynasties are to be dilated or curtailed,
;

Chronicle, (f ) on being told that the arrangement was different from what was used in Greece, and that, according to their way of reckoning, the FIRST dynasty was the FIFTEENTH, or SIXTEENTH, actually marked it as such, according to the point whence they counted, i. e. from the 30th, or 31st dynasty. This error led to a second for, finding a blank of 14 or 15 in the series of numbers, they supposed there had formerly been so many antecedent dynasties; they accordingly prefixed them to the true list, and then set themselves to work, to remedy an evil which did not exist, in endeavouring v to find names to fill them up.
true
;

Old

Menes was
they

at

hand
first

to begin with,

and him
list

according to their greater or less distance In one thing only they from the extremes. seem to be agreed ; that the number of the dynasties, including the last kings of Persia,
31.(e) original list, Mr. Bryant thinks, consisted of 15 dynasties only ; and therefore he

made

the

others,

wherever

king, subjoining a they could obtain

of

them;
titles,

among which we meet with names and

later ages.

was

some belonging to the deities, others apparently borrowed from Eratosthenes, which occur in

The

Of

this description

is

Sesostris,

who

is

discards the first 16 altogether, as spurious the propriety of which proceeding he conceives may be proved from the Old Chronicle. He contends that the Greek writers were unacquainted with the Egyptian language, as well as the Chrisand this difficulty was still tian Fathers farther enhanced by the histories in question being written in the obsolete sacred language and characters; so that Manetho, Apion, and other Hellenic Egyptians, who borrowed from
;
:

names.

repeatedly introduced, under various Being soon tired of this mode, these
left

them, were unable thoroughly to understand

their purport.

The

contrary

mode

of writing,

dynasties without even a duration of the reigns is too short to be credited.(g) The kings who are put next in succession to Menes are Athothis, Cencenes, and Venephes ; but these very kings occur in the same order elsewhere, occupying the 59th, 60th, and (ilst places in the catalogue of Syncellus, against which the anonymous 20th dynasty is collated; they therefore lived about a thousand years later than their place in the first dynasty

compilers

single name. also frequently

many The

practised by the Greeks and Egyptians, the former from left to right, the latter from right
left, must, among persons unacquainted with the circumstance, or inattentive to it, have occasioned not only a faulty arrangement of the elements of which the names were composed, but also a wrong distribution of events.

to

would suppose. These are a few of the reasons, which, added to the authority of the Old Chronicle, have induced the learned writer above quoted
to set aside the reigns of all the princes antecedent to the Anrita^, or Shepherds. The best histories shew that they first reigned in Egypt,

(d) Mr. Bryant is of this last opinion; as likewise that Menes, under the type of the bull Mnevit, \\asreverenced as the lunar (Icily, bet mine he was preicncd in ihe ark, which, a* they thought, l>ort- a resemblance \<> the new moon. See his reasons at In me, iMi/thol. vol. iii. p. '2H:J, rt xcrj. The nober of dynastic*, ai gm-n in the Old Chronicle, anil ly Manetho, is only :!<>, hut they stop al Nectanebcs lii-tMi-en whom and Alexander the. (ireiit, was a :!lst, of three Persians, viz. Darius Debus, Arses, and Darius Codomanus.

which has been preserved by (f) This Old Chronicle, Syncellus,* was, as Mr. Bryant thinks, one of the chief sources whence Manetho, and those who came after him, drew their
information.
(g)

The most remarkable

in

found
little,

instance of this kind, is to the 7th dynasty, where, according to Africanus,

reigns occupied

70 days.

be 70 Eusebius has lengthened them n

this

by allowing 7a days to 5 reigns: but

the matter.
* Ckrm. page 51, 52.

does not

mend

SECT. V.]

ACCORDING TO VARIOUS WRITERS.

470

later Egyptians carried he cannot admit as genuine any dynasty prior to the ]5th, counting from

and however high the

antiquity,

their

Shepherds in Lower Egypt. This conclusion is countenanced by the Old Chronicle, where
first who reigned after the gods, are the Shepherds, under the title of demigods, or Auritae. Josephus, in opposition to the hrsf, authority, supposes the whole history of the Shepherd-Kings to belong to his countrymen in which he has misled most of the Fathers.

the

With respect to this 15th dynasty, the last. there seems to have been a tacit reference to it, as to a stated point, by which every tiling else was to be determined. Manetlio and Africanus place the Shepherds in the 15th dynasty, counting from the first, and Eusebius does the same, counting from the last, or what he calls the 31st: whence it is evident, that however the accounts may have been impaired, the fifteenth was the dynasty by which all the others were originally determined. Africanus, speaking of the kings of this dynasty, says, " The fifteenth is the dynasty of the Shepherds; these were foreign princes, styled Phoenices they first built themselves a city in the Sethro'i'te
;

But the purport of the history of these people, as well as the dynasties given by the Fathers
themselves, manifestly prove that the Cuthite shepherds arid the Israelites were two distinct people. They nevertheless persist in placing the Exodus in the reign of Amos, or Amosis,

who,

it

will

be presently shewn, reigned

first

many

region,

whence they made

all

their invasion,

and

he has conquered Egypt, "(h) added two other Shepherd dynasties one of 32 Hellenic Shepherds and the other, of 43 Shepherds, which last reigned collaterally with The names of the as many Theban kings. (i) of these two dynasties, he has not princes given, and there can be little doubt that they have been interpolated upon the original canon so that out of one dynasty of Shepherds, three Eusebius was aware of have been formed. this, and therefore he struck out these two, and brought the first two degrees lower, making the dynasty of Shepherds the 15th from the bottom, as already noticed. Fearful, however, of creating a gap in the list, and having no
these
,

To

Shepherds, if he were not himself Ham, the founder of the kingdom. Of the Shepherds, though their dynasty is transmitted to us in a very confused manner by different writers, we have very circumstantial accounts, as will appear in due time. From Manetho, we learn that Misphragmnthosis, also called Halisphragmuthosis, and his son Amosis, or Tuthmosis, reigned in the time of the first Shepherds ; that the former of these princes had obliged them to shut themselves up in their fortified nome, or district of Avaris and that the latter constrained
;

years prior to the departure of the

them to capitulate and leave the country after which he demolished the fortifications they had raised, lest the place should become a
:

suspicion that all the preceding dynasties were spurious, he supplied the place of those he had expunged with some Diospolites, or Thebans;(j) though he took care to arrange them before the Shepherds, in order to leave that dynasty in its due place. But they should be all cancelled together ; for with the Shepherds, those Auritae, or demigods, the chronology of Egypt truly begins. The 17th dynasty of Eusebius, therefore, should be called Ike jirst, and contemporary with it should be placed some of the princes of the 18th dynasty, who reigned at Thebes during the usurpation of the

receptacle for the disaffected of his subjects and this district was subsequently given by Amenophis to the other Shepherds, i. e. the Yet notwithIsraelites, who succeeded. (k)
:

standing this evidence, which themselves frequently advert to for every purpose but the right, the Fathers have adjudged the departure of the Hebrews to the time of the first king of

But on comparing the foreaccount from Manetho with that dynasty, going it will appear that Misphragmuthosis was the sixth prince of that line that Amosis, or Tuthmosis was his successor; and that Amenophis, who received the Israelites, or second shepthe 18th dynasty.
;

herds,

was the next

immediately

The four kinga in order. before Misphragmuthosis agree,

them
little

For Sethroite, Mr. Bryant redds (hi Apnd. Syncell. p. (51. Sethite, the province of Sell), or Sait. Ci) See the foreiioim; dynasties, No. 15, 16, 17, of AfriIn the latter dynasty, it will be seen that there were canus.

amount of
than
:JA

their reigns, 1-51 years, allows

more

years apiece, which is incredible. of Eusebius, in the (j) .See the 1-jtli and 10th dynasties
(k)

preceding catalogue.

43 kings of each

race,

Shepherds and Thebans, and that the

Manetho, apud Joseph, contra Apion,

lib.

i.

p. 460.

480
in

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS,

;

[CHAP. vi.

number, very well with the Shepherd-Kings but as to the years assigned them, no dependence can be placed in them. It is, however, worthy of observation, that the number of years assigned to the 12th dynasty of Diospolitfs, added to those of the princes of the 18th, from Chebros, the 2d, to Misphragmuthosis, the 6th in the list, amount to 255, wanting only loinyears of the time ascribed to the Shepherd Dynasty ; which four years may be considered as synchronical with as many of Tuthmosis, before he succeeded in bringing the Hyc-sos This remarkable coincidence to capitulate. excites a suspicion, that the 12th dynasty has been disjointed from the 18th; though the names of the former are evidently fictitious, The llth dynasty, being found elsewhere. same with the 18th, each also, seems to be the containing the same number of princes, and ending with names of so near affinity, as to leave no doubt of their both designating the same person. As to the period of the eleventh
prince, on the average

two years for each but of the 43 given as the sum total, 16 are assigned to Ammenemes alone; consequently, the average left for the other 15 sovereigns, amounts to no more than a term too con1 year and 9 months each tracted to be received as genuine. The 13th
dynasty,
it

scarcely exceeds
;

is of the same character, as it allows 3 years apiece to a succession of no less only than 60 princes. Our conclusion is, that the llth, 12th, and 13th dynasties, being the only dynasties of Diospolites, or Thebans, before the irruption of the Shepherds, are all connected with the 18th; though the years assigned to them are erroneous, and the names of the princes generally fictitious. In these observations, the first prince of the 18th dynasty is not included, because he is supposed to be Ham, (Am-os, or Arn-osis) whose government had closed with

dynasty

life some time previous to the invasion of the Cuthites. Having thus endeavoured to trace the princes under whom two of the most remarkable occurrences in the early Egyptian history took place, viz. the expulsion of the Hyc-sos, and the arrival of the Israelites ; our next concern is to fix upon the reign in which the latter were emancipated from their thraldom. Theophilus, speaking of Amosis, to whom he ascribes the expulsion of the Shepherds, under which title he includes the Israelites, says he reigned '1-t years after he had expelled the people spoken ot':(m) but this can never be applied to the Israelites; for though the Egyptians, amid the terrors of that horrible night, when the first-born of every family died under the " were judgment of God, urgent upon the peothem out of the ple, that they might send could not with any propriety land,"(n) they be said to expel them. The Hebrews were detained against their wills ; and when Pharaoh pursued them, it was not to chase them from his borders, but to bring them back, or to The history rather relates to destroy them. the Hyc-sos, who stood their ground, till they were driven away. For though they at first and then evacuated the country, capitulated, they afterwards returned, and were forcibly exThe Israelites indeed left the country pelled. in the days of a prince named Amasis, but he

his

is

more properly, as Mr. Bryant observes, called Ramasis, or Rameses-Sethon, or Sethos and such a prince we find in the 19th dynasty ;
:

though he is generally mistaken for Amos, or Amosis, the first of the 18th dynasty ;(o) he seems to have reigned conjointly with his
father

Amenophis, who was drowned

as

in the

Red

Sea.(p)

Manetho,
" after

the

quoted by Josephus, says. Shepherds had departed from

(m) Theoph. ad Autolyc.

(n)
(o)
".

lib.

iii.

p. 392.

Exod. xii. 33. Mr. Bryant attributes these mistakes to an ill-grounded

verted, to prevent so alarming a conclusion, as if truth depended solely on priority. As the matter now stands,

we

must be

of the Fathers, who laid too much stress upon the antiquity of Moses, and laboured to make him prior to every It. had been unluckily said by thing pertaining to Greece.* Apion, that the person
with Inachus.
Inaclius
If,

cases, with roHJrrturrs : as antiquity holds out few lights by which we can discover, willi anytolerable correctness, any certain part of the way in which we should travel, to find out the origin of nations, the forms
satisfied, in

many

must

who ruined Avaris, was contemporary therefore, this person were before Moses, have been so too; but this was not to be
history per-

allowed.

Hence names have been changed, and

of their government, the variety and issues of their different revolutions, and their descendants, if any there be, in these modern times. The books of Moses contain the only true
history of those ancient times.
(p) See

* Sea Clemens, Tatinu, Theopliilus, Tatiauos, Justin Martyr, &c.

Strom,

lib.

i.

p. 378,

SECT.

V.]

FROM VARIOUS
who drove

WRITERS'.

481

Egypt, to Jerusalem, Tethmosis,

them away, lived 25 years and 4 months."(q) This circumstance about Jerusalem, lias contributed to confirm the Fathers
in their errors;

\\here some of the Misra'i'm had established themselves on the first invasion of their enemies.

they even seem to have forgot, or not duly to have considered, that the Israelites were not driven out; that they did not go to Jerusalem and that the king, in whose reign they departed, did not survive the event; for he
;

Besides, the perished, as already observed. same writer plainly shews that the Israelites did not arrive in Egypt till the reign of

many years later. (r) who was them the district which the former gave shepherds had deserted and they afterwards

He

Amenophis,

left

the country in the reign of a prince of the same name, Amenophis, or, as he is by some writers erroneously called, Amenephthes. This last was not the same prince who had given them a settlement, but one long after, the father of Sethon, called also Rameses-Sethon,

This Theban prince and his valiant subjects, after a war of some continuance, reduced the Shepherds to a single district, called Avaris, where they fortified themselves, arid were besieged. Misphragmuthosis did not live to what he had so successfully begun ; complete but his son Amosis, or Tethmosis, pressed them so closely, that they were glad to propose terms of composition. These were agreed to, and Amosis suffered them to depart unmolested, on condition of their abandoning all claim The whole body of the upon the country. Hyc-sos accordingly retired, after having been in possession of Egypt upwards of 250
years.

his predecessors Sethos and Rhapsacus, or Rhampses, (the same as Ramases,) the father and grandfather of Amenophis III. Upon a review of the principal facts, thus collected from Manetho, Apion, and other writers, relative to the ancient history of Egypt, we shall find them falling out in the

from

Ham, better known under following order. the name of Am-os, or Am-osis, settled in the country soon after the malediction of Canaan, and his posterity, the Mizra'im, lived in the patriarchal state till invaded by the Cuthites, or Shepherds, from Babylonia, whence they had been driven on the confusion of languages. These having subjugated the Mizraim, and held them in a state of bondage for many
years,

or Tethmosis, succeeded Amenoor Memnon, who gave the deserted disphis, trict of Avaris to the Israelitish Shepherds, who came into the country from Canaan between 30 and 40 years after the exit of the former. They resided in Egypt 215 years, and then retired in the reign of another kingnamed Amenophis, (s) the son of Rhani] and father of Rameses-Sethon. In the ancient histories, there is a marked distinction between the Mizraim and the Egyptians; the former were considered as having the precedence in point of time. Thus, in the Old Chronicle, the dynasties are divided into three classes: 1. Auritae; 2. Mizraim; 3. Egyptians but it is not very easy to discover the difference between the two latter. Those
:

To Amosis,

were

at length

muthosis, king of
(q)

opposed by MisphragUpper Egypt, or Theba'is,

peculiarly styled Egyptians were probably of of a more mixed race than the Mizraim, who were of the upper region, called Salt. Of the latter consisted the ( 'unie, or Royal Cycle, and the supremacy was in

Lower Egypt, and

is

Contra Apion, lib. i. p. 446. Contra Apion, lib. i. p. 460, the arrival of the Israelites described under the return of the first shepherds.
(r) (s)

he began a new dynasty, and gave a new name to we may conclude to be the new king, who knew not Joseph, and who first began to oppress the Israelites.
latter, as

his subjects,

who succeeded Amenoph, is the first prince of a dynasty, he was consequently of another family, and not his son: new dynasties always beginning with new families. We have therefore preferred Mr. Bryant's scheme of placin the Exodus under Amenophis, the father of Rameses-Sethon, and the third in succession from Sethos-yEgyptus ; which
Sethon,

the 10th prince of the former dynasty but Manetho styles the king, in whose reign the shepherds were led off under the conduct of Moses, Amenophis, the father of Sethon. But as
:

names between the last two princes of the 18th dynasty, and those of the 19th, have occasioned some writers to place the Exodus in the last year of Amcnoph,

The

similarity of

There are, however, strong reasons for suspecting the three last names in the 18th dynasty to be interpellations from the 19th for if jEgyptus and Danaiis were heads of a new
:

dynasty, why should they also be found in the catalogue of princes of the Misraim race? There can be little doubt that

new

VOL.

Rameses-.iEgyptus, Sethos-./Egyptus, and Harmesses-Mianmn, all one and the same individual. As to Amies, Armeses, Armais, Armaeus, or Oanaiis, found in the 18th dvnasty, as well as in the lists of Josephus and Syncellus, he reigned conjointly with his brother Agyptus, by whom he was shortly expelled ; and therefore his name was not inserted in the 10th dynasty, which ought to follow close after Acherres II. of the 18th dynasty,

were

I.

3 Q

482
their

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS,

to Greece,

[CHAP.

But a family for some generations. change of government ensued, and the chief rule passed into the hands of the Egyptians, of whom Sethos-vEgyptus was the first monarch.
This Egyptian dynasty, though named
after

./Egyptus,

who

is

also

called

Sethos

and

Ammesis, and was probably the same with

from one Belus, brother of Agenor, king who is reckoned as the of Tyre, the father of Europa, Cadmus, &c. Apollodorus(t) calls him the son of Neptune
Sesostris, derived its origin

and Libya, which perhaps means no more than that he came by sea into the country of Libya, and thence made an incursion upon the land of Egypt. Whoever this personage was, the appellation by which he is designated is not a proper name, but a title of honour, common among the Cutheans, as Pharaoh was His a?ra agrees with among the Egyptians. the time in which chronologers, Jul. Per. 3099. ) A.M. 2389. / following Eusebius, place amigraPost Oil. 732. f tion of the Ethiopians from the
B.C.
ioi5.)

and built many cities, besides erecting monuments of his power, among which the pyramids may probably be reckoned. In these works he employed the Israelites, whom he reduced to a dreadful state of slavery, and named one of the cities which they built, Rainesses, or Rhampses, after his eldest son, whom he also assumed into the empire, in order to secure
the succession.
^Eigyptus and

where he some time afterwards obtained the kingdom of Argos. Having thus got rid of his colleague, ^Egyptus turned his attention to the improvement of his kingdom,

the Hebrews was issued, and two years afterwards, Moses was r j u p en 3141. born. Amenophis III. the son jA.M. 2431. and successor of Rhampses, was 1 Post Dil ~1 4 ' B c ir>73 the Pharaoh who contended with Moses against letting the Israelites depart, till the dispute was V^A\^V-\t by U1O \J J ended bXCJ \J 111 t>UCi J his overthrow in the
i.
-

sanguinary children of

During the joint reign of son Rhampses, the celebrated decree for drowning the male
his

ILJ

V--J.

banks of the Indus,

is,

to the neigh-

Red
little

Sea.
is

bourhood of Egypt, that

after the

about 20 years

death of Joseph, while the Israelites remained in Egypt; though some bring that revolution so low down as the days of the Following the former of these comJudges. putations, it may be assumed that Belus and Agenor were chiefs of clans among the Cutheans, who wandering from their habitation in the east,

but it may be J A. M. 2513. remarked that his son Rameses- 1 Post Dil. 856. 1491. nientlv- iiiiut-'iLi.n Sethon is frequently mistaken V.B. C.
;
-

f Of known

his

successors

/-j u l. Per. 3223.

made good

their settlement,

the one on the coasts of Egypt, the other on the Phoenician shores, whence, as their followers increased in numbers, they sent out colonies in various directions ; particularly
to Greece, as Cecrops to Attica, from Sa'is Cadmus, to Bceotia, from Tyre; Cilix toCilicia, &c. Belus, having fixed himself in Lower
;

\\ ith for his grandfather Sethos-^Egyptus. Thuoris, the third in descent from Amenophis III. the 19th dynasty ended ; and after him there appears to have been considerable confusion in the succession for 173 years,(w) when the 20th dynasty of anonymous DiospoThebans, began, according to the lites, or In this interval, computation of Eusebius. perhaps, may be placed the reigns of queen Daluka, and her successors Darkun, Judis, Lakos, Marnia, and Estmarres, spoken of by the Arabians, as the immediate successors of The reign of Osythe impious Pharaoh.

Egypt, married Anchinoe, the daughter of be the same with Nilus,(u) supposed to Acherres II. an union which produced a change of dynasty in the person of ^Egyptus, the son of Belus and Anchinoe. This was
Jul. Per. *3i2i.~i "3121.-)

mandyas,

at

Thebes,

is

also placed

by some

A general view of what has been here advanced upon the early chronology of Egypt, will be found in the annexed Table which,
;

writers in this period.

the new king, or rather dynasty, hat arose in Egypt, which knew A.M. *2411.( th Post Oil. "754. not Joseph, and began to perse( n( B.C. *1693j cute the Israelites. r (v) TEgyptus ascended the throne in conjunction with his brother rma'i's, or Danaiis; but this last, after a reign of five years, was expelled, and retired
til
,

from the reader's preconceived ideas, will be found to agree in its several parts with some one or other of the authorities already cited and a slight attention to them will easily discover the motives that have led to the arrangement, without the

though

it

may

differ

necessity of farther explanation.

(n) Or, according to Eusebius, 177 years.

(I)

Lib.

ii.

cap.

i,

(u) Ibid.

(v)

Eyod.

i.

8, et teq.

SKCT. V.]

FROM VARIOUS WRITERS.

either by the eloquence of his persuasion, or the allurements of music and poetry. In this celebrated expedition, he was attended by a vast number of followers; among whom was his brother Arueris, Orus, or Apollo, who claimed the laurel as sacred to him, as the ivy was to Osiris. Anubis(y) and Macedo, the two sons of Osiris, who were also of the party, clad themselves in coats of mail, over which they wore the skin of some beast, Anubis choosing that of the dog, and Macedo that of the wolf ; whence these two animals were afterwards held sacred to them. Pan was likewise of the company, and was afterwards highly revered all over the country to these must be added Maro, an adept at planting and dressing of vines; and Triptolemus, skilful in the culture of com and the mode of getting in the harvest. Besides these, Osiris also took with
:

We now turn to such fragments of the- history of the country as have been preserved by Manetho, Herodotus, and Diodorus where \ve shall be surprised at finding almost all the princes different from those of the dynasties, while those whose names have been there preserved are scarcely noticed. In the very commencement of the Egyptian fables, (for they deserve not the name of history,
;

though founded upon distorted facts,) we meet with Osiris and Isis, variously called the son and daughter of Saturn and llhea, of Jupiter and Juno, of Jupiter and Niobe, or Osiris the son of Sol and Rhea, and Isis, the daughter Osiris marof Mercury by the same mother. ried Isis, and their brethren were Arneris, or
Orus, Typhon, and a sister named Nephthe, When Osiris who was the wife of Typhon. had obtained the kingdom of Egypt, he immediately set about reclaiming the inhabitants from their ferocious mode of life, shewed them the use of the fruits of the earth, instituted divine worship, and erected several temples
;

among

others, one another to Jupiter

to

Jupiter

Uranus, and

Ammon,

reigned before him.

He

Hecatompylos, which he

his father, who also built the city of called Thebes, after

the name of his mother.(x) But that his beneficence might not be confined to his own
nation,

On leaving Egypt, Osiris invested Isis with the regency, and appointed his trusty friend

him nine virgins, proficients in music, who being committed to the care of Apollo, obtained for that prince the title of master of the nine sisters, or muses. And, to complete his retinue, Osiris, as he advanced towards Ethiopia, engaged some satyrs, who had made themselves acceptable by their antic behaviour, their skipping and dancing, added to a jocund disposition.

he determined upon visiting every country of the earth, all which he civilized,

Hermes,(z) (called also Mercury, Thoth.Thoyth, Tauautes, and Trismegistus) to be her assistant
king's life ; 3. The places of the fixed stars ; 4, 5, 6. Of the sun and moon, their eclipses, rising, &c. ; 7. Hieroglyphics; 8. Cosmography; 9. Geography; 10. The order of the sun

(x) Theba (Heb. rcn [THeuaTH] used Gen. vi. 15) was an ancient name for the ark as were also Bans, Argus, Arjus, Aren, Arene, Arne, Laris, Boutus, Boeotus, Cibotns; out of which various personages have been fabricated by
;

mythologists and poets. (y) Anubis was the son of Osiris by Nephthe, embraced in mistake for Isis. (z) Tliis celebrated personage is said to have

whom

he

and moon; 11. Of the five planets; 12. The Chorography of Egypt; 13. A description of the Nile; 14. Of the sacred 15. Measures utensils, and places consecrated to them
; ;

invented

articulate sounds, appellations, letters, religion, astronomy, nuibic, wrestling, arithmetic, statuary, the three-stringed lyre, and the use of the olive ; which last the Greeks have mis-

17. Sacrifices 18. First-fruits ; worship 19. Hymns; 20. Prayers; 21. Processions; 22. Festivals ; 27 to '23, 24, 2">, 20. Matters connected with the foregoing
1C.
; ; ;

Rites

of

He was styled the father of takenly attributed to Minerva. eloquence, whence his name of Hermes, the interpreter, or speaker; an appellation that seems peculiarly to point him out as the same with Joseph. (See Gen. xli. 39.) Seleucus* reckons the number of books written by him at no less than 20,000; but Manethot exceeds even this incredible number, and computes them at 3ti,525. Clement of Alexandria,; however, in describing an ancient Egyptian procession, in which the books of Hermes were exhibited with great solemnity, states them at only 36; to which he adds six others, not used on that occasion so that it appears 42 volumes were the total ot his writings. They were, on the following subjects:
:

sacerdotal subjects, and what relates to the laws, the gods, and the discipline of the priesthood ; 37 to 42. On anatomy, diseases, and medicine. It is generally agreed, that but there were two Hermes, of whom one was Joseph whether the other were Moses, or a person anterior to Joseph,
3(5.
;

On

is

much

disputed.
is

The

Hermes Trismegistus, abridged from

and Cedrenus,
outlines are plain,

following remarkable account of the Ckronicon Paschale

1.

Music, containing hymns to the gods;

*

2.

Rules for the

worthy of notice, for though obscure, its and can belong to no other than the patri" He was envied arch Joseph. by his brethren, seventy in number, and finding they were continually laying snares for him, and consulting how they might destroy him, he went into Eyypt, to the sons of Ham, who received him with great honour. Here he resided in much state, being superior to body, and as clothed with a particular robe of gold. every
t

Apud

liimblich. i>e Myst. JEgypt. sect.

viii.

cap. 1.

Apud

eund. ibid.

Strom,

lib. vi. p.

633.

Q2

484

FABULOUS HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS.

or, in

[CHAP, vi.

and counsellor;

modern language, her

He likewise placed Herculee prime-minister. over the forces left behind; and constituted Antaeus, Busiris, and Prometheus, governors over several provinces.
Having thus settled affairs at home, Osiris began his progress in the direction of Ethiopia, in which country he raised the banks of the Nile, and dug several canals, to prevent the

more equally the waters of

cerns,

too frequent inundations, as well as to distribute He the Nile.(a) then instructed the Ethiopians in rural con-

them several cities, he some of his companions departed, leaving behind as his lieutenants, and collectors of He next went into Arabia, and thence tribute. to India, in which latter country he left so many monuments, that in after-ages it became
and having
built

a question whether he were not originally of

that part of the world. Having surveyed all he crossed the Hellespont, and landed Asia,

where being opposed by Lycurgus, a battle ensued, and was slain. Here Osiris left Maro to Lycurgus
in

Thrace

productions of the earth, and attended with tin- busings of all the human race, who consented to his deification. During the absence of Osiris, his brother Typhon had been secretly plotting to wrest the government from the hands of lsin, and had engaged many persons of high distinction in his favour, 73 in number, among whom was Aso, queen of Ethiopia. His plans, however, were not sufficiently matured, when the return of the king obliged him for a moment to suspend them. He, however, quickly recovered his resolution, and the death of his brother was determined upon. With this view, he invited Osiris to a splendid banquet, where were present most or all of those who had entered into his conspiracy. Prior to this, he had contrived to obtain the measure of his brother's stature, and had got an elegant coffin In the midst prepared, exactly to his size. of the festivity, this coffin was brought in,(b) and the company, as had already been agreed
the choicest

king of

the country,

cultivate the land, with an injunction, also, to build a city, and to call it after his own name, Maronea. On his own son, Macedo, he bestowed the country, from him called Macedon ; and to Triptolemus he gave the charge of Attica. Having thus overrun all the known world, Osiris at last returned to Egypt, laden with
proved himself, in many instances, to be both a philosopher and a prophet; and Yoretold many things, being by nature nobly endowed. They therefore reverenced him as a name of Hermes^ on deity, and conferred upon him the account of his prophecies, and for having interpreted to them And as those oraclfi which they had received from heaven. he had been the cause of great riches to their nation, they him as the styled him the dispenser of wealth, and esteemed god of gain. When he came into Egypt, Mizraim, the son of Ham, reigned there and when that prince died, Hermes was Other histories of this Hermes Triselected in his room."|| he is mcgistus accord very much with the foregoing thus, said to have been an adept in mysterious knowledge, au interthe gods and to have deciphered all preter of the will of that was written iu the sacred language on the obelisks in TerrA SeriadicA, besides instructing the Egyptians in many He was a great prophet, and therefore conuseful arts.lT sidered as a divinity.** To him was ascribed the reformation of the Egyptian year ;tt and there were many books, written were preserved by the Egypby, or concerning him, which And, tians, in the most sacred recesses of their temples. Jt that the original name of lastly, we are told by Eratosthenes,

began to admire its magnificence " upon whowhich, Typhon jestingly declared, that ever it would fit should have it." Several of the company tried it, but to no purpose; at
on,
;

length Osiris, excited by the example of others, or the hilarity of the moment, got into it; but he had no sooner done so, than the conspirators threw down the lid, and having fastened it, poured melted lead over the coffin, to render
this

He

Hermes, was Siphoas,^ which

is

nothing more than a

transposition of Aosiph, the Egyptian mode of pronouncing the Hebrew name rpy (YUSCPH) more harshly rendered in

Europe by the term Joseph. (a) Whilst Osiris was thus employed in Ethiopia, the Nile broke down its banks in Egypt and overflowing great part of the low country, drowned multitudes of people, and parof Prometicularly destroyed what was under the jurisdiction theus, whose grief for the calamity drove him to the very
;

brink of desperation. Hercules, however, contrived to drain off the waters whence he was said to have shot the eagle which preyed on the heart of Prometheus : the suddenness of tile flood, and the rapidity of the destruction attendant upon it, being compared to the flight of an eagle the river
; ;

was, therefore, sometimes called after that bird. Mr. Bryant, endeavours to prove, that this inundation of the Nile was no other than the universal deluge, and that Prometheus, as well
as Osiris,
(b)

was Noah.*

festivities,

on the table, at their practice of having a coffin has been already noticed among the Egyptian customs, p. 426.

The

" And Pharaoh called xlil. 46. Joseph's name, Zaphnath-paaneah ;" in the marginal reading, translated from the Coptic, is a rcvcaler of urreli, 01 the man la whom iecrcls are revealed. Uirtmtrm. Patch, p. 44, 45. Cedrcnus, p. 18, 20. ||
$

Gn.

Clemens Alcxand. Strom,

Clemens, supra.

lib.

i.

p. 399.
is

mWch,

tt Consorinus, cap. xix. p. 103, }}

((<

where Hermes
viii.

called

Arminm.

MwicUio, apud Sjnccil.

p. 40.

jttitui, Var.

Hat,

lib. liv. p,

399.

lamblicua, sect. Apud Syncell. p, 124. vol. iii. p. 102. Mytkol,

cnp. 1.

SECT. V.]

OSIRIS.

ISIS.

TYPHON.
body of

465

it more secure. Osiris, thus buried alive, was then conveyed to the Tanitic mouth of the Nile, where he was cast into the sea: and on this account the Tanitic entrance was ever after abhorred by the Egyptians, (c) Osiris was in the 28th year of his reign, or, as some say, of his life, when he thus fell a sacrifice to the perfidy of his brother. When news of this

transaction were told by the Paus arid Satyrs to the people, they were struck with dismay, and seized with those sudden consternations ever since called panic fears. Isis was at this time at Coene, on the river Coptos, where she received the doleful news, and whence, after

lock of her hair, in token of she set off', in deep mourning, in grief, quest of the body of her beloved husband. After many fruitless inquiries, she at length learned of some children, who had seen the conspirators carrying the coffin, which way it went and hence the Egyptians held children to be endued with a predictive faculty. The tyranny of Typhon was so much dreaded by the adherents of Osiris, that no one was bold enough to join the disconsolate Isis in her search ; till hearing that her half-sister Nephthe, wife of Typhon, had concealed the son, Anubis, whom she had born to Osiris, to prevent his falling into the hands of her fratricide husband, Isis resolved to discover him, before she pursued her inquiries farther, trusting that in him she should find a friend. This new search was tedious and fatiguing ; but at last she was guided to him by some dogs, and he became her guard and companion. In the mean time, the coffin, containing the
cutting off a

her

O.siris, was wafted by the sea to the Phoenician coast, where it was left by thfe reflux of the tide, near Byblos, on a tuft of broom, or heath, which suddenly sprouting tip, concealed it from sight: and the king of Byblos, in admiration of the prodigy, raised a building over it. It was long before Isi* learnt this, but when she knew it, she immediately repaired thither, and baling insinuated herself into the king's family, found means to obtain what she wanted. But no sooner did she cast her eyes upon the coffin, than sh6 uttered a shriek so piercing that it struck the She immdiatery king's youngest son dead. embarked with the coffin, accompanied by Anubis and Maneros, the eldes* son of the king of Byblos ; and, in her passage, dried ttp the Phaedrus, because an adverse blast proceeded from the mouth of that river, as she sailed by, about break of day. During the

voyage, supposing herself to be in private, she opened the coffin, and was giving vent to her grief; when prince Maneros, the king of Byblos's son, whom she had brought with her, came behind and observed her; but she turned upon him in a rage, with so dreadful a countenance, that he either died of the fright, or jumped into the sea and was drowned. At length she arrived at Butus, where she hid the body, but Typhon discovered it, and tearing it into 14 pieces, scattered them abroad in all directions. Isis then traversed the lakes and marshes in a boat made of papyrus, to collect the scattered limbs, and wherever she found one she buried it whence many tombs have been ascribed to Osiris.(d)
;

Mr. Bryant* refers the whole of this transaction to the The day on which Osiris was shut history of Noah's flood. up in the coffin, was the 17th of the month Athyr, when the
(c)

third part of the land of Egypt, which she gave them, and The true place of his sepulture they buried him at Memphis.

_
i,

sun passes through the sign of the Scorpion.t i. e. of the second month after the autumnal equinox, which remarkably coincides with the \1th day of the, second month, described

was, however, always a subject of dispute; though som produced, from a pillar in Arabia, an inscription in sacred characters, to the purport following:
it

by Moses us the nibS relates, that

pieces,

day when Noah entered the ark.J DiodoTyphon cut the body of Osiris into 26

cri (xoi Kgoro;

and gave a piece to each of his accomplices, but says nothing of toe coffin. Other accounts say, that Isis, in order to evade the (d) cruelty of Typhon, made several figures of his body, and presented them to as many cities, assuring each that it had the original; whereby she made it difficult for Typhon to discover the real monument. Diodorus gives a third account he says, that when Isis had got together the 20 picces|| of the mangled body, she joined them together, and embalmed them after which she prevailed on the Egyptian priests to consent to, and promote his apotheosis, in consideration of a
; ;

O
Ems

ei;

STfaTEtovx; eTtt irao-at TOUJ aoixorou? Twrovf

Toi/{ ir^o?

Kai

a^xrox xExXi/x
Irpoti sroraftou

Mfpi?

rut rtv
siri

Kai waXiK
Eifii Ss

TaXAa

Slx fts{) lai;

Ki

MO; K^onou irgeyG t'Taro?. '* xaAou TS xai tvyitovs f?Aas-

Zn-ej/xa a-uyyentf tywribnt i/xtja; Kai ofx eri TOTTOJ T>1? cixou/i!{

EK

5" tya ovx. tcayu ui iy ivitytrrif

vyunjt.ru.
Ditxl. Sicul. lib.
s.

181. See also before, note (n) 274, andnote(w)p. t Plutarch Delude et Osiride, p. 366.
Mythol.
vol.
iii.

p.

76,

Gen.

vii.

11.

Lib.

i.

p. 15, el scq.

Diudorus reckons 26 pieces, Plutarch speaks of only 14.

486

FABULOUS HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS.

Isis

[CHAP. vr.

While

was thus occupied

in finding the

body of

Osiris,

Orus, had of the people, and had collected an army, with which he made war upon Typhon, and, after a battle of several days' continuance, The fallen tyrant then took him prisoner. made his submission to Isis, and feigned so well a sincere contrition for his misdeeds, that she was induced to set him at liberty. This so enraged Arueris, that he tore the royal attire from her head but Hermes, being present, immediately replaced it with an helmet made After this, Typhon twice of an ox's head. renewed the war, but was both times defeated; and being unable to withstand his enemies, he finally threw himself into the lake Sirbonis.(e) Osiris had in the mean time visited Arueris
;

his next brother Arueris, or succeeded in dissipating the terrors

and Isis, from the grave; the former he instructed in the art of war, and by the latter he had a son, called Harpocrates, who was
lame
in his feet,

and otherwise

infirm.(f )

Isis,

having overcome her enemies, reigned

with great justice and beneficence, demonstrating her constancy towards her deceased husband by a vow of perpetual widowhood. (g) After her death, she was buried, according to the common opinion, at Memphis ;(h) and a most stately temple was erected to her at
the Delta. As to Arueris, nothing related of him, than that he was the last of the gods and demigods. In passing to the mortal kings of Egypt, the first name we find in all the catalogues, is Menes,(i) Mines, Menas, Mneves, or Mestrairn ; in whose time the whole country,
Busiris, in
is

more

CHRONOS,

the youngest of
I

all

am OSIRIS,

the gods, the King;

was

my

father.

*H B
-

through every Country, As far as the uninhabited deserts of India, And from thence northward, As far as the springs of the river Ister, And thence to other parts, quite to the Ocean. I am the eldest son of Chronos, Sprung from the genuine and respectable race of the Egg, And am a seed related to the Day. There is no place upon earth where I have not been, Nor a nation to whose good I have not contributed."*

He who led an army

H
i

inro

oi7a
'11

tyu

Ef^ou, ouhtf Jt/nxrai

6tt>v

Tof ttV

(tvy&Tr,p

lfOf

TOV

Eyw nui
E/AOt

y i> tin

arf" T
*J

xvm
U
ri

BoywarOS

TTO^l?

AtyvTfTS

Diod. Sicul.

lib.

i.

s.

27.

Mr. Bryant conceives, relates not to an whole family, or race, viz. the Cuthites, whose numerous expeditions and exploits are concentrated, and attributed to a fictitious character.t Chronos is supposed and Osiris, Cush though both these titles, or to be Ham names, are likewise attributed to Noah, and Ham is someThis inscription, individual, but to a
; :

times Osiris; the history of these patriarchs being so blended, that it is impossible todevelope it in any tolerable order. says, that Arueris (e) Thus Herodotus :| but Diodoru"s and Isis overcame him in battle, and slew him while Apollonius Rhodius|| relates, that lie was thunderstruck by Jupiter,
;

ISIS, of all this Country. tutored by Mercury, And what I have ordained no one can make void. am the eldest daughter of CHRONOS, (youngest of the gods.) I am the wife and sister of King OSIRIS. I am she who first found corn for the use of man. I am the mother of King ORUS. And arn she who arises in the. dog-star. The city of Bubastus was built in honour of me. hast nursed me!"** Rejoice, Rejoice, O Egypt, who

"I The Queen She who was

AM

and plunged under the lake above-mentioned. far the account is from Plutarch ;fl who here (f) Thus breaks ort' the thread of his story, which he affirms to be and proceeds to explain away the whole as an
genuine,

*****

The inscription originally consisted of these were all that could be distinguished.
(i)

more

lines,

but

from Diodorus. which permitted brothers and sisters (g) The Egyptian law, to intermarry, is said to have been enacted in honour of the mutual attachment of Osiris and Isis; as did likewise the custom of preferring the queen before the king, and the wife before the husband. The place of her burial was no less disputed than that
allegory.

What

follows

is

Sir John Marsham the notions of the most reputed writers. he was the same with Ham, the Jupiter-Amnion of thinks the Thanius, or Adonis, of the Phoenicians, the

has before been observed, that a great diversity of as to this personage; but as the arguments opinion prevails on all sides are very long, we can only give an outline of
It

of Osiris; those who placed so much confidence in the another inscription above spoken of, affirmed, that, upon at no great distance from the former, were the following pillar,

(h)

and the Clirouos of Sanchoniatho; also, that lie was king of or the first Mercury.lt all Kiiypt, and father to Athothes, that the Mestrai, or demigods, 1'eri/oin'us, who maintains
first

Egyptians,

reigned

in Eirvpt,

will
;

words,

iu

sacred characters
.

either
TO],
ii.

Ham,
hid.

or Mis'raim

not allow Menes to ha\<- been observing, thatif Menes taught the

Diod. Sicnl
} Lib.
iii.

lib.

i.

p. 24.

t
i.

Mythology,
||

cap

5.

$ Lib.

p. 79.

Ars o.

p.

lib.

327. 11

t De

et Osirul. p. So.S, ct seq.

i.

Diod.

Sicul. lib.

p.

79, et scq.

tt

Canon. Chron.

SECT. V.]

MANETHO'S ACCOUNT OF THE HYC-SOS.

The
first

4K7

except Thebes, was a morass, so that no land appeared between the lake Mreris and the but he drained the country, by jf reat sea the course of the Nile, which before diverting had washed the foot of a sandy mountain towards Libya and he built the city of MemOn phis within the ancient bed of the river. the north and west sides, without the walls, he made two lakes, both fed by the Nile, which flowed by the east side of the town, and in the city itself he erected the celebrated He instructed the Egyptemple of Vulcan. tians in religious matters, and was the lirst \vlio sacrificed to the gods; he introduced domestic luxury, and instituted the pomp of feasts. At last he was devoured by an hippopotamus, or by a crocodile. From the time of Menes to that of Mceris, the Egyptian chronology is filled with a list of 3.30 kings, (j) including those two who during the long period of 1400 years(k) did nothing worthy of recording.(l)
;
;

distinct piece of history relative to that of the irruption of the KingEgypt Shepherds, by whom the country was subjugated for the space of 259 years. The epocha
is

king Tinuuis, it pleased God to visit us with a blast of his dis-

of this revolution, we have already endeavoured to settle ;(m) the account of it, as given by " In the reign of Manetho,(n) is as follows
:

rj n p cr
\.

NA.M.

2712. 2002.
45.

pleasure, when on a sudden a ) 2002* B- c< large body of obscure(o) people from the East, fell upon this country, invaded
Post. Dil.

the land with unprecedented boldness, and enslaved the inhabitants, who submitted to them without even trying the event of a single The chiefs of our people they reduced battle. in the most cruel to obedience, and then, set fire to the towns, and overmanner, they threw the temples. (p) Their behaviour to the inhabitants was barbarous, for they slaughtered the men, and made slaves of the women and children. They made one of their body, f This animal, among other names, had that of campsa, which, says Hesycbius, signifies a coffer, or an ark.** Hence, from an erroneous application of the name, the crocoThe institution of sacrificial dile became a sacred emblem. rites, attributed to Menes, is obviously taken from Noah's As to his name Aleen, sacrifice, when he left the ark. as he is called by Herodotus, it signifies both the ark and the new moon ; the shape of the former being supposed to have been similar to the latter, i. e. a boat raised at each end like a crescent; he is therefore called the lunar deity. (k) Diod. Sicul. lib. i. p. 42. (j) Herodot. lib. i. cap. 100. were mostly, if not altogether, itleal (1) The fact is, they
crocodile,

Egyptians to fare sumptuously, the country must have been previously occupied by a people accustomed to coarser food. Neither can he admit him to have been Jupiter-Ammon, the father of the Egyptian Mercury. He thinks him to have Father Pezron, \\lio been contemporary with Abraham.* wrote before Perizonius, brings the reign of Menes much lower down than the days of Ham or Misraim ; and, according to his hypothesis, founded upon the Septuagint mode of computation, he fixes its beginning in the year of the creation,
2004, and <M8 after the flood. t Sir Isaac Newton, who thinks Osiris and Sesostris to be the same person, places Menes after him, and transposes the series of kings, as given by Herodotus, thus Sesostris, Pheron, Proteus, Menes, Rhampsinatus, Mceris, Cheops, Cephren, Mycerinus, Nitocris; those that follow, he suffers to remain in the same order as they stand in Herodotus. He supposes Menes to be the same with Amenophis and Meinnon,} and that he reigned about :!00 years before Psammetichus. Contrary to the opinion of these writers, Mr. Bryant carries the antiquity of Menes as high as the flood itself, but denies that he ever reigned in Egypt: he being no other than Noah. The deluged state iu which he found the country, with the exception of Tlieba, (the ark) he conceives to be strongly significative of the deluge; his having introduced luxury, points to his culture of the vine, and his discovery of the art of making fermented liquors; and his adventure with the amphibious animal, the crocodile, or hippopotamus, (by which, however, his life was pre&ercrd, not destroyed,) is a symbolical representation of the patriarch's safety, while floating upon the waters in the body of the ark, by which he may be said to have been swallowed up. The account of Meues being devoured by an hippopotamus, as given above, is from Syncellus,|| who seems to have borrowed it from Mauetho ; but Diodorus relates, that being in great danger of drowning, he was wafted through the waters by a
:

M,

personages. (m) See before, page 436, et seq. (n) SEgypt. lib. ii. according to Josephus, Contra Apion,
lib.
i.

Manetho describes these people as TO yio ao-ryei, a people of obscure and ignoble race : but as they were descendants of persons well known, who were represented, even by
(o)
; were styled gods, demigods, children of heaven, and royal shepherds ; it is to be suspected that Manetho has rendered that word <n)/?, ignoble, which the Dorians would have expressed by ao-a^*, noble and divine;

their enemies, as superior beings

point of they worshipped the sun, moon, and heavenly bodies; but had no images, nor did they admit of any resemblance by way of adoration. They could not, therefore, bear with the low superstition of the Egyptians, who had degenerated in their religious notions into the most barbarous and ridiculous practices; and they consequently ruined their To the time of the temples, and overthrew their altars. Cutheans, we may refer the building of the pyramids, or to the reigns immediately succeeding their expulsion, when thf
religion;

analogous to the Hebrew pU?n (HaSaMeN)pn'wces. in (p) The Cutheans were originally Zabians,

* Prrizon. JF-tpjpt. Orig. et Temp. Antiq. Invest. t Pezron. Anl'uf. ties Temps Uetab, et Dtfm. t See uote (<!_) page 433.

f Diod.
**

Ibid, note (x) page 483. Sicul. lib. i. p. 80.

||

Syncell. p. 54, 53.

488
Salatis

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS.

latter, in

[CHAP. vi.

by name, to be king, who resided at Memphis, placed garrisons in every city of consequence, and held all the Upper and

They

Lower country

tributary.

He

also

fortified

the eastern parts, because he feared an invasion of I he Assyrians, (q) who were then very Having observed a city, called powerful. Avaris in the ancient theology, peculiarly commodious, in the nome of Sa'is, east of the Bubastic channel, he fortified it in the strongest manner, and placed in it a garrison of 240,000 men. To this city, in the time of harvest, he resorted, to receive his tribute of corn, and to pay his army; at the same time he used to exercise and discipline his troops, in order When to strike terror into other nations.
Jul Per ^731

the common language, a slieplierd.(r) are said to have been Arabians. (s) At length, the inhabitants of Upper Egypt rose in opposition to them, and, under Halisphragmuthosis, (called also Misphragmuthosis) defeated them, and obliged them to take shelter
in their strong hold of Avaris, where they were besieged for a great length of time, by an

army of 480,000 men, without

A. M.

Post. Dil. 304. 1983. B.C.

who reign; Baeon, by f ed 44 years ; then Apachnas, 36 j years and 7 months; then Apo61 years; after him Janias, 51 years and phis, one month; and last of all by Assis, 49 years
2021! (
five others

"j

Salatis died,

he was succeeded

success, on account of the strength of the fortifications. Thummosis, or Amosis, or Tethmosis, son of Halisphragmuthosis, however, reduced them to such extremities, that they were glad to propose terms' of capitulation, which the prince acceded to, and permitted them to depart unmolested, on condition of their never returnThe Shepherds accordingly, ing to Egypt. after possessing Egypt for Jive hundred and eleven years, withdrew, with their families, to

the

number of 240,000, by the rj u

l.

Per. 2971.

and two months.

These six were the first of their kings, who were always in a state of if hostility with the natives, endeavouring, to exterminate the very name of an possible, Egyptian. These people were called Hyc-sos, or King-Shepherds ; for the first syllable, in
the sacred
religion of the

dialect,

signifies

a king, and the

of the desert; but fearing 1A.M. 2-261. the Assyrians, of whom they "l Post. Oil. 604. had all along stood in great awe, v. B -C. and who were then very powerful, they turned aside into the country afterwards called Judea, where they built a city capable of containing so large a multitude, and called it Jerusalem. "(t) After their departure, Amosis destroyed Avaris, and the district obtained

way

two people had become blended, and these stupendous monuments were erected in honour of the sun, worshipped under the emblem of fire.* Whatever evils the irruption of the Cuthites at first brought upon the country, it proved, in the sequel, of essential benefit for to them the Egyptians owed their civilization, and most of their arts. (q) The cause of this fear will be discovered in the history of the Babylonians and Assyrians.
:

The shepherds were

deity,

called Auritce, from Al Orus, their chief which was the sun, or " god of fire." The two principal cities of their native country, were Ur, or Aur, in memory of which they built two others of the same name in Egypt, changed by the Greeks into Avaris and Aouaris.
in the year 1070 (t) Sir Isaac Newton places this expulsion B. C. or 62 years before the first expedition of Sesostris, whom he identifies with Sesac, or Shishak, into Africa. Archbishop Usher places their irruption in the year of the word 1920, or B. C. 2084; and their expulsion in A. M. 2179, or B. C. 1825 ; the reigns of Salatis, and his five successors, as described by Manetho, amounting to 259 years. It is to be remarked, that Manetho speaks of 511 years as the whole term of their residence in Egypt and, after enumerating the names of six sovereigns, whose reigns amount to only 259, declares that these were the FIRST of their kings ; from which it may be inferred, that they had others, whose names he has not recorded, and whose reigns made up the This probably induced Sir John deficiency in the 511 years. Marsham to include the 21st and 23d dynasties of Tanites among the Shepherd Kings their reigns, added to the fore; :

were

labours to prove that these king-shepherds supposes hyc-sos, or huk-sos, to signify a captive, a term which is inapplicable to either body of people, strictly considered. Eusebius calls them huk-oussos, both words of the sacred language, the first signifying a prince, and the latter a shepherd ; which seems more probable than the notion of Manetho, that the term was compounded of both the sacred and common language, because one of the two was not used by the Cuthites. But Mr. Bryant thinks the title to be compounded of Uc, or Ouc, lord, or prince, great or noble in the Babylonish tongue, ami Cush, or Cushan, the progenitor of the Cutheans, q. d. the Great Cush, or Lord Cushean, a title analogous to Uniris, (improperly changed by the Greeks 1o Osiris) Vcttoreus, and
(r)

Josephus,

who

his ancestors the Israelites,

other Egyptian designations of honour. (s) Babylonia, whence these Cuthites came, was due east of Egypt, and the mother<-country of the genuine Arabians as well as the source whence their religion, zabiism, flowed
* See farther on this subject in Bryant'* Ancient
ct

named 259, amount to 478, leaving an interval of 33 years for the time they may be supposed to have possessed the country before they chose Salatis for their king. Manetho
has, however, so blended the histories of the Hyc-sos and the Hebrews, that it is scarcely possible to discriminate what belongs peculiarly to either. The ground of the chronological

uL

Jtt/tlalivy, vol. !T. p.

311

computation here adopted,

is

stated in a former page,

SECT. V.

THE

HYC-SOS.

MENES. NITOCRIS. OSYMANDYAS.

489

from its late occupiers the names of Chusan, Cushan, or Goshen, and the Arabian nome,
or rather the nonie of the Arabians. After some interval, the same Jul. Per. 3008. } writer speaks of another set of 2208. f A.M. Post. DU. 641. f people, who were sojourners in B.C. noe.j Egypt, in the reign of Amenoand of whom an account has already phis, been given. (11) These were no other than the Israelites, who were permitted to settle in the unoccupied district of Chusan, or Goshen, which residence, added to their profession of with shepherds, soon made them be confounded the former race of Cutheans. The Cutheans had not long retired from Egypt, before they began to sigh after the

for her brother's death, she contrived a subterraneous building, whither she invited the chiefs of the conspirators, to partake of a feast but, in the midst of their mirth, the river \\as turned upon them by a secret passage,
:
!

and they were all suffocated. The third was attributed to her. Sir John pyramid Marsh am makes her queen of This, Thebes, and Memphis, and places her reign soon after the arrival of the Israelites in Egypt. She seems to be the same as Amessis, wife, and perhaps also sister, to Amenophis I. or Amephes their adventures appear to be glanced at in the history of Osiris and Isis.
;

The next king is in the named Busiris, remarkable

list

of Diodorus,

for his cruelty in

been expelled of Amenophis II. or Memnon, who had succeeded Amo-sis, they again invaded the country but, after a hard relinstruggle of 13 years, they were obliged to their design, and finally to retreat.(v) quish ^ was during this warfare, that Jul Per 3007 1 A.M. 2297. f Joseph's brethren first came into
country
they
;

whence

had

accordingly, in the reign

sacrificing all strangers to Jupiter, that arrived in his dominions, till he was himself put to death, in like manner, by Hercules. He

was succeeded by eight of his descendants ,tlie of whom was also named Busiris. The history of Busiris is without doubt fictitious, and derived by the Greeks from the practice
last

Egypt, and were by him stigmaThe Egyptians, provoked at this unexpected inroad, resolved
Post. Dil. 640.
f"

B. C.

1707. }

tized as spies.
offensive

to act

upon the

in

their turn

and

of the ancient Egyptians, who dwelt in the city of Busiris, (q. d. the tomb of Osiris) offering human sacrifices at the shrine of their favourite deity ; and, for reasons before assigned, they usually made choice of strangers as their
victims.(y)

accordingly attacked the Cutheans upon their own ground. (w) This war is termed by the " the war against the Ethiopians ;" Greeks, under which name they always mention the Cuthite race. This war continued till the days of Moses, to whom the conduct of it was entrusted ,(x) and he defeated the enemy, after having pursued them across a desert infested with serpents and he married the daughter of one of their princes. Having thus far followed Manetho, we now turn to Herodotus and Diodorus, taking up the princes of whom they speak in the order wherein they stand in the foregoing catalogues. Of Meen, or Mneves, (Menes,) the first on the list, sufficient notice has already been taken. The next in order is Queen INitocris, who succeeded her brother, an Ethiopian,
;

and Menes.(a) He held the Bactrians in subjection and when they revolted, he reduced them with an army of 400,000 foot, and 20,000 horse. He always fought with a tame lion at his side. On his statue, which was preserved at Thebes till the destruction of that city by Cambyses, was an inscription in the following words
; :

Osymandyas appears next, but it is uncertain when he reigned, or whom he succeeded. He has been variously taken for Osiris, Memnon, (z)

Ba<riXet;{ @ai7tfauv Oo-t/fta^i/a; u/xi.

Et

01 TI?

EtoWai feotAerat TnjAixoj

t/x*,

Kai TTOV xii/xai, Ntxarw TI Tuit tpuv epyuv.

"I am OSYMANDYAS, King of kings; Let him that would know my grandeur,
or where
I lie,

murdered by the Egyptians, though they afterwards gave the succession to her. In revenge
(u)
(v)

Surpass

me

in

my

works."
i.

DM.
admit

Sicul. lib.

s,

47. Edit. Bipont.

See before, page 436.

Zonarus,
rejects
(y)
it.

this

curious

fragment

but

Theodoret

Manetho, ubi supra.

(x)

(w) Chron. Alexand. ad ann. xxxi. Mosis. p. 148. Artapanus and Josephus, followed by Cedrenus and

(a) Sir I.

See before, page 425. (z) Marsham's Canon. Chron. Newton's Short Chronol.

VOL.

3R

490

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS.

ruins of

[CHAP. vi.

The

the palace and tomb of this prince, which are of great extent, still surprise the beholder by their stupendous magnificence.^) His descendants reigned after him to the eighth generation the last of them being Uchoreus, to whom the building and fortifying of Memphis is attributed, as well as to Menes. He gave the city a circuit of nearly 20 miles,
:

(150 stadia) and secured it by mounds and trenches as well from the inundations of the He also Nile, as the attempts of an enemy.
translated

the

regal

seat

from

Thebes

to

its situation, and w;is dug under the He also erected two Shepherd dynasty. pyramids on an island in the midst of the lake and built a sumptuous portico on the north side of Vulcan's temple, at Memphis. Herodotus reckons Moeris as the 330th king from Menes, and the immediate predecessor of Sesostris but Diodorus places seven generations, among whom was Sasychis, the second Egyptian legislator, between Myris, or Moeris, and Sesoosis, or Sesostris. The last-named sovereign is known under

from

Memphis.

From

the similarity of his works

to those of Mreris, he has been conjectured to be the same person, (c) though Herodotus places 12 generations between them. Moeris, or Myris, has always been celebrated for the lake which bore his name though, as it was probably so called already observed,(d)
;

various appellations, as Sesoosis, Sesonchosis, Sethosis, Sesostris,

Sesonchis,
Sesoostris,

Geson-goses, and some others. And though hisreign is esteemed the most extraordinary part of the Egyptian history, its epocha has never been
nearly approximated, (e) as wise, just, generous,

He

represented magnificent, and

is

(b) The first court, of which this pile consisted, was 200 feet in extent, and 45 feet high, composed of various kinds of stone. Next was a square portico, extending 400 feet on

every side, supported by animals, 15 cubits in height, each of a single stone, and wrought with figures of divers kinds. The ceiling was of a blue colour, sprinkled with stars. This portico led into a second court, similar to the former, but more enriched with sculptures. In the entrance were three statues, all of one stone, the work of Memnon the Syenite. The principal btatue of these three, was that of Osymandyas, supposed to be the largest in Egypt; the length of its It was in a sitting posture, foot exceeding seven cubits. and at either knee stood the other two, one being his mother, This piece was not so admirable for the other his daughter. the skill or taste of the sculptor, as for the beauty of the stone, On it was whicli was free from the least flaw or blemish. In this court was also a the inscription above spoken of. second statue of the prince's mother, standing alone, 20 cubits high, and cut out of a single block of stone: on her head were three queens, indicative of her being the daughter, This court led into a wife, and mother of as many kings. second portico, far exceeding the first in the variety and richness of its sculptures and paintings, in which the noble deeds of the founder were recorded. In the midst was an altar, in the open air, of highly polished marble, and on one of the sides were two colossal figures, of one stone, in a sitting

with the king paying the offerings peculiarly due, to each of them. Adjoining to the library, was an edifice of curious Here were 20 architecture, being the tomb of the king. couches for feasting on, and the statues of Jupiter, Juno, and

Around were several pavilions, containing Osymandyas. curious pictures of the consecrated animals and here was the ascent to the sepulchre, which was surrounded by a circle of gold, 3G5 cubits in circumference, and one cubit thick, divided by the days of the year, ami shewing the rising and setting of the stars, with their various aspects, according to the Egyptian astrology. This golden circle u as taken away by Canibyses the Persian, who also did much injury to the
:

buildings.*

Newton's Short Chronology. See before, pages 391, 417. (d)

(c) Sir Isaac
(e)
first

In the Chronicon Paschale,** he is mentioned as the? of the line of Ham, who reigned in Egypt ; and the

upon Apollonius,\ following Dicararchus, places him immediately after Orus, the last of the gods, or first of the demigods. Cedrenus and others place him a degree lower, after Thoules ;} in which situation he occurs in Eusebius;
yet the last-named writer again introduces him, in the

Scholiast

Near these were three passages, posture, 27 cubits high. leading into a spacious hall, 200 feet square, having its roof
supported by columns.

Here were many wooden

statues,

representing parties engaged in law, and judges hearing Next to this hall was a gallery or avenue, containing causes. apartments stored with the most delicious viands. Here the

king was most curiously wrought, and painted in livelycolours, as presenting to God the gold and silver annually dug out of the mines of Egypt. Next was the sacred library ; and contiguous to it were images of all the Egyptian deities,
Diod. Sicul.
*
lib.
i.

second dynasty, under the name of Sesocris; and in the 12th dynasty, we find Geson-goses, rendered in our copies of Eusebins, Sesonchoris, hut more properly by Synctllus, Sesonchosis and, what is strange, next but one in the same Such were the contradictions of (lie dynasty, is Sesostris. ancients, who were themselves misled by the corruptions and interpolations of the dynasties of Manetho by older writers. Among the moderns, Sir John Marsham is of opinion, that Sesostris was the Shishak, or Sesac, who pillaged Jerusalem in the days of king Rehoboam.|| This is opposed by Perizoimis, who refers the reign of Sesoslris to the time of the Israelitish Judges, about the period of the Moabitish servitude; and he seems inclined to identify him with ^Egyptus, though he does
;

p. 44.
t

Cedren. page 20. $ Chron. p. 7, line 43. This writer, in reckoning up Itie dynasty of kings ho reigned after Hephaestus, or Vulcan, nwuliuiis them in the following

Fagc 47.

Lib.

iv. ver.

872.

all

order: Then succeeded his son Ilelius; after him Sosis, then Osiris, then Orns, then Tlioules, who conquered the whole earth to the ocean ; iuid last of "

"

Swostri.

||

Cuum

C'finm. ubi sup.

SECT. V.]

REIGN OF SESOSTUTS.
would be lord of all the
vision,

4! il

brave; but excessively ambitious, so that, not content with a powerful kingdom at home, he went abroad in search of conquests, and His father, subjugated the whole world. whom some have called Anienophis, had a vision, in which he was assured by Vulcan, that the son which should be born to him.
not care to have Danaiis for his brotlier.H
Sethosis, Sesostris, and ^gjptus, the to be the same person, cannot admit

earth. (f)

Full of this

he collected all the males born on the same day with his son, appointed proper persons to educate them, and had them treated in every respect as his own persuaded that, who had been the constant and equal they companions of his son's childhood and youth,
;

he believes to have been Mr. Whiston conceives him to be different from either.** the Typhon of mythologists, aud the Pharaoh of the ScripHis proposition is, tures, who was drowned in the Red Sea. " Harmesses Mi-amoiln, or Ramestes the Great, the grand-

with Sesonchosis, whom Sesonchoris or Sesonchosis,

Pezron, who thinks brother of Danaiis, him to be the same he identifies with Shishak, nor witli

of conquests in the time of Orus ; after her Thoules subdues the whole earth, from the eastern ocean to the Atlantic and then, as if nothing had been before performed, Sesostris
;

whom

was king of Lower Egypt, when .Moses Anienophis III. his son, was there king after him, during Moses's youth; and Setlios, or Sethosis, or Sesostris the Great, [also called Ramcses-Sethon] the son of Amenophis III. was so during the rest of the servitude of the Children of Israel in Egypt; and was that van/ Pharaoh who perished in tlie Red Sea."tt This gentleman lays great stress upon the account of Diodorus, that Sesostris, becoming
father of Sesostris,
:

was born

blind in his old age, destroyed himself in or near the Red Sea and he thinks his theory offers a very plain solution to the question, " What became of the Egyptian monarchy after
;

the death of Sesostris?" for he being drowned with his numerous host in the Red Sea, at the same moment that the country lost 600,000 slaves, as the Hebrews were must have not only given a great shock to the Egyptian power, but have Sir Isaac totally ruined the newly-acquired monarchy. Newton believes Seso.stris, Osiris, and the Grecian Bacchus, to be all one, and the same with the Shishak of the Scrip;

immediately conquers it over again. Herodotus says, in token of these victories, Sesostris erected pillars and obelisks, with emblematical inscriptions; and that he saw some of them in Phrygia and elsewhere.|| See them he might, but how did he certainly know by whom they were erected ; or who taught him to interpret the symbols? They were in a foreign land, and at a time when it is well known that the native Egyptians could not inform Pausanias.HI! whether a statue in (he Thebais were a representation of Memnon, Phamenophis, or Sesostris neither could they decipher the emblems with which the statue was ornamented. How therefore could Herodotus, in Phrygia, obtain the interpretation of what a native could not understand in Egypt: the characters and traditions in both cases seeming to refer to the same person, of Egyptian origin? The whole must have been matter of surmise. Nor must it be forgotten, that Dionusus also raised similar pillars.*** And, on comparing the histories of the heroes above alluded to, we may perceive that they, bear a strong similitude to each other, though attributed to different persons. They contain accounts of great achievements in the first ages in effecting which, these ancient heroes are
|| ;
:

tures

inserted

but his arguments run to too great length, to be here they seem, upon the whole, to abridge the antiquity of Egypt, and indeed of Greece also, too much. Archbishop
;
;

I '-.her supposes Amenophis, who was drowned in the Red Sea, to be the father of Sesostris, and the same with Belus he therefore identities Sethos-jEgyptus, or Sesoothis, with
;

represented as carrying their arms to the very limits of the known world they are, in general, esteemed benefactors, carrying the sciences with them, as well as their religious rites, in which they instructed the natives of different parts of the earth. But these occurrences, noble as they are in themselves, could not possibly have happened as they are repreIt is not to be supposed that any person, in those sented. early ages, could go over such a tract of country ; much less
:

Sesostris,

and Armais,

his brother,

with Danaiis

much with respect to his identity and aera ; to remarks, on his conquests, form a necessary appendage, for which we shall be indebted to Mr. Bryant. If such a person as Sesostris ever existed, his reign must have been of the
earliest date. He is by some represented as succeeding Thoules by others, he is introduced one degree higher, after Orus, who, in the catalogue of Paudorus, is placed first of the demigods, but by Herodotus is ranked among the deities. According to Dicrearchus, the reign of Sesostris was 2500
;

Thus which some

:+j

that he should subdue it; and it is still more improbable that such extensive conquests should be so immediately repeated, and, in some instances, carried on by different people at the saint- time. The truth is, the histories with which these transactions are connected, relate not to particular heroes, but to colonies, which going out under the same title, in divers
directions,
settled in the countries

enumerated among the

years before Nilus

first

that of the latter,

436 years before the

Olympiad. Though these computations are manifestly erroneous, and not to be depended upon, yet they shew that the person spoken of must be referred to the mythic age, or sera of the demigods in Egypt; that is, to the time of the Cutheans. As to his alleged conquests, they are of the same complexion with those of Osiris, who is said to have conquered the whole earth then came Zeus, then Perseus, and then Hercules all nearly of the same degree of antiquity, and all mighty conquerors. Myrina comes in for her share
; ;

conquests of these ideal monarchs. The ancients have -jiven to a person what related to a people, and in losing sight of his original name, have made a distinct king of every variation Of this description, are the conquests of Osiris, of it. Sesostris, Hercules, Cadmus, Ninus, Semiramis, and, in short, As to the case more of all the heroes of fabulous history. of Sesostris, immediately before us, the extensive conquests like those of his predecessor Osiris, are to be referred to the after they were migrations and settlements of the Cutheans, driven from Babylonia by the divine judgment upon the impious builders of Babel. some tradition (f) This fiction seems to be built upon relative to Lamecli and Noah.

** Person. Antiq. dcs Temps, JJ Auiiales. ail A. II. !>59-i.

Perizon. JEgypt. Orig.'et Temp. Antiqulss. Invest. retab. p. 64. tt Wliiston's Appendix. Mythol. TO!. U. p. 367, et seq.

subject UK Herodol. lib. ii. cap. 106. tions, consult Joan Picrii Huivgltifh. lib. xxxiv. cap.

On the
**

of these emblematiccal inscrip_><>.

Lib-

P-

101.

Straijo, lib.

iii.

p. ,'60.

3 R'2

4.02

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS.

his

[CHAP, vi.

would prove

most

faithful

ministers

and
as

who were upwards

fellow-soldiers.

Among

other

exercises,

they grew up, they were every day enjoined to perform a course of 180 furlongs, (about 22i miles,) before they were permitted to taste This exorcise of the body, added any food. to a proper cultivation of the mind, fitted them at once for the fatigues of war, and the business of the council. Having thus laid the foundation of his son's future grandeur, the

of 1700 in number. His consisted of 600,000 foot, 24,000 horse, and army 27,000 war chariots ; and to encourage them, he settled by lot certain portions of the most fertile land in Egypt upon every individual of which it was composed, that they or their posterity might never afterwards be obliged to resort to mercantile or mechanical avocations but apply themselves wholly to the
;

king resolved to give him and his companions an opportunity of displaying their talents, and He therethe good effects of his institutions. fore sent them with an army into Arabia.
serpents and venomous creatures, as well as all the privations resulting from a dry and barren country ; and he triumphed over the Arabians, who till then had never owned a conqueror. His father then ordered him westward ; and he subjugated the greater part of Africa, his career being stopped only by the Atlantic While he was thus employed, the Ocean. old king died, and Sesostris returned to Egypt, to ascend the vacant throne. Now it was elated by his former successes, or prompted that, by the recollection of his father's vision, he gave loose to his natural ambition, and meditated the conquest of the whole world, (g) Before he entered upon this expedition, he endeavoured to render himself popular, by largesses in money, donations of land, or the remission of punishments. And, farther to secure the tranquillity of his kingdom during his absence, he divided it into 36 nomes, or provinces, to each of which he appointed a particular governor, and constituted his brother Arma'i's supreme regent. He then selected an army equal to the vastness of his designs, from among his best subjects, and distributed the command to the companions of his youth,
that his daughter (g) Some say, Athyrte, a young woman of great wisdom, excited him to this ndertafcjpg by her counsel, representing it as an easy matter; others, that she obtaii-od assurances of her father's success divination,

In this expedition, the young mounted all the dangers of

Sesostris sur-

military exercise. Sesostris first marched into Ethiopia, (the very direction that Osiris took, when he first set out,) where he reduced the inhabitants, and laid upon them a tribute of gold, ebony, and ivory. He is believed to have been the
first

who subdued
;

Ethiopia(h) and Troglo-

said to have reached the promontory of Dira, near the straits of the Red Sea, where he set up a pillar, inscribed with sacred characters. From this region, he went forward as far as the cinnamon country,(i) where he also erected monuments and pillars, with sacred inscriptions, that were to be seen many ages afterwards. Finding his land forces inadequate to the accomplishment of his extensive purposes, he first broke through the ancient Egyptian super-

dytica

and

is

which could not endure seafaringand fitted out two fleets one of 400 people, sail,(j) he launched into the Red Sea; as he
stition,
;

did the other in the Mediterranean.(k) He a spacious and magnificent ship to the supreme god of the Thebans.(l) With the first of these fleets he sailed into the Erythrean or Indian Sea, and subjugated all the coasts as he passed along, continuing his course till stopped by certain shoals and difficult places upon which he returned to
also consecrated
;

Egypt.(m) With his Mediterranean squadron, he conquered Cyprus, the coast of Phoenicia, and several of the Cyclades. While his navy was thus employed, his army
(j) Diodorus gives fleet in general terms.

this

number; Herodotus speaks of

the

by dreams in temples, prodigies in the air, &c.* 'while others represent Mercury as the person who instructed him, and pave him counsels for his guidance in this great undertaking.
(h)
t

Manetho, apud Joseph. Contra Apion, lib. i. p. T04I. Diodorus relates that this ship was 280 cubits in length, built of cedar, plated without with gold, and within with silver. Mr. Bryant thinks the account must refer to a temple and a shrine, in form of a ship, or of the ark, dedicated to
(k)
(1)

Ami yet we have seen acting much the r-ainc part.

the lunar deity, that

Osiris there before him, p.
-lit},

is,

Noah.f

(i) This must have been Indica .Ethiopia, and the island tf Seran-dive, or Serendib; whence came cinnamon.

(m) Thus Herodotus ; but Diodorus says, he went not on board these fleets himself, but sent them out against tinmaritime places of the continent, as far as India, while he

pursued his conquests by land.

t Mythol. vol.
iii.

d. Sicul. lib.

i.

p. 49.

.Elian. Tar.

Hut.

lib. xii.

cap. 4.

p.

34,

it

srq.

SECT. V.]

REIGN OF SESOSTRIS.
;t

403

overran and pillaged all Asia, and part of Europe. He erected his pillars on the banks of the Ganges, which river he also crossed, and left similar memorials on the remotest mountains of India, marching forward till he was stopped by the On his return, he invaded the eastern ocean. whom he was repulsed, if not Scythians, by actually defeated ;(n) and he left a colony at Colchis, but whether designedly, or whether and stragglers, it consisted of malecoutents His next and last undertaking is uncertain.
against Thrace, where he also set up his pillars ;(o) but his good fortune seemed to have

king, the queen, and her children, to banquet, where he pressed them to drink freely, till at length, overpowered with wine, they betook

was

td sleep. Arma'i's now caused apartment to be surrounded with a quantity of dried reeds, and setting fire to them, entertained no doubt of the success of The smoke, however, his wicked stratagem. awoke Sesostris, who, perceiving that his guards, from the effects of the liquor they had drunk, were incapable of assisting him, implored the gods with uplifted hands in

themselves
their

he had a different kind of to encounter from what he had met enemy with in the southern regions his army was on the point of perishing for want of provisions, and in danger of being lost among the mountains and difficult passes, where they were daily assailed by the hardy natives, almost without spirit or power to defend themselves. While affairs were in this unpromising conforsaken
:

him

and then, wife and children the flames, called upon them rushing through In thanksgiving to follow, which they did. for this wonderful preservation, and to perform the vows he had made in his distress, he made large donations to the shrines of several He then gods, particularly to that of Vulcan. Armai's to leave the kingdom and obliged he accordingly sailed in two ships to Greece, where he was better known by the name of
behalf of
his
: ;

dition, Sesostris

received private intelligence

from the high-priest of Egypt, that his brother Arma'i's had concerted a revolt, with a view
to transfer the regal diadem to his and had violated the queen and

Danaiis, and where he succeeded in supplanting the king of Argos, and fixing himself upon the throne.

own

head, the royal

concubines, (p)
linquish
farther

This determined him to rethoughts of conquest; he

hastened homeward, and arrived at Pelusium, after an absence of nine years, attended by a multitude of captives of all nations, and laden with Asiatic spoils. Here the rebel Arma'i's received him with outward expressions of submission and joy, while he was privately determined to take away his life, and to root out his family. "With this design, he invited the
(n) Herodotus,* Diodorus.t Agathias,{ and others, represent him as completely victorious ; but Justin, who calls this prince Vexores, the says, the Scythians dismissed messengers whom he had sent forward to demand their surrender, with menaces and contempt upon which, Sesostris, panic-struck, turned about, and fled before them, for they pursued him to the very borders of Egypt, leaving all his baggage and warlike stores behind. Pliuy|| relates that he was overthrown by the king of Colchis; and Valerius FlaccuslI intimates the same. (o) These pillars were set up in all the countries that he conquered, with an inscription, to the following purport, as interpreted by Diodorus Siculus :**
;

Finding himself again in peaceable possession of his kingdom, Sesostris adorned the temples with spoils and rich gifts, rewarded his army, and, laying aside all farther thoughts of war, disbanded his forces, and applied himself to the erection of such stupendous works as might immortalize his name, and contribute to the
public good. In every city of Egypt, this king erected a temple, dedicated to the particular deity of the place upon all these he employed only captives, and upon each of the temples was an
:

"

SESOSTRIS,

King of kings, and Lord of lords, subdued this country by the power of his arms."
This inscription seems to be nothing more than an abridged Besides these reading of that already attributed to Osiris. pillars, he also left statues of himself, which have been mistaken for those of Memnon.
evidently a repetition of the liistory of Typhon with a few variations in the detail; and as Typhon, when defeated, threw himself into the lake Sirbonis, which communicated with the Mediterranean, we shall find the false Arnia'is retreating from the vengeance of his injured
(p)

This

is

and

Osiris,

iaTo TO?
,

xai JOTTOTI;;

brother, in a ship
t Lib.
ii.

upon the same

Lib.
ii.

sea.
||

p.

55.
lib. v. ver.

cap. 3.

Lib.

i.

s.

55. Edit. Bipont.

t Lib.

i.

p. 50, 51.

Argonaut,

420.

"

Lib. xxiiii. cap. 33. Ubi supr.

494

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS.

made them wait upon him
their tribute,

[CHAP. vi.

inscription, declaring that no native Egyptian hud /a/toured in the building. In the city of

towards the lower order of the captives.

He

Memphis, before the temple of Vulcan, he raised six colossal statues, each of a single stone ; two of them, representing himself and his wife, were 30 cubits high ; the other four were 20 cubits, and represented his four sons. He also raised two obelisks of marble, 120 cubits high, covered with inscriptions, descriptive of the greatness of his power, the amount of his revenues, and the nations he had conquered. To prevent the incursions of the Syrians and Arabians, he built a wall on the east side of Egypt, from Pelusium across the desert,
to Heliopolis, 1500 furlongs, (187* miles,) in extent. (q) He also raised a great number of vast mounds of earth, to which he removed

and upon have them harnessed to his chariot, in lieu of horses. In pursuing this practice, however, his pride received a check, which brought him to his senses; for, out- day, observing one of the kings, thus yoked, look-

personally with certain occasions he

would

such towns as had before too low a

to secure the inhabitants

and the

situation, cattle against

ing back with great stedfastness upon the wheels, his curiosity was excited to demand what it was that so fixed his eyes on that " O object ? To which he replied, king, the rotation of the wheel calls to my mind the vicissitudes of fortune for as every part is turns uppermost and lowermost, so is it by with men one day they sit upon a throne, the next they are reduced to the vilest slavery." This so affected the haughty monarch, that he relinquished the practice of being thus drawn, and ever after he treated his captives
: ;

the effects of the inundations of the Nile. From Memphis to the sea, he dug canals, branching from the river, to give greater facilities of communication between the towns, as also to render the country more difficult of

passage to an enemy. (r) These immense labours were laid upon the captives whom he had brought home with him till some of them, particularly the Babylonians, growing desperate, seized upon a strong hold, and wasted the country round about; but on the promise of a pardon for their revolt, and the offer of a place to dwell in, they were appeased, and built themselves a city,
;

with more humanity. The last circumstance recorded of Sesostris, is, that in his old age he lost his sight, and laid violent hands upon himself. The manner of his death was extolled by the priests, as an act of the highest magnanimity and that be wanting to render his history nothing might
;

completely glorious, they asserted that the phoenix, a bird which appeared in Egypt but once in five centuries, came to Thebes during
his reign. (s)

called Babylon.

The behaviour

of

Sesostris

conquered princes was no

less imperious,

towards the than

Pheron, or Sesoosis, or Sesostris II. sucHe performed ceeded his father Sesostris I. no military achievements, except that of darting a javelin into the Nile, at a time when it had overflowed the country to an unusual height for this impiety, he was struck blind,
:

(q) From this it should seem, that the mighty conquests of Sosostris were merely excursions for plunder, and that, with the exception perhaps of Ethiopia, he formed no permanent

establishment in any of the countries whither he went. Had lie established a mighty empire, he would rather have recruited his army, than disbanded it, on his return home, to relieve the garrisons in the conquered provinces ; nor would he have needed a wall to secure himself against such near neighbours as the Syrians and Arabians, who must, in sucji case, have

been

his vassals.

Indeed, from the rout he

Scythians, and
that
his

is

said to have

This is the prince by whom the oppression of that people was begun. Herodotus relates, that the (s) Tacit. Ann. vi. p. 154. phoenix was one of the sacred birds, which appeared in Egypt but once in 500 years, immediately after the death of its father, whose body it brought from Arabia, in an embalmed The painters state, to deposite it in the temple of the sun. represented this wonderful bird as of the shape and size of an According to eagle, with a plumage of crimson and gold. the priests of Heliopolis, he embalmed the body of his father
part.

received from
or that
it

the
fell

we may conclude,
then
erected.

Thrace, empire cither never existed, to pieces more rapidly than it had been

his reverses in

This timid caution agrees well with the fears expressed Israelites, (Exod. i. 9, 10.) as does the hard labour which Sesostris imposed upon the captives, and of which the Israelites, without doubt, bore their
(r)

by Pharaoh, respecting the

manner: Having moulded as much myrrh as he could carry, into the form of an egg, he hollowed it out, put the body of his father into it, and stopped up the aperture with fresh myrrh, in such proportion that the weight of the whole might not exceed that of the mass before the body was inserted. He then flew with it to the temple of the sun at
in the following

Heliopolis.*
*

Merodot.

lib,

ii.

capi 66.

SECT. v.J

PHERON. AMASIS. ACTISANES. MENDES. RHEMPHIS.

for ten

405

and continued so

years

when, being
to

restored to sight, he made ricli donations the gods, and raised two magnificent obelisks in the temple of the -sun at Heliopolis. His successors are unknown for many generations. The next prince we meet with is in the list of Diodorus this was Amasis, or Ammosis, who, though represented as a tyrant in his general conduct, had the merit of abolishing human sacrifices to Juno at Heliopolis, and of substituting images of Avax in their stead. (t)
:

But notwithstanding
length he was Ethiopian, with

this

humanity,

he

fre-

quently put his subjects to death without a At pause, and conn' seated their property.

by Actisanes the the Egyptians joined, and drove him from his throne. Actisanes, who united Egypt and Ethiopia

invaded

whom

under his government, behaved affectionately towards his new subjects, and caused diligent search to be made after thieves and robbers, whose noses he commanded to be cut off, and then sent them to the remotest part of the desert, between Egypt and Syria, where he built them a town, called Rhinocorura, or Rhinocolura, [El-Aris/t,] from the disfigure-

ther, that is, a magician ; and pretended that he could assume any shape, even that of fire, when he pleased. They also called him the son of Oceanus. It was during his reign that Alexander, the Trojan, better known by the name of Paris, was driven by a storm on the coasts of Egypt, where he landed Helen, whom he was carrying away from But when Proteus understood the Sparta. breach of hospitality this young man had been guilty of, he seized Helen, and the riches she had purloined of her husband, with a view to restore them, whenever called for; while Paris and his companions were ordered to depart within three days, on pain of being treated as enemies. He had a very sumptuous temple erected to him at Memphis, and he left a son and successor named Rhemphis. Rhemphis, or Rhampsinitus, though remark-

ment of its

inhabitants.

the death of Actisanes, the Egyptians being lft to their own disposal, they chose themselves a king, by some called Mendes, by others Marus, whose only celebrity arises from the sepulchral labyrinth which he built. After Mendes, an anarchy, or interregnum

On

for his sordid disposition, added the western portico to the temple of Vulcan, and erected two statues before it, each 25 cubits in height one of these, towards the north, was worshipped by the Egyptians as Summer; the other, which was towards the south, went by the name of Winter, and was an object of abhorrence. He also built a treasury, wherein tp deposite the vast riches that he had accumulated but perceiving it to be robbed from time to time, he ordered his

able

daughter to prostitute herself

condition of their
:

to all

comers, on

first

disclosing to her the

most

ensued,

length a Memphite, of obscure birth, was elected king, whose Egyptian name was Cetes, but the Greeks called him Proteus.(u) The priests described him as a person skilled in the weafor
five

generations

at

ingenious and daring artifice they had ever engaged in the robber, by this means discovered, proved to be the son of the architect who had built the treasury ; and the king was so pleased with the young man's intrepidity and
the contrary, admits the latter account, but makes him contemporary with Amenophis, whom he identifies with Menes. He thinks he might have been governor of some part of Lower Egypt, because Homer places him on the sea-coast, and calls him the servant of Neptune ; and because his Greek name signifies only a prince, or president.-^ Mr. Bryant is of opinion, that Proteus was not a person, but a Pharos, or

This innovation upon the superstitious and sanguinary of the priests, seems to have been the real cause of the reproaches with which his character is stigmatized for it is
(t)

rites

very improbable that a prince, who delighted in putting his subjects to death, should have been so tender of the lives of such as were devoted, by a barbarous custom, to the gods. The Ethiopian invasion was probably the same with that of the Cuthites, those people being indifferently called Arabians

and Ethiopians. (u) Herodotus and Diodorus suppose him to have lived in the time of the Trojan war. Perizonius makes him the Sethos of Manetho, the Typhon of the poets, and the Proteus of Homer hut he gives no credit to Herodotus, as to the arrival of Paris and Helen during his reigu.* Sir Isaac Newton, on
;

beacon, for the direction of mariners, corresponding to the tower of Torrone, also personified, and made the wife of Proteus. He derives his name from Pur-Ath, or Por-Ait, formed from two Egyptian titles of the God of fire, and corIn another place, however, he rupted by the Grecians. t supposes Proteus to have been a title given to Noah, as the father of all mankind.
t

* Pcrizon. Mgyft. Orig.

et

Temp. Antiy.

Invcit.
J

Chonnl. of Ancient

Kingdoms Amended.
Ibid. vol. Hi. p.

Mythtl. vol.

ii.

p. 256.

9&

4 06

HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS.

he gave him his daughter
this,

[CHAP. vi.

dexterity, that

in

marriage.(v)
to

After

llhampsinitns

is

said

have descended into Hades, and there played at dice(\\) with the goddess Damater, the mother of the gods,

who

at his departure presented

him with a golden bowl. The space between his descent and return to the upper regions was, for many ages afterwards, observed by tlie RhampsiEgyptians with great solemnity.
with notwithstanding and justice, and strictly maingreat prudence tained that good order which till his death had subsisted in Egypt from its foundation as a kingdom. He left no less than 400,000 talents in his treasury, and was succeeded by seven others, all of nameless fame, except one, called Nilus, who is celebrated for the great number of canals he dug all over the country, and for his endeavours to render the Nile as serviceable as possible, whence it was called after his
hitus,

complete his project, he exposed his daughter the highest bidders. This the spirit and example princess, following of her father, besides the stipulated price of her favours, required of each of her lovers a stone towards the erection of a small pyramid, which she afterwards built, to perpetuate her
to prostitution to

his avarice, reigned

was succeeded by Cephren es, Cephren, or Chabryis.(y) his brother, or hi? son, who, treading in the footsteps of his predecessor, oppressed his subjects, and built a pyramid. He reigned 56 years. The next prince was Mycerinus, or Cherinus, son of Cheops, a good and merciful sovereign. who, abhorring the impiety and injustice of
his father and uncle, or brother, reopened the temples, restored the sacrifices, and allowed the people to pursue their private affairs. I It-

memory. Cheops

name.
Cheops,(x) Chemmis, or Chembes, is by Diodorus reckoned the eighth from Rharnpsinitus but Herodotus places him in immediate succession. He began his reign with the temples, and forbidding all shutting up then, trampling on the laws, public sacrifices he invaded the liberties of tlie people, and reduced them to a state of the most laborious slavery sending great numbers of them to dig stone from the mountains of Arabia, and transport them into Egypt; and harassing
;

mitigated all harsh sentences pronounced in matters of property, and satisfied the partv \\ hilst aggrieved out of his own treasury. thus intent upon the happiness of his people, his own peace was disturbed by the death of a beloved daughter, whom he mourned with great bitterness, and honoured with an extraordinary funeral. (z) He had scarcely recovered from this misfortune, when the oracle of Butus declared that he had but six years to live. Upon this he expostulated, that as his father and uncle, who had been monsters of impiety and cruelty, had been blessed with length of
days, it would be ungrateful to requite his piety and humanity with the execution of so To this the oracle rejoined, rigid a sentence.
(x) Cheops, or, as he is sometimes called, Chaops, it has been already observed, is a compound of the terms ChaOps, the house of Ops, or of the sun, worshipped under the symbol of a serpent it is therefore to be considered rather as tlie name of the pyramid which he built, than of
:

the largest of the three pyramids. By this, and similar vainglorious his treasury was so reduced, that to works, others in

building

123. (v) Herodot. lib. ii. cap. 121 (w) ZvyxvCi t>u tri An/*tiTf i. By a misconception of terms, as Mr. Bryant* observes, the Greeks have here ruined a piece of genuine history. Cuban, among the Egyptians, signified a coffin, or bier, which term the Greeks retained, but expressed it cnbas : a ship was also called cuba and cubeia.

the founder.
(y) It is doubted whether Cephren and Chabryis were the same person; some maintaining that Cephren was the brother,

But, at the same time, cubas signified a die, and cubeia had some relation to a game. Instead, therefore, of saying thai Rbampsinitus, during his confinement, or absence from tlie world, was with Damatcr in an arli, or ship, they have made him play n:i.th l..ri at dice. Under the character of Damatcr, the ancients alluded to the ark, and lo the .supposed genius who presided over it. The v. hole history of iiliumpsinitns may therefore be referred to Ni.ah; and it would be trifling to discuss the various c'injecliire< and hypotheses which have appeared relative to hi,-, identity and aera. Plutarch tells a similar story of Hermes hnving played at dice with the goddess, t whence we may iafcr, that one of that name, for there were several, was the same with Noah.
*
tlyltal. vol. iv. p.

and Chabryis the son of Cheops.

Her body was deposited in that of a wooden cow, richly and kept in a magnificent chamber of the palace at Sais before which the most exquisite perfumes were burned I'M'n day. The cow was in a kneeling posture, her neck and lu-ad overlaid with gold, and between the horns was a golden The body was covered with circle, in imitation of the sun.
(z)
gilt,
;

a fine Tyrian carpet.

Once a year,

this sepulchral

monument

was removed from

445, 446.

De

hid.

Qtir. p.

355,

apartment, and exposed to the open day, in pursuance of a request of the deceased, that she might once a year behold the sun. This was also a memento of the ark.
its

10

SECT. V.]
that

MYCERINUS, OR CHERINUS.

497

Egypt was doomed to 150 years of misery and bondage, which his father and uncle knowing, they had fulfilled, as far as
they could, the decree of fate but as to himendeavoured to contravene it, self, he had which was the cause of his being so shortly
:

The foregoing catalogue contains such princes as have been handed down to us by Herodotus (b) and Diodorus,(c) within the present division of the Work; but the accounts of their transactions are vague, and unconnected with any collateral history ; so that it is
impossible
are
to

off. Finding his doom thus he determined upon making the most of what time remained to him and commanding a great number of lamps to be lighted up every night, he spent nights and

to

be

cut

determine

their

aeras.

We

irreversible,

approaching an epocha, where the kings of Egypt were concerned in events, to which chronologers have affixed dates; but
as they carry us
at the

now

and carousing, or in roving among the groves and meadows, or wherever he heard any gay and cheerful company endeavouring thus to falsify the oracle, and to live 12 years instead of six, by making the transactions of the latter as busy and numerous as those of the former would have
days
in revelling
;

beyond the period proposed head of the present section we are

;

ordinary course. Before he died, a pyramid, which from the basis he to the middle was of Ethiopic stone and on the northern side he inscribed his own name.(a)

been

in the

built

here obliged to pause, in order to take a view of such other states and nations as owe their origin to this early age. As to the princes set down in the first three-and-twenty dynasties of Mauetho, and whose names are unnoticed by the writers above mentioned, all that is known of them has been collected in the notes upon the canons, in the extracts from Kircher, and in the observations upon the Genealogical Table.
(b) Lib. i. cap. 99, 100. lib. 107, 109, 110, 112, 121134.
(c) Lib.
i. ii. iii.

(a) The Greeks erroneously ascribed this pyramid to the courtesan Rhodopis, who flourished in the reign of Amasis.*

ii.

cap. 59, 100

104, 106.

* Herodot. cap. 133, 134.

VOL.

I.

3s

HISTORY OF BABYLONIA.

[CHAP. VIT.

CHAPTER

VII.

HISTORY OF THE FIRST BABYLONIANS.

*

SECTION
TENT.
CITIES.

I.

appearing to have
former, where
it

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF BABYLONIA AND NAMES. SITUATION AND EXCHALDjEA.

NAMES. IN the most ancient times, this country was known by the name of Shiuar,
Sennaar, &c.(d) which it retained to the days of the prophet Daniel,(e) and is still to be discovered in the modern appellation of Scnjar given it by the Arabians but it is not easy to determine what were its limits in the early times ; only we have reason to suppose that it did not include the country The other names, of Asshur, or Assyria. (f) and Chaldaea, it obtained, the Babylonia former from the tower of Babel and city of
Sliiuaar,

form
north, distan

a
it
;]

been the stream of t\\r> crosses from west to east to On the junction with the latter.

had Mesopotamia and Assyria, [Kur;

on the east, Chusistan, or Susiana, [K/wzistan ;] on the south, Chaldiea and on the west, Arabia Deserta and part of Mesopotamia,
[Al Gezira.] Chaldaea extended southward from Babylonia to the Persian Gulf; being separated from Susiana, on the east, by the stream of the Euphrates and having the Arabian Desert on the west.
;

even

down

CITIES.
first

Babylon,

the metropolis of
to

the

kingdom, now
city

in ruins, is It ever built.

be the supposed was founded by

Babylon the latter from the Chaldeans, or Chasdim which two names, though frequently used indiscriminately, do in fact pertain to It is now called Iraktwo distinct provinces.
; ;

Arubi.

SITUATION AND EXTENT. In ancient times, the Babylonian name, extending far beyond the limits of both Babylonia and Chaldaea, comprised most of the provinces subject to the empire; but as these will be described with the countries to which they naturally belong, the description here will be limited to Babylonia and Chaldaea properly so called. Babylonia Proper was situated on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, and chiefly between those rivers, its southern boundary
(<1)

on the east side of the he left it unfinished, and SemiEuphrates; ramis completed it but Nebuchadnezzar built a new city on the west side, and united both Its walls formed an exact square, together. 480 furlongs (60 miles) in circumference, being 120 furlongs on each side, 50 cubits (87 feet) in thickness, and 200 cubits (350 feet) 100 gates of brass. in height; and it had The walls were of brick, cemented together with bitumen, and encompassed on the outside with a vast ditch, filled \vith water, and lined Between every two gates were with bricks.

Nimrod, or Belus,

three towers, besides the four at the corners of the square, and three between each of the corners and the next gate on either side.(g) These towers were ten feet higher than the
banks of the Tigris; in support of which opinion, they that God quote Acts, ii. 2, 4, where Stephen declares appeared to Abraham, in Mesopotamia, BEFORE he dwell in
Cliarran.
is to be understood only of (g) This account of the towers, such parts of the walls as stood in need of them for purof them were on a morass, poses of defence for as some parts and inaccessible to an enemy, there they did not occur. The whole number of towers, therefore, did not exceed 250.
;

Bochart derives
;

scatter, or dissipate

name
(e)

in

"il"U? (SHJNAR) from IJtt (NAR) to whence it appears to have obtained this commemoration of the dispersion of mankind, on

the overthrow of Babel.

Dan.

i.

2.

Asshur, and Imilded Nineveh," &c. The name of Shinar, or Sennaar, is supposed by those who, with Ammianus, place Ur in Mesopotamia, to have extended to all the country on the

(f) Gi'n. x. 11,

"

OUT of that land WENT FORTH

SECT.
walls.

I.]

CITY OF BABYLON. TEMPLE OF BELUS.

From each
prince made vast additions to it, in a square of two furlongs on every side, and encl.M <1 the whole with a wall equal to the square of the city in which it stood ; that is, about 2j miles in circumference. In this wall were several gates, of solid brass, supposed to have been made out of the brazen sea, pillars, and. other vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had transported from Jerusalem for here he is said to have dedicated his spoils from the Jewish temThe tower, which may be reckoned the ple. beginning of this celebrated temple, was square, and at its foundation a furlong on every side, and a furlong in height. It consisted of eight towers built one above the other; and as they decreased gradually to the top, the whole had the form of a pyramid. The ascent to the top was by an inclined plane on the outside, which turning by very slow degrees in a spiral line eight times round the tower, from the bottom to the top, gave the same appearance as if there had been In eight towers placed one upon another. these different stories were many large rooms, with arched roofs, supported by pillars. Over the whole, on the top of the tower, was an observatory, by the help of which the Babylonians became more expert in astronomy than all other nations, and made in a short time the great progress ascribed to them in that science. In this temple were several images of pure gold ; one of them 40 feet in height, the same, it is supposed, with that which Nebuchadnezzar set up in the plains of Dura.(j) It weighed
;

of the gates on one side, a straight street, across the city, proceeded to the corresponding gate on the other side whence the whole number of streets amounted to only 50, (25 in each direction,) crossing each other at right angles, and each about 15 miles in length. Besides these, there were four half streets, consisting of rows of houses with their faces towards the walls ; these were each
;

broad, and the whole streets about 150 feet. By the intersection of the 50 streets, the city was divided into 676 squares, each 4 furlongs on every side, or 2| miles in comThe houses were built round these pass. squares, all of them three or four stories The inner high, and beautifully ornamented. spaces of the squares were occupied by garbranch of the Euphrates dens, offices, &c. ran through the midst of Babylon, from north to south, over which, in the middle of the city, was a bridge, upwards of a furlong in At each end length, and about 30 feet wide. of this bridge was a palace; the old one on the east side, and the new one on the west: the former occupying the space of four squares, the latter that of nine. Near the old palace, stood the temple of Belus, supposed to be the original Babel, (h) which filled up one square. The whole city stood in an extensive plain, in a

200

feet

very fat and deep soil. Before we leave this celebrated city, it will be proper to notice those great works, the temple of Belus, the hanging gardens, the banks, and the artificial canals and lake, which have been the admiration of all ages. The wonderful tower, which stood in the centre of the pile denominated the temple of
Belus, is by most -writers supposed to have been the original Babel though Syncellus, Cedrenus, and others, assert that Babel was overthrown by the judgment of God.(i) The form and dimensions of this tower have already been described. Till the time of Nebuchadnezzar, it is supposed to have constituted the whole of the temple in question; but that
;

1000 Babylonish
lions sterling. of the statues

talents, worth at least 3k milIn a word, the whole weight and decorations, according to

Diodorus, amounted to more than 5000 talents above 21 millions and about an equal sum in treasure, sterling not mentioned, is utensils, and ornaments, allowed for. Xerxes, when he returned from his disastrous expedition to Greece, plundered this temple of its riches, and then laid it in ruins. Alexander the Great, when he arrived
in gold, estimated in value at
;

(h) For an account of the Tower of Babel, see before, page 30(i. Mr. Bryant supposes it to have been originally a rude mound of earth, of vast height, and cased with bricks,

(i)

Syncell.

Joseph. Antiq.
(j)

Antiq. p. 42. lib. i. cap. 4.

1, this

Cedrenus, p. 11.

See also

somewhat
f

similar in

Egypt.*

external appearance to the pyramids Something of the same kind is intimated by

its

the prophet Jeremiah,

when he

calls

Babylon a destroying
t

image is described as GO cubits, which lias appeared so excessive, that cubits have been supposed to include the pedestal on been taken for the it was placed, and the 40 feet have of the statue only.f

Dan.

iii.

feet in height;

the

90 CO which
or

height

vol. iv. p.

61.

Jcrem.

li.

25.

lYideaux's Connections, &c.

vol.

i.

part

i.

lib.

ii.

3s 2

500

HISTORY OF BABYLONIA.
hill,

[CHAP. vn.

at Babylon, after his Indian expedition, determined upon rebuilding it, and actually set 10,000 men to work in removing the rubbish but his death, which happened about two
;

put a stop to their proceedings. on the east side of the river, stood the old palace of the first Babylonish sovereigns, and on the west side of the river
after,

months

Near

this temple,

the new palace, built by Nebuchadnezzar the former is represented as four miles in circumference ; the latter as eight.

was

covered with forests, gardens, and verdure, could be calculated to excite. Berosus and Abydenus have attributed the banks, or mounds, the artificial canals, and the great artificial lake, to Nebuchadnezzar; but Ctesias, followed by Diodorus, ascribes them to Semiramis, who reigned long before that monarch ; while Herodotus affirms that the bridge, banks, and lake, were the works of
Nitocris, daughter-in-law to Nebuchadnezzar, the wife of Esar-haddon, and mother to Nabonadius, or Belshazzar. The canals were cut on the east side of the Euphrates, to convey the

But nothing was more wonderful at Babylon than the hanging gardens, made by Nebuchadnezzar to gratify his wife Amyite, a Mede, who, retaining a strong inclination for the mountains and forests of her own country, was desirous of having at least an imitation of them at Babylon. They covered a square of four plethra,(k) or 400 feet, on each side, and consisted of several large terraces, one above the other. The ascent from terrace to terrace

was by stairs ten feet wide, and the whole pile was sustained by vast arches, strengthened by a wall, surrounding it on every side, of
twenty-two
feet in thickness.
first

On
;

the tops of
flat

superfluous waters, when it overflowed its banks, into the Tigris, before they reached Babylon. And to secure the country yet more from the danger of being overflowed, prodigious artificial banks were raised on both sides of the river, built of brick cemented with bitumen, beginning at the head of the canals, and extending below the city. To facilitate the execution of these works, it was necessary to turn the course of the river; for which purpose, an immense artificial lake was dug west of the city, forty miles square, one hundred and sixty miles
in

the arches were

stones, large sixteen feet long and four broad over these was a layer of reeds mixed with bitumen, upon which were two tiers of bricks, closely

laid

to

cemented together with

plaster.

The whole

was covered with thick sheets of lead, upon which lay the mould of the garden. This mould was so deep, that the largest trees might take root in it; and with such the terraces
were covered, as well as with all other plants and flowers proper for a pleasure-garden. On the upper terrace was an engine, or kind of pump, by which water was drawn up from the
river, for

compass, and thirty-five feet deep, according Herodotus, or seventy-five according to Megasthenes. Into this lake the whole river was turned, by means of a canal cut from its west side, till the work was finished, when the waters were suffered to flow in their former channel. But, that the Euphrates, in the time
of

watering the garden.

the
several

In the spaces

might not overflow the city, the gates along the quays, this lake, through The water with the canal, was preserved. received into the lake at the time of these overflowings, was kept there all the year, as in a common reservoir, to be let out by means of sluices for watering the lands below it, in dry
its

increase,

between
ficent

structure

by which this was supported, were large and magniapartments, that were very light, and
arches,
beautiful

had the advantage of a

prospect.

This singular structure stood on the west side of the river, with its front towards the old and when viewed from thence, propalace duced all those pleasing sensations that a vast
;

seasons. No traces of these stupendous works being now to be found, many modern writers have considered the statements of ancient historians as exaggerations ; and some have even gone so far as to discredit their accounts altogether. But for this we see no good reason. AVherever Babylon is spoken of in the scriptures, it is in
consequent upon the malady of its founder, the wars in which his successors were continually engaged till the city fell into the bauds of Cyrus, and the neglect into which it fell soon after, all concur in persuading us, that the hanging gardens had long ceased to exist when Herodotus visited Babylon, and therefore he was silent respecting them.

(k)

Died. Sicul.
all

lib.

ii.

Herodotus,

who

visited

and examined

Babylon,

with great care, makes no mention of these gardens; whence M. Goguet has inferred, that they never existed. But it is evident, that a structure of this kind would require equal pains to keep it in repair, as to rectit; without which it would rapidly decay ; the troubles
its curiosities

SECT.

I.]

CITY OF BABYLON.
of a magnificent, powerful, and
:

501

terras indicative

arrogant city:(l) add to this, the descriptions of Herodotus(m) are as well authenticated with respect to Babylon, as they are relative to any other place that has long since ceased to exist if, therefore, we discredit him in one instance, there is no reason why we should believe him in any other, consequently the whole of his writings must be deemed a collection of fictions, or misrepresented facts ; and we should be left destitute of every atom of authentic history Similar objections relative to the early ages. would doubtless have been raised by these sceptics against his accounts of Egyptian gran:

were then built upon 6300 square furlongs must therefore have remained unoccupied and
;

notwithstanding the efforts of Nebuchadnezzar to render his great city populous, by transplanting into it the people of the vatliis

too,

rious cities he had reduced by conquest. The houses also stood at a distance from each other;

deur and magnificence, where he is much less countenanced by holy writ but the country, being more accessible to travellers, yields abundant proofs that Herodotus did by no
:

and the intermediate spaces were ploughed and sowed. The disastrous wars in which the successors of Nebuchadnezzar were engaged, prevented them from completing Avhat he had begun; and the removal of the seat of gov eminent to Shushan, by Cyrus, was equally detrimental to the prosperity of this renewed ancient city, which appears to have begun to decay even before it had attained maturity. This decline was accelerated, after the death of Alexander, by Seleucus Nicator, who built Seleucia, (o) as
it is said, out of spite to the Babylonians, in its neighbourhood, and drew 500,000 persons, or From families, from it, to people his new city. this period, Babylon continued to sink into oblivion, till at length the very people of the country were at a loss to tell where it had stood; so fully and punctually has the denunciation of the prophet Isaiah, (p) respecting it, been " It shall never be verified inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to gene:

in his accounts of things that he ever imposes upon the credulity of his reader, it is only where he was himself previously deceived, in recording, from tradition, what he could not be an eye-witness of. The city of Babylon, after it had been enlarged and beautified by Nebuchadnezzar, appears never to have been completely inhabited for, according to Quintius Curtius,(n) when Alexander the Great arrived there, no more than 90 furlongs of it had been built which can only be understood of so much in and if the breadth be allowed to be as length much, it will follow that only 8100 square fur-

means exaggerate
:

he saw

if

ration neither shall the Arabian pitch his tent there ; neither shall the shepherd make his fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there and their houses shall be full of doleful
:
:

longs, out of 14,400 contained within the walls,

creattires."(q)

&c.

" the (1) See Isaiah, xiii. 19, where it is called glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency;" and, " the xiv. 4, golden city." (ra) The degree of credit due to the writings of Herodotus, has been examined in the Introduction to this work, p. 13.

interior space a kind of

was built on the west side of the 40 miles from Babylon, opposite the spot where Bagdad now stands. It was at first called Seleucia Babylonia afterwards it was known by the name of Babylonia, and
Tigris, about
;

(n) Lib. v. cap. 1. (o) The city of Seleucia

at length

by that of Babylon. An attention to this transfer of the name is essential to prevent mistakes as to the continuance of the ancient city, which was little better than a heap of ruins in the days of Pliny ; though we read of Babylon being taken by storm by Trajan ; burnt by Cassius, in the reign of Verus ; ruined by Severus, and taken by the Turks
;

transactions which belong to name of Babylon.

(p)

Seleucia,

under

its

assumed

Chap. xiii. xiv. Jerom, who flourished in the fourth century of the Christian aera, describes Babylon as utterly ruined the walls only being kept up by the Parthian kings, who had made the 3
(q)
;

park for keeping wild beasts in.* Benjamin, a Jew of Tudela, in Navarre, who travelled about the middle of the 12th century, says he was upon the spot where Babylon once stood, but saw only some ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace, which nobody ventured to visit, by reason of the serpents and scorpions that infested the place.f Tcxeira says, the place where this great and powerful city once stood, was the least frequented of any in the whole country 4 Rauwolf, who visited these parts in 1574, " This says, country is so dry and barren, that I should have doubted whether this powerful and potent city (which was the most stately and famous in the world, situate in the pleasant and fruitful country of Sinar) stood in that place, if I had not known it from its situation, and several antiquities to be still seen in the neighbourhood first, by the old bridge, laid over the Euphrates, whereof some arches still Just remain, built of burnt brick, and wonderfully strong. before the village of Elngo is the hill on which the castle At stood, and the ruins of its fortifications are still visible. a small distance from the castle are the remains of the tower
:

Teira's

Hieronym. Common!, in Esai. cap. xiv. Travel* fram India to Italy, chap.

Benjamin.

Itiner. p. 76.

viii.

502

HISTORY OF BABYLONIA.
SECTION
II.

[CHAP. vn.

Besides Babel, or Babylon, Moses describes three other cities, Erech \Wasit], Accad, and Calneh, as built by Nimrod in the land of Shinar,(r) of which some notice has been already taken.(s) The other cities of note in Babylonia
Proper, were, Vologesia, or Vologesocerta, [Kerberla, or Mesched-Hosein, i.e. the tomb of Hosein] built on a canal of the Euphrates, by Vologesis, king of the Parthians, in the reign of Vespasian. Hosein, son of Ali, and grandson of Mohammed, was buried here. Barsita,(t) or Borsippa, \_J3rouss] the seat of a certain sect of Chaldaeans, called from the place Borsippini. It was sacred to Diana and Apollo and in Strabo's time was celebrated In the neighbourfor its woollen manufacture. hood were found bats of a remarkably large
;

NATURAL HISTORY OF BABYLONIA AND CHALD/EA. SOIL AND FERTILITY. CLIMATE. RIVERS AND CANALS.
This country enjoys, for the most a very temperate and wholesome air ; yet, part,
seasons, no atmosphere is more heats are, nevertheless, so exthat the rich people used to sleep in cessive, cisterns of water.(v) The simoom, or samiel,(\v) that fatal blast, is w ell known in this country,
at

CLIMATE.
certain

noxious.

The

and frequently occasions great mortality.

It

rarely rains here, so that the inhabitants, particularly those of the northern parts, are at great labour in irrigating their lands ; for which

size,

and so delicate in their flesh, that they were served up at the best tables. (u) Coche, opposite to Ctesiphon, on an island of the Tigris. To which may be added, Massice [Mesairo], Dorista, Abara [Burac],
Currapho, Helta Ilira [JJLW/a],Thamara[Jbara], Cybate [El-Akraa], Donantilia, Dablan, Aserga, Anar [Korna], Idiccara, Sura, and Pombeditha most of whose situations are very
.

purpose they use various machines, and in such numbers, that the navigation of the Euphrates is sometimes injured by the excessive draught
of water.(x) The drought generally lasts for eight months of the year ; though sometimes no rain has fallen for two years and a half together ; and the inhabitants are quite satisfied if it does but rain twice or thrice within the
year.

SOIL AND
is

FERTILITY.
;

The

soil

of this

uncertain. In Chaldaea, Ptolemy places the following On the Tigris and Euphrates, Spunda, Batraand Teridon, or charta, Shalatha, Altha, Diridotis at which last, Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander, landed, after his celebrated navigation from the Indus to the Persian Gulf. In the inland country Chuduca, Chumana, Beth-ana, Urchoa, or Orchoe [Semavat, i.e. the Celestial], near the ancient channel of the Biramba, and Euphrates, now dried up; seu'ral others, equally unknown. Orchoe is
: ; :

and while the industry of the country inhabitants was what it ought to be, it could All vie with any other place upon the earth. the country was intersected by canals, by which the water of the river was diffused by human perseverance, as that of the Nile was by nature.
rich

Though not remarkable

as
figs,

for the growth of trees, vines, and olives, it was so luxuriant in grain, that, in ordinary years, the produce was a hundred fold, and in good years, three-hundred

generally supposed to be the Ur of the Chaldees, described by Moses as the birth-place of Abraham ; but Annnianus Marcellinus, fol-

lowed by some others, places Ur in Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and the city of
INisibis [Nesibin.]

of the wheat and barley was The millet and sesame four fingers broad. shot up to the size of trees. The sesame afforded the inhabitants oil, instead of the olive; as the palm did with wine, instead of the grape. The latter tree, the palm, flourished naturally all over this land, and chiefly that of the date kind, which afforded, as Herodotus expresses
fold.

The blade

himself, meat, wine,

and honey.

This country

of Babylon, half a league

in

diameter, but so ruined, and full

(r)
(s)

Gen.

x. 10.

of venomous
mile of
iiiM-i ts
it,

nobody darts come within half a except during two months in winter, when the
reptiles, that

keep within their holes. Among these reptiles, are M'lnr culled by the Persiaus eylo, larger than our lizards and very poisonous," &c.*
*

See before, page 301. (t) Ptolem. lib. v. cap. 2G. (u) Strabo. lib. xvi. p. 509.
Plutarch. Si/mpos. lib. iii. p. 640. (w) For an account of ihis wind, see before, page 403. Strab. lib. xv. p. 092. (x) Herodot. lib. i. cap. 193.
(v)

Baudot f's Trorcb,

part.

ii.

chap. 7.

SECT.

II.]

NATURAL HISTORY

RIVERS AND CANALS.

the country, they were unladen, and sold ; but the hides were retained, arid the asses laden with them, to be conveyed home again the of the stream, and the unwieldiriess of strength the vessels, prohibiting their return by water.(e) Though the Euphrates now unites itself with the Tigris, and the river thus composed of their joint streams, called by the Arabs, Schat-al-Arab, or the river of the Arabs, falls into the Persian Gulf, it is generally believed that the Euphrates originally emptied itself into the sea by a mouth of its own and that its waters were afterwards conveyed by art, partly into the Tigris, and partly into the Chaldaean marshes. (f) Both the Euphrates and Tigris, in the months of June, July, and August, overflow their banks, in consequence of the melting of the snows on the mouptains of Armenia. These inundations must have proved extremely detrimental to the inhabitants, before they had con; ;

also

abounded with willows, for which its flat surface, and low situation among rivers, rendered it peculiarly adapted whence Bochart and Prideaux would render the expression of
;

Isaiah, (y) the valley ofwilloics, translated in the English version, brook of t lie willows, and in the Herodotus(/) margin, valley of the Arabians.

compares this country with Egypt; but declares, that what he could say on the subject, would appear so incredible, that, although he had been an eye-witness of its fertility, he thought it
prudent to be
silent.

RIVERS

AND

CANALS.

The

Euphrates,

[F/'/](a) rises in the mountains of Armenia, and taking a southward course, washes the eastern skirts of Syria, south-eastward dividing Mesopotamia from Arabia, and north-eastward separating Chaldaea and Babylonia from Mesopotamia, till, mingling its waters with those of the Tigris, they run together towards the Persian Gulf; but just before their confluence with the

trived

artificial

canals, rivers,

and

lakes, for

ocean, they divide again into branches, of which the two principal are supposed to be the Pison

and Gihon of Moses. (b)

its

This river is slow in and not well adapted throughout for course, navigation, by reason of the shoals and rocks Its waters are always foul, lying in its bed. and unfit for drinking, till they have been kept some time to settle, or have been filtered, when they become lighter, and preferable to any in
those parts, whence the river is known to the neighbouring people by a name which signifies the water of desire. (c?) The fish of the Euphrates are also reported
to

reception of the superfluous waters ; but when these were formed, the waters were equally distributed, the country was generally
the

notice

be excellent in their kind and particular is taken of one somewhat like a carp, which sometimes weighs 17 or 18 pounds. (d)
;

singular.

of navigating this river was were round, no better than large wicker baskets, covered with hides, and guided along by means of two paddles. Some of these curious vessels were capable of bearing a burden of 5000 talents, including a number of asses, according to their size, which were always included in the cargo. When they arrived at Babylon from the upper parts of ancient

The

mode

The

vessels

and an easy communication was afforded to the inhabitants. Of these canals, the most considerable was one cut by Nebuchadne/zar, from the Euphrates, above Babylon, to the Tigris, at Apamea, more than 60 miles below Seleucia. This channel, which was capacious enough for the navigation of large vessels, was called in the Chaklaran language Naarmalcha,(g) which answers to Ptolemy's Basileios Potamos, or Royal Jticcr. Ptolemy describes the Euphrates as dividing itself in Mesopotamia, near the town of Sipphara, (supposed to be the Sepharvaim(h) of holy writ) into two branches, one running to Babylon, the other to Seleucia, where it But formed a junction with the Tigris.(i) Pliny seems to insinuate that the latter was.
fertilized,

partly at least, an artificial channel ;(j) the learned Prideaux ranks it among

and
the

stupendous works of Nebuchadnezzar.(k) The emperors Trajan and Severus, during their wars against the Parthians, dug a new canal
(f;

(\)
(a)

(z) Ubi supra. Chap. xv. 7. For some observations on die name of this

Plin. lib. vi. cap. 27.

river, see

before, page 2(52. (b) See before, page 2(52.

(c)

apud Euseb. Prcep. lib. ix. cap. 41. 2 Kings, xvii. 24, 31. Isaiah, xxxvi. 19. xxxvii. 13. Sen before, page 274, note (o).
(g)

Abvclentis

(b;

Thevenot, Voyage au Levant, partie

i.

chap.

0.
'

(i)
(

Ptoleni. lib. v. cap. 17.

(d)
(e)

Rauwolf s
Herodot.

Travels, part
i.

ii.

chap. 6.

j) Pliu. lib. vi.

cap.

2(5.
ii.

lib.

cap. 191.

(k; Priil. Connect,

book

part.

i.

page 103.

504

HISTORY OF THE BABYLONIANS.

SECTION
III.

[CHAP. vu.

from the Naarraalcha to the Tigris, near Coche, opposite to Ctesiphon.(l) One of these artificial channels is spoken of by Ezekiel, under the name of the river C/iebar, (m) or Chobar, as rendered by the Greek versions, which most interpreters suppose to have been borrowed from Gobaris, or Gobryas, the overseer of the works, (n) and who afterwards revolted to Cyrus. At some distance, west of Sipphara, was another river, called by Ptolemy, Naarsares, and by Ammianus the Marses, or Marsias: the former writer says this was a branch of the Euphrates, running west of Babylon, and mixing again with the present Bochart supposes stream near Vologesia.(o) of Pliny.(p) About 800 this to be the Narraga furlongs south of Babylon, was a canal, called Pallacopas by Arrian, and Pallacotta by Appian, which was derived from the branch of the Euphrates that passed through Babylon, and communicated with certain lakes or marshes in Chaldaea, to which Alexander the Great sailed by means of the said canal. (q) Of these, and many other canals, it may generally be observed, that the attempt to trace them out would be a fruitless labour. Many, that were formerly considerable, are now no more and others have been since formed, that were unknown in ancient times
;
:

ANTIQUITY, GOVERNMENT, LAWS, PUNISHMENTS, RELIGION, TEMPLES, CUSTOMS AND CHARACTER, TRIBES, LANGUAGE AND LEARNING, ARTS AND SCIENCES, MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE, OF THE ANCIENT BABYLONIANS.

the empire it ultimately attained. As to writers of respectability prefer Assyria, many the marginal reading of Gen. x. 11, from which it should seem that, not Asshur, but Nimrod was the founder of that kingdom also. They are, however, more usually considered as of distinct origin, and in this sense they will be here treated, (r) After Nimrod, we meet with nothing in the scriptures relative to Babylon, till the reign of Merodach-Baladan,
to

ANTIQUITY. The kingdom of Babel is the upon record it was founded by Nimrod, youngest son of Cush, the son of Ham, and for many ages it probably remained a petty sovereignty, consisting of Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, till the Assyrians paved the way
first
;

and so subject to extraordinary inundations from two such great rivers as the Tigris and Euphrates, and
for a country so well watered,

contemporary with Hezekiah, except that in days of Abraham, Amraphel, king of Shinar, by which Babel and its dependencies are supposed to be indicated, was the ally, or tributary vassal, of Chedorlaomer, king of Elarn, when that monarch invaded the cities of the plain, and carried away Lot with the spoil
the

so greatly neglected as it has been for several ages, must have considerably, and perhaps frequently, changed its face since the days of Strabo, Pliny, and Ptolemy, the only writers

whose accounts can be

(1)

relied on.
(m) Ezek. i. 3. Ptolem. lib.
15, 23. cap. 20.

of Sodom.(s) The importance of Babylon, as an empire, was but of late date, therefore, notwithstanding its priority among kingdoms, compared with which its power and splendour were evanescent and fleeting; vanishing almost before it was fully developed. The Babylonians and Chaldaeahs, not con(s) The learned writer, last quoted, supposes the expulsion of the Cutbeans from the land of Shinar to have given rise to the poetical fiction of the first Titanic war; and the

Zos.

lib.

iii.

cap. 24.

iii.

(n) Plin. lib. vi. cap. 26. (p) Plin. ubi supra.

(o)

v.

Alex. lib. vii. Appian. Bell. Civ. lib. ii. (q) Arrian. Exped. See also Strabo, lib. xvi. page 510. is satisfied that the text, as it now stands (r) Mr. Bryant in the English version, is the genuine sense of the original, and that it alludes to some violence on the part of Nimrod,

subsequent expedition, and conquest, above alluded to the second .f He conceives that after the Sheniites

to,

had

by which Asshur was forced to retire from his original settlement in Shinar, or Babylon, and to seek one elsewhere, at

He thinks, however, that the sons of Asshur Nineveh. soon regained possession of the place of their first destination, and that in consequence the Cutheans were dispersed, and, among other places, invaded Egypt, as already related in the account of the Hyc-sos, or King-Shepherds ; where they built cities in memory of those they had left behind them.
Mythol.
vol.
i.

recovered Babel, or rather Shinar, (the former having been ruined at the dispersion,) they placed a prince, named Amraphael upon the throne, and having made all secure at home, they determined upon pursuing the Cutheans, if possible to subject them wherever they were to be found : this was the commencement of the second Titanic war. At first they were successful; for they invaded the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-Kiriathaim, the Horites in Mount Seir, unto El-paran ; together with the Amorites and Amalckites ;{ all of whom were of the family of Ham, and many in the direct line of Cush ; they also invaded the cities in the plains of Sodom, and made them tributary for 12 years.
t Ibid,

page 193.

and

vol. iv. p.

91, et uq.

Om.

X!T.

SECT.

III.]

ANTIQUITY. GOVERNMENT.
In process of time, they got full Ethiopia. possession of Egypt, and the whole coast of Africa, upon the Mediterranean, even to the Atlantic Ocean, as far as Fez and Taflilet; and are now to be found within the tropics, almost as low as the Gold-coast. The kingdom of Barsally, upon the Gambia, and all the Phooley nations, this gentleman derives from the same He thinks the term Chasdim should source.(y) be read Chusdim, or rather Chusim, the sons of Chus, or Cush.(z)

first founders of a monarchy claimed a most extravagant (t) upon antiquity, pretending to have registered the transactions of 150,000 years,(u) according to some, or 473,000,(v) according to others, from the time when they first began to observe the heavenly bodies, to the days of Alexander.

tent with being the

earth,

The register sent by Callisthenes to Aristotle, when that prince was at Babylon, contained
the observations of 1903 years, commencing 1 14 years after the flood. The origin of the first Babylonians, it will appear from what has been said, is derived from Ham, in the line of Gush and Nirnrod though they were quickly superseded by the posterity of Shem ; if indeed these latter ought not to be rather deemed the aborigines of the country ; for, upon the hypothesis premised, they only recovered, on the expulsion of the Cutheans, what had been first wrested from them by violence. As to the Chaldaeans, or Chasdim as they were called before the Greeks had mutilated the name, they have been variously derived from Arphaxad,(w) the third son of Shem, and from Chesed,(x) the son of Nahor, Abraham's brother: but Mr. Bryant insists that they were the genuine race of Cutheans, who, at the time of the dispersion, remained in the country they had first occupied, since called Chaldaea ; that Nimrod was of their number, and invaded the sons of Shem in the land of and Shinar, or Babylon, as already suggested that, on being defeated in their turn, they spread themselves, under the various names of
:

GOVERNMENT. The government of the Babylonians, in common with the rest of those of Asia, was despotic, and the crown hereAll decrees issued from the mouth of ditary.
the king, and originated in his will. He affected the style of deity itself, was called King of kings, and even permitted, or enjoined, divine honours to be paid to him. He was always addressed with the words, " King, live for ever "(a) and the man who was so happy as to gain his favour, was clothed in purple or scarlet, had a chain of gold hung about his neck, and was invested with the government of a city or a

province. The administration of public affairs was deputed to officers of various titles and powers, civil and military, who were divided into three
classes
;

among

they were selected, generally, from the most noble and the wisest of the

Cutheans, Hyc-sos, Arabians, and Ethiopians, westward as far as Egypt, and eastward as far as the Ganges; occupying all the Asiatic coasts,
with the peninsula of Arabia, whence they crossed the Erythrean Gulf, and penetrated into

empire; though, upon particular occasions, a favourite would be promoted, even from among the captives as in the case of Daniel, Shadrach, &cc. To the officers of the first class was committed the care of disposing of the virgins in marriage, as no female was permitted to remain in a state of celibacy, nor could they or their parents dispose of themselves privately, as will more fully appear under the head of
;

In the 13th year, these cities attempted to throw off the yoke; but in the 14th, they were again invaded, and subdued though Abraham, in his zeal for the welfare of his nephew Lot, discomfited the conquerors, and restored Sodom, if not the other cities, to a state of independence, which they had uot long enjoyed, before they were overthrown by the vengeance of God ujioii their iniquities. This history, simple in itself, the poets, misled by uncertain traditions of the truth, have wrought up into the highly embellished fiction of the wars of the giants with the gods, and the final overthrow of the former by the thunder of Jupiter. The fears of the Hyc-sos, spoken of by Manetho, lest they should be attacked by the Assyrians, who were of the posterity of Sbein, con:

what has been asserted respecting the antiquity of the Egyptians they were undoubtedly the most ancient people; but Babel was the most ancient kingdom ; the Egyptians being supposed to have continued under the patriarchal government till invaded by the Cutheans, who carried with them the
;

monarchical form from Babylon.

ii. page 81. (w) In Shalshcl. Hakhab. p. 93. Joseph. Antiq. lib. i. Dr. Wells's Geog. of the Old Test. vol. i. p. 187. cap. 7. Lightfoot. Oper. vol. i. p. 13. (x) Bochart's Phalfij. lib. ii. cap. 2. Heidegg. Hist. Partr. torn. i. page 458. (z) Ibid. vol. iy. p. 3G7. (y) Mythol. vol. vi. p. 273. (a) Dan. ii. 4, 37. v. 10.

(v)

(u) Syncell. ChrQtiogr. Diod. Sicul. Blbl. Hist. lib.

siderably strengthen this theory. (t) It is not intended, by this expression, to contradict

VOL.

I.

3T

506

HISTORY OF THE BABYLONIANS.

This
iirst

[CHAP. TIL

LAWS.

class of officers

were also
like.

judges in second class took cognisance of thefts; and to the third wore consigned all other offences and
crimes. (b)

cases of adultery and the

The

subordinate powers, under the king, were divided into princes, governors, captains,

The

of a law, has reached us, respecting the marriage of females. By this usage, no man had a right to dispose of his daughters ; but when arrived at nubile years, they were exposed they with others of their own age in some public place, where, in the midst of a crowd of men assembled for the purpose, they were put up,

and judges, treasurers, counsellors, sheriff's, of pro\inres;(c) besides the officers of rulers religion, who formed a distinct class. The chief officers of the king's household were the captain of the guarded) the prince of the eunuchs ;(t>) and the chief of the governors,(f) an office in the nature of that of the Turkish vi/ir, who more immediately represented the master. The first of these person of his great characters had the execution of all the
monarch's
sanguinary and arbitrary commands ;(g) the second had the care of the education and subsistence of the youth of the
with whatever belonged to palace,(h) together the king's wives and concubines, who were numerous ; the third sat in the king's gate,(i) to

one by one, to sale, by the proper officer. The most beautiful were first put up, and sold to the highest bidder; and when all who were valuable on account of their personal charms were thus disposed of, the money obtained from their sale was applied to portion off those to whom nature had been less bountiful. Of these, the most ugly or deformed were first sold to the lowest bidder, and so upwards to such as were taken without a premium thus were the whole disposed of: for, among the
:

poorer classes, those who valued money more than beauty, were as eager in their underbiddings, as the wealthier had been in their
over-biddings
for the and all the fairest, young women, of whatever rank, condition,

hear complaints, and to give judgment. Besides these, there was likewise a master of magicians always at hand, whom the king consulted with
regard to future events, and the interpretation of dreams but he rather appears to have been an ecclesiastic, of the order of the Chaldaeans, than a civilian though the title was given to Daniel, on account of his superior wisdorn.(j) No one was allowed the honour of serving in the royal presence, who was not remarkable for beauty of person, and excellency of parts. LAWS. In an empire where the will of the
;

or aspect, obtained husbands, when of proper age.(k) There was likewise a custom among these people, which appears to have partaken of the nature of an ecclesiastical law, that obliged every woman, without exception, once in her lifetime to prostitute herself for money to a strange man, at the temple of Mylitta, or Venus. On this occasion the women were crowned with knots and garlands, and ranged in long rows before the temple, for the men to pass

sovereign was the only law, it is in vain to look for establishments, such as are to be found under governments, whose milder system provides for the public safety by enactments and statutes, that are binding upon all classes. Whether this observation should be here received in its fullest and most comprehensive sense, or whether some deduction should be

between them, and make their choice, which was done by throwing money into the lap of the woman most admired, and using the words,
goddess Mylitta for thee !" small soever, was not to be price, refused, because it was accounted sacred nor could the woman reject the man who thus accosted her.(l) PUNISHMENTS. As the laws were vague and uncertain, so the punishments appear to
I

"

implore

the

The

how

made from it, the total loss of the records of the Babylonians disables us from determining. One custom, which, as it had the sanction of public authority, perhaps merits the name of
(b) Strab. lib. xvi. p. 45. (<1) I/'itl. vi-r. 14. (c) Dan. iii. 2, 3. (f) ILid. ii. 48. (g) 76td.ver.14. This ki.nij's (/ate was (i) Ibid. ii. 40.
(V) Ibid,
i.
i.

have been arbitrary

and rigorous, generally

extending to the whole family of the delinquent. Beheading, (m) cutting in pieces, (n) pulling
dignity conferred upon Daniel; greatest monarch of his time.
(j)

he was chief judge of the

10.

(h) Ilnd.

79.
nearly

Comp. Dan.
Dan.

i.

1720.

ii.

1319, 2448. iv. 8, 9. v. 11.

Strab.
lib. xvi. p.

probably similar to

(k)
(1)

the English court of hiny's bench

for the terms arc

synonymous.

By

this

we may judge of

Herodot. lib. i. cap. 106. Herodot. lib. i. cap. 199.

i.

l->.

Strab.

lib. xvi. p.

74i.

the great honour anil

(in)

10.

SECT.

III.]

RELIGION.
their devotion,
;

SOT

defaulter's house, or, in the Scripture phraseology, making his house a dunghill, (n)

down the

and burning

in a furnace heated for the purare punishments known to have been pose,(o) but whether inflicted by the kings of Babylon of Babylonish or Assyrian origin, does not so
;

in others of deified mortals are supposed to have they followed the ancient Syrians. Ninus is said to have been the first who set

which

last absurdity,

clearly appear.

up images to be worshipped ; particularly one to his father Belus,(([) some suppose to be the Pul of holy writ, and INinus the same

whom

RELIGION. In treating of the religion of the Babylonians, we should naturally be led into an inquiry as to the origin of idolatry, for it was in this country, while under the domination of the Cutheans, that it indubitably arose, after the flood but as this subject has already been treated at some length, (p) we shall here only observe, that the Chaldeans were the authors, or revivers, of the Sabian religion, which deemed the celestial bodies proper objects of adoration; and that they were at once the priests and the philosophers
;

with Tiglath-Pileser; and he granted privileges

and pardons

to

all

who

resorted to

it.

Mr.

Bryant, however, denies the existence of such a person as Belus, and insists that this idol was no more than a personification of the sun;

though the title was subsequently assumed by the kings of Babylon, as Osiris had been by those of Egypt.(r) It was synonymous with Bel and Baal, so frequently named in the
Scriptures.
this Belus was a temple erected in the of Babylon, where he was revered as city a primary god and to him was the celebrated tower dedicated, of which we have already spoken. This edifice, it will be recollected, consisted of eight towers, or stories, raised one upon the other, and each decreasing
;

To

in which capacities they were from the laity, and enjoyed prividistinguished leges as extensive, and much of the same

of Babylon,

nature,

as did the derived their origin

Egyptian

priests,

who

same

source. the business of their superstitious worship they pretended to prophesy, as well as to the gift of divination by the rules of augury, by the flight of birds, and by inspection of the entrails of victims. They also affected to interpret dreams, and to explain all the extraordinary phaenomena of nature, as portentous of good or evil to individuals or to nations: and by
;

and religion from the 1 hey were wholly devoted to

in

dimensions as they proceeded upwards. uppermost of these stories was a magnificent bed, with a golden table near it; but no image ;(s) nor was any one suffered to enter the apartment, except a woman, who was daily selected by the priests, and conducted
its

In the

thither, to enjoy, as they pretended, the company of the god : for it was in this place that

their

enchantments and invocations, they made the populace believe they could affect mankind with happiness or misery. From their very commencement as a tribe, they had been
addicted to celestial observations; but instead of conceiving just notions of the omnipotence of the great Creator and Mover of the heavenly
bodies, they fell into the impious error of esteeming those bodies as animated by intelli-

tain

But it is uncerhe used to repose himself.(t) whom they meant by this god, whether Belus, or the supreme Creator of heaven and earth, whom they either could not represent by an image, or dared not, lest they should In the incur his wrath by their presumption. next story, beneath, was a gigantic statue of
Jupiter,

they worshipped; and they pretended to predict future events from their various conjunctions and aspects. From pure Sabiism, the Chaldaeans, at what period is unknown, degenerated into worshippers of idols; some of them representatives of
gences,
the heavenly bodies,
Dan.

whom

the original objects

of

whom some call Belus, though it is more probable that the upper chamber belonged to lielus, or the sun; and that the idol now spoken of was a personification of the intelligence supposed to inhabit the planet whose name it bore. This statue was of pure gold, and before as it was a table of the same precious metal were likewise the throne, on which it was seated, and all the furniture about it insomuch that the whole work was valued at 800 talents
;
:

(n)

ii.

.1. iii.

29.

(o) Ibid.

iii.

6, 11, 15,

1922.

(r)
(s)

Mijthol. vol.

i.

54.

vi.

257.

(p) See before, p. 212. (<[) Ambr. in Epiit. ad

Roman,

cap. 1.

(t)

3x2

Herod, lib. i. cap. 180. Idem, cap. 182.

508
of gold.(u)

HISTORY OF THE BABYLONIANS.

[CHAP. vii.

Without the temple, were two one of gold, of a moderate size, the altars, other much larger. Ou the former, none but the sucking victims might be sacrificed on none that were not fullgrown.(\) larger one, Next in order to this deity, was Mylitta, whose name, in the Babylonian language, signified mother: she seems to have been the same with the Grecian Venns, or Urania, and the
;

line deities, Mars and Lucifer; all which appear to be personifications of the attributes of the

Assyrian Semiramis, who was represented as Such receiving her apotheosis in the moon. were the general notions of writers respecting this deity, till Mr. Bryant threw new light upon
the subject, by which it appears that Mylitta, was no other than the ark of Noah, the DamaIt has been ter, or mother of gods and men.(z) that this deity partook of both sexes, noticed and accordingly her votaries appeared in her temple and at her shrines, sometimes habited as men, sometimes as women the two sexes mutually exchanging garments with each other; the men sacrificing in the dress of women, and the women in that of men ;(a) a practice that was the source of inordinate desires, and unnatural gratifications ; whence it is supposed that Moses was commanded so peremptorily to " woman to wear what forbid the pertaineth to the man, or a man to put on a woman's gar;

thereby forming Venos.(\v} This deity had certain consecrated shrines, called Succoth Benoth, or the tents, or tabernacles of Benoth ; the literal meaning of which is, tabernacles of the
sacridaughters ;(x) no doubt in allusion to the which the women, or daughters of the land, fice were bound to make, once in their lifetime, of

She was also Astarte of the Phoenicians. called Benoth, a name from which the learned Seldeu thinks Venus was corruptly derived, by into an S, changing the B into aV, and the

TH

their virtue and modesty, as already related. This deity was worshipped both as a god and goddess in the former character she is supposed to represent the Mars of Greece in the latter, Venus, or rather Pallas, who, though a female, was represented by the Greeks in warShe is also described by prolike habiliments. fane historians and poets, as of greater antiquity than Belus; though this may be justly
:

ment."(b)

Salambo was another goddess of the Babylonians, or of the Assyrians, for, in consequence of the early junction of these two kingdoms, we can scarcely distinguish the deities that respectThis goddess, who ively originated with them. is represented as perpetually roving about, and

mourning

in search of her lost Adonis,(c) bears

doubted, it not being credible that the Cuthites should have worshipped a secondary planet before the sun she might, indeed, be prior to
;

strong characteristics of the Egyptian fsis, the Phoenician Astarte, and the Grecian Venus. Her continual wandering appears to have been
significative of the lunar course.

the Babylonian Jupiter, which the writers alluded to have mistaken for Belus. Philochoras holds Benoth, or Mylitta, to be the inoon,(y) which is extremely probable, from the rank she held next to Belus, or the sun. Indeed, it appears, that from her was derived the whole tribe of great goddesses of the heathen: ;is Rltea, Cybele, Juno, Luna, Diana, Nemesis, the Parcae, Pallas, or Minerva, Venus, To, Astarte, Derceto, or Atargatis, Urania, and the mascu-

Shack, Saca, or Sheshach,(d) another deity of the Babylonians, of both sexes, is supposed to have been the earth, the same whom the Romans afterwards worshipped under the This deity appears to titles of Tettus and Ops. of the characteristics of have possessed many Mylitta ; and an annual festival was held to its honour by the Babylonians, for five days together, from which the Saturnalia of the
symbol, whence the constellation itself obtained the popular name of the hen and chickens: but this seems rather a whimsical conceit, than an historical fact.
(y)
(x)
(a)

In this same chapter, we also (u) Herod, lib. i. rap. 183. read of an image of solid gold, 12 cubits in height; but whether Herodotus meant to describe two distinct images, or whether he describes one only, fir; t by its value, and afterwards by its dinicns.ons, is not clear. (w) Seld. I)e Diis Syr. syntag. ii. cap. 7. (v) Ibid. It lias been ren(x) Seldcn DC Diis Si/r. synt. ii. cap. 7. dered tabernacle of winy n* by some, who think the idol was represented as a hen brooding over her chickens, and thai the constellation of the Pleiades was honoured under this
Kimchi
et Jarchi,

Apud Macrob.
Mythol. vol.
iii.

Saturnal. page 231.

1.

lib.

iii.

cap. 8.

Selden, ubi supr. cap.

Ilesych.

(b) De.Ht. xxii. 5.

()
(d)

apud Seklen et al. Etymol. Mag*, ad Voccm. From whom the prophet Jeremiah calls Babylon by the
+ Jcr.
Ii.

name of Sheshach.f
41.

apud Seldeu, De Diis

Syr. synt.

ii.

cap. 7.

15

SECT.

III.]

RELIGION.

509

its origin. During the time of this the servants commanded their masters, festival, one of them being for the time constituted chief over the household, and wearing a particular garment, called Zogana.(e) The name of this festival, Sacca, or Sacea, may be derived from the Sacae, or Scuthae, whom Mr. Bryant concludes to be the same with the Cuthas, or

Romans had

pillars, called HeetuKa, under which representation this deity was frequently worshipped.(k) This symbolic worship began among the sons of Cush, and by them was propagated in various parts. They built the city of Opts, upon the to Tigris, where they were greatly addicted

divination,

and

to the

worship of the serpent,(l)

Cuthites.(f)

Nebo, or Nabo, another deity of these people, thought to have been the C/iemosh, or BaalPeor, of the Moabites. By the prophet Isaiah, he is joined with Bel,(g) whom some take to be the deified Pul, but the deity appears to be much older than that prince. As Bel, or Belus, was the sun, Nebo is supposed to have been originally the moon;(h) though he has sometimes been taken for the effeminate Sardanais

whose name they had given to their city. Expelled from Shinar by the sons of Shem, they carried their worship into Egypt, where the serpent deity was known by the titles of It had also the Can-opli, Can-eph, and C'neph. name of Ob, or Oub, and was the same with the Basiliscus, or royal serpent the same also as the Thermuthis; and was used by way of ornament to the statues of their gods. When the
;

As the name of this idol signifies propalus. phecy, or divination, he is supposed to have had a celebrated oracle. (i) Among the other numerous deities of these
idolaters,

were Rack, who may be ranked with

Belus, as a representation of the sun; Nego and Nergul, worshipped as the element of fire ;

Cuthites regained possession of Babylon, they revived the ophite worship, and from that time, to the end of their monarchy, the serpent continued to be reverenced by the Babylonians. It has been alleged, that these people used the serpent as a symbol of God, because it had the power of moving without the assistance of limbs ; lived to a great age ; and, as it were, renewed its life, with its skin, every year; as
likewise, that its penetrating sight qualified it Whether to represent the divine providence. or any other, were the true motives to these,
this singular act of adoration, it is impossible, at so great a distance of time from its origin, to

and Merodach, of whom nothing remains.

Sabians, as well as the Persian Magi, had a veneration for fire, the origin of which is attributed to Nirnrod.(j) In the apocryphal history of Bel and the Dragon, we find an allusion, under the character of the dragon, to the ophite deity of the Babylonians. The serpent, frequently called a dragon in holy writ, was an emblem of the sun, of time, and of eternity. It was worshipped in most

The Chaldaean

and was variously esteemed the same as Osiris, Vulcan, and Apollo. This deity was looked upon as prophetic, and his temples were resorted to as oracular. The symbolical worship of the serpent was very ancient, and very
nations, extensive, being introduced into all the myswherever celebrated. Wherever the teries,

Amonians, or descendants of Ham, founded any places of worship, there was generally

discover we shall, therefore, leave the subject, with remarking, that the same reptile was made the symbol of God, of health, of prudence, and of fraud (m) The Babylonians agreed with the Egyptians in most articles of religion, especially in the worship of fishes, goats, and onions and as they gave rise to all the idolatries and superstitions that deluded other nations, so must be charged upon them the origin of the horrible to practice of immolating human victims, This appease the fictitious wrath of their gods. custom, however, so repulsive to every natural and religious feeling, at last appeared, even to
;
.

some

allusion to the serpent.

they had no images,

In ancient times, but conical stones or

these idolaters, too shocking to be tolerated; so that, in the latter days of the Babylonians,

(e)
(f)

Berosns aptitl Athen. Dcipnosoph. Sec Mythol. vol. iv. p. 183, et seq.

lib. xiv. p.

639.

(g) Isaiah, xlvi. 1. Idololat. (h) Vossius

De

(i)

Ilieronym. in Esai. xlvi. 1. (j) C'Aro*. Pasch. ex Clementinis, p.

2330

where, for

Assyrians, read Babylonians, the writer having improperly included both those people under the firbt name. ii. p. 197, 458. (k) See Bryant's Mythology, vol. i. p. 57. Nevochim. See also Selden De (1) Maimonides in 'More Diix Stfris. synt. i. cap. 3. p. 49. (m) Vossius De Idololat. lib. ix. p. 233.

510

HISTORY OF THE BABYLONIANS.

The
character of these people

[CHAP, viris,

it was confined to a particular sect or tribe, called Sepharvaiin,(ii) who continued to burn their children in the fire to those bloody deities,

that they

Adram-melech and Anain-melech, even

their settlement in the land of Israel.

after

were excessively credulous, superstitious, and debauched. So prone were they to idolatry, that we find the mighty monarch Nebuchadnezzar prostrating himself before his captive Daniel, to worship him, because he had given the interpretation of his dream.(p) Parents and husbands did not scruple to expose their wives and daughters, for money, to the embraces of their guests. Drunkenness was carried to excess among them ; their women not being exempt from this vice and it was reckoned a point of good breeding, at great entertainments, where the cup passed freely about, for the women, as well married as single, to expose themselves in a state of absolute nudity. (q) But notwithstanding all the dissoluteness of their manners, the Babylonians thought themselves polluted by the lawful use of matrimony, and were not allowed
:

TEMPLES. The prophet Jeremiah, in the apocryphal book of Baruch, has given a general view of the temples, idols, and priests of

The idols, as we may conceive, Babylon. were of gold, silver, and wood; they were carried about in processions, and the superstitious multitude prostrated themselves whenever they met them. They were crowned, as kings, clad in royal garments of purple, and were
black with the smoke of incense.

The

temples

The quantity of incense continually burnt. free with the gold and priests sometimes made silver presented to their gods, and either appropriated it to their own use, or offered it at the shrine of deities, who, in the shape of living them prostitutes, had more influence upon than inanimate idols as to the garments and food offered to the gods, they wisely gave them to clothe and feed their own families. But to keep up an appearance of sanctity and devotion, they lighted up numbers of tapers before their images, and sat in the temples
:

were tilled with smoke and dust, occasioned by the resort of numerous votaries, and the

any thing after it, till they had purified themselves by washing and perfuming their whole bodies ;(r) so strangely did these people pervert nature and reason, substituting light for darkness, and darkness for light. The sale of their virgins, and the prostitution of their women in the temple of Mylitta, have been already noticed as forming part of their
to touch

laws.(s)

with their beards and heads close shaven, uncovered, and with torn garments, lamenting and crying out before their idols, as if they were mourning the death of some near relation or beloved friend.

The dress of the consisted of a linen vest, next Babylonians the skin, which reached down to the heels over this, they wore a second vest of woollen, which was itself covered with a white mantle, or cloke. They wore their own hair, and their heads were adorned with a tiara, or mitre. Their bodies they anointed all over with oil of sesame. On their finger they won a sealand in their hand they bore a staff ornaring, mented at the head with some particular figure, as that of an apple, a rose, lily, an eagle, &c. nor was it lawful for them to appear abroad without one of these staves. On their feet, they wore a kind of slippers.(o)
CUSTOMS AND MANNERS.
;
1

they had no professed physicians among it was their custom to expose their sick in the most frequented places, that passers-by might see them, and offer their adv ice, if they possessed any knowledge of the case, either from personal experience, or from that of others nor was it lawful for any one to omit

As

them,

or neglect this

friendly office.

As

to their

dead, they were embalmed with honey and buried in wax: their mourning was much after the manner of the Egyptians.(t) TKIBES. These people were not only divided into the two great classes of Babylonians and Chaldaeans, properly so called; but into other subordinate sects. Of these, three are said to have fed upon fish only,(u) though the Babylonians in general abstained from that kind of food out of respect to their great goddess. These tribes, however, resided in the fens, where no corn grew;(v) so that their departure
Hcrodot. lib. i. cap. 198. Strabo, ubi supra. Herodot. u/>i supra. See before, p. 300'. (t) (v) Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 74f?. (u) Idem, cap. 200.
(r)
(s)

(n)
(o)

2 Kings, Herodot.

xvii.
lib.

31.
Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 739, 745. cap. 195. (q) Quint. Curt. lib. v. cap. 1.

i.

(p)

Dan.

ii.

48.

sCT.

in.]

LANGUAGE AND LEARNING. ARTS AND SCIENCES.

effect

511

from the general custom might be the

necessity
alone,

of

difference of religious tenets. They dried their fish in the sun, and then kneaded them info a kind of paste or dough, as a. substitute for bread. The inhabitants of Borsippa, where the bats were
larger than in other places, used to salt the of hose animals for food ;(w) but whether from superstition or necessity, does not appear.
ilcsli
I

and not of a

In opposition to this last opinion, which makes the learning of the Chaldeans of too recent date, it is to be observed, that the Jews,

much

LANGUAGE AND LEARNING. The language of the Chaldees was a dialect of the Syriac; their common alphabet was also that of the Syrians; but they had likewise what are called Mendeari characters, of more recent
similar to the Estrangelo; thinks they had a sacred character, as well as the Egyptians (x) The Chaldeans were celebrated for learning, combining in their own persons the various characters of priests, philosophers, astronomers, This astrologers, soothsayers, scribes, &c.

invention,

somewhat

and

Bochart

Indians, all concur in their the Egyptians received their knowledge from the Chaldees, through the medium of Abraham; and these traditions deserve at least as much credit as any that the Greeks pretended to receive from the Egyptians themselves, on which the last-named writer builds his hypothesis. Most of the western writers ascribe the invention of astrology to the Assyrian or Babylonian Belus ; and the Chaldans themselves acknowledged no instructor but Cannes, whom they represented as springing from the primogenial which, as Mr. Bryant observes, can be egg,(b) no other than the ark of Noah.(c)
traditions

Arabians, and

that

ARTS AND SCIENCES.

But,

leaving

this

tribe,

which was quite distinguished from the Babylonians, inhabited a region peculiar to themselves, on the borders of Arabia and of the Persian Gulf; where they were divided into
several sects, as the Orcheni and Borsippeui. They were also known by other names of dis-

inquiry as to priority, for the detail of facts, we find the Chalda-ans did not acquire their learning, after the manner of the Greeks,

by

resorting to academies, and attending the lectures of masters; but by simple tradition from father to son and, to give them leisure to reflect upon what they thus received,
;

borrowed from particular places, tinction, where different doctrines on the same points were held, or from particular persons, whose tenets were peculiar to themselves. Among their learned men, were Adena, Naburian, Snditi, and Berosus.
professed to have received their first learning from the irrational Cannes, of whom the history has been already related ;(y) it is therefore, with respect to him, only necessary to add, that Mr. Bryant supposes Cannes to have been Noah, who before the flood preached to the antediluvians, and refused to eat with them of their sanguinary sacrifices, and who after the flood instructed his descendants in all useful knowledge; whence the fable of his twofold appearance ;(z) though Sir Isaac Newton derives all the learning of the Chaldaeans from the Egyptian priests, whom he supposes to have fled into the east, on the invasion of their country by Sabbaco the Ethiopian.

were exempt from all civil and military offices. What they had once imbibed, they tenaciously adhered to; so that they made little or no progress in the branches of learning they particularly professed.

they

They

They taught that the world was eternal, without beginning or end but they acknowledged a divine providence, and rejected the notion of a blind chance in the motions of the
;

heavenly bodies, which they supposed to be governed by superior agents, or gods. They were the first who cultivated astronomy, and made such progress in that science in their earliest times, that they discovered the exact motions of the stars and planets at the same time, they pretended to understand the influences of those celestial bodies over things below, and to be thereby enabled to foretel future
;

events

(a)

they were, therefore, the first judicial At this point they appear to have stopped for, having acquired so much knowledge of the revolution of the heavens as
:

astrologers. (d)

(w) Strabo,
(x)

lib. xvi.

Bncli.

Canaan, cap.

p. 739. 17. col. 773.

(b) Helladius.
(c)

apud Photium, Bibl. Cod. cclxxix. col. 1594.

iii.

(z) Mi/tliol. vol. iv. p. 138, et seq. (y) See before, p. 274. (a) Citron, of Ancient Kiiiyd. Amend. p. 210, et seq.

Mythol.

vol.

p. 100, 213.

(d) Diod. Sicul.

B'M.

Hist. lib.

ii.

p. 82.

HISTORY OF THE BABYLONIANS.

was
sufficient

[CHAP, vn.

for this

vtiin

pretension,

they

sought no farther, and accordingly their notions were coarse and imperfect. They held the earth to be like a vessel or boat, and hollow within; a doctrine which they supported by
various arguments. (e) Though they had the ingenuity to divide the zodiac into 12 signs, through which the planets performed their revolutions ; and though they named the six planets, and assigned various influences to them, accounting Saturn the most powerful, then Sol, or the sun; then Mars,

harmony of proportion, little can be said ; and as to their ornaments, decorations, paintings, and statues, they never came up to what Greece afterwards produced. Of musical instruments, they had a variety;
true

they had no distance between some notion of the immense of these erratic bodies and the sun, accounting for the time they occupied in their periodical circuits, by the supposed sluggishness of their Yet they taught that the moon commotions. her course sooner than any of the other pleted planets, because her body was less than any of their's. They also taught that she shone with a borrowed light, and that when eclipsed, she was im merged in the shadow of the earth but they were quite at a loss about eclipses of the sun, nor could they predict the time when they would happen.(f) In short, after the discoveries of the first ages, (and even those may

Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter;

harps, sackbuts, psalteries, dulcimers ;(h) but we know little respecting them, and still less of the skill of the performers. As poetry has, in all ages, been sacred to religious purposes, it is not doubted but the Babylonians and Chaldaeans cultivated it in common with other eastern nations ; but as no specimens have reached modern times, no

as flutes, cornets,

judgment can be pronounced upon

its

merits.

MANUFACTURES

AND

COMMERCE.

The

Babylonians were not only great architects, but they were also very ingenious in casting of

Nor were they less celebrated for their metals. rich embroideries, sumptuous vestments, magnificent carpets, and fine linen.(i) They received their purple dye by the port of Apologi [Oboleh],

near the Euphrates, and their country afforded alum, natural and artificial, in great abundance ; so that we ueed not wonder at their excelling in this particular: but whether the art were of their own discovery, or whether they received
is much disputed. of the Babylonians is no where expressly treated of; but circumstances justify the inference that it must have been very The metropolis considerable and extensive. stood, as it were, in the centre of the ancient world and by means of two great rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris, had the means of an easy communication with the north and west; while the Persian Gulf opened to it the riches of the
it

from the Tyrians,

have been recollections and traditions of the antediluvian science,) the whole learning and knowledge of the (Jhaldaeans,

be suspected

to

The commerce

though so much praised, do not apjwar to exceed the vain pretensions of modern astroloand those are fully gers and fortune-tellers who have concluded that the Greeks justified, were in this respect very little indebted either
;

to the Chrdda'ans or the Egyptians(g).

As the Chaldees were peculiarly the men of learning in this nation, so the Babylonians, properly so called, applied themselves to the arts; and the immense buildings reared by them, demonstrate that they were tolerable
proficients in geometry, mathematics, Of their skill in perspective, chanics.

and meand the

and its own productions and manufacwere objects of desire to all its neighbours. Nor is it to be supposed, that so strong an allusion to its merchandise, ships, sailors, and commerce,(j) would have been made in the description of the mystic Babylon, had they
east: tures

not really existed in the prototype.

a dining-room.t From these instances we may judge of the estimation in which Babylonish manufactures were held in foreign countries; though, from the age in which these transactions are placed, it may be doubted whether the Persians and Macedonians had not contributed to the perfection of this art. The original Babylon had ceased to exist; and the country had successively been under the yoke of those two nations, as well as of the Romans, at the period alluded to.
(j)

Died. Sicul. Bilil. Hist. lib. ii. p. 82. Diod. ubi fitpr. (g) See Ccel. Rhodoginus, Joseplius, Scaliger, Peucer, &c.
(e)

(f )

(h)
(i)

Dan.

ill.

515.

Plutarch, in his Life of Cato, relates that the censor gold a Babylonish cloke, or mantle, which had fallen to him

by inheritance, because lie was ashamed to wear so gaudy a garment.* And Pliny says, that at Koine, a sum equal to 04 oU. GA. 8d. was paid for a suit of Babylonian hangings for
Plut. in Vita Catonii.

Rev.

xviii.

219.

Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. tin. cop. 48.

SECT. IV.]

FROM NIMROD TO NABONASSAR.

SECTION
IV.

513

CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE BABYLONIANS, FROM THE DAYS OF NIMROD, FOUNDER OF BABEL, TO THE JTRA OF NABONASSAR,
A. M.

3257.

IN a former Chapter,(k) have been exhibited the antiquities of Babylon, as collected by Berosus, and preserved by his transcribers, Africanus, Abydenus, and Apollodorus; beginning with Alorus, and ending with Xixuthrus, in the tenth generation ; which are, by the general consent of chronologers, referred to times before the flood Alorus being taken for
;

Adam, and Xixuthrus

for

Noah.

We have now
have been

to pursue the series of kings, as they

handed down by Africanus, Eusebius, and Syncellus, from the time of Nimrod, the supposed founder of Babylon, to the reign of Nabonassar, the first prince in Ptolemy's canon. The period between these two peris no less than 1486 years in all sonages which we meet with little more than names
;

of sovereigns, whose very existence is justly doubted. The epocha of the foundation of Babylon is commonly placed in the age of Nimrod of whom Moses says, " the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar :" (1) but in the days of Abraham, in the 7th generation after
;

Israel, and Azariah, of Judah. These circumstances tend king materially to discountenance the opinion, which attributes this kingdom, and the empire that ensued, to Nimrod. Babel was the beginning of his kingdom, but it was left unfinished; nor does the name of Babylon appear to have been known in tlic age of Abraham, for then Aniraphel would not have been termed king ofShiuar. fragment of Berosus, preserved Alexander Polyhistor,(q) however, informs by " that Babylon was the first-built city in the us, world, founded by some of those persons who had escaped the deluge, and were of the Giant race. They likewise erected the celebrated tower but when that was overthrown by the hand of God, the Giants were scattered, over the face of the earth." Here, as in the history of Moses, Babel and Babylon are used assynonymous terms and the interruption and abandonment of the work are clearly indicated. Ctesias attributes the building of Babylon to Semiramis, queen of Assyria,(r) whilst Abydenus names Belus as its founder ;(s) but as these are very equivocal personages, we gain very little information from their narratives.

with

Menahem, king of

All that can be assumed is, that Nimrod began city, called Babel, Which he did not finish ; that after an interval of at least tw o centuries, the foundation of Nimrod was completed, or

Nimrod, we find Aniraphel called king of Shinar ;(m) and many ages afterward, the prophet Isaiah seems to insinuate that Babylon was founded by the Assyrians :(n) add to this, the declaration of Moses, that upon the confusion of tongues at Babel, the building of the

was suspended, (o) and the builders were Nor is any mention made in the of a king of Babylon, till Hezekiah Scripture received an embassy from Merodach-baladan,(p) who is supposed, with good reason, to be the same with Mardoc-empadus, the fifth prince in Ptolemy's Canon, and a descendant of Pul the Assyrian, who was contemporary
city

scattered.

city was erected near, or upon its site, by the Assyrians, to which they gave the name of Babylon that this city, gradually increasing in importance after Nabonassar had made it the seat of his kingdom, was at length finished by Nebuchadnezzar, and raised to that height of splendour which we are accustomed to attach to its name, whenever we meet with it. According to the writers, Eusebius and Syncellus, above quoted, there were three
;i
:

new

races, or dynasties of kings at Babylon, prior to the reign of Nabonassar, with whom the

these were the the Arabian, and the Assyrian; Chaldaean, as exhibited in the following lists
:
:

Canon of Ptolemy begins

(k) See before, (1) GI-II. \. 10.

(in)

page 273.
in

(p)

Isaiah, xxix. 1
:

in

2 Kings,

xx.

12,

he

is

called

Berodach-baladan

an

Gen.

xiv. 1.

(n) Isaiah, xxiii. 13. tion of tliis but ;

The above
it

passage
xi.
.

the general acceptaseems to be rather forced.

is

(o)

Gen.

VOL.

mem mistaking the Q ' Apud Euseb. Pra-p. Evany. lib. ix. cap. 17, p. 418. 95. (r) Apud Uiod. Sicul. Bibl. Ilist. lib. ii. p. 90 (s) Abyden. ex Megasth. apud Eu*<"!>. ubi mipr. p. 457.
(q)

error, no doubt, of the transcribers, for beth. for a a b, or

I.

3 u

514

HISTORY OF THE BABYLONIANS,

TABLE I. BABYLON, WHO IMMEDIATELY SUCCEEDED
NIMROD.
to Eusebius.
Years.
;

[CHAP. vn.

KINGS OF

and Ninyas, or Zameis, 38 after whom, he says, the kings of Babylon and Assyria are

unknown
Years.

According
1.
2.
3.

According to Syncellus.
1. Evo-choiis, or

Evo-Choos, orNimrod,
reigned

Nimrod,
6 7 35 43 48 40 45

6
7
2.
3.

reigned

Choinasbolus Porus

Chosmabolus
Porus

that is, during till the reign of Pul an interval of upwards of 350 years. But Eusebius and Syncellus have given a list of this Assyrian dynasty, consisting of about 40 princes, who reigned between 1200 and 1500
;

4.
5.

Nechobes Abios

0. Oniballus

7. Zinzirus

35 43 48 40 45

years, in the following order

which

is

divided

4.
5.

Nechubes
Abius
Chinzerus

by Bion and Alexander Polyhistor (t) into two

dynasties.

6. Oniballes 7.

TABLE

III.

224

224
is

KINGS OF ASSYRIA, WHO REIGNED AT BABYLON, AFTER THE EXPULSION OF THE ARABS.
Dynasty
I.

Dercctada.(u)

In this

list,

which

called the Chaldee

According to Eusebius.
Years.

According
1. Belus

to Syncellus.
Years.
5-i

Dynasty, Syncellus has copied Eusebius, with Julius a few slight etymological variations. the reign of Evo-choos 224 Africanus places years before the usurpation of the Arabs but since these Arabs, as well as the Chaldaeans, were Cuthites, Mr. Bryant rejects both
;

reigned

1. 2.

Ninus
Semiramis

reigned 52
(Qtieeri)
. .

2.
3.

3. Zameis, or 4. Arius
5. Aralins

Ninyas

.42 .38

4.
5.

30 40
.
.

Ninus 52 Semiramis (Queen) ... 42 38 Ninyas, or Zames . Arius 30

. . .

6. Aralius 7.
8.

Archbishop Usher spurious. dynasties to be the same with Belus, supposes Evo-choos
as

0. Xerxes, or Baleus. 7. A rmamitres

8. 9.

.30

Xerxes
Armarnithres Belochus 1

the principal deity of the Babylonians; but he places his reign about 585 years after the Flood, which makes him contemporary with Jacob.

Bel-Ochus Bal-Eus

10. Altadas 11. Mamitus 1 12. Manchaleus

13. Spherus

TABLE

II.

THE ARABIAN DYNASTY, WHICH SUCCEEDED THE

CHALDJEANS AT BABYLON.
1.

14. Mamitus II 15. Sparetus 16. Astacadis

17.

Mardocentcs

.reigned 45 years.

Amyntes
lochus(v)

38 35 52 32 30 32 20 30 40 40 45 25 051

9.

10. Bakeus

11. Sethos 12. Mamythus 13. Aschalius 14. Sphasrus 15. Mamylus
10. SpartliKus 17. Ascatades

18.

Amyntes

2.
3.

Anonymous

Sisimadochus 4. Gabius f). Parannus

41 28 37

18. Bel-Ochus II. or Bo-

19. Belochus II.(v)

40 30 38 35 52 32 30 28 22 30 42 38 45 25

0.

Nabonnabus

40 25
210
19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.
Bellepares

704
**

Dynasty it
Lamprides
Sosares

II.

of this dynasty is placed by Usher, about the 33d year of the life of Moses: it lasted 216 years, when Babylon was seized by Belus the Assyrian, father to under whom the Assyrian monarchy Ninus, began. According to this writer, the successors of Belus, whose reign is stated at 55 years,

The beginning

Lampares

Panyas Sosarmus 25. Mitreus 26. Tautanes(w)

27. Teuteus

30 32 20 30 45

20.

Belatores

21. 23.
2-3.

Lamprides

22. Sosares

Lamphraes

24. Panyas

19 27 32
40

Sosarmus Mithneus 27. Teutamus, or Tauta20.

30 30 20 30 45 22 27

nes(w)
28. Teutreus
29.
30.

Arabelus Chalaus
Carried forward.
. . .

32 44 42 45
1071

were Ninus, 52 years

(t)

Semiramis, 42 years

Carried forward .... 920

Apud

(u)
(v)

Agatli. lib. ii. page 03. So called from Dercelo, the mother of Semiramis.
lib.
ii.

Troy

Diod. Sicul.

daughter, called Atossa, or Semiramis II. ho reigned 12 years with him, and by whose contrivance he lost his life she then married Bellepares, her gardener, and placed him on the throne.
;

He had a

(w) Both Eusebius and Syncellus place the destruction of in the reign of this king ; the latter dates it A. M. 4124: but in a subsequent note on Babios, the 32d in his list, he adopts the story of Ctesias, that Babios was called by the Greeks Tithon, the father of Memnon, &c. so that he conSee his Chronograph, p. 151, 155. tradicts himself.

.SECT. IV.]

FROM NIMROD TO NABONASSAR.

According
to Syncellus.
Years.
Years.

515

According to Eusebius.

Brought forward

026
31.
3-2.

Brought forward.

Anebus
Babios

.1071 38 37
21

he renews the charge; and, adverting to the ten generations, from Alorus to Xixuthrns. said to have reigned before the Flood, insist < that through an inversion of the true order,
they have placed Xixuthrus last, who should have been first, and Alorus, whom he identifies with Nimrod, first, who should have been
Xixuthrus, this latter being no other than Noah.(y) According to Abydenus, the history of Berosus begins with these words: " So much for the wisdom of the Chaldaeans we come now to their kings. The first of these was Alorus, a Chaldaean by birth," &c.(z) from which Mr. Bryant infers that this could not be the beginning of the first booh of Berosus, as is generally imagined ; but the introduction to the second treatise, in which he had promised to give a history of the Chaldaean kings, having in the former treatise given an account of the learning and wisdom of the people. What the Greeks and Romans rendered is in the original Ghaldeett*, Chasdim, or Chusdim, the sons of Chus, or Cush ; under which character Berosus represents the first man who reigned on earth, and who could not therefore be an antediluvian. Who the intervening personages, between Xixuthrus and Alorus, that is, between Noah and Nimrod, may be, is hard to determine. But we know, that as the patriarch never assumed royalty, there can be no connection between them as monarchs in succession. The series exhibited in the history must have been by family descent, where Nimrod stood only the fourth, so that all the personages but two, introduced in the interval, must be derived from another source they seem to be mostly made up of titles belonging to Ham and his Am-el-on, the 3d in the list, is comfamily. posed of the titles of Ham, all relating to the sun, or Orus, under which character he was in after times worshipped. Da-os, or Da-onus, the Gth in the list, is derived from Da On, the sun, with a Greek termination, another title assumed by the sons of Ham. Amenon, or Ammenon, the 4th in the list, is, like Amelon, made up of titles of Ham, which were well known in Egypt. Alaparns, the 2d in the catalogue, is the same with Al-Porus, the god So Amillaris, the 3d in the ofjire, \. e. the sun.
posterior to
:
:

28. Thinaeus 2t>. Uercilus 30. 31. 32. 33. 34.

30 40
3

33.

Anonymous

Eupales Laosthenes
Pyriatides

34. Dercylus 35. Eupacmes

40 48
45 30
21

Oph-rateus Oph-ratenes ;$>. Ocra-zapes 36. Tonos - Concoleros (called by the Greeks,
Sardanapalus)

45 30 20 50 42

36. Laosthenes 37. Pertiades

38. OphratJEiis 39.

Ephekcre* 40. Acraganes 41. Thonos-Concoleros

52

42
. .

15

20
1241

1460

Of these numerous
be found

princes, few or no records

have reached modern times, except what are given by Ctesias; of which some account will
in the

history of Assyria, as they

belong more particularly to that monarchy Suffice it than to the kingdom of Babylon.
here
to

say,

that

Avith
;

Sardanapalus,

the

and the new kingdoms of Babylon, Assyria, and Media, sprang up In the extensive devastation from its ruins. consequent upon the overthrow of the first
Assyrian empire ended
Assyrian monarchy, the archives of the nation, any existed, were destroyed with the city of Nineveh and such as escaped by having been previously lodged in Babylon, were subsequently burnt, or otherwise destroyed by Nabonassar, who, actuated by the silly vanity of the times, endeavoured to obliterate the memory of his predecessors, that he might claim the empty honour of being considered as the founder of the nation. The Canon of
if
;

Ptolemy contains a catalogue of the successors of this prince ; but as it belongs to another epocha of the Universal History, it would be improper to anticipate the order of time by giving it a place in this chapter. AVe therefore proceed to a review of the foregoing lists, according to the hypothesis of Mr. Bryant, and endeavour to fix the epocha of the
kingdom. We have already observed this gentleman accusing the Greeks of inverting the order of the Egyptian dynasties, and of mutilating and
transposing the names of the princes :(.\) here
(x) (y)

See before, page 478. Mythol. vol. iv. p. 144,

(z)
1-V2, et seq.

Euseb. Chvon.

p.

4.

3u2

516
list

HISTORY OF THE BABYLONIANS,

[CHAP. VIT.

of Abydeiius, synchronical with the Amelon of Africauus, is a compound of Ham-El-Arez, names of Ham and the sun. Some of these personages, the 8th and 9th in the list, are said to be of Laranchi, or Larancha, an erroneous spelling of Laracha ; which is itself a corruption of Al-Aracha, the Aracca of Ptolemy, and the Erech of Moses, a city built by Nimrod; others are said to be of Pantibibla, or Pantibiblon, derived from Panti-Babilon, priests of Babel,

or Babylon panti, ponti, and phonti, being, in the Amonian language, a priest. From these premises, our author deduces the following conclusion: 1. Xixuthrus is the same with Noah: 2. Under the character of Amenon, Amelon, and Amillarus, his son Ham is 3. Eucdoreschus described (composed of Euc-Ad-Arez-Chus, the great lord Chus) is Chus, or Gush, the elder son of Ham 4. Alorus, the first king, and Daonus the shepherd, are both appropriately significant of Nimrod, who, in the Scripture, is called a mighty hunter, and, by profane writers, is expressly said to have masked his tyranny under the humble title of a shepherd ;(a) his double title of king and shepherd, was retained by those of his posterity
:

who invaded
Babylon
;

Egypt, after their dispersion from and his assumed name Al-Orus, or the sun, furnished them with a deity. Having thus accounted for the supposed antediluvian kings of Babylon, Mr. Bryant, in another place,(b) examines the catalogues of Chaldaian and Arabian princes, who reigned after the deluge, and decides, rather peremp-

and made up, names and titles of Ham, dish, and Nimrod. The two names at the
torily,

that they are fictitious,

like the former, of the

head of the Chaldiean dynasty, he supposes to have changed places with each other, and that
'olcmy.

Nadius

f'hinzirus <u

Mardoe-Em
\proiuulius Rjgebelus. .

Nabocoliis.sanis

Nabonadius

to divest the'chroof the Babylonians of some of its errors, nology

n)

Having thus endeavoured

Abjdrnus. apud Euseb. Chron.

Mijthol. vol. vi. p. 261, et seq.

p. o.

SECT. IV.]
tne

FROM NIMROJ) TO NABON ASSAIL

^S tne earth

517

Jul. Per.

A.M. divided, and the various PostDil. 101. families of Noah's posterity be1" B. C. 2247. ) took themselves to their various all but the sons of Cush allotments their father Ham had, as we have seen, retired some time before into Egypt, with the younger branches of his family: but (Jtish and his offspring had remained in Asia, where they appear to have roved at. large for some time, without any particular settlement. At length, Nimrod, the younger son of Cush, having, by his prowess in hunting, and perhaps by his daring, in invading and robbing the settlements
;
;

2467. 467.^ 1757. (

was

and three other walled cities, were accordingly begun; and still farther to ensure their sal'i-ty,
they resolved tp construct a mighty tower, from whose height the approach of an enemy might be discovered from afar, and announced by .v/to all the cities in the plain. This tower was also to be devoted to religious purposes, as well as to perpetuate the name of the founders ; its top was to be consecrated to the heavenly bodies, which the Cuthites, probably following the practice of the antediluvians, had made partakers of that divine worship which was due

of the Shemites, acquired the confidence of his brethren, he became their leader, collected a numerous body of them together, and conducted them to the plains of Shinar, where they found Asshur, the second son of Shem, happily seated in one of the most fertile provinces of the world. (e) Here they resolved to settle, and far the strongest, they had no difficulty being by in expelling the defenceless inhabitants, who, retiring northwards, crossed the Tigris, and placed themselves between that stream and the Lycus. Having obtained possession of an extensive country, Nimrod and his companions, whom we shall designate by the appellation of Cutheans, or Cuthites, resolved to form a settlement ; and as they could not but expect that the Shemites would take the earliest opportunity of avenging the cause of their brethren,

to God alone. Here, therefore, they appear in the double character of apostates and oppressors ; the enemies of God and man and had been permitted to proceed, there can be they no doubt that, in the then condition of mankind, they would quickly have established an universal dominion over all the human race.(f) But the designs of divine providence were not to be thus frustrated; the Almighty put confusion upon their lips, and they were scattered. Their cities were left unfinished ; their tower, if we may credit profane writers, was overthrown, and their apostate leader was buried in the ruins.(g) While these things were transacting in Shinar, the sons of Asshur, afterwards known by the title of Assyrians, gathering wisdom
:

they determined upon building themselves cities of brick, where they might live more securely than they had done hitherto in tents. Babel,
Pezron. Antiq. ties Temps retablie, p. 148. This is fully intimated, Gen. xi. <>, " This they begin to do and now [if suffered to go on] nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do." What they had " imagined to do," is stated in the 4th verse. " Let us make us a name ;" t. e. set up a power, which all nations shall acknowledge. This determination is connected with a fear " lest they should be scattered alvoad." Ham, their father, and their younger brethren, were gone, as they supposed, into the deserts, and were lost: they had, tlit'inselves, been wanderers for some years, and now that power was in their hamLs they resolved to establish themselves, lest their name should perish for ever. Such seem to have been the actuating motives of the Cuthites ambition and a desire of conquest, on the one hand desperation, and a dread of coming to nought, on the other. (g) Eupolemns, apud Kuseb. Prap. Eean. lib. ix. p. 418, " The says city of Babel was lirst founded, and afterwards the celebrated tower; both which were built by some of those people who had escaped the deluge. They were the same who, in after times, were characterised as Giants. The
(e)
(f)
;

tents, and which the principal received the name of Nineveh the others were Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen.(h) When they heard of the disaster that had befallen their enemies, the Cuthites, they advanced

from experience, had quitted their

built themselves cities, of
;

tower was at length ruined by the hand of the Almighty, and these Giants were scattered over the whole earth." Abydeuiis, in his Assyrian Annals,* alludes to tlie insurrection of He also mentions the sons of Cush, and their great impiety. the building of the tower, and the confusion of languages. He savs the tower was carried up to heaven, but that the gods ruined it by storms and whirlwinds, frustrated the purpose for which it was designed, and overthrew it upon the heads of those who were employed in the work and that the ruins were called Babylon, from the confusion of tongues and variation of dialect. Other authorities, as the SibylKne Oracles, the Paschal Chronicle, Syncellus, Cedrenus, &c. might be quoted to the same purport, for they all concur in pointing out Nimrod, and the sons of Cush, as the authors of the first rebellion, and the parties meant under the titles of Titans and Giants. Whether these cities were of brick, (h) Gen. x. 11, 12. or consisted only of mud walls around their huts, as a security but the latter is most against surprise, does not appeal
;
1

probable.

15

Apud

Euseb. Chron.

p. 13.

518

HISTORY OF THE BABYLONIANS,

their former territories

[CHAP. vn.

upon

on the banks of
-war against the

the Euphrates, and waged Cuthites in every direction, till they had expelled them the country, or rendered them Of the former description were the tributary.

back 1903 years from the taking of that city by Alexander, B. C. 331 that is, to the 13th year of Peleg's life, about which time we may suppose the Chasdim began to register the
;

Hyc-sos, who invaded Egypt, and settled there; of the latter were the Chasdim, or Chaldaeans, and the inhabitants of the Vale of Siddim. Thus the Assyrian and Babylonian kingdoms both came under the dominion of the family of Asshur and hence the fears of the Hyctheir abode, and at the time of sos, during
;

Hence also their departure from Egypt, (i) of the fabulous war of the Titans the origin against the gods, of which, in the history of
some farther notice will be taken. the foregoing observations and narrative, collected from such fragments as remain in ancient writers, referred to in the notes, it appears that the first kingdom of Babylon, if
Assyria,

From

observations, which, for their guidance during their peregrinations, they had made. know not how these registers were kept, nor what were the materials of which they were composed ; but, judging from the practice of their brethren in Egypt, the supposition that they consisted of hieroglyphical representations on stone pillars, is at least warrantable and hence we conclude that it was about this period they first formed a settlement in some part of Shinar, probably in the south, afterwards called Chaldaea, whence they made their subsequent attacks upon the defenceless sons of Asshur. And, if names can be of consequence to the support of an rj u l. Per. 2481.

We

such indeed it may be termed, originated and eaded with Nimrod that his destruction and the dispersion of his followers took place about the same time ; that afterwards a race of
;

hypothesis, it is not a little sin- JA.M. 1771. Post Oil. 114. gular that Usher places the foun- j B>c 22:J:J dation of Babel by Nimrod, in *the very next year. Cedrenus mentions a current opinion that Nimrod perished in the
-

was established in whose deeds, with the exception of Amraphel, we are totally ignorant and that under them Babylon was rebuilt, and gradually grew into importance, till Pul gave it, as a distinct kingdom, tp his son Nabonassar.
Assyrian
rulers, or kings,

tower,

when
is

it

was

overthrown (k)
;

and

Shinar, of

only remains to endeavour to fix the epochas of the principal events embraced in this obscure
It

history.

From the account of Manetho, compared with the Mosaic history, we have been obliged to place the irruption of the Hyc-sos into Egypt, in the year of the world 2002 ;(j) and between that date and the birth of Peleg (a period of 24o years) must be included the wanderings of the Cuthites before they settled in Shinar; the building of Babel and its sister cities, with the celebrated tower; the confusion of languages; the dispersion of the
Cuthites; and the wanderings of the Hyc-sos, before they fell upon Egypt: but we have no clue to any one of these transactions, by which
to find its date;

and conjecture must therefore the place of fact. supply The astronomical observations, sent from
Babylon, by Callistlienes to Aristotle, readied
(i)

of the same sentiment ;(1) upon Syncellus which Mr. Bryant remarks, that the term of Nimrod 's life, extended to the utmost of patriarchal longevity, would not suffice for this ; and therefore he concludes that the allusion is to the overthrow of the deity therein But this is an unnecessary worshipped. (m) for as Nimrod stands in the same exception; generation with Salah, who lived till the 1 18th year of Abraham, there is no need of an extraordinary lengthening of his life, to bring him down to a few years before that patriarch was born ; on the contrary, it should seem that by his violence and crimes he had incurred the wrath of heaven, so as to curtail his mortal existence considerably of the usual The date of this overthrow, and proportion. the confusion of tongues, would appear to be connected with the irruption of the Hyc-sos but we find that the work was not completed when abandoned, and the invasion of Egypt by the Shepherd-Kings did not take place till 221 years after the assumption of royalty by Nimrod; a period much more than sufficient for the completion of such a work, even after
;

(j)

See before, p. 4Wi. See before, p. 437.

(k)
(1)

Cedreu. p. 11.
Antiq. p.
4'2.

Joseph. Antiq. lib. i. cap. 4. (m) Mi/tkol. vol. iv. p. 02.

.SECT. IV.]

FROM N1MROD TO NABONASSAR.

519

allowing time to the Cuthites to secure themselves in their new possessions, before they began upon so extensive an undertaking.

earlier period must therefore be sought and this appears to present itself just for, before the birth of Nahor, the grandfather of

much

Abraham, whose father Serug is reported to have settled at Ur, of the Chaldees, about the time of Nahor's birth. This settlement seems to have been in conjunction with the return of the sons of Asshur, his kinsmen, to their abode in Shinar, it being very improbable that he should choose to go thither alone, while the land was under the dominion of the professed enemies of the Shemites. If these conjectures, for they are no better, be at all valid, they bring the discovery of the epocha in question within a small compass, anc' we should be induced to Jul. Per. 2558. ~i A. M. 1848. ( place the destruction of Babel PostDil. 191. < and the confusion of tongues, in B. C. 2156. _) the 29th year nf Smig's life, thp year before the birth of Nahor, and seventyseven after the commencement of Nimrod's Between this date and the sera assigned reign. to the invasion of Egypt by the Hyc-sos, is a period of 154 years, during which the Cuthites,
original

coast, and the borders of the Arabian desert, where they found some of their own tribe. But now the Elamites and Assyrians were in a condition to act on the offensive, and they invaded all those of the line of Ham westward, which probably caused the latter to move towards Egypt, and to force themselves into that

country.

the Shemites had recovered Shinar, or Senaar, (the Singara of Ptolemy,) they set up a king of their own, whose name, in the age of

When

Abraham, was Amraphel; whether he were independent, or tributary to the crown of

Nineveh, does not appear: yet the
latter
is

now

most probable,

speak, magnified among the exploits of Ninus,(o) Semiramis, and their immediate successors to
;

which we are those which have been so

for the transactions of

Babylonia represented as subject. The invasion of the Shemites by the Cuthites, the erection of the tower, which seems to have rrmwisfpfl of a vast wound of earth, cased with bricks, its overthrow, the discomfiture of the invaders, and the ultimate triumph of the Shemites, gave rise to the fable of the first war of the giants and the gods, or what is sometimes called the first part of the great Titanic war.
is

whom

weakened by

their

dispersion,

wandered

in

various directions. Some went no farther than a city between Nineveh and BabyShinar,(n) lon, north of the region they had quitted others went into Syria and Canaan, and the Arabian provinces bordering on those countries while others penetrated eastward, as far as China. The country being perhaps thus abandoned, the Assyrians began to return, and among them came the ancestors of
;
:

Its duration is but all variously represented accounts agree, that the conflict was long and sanguinary ;(p) and it ended with rendering such of the Cuthites as remained in Asia, It was soon after the tributary. f J,.,, * _ 0,00 "' Pp ^ OQ" At i termination of this war, that AbraJA.M. -2078. ham removed with his family ) Post. Dil. 4-22. ' B c 2 ". from Ur of the Chaldees, to
;
i
/

j 1

*-*

Abraham.

Harari, Mesopotamia, whence he again removed, five years after, to sojourn in Canaan, whither the Almighty had called him, as the
in

The

Cuthites,
to

who had

retired to

Shinar,

and seem

have been those

obtained the name of Chaldaeans, resided there for a considerable length of time but being in the vicinity of Elam and Nineveh, they at last excited the jealousy of the sons of Asshur and Elam ; a confederacy was therefore formed against them, and after a contest of some duration, they were driven from their settlement, and retired to the south country, on the sea;

who subsequently

land reserved for his inheritance, though then occupied by various branches of the Amoniau
family, who had settled there during the late revolutions of Asia and Egypt. Twelve years of tranquillity had scarcely elapsed, when the Cuthites formed an extensive

confederation to throw off the conquerors, and a new war which is termed the second part war. Moses speaks particularly
pot-jmia.

yoke of their was kindled,

of the Titanic of only the five

(n) Hestireus relates, that the Chaldaean priests who escaped from the ruin of Babel, collected together the implements of their idolatry, with whatever belonged to the worship of their deity, and brought them to the city of Senaar, in Meso-

But it was not long before they were driven thence by a second dispersion.* (o) Moses Choronen. lib. i. cap. 10. p. 27.
(p) Hesiod. Thcog. ver. 029, 03f>.
*

Apollodorus,

lib.

i.

p. 4.

Joseph.

/Int. lib.

i.

c. 4.

Euscb,

J'r<r/>.

i'i'u;i.!ib. is. p.

416. Id. Chrtn. p. 13.

520

HISTORY OF THE BABYLONIANS.

[CHAP. vn.

kings of the Pentapolis, in the Vale of Sid;(q) though it is evident, from the general scope of his narrative,(r) that they formed the least part of the insurrection but it was necessary to particularize them, on account of the interference of Abraham on behalf of his

dim

progress of the victors in the vale of Siddim. They met, however, with defeat C j ul Per 2801 and death in the conflict; their )A.M. 2091. j and the S Post. Oil. 434. cities were pillaged,
.
.

nephew Lot, who stood connected with them,

and without whom, it is probable, this piece of history would never have obtained a place
This confederacy of in the sacred writings. the Cutheans alarmed the Shemites to such
a degree, that they found it necessary to combine their forces under Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, (or Persia,) who appears to have acted as principal in this, as well as the former war,(s) Tidal, king of nations, (or Aram, otherwise Syria, a kingdom of refugees from other countries,) Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Arioch, king of Ellasar, (or El-Assur, or Assyria.) Thus united, they, in the 14th year after the termination of the former war, fell upon the Rephaim in Ashteroth-Karnaim, the Zuzim in

Ham, and

the

Emim

in the plains of Kiria-

thaim; all of the Giant race; and reduced them to submission, or expelled them. They then smote the Horites in mount Seir, and, following up their successes, overran all the country of the Auialekites, which extended to the conThe Amorites also, in fines of Egypt.

Hazezon-Tamar, (afterward Eu-gaddi, in the southern border of the 'tribe of Judah,) experienced the like fate; and in their ruin were involved the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah,

Admah,

Bela,

their forces,
Gen.

and Zebo'i'm, who had united and attempted to withstand the

(r)

"* 1913. bavin? conquerors, having no lonsrer anv longer any enemies who dared to oppose them, returned towards their own dominions, laden with spoil. Among the captives taken from Sodom, was Lot, nephew to Abraham, who, with his family and goods, was carried off towards Damascus, having probably fallen to the portion of Of this Abraham was Tidal, king of nations. no sooner apprized, than he determined upon He therefore mustered attempting a rescue. his trained servants, 318 in number, and being joined by his confederates Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner, three brothers of the Amorites, with their forces, he pursued the victors as far as Hobah, at no great distance from Damascus, and forced them to relinquish not only Lot and his family, but likewise all the captives and property belonging to the city of Sodom. Such was the end of this celebrated warfare, and such the conquests attributed to Ninus and Arius, the Assyrians; which, added to the destruction of the cities of the plain, sixteen years afterwards, by the direct interposition of divine vengeance, displayed in an awful and tremendous manner, furnished the poets with materials for their wars of the gods and giants, and the destruction of the latter by the thunder of Jupiter. After these extraordinary events, Babylon and Assyria are scarcely heard of for many ages, either in profane or sacred history.
.

'

(q)

xiv. 2, 8.

Ibid,

57.

(s)

Gen.

xiv. 4.

SECT.

1.]

HISTORY OF ASSYRIA.

521

CHAPTER

VIII.

HISTORY OF THE FIRST ASSYRIANS.

SECTION

I.

and by others Atura, or Atyria.(v)

It

now

forms

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ASSYRIA. NAME. SITUATION AND EXTENT. DIVISIONS.

CITIES.

NAME. THIS country derives its name from Asshur, the second son of Shem, who was The name of its first planter after the Flood. Assyria was very much extended, both in it originally reached former and later times whole country of Aram, westward over the or Syria, with which last name it is used
:

the province of Kurdistan. DIVISIONS. 1. Aturia, between the Lycus, and the Tigris. This seems to have been the original kingdom of the Assyrians, during the occupation of the lower countries by the Cuthites, as described in the close of the last Chapter. It contained Nineveh, (w) the capital; and the whole empire was frequently called by

indiscriminately
it is

by ancient
difficult

sometimes

particular country they the days of the monarchy, the name was farther extended, northward, eastward, and southward, wherever its princes and captains established themselves by the power of their arms.

writers, so that to distinguish which would indicate. In

Arbelitis,(x) was the chief province of the empire ; bounded by Calachene on the north, Apolloniatis on the east, Sittacene on the south, and the Tigris on the west. It had its name from the rivers Diaba and Adiaba,(y) and Avas a plain country. The inhabitants, who were called Saccopedes, worshipped the In the decline sun, under the name of Agartis. of the power of the Seleucidae, it formed a small

name. Adiabene, and Arbelis, or

its

2.

in

which was included Aturia

SITUATION AND EXTENT.

The monarchy
com-

of Assyria, geographically considered,

prised several countries, of which the description will be found under their particular titles ;

our present object is the province of Assyria Proper, which was the center of the whole; and lay between the 33d and 37th degrees of

North

latitude.

Ptolemy(t) describes this country as bounded, on the north, by part of Armenia, and mount Niphates on the east, by part of Media, and on the the mountains Choatra and Zagros south, by Susiana and on the west, by the
;
;

independent kingdom, till subjected by Trajan. Stephanus and Tzetzes confound Adiabene with Mesopotamia. (z) 3. Arrapachitis, the most northern province of Assyria, between Armenia and Calachene, is mentioned only by Ptolemy, who describes It probably was it as watered by the Gyndes. a part of Calachene; for both the province and the towns placed in it by this geographer, appear to have been unknown to other
writers.
4.

tains of

Calachene, or Calacine, having the mounArmenia and Arrapachitis on the north,

Tigris. called,

The country

within

these limits

is

by some of the ancients, Adiabene,(u)

vi.

the river Lycus on the east, Adiabene on the south, and the Tigris on the west. of 5. Arbelitis, in which stood the town
only a various pronunciation of the same word in the

(t)

Lib.

cap. 1.

Hebrew

(u) Plin. lib. v. cap. 12.

Ammian.

lib. xxiii.

cap. 20.

and Chaldee
(y)
(z)

dialects.
(x) Ibid.

Dio Cassius. In Trajan. (v) Strabo, lib. xvi. sub init. Bochart deems this name synonymous with Assyria, it beiug

(w) Strabo. ubi supr.

Plin. lib. vi. cap. 13,

Ammianus, lib. xxiii. cap. 20. Tretz. Lycoph. Alexandr. ad ver. 704.

VOL.

I.

3 x

HISTORY OF ASSYRIA.
Arbela, celebrated for the victory obtained by Alexander over Darius, in its neighbourhood, Its \\;>s included in the province of Adiabene.
limits are
0.

[CHAP. viir.

of 120,000 persons, "

who

could not discern

unknown.

and ing to Ptolemy, on the banks of the Gorgus Sila ; but it rather appears to have been in the; Its name is of Grecian origin, as well south.
as the town of Apollonia, from which it was derived. 7. Sittacene, according to Strabo, was but

accordApolloniatis lay east of Adiabene,

between their right hand and their left,"(f) which being generally explained of young children, it has been computed that the walls of Nineveh enclosed upwards of 600,000 per" much cattle :" from which last sons, besides
expression, it appears, that Nineveh, like Babywas rather a walled province, than a city Profane according to modern conceptions. historians have attributed the foundation of this city to Ninus, a name generally given to their first king ; but which really designated the Ninevites themselves, as we shall see, in The sacred writers treating of their history.
lon,

another name for Apolloniatis; but Ptolemy places it south of that province; and Pliny extends the name, Sittacene, to Arbelis and
Palestine.

most southerly province of Assyria, according to Ptolemy; though D'Anville, and other mo'dern geographers, place it northward of Sittacene and Apolloniatis, while they make Sittacene the most southerly of the
8.

Chalonitis, the

frequently mention this city, and Nahum and Zephaniah, as well as Jonah, foretold its ruin
in

very

particular

and

pathetic

manner.

About a hundred years after the prophecies of the two former were delivered, Nineveh was taken, and razed to the ^j u p er 4108
j

Assyrian provinces. CITIES.- Ninus, or Nineveh, owed its foundation to Asshur;(a) it was next to Babel in

ground by Cyaxares I. king of VA.M. 3398. the Medes, assisted by Nebu- < Olymp.43 3.
'

and antiquity, and exceeded Babylon the eastern bank power. It stood on or near of the Tigris; and in the time of the prophet Jonah, who was sent to prophesy against it in the reign of Jeroboam II. king of Israel, its circuit was no less than three days' journey. (b) This extent is confirmed and explained by Diodorus and Strabo the former says the city was 480 stadia in circuit,(c) or 60 Grecian
in extent
:

miles to a days' with the scripture account; journey, agrees and Strabo says it was much larger than Babylon, whose circuit he states at 385 stadia, We are also or about 48 Grecian miles.(d) informed by Diodorus, that it was surrounded by lofty walls and towers, the former 200 feet in height, (e) and so very broad, that three chariots might pass upon them abreast. The towers were 1500 in number, and 200 feet in height; but whether this were inclusive of the height of the walls, in which case they would both have been of the same altitude, the At the time of historian does not state. Jonah's mission, this city contained upwards

miles, which, reckoning 20

^chadnezzar, son of the king of I ^^ Babylon, about 1620 years after its foundation by Asshur. Diodorus Siculus, or his transcribers, have been guilty of an error in placing Nineveh on the Euphrates, whereas all other historians and geographers expressly declare it to have been on the With the ruins of ancient Nineveh Tigris. (g) another city was built, which bore the same name; but it never attained the grandeur of the former it is now called Mosul, (h) and is situated on the west bank of the Tigris, where Avas originally a part of the suburbs of old Nineveh. Modern travellers say the ruins of Nineveh are still to be perceived on the to Mosul east bank of Tigris, opposite
: ;

according to Mr. Ives, some imagine it to have stood near Jonah's tomb while others
;

place

it
:

Tigris correct

some hours' journey higher up the and both these opinions are probably
for

ancient Nineveh, from

its

extent,

must have occupied a site even more extensive than the distance between those two spots. Mr. Ives adds, "much of this ground is now to the rubbish of the ancient hilly, owing
(e) Only two London.

(a)

Gen.

x. 11.
iii.

feet short of the height of the

.

monument

in

(b) Jonah,

3.
ii.

(c) Diod. Sictil. lib.

cap. 3. p. 63.

(f)
(};) (li)

Jonah,

\\. 1 1

Isidor. Ptolem. Strabo. Plin. Ilerodot.

(d) Strabo. lib. xvi. p. 737.

Tlievenot. part

ii.

book

i.

diap. 11, p. 50.

SECT.

I.]

CITIES

OF ASSYRIA.
miles, east of Gaugamela, is placed by on the river Cupros ; but by Strabo at

5-23

There is one mount, 200 or 300 buildings. yards square, some yards north-east from Jonah's tomb, on which a fortification appears mice to have stood. Calah, another of the cities built by Asslmr, gave name to the province Calachene, or CalaIt is supposed to be cine, in which it stood. situate about the springs the Calach of Strabo, of the Lycus but Bochart takes it to be the same with Halah, where the king of Assyria
;

Ptolemy an equal

distance between that river and the Lycus, near mount Nicatorius, so called by Alexander, from the victory above alluded to. Diodorus and Curtius speak of it as a village but Arrian Here Darius kept gives it the title of a city. his treasures, and here they were surrendered to Alexander.
;

It probably placed the captive IsraeliteH.(i) stood near the Tigris ; for Resen, also built by Asshur, which Bochart conjectures to be the

Larissa of Xenophon,(j) and which stood on the Tigris, according to that historian, is placed by Moses between Nineveh and Calah. (k) Moses observes of Resen, that it was " a great and Xenophon describes Larissa as city;' having formerly the same character, when inhabited by the Medes, though, in his time, it Others lay in ruins, destitute of inhabitants.
:

suppose Resania, in Mesopotamia, [now RasAluin} to be the ancient Resen. Rehoboth, also built by Asshur, has been variously taken for the Birtha of Ptolemy, or
at the mouth of the or for Reheboth, on the Euphrates, the Lycus ; same, perhaps, with Ruhabut-Matek, a few miles south of the confluence of the Khabur with the Euphrates.

Virtha of Ammianus,

Gaugamela, [Gau-gamel] though only a village, deserves notice, on account of the defeat of Darius Codomanus, and the Persians, by Alexander,(l) in its neighbourhood the honour
;

of the battle was, however, given to Arbela, because it was a city, and Gaugamela an insignificant village, though Arbela was at a considerable distance from the scene of action, and the Persian camp was in the plains of Gaugamela, in the neighbourhood of Bumadus,
[Hasir-sou.']
its

The word Gaugamela signifies House of the Camel; and it was so called from
being the residence of a favourite camel of Darius Hystaspes, that had accompanied him, laden with water, in a difficult expedition against the Scythians. Arbela, [Erlril,~] 600 stadia, or about 75

Apollonia, [S/iereban,] which gave name to the district, or province of Apolloniatis, stood between the rivers Gorgus and Sila. Stephanus reckons it the twentieth town between Babylon and Susa, [Taster, or SusterJ] Artemita, [El-Melik, or Dascara,~] 500 stadia east of Seleucia, [Al-Modciin,] is described as a considerable city by Strabo. Isidorus places it on the river Sila ; but Ptolemy reckons it among the towns of Mesopotamia. Sittacene, or Sittace, is placed by Ptolemy and Pliny at a good distance from the Tigris ; while Xenophon, who had visited the city, says it was only 15 stadia, not quite two miles, from that river. Seleucia and Ctesiphon, \_Al-Moddm, or the two cities,] the former built by Seleucus, on the left bank of the Tigris, in opposition to Babylon, whose name it afterwards assumed. (m) Its edifices were constructed with the wood of palms; and the timbers, or columns, were covered with painted straw, or reeds the doors, plastered over with bitumen, were as high as the houses themselves, which were all built in the form of vaults. Ctesiphon, which stood on the opposite bank of the Tigris, a, little below Seleucia, owed its foundation to the Parthian princes, (n) who made it the metropolis of their empire though it should It was rather be called their winter residence. taken, A. D. 198, by the emperor Severus, after a laborious siege, during which his army was exposed to the calamities of famine and pestilence ; and in revenge, when the city surrendered, he put all the men to the sword, sold the women and children, to the number of 100,000, for slaves, and gave up the place to the pillage of his soldiers.
: ;
?

(i)

(j)

2 Kings, xvii. 0. Xenopli. apud Cyr. Min.

Strabo.
lib. xvi.

(in)
lib.
iii.

See before, page 501.

p. 182.

(u)

Ammianus

Marcellinus,

lib.

xxiii.

cap. 20, says,

fortified

it

(k) Gere. x. 12.

I

was founded by Vardanes, and adorned and

Arrian.
lib.
iii.

by

p. 173.

Pacorus.

3x2

524

HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS.

SECTION
II.

[CHAP,

[Altun-soti, or

NATURAL HISTORY OF ASSYRIA PROPER.

'

CLI-

MATE, SOIL, MOUNTAINS.

AND PRODUCE.

RIVERS.

CLIMATE, SOIL, AND PRODUCE.

On

these

have reached subjects very few particulars modern times, of what Assyria formerly * as as temthough the climate is now represented well watered by and perate, and the soil rich, numerous rivers, which empty themselves into
;

Golden River,] sometimes called the Phocus; and the Gorgus. the Lesser /ah which received the waters of the Sila. They all emptied themselves into the Tigris. MOUNTAINS. Thenorth and east of this country are bounded by branches of the Gordueu;:. chain. On the north, they bore the name of
;

on the formed Media.

in happier of plenty and times it was doubtless a land but the numerous wars, of which of pleasure it has been the seat, between the most potent nations, added to the indolence of its present of occupiers, have given it all the appearance some small pora dreary wilderness, except tions of land, cultivated in the vicinity of a few inconsiderable towns scattered within its Bochart thinks that Rab-shakeh, borders. his pompous description of the country, to in
tlic

Tigris.

The

air is healthy,

and

Niphates, and separated Assyria from Armenia; east, they were called Zagrus, and the boundary between Assyria and Other branches ran into the interior of the country, particularly between the rivers

Caprus and Gorgus.

SECTION
i

III.

ANTIQUITY, GOVERNMENT, LAWS, RELIGION, CUSTOMS, &C. OF THE ASSYRIANS.

master Sennacherib would transport " a the Jews, alluded to Assyria he calls it land like your own [the Jew s'] land a land of corn and wine a land of bread and vineyards; a land of oil-olive and of honey ;"(o) but this

which

his

appears doubtful: we are rather inclined to consider Rab-shakeh's speech as a flattering hyperbole, devoid of truth. RIVERS. Among the rivers of Assyria, the Tigris claims the first notice, as well because it bathed all the western skirts of the country, as that it received the waters of all the other
rivers,
its

ANTIQUITY. THE Assyrians stand next to the Egyptians, in point of antiquity as a nation, and were certainly antecedent to the Babylonians ; for though the sacred scriptures speak of Babel as the first city built after the flood, we have shewn, upon the authority of the same writings, that its constructors were not natives of the country where it stood, but of a different race, which had scarcely collected itself as a The Assyrians nation, before it was dispersed. were the first possessors of the country in which
after the

Babel was built, and recovered it immediately overthrow of its founders: they did not cease to be a nation from the beginning,

and had

all

the great cities built upon

source of this river is in Armenia, near the rise of the Euphrates, with which river it runs nearly parallel, and is united to it in its course by several artificial canals in

banks.

The

while the Babel-builders hardly merit a higher than that of a nomade tribe ; powerful, indeed, when collected into a body, but only
title

Mesopotamia and Babylonia in the latter country, the two streams form a junction, and
;

both together flow into the Persian Gulf, as Like related in the account of Babylon. (p) the Nile and Euphrates, it. is subject to
periodical overflowings.
It

assembled to be scattered. Asshur anil his tribe, on the contrary, built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen, which continued to the end of the Assyrian monarchy, a period exceeding 1000 years; and it was only upon the downfal of this empire, that Babylon became truly great. There are, indeed, very
respectable writers, (r) who prefer the marginal reading of the Mosaic notice of Nineveh's foundation; from which it should appear that Nimrod, after he had established himself at. Babel, went into Assyria, and there built the cities above alluded to but, to say nothing of
;

was probably the

Hiddekel of Moses.(q)

The other rivers of note, were the Zabus, Zabatus, or Zerbis, [Zab, or Zarb,] called by the Creeks Lycus, on account of the wolves which frequented its banks the Cuprus,
;

(o)
(|>)

2 Kings,

xviii.

32.
(q) Ibid, j>agc 2G'2.

(r)

Vahibliis,

Sec before,

pa'.-c

im, T.c

Jimius Bocliavt, Coceeris, (,'lcrc, Bedford, &c.

Schotf.ii,

ilci-

SECT.

III.]

GOVERNMENT AND

LAWS.^-RELIGION.

upon the original, by intro two words [he and into\ to supply a ducing supposed defect in the Hebrew; it is presumed that enough has been said in the foregoing chapter, to render a disquisition on such an
force hereby put

hypothesis unnecessary.

the colonists to repeople Israel, also set new possessions.(y) up Adrnmelech is said to have been represented as a mule, or a peacock. His name appears to be composed of Ad, first or great, andMelecA, From the peacock, he has been ldng.(i)

among

this idol in their

GOVERNMENT AND LAWS. Destitute as we are of sufficient authorities on these points, we must be content with such inferences as may be deduced from the conduct of the princes, as it appears in the few remains we have of
That Assyria was for many ages a small kingdom, under hereditary chiefs, can hardly be questioned and it appears equally credible, that, in the earlier ages, their government was of the most simple form: though, in after-times, when they rose to the sublimity of empire, it was truly despotic. The laws appear to have depended upon the will or caprice of the monarchs; who, affecting divine honours, setting themselves above all gods of the people they vanquished, (s) and sometimes requiring that none other than themselves should be worshipped(t) under heaven, even presumed to pass sentence on the whole world by the word of their own mouth. (u) Such, at least, were some of their later princes and with such sovereigns, the subjects must inevitably have been the most abject of slaves. RELIGION. It was not for want of deities,
their history.
; ;

thought to have some relation to Juno:(a) and if the derivation of his name be just, he may be set down as identical with Jupiter, who is

by mythologists, as the father of gods and men, and king of heaven. Anumelec/t is variously represented under the
represented,

He figure of a horse, a pheasant, or a quail.(b) was probably the same as the sun his name
:

being compounded of OH, the sun, and Melech, or Moloch, king.

Derceto,
anil

also
is

called Adergatis, Atargata,

represented by Diodorus, her by the first name, as a Syrian deity, with the face of a woman, and the body of a tish.(c) Lucian, under the appellation of Atargatis, represents her as having the upper part of the body like that of a woman, and the lower part, from the hips, like the tail of a Pausanias also speaks of her as an fish.(d) ancient goddess of the Phigalians, who worshipped her under the name of Eurynomc
Atergatis,

who

calls

that the Assyrian monarchy thus arrogated to themselves divine honours for, in common with other heathen nations, they had " gods many, and lords many;"(v) though we are much in the dark as to the degree and nature of their worship.
;

Nmrocli, who is supposed to have been, at one time, the principal god of the Assyrians, haw been variously taken for Saturn, or
Belus,(\v} or for the ark of Noah.(x) Nergal, a deity of Cuthite origin, worshipped by fire, was admitted among the gods of the

The men

Assyrians, in the latter days of the monarchy. of Cuth, whom Shahuaneser sent

Diuna.(e) Simplicius affirms that the people of the country called the Syrian targatis, the or receptacle of the gods ;(f) from which place, it appears that this deity was no other than the ark, which had enclosed all mankind. Among the Assyrians, Derceto was considered as the mother of Semiramis; and they honoured Semiramis herself under the form of a docc, either because she was nursed by birds of that species, when exposed after her birth, or because they attended her at her death, when she was metamorphosed into one herself:(g) all which is but a mystical allusion to the ark of Noah, and the dove who announced the abatement of the flood. As to Semiramis, her name appears to be a compound of SainaRamis, or Ramas, a divine token, which may

2 Kings, xviii.
(t)

3335.

(z)

Mijtlwl. vol.

i.

p.

27, 87.

f<

Judith, iii. 8. (u) Ibid. ii. 2. (v) 1 Cor. viii. 5. (w) Beyer in Addllntu. Said, syntagm. ii. cap. 10. (x) Kircher. In I'antltco, says lie was represented in the rm of a ship, in remembrance of the ark, which agrees with
deity.

Mr. Bryant's general hypothesis, though he does not mention

J:iis

(y)

2 Ki*gt,

xvii. 30.

Beyer, ubi supr. cap. 9. (b) Seiden. DC uK Syris, syntagm. ii. cap. 10. He says she was considered (c) Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. p. 92. by her votaries as ilie same with Venus. "(d) Lucian. />< Sn f i,l Dca, p. 884. (e) Puiisaii.lib. viii. p. QU. Apollon. Rhod. lib. i. ver.503. iv. p. 150. >ir,i|>, HI Arislot. Da Auscult. Physic, lib, (t') t (^) Diod. Sicul.
(a)
i.

HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS,

be understood
either of the dove returning to the ark, with the olive-leaf, or of the rainbow set in the clouds, as a token of the divine Mr. Bryant thinks the

[CHAP. VIH.

has been given, according to the copies left by Eusebius and Syncellus; they were there intro-

duced as being, according

tion,

to the usual accepta-

anger being appeased. on Assyrians and Babylonians had an ensign, which the dove and the rainbow were represented, and that all who went under that standard, or paid any deference to the symbol, An were styled Semarira, and Saiuorim. emblem of this kind he supposes to have stood over the gate of Babylon, called the gate of Semiramis, and on the lofty obelisk mentioned by Diodoms.(h) It may therefore be concluded that the exploits attributed to the Queen Semiramis, so far as they are founded in truth, pertain to those who fought and conquered under this symbolic ensign ; as well as that they were achieved at various and distant periods. The
origin of this symbol belongs to the Amonians, or Cuthites, the restorers of the Sabian religion after the flood: Semiramis is acknowledged to have been of the Amonian family ;(i) and as

connected with the history of Babylon, and to shew that such connection, in the order In the present section stated, did not exist.

we

shall occasionally advert to the

it

same

cata-

her

derived from the emblems of peace and reconciliation ; we infer either that she assumed it on her marriage with Ninus, when the rival families of Asshur and Cush were united, in commemoration of the restoration of peace, or that it was given to her as a title of distinction on account of the symbol of her people. With her also, we should conclude, a corrupt religion was first introduced into the family of Shem. have seen that the BabyCUSTOMS, &c. lonians, distinguished from the Chaldaeans, derived their origin from the Assyrians; and therefore we refer to what has been already said of the customs, arts, learning, and trade of the former, as pertaining equally to the latter.

name

is

We

has been so recently inserted, the repetition may be here dispensed with. The sacred historian begins the history of Assyria, with Asshur, from whom the country was named profane writers begin with Niuus, after whom the chief city was called and no small confusion has ensued among chronologers on this varied account. This embarrassment has been increased from the circumstance of the name of Belus being sometimes ascribed to Nimrod, the builder of Babel, and sometimes to the father of Ninus,(j) founder of the The term Belus, however, Assyrian kingdom is merely a title of honour, which may be indifferently applied to Asshur and Nimrod and as such we shall dismiss it from the list of names. It was no uncommon practice in ancient times, for builders of cities to call them after their children thus Cain is said to have built a city, and called it Enoch, from his son ;(k) Canaan did the same, and called it Sidon other instances might be adduced, :(1) but these are sufficient to indicate the probability that Asshur adopted a similar practice, and called the cities which he built after the names of his children, of whom Ninus, or Nilogue, but as
:

neveh,

was the

chief.

SECTION

IV.

CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS, FROM THE DAYS OF ASSHUR, A.M. 1771, TO THE DEATH OF SARDANAPALUS, AND THE END OF THE FIRST KINGDOM, A. M. 3184, ACCORDING TO CTESIAS.
IN a former chapter, the succession of Assyrian kings from Ninus to Sardanapalus
(h) Mythol. vol.
(i)
iii.

only person mentioned by Moses, after Asshur, whom we can suppose to be connected with the Assyrian chronology, is Arioch, king of Ellasar, (iota, ALOSCR) Avhich may be rendered Arioch king of El Assur, or king of the Assyrians and we find in the catalogue above adverted to, that the fourth king from Ninus, inclusive, was called Arius, the same with Arioch, softened by a Greek tennination.(in) This prince Arius, or Arioch, was one of the confederates with Chedorlaomer against the Cuthites, and kings of the Pentapolis ;(n) we may therefore fix the epocha of his reign with tolerable precision, and this will also enable us to approach that of the kingdom itself.
:

The

p.

143.
ii.

fit)

Gen.

apud Diod. Sicul. Bibl. Hist. lib. (j) Africanus, apud Euseb. Citron, p. 18. 3
Ctcsias,

p.

80

95.

(m)

x. 15, iv. 17. (1) Gen. Bryant's Mythol. vol. vi. p. 259.
1.

1!>.

(u) Gen. xiv.

SECT. IV.]

FROM ASSHUR TO SARDANAPALUS.

reign of Semiramis
;

527

The Pentapolitan war broke out when Abraham had resided some time in Canaan, whither he did not come till he was 75 years of age
;

and it also occurred before the birth of Ishmael, which was when Abraham was 86 we may,
;

Jul Per. 2801.")

therefore, with Usher, place this

84th year of the patriEusebius places the reign arch.(o) of Arius 1927 years before the Christian aera, which agrees with the 69th or 70th year of Abraham. Arius had, therefore, reigned about 14 years at the time of the war of the Pentapolis, and as he is stated to have reigned 30 years altogether, his aera coincides perfectly with that of Arioch we therefore conclude them to have been the same
A. M. 2091. f PostDil. 434. ( 1913. B. C. in the
;

war

by Babylon, in this place, must be meant Babylonia, the province in which Babel was built; which is likely enough, as, according to the scheme proposed in the last chapter, that celebrated work of Nimrod had been overthrown 42 years prior to the epocha of Belus. (p) Neither need we deprive Ninu* of his share in the conquest of Babylonia we
;

have seen, in the history of that country, that upon the overthrow of their tower, the Cuthites were dispersed, and as they began to recover
their strength, they became objects of jealousy to their neighbours, who waged a long exter-

minating war against them, by which some were expelled the country, while those who remained were rendered tributary, though they

Prior to Arius, the reigns of his preperson. decessors occupy a space of 132 years, which carries the beginning of the reign Jul. Per. 2G55. ") A.M. 1946. \ of Ninus up to the 67th year of Terah, the father of Abraham;
Post.Dil.jj88.f B.C. 2009. }

embraced every opportunity

to

revolt.

We

wnen ne ma y e supposed to have assumed the regal title, on the death of his father Asshur, who would then have been about 288 years of age, supposing him to have been born the year before his brother Arphaxad, who attained to the age of 438, a circumstance that induces a belief, that Ninus began to reign during his father's lifetime, as we see no reason for curtailing the days of Asshur of one-third of those of his brethren. It has been already noticed, that Africanus makes Belus the father of Ninus, and attributes the taking of Babylon to him it also appears from his canon, that Belus reigned 55 years but in this Africanus is countenanced by none of the ancients, and we may presume, that he has taken a title for a Under this view of the subject, we person. may suppose Asshur first to have assumed the
j-,
:

shall, therefore, suppose Belus, or Asshur, to have begun this work of subjugation: and his son Ninus to have carried it on, till the marriage of the latter with Semiramis for a time united the families, and restored peace to the world. The aspiring restless sons of Gush were, how-

ever,

to

be

satisfied

with nothing less

than

universal dominion, though, in attempting to obtain it, they rendered themselves more and more the subjects of oppression ; nor were they truly quelled, till the voice of heaven declared against them, in the horrible destruction inflicted upon the cities of the Vale of Siddim. The successors of Ninus, Semiramis, Zameis or Ninyas, and Arius, were therefore engaged in wars against them, which, considering the state of mankind at that period, might be deemed extensive in their scope and consequences, but which, in the absence of authentic annals, have been magnified into the conquest of the whole

world.

title

of king at the period

when

Belvis

is

said

to

have commenced his Ninus attained the regal

reign,
title.

55 years before

As to his taking

Babylon, that city must, in these early times,

be mentioned by way of anticipation, for, even according to Ctesias, it was not built till the

From the foregoing observations on the chronology of the Babylonians and Assyrians, the following results may be deduced in which the computation of Eusebius is adopted with respect to the reigns of the sovereigns, and that of Usher for the dates of the creation and
;

delude.

(o) Bishop Cumberland places the reign of Zames, or Tsinvas, the predecessor of Arius, in the 40th year of Abraham, and as he reigned 38 years, the time of Arius com-

but we have seen, in the history of Egypt, that it was not uncommon for sovereigns to take the titles of their deities, and as Belus was a or to give their deities their own titles
:

78th of Abraham; he therefore, according to tlif atioxc snpputation, had reigned six years at the breaking out of the war. (p) It may be objected that Belus was a title of the sun
jiicnres in the

assumed by many sovereigns of different nations, we arc of opinion that it was first used by the Assyrian kings, mid
title

afterwards given by the Chalda-an priests to their chief deity, when they became subject to those princes.

528
Peleg born

HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS,

2467. } 1757. f

[CHAP. vin.

the earth divided ; the suns of Noah. Asshur among Post Dil. 100. C jscith-s in the land of Shinar, about 2247 -J that part of the country afterwards called Babylonia. "' le ^ nas flini, or Cuthites, Jul. Per 2480 ) A. M. 1770. ( having settled in the country of Post Dil. 113. 1 Asshur, begin to register their obB. C. 2234. j serrations of the heavenly bodies.
Jul. Per.

tranquillity of his
life;

A.M.

kingdom for the rest of his the means of introducing the corrupt religion of the Cuthites among the descendants of Shem.
but the union
is

'

Semiramis, succeeding her hus- rj u i.p cr .2707. ingherliusband, reigns 42 years: and soon \ A. M. 1997. after her accession lays the found- 1 Post. Dii. 340. s
i

ation of Babylon.

I.B. C.

2007.

( Babylonia, and begins to build cities. Asshur, retiring to the B. C. 2233. northern parts of Shinar, settles between the Tigris and Zabatus, or Lycus, where he lays the foundation of Nineveh and three other cities. The Cuthites, under Nimrod, project the tow er of Babel. Babel overthrown ; the lip of the Jul. Per. 2558.^ 2558.") A. M. 1848. f builders .confounded, and them-

Jul. Per. 2481.")

Nimrod expels Asshur from

A.M.

1771.

Dil. 114. f

Post. Dil. 191.

B.C.

2156. )

signate by their sacred utensils, and, retiring northward into Mesopotamia, build themselves a city, called Shinar, or Senaar, the Singara of Pto-

( selves The priests, dispersed. whom we shall henceforth dethe name of Chaldaeans, collect

lemy.(q)
Jul. Per.

2559.^

^he Assyrians
to

A. M.

1349! ( Post Dil. 192. {

the
.

south

begin to return country Serug

;

A numerous body of Cuthites, ,-j p er 2712 under the name of Hyc-sos, who )A.M. 2oo-j. had been expelled the dominions "i Post Dil. 34-. of Semiramis, after wandering v-B-Vsome time in the Arabian desert, enter Egypt, and become masters of that country. sieis ui iiiiti uuuiiuy. dson Abram, grandson of Serug, r Jul. Per. 2718. 2008. born at Ur of the Chaldees, m .! A. M. he Post Dl1 351 f Serniraiiiis I t the dominions of senuran is. WQQ ^B c Zameis, or Ninyas, succeeds his mother Semiramis, and reigns
(1 j
. -

with great slaughter, and either made tributaries, or driven into the deserts. The dominions of Semiramis, after the last defeat of the Cuthites, appear to have extended westward to the Euphrates ; and to have been bounded on the east by the Lycus," or the Gorgus, and the Tigris.

The

Cuthites revolting, are defeated

B.C.
Jul. Per.

2155

being
there

among

the

first

settlers

Asshur having recovered Baby2600.') A.M. 1890. ( Ionia, assumes the regal title of Post Dil. 233. ( Belus, and reigns 55 years. This r, appears to be the true aera of the first kingdom of Assyria.
Jul. Per.

195. tant territories to viceroys, one of whom resided at Shinar, where he seems to have made himself

thirty-eight years. Beinganindolent prince, he committed his dis-

p stil. ( B. C.
}

382

independent.
Cuthites, taking advan- rjul. Per. 2776. of the supineness of Zameis, NA. M. 2066. tage form ageneral insurrection ; which y Post Dil 4 9' B C threatening the welfare of all Asia, gives rise to a coalition of the princes of the line of Shem, with Chedorlaomer, king of This was the Elani, or Persia, at its head. beginning of the first Titanic war, which contined about 1 J years.(s) cceeds Arius, or Arioch,(t) succeeds rj u Per. 2787.
'

The

2655.^
1

st

DH.

y ears After a long siege, Ninus takes Jul. Per. 2605. ") A.M. 1966. f Shinar(r) from the Chasdim, or Post Dil. 298. f Chaldaeans, who retire to the 2049. j borders of the B.C. southern desert and the coasts of the Persian Gulf, which tract obtains from them the name of Chaldaea. About the same time, Ninus marries Semiramis, of the family of Cush, by which he secures the
B.C.
2059. J
-

^:

to

Ninus, son of Asshur, beo;ins rei s n at Ninevel for 52

l.

Ninyas,

and

The

first

30 years. JA.M. 2077. eludes Titanic war concludes 1 Post. Dil. 420.
reigns
1927.

inf with the complete subjugation of (B.C. Cuthites in Asia. the

s)
t)

(q) Hestiaeus. Joseph. Antitj. lib. i. cap. 4. Euseb. Pr<ep. lib. ix. p. 416. Chron. p. 13. to have given rise to the (r) The siege of this city appears of Ctesias, respecting that of Ractra, where it is figment As it was the impossible to suppose Ninus to have been.

Hesiod. Theog. vcr. 636.

Evang.

war in which that prince was engaged, his marriage with Semiramis is placed about the peiiod of its conclusion, as having conduced more than his conquests to the tranquillity of Asia. 5
last

" the Assur, is mighty lion, king of the is the original Mars: Apt, the Greek name Assyrians." He was for Mars, being borrowed from 'IN (ARE) a lion. also called Baal. See Sedren. Compend. Hist. p. 16. Paris
Ellasar,

Pasch. Chron. p. 37, the real name of this prince is His title, Arioch Melech said to be Thyras, son of Ninyas.
or
a'l

He

edit.

1647.

SECT. IV.]

FROM ASSHUR TO SARDANAPALUS.

Abram removes from Ur of the Chaldees, to Haran, in Mesopotamia. The idolatrous worship introduced by Semiramis, obtains
Ninus
to

5-29

the Assyrians with a catalogue of kings from

a great ascendancy in Assyria, throughout Asia.

and indeed

The

Cuthites again revolting, chastised by the allied kings

Elam, Assyria, Shinar, and

Syria.

Abram rescues his nephew

cl ^ es

Lot,
allies.

and the captives of Sodom, from the This was the second Titanic war.

Jul Per 2817.")

The

of Sodom, &c. overfire

2107. ( A. M. Post Oil." 450. f 1897. ) B. C.

thrown and consumed by from heaven. This dreadful

visi-

and weakened the Cuthites, that we hear no more of their insurrections in Asia. This is prothe second Titanic war, perly the termination of Aralins succeeds to the or war of the Giants. throne the same year but of him and Assyrian
:

conquests

tation, added to the extensive of the allied Shemites, so intimidated

he was copied by Castor, again copied by Eusebius.(w) Eusebius begins, according to his exemplar, with Ninus but Syncellus, another copyist, chose to begin with Belus, and to assign him a reign of 55 years, though Castor (x) declares the length of Belus's reign to be uncertain. Syncellus has also introduced four kings into his list, who are not to be found elsewhere so that his chronology exceeds all others in the number of years given to the Assyrian monarchy for while Augustine allows it 1305, Castor 1280, Eusebius 1240, and Velleius 1070, Syncellus gives it 1460 whereby he greatly exceeds his original author Ctesias, as well as

Artaxerxes

(v)

who was
;

his

On the character speak of only about 1300. of Ctesias, as an historian, we have already remarked, that some of the most eminent
among
I

two transcribers Uiodorus and Trogus, who

the

unworthy of credit
not for the

his successors little is known. They appealindeed to be eclipsed by the superior activity

deemed him altogether ;(y) and as such, were it confidence reposed in him by some
ancients

of the Elamites and Syrians, who had taken the lead in the late wars and it is highly probable that they were in some degree tributary or subject to one of these great powers, till Pul, or Phul, who appears to have been of Cuthite origin, threw off the yoke, and begun what truly constitutes the Assyrian monarchy, one year before the first Olympiad, as we shall have occasion to relate under a subsequent period of the history. The two lists of Assyrian kings,(u) given in n, former page, are both professedly from the same original, notwithstanding their material difference. Ctesias concluded his history of
;

modern writers, we should here dismiss both him and his history, with a few observations on his catalogue, which consists of a medley of Greek, Persian, Egyptian, and other names
:

for instance, Sphoerus,

Lamprides, Laosthenes,

and Dercylus, are very common among the Greeks Amyntas also is the name of a king of Macedon, as Arius was of Lacedaemon Xerxes, Armamithrejjji, and Mitliraeus,are Persian names; Sosarmus is the name of a king of Media, as Sethos is of an Egyptian king. These names, as they bear no analogy to each other, have been deemed downright forgeries(z) by some, though his narrative has been admitted
;

into the
it

body of history, almost from the time was written and even now, by the best
;

(u) See before, page 514. Phot. Bibliot. p. 134. Diod. Sicul. lib. xiv. (v) (w) Marsliam. Chrou. Sccul. 17. De Reg. Assyr. (x) Apud. Syncel. J). 200. ( y) See Introduction, p. 14. (/) Such is the decision of the Editors of the Universal The liistonj ;' but the censure is too extensive in its range. Kgyptian princes, named Sethos, appear not to have been of the genuine race of Mi/raim ; they were foreigners, and derived their genealogy from Belus ; and a question arises, whether Sethos, son of Balacus, in the catalogue of Ctesias, bi: not the same with Sethos-/Egyptus, or Sesostris, son of if this Belus, at the head of Manelho's 19th dynasty question should be decided in the affirmative, (and their aeras will prove to be within a few years of each other, according to
:

the vague method in which they have beeu handed down,) the extensive conquests of Sesostris in the cast, and those of

some Assyrian monarch in Egypt, will mutually explain each The Persian and Median names may be accounted for upon the principle of conquest and as to the Greek names, we have already seen that Arius was a corruption of
other.
:

Ariocli,

and the other

five

may be

of a similar description;

for, if Ctesias received

them from oral information, we know the aptness of the Greeks to soften all sounds they could not

owii idiom. It is, readily apprehend, agreeably to their nevertheless, admitted, that Ctesias was not only a very credulous writer, but that he admitted relations as facts,

demned

* Vol.

iv.

8vo. p. 265.

moment, have conof the Indies, the manifold figments relative to Semiramis, and the absurd contradiction* in his character of Sardauapalus.
which
his
;

judgment must,
his

at the very

witness

history

VOL.

I.

3 Y

HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS,

chronologers and historians, it is accounted as genuine as any of the records of antiquity, the acred scriptures only exeepted for this reason we must here ghe it a place, as we find it presetted l>\ Diodorns Siculus.(a) " -Ni' uls a prince of martial Jul IVr. ^(io.j. ") and vast ambition, reA.M. 1114.3. f genius, Post Dil. '2tm. f solved upon the conquest of the B.C. 2009. } nations round about him, and to erect an empire over them. \Vith this view, he assembled the most robust of the youth in his dominions, diligently trained them to the exercise of arms, enured them to hardships and labour, and, in line, fitted them for war.(b) " Before he publicly commenced his ambitious career, he thought it prudent to secure the Arabians,(c) whom alone he dreaded, as being a bold and resolute nation, tenacious of their liberties, and jealous of every rival power; he therefore entered into a league with their king Ariaeus, thinking, at least, to secure his neutrality but when Aria?us understood his design, he not only acquiesced, but joined his forces to those of Ps'inus, and they marched
: > :

[CHAP. vin.

together into Babylonia. The city of Babylon was not at that time in being, though the province itself was stored with cities; but the inhabitants, unskilled in the arts of defence, fell an easy prey to the aspiring INinus, who impo>ed on them an annual tribute, carried away their king, with all his children, and afterwards put them to death. " TSintis next falling upon Armenia(d) with a mighty hand, bore down all before him, and struck such terror into the hearts of all the
people, that their king Barzanes waited upon him personally with rich gifts, and made his submission to him .Minus, therefore, left him in possession of his kingdom, as his vassal, on condition of his serving in the Assyrian
:

wars, whenever required. " Encouraged thus to proceed, Minus's next

attempt was upon Media, whose king Pharmis, he overthrew, at the head of a mighty army. Most of the troops of the Medes he slew and
:

with his wife and seven children, falling into the hands of the conqueror, were,
the king,

by

his order, crucined.(e)

(a) Bibl. Hist.

lib.

ii.

p. !)0

05.
affinity

(b) The reader will doubtless perceive the beginning of Minus with that of Sesostris.'

of the

(c) The word Arabians is here, as elsewhere, mistakenly put for Arameanx, or Syrians, which has occasioned much
for, say they, if the Babylonians perplexity among the critics were so weak and unwarlike as we presently find them represented, the king of Arabia, who must have passed
:

through their country to join the Assyrians, might have conquered them in his way, and made a present of them and their country to Minis at their first This difficulty, greeting. with others of a like nature, are avoided by reading Arainea instead of Arabia; and then the narrative bears strong features of the fragment left by Moses, respecting the league of Arioch with Tidal, king of 'nations, cVc. (d) The words Arabia, Aramea, and Armenia, are
t

very

similar,

and therefore frequently confounded

in this instance",

Ninus's victories, which, as we have seen, proceeded from Assyria, southwards, to Babylonia; and thence, westward, into Arabia. According to the Mosaic history, the conquest of the Pentapolis, with the death of the king of Sodom, succeeded the reduction of the tribes bordering upon \ and Canaan; and Ctesias describes the overthrow of the Median king after the conquest of Armenia, or rather of We are, therefore, inclined Arabia, as before explained. to suppose the Pentapolis of holy writ, to be the Media here alluded to, for the following, among other reasons: 1. The sera of the war: in the earliest days of the Assyrians, when we can conceive them to have had no enemies but the Cuthites; and its agreement, in many respects, with tiie '2. The previous range of Ninus's conhistory of Moses. quests, and the fears of the Ilyc-sos in Egypt of being imaded by the Assyrians,]] indicate a continuation of his course towards the west: neither do we find him appointing a lieutenant to preserve his acquisitions, till after the subjugation of Media; whence we infer, that all his conquests lay near 3. This position derives considerable force from together. what immediately follows: "Ninns determined to make himself master of all Asia, from the Tanais to tin- \i/c ;" but instead of his progress being described as toward the lastmimed river, we find him next in the vicinity of Bactria and India; nor does the historian give the least intimation of any subsequent operations in the neighbourhood of the Nile.

Armenia has been mistaken for Arabia. The countries of the Repbaim, the Xu/im, the Amalekites, and the Ilorilcs, and these were the people upon whom lay in Arabia Petr.ui this inroad was made, as related It lay nearest by Moses.}
;

to Babylonia, though si panMcd by a desert ingly invaded by the confederates, after

and was accordthey had

become

masters of Sinatra.
to which this part of the history couutry of Media, if we may credit Herodotus, bore the name ni' Aria, which it retained till the days of Medus, son of Medea and .I'.gens ;; we may, therefore, be permitted a country elsewhere, thsn to the cast of Assyria and

(c)

In the early period

refers, the

These circumstances, added to the appointment just alluded to, amount to little less than a demonstration that the first wars of \inus were in the west, and that his conquests e\ tended
as far as the Nile.
4. Part of the country, here supposed to bo the scene of Ninus's conquests, v.as afterwards occupied by the Midianites, and went by the name of Midian, or

north of Persia, to which a name, equivalent to that of Media, (1. C. <Ti,liiil, or in tin' midst} maybe applied, and whose locality will better accommodate itself to the direction of
See belbn
t

Hi rodut.
J Ui'<

lib. vii.

cup.

ti'i

||

Sec

bei'orc,

pngcs 488.

Gtn,

iv. 1.

SECT. IV.]
"

ACCORDING TO CTES1AS.
determined upon making himhis
a

531

A in us now

self master of all Asia, from the Tallin's to the Nile; and, to do it with greater safety, he

placed the government of his new conquest, Media, in the hands of an intimate friend, while he inarched away against the other provinces of Asia, all of which, with the exception of Baetria and India, lie reduced in the course of 17 years.(f) The Bactrians, however, were so secured by the difficulty of their passes, and the undaunted valour of their warriors, that iNinus was constrained to leave them, Unmolested, till a more favourable opportunity, and he returned with his victorious

thought of making himself as renowned for magnificence at home, as he had become by his conquests abroad and accordingly marked out a spot of ground, whereon to erect a city, that, for extent and grandeur, should surpass all that had ever before been built, and not be equalled, without great diffi;

army "

to his

own

He now

country. (g)

work, Ninus once Having completed more took the field, with a view to reduce the Bactrians, whom he had left unconquered ;" an expedition which was the occasion of his acquaintance and marriage with Semiramis. " This celebrated woman was daughter of the goddess Derceto, who had a l"inple near a lake abounding in fish, not far from Ascalon, where she was represented as half a woman and half a fish. The father of Semiramis was a youth of the country, for whom Venus had inspired

intended city, which rose to so stupendous degree of grandeur, as never after w;is seen in any other. This city he honoured with his own name, Ninus [Nineveh], and gave it for a possession to the most eminent of the Assyrians, with liberty for people of all nations to settle in it he also added to it a large territory. (h) " this
:

He culty, by any that might follow. missed the Arabian [Aramean] king,
;

first

dis-

who had

Derceto with an inordinate passion, in revenge an affront she had someliow received from, her. When Derceto was delivered of a daughter, she exposed the infant among the rocks of a desert, and murdered her paramour, to confor

accompanied him in all his wars, with high honours, and princely gifts and then, having got a multitude of hands about him, and amassed a treasure commensurate with the
extent of his design, he laid the foundation of
Madian and, considering that Cfesias was a very incorrect, or inattentive writer, lie might easily mistake it for Media. 5. The Jews considered their land as lying in the ei'iitrc of the earth ; and if this opinion was current among the heathen,
;

but being afterwards stung with remorse, and overcome by grief and shame, she threw herself into the lake, and was there transformed into a fish. In the mean time, the unhappy infant was sustained and nourished by a flock of doves or pigeons,(i) which kept
:

ceal her guilt

well as among themselves, it is not wonderful that it should obtain the appellation of the middle coinitn/, from which the transition to the name of Media \\onld l>e easy to so careless a writer as Ctesias, who derived bis information from oral tradition, in a language lie did not well understand. The title of a middle country, might he applied to Canaan, independently of the Jews' notion, merely from its enclosed situation between the deserts on the east and south, the sea on the west, and the forests and mountain: of Lebanon on the north; in which view, it was probably culled an (../< by the prophet Isaiah;* or it may have received some appellative of the nature alluded to, from its remaining unappropriated and reserved, at the general division of the earth, be! the possessionsof .Shem and Ham, for a people as yet tinhorn and in this latter sense, perhaps more forcibly than in either of the former, does the term iulvnutilinti' apply. In the Media of Ctesias, in this place, we therefore perceive an allusion to the Pcutapolis, and in the fate of its king, we read that of the king of Sodom. i'hc niimbi r of nations lie suViued, or of battles he fought, is not related; but it is >aid that he made himself master of the sea coasts, as well as of the inland purls, con;
I

as

Lycia, Caria, Phrygia, Troas, Lvdia, Mysia, Phrygia upon the Hellespont, Propontis, Bithynia, and Cappadocia, with the barbarous nations from Poutns to the Tan;ns, consisting of the Caddusians, Tapyrians, Hvrcanians, Dacians, Derbicians, Carmanians, Choramneans, Borchanians, and Parthians, not excepting Persia, Susiana, and Caspiana, which

he penetrated by ihe passes called the Caspian Straits In these conquest-, besides other nations of less account. the author has huddled together all that were made by the
;

Assyrian monarchy in its most potent state, and attributed them to its founder, as the Egyptians gave their's to Osiris and Sesostris, at a period when the earth scarcely exhibited
so

many

tribes.

(g) Ctesias, in this place, calls the

country of Ninus, Syria,

but the two instead of Assyria ou^ly by most ancient writers.

:

names are used promise*)'

(li)

Sesoslris, his mind

He also his name, and contribute to the public good. gave rich gifts, and distributed lands to his army, in the most fci-tile parts of Egypt. J for flock< of (i) The city of Ascalon was remarkable pigeons ot only in the roads and tields, but also about
eviry !,,m-c; which the people religiously alistaimd from founded on eating, on account of un old tradition, probably the above fable, that it was unlawful to touch them.;
;Sec
bel'ori', p;i"\'

This is almost ;t literal repetition of the history of who, returning from the conquest of Asia, applied to such stupendous works as might immortalize

quering

Egypt, Phrenic^, Cttlo-Syria,

xx. 6.

Cilicia,
11.

Pamphylia,

498.

$ Pliilo, iipud

Euscb. Prxp. Euunj.

lib. viii.

p.

.3

Y 2

532

HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS,

with these he marched

[CHAP. vni.

her warm with their wings, and led her with milk from the neighbouring cottages; and when the child was ii twelvemonth old, and required more substantial food, they were observed to convey cheese to her. This led to a discovery by the neighbouring shepherds, who took her home with them, and afterwards sent her to Simma, the king's chief shepherd; this man, being childless, adopted her as his own, and As she grew up, she called her Semiramis.(j) her sex for wit and beauty ; and she captivated one Menon,(k) who was sent to survey the king's cattle, though he was also chief of the king's council, and governor of all Menon, with great difficulty, obtained Syria. her consent to accompany him to Nineveh, where he married her, and she bore him two In this situasons, Hypates and Hydaspes. tion, she obtained great reputation for wisdom, and her husband was governed wholly by her
excelled
all

towards the passes which gave admission into his country, and suffered Ninus to enter with part of his armv undisturbed, thinking to surround and cut them all off. But perceiving the numbers of the enemy to swell beyond his expectation, lie at length fell upon them, unexpectedly, in the plain, killed 100,000 of them, and forced the remainder to seek refuge in the mountains.
Ninus, however, who owed this disaster only to surprise, soon rallied his scattered troops, and drove the Bactrians into their
,

"

cities

and

strong

holds,

which

he

easily

reduced, with the exception of Bactra, where he met with an unexpected resistance, and a long and tedious siege ensued.

was during this siege, that Menon, who had been ordered to attend the king in his camp, was seized with an unconquerable desire
to see his wife
it
;

" It

or rather, from Avhat followed,

counsels."

We now return to

sible of the difficulties

Ninus: that prince, "senwith which he had to

encounter, had selected the best troops in his dominions for his expedition against the Bactrians. He had collected 1,700,000 infantry, upwards of 210,000 cavalry, and 10,600 chariots, armed with scythes; and with this immense army, divided into two or three columns, he forced his way into the Bactrian territory. " Bactria was at this time adorned with many large and noble cities ; of which the metropolis was called Bactra, where Oxyartes,(l) king of the country, resided. This prince, calling in all his subjects, who were able to bear arms, had got together an army of 400,000 men
;

should seem that Semiramis herself had conceived the wish of displaying that wisdom before the king, which had been so much extolled at home, and had therefore urged her husband to send for her. However this may be, she set out for the camp, in a habit so prudently contrived, that while it concealed her sex, it gave an advantageous manifestation of her beauty, and fitted her for agility and
active movernents.(m) " No sooner had she arrived before Bactra, than she began to remark upon the improvident

mode

the themselves with attacks Assyrians fatiguing upon the weak places, where the Bactrians opposed their greatest force ; while no assault
in
;

which the siege was conducted

(j) If any part of this extravagant relation be reconcileable with truth, it appears capable of explanation, by the troops of some Cuthite prince having found an infant exposed, and delivered her to their ensign, or standard-bearer, or perhaps to their prince himself, by whom she was brought up. The Cuthites prided themselves in the title of shepherds,

The union

of the Shemites with the family of Cush, is The governor of Syria, thus very naturally accounted for. [Assyria] makes a circuit of the conquered provinces, to take an account of the cattle, the chief riches of those times, and probably to receive the annual tribute; he sees
a beautiful

woman among
;

his tributaries,

to

whose charms

standard, as already observed, was the SarnaRamis, or divine token, roi? (SUM A) signifying a mark exposed to open view ; and D"1 (ROM) high, or exalted; in which Whether sense the rainbow appears peculiarly alluded to.

and

their

he becomes a slave and as passion knows no distinction of conquerors and conquered, superiors and inferiors, he lays aside all political and religious considerations, and marries her. This example is shortly afterwards followed

Semiramis received her name on this occasion, from being found and brought up under the banner of the Cuthites, or when, by her marriage to Ninus, she introduced that banner

by

his master,

and Menou becomes the

i.

sacrifice of his

owu

imprudence.
(1)

Justinian, lib.

cap. 1, calls him Zoroaster, of

whom

among

the Assyrians, as before conjectured,

is

left

to the

reader's decision.
(k) This Menon appears to be the friend to whom Ninus had entrusted the care of his western conquests, that is, of Arabia, the Pentapolis, &c. as we have conjectured or
;

we shall have occasion to speak largely in another place. He appears to have been the priest, as well as king, of the
fire-worshippers.

Media, according to the

literal

expression of Ctesias.

(m) This mode of dress, it is said by our author, wa* subsequently adopted by the Medes aud Persians.

SECT. IV.]

ACCORDING TO CTES1AS.
tliis

533

thought, of upon the stronger parts, same reason, were left altogether which, She undefended, particularly the citadel.
for the

was even

therefore got together a body of soldiers, who were most expert at climbing up rocks, and heading them herself, she presently got possession of the citadel ; whence she made a signal to the Assyrians, to ply their whole force towards that quarter; and the city, thus sur-

mortified with a flat refusal. Difficulties of kind are but incentives to passion; and Ninus found, that the more his desires were Perbaffled, the more they were inflamed.

prised and thrown into confusion, was immediately reduced. " Ninus, astonished at this action, at first rewarded the heroine as she deserved ; but presently falling into the same snare that had before entrapped Menon, he was determined to take her to himself, and, with that view, used every persuasion with her husband to relinquish his claims upon her, and particularly promised to give him his daughter Sosana in marriage as an exchange but all without effect. The fond husband doted upon the charming Semiramis, especially since the late adventure had shewn her in a new character, and had considerably heightened her in his esteem he could, therefore, listen to no proposals, and the king was
:

suasion and courtesy having proved unavailing, he had recourse to harsher terms, and at last threatened to put out Menon's eyes, unless he should surrender up his wife. This threat, from which he had no means of escaping, threw the unhappy husband into downright despair, and he terminated his existence with his own hands. Ninus immediately married Semiramis, and made her partake with him in the imperial
dignity."(n)

read no more of Ninus, but Nineveh with immense spoil, particularly of gold and silver; and that he had a son by Semiramis, whom he called Ninyas, and whom, at his death, he committed to her care, as regent, during his minority. " Semiramis deposited there- r j u l. Per. 2707. mains of her husband in the \ A. M. 1997Post Oil. 340. palace at Nineveh, and raised "i B c 2007 <over him a mound of earth, (o) and ten in no less than nine stadia in height,
After this
that he returned to
^

we

'

by Plutarch, that Semiramis was a Syrian a servant-maid to one of the king's officers, and the king's concubine ; in which last character she obtained such an ascendancy over the infatuated Ninus, that at her request he permitted her to sit on the throne, and to govern with unlimited authority for one day. Perceiving all her orders to be most exactly executed by the obsequious courtiers, she at last ordered the guards to seize on Niuus himself, and put him to death whereupon she became queen of Asia.* Phoenix Colophonius describes Ninus as a very effeminate indolent prince.t the exact counterpart of Sardanapalus; whence he has been taken for the same. But this writer has probably mistaken Ninus for his son Ninyas. It is unnecessary to detract from the character of Ninus as a warrior, to account for his weakness in respect of Semiramis because the greatest statesmen and warriors in ;<11 ages, even from the days of Adam, have been guilty of
(n) It is related birth,

by

erected by those earth-born people the Giants,l sons of Ge. Of this nature also was the tower of Babel, as already remarked it was a mound of earth, dedicated to the sun, or in other words an altar, on which sacrifices to that luminary were offered ; and from this enormous pile, the poets formed a personage under the name of Typhon, or Typhaeus.S This mode of worship, and these altars, we have already seen, originated in the family of Ham ;|| and from that family Semiramis undoubtedly sprang, in the line
;

of Cush. In addition to the account above extracted from Ctesias, we are informed by Justin, that, to conceal from the people all knowledge of the person by whom they were ruled, Semiramis clothed herself so as not to be known from her son, with a long robe over her body, and a tiara on her head and, the better to cover the deception, she com;

similar foibles.

This mound of earth is an evident proof of her origin. has before been remarked that the Titans obtained their name from their altars, which consisted of conical mounds of earth, called from their shape TITI, a hreast of earth, analogous to which was the TD (TID; of the Chalda-ans
(o)
It
;

they were also called TIT-, and TiT-om;, from An, and Anis, names of the sun, q. d. hills of the sun; hence one of the summits of Parnassus had the name of Tt8-oji;a, as briug sacred to Orus, the Apollo of the Greeks; and many other places, where the worship of the sun prevailed, were called Titanis and Titaiw nn<:-< and hanes signifying tin- fountain of lii/itt and fire. Nonmis mentions an altar of this description in the vicinity of Tyre, and says it \vas
;

the people to dress after the same fashion, and Diodorus also says they ever after retained the habit.1I that she introduced this style of dress among the Assyrians:** but that her motive should have been such as described inadeby Justin, seems quite incredible; the means being an infant quate to the end, as her son appears to have been when Niuus died or, if she assumed such a dress with such a view, when Ninyas was grown up, it should seem to have been an unnecessary precaution ; as, on the one hand, we may suppose her power to have been sufficiently established without such a disguise, and, on the other, her son was at As to the assertion of hand to expose the imposition. " Semiramis teneros mares castravit omnium Marcellinus, of the people called prima,"tt it is rather to be understood woman, especially one of so libidinous SiiiHarim, than of

manded

any

Pint. EfUTixo?, p.
$

T.i.

Apud

Athcn. Dci/mos.
$

lib. \ii.

Nonni

Uiotijs.

lib. xl. p.

1048.

Husiud. Thivgnn.

p. 530. vcr. 8121.

||

See before, p. 415, note (j) ; 487, note (p) ; and 507. f Just. lib. i. cap. 2. * Diod. Sicul. Bid/. Hist. lib. ii. tt Marcel, lib. xiv. cap. 6. p. 67.

534

HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS,

[CHAP. vni.

breadth, conspicuous orec all the plain v IK-IT anil which it long survived, flic city stood, a .stupendous monument man} ages remainingafter the subversion of tlie empire. " Semiramis, thus mistress of a mighty loose to her ambition, and deterempire, ga-\e mined, it' possible, to eclipse her husband's glory by erecting a city in the province of Babylonia, that should exceed the splendour of Nineveh. For this purpose she assembled two millions of men, and made other immense This city, as she preparations for the work. contrived it, was divided by the Euphrates, and she surrounded it with a wall, 300 stadia in circuit, of sufficient breadth for six chariots to run abreast upon them, and no less than 50 orgyas- (.'302 feet) in height, adorned with 250 turrets disposed in due proportion the whole forming a solid body of brickwork, Between cemented together with bitumen. this wall and the nearest houses Mas left a space of two plethra ('200 feet.)(p) " That this vast city might experience no delay in Ihe building, Semiramis divided the
:

beautifully adorned, so that it hath ueu-r been "\cee<!ed. The stones were firmly clamped together with iron, and the passage over was on a floor of cedar and cypress and palm trees;
its

thirty
its

breadth, however, which amounted to only pous [feet] appeared much too small for
length, which was five stadia, [or 3000 feet] either side of the river, she raised a wharf,

On

or quay, of the same breadth as the walls, and 100 stadia in length; and at each end of the

bridge she erected a palace, whence she might survey and overawe both parts of the city. The Euphrates passing through the midst of Babylon, from north to south, these two palaces stood east and west ; and both were superlatively

palace was surrounded by a lofty brick wall, 6'6 stadia in circuit, within which was a second, wrought and adorned with figures, so curiously formed and naturally coloured, that they even seemed to live. This magnificent wall was 40 stadia in circumference, 300 bricks thick, 50 fathoms high, and sur-

"

sumptuous.

The western

whole work

into certain portions,

and

allotted

the space of a furlong- to as many of her most trusty friends as such a portion required; assigning- to each all that was necessary to that particular part of the undertaking ; so that
this immense city was" completed agreeably to her desire in the short space of a single She highly approved of the work year.

mounted with towers 70 fathoms high. Within this wall was a third, far surpassing- the second in height and breadth, on which, and its towers,
all kinds of animals, particua great hunting party, in chase of wild larly beasts, each figure being four cubits in height, In the midst of this party and upwards.

were represented

when

finished ; and, to join the two parts of the city, she ordered a bridge, of artful contrivance, to be built, and this she afterwards
a disposition as this princess is" represented to have been in her latter days. Clemens Ah xandrinus, with more consistency refers this unnatural ii^ention to a king of Egypt, whom, he nevertheless call:, .Seniiraniis, for that country as wtllas Asia, had its fiiunnrim, in the persons of the Hyc-sos. (p) The description of Ctesias is here exactly followed
'

herself mounted on a a dart through a leopard, and steed, thrusting near her was Ninus in close combat with a lion, whom he had pierced with a lance.(q) To this palace were three gates, and underneath

appeared

Semiramis

(q)

memento of Nimrod,
Ninus,

This piece of sculpture was without doubt an historical the ancestor of Semiramis, and not of

appear from the subjoined comparative view, that the city of Seniiraniis fell considerably short, upon the \\hok', both of Nineveh and of Bahylon, as described by Herodotus, Diodortis Siciilus, and Strabo
l:ul
it

will

!t>

Dii!-

^i,
I'tiiit in/

"*

(ll/'/r<

(/,

in-

tlorun
<

'\itnit'liiutnt'.Z(ir.\\

rr,

"r,
li -it

neatly

480 sln46 Engu-rt.

I.

uii'rviHv,
<lin,nr,iibuut
;>

:;
'

''ire

miilerencc, 4110 fur-

lung.s in

60

miles.

miles.

.1

of walls, 200
siillit iri.l

Height of
ih, s

..

Mi,

iii

I'biekn;

-., 81"

li'el.

her husband, as explained by Ctesias. Moses "a describes Nimrod as mighty hunter," so that his name and pursuits became proverbial ;H and as Semiiamis was now building union;; her own countrymen, who were scattered in Babylonia," she would be more naturally and politically led to perpetuate among them the prowess of their progenitor, and the object of their idolatry, than tho.-cof her husband, whom they could only consider as their conAt the same time her policy would equally lead queror. her to permit her Assyrian subjects to please, themselves with the notion, that in this symbol they saw a representation of their late monarch. Semiramis, it is to be remembered, was cndeavourii!" to exceed the magnificence of Ninus, and his effigy would have l>< en \ery ungracefully introduced in a
buildini; expressly designed
to

chari

eclipse

his

limber,
liigli.

Turrets,

'.'.'><)

in

number.

number.

and other works of Semiramis, the historian understood of the people than of the empress.
.l.lib.
'f.

In this glory. is rather to be

f.

'iesn.

Air*. .Strmn.

lib.

i.

p.

364.

IJb.
ii.

ii.

Ciip.

i.

cnp. 178.

Plin, Nat. //iW. lib. vi. cap. 26.

['hibstr. lib. i.e. 18.

',

Cli-siiis.apud Uiod. bii'ul.

ltil,l.

Hiil. lib.

Gen.

x. 9.

SECT. IV.j

ACCORDING TO CTESFAS.
The statue of Jupiter stood erect, as the act of walking; 40 feet high, and weighing 1000 Babylonish talents; that of Ithca was of like weight, sitting on a golden throne, with a lion standing at each knee,; and near them
If/tea.
in

rooms of brass, lor the celebration of mysteries, which won: opened by a mechanical contrivance.

The outer -wall of the palace on the cast side of the river was not of greater circuit than the inner wall of that on the west side; and in
point of decoration, the whole pile was inferior one already described it had nevertheless bra/en statues of iSinus and Semiramis, attended by their great officers, as also of the god He/us. The walls were likewise adorned
to the
:

"

serpents, each statue of Juno was weighing 30 talents. erect, and weighed 800 talents ; with her right hand she grasped a serpent by the head, and in her left she held a sceptre, enriched with gems. Before these deities, was a table or

were

two

monstrous

silver

The

representing armies drawn out in order of battle, and various huntingpieces, to the great delight and satisfaction of the beholder, " Seiniramis next sunk a vast lake, each side being 300 stadia in length, and 35 feet in depth; the whole being lined with brickwork,

with

sculptures,

40

common to the three, of beaten gold, feet in length, 15 in breadth, and 500 talents in weight. this table stood two flagons,
altar,

On

strongly cemented with bitumen.

This work
for the pur-

Mas undertaken and completed

pose of receiving the waters of the Euphrates, whose course was diverted towards it, while a covered vault, or passage, was made across
the bed of the river, to afford a communication This vault, which between the two palaces. was -20 bricks in thickness. 12 feet in height, and 15 broad, was finished in "260 days, when the river was restored to its natural course. At each end of this passage were brazen gates, which continued till the time of the Persian
conquest.(r) " In the midst of the city she built a temple to J3ehis,(s) of brick and bitumen, and of surprising height; on its top she placed three statues of beaten gold, of Jupiter, Juno, and
(r) On the subject of these works, Strabo remarks, that " almost over the face of the whole earth, there are vast mounds of earth, and walls, and ramparts, attributed to Semiramis ; and in these are subterraneous passages of communication, and tanks foi- water, with stone staircases. There are also vast canals to divert the course of rivers, and lakes to receive them; together with highways and bridges of wonderful structure."'' This observation confirms the asser-

or goblets, weighing 30 talents, and near it were two censers, of 500 talents each there were also three drinking bowls, or vases, of which the one, dedicated to Jupiter, weighed 1200 talents, and the other two o'OO apiece. " Besides Babylon, Seiniramis built several other cities on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, for the sake of commerce, and communication with the remote parts of the empire, and to exalt the majesty of the great capital, which she farther distinguished by an extraordinary obelisk, hewn out of the mountains of Armenia, 125 feet high, five broad, and as many deep. This was removed from its native place, by multitudes of oxen and asses, to the
:

river side, where it was shipped and conveyed to Babylon, for such was the name she had

metropolis of her dominions. up conspicuous place in the of the city, and was reckoned one of vicinity the seven wonders of the world. (t)
given to the
It

new

was

set

in a

Cuseans, Chusdim, Satnarim, Auritae, Hyc-sos, Titans, and Giants; to which latter Eupolcmus ascribes the building of

Baby Ion. t

On

these altars

they probably offered

human

sacrifices, which gave rise to the fable that Semiramis took a man to her bed every night, she put to death in the

whom

already advanced, that the great works attributed to Semiramis, were performed by a people, and not by an individual; which people were varic.uily scattered in all directions, and having no country of their own, they made good their settlement* by dint of conquest, wherever they could. Who these people were, is sufficiently indicated by the mounds of earth and the pyramids they erected for both these kinds of structures appear to have had one object, only that earth was. Ued, where tone could not be. easily procured: they
tion
;
:

morning; and Ctesias, giving full credit to this account, si\s the mounds were the tombs of her lovers, whom she cau.-ed to be buried alive. J This is explaining one figment by the addition of another. (s) This temple is generally supposed to be the same with the lower of Babttl, but without sufficient grounds. The
latter building

temple of
(t)

was without doubt, Bdus was projected.

destroyed long before the

tains

Similar to this obelisk, or pillar, "cut out of the mounin a >ingle piece," was probably the stone seen by

were high altars, on which the builders sacrificed to the sun. These were the posterity of Cush, \ariously denominated
Strabo,
lib. xvi. p.

Nebuchadnezzar in his vision, which afterwards became a mountain, or mound, or altar, which fdled the whole earth. Prophetical types and parables were always addressed to the and customary conceptions of the beholders or hearers
;

1071.

Kusrl..

ing.

lib. ix.

cap, 17. p. -118.

{ Ctesias,

apud Diod.

Sicul,

BM,

Hist. lib.

ii.

Syucel. p. 64.

15

536
"

HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS,

[CHAP. vni.

Having completed her designs at home, Semiramis put herself at the head of an immense army, and marching into Media,

encamped near the mount called Bagislan, where she made a garden, 12 stadia in circumference.(u) The mount, which she dedicated to Belus, was 17 stadia in height, and at
its

foot she caused a statue of herself to

hewn

be 100 of her out of the rock, attended by

choicest guards. " She thence

proceeded

to

the
fine

city

of

garden Chaon,(v) where she also on the top of a rock, and taking up her abode for some time there, gave loose to the most licentious and cruel courses; for, jealous of her power, she would take no partner to her bed, but selected the most comely, and the most noble men in her army, to lie with her in the night, and in the morning they were

made a

provinces, levelling rocks and mountains before her; while in plain and champaign tracks she raised mounts and planted gardens, to variegate and adorn them, as well as to serve for monuments to her captains and chief commanders.(x) In some places she built towns and cities, and always raised an eminence whereon to erect her pavilion, that she might have a better view of the army.(y) Many of these things remained for a long time afterwards in Asia, and were commonly known by the name of the works oj Son tram is.

doomed
"

to inevitable death.(w)

She next advanced towards

in

and

her

way

levelled the

Ecbatana, mountain of Zar-

caeum, which was many stadia in extent ; and almost impassable, on account of its numerous this work obtained the name of precipices At Ecbatana she built the road of Semiramis. a most magnificent palace, and supplied the city with water, of which it had before been destitute: but all this was done after great toil and expense. " From Media, she continued her progress Persia and the rest of her Asiatic through
:

Asia, this mighty empress passed into Egypt,(z) and after surveying that kingdom, added the greater part of Libya to her other dominions. She also visited the temple of Jupiter Ammon, where, in answer to her inquiry as to how long she had to live, she was told that she should vanish from the sight of and obtain immortal honour and worship men, from some of the Asiatic nations, when her son Ninyas should plot against her life.' After this, she made war upon the Ethiopians ; and having settled that, by the conquest of the country, and taken a view of its rarities, she inarched back to Asia, and halted at Bactra, where, for some years, she enjoyed herself in
'

"

From

peace and quiet. " Impatient at length of the monotony of so calm a life, and having heard of the riches of India, whose fertility, splendour, and matchless elephants had been extolled before her,
necessary, or comely, and from the most noble and reputable families ; and, so blind was the superstition of the wretched victims themselves, that they even courted the appointment. In some countries, children were preferred to adults; in others, only prisoners of v>ar were immolated, or citizens on
\vhoui the lot

thus the column, or obelisk, would be readily recognized as emblematic of strength and stability, as its being cut out of the mountains without hands, would be of its self existence; and its afterwards becoming an altar, such as the Babylonians were accustomed to, in the shape of a vast mound, or mountain, would leave Nebuchadnezzar at no loss with respect to the spirituality of the empire, which was to confound all the kingdoms of the earth. The stone pillar, and the mountain altar, were the strongest emblems of the nature, power, and office of Messiah, that the itge anil people could have received. (u) This was certainly one of those groves and high places, so frequently spoken of in scripture.*
to be compounded of DPI (CHaM) (v) This word appears and \y (ON) the former the name of Ham, the latter of the it sun; and both used for the chief deity of the Amonians is synonymous with the city of Amman, or of the sun; for
:

had fallen, t There Is a remarkable coincidence between the above relation of Ctesias, and the complaints of

the prophets against the idolatry of the Israelites, metaphothe harlot, &c.J rically called adultery, playing
(x) These monuments were undoubtedly sepulchral, in honour of such as, having devoted themselves to the good of their country, had been immolated upon the hills, not buried

beneath them.
erected

the

titles

(w) Here

and
fices

it

are convertible. is another instance of a grove upon a high place seems to be here that the Semarim first adopted the
;

That is, the sacred standard, Sama-Ramis, was always upon one of the sacred mounds already described. (z) This is a mere digression, or transition from the Samarim of Asia, to the Hyc-sos of Egypt for it is highly impro(y)
:

shocking practice of offering human victims. These sacriwere always selected from those who were most useful,
Deuteronomy,
Etekiel,
t
vi.

bable, that either the individual Semiramis, or the people called by her name, should go direct from Persia to Egypt, while the conquest of India was in contemplation.
Orot. adv. Grntes.
} Isaiah, Ivii. 7.

nil.

2.

2 Kings,
lib.

xvi.

4. xvii.

10.

Jcrr.miah,
iib.
ii.

xvii. 2.

Hi-rod,
Jer.

13. xi. 28.

Praj).

Eurip. Ipliigen. in Taur.

iv.

lib. ii. lib. iv. p. 2'J Porpli. de Abstinent, Died. Sicul. lib. xx. p. 756. Silius Ilal. lib. 4.
i

See Euwb.

Ecang.

cap. 16.

Araobius,

Athanas.

ii.

20.

iii.

6.

Ezek. xvi. 16, 25, tt

at.

SECT. IV.]

ACCORDING TO CTESIAS.
his invader.

537

she resolved to attempt its conquest. Apprised, however, of the hazardous and difficult nature of such an undertaking, she issued orders to all her governors to select the choicest of the

youth in their respective provinces, and to send them within three years' time to Bactra,

He also added to the elephants trained ; causing numbers to be caught already for that purpose, and to be apparelled with every thing that might render them dreadful to an enemy. He then sent ambassadors to
Semiramis, with complaints and reproaches against her, for having so unjustly invaded his frontiers without the least provocation and in a private letter, after upbraiding her with her infamous life, he vowed that he would crucify But Semiher, should she fall into his hands. ramis had been too long the favourite of fortune to be daunted by mere words she laughed at
;

She also the place of general rendezvous. sent for shipwrights from Phcenice, Syria, Cyprus, and other maritime countries; and having prepared a store of timber commensurate with her designs, she ordered them to frame a certain number of vessels, to be transported piecemeal by land, to the banks of the
Indus, where wood was very scarce. " Her next care was to provide a substitute for the elephants, in which the strength of Stabrobates, then king of India, at that time chiefly consisted ; and, by which the valour of his troops was in a considerable degree heightened, from a conceit that those animals bred nowhere but in their own country. With this view she ordered 300,000 black oxen to be slaughtered, and distributed the flesh amongthe poorer people, ou condition of their making up the hides in the form of elephants, which
we're to

the Indian's threats, and sent him word that he should shortly be better acquainted both with

be put upon camels, and stuffed out.

To

prevent all knowledge of this invention being carried to the enemy, the people, thus employed, were surrounded by a lofty enclosure,

her conduct and actions. " Arrived on the banks of the Indus, she discovered the Indian fleet drawn out to oppose her passage she therefore launched her own vessels, and manned them with the bravest of her followers; at the same time, she made arrangements for the army on shore to aid the fleet in the expected conflict. The fight was obstinate, but ended in giving the victory to Semiramis : 1000 Indian barks were sunk, and a multitude of prisoners fell into the hands of her soldiers. She then attacked the cities and islands of the river; and made 100,000
:

captives.

and none suffered

to

go

out,

nor any to

enter to them.

preparations being completed in two years, she, in the third, collected her army at the appointed rendezvous, Bactra, to the amount of three millions of infantry, 200,000 cavalry, 100,000 armed chariots, and as many men on camels, who wielded swords four cubits
long.(a)

"

The

The

transports,

2000 in number, were

by camels, as were also the mock elephants, to which the horsemen endeavoured to familiarise their steeds during the journey, that they might not be alarmed on seeing them
carried

when they came "

into action.

When Stabrobates heard of this armament, he prepared for the attack, by building 4000 boats of the large canes growing in the fens of India, and, with great diligence, got together an army, exceeding in number that of
exaggerated

Stabrobates now had recourse to a ruse de guerre: he pretended to draw off his forces, which, when the Babylonish princess perceived, she marched her army across the river, upon a bridge of boats, and, leaving only 60,000 men to guard the passage, set off in full pursuit of the flying enemy. Her mock elephants she in the van, and, for a time, they caused placed no little perplexity to the Indians, who could not conceive whence she had furnished herself with so many, or indeed with any of these tremendous animals. This delusion, however, was of short duration the stratagem was revealed to the Indians by deserters from Semiramis, and it was immediately proclaimed, by order of Stabrobates, throughout his army. " Semiramis, unconscious that her secret was known, as well as of the snare into which she was running, continued to advance, till
:

"

These numbers of Ctesias appear to be sufficiently but they are much exceeded by Suidas, who states them at three millions of foot, one million of horse, 100,000 chariots armed with scythes, as many men to fight upon camels, 200,000 camels for other uses, (i. e, the mock
(a)
;

elephants,) 300,000 prepared ox-hides, and 3000 ships with brazen prows, built in Bactra, and manned by Syrians, Phoenicians, Cypriots, Cicilians, and others from the sea-

coasts

up

to the Hellespont.* * Suidas. ad vocem

f*p (tpi;.

VOL.

I.

3 z

538

HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS,

When

[CHAP. vni.

she came up with the Indian horse and chariots, which were disposed at some distance, in front of the main body of cavalry and real charge ensued ; the Indian elephants. and offended at the scent of horses,

the Assyrians reached their bridge of

boats, the throng was so great, and their panic so urgent, that many of them were miserably

frighted

the hides, either threw their riders, or dragged them into the midst of the Assyrians. Semiramis perceiving this advantage, attacked the disordered Indians with a select body of men, routed them, and drove them back upon their own army. Stabrobates, though under some consternation, immediately charged with his The his elephants. infantry, sustained by shock was violent, and the slaughter terrible, caused particularly by the elephants. Semiramis's mock elephants now proved ueless, and even cumbersome and her whole army turned from the enemy, and betook itself to flight. In the heat of the combat, Semiramis and Stabrobates fought hand to hand the Indian wounded her first in the arm with an arrow, and afterwards, as she was turning from him to with a dart. fly with her army, in the shoulder
;
:

pressed to death, or trampled under foot, while others fell, or threw themselves into the river, and were drowned. When the main body of her army, or rather the wreck of it, had crossed the river, Semiramis ordered the bridge to be broken, while chiefly laden with Indians, so that many perished in the flood. " Semiramis now endeavoured to her
rally

but they were too weak and disheartened for action ; and the Indians would probably have cut them all off, had they not been admonished, by prodigies, to desist from the pursuit. An exchange of prisoners afterwards took place, and Semiramis returned to Bactra with hardly a third part of the forces she had taken with her. " Whilst under this eclipse of glory, the time the Ammonian oracle approached foretold by an eunuch, employed by her son, attempted This recalled to her to assassinate her.(b)
forces;
:

made this attempt upon (b) Justin' relates, that Ninyas his mother, because she would have enticed him to the commission of incest, which filled him with so much horror, that
lie

it

could not endure she should

live

but Ctesias takes

no notice of such an attempt. Indeed, there are abundant reasons by which to account for the attempt of Niuyas, without having recourse to so foul a desire on the part of Semishe had been appointed his guardian during his ramis reins of empire long after minority, but she had retained the that had expired; she had exhausted the treasury with to the building the city of Babylon for her own people, detriment of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrians; she had
:

introduced innovations in religious concerns, particularly the horrid and abominable practice of human sacrifices; (to which, perhaps, she would have made her son a victim, as described by Justin under the symbol of an incestuous desire;) and in an improvident and unprovoked attempt upon India, she had lost the flower of the army, and reduced the monarchy to a state of weakness ; such might be the excitements to the design of Ninyas against the life of Semiramis, considering them as real personages. But these names have a more extensive application to two classes of people; in in SemiNinyas, we recognise the Ninevitcs and Assyrians; ramis, the Babylonians and Chaldrcaus ; and to them, perAn union had been of the history refers. haps, this part effected between the two, and the consequence was, that the the ascendant for some years ; till having Babylonians gained weakened themselves by predatory excursions upon their their superiority, the neighbours, the Assyrians regained standard of the Semarim was superseded by that of the Ninevites, and hence Semiramis is said to have vanished in the form of a dove ; that bird being, as before shewn, the emblem of her people. That the dove should afterwards be worshipped by the Assyrians, is not to be wondered at, when
Lib.
J
i.

after their dereliction of the true that, they had no priests but the Chaldxans, who first introduced that bird into their sacred emblems. The flock of pigeons, or doves, which accompanied Semiramis in her to have been the priests, sent into exile with flight, appears their sacred standard, when the Assyrians resumed the That there really was such a person as sovereign power. Semiramis, we have already expressed our belief; but that she, or any other individual, ever performed even the tenth part of what is attributed to her, is altogether incredible, and contrary to the evidence of the few historic remains of contemporary times and nations the fact is, that Ctesias, or those from whom he collected his information, has blended the history of the person with that of the people, and exhibits, in her biography, the transactions of many ages. With respect to her age and identity, we believe her to have been the wife of Ninus, son of Asshur, and that she lived in the days of Terah and Abraham, before their removal from Ur to Haran. Conon.t however, makes her the same with
is

considered

religion,

Atossa, sometimes called the second Semiramis, who reigned 12 years with her father Belochus, the 18th king in the catalogue of Eusebius, and perhaps, also, the same with the 8th The copies of his works differ in the reading;! in that list.
is called the daughter, instead of the wife of others she is said to have been that prince's mother, but that, lying with him accidentally, she afterwards but this is publicly acknowledged him for her husband a different version of the story of her attempted incest

in

some she
in

Ninus;

merely with Ninyas and the author's meaning is quite perverted bj who were conit, as he makes her the Atossa of Belochus, Herodotus places a Semifessedly father and daughter.5
;

ramis five generations before Nitocris,|| mother to Labynetus, she would appear [Nabonadius, or Belshazzar] from which to have been the wife of one of the early princes in the canon
1 Herodot.
lib.
i.

rap. 2.
p. J34.

Vide Greg. Poitkum.

$ Euaeb,

Apud. Phot. Biblioth. p. 427. Pamph. Chronic, lib. post.

p. 80.

cap.

l4

SECT. IV.]

ACCORDING TO CTESIAS.
been
sloth

539

memory

the decree of which she had

;

and therefore, considering the conduct of Ninyas as the unavoidable effect of a fatality beyond his power to control, she forgave him, and surrendering up the government into his hands, commanded all her subjects to pay him duty and homage as their
forewarned
king she then disappeared from the sight of men, as the oracle had foretold, and left the world in the form of a dove, or pigeon, in company with a flock of the same kind, which
:

upon her palace just at that moment: whence the Assyrians were afterwards addicted She was queen of to the worship of the dove. all Asia and continued in the sight of men 62 years, of which she reigned 42. " -Ninyas(c) succeeded his mother Jul Per. 2749 ^
settled
;

and concubines, he contracted such a habit of and vice, as has been a reproach to his memory to all succeeding generations. Yet was he not so supine as totally to overlook his interest and security. It was his custom, every year, to levy an army, by a certain proportion of men out of each province, under their respective generals, while he appointed such governors over the several parts of his dominions as he could most safely confide in. This army served a year in and about the city ; and being then relieved by another, raised in like
manner, was, after taking the oath of allegiance, disbanded, and the men were permitted to return to their respective homes. By this he endeavoured to keep his subjects in policy,

awe

2039. A. M. PostDil. 32.

(^

Semiramis; but resembled neither of his parents; for he chose to

:

B. C.

enjoy himself in peace and, lockhimself up in his palace with his eunuchs ing
while, on the other hand, Gregory and others the shepherd Simma, by whom she was educated, to suppose be the same with Shem.* Scaliger makes her the wife of Asshur, son of Shem,t because he thinks the name of her

1965. J

and the short acquaintance that the sol; diers could thus have with their officers, tended to prevent combinations and conspiracies in
the army,

now

that

it

to engross its attention.

had no foreign expedition While he thus en0spo{ run Aavvgivi

txaXeo-ir.
or;

of Ptolemy

and not to himself.

TUTO>
TriXriv

Mira Ni
Apia

waTH{ KVTU Za^i;

of

TSTW ru A
early successors

atnr"ri<7K,v

Awvfiioti *a

OEOV

frpocrxfvacr**

{trris.ffV

From which we learn, that one of the

;

son Ninyas better agrees with the Hebrew mode of writing Nineveh, the city, than that of her pretended husband, Ninus; a name, he contends, that was imposed by the Greeks upon the patriarch Asshur; so that Shem must have been the Belus of the Assyrians. To all these opinions, may be added that of Suidas,} who says she was worshipped under the title of the goddess Rhea, which brings us pretty nearly to Rhea being a metaphorical the point whence we set out representation of the ark, as Semiramis was of the dove preserved in the ark, as well as of the rainbow exhibited to mankind on their merging from that receptacle,|| as will be more fully explained in treating of the Grecian mythology. (c) His real name was Zanies, or Zameis Ninyas appears to have been a title, derived from his preference of Nineveh The Gerto Babylon, or from his having been born there. man writers call him Trebeta, and attribute to him the building of the city of'Treves.lT The Editors of the Universal History,''- following the authorities of Gregorytt and Suidas, and Ares, or say he was also called Thourias.tJ or Thouras, Mars that he was the first who had a statue erected to him, which was called B*X Qiw, the Lord God ; and that he waged war with, and slew the tyrant Caucasus, of the tribe of Japheth, or Japetus, and was, after death, consecrated into
:

of Ninus, was called Thouros

the

that he

was

the,

son ofZames,

that his father gave him the name of Ares ; but that the people called him Baal, and paid him divine honours. All which, as before asserted, relates to

same as Ninyas

The true character and Arius, the Arioch of Moses.*** history of Ninyas, seem to be included in the following general sketch. During the usurpation of his mother and her fraternity, the Cuthite Semarim, he confined himself to
the civil government of Nineveh and its environs ; after her death, and the reduction of the Babylonians, being pretty far

advanced

in years,

he continued

his

former course of retired

administration, and committed all military expeditions to his son Arius, or Arioch, whose name, or rather title, derived from One-Arcs, " the mighty lion," is sufficiently indicative of his martial genius. Thus are the apparently

contradictory

But these attributes are so much at Mars.|||| variance with the unwarlike character of Ninyas, that we should suppose him to have been a different person from Zanies, were we not assisted by Cedrenus, who declares the
the, planet

accounts of the slothfulness and the military exploits of the From the specimens reign of Ninyas, reasonably reconciled. of his policy, described by Ctesias, he appears to have been a prudent king; but the ancients could not bear the idea of a prince who was not a soldier and a conqueror, and therefore Many parts of his they have reproached his memory. history, as given by Ctesias, very much resemble that of Sardanapalus, who is also represented, at one moment, as the most degraded of men, and the next, as bravely heading his troops, and almost annihilating the numerous forces of his rebellions officers: and hence an inference may be fairly drawn, that the history of both sovereigns has been confounded, and most wretchedly perverted.

names and
*

titles,

above quoted,
t ,Vot. in

to

belong to Arius, his son,

Frag, ad Calc. emend. Temp. p. 43. i Ad vocem Sif*ipapi. C/iron. Paschal, p. 36. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 380. iii. 146. Jlryanl's Mi/Ida/, vol. Hi. p. '237. * Vol. Iv. K. (8vo. edit.) f Greg. Posth. p. '.':;'.). p. 297,

Greg. Posth.

p. 235.

$ Suid.
JiJI

ad vocem. 0Kp*{.

Ibid.
to

Sw

als.j

Joan. Male),

p.

20,

et seq.

The meaning of thee

writeri

\\

tt

Or

rather of the
s>39.

anonjmous Greek MSS. mentioned

}} Ibid.

in hi

posthumous

have been misapprehended. seems UK Cedrcn. Camp, llistar. p. Iti. (.Paris edit 1647.) ** See before, page 5^6.

works, p. 226,

3z

540

HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS,

harlot,

[CHAP. viir.
in the filth of a

deavonred to secure himself from insults and rebellions, he wallowed in lasciviouness within the walls of his palace, where, as an unworthy example to his successors, he concealed himself from the eyes of men, as something more than mortal.
" After this manner reigned all his succesin the great empire of Assyria; so that sors record of they have left little or nothing to that they lived and died in their them, except palace at Nineveh ; we must, therefore, proceed abruptly to the very last of them.(d) " Sardanapalus,(e) the last of Jnl Per 3874 1 the Assyrian monarchs, exceeded 31(54. ( A. M.
Post
Oil.

he buried himself

most

unbounded
stances,

Under these circumsensuality.(f) became odious to his Sardanapalus

subjects, particvdarly to Arbaces, govenior of Media, and Belesis, captain of the host at Babylon, also a great astrologer. By the rules

uxur y. and sank to such a depth that, as far as he could, he He his very nature and his sex. changed dressed himself in the robes of a woman he spun with his concubines he painted his face he imitated the female voice and, decking his person with all the meretricious ornaments of a
l

B.C.

1307. f" 840. j

all his

predecessors in sloth

and

of the sideral art, the latter assured Arbaces, that he was destined to dethrone Sardanapalus, and to become lord of all his dominions. Arbaces, who listened to this intelligence with all the pleasure of an ambitious mind, assured his friend Belesis, in return, that should such be the event, he would make him governor of Babylonia at the same time he took care to cultivate the friendship of all.the other governors of
:

provinces then at Nineveh, and began to affect

popularity, in
desire.

of .depravity,

which he succeded

to his heart's

wished, however, above all, to get a sight of the king, that he might describe his course and manner of life to the people, from ocular demonstration ; and in this he was gratified by the contrivance of a slave, whom he
abstracted from
the Assyrian history, and given to the Bactrians, who were of the race of the Cuthite Semarim, as we shall see more fully in their particular history and we would limit this first Assyrian monarchy to the countries of
;

He

(d) During this chasm of lOffe years, according to Eusebius, or of 1273, according to Syncellus, it has been asked, how can we conceive that in so long a succession of ages,

have arisen, who had ambition or courage enough to take advantage of the sloth and supineness of these kings at Nineveh ? Did the vassals to this throne or did glory in their chains, and the burden of their tribute

no one man should

they all sink into a lethargy with their masters ? Was there no king of Bactria, no king of India, to arouse them from their slumbers ?* To these, and other such questions, it may be answered, that Ctesias had so exhausted the history of the Assyrian, Babylonian, and other princes, in the formation of his heroine Semiramis, to say nothing of the marvellous deeds of her predecessor, and husband, Nimis, that he had left She and her absolutely nothing to say of her successors. husband had conquered the world, and what could remain for those who came after, but to sit at their ease, and enjoy the fruits of their labours? But if we take a more sober survey of his history, and appropriate what really pertains
to

Assyria, Babylonia, Chaldsea, Susiana, Parthia, and Media ; from whence it is probable, that occasional predatory excursions were made upon the neighbouring provinces, which gave rise to the splendid, but fabulous, achievements of Ninus and Semiramis. (e) We are told by Ctesias, that this was his name in Greek, but that his Assyrian name was Tonos-Concoleros ; in which he has been followed by others, who call this prince, Concoleros, Mascocoleros.t &c. but these names bear no analogy to those with which the Scriptures have made us familiar; while 'Sar-'dan-a-palus seems to be easily derived from Assar-haddon-Pul, or Assur-adon-pul, names well

known in the Assyrian history. (f) Our author here, by endeavouring

commanding an army, and of directing
at its head, with so

to prove too

much,

the Assyrians and Babylonians, to the princes who succeeded Ninyas, as sovereigns of moderate kingdoms, we shall find them to have been neither idle nor effeminate; on the contrary, Assyria will appear gradually rising from a small state, almost comprised within the walls of Nineveh, to an extensive empire, sometimes reaching westward as far as the Vale of Siddini and the Arabian frontiers, but more commonly bounded by the Euphrates and the Babylonian mountains. It had scarcely attained the acme of its glory, when it was overturned by an enemy engendered in its own bosom, and broken to pieces a fate not peculiar to itself, but which has been the constant attendant on all great It will not have passed unnoticed, that Semiramis, empires. after her Indian disaster, retired to Bactria, and that her return to B.tbjlon, or Nineveh, is not mentioned: whence it should seem that the attempt on India ought to be altogether
;

defeats his purpose, because it is in direct opposition to what he is about to declare, that Sardanapalus was capable of
its

movements, himself

A luxurious affairs, and of indubitable valour. prince he might be, in common with other monarchs of the East, but there seems no necessity for supposing him the abandoned wretch, as Ctesias calls him, here represented.
military

the conspirators,

much prudence and courage, as to defeat who were men of consummate wisdom iu

His character, it should be remembered, was drawn by his enemies, after they had succeeded in their rebellion and treason; and it is a curious fact, that Dio Cocceianus, who has taken much pains to inform his reader, that Sardanapalus was the most libidinous and abandoned mortal the sun ever shone upon, concludes with saying, that no ona could tell

what he

did.'l
t

So absurd are men's prejudices.

G. Synccll.
cl Kus'.;b. liiccrjit.

ramp.
Vala. p. 762.

Univ. Hist. vol.

iv. p.

300,

L (8o. coil.)

Dio Cocc.

SECT. IV.]

ACCORDING TO CTESIAS.

541

had bribed with a golden cup. Arbaces saw the wretched monarch, and, conceiving the highest contempt for him, was the more encouraged to rely on the promises of his Chaldaean friend, so that he ventured to excite the Medes and Persians under his command to revolt, while Belesis did the same with respect to the Babylonians; and, to increase their strength, the concurrence of the king of Arabia was solicited, and obtained. " The year of Arbaces' duty at Nineveh being expired, fresh troops arrived to relieve those who had served under him; but the Persians, Medes, and Babylonians, assisted by the Arabians, came not with design to guard their monarch, but to subvert his dominion.
Their number amounted to 400,000 men, and being all assembled in one camp, a council of war was held, to deliberate on their future proSardanapalus was no sooner apceedings. of this revolt, than he put himself at prised the head of the troops belonging to the other direct against the provinces, and marching them battle, routed them with rebels, gave great slaughter, and pursued them to certain mountains, about 70 stadia from Nineveh. (g) Here the insurgents rallied, and being drawn

treason should they submit to the conqueror, he revived the drooping spirits of the rebels, and inspired them with a sort of desperate resolution to hold out; though, in a council of war, it had been determined that they should disperse to their third battle ensued ; and respective homes. Sardanapalus, as twice before, drove them into the mountains Arbaces did that day all that

man

" This victory would have been decisive, if Belesis, who spent the night in consulting the stars, had not, next morning, with great assurance, persuaded the insurgents that if they

could do, under his circumstances, but he was obliged to retreat, grievously wounded.

would but keep together five days longer, they would be joined and supported by unexpected assistance; and he entreated them to place confidence in the gods, and await the event.

Before the expiration of the five days, they gained intelligence that a mighty reinforcement was approaching, sent to the king from Bactria : upon which, Arbaces dispatched the most resolute men in his army, to prevail on these Bactrians to revolt. Liberty, that never-failing charm, was the bait to allure them ; from officer to soldier it prevailed, and the whole army joined Arbaces. This transaction was unknown to Sardanapalus, who, presuming that he had crushed the rebellion, and had nothing to fear, had returned to his capital, and was

up again in order of battle, the king, before the action, caused proclamation to be made of a reward of 200 talents of gold for the

man who

should

kill

Arbaces; and double

that sum, with the government of Media, to whoever should take him alive: similar

rewards, with the substitution of

for

Babylonia

also proclaimed for the These proclamaseizure or death of Belesis. tions did not produce the desired effect; the rebels, firm to their purpose, again engaged the royal troops, but again they experienced defeat.

Media,

were

preparing for an extraordinary sacrifice, and a high festival for the entertainment of his victorious army. " When the negligence and riot induced by this festival in the royal camp were reported to Arbaces, he immediately took his measures for surprising it in the night-time: and here, for the first time, he was successful; the insurgents
great havoc among their enemies, and drove them to the very walls of Nineveh. Sardanapalus now prepared for a siege, and committing the command of the troops to his brother-in-law, Salemenus, undertook the defence of the city himself. Salemenus was twice defeated, once at some distance, and once under the walls of the city in the latter action he was killed, and almost the whole of his army
;

made

And now

Arbaces, disheartened, would have

abandoned his enterprise, had not Belesis persisted in his assurances that the gods would ultimately be propitious, and crown their efforts with
these encouragements, and high promises of the rewards which awaited them, should they persevere, on the one hand, contrasted with representations, on the other, of the
success.

By

punishment that would be

inflicted

upon

their

was cut

off,

and forced into the

river,

whose

and alacrity, joined to courage under (g) Tins promptitude circumstances truly distressing, when the king had every to fear, even from his best friends, have rendered tliin Sardanapalus so unlike himself, as described by his enemies,

two persons of that name, one a bold man, the other a very efTemiuate one.*
that Callisthenes attii'ms there were

Suidas. ad

vocem

15

642

HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS,

[CHAP. vin.

waters were for a long time after tinged with the blood of the slain. " Sardanapalus, having thus lost his army, was closely besieged; and, as is common in like cases, other tributary nations, anxious for of the liberty, revolted to the stronger party The king, perceiving the desconfederates. sent perate situation to which he was reduced, his three sons and two daughters,(h) away with a great treasure, into Paphlagonia, where his particular friend Cotta was governor ;(i) at the same time he issued proclamations for all his faithful subjects to hasten to his assistance.

their forces, considered their business as complete, though, for want of engines, they could

make no

impression on the walls, and Sardaremained shut up for two whole years. napalus In the third year, however, he had to deplore the fallacy of his confidence, and to be the melan-

Deplorable as his situation appeared to be, it was not yet desperate for he comforted himself with the recollection of an ancient protill phecy, that Nineveh could never be taken the river became its enemy ; and looking upon this as an impossibility, he made himself secure within its walls, notwithstanding the storm that
;

choly spectator of his disappointed hopes for the river, swelled by unusual rains, came down upon the city with a mighty inundation, and The overthrew full 20 stadia of the wall. monarch now perceived the compleunhappy tion of the prophecy, on the impossibility of which he had so implicitly relied, and, dreading to fall into the hands of the enemy, he retired to his palace, where, in one of the courts, he caused a vast pile of wood to be raised ; and
:

raged without.
"

heaping upon it all his gold, silver, and royal apparel, and at the same time enclosing his eunuchs and concubines in an apartment within the pile, he set fire to it with his own hands, and then casting himself into the flames,

The

with their

confederates, in the mean time, elated successes and the accessions to

The rebels, destroyed himself and them.(j) hearing of this catastrophe, entered the city by
Suidas intimates that he was accidentally burnt in his palace ; and yet Cleitarchus affirms that though he was despoiled of the empire of Syria, [or Assyria,] he died in a good old age, peaceably and quietly on his bed.|| He is also said to have built Tarsus and Anchiale, in Cilicia, in one day :1T and Callisthenes, who appears to have been puzzled with the jarring accounts of this prince, writes that there were two Sardanapali, as already hinted,** which in sentiment he has been followed by others; and Suidas, also, who talks of a Sardanapalus slain by one Perseus, has two of the name: from all which we are inclined to admit, with the Editors of the Universal History,^-\ that the manly Sardanapalus was the same with the great Esar-haddon while in the effeminate one we behold the last king of Assyria, whose name was Sarac, Sarchedon, or Sardon-pul. Amyntas relates that a great mount was raised in Nineveh, according to tradition, as a sepulchral monument to Sardanapalus ;H which the editors of the work just alluded to, suppose to be the same with what was before attributed to Semiramis, in honour of Minus: to this mount, Ctesias, or his copust Diodorus, seems to point, when he relates that Belesis, having been vast riches that had been conprivately informed of the sumed with Sardanapalus, obtained of Arbaccs leave to remove the mount to Babylon, under pretence of a vow lie had made, that in the event of success, if the palace of Sardanapalus should be consumed, he would be at the charge and trouble of transporting the ashes to Babylon, that he of his god, as a might there heap them up near the temple
;

we were told that Sardanapalus had (h) A little way back, effeminated himself, and become as a woman ; but now he Hence we cannot is the father of no less than five children ! but remark that from what is really known of this prince's
appears altogether manly, courageous, and monarch; the unfavourable shades of his character are derived from what Dio Cocceianus affirms to be
conduct,
it

befitting a

vnknown*

who mentions Ctesias as if he quoted from (i) Athenaeus, him, says, Sardanapalus, perceiving himself sorely pressed, and ruin approaching, sent three sons and two daughters, with 3000 talents of gold, for security, to the king of Nineveh .'t but who this king, or what this city, could be, conjecture itself can form no idea. (j) Athenaeus, who seems to have transcribed at full length what Diodorus perhaps abridged from Ctesias, describes this funeral pile of Sardanapalus as being four jugera, or acres, in extent, and adds, that it contained 150 golden beds, with as many tables of the same metal. He farther says, that in the midst of the pile was built a hall, or room, of 100 feet, in which were beds for the king, his queen, and his concubines that it was all a solid piece of timber-work, and so fenced about with huge timbers, that nobody could get out that it contained a thousand myriads of talents of gold, and ten thousand myriads of silver, together with riches in apparel and furniture, beyond the that Sardanapalus, after he had power of description enclosed himself and his wives, ordered the pile to be set on fire, when it burned for 15 days together, the smoke in the mean time deceiving those without, who thought he had been sacrificing, for it was a secret to all but his eunuchs.}
; ;

permanent monument of the subversion of the Assyrian His real motive was to obtain possession of the empire. riches contained in these ruins, and when the secret was
f Athen. ul>i supr. G. Syncell. Clironog. page 110. >* See note (i;), p. 541. ft Vol.
$}
p.

See note (I), p. 510. t Atlien. Dtipnosoph. lib. xii. p.

i
||

165.

Euscb. Paraph. Cliran.

A29.
$ Suid, ad vocero

Athen. Dcipnasoph.
Clcitarcli.

lib

xii.

p. 'j'19.

if. p.

329, Z, 331, A, (8ro edit.)

apud

Allico.

tupr.

Apud

Allifij. ub> supr.

SECT. IV.]

ACCORDING TO CTESIAS.
perly

543

the breach the waters had made, and became masters of the place. They treated the inhabitants with much humanity, though the great and mighty city of Nineveh itself was laid level with the ground and thus ended the Assyrian subverted by the Medes Jul.Per.3894.(k)") empire, and Babylonians, after it had A. M. 3184. ( PostDil.1527. C subsisted about 1240 years.
:

under the reigns of Pul, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, Assar-haddon, Saosducheus, and Sarac, from whose names that of his hero seems to be comso
called,

Tiglath-pileser,

B c
-

The
:

allies

now

divided their

pounded. The death of Sardanapalus, and the destruction of Nineveh, occurred, according to the computation of Eusebius, in the third year of Jeroboam II. king of Israel ;(m) at which
period the

was made king of Babylon, conquests as had been promised him, and Arbaces retained the rest of the late Assyrian monarchy, under the title of the empire of the Medes. "(1)
Belesis

kingdom of the Syrians was the

In the foregoing extract from the Assyrian history of Ctesias, we meet with some truth, much more of allegory, and abundance of romance, upon which it would be but waste of time to descant beyond what has already been thrown out in the notes as we passed along. But before the subject is dismissed, it may be proper to examine a little more deeply into the history of Sardanapalus, to discover, if possible, who he was, and to settle the true epocha of the destruction of Nineveh, for, as the history now stands, that city, and the Assyrian empire, would appear to have arisen from its ashes in the short space of 40 or 50 years, in order to be again overthrown, by the same powers, the

most predominant, though declining, under Benhadad III. from what it had been under his predecessors ;(n) and it is highly probable that the kings of Assyria and Babylon were among the vassals of those princes at such a time, therefore, the Assyrian monarchy could hardly be said to exist, much less be an object
;

of envy

to

the governors of the provinces.

also in the reign of Jeroboam II. that the prophet Jonah was sent to denounce the overthrow of Nineveh, (o) which judgment,

But

it

was

Medes and Babylonians, about 170 years afterward as will be seen in the next period of
;

on the repentance of the king and his subjects, was suspended for that time, though the threat was renewed by Nahum,(p) who prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, and by Zephaniah,(q) in the reign of Josiah, king of Judah. Now, according to the reckoning of Eusebius, the denunciation of Jonah must have been made just before, or soon after the death of Sardanapalus the former supposition, consequently,
;

Assyrian history.

would

falsify

the assurance of the inspired

under the names of Ninus and Semiramis, compressed whatever belonged to the early kings of Assyria and Babylon so, under the title of Sardanapalus he has included
Ctesias,
;

As

writings, that

Nineveh was at that time spared;

:

would render the preaching of the prophet nugatory and had there been a prethe latter vious destruction of the city, the later prophets, Nahum and Zephaniah, would not have failed
authenticity of these inscriptions is doubtful, though St. Paul may possibly have some allusion to the second, in his " Let sarcastic taunt to those who denied the resurrection : After his death, us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."|| Sardanapalus was deified in the temple of Hierapolis, in
Syria,
(k)
(1)

all

that pertained to the Assyrian empire, proafter

he had removed them to Babylon, his were so indignant at the deception, that they condemned him to lose his head, which sentence would have been executed but for the interposition of Arbaces, who not only forgave him, but left him in possession of the
discovered,
fellow-chieftains
treasure, as well as of the

that the

crime.* by, or in

government of Babylon observing good he had done might serve as a veil to his Writers speak of inscriptions on pillars erected
;
;

where he seems to have been the representative of the

beastly Priapus.

of this prince, to the following purport " Sardanapalus, son of Anacyndaraxis, built Tarsus and " Ancbiale in one day ; but now is dead."t Eat, drink, and be merry ; for the rest is not worth the snap of a "I finger."} reigned, and while I enjoyed the light of the

memory

According to the computation of Eusebius. apud Diod. Sicul. BM. Hist. lib. ii. p. 7895. Nicol. Damasc. in Excerpt. Vales, p. 424, et seq. earlier that is, (in) Justin and others place them 80 years in the 15th year of Jehoshaphat, and the 19th of Ahab.
Ctesias,
;

(n)

See
x.

i Kings,

xi.
xii.

2325.
17.

xv.

1820.
i

\\.

121.

drank, I ate, and gave myself up to women, knowing how short a time man has to live, how full of cares and trouble ; and that the joys I leave behind pass on to others knowing this, I never missed a day from pleasure."^ The
sun,
I
:

2 Kings,
(o)

3133.
ii.

xiii. 3, 7,

22. xvi. 6.
iv.

(p) (q)
t

Comp. 2 Kings, xiv. 25, with Jonah, Nahum, i. 1. ii. 8. iii. 7, et al.
Zeph.
13.
et

*
424,

Cteuas, apud Died, w&i iufr.

et icrj.

Nieol. Dainasc. in Excerpt. Vales, page

Athen.u&isupr. G. Sjncell. Athen. wfri supr.

Euseb. ibid.

t Arislob.

spud Atheu.

B 1 Cor. iv. 32.

544
to advert to
it

HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS.

in their predictions of

[CHAP. vin.

judgment and desolation. amounting to little short of demonstration, that Nineveh experienced but one overthrow, and
that

impending These are proofs,

to (he throne, he found the whole empire in a state of distraction; and though he re-established

took place much later than the date assigned by Eusebius and those who have folit

lowed Ctesias.
of Sardanapalus's as well as the disof his character under various circumsimilarity stances ; both which seem to have arisen from his being the representative of persons diverse In the conquests in their conduct and fortune. of Pul, Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser, we find the mighty empire of Assyria formed upon the ruins of that of Syria, (r) and the extirpation of the ten tribes of Israel.(s) It was weakened in the short reign of Sennacherib, whose army was cut off, to the number of 185,000, in one night, by the destroying angel ;(t) so that when
his son Esar-haddon, whom we suppose to have been the true manly Sardanapalus, came

The compound nature name has been adverted to,

power in a considerable degree, he could never again subjugate the Medes, who had revolted from his father ; but it was not till the reign of Sarac, or Chynalydan, the second in succession from Esar-haddon, that these people were sufficiently strong to make an attempt on the Assyrian capital ;(u) about the same time that Nabopolassar, governor of Babylon, revolted, and made himself king of that city and its And now it was that Sarac, who territory.(v) to have been the puerile effeminate appears Sardanapalus, terrified at the news of the revolt, and dreading the calamities that might befal him, set fire to his palace, and was consumed with all his wealth in the flames. Nineveh was afterwards taken rj u l. Per. 4ios. and destroyed by the joint forces ) A. M. 3398. of the Medes and Babylonians, Olymp.43 3. | who divided the empire between them, as will more fully be described in due time.
his

(r)

(u)

2 Kings, xvi. (s) Ibid. xvii. Herod, lib. i. cap. 104. lib. ii. cap.

79.

(t)

Ibid. xix. 35.

(v) Polyhist.

apud Syncell. Chron. page 210.

et in Grtec.

1. lib. vii. cap. 20.

Euseb. Seal. p. 38, 39.

CHAP,

ix.]

HISTORY OF SYRIA. NAMES. SITUATION,

&c.

DIVISIONS.

CHAPTER

IX.

HISTORY OF THE ARAMEANS, OR FIRST SYRIANS.

SECTION
of Taurus on the north, the Euphrates on the Arabia Deserta, Palestine, and Phoenice, on the south, and the Mediterranean on the west extending from the 33d to the 38th degree of north latitude. DIVISIONS. Aram, or Aramea, seems originally to have been parcelled out into several small kingdoms and jurisdictions, which being first collected by Tidal, to assist his brethren of Elam and Assyria, obtained him the title of king of nations. In after-times it appears under
east,
;

I.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF SYRIA. NAMES. DIVISIONS AND SITUATION AND EXTENT. RUINS OF PALMYRA AND BALBEC. CITIES.
NAMES. THIS country was first called Aram, after the youngest son of Shem, who
had
his allotment here

earth.

on the division of the This Hebrew name was originally of

great extent, including at least what is now called Syria, and Mesopotamia ; which latter was the Aram Naharaim, or Syria ivitli two rivers. As a kingdom, its sovereign is first mentioned in Scripture as the king of nations ;(w) probably because his army was composed of a mixture of many tribes dwelling in these
parts.

four principal divisions, viz. Zobah,

Damascus,

The Greek name,

Syria,

is

variously

derived by some, from one Syrus, said to have sprung from the earth ;(x) whence we suppose him to have been a Titan,(y) of the Cuthite race, who obtained an early footing in the country ; by others, it is derived from Syrus, son of Agenor ;(z) but as he was of the same race,(a) this second Syrus appears to be the same with the first others suppose the name Syria to be a contraction of Assyria ; those two names being indifferently used by the It is now called Scham, by the ancients.(b) a word indicative of Ihe left hand, in Arabs, which position it stands relatively to Arabia, when the face is turned towards the rising sun. SITUATION AND EXTENT. Writers are not agreed as to the exact bounds of this country, because they consider it at different times, when its empire was more or less extended. But sve may nevertheless determine the limits of Syria Proper to be between the mountains
:

other names, that we find in Scripture, as Beth-rehob, Ishtob, Maacha, &c. were probably subdivisions. In still later times, the whole country, including also that of the Phoenicians, Idumeans, Jews, Gazites, and Azotites, or land of the Philistines, consisted of two divisions only, CceloAfter the death of syria, and Phcenice.(c) Alexander, Syria, in its largest extent, according to Strabor included Commagene, Seleucis of Syria, Coelosyria, Phoenice, and Judea; though that geographer elsewhere distinguishes Phoenice from Syria.(d) Ptolemy subdivides

Hamath, and Geshur

these,

and reckons in Syria Proper, only Commagene, Pieria, Cyrristica or Cyrrhestica,

Seleucis, Cassiotis, Chalybonitis, Chalcidice or

Chalcidene, Apamene, Laodicene, Phoenicia and Palmyrene. Mediterranea, Coelosyria, Under the Romans, Syria Proper was divided into Commagena, or Euphratensis ; Syria Palmyrena, or Salutaris ; and Phoenicia Libani, or Libanesia. The Arabs include both Palestine and Cilicia, in Syria, under the general denomination of Scham ; and Abu'lfeda divides the

whole into

five

junds, or provinces, viz. the

(x) Africanus, apud Synccll p. 150. p. >33 ; also, Bryant's Myt/iol. vol.i. p. 80. (z) Chronic. A!cjn.'.t. u. id),
(\\
;

lieu. xiv. 1.

(b)

(y)

See

noe (o),

Proleg.
(c)

Herodot. lib. vii. cap. 03. tie Diis Syr. Strabo. lib. xvi. sub init.
lib.
ii.

Justin, lib.

cap. 2.

(a)

Mythol. vol.
I.

ii.

p. 426, 440.

(d;

Idem,

YOL.

4A

p. 86.

HISTORY OF SYRIA.
Kinnesryne, the Hemsene, the Damascene, the
Jordanitic,

[CHAP. ix.
it is

or Alexandria kata Isson, as

called,
is

sometimes

and the

Palestine.

placed by Ptolemy

in

Syria; but by

Commageue, or Comageue [Katnas/i], had part of mount Taurus on the north, the Euphrates on the east, and mount Amanus
on the west
tain.
;

CITIES.

in Cilicia. Between Posidium and Seleucia was the island of Meliloca, formed by the waters of the Orontes, and

Pliny and others

its

southern boundary

is

uncer-

Its chief cities

were Samosata [Semisat],

Euphrates, the metropolis; Aracca [Meralh] ; Antiochia ad Taurum, or Antioch at the foot of Taurus; Germanicea, Singa, Chaonia, Doliche [Doluc], with several others once of importance, but long since totally destroyed.

on the

its scarlet dye. of Cyrrhestica lay between It Seleucis, Commagene, and the Euphrates. received its name from its metropolis Cyrrhus [Kilis], so called after a city of the same name in Macedon. The other cities in this part of

once celebrated for

The

divisions

Strabo's division, according two districts; Pieria in the north, comprised and Casiotis in the south. Ptolemy divides this tract into Pieria, Seleucis, and Casiotis but Mela and Pliny include the whole under tin name of Antiochene, which answers to the In this part of Syria stood, Seleucis of Strabo. on, or near the coasts, Myriandrtis, on the finu.s Issicus, or Issic Gulf; Rhosus, or Rhossus Seleucia Pieria [Suvedie/i], built by Seleucus Nicator, and so called from the province, as the province itself was from mount Pierius; it was also called Seleucia on the coast, to distinguish it from eight other cities built by Seleucus, and called after him this and the Seleucia on the Tigris [Al Modain], were the most renowned of all named after that monarch Posidonium, or Posidium, whose site is doubtSi 'lends,

to

Syria were called Bambyce,(f } or Hierapolis, by the Syrians Magog [Membig]; Heraclea, and Chalybon, or Berrhcea, or Beraea [supposed to be Aleppo, the Clialep of the Greek writers in the middle ages.] Zeugma, so called from a bridge, said to have been built by Alexander the Great, when he passed the Euphrates with his army,(g) is placed by Ptolemy in this province, but by Strabo and Pliny in that of Commagene. Chalcidene was wholly an inland province, having Cyrrhestica on the north, Chalybonitis on the east, Apamene to the south, and Seleueis on the west. Its metropolis was Chalcis
called also
[Kinesrin], after

which

it

was named.
most
fertile

It is

ful

Heraclea Laodicea [Latikia/i], Gabala Pablos Balanaea [Bc(inas], Carne, and Antaradus [Tortosa], which latter, with
; ;

[GehileA],

the island Aradus [Rtiad] opposite,

is

more

commonly reckoned

to belong

to

Phcenice.

In the mediterranean or inland country, we find Antioch on the Orontes [Autakia], the metropolis of all Syria, and the usual residence of the Macedonian princes; Seleucia ad Belum, or SeJeucia at the foot of mount Belus [Shagr], Apamea [Famif/i], Emissa, or Entesa [Hems], Kpiphania, or Ilamath, or Chamath [Hctatak], Lanssa. A rethusa [/??*/], Raphanea[Jfiirt/W//J, Salamias [Salemiey], Seriane fa-rich], and some others. Alexandria ad Istrum [Scanderoon],
f

province of Syria, for which reason, probably, it contained no other places of consideration ; the land being better adapted for tillage and pasture, than for trading cities. Chalybonitis, also an inland country, was so called from its capital Chalybon, the only city it contained worthy of notice though its situation is undecided ; Ptolemy places it on the 35th degree of latitude, while others suppose it to be the same with Berrhoea and Aleppo. Palmyrene consisted of an extensive desert, with a fertile district in the midst. Its chief
;

commended by Pliny

as the

Palmyra [TW/nor], Thapsacus [El Dor], Sura [Surley], Rescepha Arsofia [ReOruba [Sukney], Harae suff'a], Tiebe [Tfiybeh],
[jreca], Laodicea Cabiosa, more generally reckoned with the cities of Coelosyria; TripaOf these the t\v radisus, and Chare [Kat-a].

cities w^ere

(f)

The nanw was changwt

:

to Hiorapolis,
tiie

or

the.

holy city,

each other, the goddess inspiring them with a wonderful

union
(g)
; ;

;i.bably

on account of
.

worship paid there

speak* of tin: SHTC'i iishr.- at BamhviV, tl,;il \M re. constantly steii suimmitig in slioals with one in particular, th;i! sei inpfl to be tin ir prince iihuiy* ;i ;! that they cultivated a friendship \\iili in the van: !> :,
to
ttir
I.

linn

and Stephanius; So iiny,t Dion Cassius,} Lucan, but AnianJI says he crossed the river at Tbapsacus, in built i'iilmyi' IK having first repaired the bridge formerly there by Darius.
.

t.

Animal,

lib. lit.

cup. 11.

Lib. xxxiv. cap. 15.

} Lib. xi. p. 128.

Lib.

viii. vtr.

C37,

Lib.

iii.

p.

168

10

-1

'-=-

I
!=(
:L-

SECT.

I.]

DESCRIPTION OF PALMYRA.
demand
particular attention. Palmyra,
;

r.vi

first

only

was called by the Greeks and Romans, is in the Scriptures known under the name of Tadmor in the Wilderness ;(h) hy Josephns it is called Palmyra and Thadamor ;(i) by the Septuagint, Theodmor and Thedmor; and by the Arabs and Syrians of the present day, Tadmor,
as
it

Tadmur, and Tatmor the origin of all which names is dark and uncertain. (j) It was onro a noble city, and stood on a fertile spot, or oasis, amid a dry and sandy desert. When, and by whom, it was built, has been much dis
pnted; but its ruins still astonish travellers with their magnificence, (k) Thapsaciis is
to death

(h)

2 Kings,

ix.

18.
in

2 Citron,

viii.

1.

(i)

Antiq.

lib.

i.

by Zenobia, the widow of Odenatus, a

woman

of

Commentary, derives the name of Tadmor from icn ^THflMan) the palm, which he supposes the Romans corrupted, or changed into Palmyra, on account of the number of palm-trees with which this district abounded.* The author of the Description of Palmyra, is of a similar Hut Halleyf derives Palmyra from opinion. t
(j) Schultens,
his Gt'oqraphiral

extraordinary endowments; and ihe, assuming the government, under the title of Qitct-n of the E/tst, \vas for a time acknowBut when the ledged as the friend and ally of Rome.

naAf*t, (which

from

naAft:/Ti?, Seller, who will

Hesychius interprets, a king, or father;} or an Egyptian god, according to Hesychius. not admit the presence of an Egyptian deity

Romans, under Aurclian, had recovered their strength, they upon the recovery of their eastern provinces, to which Zenobia opposed herself. After sustaining two memorable defeats, near Antioch, and in the neighbourhood of Emesa, she was forced to shut herself up within the walls
resolved

country, thinks the name has some reference to iL&pn, a Persian shield, called by the Latins Other etymologies have been contrived by various jnu-ma,\ writers, but the above specimen is quite sufficient for the present purpose among them all, none appears to be so well founded as the first, drawn from the natural history of the country, as it is consistent with the ancient practice of naming places from the circumstances of their situation.
so far

from

his

own

of Palmyra, whence, after a tedious siege, she attempted to but was taken prisoner, and sent to Rome to grace the triumph of the conqueror. The city was tiiken, and A left in it a Roman governor. After his retreat, the P.
fly,
:

renes revolted whereupon the emperor returned, put mo*t of the inhabitants to the sword, and levelled the city with the ground. Aurelian afterwards repented of what he had
;

(k) The foundation of this city, more extensive and splendid than Rome itself, lias, on the authority of the texts above quoted, been attributed to Solomon ; but there is reason to believe it to have existed long before his time, while the highly finished specimens of Grecian architecture, exhibited in its ruins, declare them to be of much later date than that prince, in whose days the arts of Greece must have

dune, and endeavoured to repair it, by granting leave to the wretched remains of the Palmyrenes to return to their citv, and rebuild it.TT But it is easier to destroy than to restore' the seat of commerce, of arts, and of the great Zenobia, gradually sunk into an obscure town, a trifling fortress, and
:

length into a miserable village, the resort of plundering In this state, Palmyra was lost sight of by Europeans till towards the dost- of the 17th century, when some English merchants, of Aleppo, induced by the wonderful
at

Arabs.

been in their infancy. It seems, originally, to have been a on account of its springs, for station, or resting-place, travellers passing from Mesopotamia and the east country,

and Palestine ; and being thus a resort for merchants carrying the riches of the world, it woidd early become a place of consideration, and the town would gradually and imperceptibly arise from very small beginnings, unconnected with any particular kingdom or monarchy. In this state it appears to have been taken possession of by Solomon, who, according to Josephus, surrounded it with strong walls, and named it Tadmour, or the place of Palm-trees. There is no authentic history of Palmyra, till after the captivity of Valerian by the Persians, A'. D. 260; and it was during this interval of upwards of 1200 years, that the Palmyrenes appear to have extended and enriched their city. It is first mentioned by the Roman historians, as a place" which Marc Antony attempted to plunder, on a pretence that it had not observed a strict neutrality between Rome and Parthia but it was Trajan who reduced Palmyra, and made it a
into Syria
|| ;

dependency on the Roman empire.

The

defeat and cap-

tivity of Valerian so much weakened the the east, that the Palmyrenes were encouraged

Roman power
to

in

accounts they were constantly receiving from the Arabs, of immense ruins to be seen in the desert, undertook tn examine the truth of their relations. With this view, they set out from Aleppo in 1078, but being robbed of every tin, their way, they were obliged to return, without Rcconiplisbing their design; in 1081, they renewed the attempt, .md ratified with a sight far beyond their most sanguine expectations. Their narrative, published in the I'/ii/nut] Transactions,** was at first treated as a mere romance; for it could not be credited, that in a spot so remote from the u autl habitations of men, so magnificent a city, as their di"'.But in 17ol, Mr. H, represented, could have subsisted. Wood, accompanied hy Mr, Bouverie and Mr. !)awkin$, made a journey to this place where they took drawings, which, in 17-W, were published in London, in the form of an Atlas.tt consisting of f>7 copper-plates, and, since that time, no doubts have been entertained, These gentlemen travelled. to the end of the plain, wliere a ridge of IKUTHI hills diviild it on die right and left, and between them was a vale, through which an aqueduct formerly conveyed water to the On city. each side of this vale, they remarked several sepulchres of
;

attempt

the recovery of their independence were in danger from the Persians,

they till Odenatus, prince of This Palmyra, had given Sapor a complete overthrow, prince had not long enjoyed his well-earned honours, when nc was assassinated by his nephew, who, in his turn, was put
;

but,

for a time,

the ancient Palmyrenes, which they had scarcely \K when the hills, by a sudden opening, discovered such piles of ruins, as they had never before seen, though they had pre-

They were all of white viously visited Italy and Greece. marblo, and beyond them, towards the Euphrates, was a. wide level, stretching farther than the eye could reach,
Vospic. in Aurel. cap. 30, Zo. cap, 61. Prpcop, Oe <1ljic, lib. *' Ubi supra. tt Ruins er Tadmrr to the Dei(rl, London, 1753, of Palmyra,

* Scliult. in Vit. Salad,

t

Ibut.

No. 218,
lib. viii.

p.

161.

t Phil, Tram. No, 217. ad vocero Tadmora. p. 85. Hut. of Palmyra, Appendix, p. 177.

II,

in flm

Antiq.

cap. 6.

4A2

540

HISTORY OF SYRIA.
;

[CHAP. ix.

placed by Ptolemy in Arabia Ueserta but by The latter Pliny and Stephamis in Syria. writer says it was built by Seleucus but we find it mentioned by Xenophon in his Cyro;

peedia.

Under the Macedonian kings, it wa was known by the Greek name Amphipolis. Here Cyrus with his whole army lorded the Euphrates, and Darius crossed the same river
of the gate, facing the palace. Two only o.f these remain entire they are 30 feet long, and 9 in circumference. On the east side of the piazza, are a great number of marble pillars, some of them perfect, but the greater part mutilated. At a small distance are the remains of what is called the little Before the entry, temple, without a roof. which has a south aspect, is a piazza of six pillars, two on each side of the door, and one at each end. The pedestals of those in front have been covered with inscription-, in the
side, in front
:

totally desolate. Among these ruins, the most remarkable is *he great temple of (he sun, of which the ruins cover an extent of 220 square yards. It was encompassed with a stately wall, built of large square stones, and adorned, within and without, with pilasters, to the number of 62 on each side. AYithin <he court, are the remains of two rows of noble marble pillars, 37 feet high, with their capitals of most exquisite workmanship. Of these, only 58 remain entire, but they appear to have gone round the whole court, and to have Towards the middle of this supported a double piazza. .court, are the remains of an old castle, supposed to have been built by the Mamelukes with part of the surrounding This castle shrouds the remains of an ancient fabric, ruins. of exquisite beauty, as appears by wlrat is still standing of its entrance, consisting of two stones, 35 feet in length, carved with vines and clusters of grapes, of bold workmanship. The cornices of all the pillars in this court have been beaten down by the Mohammedans. The walks on the west side of the piazza, which face the front of the temple, appear to have been the most .spacious and stately and at each end are two niches for statues, with their pedestals, borders, supporters,
;

On the north side of the city, on an eminence, about half an hour's walk from the ruins, is an old castle, of mean architecture, and uncertain foundation. The city must have been of large extent, from the space now occupied by its ruins; but of the walls no vestiges remain, by which
illegible.

Greek and Palmyrene languages, which have now become

and canopies, richly carved. The space within this enclosure appears to have been an open court, in the middle of which stood the temple, encompassed with another row of of a different order, and much taller, being 50 feet pillars high ; but of these only 1 remain. The whole space within these pillars, is 50 yards in length, and nearly '28 in breadth. The temple is 33 yards long, and 13 or 14 broad. It stands in the direction of north and south, and exactly in the middle, on the west side, is a most magnificent entry, on the remains of which are some vines and clusters oi' grapes, carved in the most masterly imitation of nature that can be conceived. Just over the door, are discerned a pair of wings, extended over its whole breadth, but the body, to which they were originally attached, is destroyed, so zealous have the Mussulmans been in crazing every vestige of idolatry. The north end of the temple is adorned with a curious fretwork and bass-relief; and in the centre is a dome or cupola, about 10 feet in diameter. North of this temple, is an obelisk, or pillar, consisting of seven stones, besides its It is wreathed, of capital. exquisite sculpture, about 50 feet high, and, just above the pedestal, 12 feet in circumference: a statue is supposed to have once stood upon it. About a quarter of a mile from this pillar, to the east and west, are two other pillars, besides the remains of a third. About 100 paces from the middle obelisk, is the magnificent entry to a piazza, 40 feet broad, and more than half a mile in length, enclosed with two rows of marble pillars, 20 feet in height,
and eight or nine
to have been oo'O,
in

to judge of its ancient form. Of all the remains of this desolate place, none more attract the attention of the curious, than the sepulchres, already noticed, towards the north end of the city. These sepulchres consist of square towers, four or five stories high, standing on each side of a hollow way. At present they reach about a mile in length, and, it is probable, that they originally extended much farther; for many of them, though built of marble, have sunk under the weight of years, or the violence of unhallowed hands. Their general construction consists of a passage quite across, from north to south, exactly in the middle, which formed the entrance ; and the space on either side is divided into six apartments, or niches, by thick walls, each niche being sufficient to receive the largest corpse, and deep enough to contain six or seven,

compass.

The

original

number appears

but only '120 remain. The upper end of the piazza was closed by a row of pillars, standing closer A little beyond this together than those on each side. piaz/a, to the left hand, arc the ruins of a stately banquetinglioiisc, built of better inarblc.and finished with grcaterclegance.

The

one upon the other. Such was the order of the lowest, second, and third stories, except that the second had a partition, answering to the main entrance, for the convenience of a staircase. Higher up, as the building grew narrower towards the top, this method of division was discontinued. These buildings, at a distance, have the appearance of decayed steeples ; they are all of one form, but of various sizes. In the ruins of one, that was entirely of marble, were found pieces of two statues, one of a man, the other of a woman, in a leaning posture; their habit was noble, and rather partaking of the ancient European, than of the modern Asiatic costume. Such was once Palmyra, the seat of A splendid court, the abode of science and the arts, and the theatre on which the celebrated Longinus displayed his great taleuts as a logician, philosopher, and statesman but now the residence of 30 or 40 miserable families, who reside in mud-built huts, amid the ruined splendour of fallen greatness. Many inscriptions have been found at Palmyra, which have much occupied the attention of the learned and for which the reader is referred to Barthelemy's Reflections on Hit Palmyrene A/]>h<tbet, Swinton's Explication of the Inscriptions at Palmyra, eve. Mr. Wood describes the air of this spot as exceedingly good, but the soil barren, affording nothing green, except a few palm-trees; though Abu'lfeda, who wrote long before that gentleman, says, that the palm
: ;

by which it is supported, being each of one It measures 20 feet in length, and in compass 8 feet !) inches. In the west side of the piazza, are several Each of apertures for gates into the court of the palace. these was Hilorutd with four porphyry pillars, two on each
pillars,

and

entire stone.

olive flourish there, that it had perpetual springs, and M. Volney also speaks of it.s two yielded fruits and corn. springs of fresh water: it therefore appears, thiit its present sterility arises from the negligence of its present occupier*, ratjier than from any physical cause.

I 3

o
i

ti

rq
\
I

>

-X

_
.-

SECT.

I.]

CITIES OF CCELOSYRIA.

HELIOPOLIS,
indicates
principal
its

OR BALBEC.

.040

by a bridge, when lie marched into Cilicia to meet Alexander, and here he re-crossed it, on
from him. Strabo frementions Thapsacus, and places it al quently the distance of 2000 stadia from Zeugma. In
his return, as he fled

situation in a hollow place.

Its

the sacred Scriptures, also, this place is supposed to be alluded to, under the appellation of Tiphsah,(l) (called in the Septnagint Thapsa, and by the Vulgate Thaphsah) as the eastern boundary of Solomon's dominions, as Azzah, supposed to be Gaza, was on the west. Crelosyria, properly so called, lay, according to Strabo, between the mountains of Liba-

mis and Antilibanus, whence

2 Kings,

its

name, which

were, Heliopolis [liaafbec, or or Abela [Ndri-Aoef], Damasn<(ll>(>.c\, Abila, cus [IJumas, Demcsk, or Sckemi], Gerra [Ger], JEnos, or Jinus [Kerne/i], and Laodicea-Cabiosa, or Laodicea ad Libanum [foitsc/iia/i], which last properly belongs to the Pahnyrerie ; or rather it formed a district peculiar to itself, as will shortly appear. Heliopolis, or the city of the sun, was very early in great repute for its temple, as in later times it lias been for its beautiful ruins of Grecian architecture.(m) Its remains consist of two very distinct species of building the more
cities
:

iv. 24. the state of this city in remote antiquity, we are quite ignorant ; but it may be presumed that its situation, on the road from Tyre to Palmyra, gave it some part of the
(1)

(m)

Of

commerce of those opulent cities. Its modern name Balbec, appears to be the renovation of its original title, and to be only a variation of Baal-beth, the house of Baal, or the sun,' which is nearly the meaning of the Greek name Hcliopolis.

The Mohammedans, who,

as well as the

Jews and Christians

of Syria, attribute every stupendous work to Solomon, pretend that Balbec is the house of the Forest of Lebanon,} The Mohammedans also pretend that the which he built. immense masses, of which the original buildings consisted, were carried thither, and set in their places by genii, over whom Solomon had an universal control. Prince RadxivilleJ thinks it was the house built by Solomon for Pharaoh's daughter ; but the opinion of Mr. Bryant, mentioned above, seems to be much better founded. Under the Romans, in the time of Augustus, Heliopoh's is mentioned as a garrison town and on the wall of the southern gate the words
;

KKNTU1UA PRIMA,

in

Greek characters, are

;

still

visible.

Antoninus Pius built the present temple, instead of the ancient one, which had fallen to decay and when, under Constantino, Christianity had gained the ascendancy, this temple was converted into a church, and a wall, which still After remains, was built to hide the sanctuary of the idols. the invasion of the Arabs, the church became neglected, and went to decay. During the succeeding wars, it was converted into a place of defence, battlements were built on the surrounding walls, as well as on the pavilions and at the angles, and from that time the temple,, exposed to the fate
rapidly to ruin, which, with that of the city itself, In travelling to this city from the soulh, the buildings are seen only at the distance of a league and a half, behind a hedge of walnuttrees, over the verdant tops of which appears a white edging of domes and minarets. The city has a ruined wall, flanked with square towers, ascending to the right, and tracing the From this wall, which is onlv precincts of the ancient city. 10 or 12 feet high, the spectator has a view of those void spaces and heaps of ruins that are the invariable
fell

by antiquity for our admiration. Entering the town, over the rubbish and huts that lie in the way, the spectator arrives at a spot, which appears to have been a square. In front, towards the west, is a grand ruin, consisting of two pavilions, ornamented with pilasters, joined at their bottom This front commands angle by a wall 160 feet in length. the open country from a terrace, on the edge of which the bases of 12 columns, formerly extending from one pavilion to the other, and forming a portico, arc with diffiThe principal gate is obstructed by culty distinguished. heaps of stones, but having surmounted that obstacle, the spectator arrives in an hexagonal court, of 180 feet diameter, strewed with broken columns, mutilated capitals, and the remains of pilasters, entablatures, and cornices, surrounded with ruined edifices, which display all the ornaments of the richest architecture. At the extremity of this court, opposite to the west, is an outlet, formerly a gate, through which is a view of a still more extensive range of magnificent ruins. To obtain a full prospect of these, it is necessary to ascend a slope, up which were once steps to the gate, leading to the entrance of an oblong court, 350 At the end of this court are feet wide, and 336 in length. six enormous columns, whose majestic size render the scene their shafts are 21 feet 8 inches in circumtruly astonishing ference, and 58 high, making with their entablature 71 or 72
left
:

of war,

was completed by the earthquake of 17 J9.

of every Turkish city

but a large edifice on the

appendages
left

prin-

cipally attracts attention, as,

from

its

lofty walls

and rich

columns,
*
Jiec

it

manifestly appears to be one of those temples

lib. xxi.

Another object, no less interesting, is a second range of columns to the left, which appears to have been part of On each side of this court is a the peristyle of a temple. kind of gallery, containing various chambers, wherein ar pediments of niches and tabernacles, whose supporters are The beauty of the pilasters, and the richness of destroyed. In the middle the frieze of the entablature, are admirable. of the length of the court was a small square esplanade, of A series of which nothing remains but the foundation. foundations mark an oblong of 268 feet in length, and 146 wide, which seems to have been the peristyle of a grand It temple, the primary purpose of this whole structure. presents towards the great court, on the east, a front of 10 The terrace round columns, with 19 others on each side. this colonnade is about 27 feet wide, with an esplanade fronting the open country toward the west, over a sloping wall of about 30 feet. Near the city, this descent becomes less steep, so that the foundation of the pavilion is on a level with the termination of the hill; whence it is evident
feet.
t

Vide Gulielmus Tjricus, and Bi'th are svnou\ nious.

p.

1000.

According

to Jablonsky,

1 Kings,

vii.
vii.

27.
a

x.

17, 21.

J Peregrin, lerosotym. epist,

ii.

p. 27.

1 Kings,

15.

550

HISTORY OF SYRIA.

[CHAP, ix

ancient, which are of the same character with those of Egypt, comprising immense stones, of incredible dimensions and weight, and subter-

raneous \aults, are attributed by Mr. Bryant to

the same founders, viz. the Cnthites, Titans, or The more recent buildings are said Giants. (n) John of Antioch to be the work of Antoninus by Pius; an opinion fully corroborated by the remaining inscriptions, as well as by the constant use of the Corinthian order, which was not generally received in the empire before the third age of Rome. This city is placed by Pliny at the head of the Orontes.

Abila, according to Ptolemy, who styles it Abila Lysaniae, i. e. Abila of Lysanias, stood between Heliopolis and Damascus and gave the name of Abilene to the surromi. country, which in St. Luke's time w;,
;

tetrarchy.(o)

Halt-way between Heliopolis and Byblus, Zosimus places a town, called Aphaca, where was a celebrated temple of Venn.;; or rather of Urania, which Eusebius calls a school of wickedness, and it was therefore destroyed

by Constantine the Great. (p) Near this temple was a remarkable lake, in which the gifts
cure the iron cramps which join the several blocks composing the columns. These cramps answer so well the purpose for which they were intended, that many of the columns are not even disjointed by their fall. Mr. Wood observed one in particular, that in falling had penetrated a stone of the temple wall without giving way. Nothing can surpass the workmanship of these columns; the joints being so exactly fitted to each other, that although no cement has been used, there is not room for the insertion of the blade oi' a penknife between them and though they have stoc.d or lain so many ages neglected, they in general retain their pristine whiteBut the astonishment of the spectator is most excited ness. by the enormous size of the stones, which compo-.e the sloping wall, and which appear to have constituted some original building, of the pyramidal or Rabel kind, on which, many ages afterwards, the superstructure of (irccian architecture was raised. On the west side, the second layer is i'oruied of stones, from 2iJ to 35 feet in length, by about nine in height. Over this, at the north-west angle, arcthree stone.-, occupying a space of 175$ feet; riz. the first and the is 58 feet 7 inches ; the second 53 feet 11 inches These third exactly-58 feet: their thickness being 12 feet. stones are of a white granite, with large shining Hakes, like gypsum of which kind of stone there is said to be a quarry under the whole city, as well as in the adjoining mountain,
:

that the whole ground of the courts has been artificially Such was the original state of this edifice, hut the raised.

south side of the grand temple was subsequently blocked up, by building a smaller temple against it the peristyle and walls of which are still remaining. This temple, situated somewhat lower than the great one, presents two sides, of 13 columns each, and a front, of eight, all of the Corinthian order; their shafts are 15 feet 8 inches in circumference,
;

plan is oblong; the front, which is out of the line of the left wing of the great court; and, to reach it, the visitor must cross heaps of stones, trunks of fallen columns, and a ruinous wall, by which it is now hid. The interior is filled with ruins from the fallen roof, covered with dust and weeds. The walls, formerly enriched with all the ornaments of the Corinthian order, now present only pediments of niches and tabernacle*, whose supporters are mostly prostrate. Between the niches is a range of tinted pilasters, supporting with their capitals a broken entablature ; these' remains display a rich frieze of foliage, resting on the heads of satyrs, horses, bulls, <X:c. Over this entablature was the ancient roof, 57 feet wide,
1

and 4

feet high.

The

towards the

east,

is

and 110 in and are 31

of
this

length.

The

walls have

no windows

in

them,

feet in height. The most considerable remains roof are divided into compartments of the lo/enge form, containing representations of Jupiter seated on his eagle; Leda caressed by the swan; Diana with her crescent and bow; and many busts, probably of emperors and From this account of M. Volney, who visited empresses. Balbec in the year 17(54, it appears that several changes had taken place in the condition of these ruins, between that

peiiod and 1751, when they were examined by Mr. Dawkins tor instance, they found nine large columns and Mr. Wood
:

standing; but M. Volney only nix: they also reckoned twenty-nine in the lesser temple but our author found no more than twenty; the others having been overthrown by the earthquake of 175!>, which has likewise so shaken the wall:. of the lesser temple, that the stone of the soth't, or cross stone at the top of the gate, has slid between the two adjoining stones, or jambs, and descended eight inches below its original station, so that the body of the bird, sculptured on that stone, is suspended detached from its
;

and from two garlands which hunt: from its beak, and terminated in two genii. The Turks also have had their share in the work of destruction their motive is to prowing.>,
:

winch is open in several places; though it is much more probable that the excavations l;em-.i'!i tin; city were originally made for other purposes than ilu- mere obtaining of stone; and that, like the labyrinth of Kypt, they were secret recesses of superstition, where the Cuihite priesthood conThe quarry cealed their mysteries from public observation. in the mountain is cut out in steps, somewhat in the form of an amphitheatre ; and there still remains a stone hew n on three sides, but not detached from its bed, which is (it) feet 2 inches, in length, 12 feet 10 inches in breadth, and 13 feet 3 inches in thickness ; or, according to Mr. Wood, 70 feet long, 14 feet broad, and 14 feet 5 inches deep according to which latter dimensions it contains 14,128 cubic feet, and should weigh, were its solidity equal to that of Portland For stone, about 2,270,000lb. avoirdupoise, or 1135 tons. farther particulars respecting these venerable remains, the reader is referred to Maumlreil's Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem ; De la Roque's Voyage de Syrie, Dr. Pococke\ Travels, and the Travels of Van Egmout.
;

*
(he

(n)
8i-e

Mr. Wood's

Hums

lovers ui ih B arts will

of Bidbec, published in London, in 1757, where (md an accurate and iuUrcsling account of these

(o)

Mythology, Luke, m. 1.

vol. v. p. 193,

fragment!.

(p) Euscb. in Vita Const, lib.

iii.

cap. 55.

SECT.

I.]

CITIES OF CCELOSYRIA.

DAMASCUS.

551

o/Jered to the goddess, however light, sunk to the bottom, if acceptable; but, if displeasing, (In \ iloated on the surface, however heavy. (q)

Damascus, repeatedly mentioned by both profane historians, was once the metropolis of all Syria, and in Strabo's time a Julian the Apostate most conspicuous city. styled it the eye of all the East, and the sacred and most magnificent Damascus: he also comsacred and

mends
fertility,

it

for

its

&c.(r)

The

by some of the Damascus, from whom it took its name but the most generally received opinion is, that, it was founded by Uz, the eldest son of Aram. (s) Mr. Bryant derives its name from Ad Ham, i. e. the lord JIam, the father of the Amonians, of whose building he concludes it to have been.(t) \\hoever was the founder, it was in existence so early as the days of Abraham,(u) and it
;

temples, fountains, rivers, building of this city is, ancients, ascribed to one

therefore claims the praise of being one of the

Seneca mentions a lake of Syria, (q) Zos. lib. i. cap. 58. on which the heaviest bodies floated ;* supposed to be the lake here alluded to but he takes no notice of the goddess,
;

most ancient cities now extaiit. In the time of David, it appears to have been a very considerable place, as the Syrians of Damascus sent 20,000 men to the assistance of Hadadezer, but it is not stated whether at king of Zobah that time Damascus was under the government of a king, or of a republic. It afterwards became a monarchy, which proved very troublesome to the kingdom of Israel ; but being overthrown by Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, it was never more governed by kings of its own. From the Assyrians and Babylonians, it passed to the Persians, and from them to the After Greeks, under Alexander the Great. his death, Damascus fell, with the rest of Syria, to the Seleucidae, till their empire was destroyed by the Romans, from \\liom it was again wrested by the Saracens, and is now in the hands of the Turks: such have been the various fortunes of this ancient city.(v) Loadicea Cabiosa, or Laodicea ad Libanuin,
;

nor of the
(r) Jul.

gifts offered to her.

Im. Ep. 24.

ad Seraplon.

Bocliart, Geog. Siwr. lib. ii. cap. 8. (t) Myt/iol. vol. i. page 69. Nicolas of Damascus reckons (u) Gen. xiv. 15. xv. 2.
(s)

the kings of this city. present state, Damascus is described as situated in a plain of so great extent, that the mountains encompassing it on the farthest side are It stands scarcely discernible. on the west side of this plain, about two miles from the head of the river Barrady, the ancient Chrysorrhoas, which waters
(v)

Abraham among
In
its

mixed in mosaic knots and mazes, spread with carpets, and furnished all round with bolsters and In this city are cushions, to the very height of luxury. shewn the church of John Baptist, now converted into a mosque the house of Ananias, which is only a small grotto, or vault, wherein is nothing remarkable; and the house of Judas, willi whom St. Paul lodged ;t in the latter is an old tomb, the reputed sepulchre of Ananias, which the Turks hold in such veneration, that they keep a lamp continually To this account of Maundrell, we shall burning over it. add the more recent observations of Niebuhr and Volney. The former of these writers lias given a plan of Damascus, and says it is 250 toises, or rather less than a league and a
variety of marble,
;

half, in
It is

plan of the citv is long and narrow, about two miles in extent, adorned with mosques and steeples, and encompassed with gardens, about thirty miles round. The river Barrady, as soon as it issues from the clefts of Antilibanus into the plain, is divided into three streams, of which the middlemost and largest runs directly to Damascus, and is distributed to all the fountains and reservoirs of the city; while the other two, which seem to be the work of art, are drawn round, one to the right hand, the other to the left, on the borders of the gardens, into which their waters are admitted by small channels, to be equally dispersed. The streets are very narrow; the houses are built either with biit.'ks, burnt or dried in the sun, or with Flemish wall: the gates and doors are frequently adorned with marble portals, carved and inlaid with great beauty and variety ; within these portals are large square courts, beautified with fragrant
it.

The

circumference, containing about 80,000 inhabitants. the rendezvous for all pilgrims from the north of Asia,
;

whose number annually amounts to from thirty to fifty thousand here they assemble, and set out in company to visit the holy city Mecca, which they reach in forty days, (o celebrate the feast of the Bairam. Volney says, a number of rivulets flow from the mountains, which render Damascus tli best watered and most delicious province of all Syria.
it with enthusiasm, and extol the verdure orchards, the abundance and excellence of its fruits, and the clearness of its rivers, rills, and fountains. No city contains so many canals and fountains ; every house having one ; all these waters are furnished by three branches of the same river, which, after fertilising a number of gardens for three leagues, flow into a hollow of the desert to the southeast, where they form what is called the Lake of the Meadow. The air, however, is not very salubrious, and the inhabitants complain of the coldness and hardness of the waters of the Barrady ; they also assert, that the natives are frequently afflicted with obstructions ; while the immoderate use of fruit,

The A rubs speak of

of
its

and marble fountains, and surrounded with splendid In these apartments, the ceilings and traves are generally richly painted and gilt, and the duann, which are a kind of low stages, placed in the most pleasant part of the room, elevated about 16 or 18 iuclics from the floor, on which the Turks eat, sleep, smoke, receive visits, say their prayers, &c. are floored, and adorned on the sides with a
trees

apartments.

particularly of apricots, occasions frequent intermittent It is also frvrrs and dysenteries in summer and autumn. observed, that the pale countenances of the inhabitants is
indicative of the prevalence of sickness
t Acts,'u.

among them.

Dr.

Quctt.

iVat. lib.

iii.

cap 2S.

n.

HISTORY OF SYRIA.
stood on
the Orontcs, not far from mount labanua to the west, and near the borders of From this city, Cffilosyria Proper to the south. the adjoiningterritory took the name of Laowhich Ptolemy makes a distinct dicene,
province.

[CHAP. ix.
is

Damascus, and Aleppo, the winter

i

more

SECTION
NATURAL HISTORY OF SYRIA. FERTILITY, AND PRODUCE.
ANIMALS.

II.

CLIMATE.
RIVERS.

SOIL,

TAINS, CEDARS OF LEBANON.

MOUNMINERALOGY.

THIS country

is

greatly diversified

in

its

appearance; presenting rude heaps of mountains, covered with trees, interspersed with fruitful dales; or barren rocks rising in the midst of frightful deserts.

CLIMATE.

It is generally said that

;

Syria

is

a very hot country but several distinctions are necessary to be made, as well on account of the difference of latitude, which, from the two extremes, is little less than five degrees, as

severe than in other parts of the level country, and the summer not less hot. The face of the heavens in Syria, especially on the coast and in the desert, is more constant and regular than iu our climates the sun is rarely obscured for two successive days. In the course of a whole summer, few clouds are seen, and less rain. It begins about the end of October, and is then neither long nor plentiful. In December and January, the rain is more frequent and heavy ; and sometimes it also rains in March and April. The remainder of the year is uniform; and the inhabitants have more frequently to complain of drought, than of too much wet. The winds in Syria are in some degree periodical, and governed by the seasons. About the autumnal equinox, the north-east wind begins to blow stronger and more frequently, occasioning the air to be dry, clear, and sharp: on the seacoast it causes the head-ache, like tire northeast wind of Egypt ; and more so in the For the northern, than in the southern parts. most part, it blows three days successively, like the south and south-east winds of the
:

from the natural division of the country into low or flat, and high or mountainous: on which account we may state two general climates that of the coast and interior plains, as at Antioch, Heliopolis, &c. which is hot; the other temperate. The winter continues from November to March, and is sharp and severe. Not a year passes without snow, and it fre;

spring equinox, and usually prevails till November. This is followed by the north-west, the and the south-west winds, which continue west,

from November to February. In March, this country is visited by those pernicious winds from the south, that have been already spoken
of in the natural history of Egypt ;(w) but they are less violent, particularly towards the north, and are more supportable in the mountainous Their duradistricts, than in the flat country.

quently covers the earth to the depth of several feet. The spring and autumn are mild ; but the summer, to an European, is insupportable. This description, however, pertains to the hilly country; for in the plains, the winter is so moderate, that the orange, banana, and other delicate trees, thrive in the open air ; and it is not uncommon, in the month of January, to see orange-trees well stocked with flowers and fruit, while the head of Lebanon is covered with ice and snow. When the sun returns to the equator, the transition is rapid, from pinching cold to excessive heats, which continue till the end of October. At Antioch,
Wells supposes the fruit, called in England damascene, or damson, and the flower called the damask-rose, have been transplanted from the gardens of this city ; and that the

each return, is usually twenty-four or sometimes three days. The easterly hours, winds which follow, continue till June, when a north wind succeeds. At the same season, the wind varies through all the points also, every day ; passing with the sun from the east to the south, and thence to the west in its return to the north, when it recommences a similar revolution. At this time, a local wind, called the land-breeze, also prevails during the night ; springing up after sun-set, continuing till sunrising, and extending only two or three leagues out to sea. Earthquakes, which are common
tion,

at

and linen, known by the name of damasks, were the invention of the natives of Damascus.*
silks

(w) See before, page 403.

* Wella's Geography of the

New

Testament.

SECT.

II.]

SOIL.

RIVERS.

MOUNTAINS.
of the plain were overdisappeared at a place called Charybdis, between Apamea and Antioch ; and after running five miles underground,
cities

have occasioned frequent changes in the face of the country.(x) SOIL, FERTILITY, AND PRODUCE. The flat country of Syria is covered with a deep rich loamy soil ; in the territory of Aleppo, and near Antioch, the earth is of a red colour, resembling brickdust; but for fruitfulness, it yields The to no spot under the same parallel. mountains are generally harsh and stony. The produce consists of most things that conduce to the profit and delight of man ; and such is the general fertility of the country, that it may
in Syria,

and the other whelmed, says,

that

it

appeared again. (z)

Wheat, rye, garden. maize, rice, doura, beans, barley, olives, cotton, indigo, tobacco, white mulberries, grapes, lemons, citrons, water-melons, pomegranates, oranges, figs, dates, pistachionuts, plums, peaches, apricots, and coffee, are among its most ordinary vegetable productions to which may be added silk and cochineal, among those of the animal kingdom. (y) With all these' advantages, it is not surprising that the Greeks and Romans should have always esteemed Syria as one of their best provinces ; not thinking it even inferior to Egypt. RIVERS. Although this country is very well watered, it has no river of any considerable magnitude, except the Orontes [El-Asi], and even this, says M. Volney, is little better than
sesame,
:

be styled a pleasant

The rivers Abana and Pharpar, so much the boast of the Syrian minister Naaman,(a) have been sought for in vain by modern travellers ; no traces of those names being now to be met with:(b) they are supposed to be branches of the Chrysorrhoas [Jtiarrady], which, rushing from the Antilibanus down to Damascus, is there divided into several streams for the supply and ornament of the city ; but uniting again at some distance from it, they lose themselves in a morass, as already noticed in the account of Damascus. MOUNTAINS. Amanus, a branch of mount Taurus, sends out one of its ramifications as, far as the mouth of the Orontes, in the west, while on the east it stretches to the Euphrates, forming a natural northern boundary to Syria : while the Pylae Syria? separates it from Cilicia. South of Antioch, on the other side of the
Orontes, is mount Casius, whose height (4000 paces) gave rise to a current opinion, that from its summit the sun could be seen rising, while the bottom was enveloped in total darkness.(c) On the top of this mountain, which was covered with forests, stood a temple, dedicated to Jupiter, in which the apostate Julian offered a
sacrifice.

a rivulet, being scarcely GO paces wide at its mouth. It is a turbid rapid stream, which, but for the number of obstructions it meets with in its course, would run itself dry every summer. Its waters, from the quality of the soil through which they pass, are unwholesome to It rises in drink, and its fish unfit for food. and falls into the Mediterranean, Ccelosyria, below Antioch. Strabo, who relates some
fabulous traditions concerning
this river,

the origin of

from which there is reason to conthat it sprung up amidst the convulsive clude, throes, occasioned in the earth when Sodom
(V) In 1759, an earthquake destroyed, in the valley of Balbec, upwards of 20,000 persons, and overthrew some of the immense columns and stones of Ileliopolis. The inhabitants of Lebanon were so terrified at the shocks, that for three months they abandoned their houses, and dwelt in tents. in Syria, &c. (y) Volney 's Travels The tradition above alluded (z) Strabo, lib. vi. p. 275. to (lib. xvi. p. 7oO) is, that Typhon, in his flight, furrowed up the earth, and formed the channel of this river; that he was himself thunderstruck at its fountain-head and that his goinj; down was the cause of the spring which rises there. He is feigned to have had the form of a huge dragon. We
;

Lebanon, or Libanus, the highest mountain of all Syria, and the boundary between that country and Palestine, is celebrated in scripture for its cedars, and consists of four ridges of mountains, rising one above the other: of the these, the first is fertile in grain and fruit second is barren and rocky; the third is said to enjoy a constant verdure and spring; and the fourth, being the highest, is uninhabitable, and covered with deep snows during the
;

have already given an opinion, that the overthrow of Sodom, was the conclusion of the fabulous war of the Giants,* an event with which the death of Typhon, so variously related, is always connected and therefore have ventured the conThe shock, resulting from so dreadful jecture in the text. a \isitation of divine wrath, must have been very extensive! v
<Src.
;

felt.

(a)

2 Kings,

v. 12.

(b) Maundrell's 122, ft seq.

Journey from Aleppo

Mela,
lib. j.

to

Jerusalem, page

(c) Pliuy, lib. v. cap. 22.

iii.

Sec before, page 519.

VOL.

I.

4 B

HISTORY OF SYRIA.
The compass of this greater part of the ycnr. of hills is computed at 100 leagues ; and chain it derives its name from the Hebrew, Laban, snows that lie upon (white) on account of the its summit, and give it a white appearance. The Antilebanon, or Antilibanus, is so called
from
in

[CHAP. ix.

CEDARS OF LEBANON. Among the remarkable natural productions of this country, may be reckoned the few cedars that are still growThey are near a ing upon mount Lebanon. Christian monastery, called Canobine, about
ten hours' journey from Tripoli, and stand in the midst of snow, near the highest part of the Only sixteen of the old trees mountain.(f) remain ; they are very large ; but there are

running in an almost parallel direction, The valley of opposition to the other. Aulon [El-Beka/t] lies between them. These a very mountains, of which travellers give but said to be inhabited imperfect description, are at the bottom by the Maronite Christians, and sect by the wild Arabs, called Amadeah, of the conof Ali, above. There are several churches, vents, and chapels, on the hills, and in caverns In a bottom, to which the <:ut into the rock. access is steep and difficult, is a convent, or ccenobium, where the Maronite patriarch resides the monks are very poor, but courteous to travellers ; (d) while the plundering Arabs are a constant terror to all who visit this Several rivers have their sources spot.(e) among these mountains.
its
:

great numbers of young trees, of less growth. Of the former, one of the largest measured 12 yards 6 inches in girt; it was perfectly sound,
its

branches spreading 37 yards in circumference; and about 5 or 6 yards from the ground; it divided itself into five arms, each everequal to a large tree.(g) These trees are and bear narrow leaves of a dull colour, greens,
like those of the juniper-tree; in the smaller trees, the top ascends in the form of a pyramid but in the larger, the head is round, and rather flattened. (h) Both small and givnt have a fragrant smell ; but the latter only bear of the fruit, which is a kind of cone, like that

much

of the East, p. 104, et seq, tome i. (e) La Roque. Voyage de Syrie, between this account of (f) There is a material difference and that of Pococke, in the preceding paragraph. Maundrell,
(d) Pocockc's Description

De

Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 142. the Roque, in his Travels,* says he also measured and found its girt, about the middle largest of these trees, of the trunk, to be seven feet, wanting two inches; and he at 120 feet in circuit. Here, then, is a reckons its
(g) la

The

Christian monastery, called Canohine, of the former, and the Maronite convent, or ccenobium, of the latter, describes it as in appear to be the same ; and yet one writer a bottom of difficult access, and the other, as being near the want of better inforhighest part of the mountain ; and, for mation, it is impossible to determine where the error lies. Maundrell also says, the cedars stand in the midst of snow
;

boughs

difference of from seven feet to twelve yards: surely these But the difference writers could not mean the same tree. does not end here for La Roque says, the largest of the cedars had not a trunk above sir or seem feet high out of the
:

them about Midsummer, complains of the rigour of the cold and the snows. Radziville, who saw them in June, about five years afterwards, also talks of the snow that never melts away from But De la Roque these mountains, as do other travellers. in April, confidently asserts, that the snows begin to inelt and are no more to be seen after July, except such as may
he was there
in

May

and Rauwolf, who

visited

states, that the

He likewise places impervious to the sun's rays. snow does not begin again to fall till December ; and that he saw no snow whatever, when he visited M. Volney speaks of the mountains being these mountains. snows. capped with clouds ; but says nothing about perennial The i'act is, that the difficulties of ascending these mountains, added to the continual dangers to which travellers are
be
left in

of the altitude given by Maundrell, ground, which falls short The editors of the Universal as above, by about two-thirds. endeavour to excuse M. De la Roque, for lessening History the size of the cedars so much, by observing that he was work to which his name is affixed, merely the editor of the and it contained really the travels of the Chevalier D'Arvieux but let who might be the principal in the compilation of the work in question, he should have distinguished between what was reported to him, and what he had actually seen. Other same writers have differed little less in their accounts of this Rauwolft reckons it at several fathoms in circedar.
:

laryest

cumference; while Radziville} says they are handsome proper like what the Poles call trees, with wide-spreading branches, uncommodrzew; so that he excites no admiration at their

mon

exposed from the Arabs, have prevented any one from of the place, and the rest taking more than a cursory survey of the narrative is made up from such accounts as could be collected from the people of the country, who are generally As we proceed, we shall meet with other, very ignorant. and no less palpable contradictions, iu the various accounts
f different travellers.

the Missionaries in the magnitude. In the Memoirs of who measured the largest of these cedars, Levant,^ a Jesuit, in girt, which agrees very well with says it was six fathoms 12 yards. Maundrell's
their branches upward against the snowy faculty of stretching which would lodge the season, so as, from a round flat top, and by its weight risk the overthrow of the tree, to snow, assume a conical form, which, exposing the least possible surface to the heavens, ensues its safety.
||

(h)

De

la

Roque

attributes to these trees the surprising

Tome i.
f

p. 88.

t
cpibt,
ii

Raj's

Collect,

of Voyagei.

iv. p.

3j8.
supr.

1'tregrin.

krowlym.

DC la iTome

Koque, uti

SECT.

II.]

CEDARS OF LEBANON. MINERALS. ANIMALS.

has it strength of jaw sufficient to grind the hardest aliments ; though its stomach is contracted, that it may not require much, and it chews the cud, to make the little it eats produce the greatest quantum of nourishment. The very construction of its foot, encumbered with a lump of flesh, which slides in the mud, and its being incapable of climbing, renders this animal unfit for any soil that is not dry, When level, and sandy, like that of Arabia. the camel supplies all its master's domesticated, wants, and renders the most barren soil habitable. Its milk nourishes the family of the under the various forms of curds, cheese, Arab,

and of a brown colour. pine-tree, but smoother, These cones appear in clusters at the ends of
the brandies, with the apex upwards they are very fragrant, and contain a kind of transparent inspissated balm, which, at certain seasons, exudes from the poivs of the fruit. The bark of the cedar is smooth, and of a fine brown colour: the wood next to the bark is of a pale hue, approaching to white but near the heart of the tree, it is reddish and hard ; and so very bitter, that no worm will harbour or
; ;

breed in

it.

M. Volney observes of the of Syria, that they consist of a hard mountains calcareous stone, of a whitish colour, disposed In travelling from in strata variously inclined. to Hama, veins of the same rock are Aleppo continually seen in the. plain, while the mountains on the right present huge piles, resembling the ruins of castles and towns. The same stone, under a more regular form, also composes the greater part of Lebanon, Antilebanon, the mountains of the Druzes, with those of Galilee and Caruiel, stretching to the Asphaltic Lake. Iron is every where abundant.(i) In the neighbourhood of Palmyra, is a valley, whose soil is impregnated with salt to a considerable depth, which it shoots forth in surprising
MINERALOGY.
abundance :(j) and about four hours' journey
is another spot of similar quaIn many parts of the Palmyrene, are lities.^) also found mineral waters :(1) indeed all the waters of this district are more or less impregnated with saline properties. ANIMALS. Of wild animals, Syria has lions, of the domestic tigers, buffaloes, and wolves Of the camel, kind, camels, goats, and sheep. it has been remarked, that no animal is more peculiarly fitted for the soil and climate it inhabits. Designed for a country where, in its natural state, little nourishment is to be found, it is furnished with nothing but what is absoDestitute of lutely essential to its existence. the fleshy plumpness of the horse, the ox, or the elephant, it has a small head at the extremity of a long meager neck ; its legs have

and butter; and even its flesh is frequently eaten. Slippers and harness are fabricated from its skin, as tents and clothing are from its hair. Heavy burdens are transported by its means from place to place; and where the
earth denies forage for a horse, the camel feeds luxuriously upon a few stalks of brambles or wormwood, added to some pounded date kerOf such nels, the refuse of its master's table. to the desert, is the camel, that importance without that animal, it must infallibly lose every

from Aleppo,

inhabitant.(m) But while Syria thus possesses so very useful an animal in the camel, it is, on the other hand, tormented by that most pestiferous insect, the locust. The multitudes in which these insects, at certain seasons, fall upon the country, is incredible; the whole earth being covered with them for the space of several leagues. The noise they make in browzing on the trees and herbage, may be heard to a considerable distance.

A person unaccustomed to behold

their

ravages, would suppose

been attended with

their progress to have fire ; for wherever their

myriads spread, the verdure of the earth disappears; and trees and plants, deprived of their foliage, present, in the midst of the sumseason, all the desolate appearances of winter. When these clouds of locusts take their flight, to traverse more rapidly a desert

mer

nothing superfluous about them, and its withered body contains only the vessels and tendons necessary to connect its frame together: Yet
Volncy's Travels in Syria. Philosophical Transactions, (k) Maundrell, ubi supr.

the heavens appear to' be obscured by Happily, indeed, this calamity is not frequently repeated ; for it is the certain forerunner of famine, with all its attendant maladies
soil,

them.

and

miseries.

The
No. 217,

Syrians have remarked,

p. 103, 104.

(i)

(1)

Phil. Trans.

(j)

No. 217,

p. 83.

(ra)

Volney's Travels in Syria.

4B2

556

HISTORY OF THE SYRIANS.

[CHAP. ix.

that they are usually bred by tvro mild winters in succession, and that they come from the Arabian desert. AVhen they first make their the appearance in the cultivated country, endeavour to drive them away with inhabitants clouds of smoke ; but they cannot always procure a sufficiency of herbage and wet straw of them they then dig trenches, in which many are buried but the two most effectual destroyers of these insects, are the south or south-east winds, and the bird called sarmannar. These birds, which much resemble the woodpecker,
: :

distinguished by the name of Arameans, or Aramites, and it was probably owing to their mixture with the Amonians and other families, that Tidal, their first, king, of whom we read,

was
this

From his title, styled king of nations. (r) Tidal appears to have been the first who departed from the simple patriarchal principle of a sovereign, ruling only in his own family;
his subjects, like those of Romulus, being collected from all quarters. The Arabs speak of Dimashc, son of Canaan, as the founder of

follow them in great multitudes, devouring and destroying vast quantities of them: they are, therefore, much respected by the peasants, As the who never disturb or injure them. winds, just mentioned, drive these myriads of
locusts over the Mediterranean, such immense numbers of them are there drowned, that when their carcases are driven by the waves back upon the shore, they infect the air for several

Damascus ;(s) and if we may believe a tradiamong the present inhabitants, no in the world was peopled before country
tion current

for here they particularly pretend that formed, and Cain slew Abel, in which they still shew to travellers visitplaces
their's
:

Adam was

ing

Damascus. (t)
;

days, even to a considerable distance.(n)

GOVERNMENT. On this subject little is known the Syrians were at first divided into many small kingdoms, and perhaps some republics; for the people of Damascus are
in David's time as if they were without a head, and acted for themselves.(u) But when, upon the overthrow of the kingdom of Zobah, that of Damascus was founded by Rezon,(v) and all the minor states were drawn into its power, we may conclude that the government, agreeably to the violence with which it was established, was of the arbitrary kind. As we are so much in the dark respecting their government, so are we unable to form any particular idea of their laws. RELIGION. Rimmon, whose temple stood at Damascus, was a principal deity of the Syrians, in the days of the prophet Elisha,(w) and it should seem that he was their most ancient object of worship. His name, in the language of the Old Testament, signifies a pomegranate, which, on account of its abounding in seed, was an emblem of the ark, wherein the rudiments of the world were preserved during the Rimmon was therefore the same with deluge. the Damater of the Greeks. (x) JK/iea,

spoken of

SECTION

III.

ANTIQUITY, GOVERNMENT, RELIGION, IDOLS, ORACLE, SACRIFICES, FESTIVALS, CHARACTER, LEARNING, ARTS, LANGUAGE, AND TRADE OF THE ANCIENT SYRIANS.

ANTIQUITY. Aram, the youngest son of Shem, it is generally agreed, was the ancestor of the Syrians and Mesopotamians,(o) though the former were very early mixed with the Cutheans and Canaanites, the descendants of Ham, whence a very considerable and beautiful part of their country was known by the name of Hamath in the days of Moses ;(p) but whether it was so denominated from Hamathi, the supposed youngest son of head
Canaan,(q) or from Ham himself, the great of the Cutheans, is doubtful. The of the son of Shem were genuine posterity
(n) Volney's Travels in Syria. See before, p. 315. (p) (q)
(s)

(x) Bryant's

Mythology, vol.

iii.

p. 238.

(o)

Numb.

xiii.

21. xxxiv. 8.

the

name of Rimmon from D11 (RUM)

Selden derives high, or lofty? but

Gen. x. 18. Schultens. Comment.

(r) Idem, xiv. 1. Geoyraph. in Vit. Salad,

ad

Tocem Damascus.
Thevenot, Maundrcll, Radziville. 2 Sum. viii. 5, 6. (v) 1 Kings, (w) 2 Kings, v. 18.
(t)

Mr. Bryant's idea is preferable. The pomegranate was a sacred symbol among the Greeks, Egyptians, and Persians; and in Mesopotamia, Peter Texeira speaks of two mounds of earth, not far from Ana, on the Euphrates, called by the
natives

(u)

xi.

2325.

pomegranates.}
t

Human Hen; Many

Te*cira'

which,
places

he says,
in

signifies the two Syria were denominated

ix.

Scld.

De

Diii Syr. sjatag.

ii.

cap, 10.

Travels thrtugh Mesopotamia, chap,

SECT.

III.]

RELIGION.

IDOLS.

TEMPLE OF HIERAPOLIS.

557

Gad and Babias were also deities of the ancient Syrians, of whom little is known.(y) From the latter, however, it may be remarked that the English word babe has been derived ; because young persons were under her tutelage.^) In process of time, Rimmon was superseded by a new candidate for divine honours for the Syrians deifying their king Ben-hadad II. under the title of Adad, or Ader, he was considered as the highest and most auspicious of
:

their gods.(a)

the colonists, who brought with them most of the Chaldaic and Babylonish rites. What changes this system afterwards underwent, during the successive monarchies of the Persians, the Seleucidae, and the Romans, we know not; but such as it was in the second
from this hieroglyphic, as the city of Rimmon, En-Rimmon, see Joshua, xix. 7, 45. (Jath-Rimmon, Hadad-Rimmon Nehem. \\. 29. Zeck. xii. 11. ubi supr. (y) See Selden, (z) Purchas's Pilgrim, book i. chap. 20, at the end. " Ad," says Mr. (a) Joseph. Antiq. lib. ix. cap. 2. " is a word which occurs very often in composition, Bryant, as in Ad- Or, Ad-On from whence have been formed It is sometimes compounded Adorns, Adon, and Adonis. with itself; and was thus used for a supreme title, with which both kings and deities were honoured. According to Nicholas of Damascus, the kings of Syria, for nine geneThe god Rimrations, had the name of Ad-ad, or Adad.* mon was stifled Adad. The title was originally given to the nun ; and, if we may credit Macrobius, it signified ONE, and was so interpreted by the Assyrians ;t but what he renders one should rather be expressed by the ordinal FIItST, i. e. The Amouians generally formed their superlative by chief. doubling the positive; and therefore, as Ad signified first; and, in a more lax sense, a prince, or ruler; Adad, which is a reiteration of this title, answers to the most high, or moxt cminent."l From Macrobius we learn that by Adad the sun was meant, and he was pictured with rays darting downAnd Sanclioniatho|| ward, to express his beneficence, &c. From these extracts, we styles him the /tint] of the r/ods. draw the conclusion that Adad, as a deity, was of much older date than Adad as a regal title, or than Ben-hadad and his successor Hazael (who was also deified ;) and that the apotheosis of these princes was rather a piece of court flattery,
:
;

When Syria was conquered, and its inhabitants transplanted by Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, the religion of the country underwent a revolution ; a new idolatry was introduced, or many additions were made to the old, by

century of the Christian aera, will be found in the following extracts from Lucian, who for the most part was an eye-witness of what he relates, and the rest he had from the priests. At Hierapolis, or the holy city, or Magog, as the Syrians are said to have called it,(b) in the province of Cyrrhestica, stood the temple of the great Syrian goddess,(c) upon an eminence in the midst of the city, surrounded by a double enclosure of walls, one old, the other new. On the north side, this temple had a court, 500 or 600 feet in circumference, in which stood the priaps, 300 fathom, or 300 cubits high ;(d) but by whom they were erected, or for what purpose, was the subject of much. The front of the temple was towards fable.(e) the east, and before it was a tower, raised upon a terrace, about 12 feet high, which last was no sooner mounted than the temple itself appeared. It was built after the manner of the Ionian temples; the porch was adorned with golden doors, and the whole edifice, particularly the roof, glittered with the same precious
all

things, which is very significant of the ark ; and as applied to the sun, that it was the great first cause of all being.
(b) Plin. Hist.
(c)

Nat. lib. v. cap. 23. In another place, our author says this goddess was called Atargatia, and he represents her with the head, body, and arms of a woman, and her lower parts terminating like the tail of a fish. IT Diodorus calls her Dercetus, but he is speaking of the goddess worshipped at Ascalon :** her attributes were, however, nearly the same with those of the deity at Hierapolis. They were both symbolical personifications of the ark,tt as shewn in a former chapter,^ and confirmed by the rites observed in the temple itself.
(d) Both these heights are mentioned by Lucian in different places they both appear exorbitant, considering that the columns were so slender that a man might compass them
:

with his anus.

(e) These obscene pillars were probably emblems of the god Priapus, who, however he degenerated among the Greeks and Romans, was originally considered as the sovl of the world; the first principle, which brought all things into light and being. At Larapsacus he was esteemed the same as Dionusus,||j| a name which Mr. Bryant derives from
title given to the patriarch Noah by the The Egyptians reverenced him as a principal god, the same as Orus and Apis, and the Chaldaic Aur ;*** whence his name; the Priapus of Greece being merely a compound He was sometimes of Peor Apis among the Egyptians.

Dio-Nusos, the

Cuthites.lffl

than any
*
}
||

real addition to

as applied to

Rimmon,

indicates that he

the gods of the nation. The title, was the very Jirxt of
Macrob. Saturn, Ubi supr.
lib.
i.

and his temples styled Peor singly ;ttt at others, Baal-Peor ; JJJ are called Beth-Peor. It therefore appears that these columns, as well as the goddess worshipped in the temple,
had a reference to the history of Noah.
$$ Phnrnutus. De Naturi Atbi-n. lib. i. p. 30. IJII

vii. t .loscpli. Antiq. lib. cap. 5. vol. i. p. 7, ct scg. tlytluit. }'ra ]i. l:t,ing. lib. i. p. 38. Apuil ICusC'h.

Apml

tap. 23.

Devrum, cap. 17.

p. 205.

Orjihic

Hymn

5.

ff
iv. 3.

*** Suidas.

Mythol. vol. iv. p. "19. ttt Numb. xxv. 18. Joshua,

xxii. 17.

^f

Lucimi.

tt

DC Syria Ueu, p. 884. Brjant's Mfllul. vol. iii. p. 151.

** Died.
}}

Sicul. lib.

ii.

p. 92.

}}}

wt. xxv.
iii.

5.

Dcut.

See before, pages 508, 525.

$$l Vent.

29. xxxiv. 6.

558

HISTORY OF THE SYRIANS.

make images of

[CHAP. ix.

metal. The air there was nothing inferior to the sweetest of Arabia, and it so strongly perfumed the garments of all who visited the temple, that they retained the fragrancy for a Considerable time. In this temple was a sanctuary, into which no admission was allowed but to such priests as were in an especial manner allied to the gods kept there, or wholly devoted to their It was nevertheless service and worship. and within were the statues always open, of Jupiter and Juno, according to the Greek nomenclature; but the natives had other names for them. These statues were of pure

the sun and moon, who were so resplendent.ly visible to mortal eyes while, on the other hand, they thought it quite reasonable to have statues of such divinities as were invisible. Next to this throne, was a statue of Apollo, not a stripling, but with a large beard ; for the Syrians could not endure the thoughts of addressing themselves to a god
:

that was, or appeared to be, under age. This statue was also covered with clothes, though Next to Apollo, stood all the rest were naked. Atlas, then Mercury, and last of all Lucina.

Juno sat upon lions, and participated gold. of the characteristics of Minerva, Venus, Luna, Rhea, Diana, Nemesis, and the Parctf, according to the different points of view in which she was seen ; and on whatever side the spectator In one stood, this statue still looked at him. hand she held a sceptre, in the other a distaff; on her head were rays, and a tower ; and she was girt with the cestns of Vfin.wi. She was adorned with a variety of gems, presented to her, from time to time, by Egyptians, Ethiopians,

On the right hand, entering the temple, was Semiramis, pointing towards Juno ;(g) next to her was Helen, then Hecuba, Andromache, Paris, Hector, Achilles, Nereus the son of Agla'ia, Philomel and Progne, Terms, turned into a bird, another statue of Semiramis, Combabus, Stmtonice, Alexander the Great, and the effeminate 8ardanpfi/ns. Under this temple was a cleft in the rock, through which, as the tradition went, the waters were drained off, after Deucalion's flood ; and 011 this spot did Deucalion erect an altar to
Within the enclosure of
kept oxen,
horses,
lions,

Medes, Armenians, and Babylonians: of these the most remarkable was the lychnis, which she wore at her side. This stone is said to shine most by candle-light, and with it she illuminated the temple by night in the daytime it had no remarkable lustre, but only a fiery appearance. Jupiter was supported by bulls, and in looks and posture bore a great
:

this

temple were
eagles
;

bears,"

all

tame and sacred.

In a lake, close by the temple, the sacred were preserved and attended some of the largest had names, and came when called. One of these, our author says, he particularly observed, and it had golden fins. In the midst of this lake was an altar, so artfully contrived,
fishes
:

resemblance

to

the

Jupiter of

the Greeks.

Between these two statues was a third, called the Sign, having no other characteristic than that of a golden dove on its head :(f) this idol
was, twice in every year, carried in procession On the left-hand, going into the temple, was a throne dedicated to the sun ; but it had no statue for they held it absurd to
to the sea-side.
;

that

it
:

appeared to swim on the surface of the

it

water

and was

was constantly smoking with incense, Without the temple daily frequented.
altar,

with statues innumerable. Many of the idols in the were of wonderful contrivance they temple seemed to move, perspire, and deliver oracles,
stood a brazen

THE ORACLE.

(f) This was doubtless the Sama-Ramis, or divine token, of which we have already said so much.* And dur author observes, that many of the Syrians took it to be Semiraniis, from the dove upon her head.t These three deities, Jupiter and Juno, as the Greeks called them, and the Sign, which were secluded from public view in the sanctuary, appear to have been all of arkite origin, and the oldest, as well as the most reverenced, of the Syrian gods. (g) The occasion of this attitude, says Lucian, was that

humble her pride, she at length submitted to the and was therefore figured as pointing to Juno, in acknowledgment of her error, and to direct the people towards the proper object of their worship.J But we conThe goddess ceive it to have had a very different import. here called Juno, appears to have been the Damnter, or personification of the ark, as Semiramis was of the dove: and the attitude of pointing seems to denote the divine
mities,

to
;

goddess

Semiramis had arrogantly not excepting even Juno

the gods,

who

other deities, ; but being severely chastised by persecuted her with diseases and other calaall
p.

set herself

above

messenger, directing to the place of safety. This cleft was but sinall when (h) See note (m), page 281. our author saw it. The tradition alluded to, gave rise to a singular ceremony, as will be described among the Syrian festivals.
}

See before,

525.

Lucian.

De

Syr. Dei, cap. 33.

Lucian, uti

siipr.

cap. 38.

ECT. HI.]

ORACLE OF HIERAPOLIS. SACRIFICES. FESTIVALS.

;

as if alive and noises were frequently heard in It has been the temple, when it was shut up. observed, that Apollo was the only idol already that was covered with clothes ; he was also the only one who gave his oracles viva voce, if we may so speak ; all the other statues gave their answers through the medium of the Under the clothing of Apollo, therepriests. lore, we may conclude that a person was concealed to give the response, or that some mechanical contrivance was hid, by which sounds could be conveyed from a distant part, as in the case of certain automatons now exhibiting in our own country. When he condescended to answer those who consulted him, he began with moving, or agitating himself upon which the priests immediately violently
;

nations

who worshipped

the Syrian goddess,

whose business it was to initiate such of their countrymen as resorted hither in pilgrimage, in
the customs and rites of the holy city.

S ORIFICES.

Twice a day were

and
to

sacrifices

Juno with great noise of minstrels and singers. Every spring, an extraordinary sacrifice was offered, at which a great concourse of people, from all parts, was assembled, bringing with them their
offered to Jupiter in silence,

sacred images, made in imitation of those in the temple on this occasion some great trees were felled in the court of the temple, and garnished with goats, sheep, birds, rich vestments, and fine pieces of wrought gold and silver; the sacred images were then carried
:

ran to his assistance, without which, they pretended, he would infallibly fall into violent agonies and convulsions. These priests, however, he requited very roughly for their kindness, till the high-priest came up to propose the This Apollo, as the Greeks called question. the direction of all affairs, sacred and him, had secular; he was continually consulted, and he always declared the time when it was proper for the Sign to be carried in procession to the
sea.(i)

to,

round them after which they were set fire and consumed. Every pilgrim to this city
;

was obliged

to

offer a private sacrifice,

con-

sisting of a sheep ; having killed his victim, and cut it up into joints, he feasted upon it ; then

revenues and treasures of this temple all Asia being anxious to make ; liberal contributions to the goddess who presided in it. The priests were of different ranks and orders ; and besides them, there were

The

were immense

spreading out the fleece upon the ground, and kneeling upon it, he put the feet and head of the victim upon his own head, and besought the goddess to accept his sacrifice, vowing to Twice a year, a man bring her a better. climbed to the top of one of the priaps, and continued there seven days, during which time he was supposed to have a more immediate interc6urse with the goddess, and offered up many prayers for such as brought offerings,

minstrels,

women,
temple.

all

eunuchs, called gulli, and frantic consecrated to the service of the

office

was and wore a golden mitre. In addition to the priests and officers of the temple, there were persons called masters, or instructors, drawn from the several
of

The

the

high-priest

annual

he was clad

in purple,

whose names were announced by a crier from Sometimes victims, crowned with were driven from the porch or court garlands, of the temple, over the precipice on which it and some were stood, and there they perished even so infatuated that they tied up their children in sacks, and threw them over the same precipice, as an act of devotion. FESTIVALS. Twice a year, the priests and
below. (j)
:

We Iwve seen that these prevented him from sleeping. priups, or phalli, are described as 300 fathom, or 300 cubits
high
little
;

In concluding his account of this idol, Lucian declares saw it icalk in the air* was said to be in memory of Deucalion's (j) This practice flood, when men saved themselves by climbing trees and If the person, thus exalted, happened to dose, mountains. during the seven days, the priesls pretended that a sacred scorpion went to awake him ; but it is far more probable, that the danger of his situation, and the dread of falling,
(i)

(hat he

this question, which it is impossible to decide satisfactorily, we may state that the column was ascended on the outside ;
it and himself with a chain, on which he or knees against the pillar, and grasping it with one arm, while, with the other, he raised the chain up the .sides, which were provided with |>egs to prevent it from When he arrived at the top, he let. slipping downward.

the

man surrounded

sat, fixing his feet

the

first is

altogether incredible, and the second

is

would be considerably more than double the height of the Monument at London. But leaving
better,

for then they

down another chain, with which he drew up whatever \\as to make himself a more comrequisite for his subsistence, or modious seat, or a kind of nest. During his seven days' stay here, many offerings were brought to him, which he drew up by means of the chain, and when the name of the donor
was announced, he began a prayer,
the time.
striking

upon a

bell all

Ubi supr. cap. 35.

56-0

HISTORY OF THE SYRIANS.

accounted

[CHAP. ix.

devotees went to the sea-side, to fetch water to the temple, where it was poured out, to run off by the hole or cleft, under the altar, already spoken of. Of their ceremonies at the sea-side on this occasion, we only know that the vessels

were
filled.

tied

On

up and sealed,
their return,

after they

had been

they were taken to

holy; the former to Derceto, the Semiramis: many doves were kept by the Syrians about their houses ; yet if a man touched one of them, he became unclean for the remainder of the day. When a man had made himself a gallus, he ran about the city with the token of his devotion in his hand,

two

latter to

a sacred person, called Alectryo, who examined and took off the seals, untied the strings, and returned the vessels to their respective owners, to be carried into the temple, there to be poured For this service, he received a considerout. able revenue, taking a fee for every vessel On another occasion, the gods examined. made a visit to the bottom of the sacred lake. Juno, or the Syrian goddess herself, went
first, preservation of the fishes, which would have perished, said the priests, had they first seen Jupiter. But of all the festivals of these people, the great burning, already described, was the most considerable ; and people from all parts repaired to the holy city, to assist at this great sacrifice, as well as in the other religious duties of the season. This festival was of some days' continuance ; and at particular times, while it lasted, the whole multitude was drawn into the temple, while the priests, without, were engaged, some in mangling their bodies, some in violently

at length throwing it into some house, he received thence a woman's attire, and from that time his life was conformable to his new dress yet did these galli entertain a passion for the female sex, as the women also did for them, which was esteemed pure and holy. It was unlawful for a gallus to enter the temple. Pilgrims to Hierapolis, before they set out,
till
:

down

for the

shaved their head and eye-brows, and having offered a sheep in the manner related, they were only to bathe in cold water, to drink of the same element, and to lie on nothing but the bare earth, till they reached the city. On their arrival, they were entertained at the public
charge, and lodged with masters of their, respective countries, who were paid by the public for instructing them in the ceremonies of the place. All pilgrims were branded with marks upon the neck and wrists. Young men and boys consecrated the first-fruits of their beards and heads of hair; which being shaved or clipped in the temple, were there deposited in a gold or silver box, with the name of the person to whom the relic belonged. When a gallus died, his companions took the body into the suburbs, where, setting it down, they hurled stones over it, and then left it upon the bier for seven days ; after which it was conveyed into the temple: but to have taken it there sooner, or without the ceremony, would have been a profanation. Whoever had seen a dead body, was not permitted to enter the temple that day; but on the next, if he purified himself, he was absolved, and the restraint removed. All the family of a deceased person were excluded from the temple for 30 days, and obliged to shave their heads. Such are the most material facts relative to the worship of the Syrian goddess, as related

striking each other, and some in beating tabrets, or drums, sounding musical instru-

ments, or in singing aloud and prophesying. In the midst of this uproar, the frenzy of mutito become galli, seized on of those in the temple, who, crying out with a loud voice, and drawing their swords, performed the operation, and devoted themselves to the goddess. (k) In addition to the foregoing account, the following miscellaneous customs and laws may be here noticed. Every day, many people swam to the altar in the midst of the lake, there to perform their devotions. Oxen, sheep, and such like animals, were sacrificed but swine were accounted unclean. The sacrifice was not performed at the temple ; the victim was prepared at home, and then presented at the altar. Fish, doves, and pigeons, were

lating themselves,

many

by Lucian, (1) which, though very unhappily disguised under a Greek dress, discovers many
frequently confounded with the Syrian goddess, and with apparent good reason,' as shewn in the preceding notes. (1) Cap. 1938, 57.
t

(Is) It was probably on account of this practice, the origin of which is related at large by Lucian,* that the first institution of eunuchs was attributed to Semiramis,t who is

Cap.

8027.

Marcellinus,

lib. xir.

cap. t.

SECT.

III.]

LEARNING, ARTS, AND LANGUAGE.

tongue, there are three dialects: 1. The or Syriac, properly so called ; which is the most elegant of the three, and used by the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Roha or Edessa, Haran or Charran, and the outer Syria. 2. The dialect of Palestine, spoken by those of Damascus, Libanus, and the inner Syria. 3. The Ckaldeean, or Nabath(ean, the most unpolished of all, and current in the mountainous part of Assyria, as well as in the villages of The Syriac character is supBabylonia.(q) posed to have been in use above 300 years prior to the Christian sera ;(r) it consists of two kinds of letters that called Estrangelo, is the more ancient and unpolished, being chiefly found in very ancient manuscripts, and in the titles of books, as capitals are with us the called Peshito, is the simple or common other, character, and is more expeditious in the use,
this

considerable remains of the Amonian practice of drawing all their religious enigmas and ceremonies from the ark and the deluge. CHARACTER OF THE SYRIANS. Plutarch describes the Syrians of his time as a very effeminate people, prone to tears, and remarkable for their mode of mourning their deceased, hiding themselves from the light of the sun, in caves and other dark places, for many days together. This tender and puerile disposition still attaches to the Syrian character: but it mvist not be forgotten that the Syrians of the age of Plutarch were quite different from the original inhabitants of the country, who in the days of the Israelitish kings were a warlike and bold people ; till, being conquered and
sent into exile by Tiglath-pileser, (m) new colonies were planted in their place, as the surest means of keeping the country in subjection ; and from these settlers came the degenerate race above described.

Ammean,

LEARNING, ARTS, AND LANGUAGE. The Syrians were by some writers(n) anciently
joined with the Phoenicians as the inventors of letters ; and they certainly yielded to no contemporary nation in point of knowledge, and skill in the fine arts. The altar at Damascus, which so enchanted Ahaz, king of Judah,(o) may serve as a presumptive proof that the skill of their artificers exceeded in originality of design and elegance of execution, all the works of the most refined nations of their
day.

its appearance. The alphabet contains 22 letters, whose names bear a close affinity to the Hebrew, but the characters are quite different, and may be compared to the running-hand of writing: while the Hebrew letter* are all capitals. Like other eastern nations, the

and elegant in

Syrians wrote from right to left. They had no vowels till towards the close of the eighth century,

when they are supposed to have been introduced by Theophilus of Edessa, chief
astrologer to the calif Al Mohdi, who borrowed five of the Greek vowels, rejecting the

The Syriac language, which bears a striking resemblance to the Hebrew, was used not only in Syria, but in Mesopotamia, Chaldaea, Assyria, and (after the Babylonish captivity)in Palestine. Many writers esteem it as the original language;
others as the parent of the oriental tongues, as more fully stated in a former chapter. However this may be, it was evidently a distinct language in the days of Jacob for what that
;

and omicron, and used them to distinthe Greek pronunciation of names and guish patronymics in his Syriac translation of the works of Homer.(s) The marks to express these vowels still retain a considerable resemblance to their original form.
epsilon

Syriac is an easy and elegant, but not very copious language ; and during the empire of the Seleucidae, many Greek words were incorporated into it. James of Edessa, who first wrote a grammar in Syriac, restored it to its
original purity,

The

patriarch calls

Mesopotamia,

Gafeed, Laban, a Syrian of called Jegf<r-.<>a/iadu.t?ia.(p) Of

from which,

much degenerated .(t)

p. 522.

The

it is said, it had translations of the

(m) 2 Kings, xvi. 9, where is the historical accomplishment of the prophecy (A Amos, i. 4, 5, and of Isaiah, xvii. 1 -3.
(n)
(o)

(p)
'()
(r)
1

Clem. Alex. Strom, lib. i. p. 307. 2 Kinys, xvi. 10. Gen. xxxi. 47. Abu'l Pharag. Hht. Dynast, p. 11.

About a century before the days of Theophilus, seven new characters were invented for all the Greek vowels, by James of Edessa, at the desire of Paul of Autioch; and though they are still extant, the inventor declined using them, lest the books written in the imperfect character should
thereby be lost.* (t) Diod. Sicul.
man.
Libr. Splendor.

Bernard. Tab. Alph. A bu'l Pharag. Hist. Dynast, p. 147. Echellensis in Not. (s ad Catal. Ebedjesu. p. 180. Asseman. Bill. Orient, tome i.
)

BM.

Hist. lib.
i.

ii.

Bi6(. Orient,

tome

p.

479.

Bar. Hebr. (Abu'l Pliarag.) in

VOL.

I.

4c

5G2

HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT SYRIANS.

New
Testament into
this tongue, are

[CHAP. ix.
IV.

Old and

SECTION

supposed to equal, if not surpass, every other. TRADE. Few nations, of equal antiquity,

had a more considerable trade than the Syrians. are supposed to have had ships on the Mediterranean as early as any of their neighbours, and their vicinity to the Euphrates gave them an opportunity of intercourse with the

They

CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT SYRIANS, TO THE DEATH OF REZIN, THEIR LAST KING, AND THEIR CAPTIVITY BY TIGLATH-PILESEIi, THE ASSYRIAN, A. M. 3264.

eastern regions to say nothing of their caravans, by the way of Palmyra. By some they are thought to have been much older merchants than either the Phoenicians or the Edomites; and they appear to have been the the Persian and Indian first who brought commodities into the west of Asia; so that their country became the emporium for those articles, whence Egypt and other western parts
;

were supplied. The Syrian commerce and navigation had increased gradually, till Hazael, king of Damascus, grasping at the whole trade of the east and south, seized on Elath, a celebrated port of the Red Sea; by which his
subjects obtained a commodious outlet to the southernmost parts of Arabia, Ethiopia, and

THE Httle we can say upon this subject must be collected from such passages of the holy Scriptures, as introduce the Syrian monarchs incidentally to our notice in the course of the history of the kings of Israel and for this reason they ought, consistently with the arrangement of this Work to have been postponed to a more advanced period of the general history, did not their connection with this ancient nation require them to be noticed For here, in order to complete the subject. though we know of no kings of Syria prior to Rehob of Zobah, and Ammihud of Geshur, contemporaries with Saul, there can be little doubt but that from the days of Tidal, there
:

were princes in this country, who, if known, would fill up the chasm that causes the irregularity

Egypt; empire had been overthrown by the Assyrians, they still kept a colony there. Diodorus Siculus, from Ctesias, numbers the Syrians among the mariners employed by Semiramis, in her Indian expedition :(u) but this is not to be de-

Africa,

as

well

as

and

after

their*

alluded to. Before we enter upon the history, it is necessary to exhibit a view of the several sovereigns of Geshur, Hamath, Zobah, and Damascus, the only kingdoms of the Syrians with which

pended upon.
GESHUR,

acquainted, according to different with the kings of Israel and Judah writers, who were their contemporaries.

we

are

SECT. IV.]

KINGS OF GESHUR, HAMATH, AND ZOBAH.

Only two princes of Geshur are

583

GESHUR.

in Scripture: Ammihud and hissonTalIt appears at best but as a small power, niai.(v)

named

and is only known from the circumstance of David marrying Maacha, daughter of Talmai, who became the mother of Absalom ;(w) and
for

ZOBAH. This kingdom lay about the mouth of the Orontes, and was probably comprised within the peninsula formed by that river, at its confluence with the sea. The origin of Zobah is uncertain, as is the nature of its government. In the early part of Saul's reign,
appears to have had several kings for he is " to have fought against the kings of Zobah ;"(g) and it was, perhaps, in consequence of their weakness and defeats, that they coalesced under one sovereign for their
it
;

the

protection
)

afforded to

that

prince

Jul. Per. 3084.

A. M.

2974. t

during- his three years' exile for the murder of his brother

said

loao.)

Amnon.(x)
called
to an were two places of the

HAMATH. This city being sometimes Hamath the Great,(y) has given birth
opinion that
there

mutual security.
his

This was Rehob,

who

laid

the foundation of the subsequent grandeur of

name. Josephus places Hamath to the north of Canaan ;(z) but Abu'lfeda, who reigned in tin; land of Hamath, places it upon the Orontes, between Emessa [Hems], and Apamea. There was also a country of Hamath, surnamed Zobah, to the east of Canaan, about Tadmor, or Palmyra (a) if indeed this were not the same with the Hamath of Abu'lfeda, which appears truly to be the place in question. Its name, Hamath or Chamath, indicates its Amonian origin, and ancient date yet have we a very short and imperfect account of its kings, the first, and perhaps the only one we read of, being Toi,(b) who was contemporary with David. This prince was engaged in an unequal war with Hadadezer the Great, king of Zobah, and would probably have been obliged to submit to him, had not David given that prince a humbled the pride of signal defeat, and Jul. Per. 3670. > Zobah.(c) The king of Hamath, A. M. 2960. > therefore, looking upon Dav d as B. C. 1044. ) j u s deliverer, sent his son Joram, or Hadoram,(d) with vessels of silver, gold, and brass, as a present, to compliment him upon his successes, and to secure his future After which we hear no more of good-will. (e) Hamath, till the days of He/ekiah, when Rabshakeh enumerates its kings and its gods among
; :
-

son Hadadezer.(h) In the days of David, Hadadezer, a great and ambitious prince, was so firmly seated on the newly-erected throne of Zobah, that he aspired to the universal monarchy of Syria, if not of all the East. He had succeeded in making several princes his tributaries, on the other side of the river ;(i) Damascus was dependent on him ;(j) and Hamath was on the point of surrendering, when, being attacked by David, he lost 1000 chariots, fjul.Per.36io. 7000 horses, and 20,000 foot JA.M. '2900! 1044. soldiers. In a second battle, (.B.C. to which he had received reinforcements prior from Damascus, he lost 22,000 men and the conqueror, taking advantage of so signal a victory, possessed himself of a great part of Syria, particularly of the territory of Damascus.
;

shields; his

Jul. Per. 4004.

the conquests of his sovereign, Sennacherib, of Assyria. The Haniath} king A.M. 3294. > ites wen; also among the people B.C. 710.3 whom the Assyrian monarch
transplanted into Israel.(f)
(v) 2 Sam. xiii. :57. (x) Ibid. xiii. nt 'HI. lib. ix. cap. 11. (z)

golden Betah and Berothai, exceedingly rich in brass, were plundered ;(k) and his kingdom was reduced to very straitened limits. It was not, however, so weakened, but that he was able, not long after, to send 20,000 troops to act as auxiliaries to Hanun, king of the Ammonites, who was at war with David but these, and other mercenary troops, engaged on the same side, were put to flight by Joab.(l) Notwithstanding these disasters,
also,

Hadadezer

at this time, lost his

cities,

two

Hadadezer resolved again to try the fortune of war, and therefore called to his assistance the Syrians beyond the Euphrates, and levied troops wherever his power was acknowledged.
In 1 Chron. xviii. 3, he is called (h) 2 Sam. viii. 3. Hadarezer. Whether this river were the Orontes, (i) 1 Chron. xix. 16. but the latter is expressly or Euphrates, has been doubted name* 2 Sam. viii. 3, and 1 Chron. xviii. 3, as within, or bordering on, the dominions of Hadadezer.
;

(w) Ibid,
(y)

iii.

3.

2338.

(,b)

In 1 Chron. xviii. 9,

lie

is

Amos, vi. 2. (a) 2 Chron. viii. 3, 4. called Tou. Josephus

(d)
(f )

calls

him Tlianus, or Thermos. 8. fc) 2 Sam. viii. 3 (e) 2 Sam. viii. 10. (g) 1 Sam. xiv. 47.

\ Chron. 2 Kinijs,

xviii.

10.
24.

xvii.

(j)
(j)

2 Sam.
Ibid. \.

viii.

5.

(k) Ibid.

viii.

38.

613.

4c2

5b'-l

HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT SYRIANS.

[CHAP. ix.

force, he gave the command to his general, Shobach, who marched them to a place called Jul. Per. 3G78. Helam, on the east side of the A.M. 2968. t Jordan, where they were met by B.C. 1036.) David. A battle ensued, the were worsted, and put to flight Avith Syrians the loss of 40,000 men, among whom was
"i

Having thus got together a very considerable

Ben-hadad I. son of Tabrimon, r Jul. Per. 3774. j u i. p, 3064. received ambassadors, with large < A. M. ' B c 940. of gold and silver, from presents Asa, king of Judah, reminding him of the
-

treaty between their fathers, and desiring his* assistance against Baasha, king of Israel, who had invaded his dominions. Ben-hadad

therefore

tributary princes only thought of securing their own safety, and therefore made a peace with the conqueror, and became his tributaries ;(m) while Rezon, one of Hadadezer's generals, deserted with the

Shobach

himself.

The

now

broke his league Avith Baasha, and took from him Ijon, Dan, Abel-bethmaacah, Avith all Cinneroth, and the land of
Naphtali.(u)
II. son of the former, vigorously the warfare begun so successfully prosecuted against Israel by his father; but Avas twice remarkably baffled by the interposition of heaven. When he first marched f j u i. p er 3813. 3103. against Israel, he had no feAver < A. M. than 32 auxiliary or tributary I B.C. princes in his army, besides an incredible number of cavalry, infantry, and chariots.
.

Ben-hadad

under his command, and by their means, in the sequel, made himself king of Daraascus.(n) Of Hadadezer, and the kingdom of Zobah, we have no farther accounts. DAMASCUS. This kingdom rose upon the ruins of that of Zobah, and was, according to the general opinion, founded by Rezon, though Josephus seems to think that Rezon made Hadad, the Edomite, king there, or somewhere else in Syria,(o) till the weakness of Solomon's latter days enabled him more fully to establish Nicholas of Damashis throne at Damascus. cus gives a series of 10 sovereigns of this kingdom, to all of whom he applies the name of Adad, which, as we have seen in a former Section, was the title, and not the proper name The first of his princes of the prince.(p) appears to have been Hadadezer, king of Zobah, to whom Damascus Avas also subject, the remainder till Avrested from him by David agree tolerably well, in their order, with the
troops
;

With this pOAverful host, he surrounded Samaria, and summoned Ahab to acknoAvledge himself his vassal, and to deliver up to him his silver
and gold,
his Avives

and

his children .(v)

To

was the first band which king, seized Damascus, and reigned there, was an inveterate enemy of Solomon, and proved excessively troublesome to htm as long as he lived.(q) The next king of Damascus that we read of, unless is Hezion, of \vhom nothing is known he be the same with Rezon, as some great
scriptural account.

But, whoever Rezon, the captain of the

message, the king of Israel replied most submissively, acknoAvledging that all he had Avas at his disposal. But this did not satisfy the haughty enemy; for Ben-hadad, by a second message, told the terror-struck Ahab, that on the next day he intended to send officers to search the city and palace, and to bring away all his wealth, Avith whatever else Avas pleasant in his eyes. This indignity the spirit of Ahab, which on other aroused occasions was not apt to be so supine, and after consulting with his elders and people, he sent word back that he would not submit A third message from to such a degradation.
this insolent

chronologers have supposed.(r) Tabrimon,(s) son of Hezion, made a treaty with Abijam, or Abijah, king of Judah, from which the latter seems to have been his
tributary .(t)
(m) 2 Sam. \. 1519. 25. (n) 1 Kings, \\. 23 (o) Antiq. lib. viii. cap. 2. 25. (p) See note (a), p. 557. (q) 1 Kings, xi. 23 Newton's Chron. (r) Marsham. Canon. Chron. secul. 13. Usher, ad of Ancient Kingdoms amended, page 221. A. M. 3064.

the Syrian monarch was the consequence, in Avhich he threatened to bring such an army against Samaria, that should every soldier take but a handful of its ruins, they should leave no wishing at the signs that it had ever existed same time that the gods might put him in a
:

worse condition than Ahab seemed to stand in, if he failed to carry his threat into execution.

To

this,

Ahab

very

coolly

rejoined,

to (s) Sir I. Newton reckons him to have been subject the Egyptians, who under Sesac, or Shishak (the Scsostris of this writer) conquered Syria during his reign and that his son Ben-hadad shook off the yoke. (t) 1 Kini/g, xv. 18, 19. (u) Rid, 1720.
:

(v)

Vide Cleric,

ire

1 Reg. xx. 3.

SECT. IV.]

KINGS OF DAMASCUS.
Abashed and confounded

565

" Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast as he that pntteth it off." When Ben-hadad received this answer, he was drinking in his tent with the two-ami-thirty kings who attended him: he therefore gave orders to invest the city in form, and to get all ready for the assault; but he suffered not his banquet to be interrupted. In the mean time, a prophet of the Lord came to Ahab, encouraging him to attack his enemy in the camp, assuring him of victory, and directing him In the midst of his carousals, what to do. the Syrian monarch was informed therefore, that a party from the city was approaching, which at first caused some alarm in the camp, and disturbed Ben-hadad himself: but when he found them to be an inconsiderable number, he contented himself with giving an order for their apprehension, and then returned to The party which had issued his pleasures. from the city consisted of a choice company of 232 young men, followed by 7000 of the who were citizens, with Ahab at their head by the prophet to fall upon the encouraged great Syrian host, in the face of noon-day. Of such an assault, at such a time, and by so weak an enemy, the Syrians had never dreamed ; much less did they calculate upon the chance of defeat. They therefore approached this little band in a tumultuous manner,
;

at so inglorious a the Syrians endeavoured to palliate it by flight, pretending that the gods of Israel were hillgods, and therefore it was no wonder that such a misfortune should have befallen them ; but they promised themselves better success the next year, when they would take care to meet their enemies in the plain, where those mountain deities could not exert their influence.(w) With reasonings and promises of this kind, they endeavoured to soothe their own mortification,

and to pacify

their prince.

They

also

advised him to raise a new army, of equal force with the former, chariot for chariot, horse for horse, and to entertain no doubt of, ultimate success. They did not, however, approve of the 32 kings going with them, for what reason we are not told but advised Ben-hadad to
;

thinking they had only to seize

it

to

their

sovereign.

it, and conduct But when they saw

the Israelites

fell every one his man to the ground, they were seized with a panic fear, and sought only to ensure their safety by flight.

Ben-hadad
meanest

himself,

terrified

as

much

as his

He threatenings against Samaria. pitched in the plain of Aphek, where his numbers filled the country, while the army of Ahab appeared but as two small flocks of kids. Six days(x) these inadequate powers lay opposite to each other, during which time a prophet declared to the king of Israel, that because the Syrians had said the Lord was god of the hills, and not of the valleys, this great multitude should be delivered into his hands. On the seventh day they came to battle ; when the Syrians lost, of infantry alone, 100,000, besides cavalry;
former

fj u \. Per. HBM. consolations and promises, and \ A. M. 3104. o 00 marched the following year to- 1 B C wards the king of Israel, with such an army, as if he were determined to make good his
-

appoint captains in their stead. Ben-hadad listened to all these

his horse, and rode away with the rest, never stopping to rally his people : in a word, the rout was general, and the
soldiers,

mounted

and the rest fled Avith precipitation to the city of Aphek, where 27,000 more were crushed to death, by the falling of the city wall upon
them.(y)

pursued them with great slaughter till were weary destroying horses and men, they and breaking or overthrowing their chariots.
Israelites
;

Ben-hadad seeing

this

second army more

the former,

completely destroyed than

and

(w) This notion of gods of the hills might arise partly from the mountainous nature of the country itself; partly from the practice of the ancient inhabitants, the Canaanites, in sacrificing on hills and high places a custom to which Ahab also had devoted himself, contrary to the commands of God. The victories given to him, on this and the following occasion, were not out of favour to him, but to punish the Syrians for their arrogance and blasphemy, as well as to recal Israel to the God of their fathers, from whose worship On these occasions, the Syrian hosts they were departing. were overthrown by a handful of Israelites but when the quarrel \va.s merely personal, between Ben-hadad and Ahab, 3
; ;

though their forces were more equal, Ahab was slain, and Israel was scattered.* (x) This delay appears to have arisen from the Israelites being encamped on hills, and the fcur of the Syrians to
attack them in that position they therefore waited for them in the plain, where they expected to attack them beyond the reach of their gods. The message of the man of God to Ahab,t implies an order to attack Ihe. Syrians on their own ground, to shew that God is present in valleys as well as
:

upon
(y)

liill>.

So
*

singular a casually, as
1

it

is

erroneously called, has

t

Kingf,

s\ii. 1

37.

Kings, xx.

','8.

666

HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT SYRIANS.

[CHAP. ix.

remembering' that his kingdom was now so drained that he could oppose no force against the kiug of Israel, should the victory be followed up by an invasion of his dominions, in a fit of despair he crept into an inner chamber in Aphek, to conceal himself. Here he was found by his chief officers, who, after reminding him that the kings of Israel had been generous enemies, advised him to throw himself on Ahab's mercy, and offered to prepare the conqueror to receive him kindly, by first appearing before him with sackcloth on their loins, and Ben-hadad listened ropes about their necks to their proposal, and they accordingly went, in this humble guise, to entreat Ahab on behalf of their sovereign.
:

The peace between Israel and Syria continued upwards of two years, but Beu-hadad kept possession of Ramoth-Gilead ; whether he performed the rest of his promises to Ahab, does not appear but from his refusal to surrender this place, which was in the tribe of Gad, on the east side of the Jordan, it should seem that his empire was less broken than
:

he had expected, and we may conclude that he neglected all the terms of the pacification. However this may be, Ahab determined to r j u i. Per. 3817. attempt its recovery by force and being visited by Jehoshaphat, < A. M. 3107. ' B c R 97king of Judah, while he was conteniplating this scheme, he prevailed on that
:
-

Ahab, transported at his success, was little aware of the artful men he had to deal with, and less diligent to inquire the will of God respecting his prostrate foe by which he new calamities upon his people, and brought was the cause of his own death from the very When the prince whose life he now spared. (z) ambassadors approached, and in the name of
;

prince to accompany him in the expedition. The two kings accordingly led out their forces to Ramoth-Gilead, where the Syrians were ready to receive them. Ahab, apprehensive that the enemy would mark him out for destruction, probably remembering the threat of the pro-

their

sovereign
"

sued
is

for

my brother!" This expression was instantly seized by the wary courtiers, and they echoed " Thy brother Ben-hadad !'' Ahab desired he might be brought before him,
exclaimed,

He

clemency,

Ahab

phet for having spared Ben-hadad, (b) disguised himself before the battle, while the king of Judah rode in his chariot arrayed in As Ahab had foreboded, so royal vestments. it came to pass for the king of Syria had
:

commanded
had

his two-and-thirty captains, rule over his chariots, to direct their

who
arms

and when he came, he took him up

chariot.

into his

only against his former liberator, the king of Israel. These officers, mistaking Jehosliaphat
for

to restore

In this interview, the Syrian promised all that himself and his father had taken from Israel, and to allow Ahab the

Ahab, pursued him so

closely, that

had he

same privileges in Damascus that his own father had enjoyed in Samaria. This fair speech wrought effectually upon Ahab a peace was instantly concluded, and Ben-hadad was dis;

missed in the

1110*1

friendly manner.(a)

not cried out, and discovered himself not to be the victim they sought, he would have been slain. In the mean time, Ahab, fighting iu disguise, could not elude his impending fate an arrow from a Syrian bow(c) struck between the joints of his armour, and gave him a mortal wound upon which he ordered his charioteer
: :

excited many inquiries how it could happen. Bishop Patrick* supposes the Syrians ranged themselves round the city to make a defence, and that the walls were beaten down upon them by the Israelites, or shaken down by an We are unwilling to give the credit of this earthquake. disaster to the Israelites, both because the text makes not the least allusion to them, and because they were too few in number to storm so strong a [date. was one of the

(c) Josephus calls the man who drew this bow, Aman, bii* upon what authority we know not nor can we believe that any thing short of divine inspiration could discover whose arrowit was, amid the hundreds, perhaps thousands, that were The same flying simultaneously into the Israelitish camp. historian says, Ben-hadad was not in this battle himself, but had committed the conduct of the war to Naaman this also
;
:

Aphek

wants proof.

royal cities conquered by Joshua,)- and was, without doubt, built as other cities of the Canaanites and Ainoniaiis were, very strong, with walls so high, that they are said to reach to heaven ;* we must, therefore, refer its o'verthrow to the same power that threw down the walls of Jericlio.j with which miracle this seems to be parallel. (z) 1 Kings, xx. 3543. xxii.

337.

(a)

1 Kittys, xx.

134.

(b) Ibid.
t

3042.
xi. 18.

Naaraau, it may lie here proper to remark, that he was miraculously cured of a leprosy, by following the directions of the prophet Eltsha, and dipping himself seven times in the Jordan, though he was at first very unwilling to try an experiment apparently so inadequate to the purpose. His scruples, however, were overruled by the persuasions of his attendants, and when he found the beneficial result, he returned with great joy to the prophet, and, " there was no God renouncing idolatry, acknowledged thai
this
J

Of

1 Kings, xx, 30.

Joshua,

Numb.

xiii.

28.

Dent.

i.

28.

$ Joshua, vi. 20.

SECT. IV.]
to drive with

KINGS OF DAMASCUS.
which was accordingly done, and then they were dismissed. This act of power and generosity so surprised the Syrians, that Ben-hadad thought it advisable for the present to withdraw
from the land of Israel. (e) This pacific disposition was but short-lived. Ben-hadad, ever restless and ambitious, could
not relinquish his favourite project of the conHe therefore returned, it is quest of Canaan. the next year, and, surrounding supposed, Samaria with his whole force, reduced the inhabitants to such streights, that he was on the point of taking it by famine.(f) But when the city was in the utmost distress, the Syrians were alarmed in the night by a supernatural noise, like that of a mighty host rushing upon
;

him out of the field of battle, and The battle, however, he died in the evening. continued with obstinacy and courage on both sides till night put an end to the conflict and under cover of the darkness, both armies drew oft' with equal loss and doubtful victory.(d)
;

battle

Israelites lost their king in the of Ramoth-CJilead, the Syrians were too much weakened to follow their advantage

Although the

by any great enterprise. Ben-hadad, therefore, confined his attempts to a kind of petty warfare, apparently with a design to seize the person of Jorarn, or Jehoram, king of Israel, by laying ambushes for him. The Israelitish prince, however, constantly eluded the snare so that Ben-hadad concluded there was treachery in those about him, and began to accuse his officers of holding a secret correspondence with the enemy. To clear themselves from so dishonourable an imputation, they declared that none but Elisha, the prophet, who was with the king of Israel, could possibly have frustrated his designs ; and it was well known that he was endowed with such gifts of augury, that he could reveal the king's words to the enemy, though spoken in his bed-chamber, and in the most private manner. This, indeed, was the truth; for Elisha had constantly warned Joramof the snares laid for him. Ben-hadad had heard enough of this prophet, to give ready credence
;

them whereupon, apprehending that Joram had engaged the kings of the Hittites.(g) and of Egypt, in his favour, they betook themselves
camp, just as it was when the panic seized them, and dropping by the way their arms, and even their garments, that encumbered them, that their flight might, if possible, keep pace
with their fears. It is needless to add, that the Syrian camp was taken possession of by the famished Israelites, who found in it an abundant supply for their wants. (h)

to flight, with such precipitancy, that they left their horses, with every thing standing in the

to his officers, and, resolving to seize him, he detached a strong party, with chariots and horses, to Dothan, where Elisha then resided. They surrounded the city by night but in the morning they were smitten with blindness, at the prayer of the prophet, so that they suffered him to lead them into the very heart of Samaria,
;

The loss occasioned by this flight, added to former disasters, put an end to the pretensions of Ben-hadad towards the land of Israel, so that he made no more attempts upon it and we hear no more of Syria, or its sovereign, till about seven years afterwards, rj u Per. 3829.
; l.

when Ben-hadad, being

his

ill,

sent

<

A. M.

3119.

where, their eyes being again opened, they perceived that they were in the power of the king of Israel. Joram would have fallen upon but Elisha them, and put them to death desired that they might rather be hospitably entertained and refreshed after their journey
; ;

885. Hazael to meet (B.C. Elisha, then on his way to Damascus,(i) with a handsome present of 40 camels' load of the most choice commodities of his kingdom, and a very respectful message, in which he styled the prophet his father, to inquire if he should recover ? This Hazael had been many years

servant

in all the earth,

but

in Israel."

He
;

also

begged two mule-

(f)

2 Kings,
is

vi.

2430.
conjecture

loads of earth, wherewith to erect an altar in his own country, and craved the prophet's to the true God, as some think excuse for going into the house of Rimmon with his sovereign, and bowing down there as his office required. To which the " Go in prophet gave him the laconic answer of peace."* Bishop Patrick observes, that this is the only cure of a leprosy that we read of, till Christ, the great prophet, came
into the world.f (d)

(g) It

difficult to

who

these kings of the

suppose the Canaanitish Hittites, who escaped the sword of Joshua, and the bondage of Solomon, had retired to the Arabian desert, and dwelt there. Josephus calls them kings of the islands.* 2 Kings, vii. passim. (h)
Hittites

could

be

unless

we

1 Kings,
t

xxii.

137.
v.

(e)

2 Kings,

vi.

823.

(i) See Joseph. 2 Kinfjs, viii. 7.

Antiq.

lib.

ix.

cap. 2.

Patrick upon
x.

* 2 19. Kings, v. 1 Patrick upon 2 Kings,

*
14.

Antiq. lib. ix. cap. 2.

vii.

See also Patrick upon 1 Kings,

29.

Cleric, in

2 Keg.

6.

568

HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT SYRIANS.

[CHAP. ix.

before anointed by the prophet Elijah, (j) but, from what follows, he appears either to have forgotten the circumstance, or not fully to have

When Hazael met its import. he delivered the presents, and his prophet, message; to which Elisha replied, that the he surely die. li'iu'g might recover; yet should He then fixed his eyes upon Hazael so stedand the fastly, that the Syrian was abashed, burst into tears. Hazael, surprised, prophet
comprehended
th<-

him the Syrian monarchy arose to its highest The first hostilities between him and pitch. the Israelites were excited by a league between Joram, king of Israel, and Ahaziah, king of
Judah,

who

united

their

forces

to

wrest

inquired
;

the

cause

of

this

extraordinary

emotion and was answered by Elisha, that he foresaw the great evils he would inflict upon the Israelites that he should burn their
;

strong holds, slay their 'young men with the sword, dash the children on the ground, and Hazael cruelly abuse and murder the women. remonstrated upon this ; observing that he was not a dog, to be capable of such inhuman actions, neither was he possessed of authority sufficient To all this to do it, were he so inclined. Elisha simply replied, that the Lord had shewn him that he should certainly be king-

Ramoth-Gilead out of his hands. In this they were successful, though Joram was dangerBut Hazael took ample ously wounded.(m) for he invaded both Judah and revenge Israel, at a time, too, when they were distracted by internal dissensions, and pursued them almost to destruction. He began with Jehu, (who, having murdered Joram, and all the family of Ahab, had placed himself on the throne of Israel,) subdued all that belonged to Israel on the east of Jordan ;(n) and, in his
;

rage, punctually fulfilled all that the prophet

had predicted. (o)

success, he also the son of Jehu,

With the same fury and waged war upon Jehoahaz.

i.

till he had left rj u Per. him but 50 cavalry, 10 chariots, -?A.M. and 10,000 infantry; the rest C.B.C.

3858. 3148. 850.

having

over Syria.

Of the previous habits and disposition of Hazael, we are not informed but, if he were not before ambitious of the throne, he was now determined to take it by violence for, on his
;
:

Ben-hadad, he told him that the prophet had said, he should recover of his sickness; but, on the morrow, he stifled the unsuspecting monarch, by covering his face with a thick cloth, dipped in water, and placed himself on the vacant throne. (k) After his Ben-hadad was ranked among the gods, death, and honoured with divine worship. (1) As the prophet had foretold, Hazael proved a scourge, in the hand of God, to chastise the and under kingdoms of Israel and Judah
return to
;

perished in battle, or been taken prisoners by Hazael, who, as it is strongly " made them like the dust expressed, by threshing :"(p) and he oppressed the Israelites all his days.(q) Hazael next turned his arms against Joash, or Jehoash, king of Judah, and after several successful attacks upon other places, at last

made himself master

of Gath,(r)

rj u l.

Per. 3874.

once the seat of the Philistine ^A.M. 3164. B. C. 840. kings, but now possessed by the C He next meditated an house of David. attempt upon Jerusalem ; but was diverted from it by the rich presents sent to him by Joash, who ransacked the temple and palace
of all their treasures for that purpose. (s) But the tranquillity produced by such means is
by much too young. Josephust speaks of stately temples erected by Ben-hadad in his lifetime ; and Nicholas oi Damascus]] declares, that Arathis was older than Abraham.

The prophet had anointed Hazael (j) 1 Kings, xix. lo. towards the close of the reign of Ben-hadad I. one or two and twenty years prioi l<> Ilie period in question but the ambition of Ben-hadud II. had so long withheld him from the throne to which he had been divinely appointed. This, added to his blasphemy of the power of the God of Israel, may account for the singular disasters of Ben-hadad's reign. 1-J. (k) 2 Kings, viii. 7 (1) Sir Isaac Newton* considers this Ben-liadad and his queen, to be the Damascus who founded the ritv railed after him, and Arathis, whose tomb, according; to .Iii-tin,t was
;

The

apotheosis of Ben-hadad seems to have arisen from the policy of Hazael, who, as the senators did by Romulus, concealed both the circumstances of his death, and the body and then gave out that he had vanished itself;

suddenly,

and must therefore be honoured as a god. (in) 2 Kings, viii. 28. ix. 14. (n) 2 Kinys, \. 32, 33.
(o)

n-ligiously frequented thfir principal deity.

Sliyrt Chronol. p. 32. cap. 1.

by the Syrians, who con>idered her as But this makes the theology of Syria
t

(p)
(T)
.:

Joseph. Antiq. lib. 2 Kinys, xiii. 3, 7.

Ibid.
(

ix.

cap. 8.
(q) Ibid. 22, et seq. (s) Ibid. 18.

xii.

17.
C/iro>i.

Lib. xxxvi. cap. 2.

s.

Newton's

AIII'KJ, lib. ix.

of Ancient Kingdoms tmtnied, p. 2S2.

lib.
ii.

)|

Apud

Joseph. Antiq,

cap. 6.

SECT. IV.]

KINGS OF DAMASCUS.
nothing
reign,
Israel,
is

and accordingly ; Hazael, very shortly afterwards, bent upon reducing the capital of Judah, and sendThis party is ing an army with that intent. said to have been very small ; yet expressly was it sufficient to prevail against the host Jerusalem was plundered, all the of Joash Jnl. Per. 3875. princes of the people there were 3165. > slain, and the spoil was sent to A. M.
seldom of long continuance
find

known

till

towards the close of his

to

we

when he joined with Pekah, king of

in

a design

depose rj u
to the to
set

l.

Per. 3972.

acceded kingdom of Judah, and

Ah;iz, then just

<A.M. 1 B -C.

3262. 742.

linear succession of David, and place a stranger, the son of one Tabeal, on the

aside the
throne.(x)

~)

B. C.

839. )

Hazael, at Damascus. (t)

During

force against the capital of Judah, Hazael is supposed to have employed another division in the seizure of Elath, on the Red Sea.(u) He did not, however, long survive these conquests, by which he nearly, or quite, realized the projects

this expedition of a part of his

They besieged Ahaz, in Jerusalem, without success, and were obliged to desist. Rezin, however, recovered Elath,, drove away the Jews, and planted there a Syrian colony, which subsisted many years after the subversion of the parent state.(y) The next year, Rezin and Pekah divided
but
their forces against Ahaz into three bodies, with a design to distract his attention by invading him from three several quarters at

of his predecessor and after his death, he was deified by his superstitious subjects. Ben-hadad III. son and successor of Hazael, had not long enjoyed the throne, before he
;

once.
for

Rezin succeeded well with his division, he loaded his army with spoils, and led
multitudes of captives to Damascus, to> to enjoy the fruits of

away

experienced a total reverse of his father's

Jul. Per. 3878. )

for-

which place he returned

his expedition.(z)

tune.

He was three times defeat-

ed by Joash, or Jehoash, son of B.C. 836.) Jehoahaz, king of Israel, and lost all that his father had wrested from that nation. (v) Azariah, king of Judah, also recovered Elath
A. M.
3108. >
;

But most fatal were the consequences of this success both to Rezin and his kingdom for
:

while Jeroboam II. son of Joash, restored to Israel all the coast from Hamath, together with the city of Damascus. (w) So much indeed was the power of Syria reduced at this time,
that
it

is

supposed Ben-hadad became

tribu-

On the death of this king tary to Jeroboam. of Israel, the Syrians recovered somewhat of their independence during the distractions consequent upon an interregnum among their enemies. They regained Damascus, their
efforts

Ahaz, grown desperate, and seeking only to be avenged, at any price, collected rj u Per. 3973. all the treasure that was in the < A. M. 3263. ' B c 741. and in the royal palace, temple, and sent it to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, to induce him to turn his forces against Rezin. His request was listened to Syria was invaded by the Assyrians; Rezin was slain, and the people of Damascus were carried away captives, and transplanted to Kir,(a) as had been foretold by the prophet Amos.(b) The monarchy of the ancient Syrians being
l.
-

and were perhaps assisted in their by Pul, founder of the second Assyrian monarchy, into which that of Syria ultimately merged.
capital,

Of
(t)

Rezin,

the

last

of

the Syrian kings,

thus abolished, the country passed successively under the yoke of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks, by which last it was once more made the seat of empire, as will appear in due time.
had subdued

dition of this
(u)
(v)

2 Chron. xxiv. 23, 24. Josephus makes but one expeand the former. See Patrick on 2 Kings, xvi. 6. 2 Kings, xiii. 1419, 25. (w) Ibid. 25, 28.
vii.

the text from

whence Le Clerc, in his version, has altered 1N^ (LaARaM) the Aramites, or Syrians, to vW? (LCEDOM) the Edomites. Josephus agrees with our
it
:

(x) Isaiah, (y)

English reading, saying,

in Elath."
(z)

" Rezin planted a colony of Syrians

9.

9.

that the

2 Kings, xvi. 6. The Septuagint and Vulgate say, Edomites took possession of this place, after Rezin

(b)

2 Chron. xxviii, 5. (a) 2 Kings, xvi. 7 Amos, i. 4, 5. See also Isaiah, xvii. 1 3>

VOL.

I.

570

HISTORY OF CANAAN.

[CHAP. x.

CHAPTER

X.

HISTORY OF CANAAN, PRIOR TO ITS CONQUEST BY THE ISRAELITES.

.SECTION

I.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. NAMES. BOUNDARIES, AND SITUATION,

EXTENT.
DIVISIONS.
CITIES.
fertile spot,

NAMES.

THIS

once happy and

the peculiar object of the Divine complacency, was at first called lite land of Canaan, or Chanaan, from the grandson of Noah, in the line of Ham, whose posterity originally occupied it : but it has since been distinguished by Other names ; as the Land of Promise, from
its

Iduma, or Idumaea, Syro-Phcenicia, or Phoenicia, or Phcenice probably out of contempt of the Jewish nation, whom they did not account worthy to be distinguished by any but the most common names of the chief provinces in their vicinity, of which they looked upon them as only an inconsiderable portion.
syria,
;

SITUATION, BOUNDARIES, AND EXTENT.

The Jews, from

a particular veneration for so celebrated a spot, or rather from some mistaken inference from certain passages of the

haying been

promised

to

Abraham and
Israel,

his descendants; the

Land of

from

its

being possessed by the Israelites ; the Holy Land, from its having been the seat of the true religion, while all the world besides was sunk in idolatry and superstition as also from its having been the scene of our Lord's life, sufferings, death, and resurrection, and the
;

spot where Christianity was first planted to spread like a fruitful vine, over the rest of the earth ; and hence, by way of pre-eminence, it is sometimes called emphatically The Land.
,

It

has also been- denominated Palestine, from

the Palestine*, or Philistines, who possessed a considerable part of it, which name still prevails among Christian and Mohammedan After the return of the Jews from the writers.

Babylonish captivity,

it

began

to

be called.

Judca, from Judah, the name of the tribe and kingdom to which the returning captives

mostly belonged, and who settling at first at Jerusalem and the adjacent country, by degrees spread themselves throughout the whole land, and with them extended their new name of Besides Jclaidah, or Jctiudhn, to all the rest. these names, we frequently find it called by profane authors, Syria, Palestioa-Syria, Ccclo(c)

prophets, in which Jerusalem is said to have been seated by the Almighty, in the midst (or, as the Hebrew figuratively terms it, the navel) of the earth, &c. have supposed this country to be in the very heart of all nations, and the Its western boundary centre of the world. (c) was the Great Sea, or Mediterranean on the north, it had the mountains of Lebanon, or rather of Antilibanus, and the province of Phcenice on the east, the Samachonite Lake, the Lake of Chinnereth, or Sea of Galilee or of Tiberias, the river Jordan, and the Dead or Salt Sea, or Lake Asphaltites; and on the south the country of Edom, or Idumea, and Amalek, from the former of which it was separated by a ridge of high mountains, called Montes Acrabbim, or Hills of the Scorpions. Such appear to have been the limits of what is properly termed the Land of Promise; but, besides the tract above described, the land of the Amorites on the east of Jordan is generally included in Canaan, it having, at a very early period, been taken possession of by the sons of Canaan, from whom it was wrested by the Israelites prior to their conquests on the west of the river. The extent of this country is stated, at from 170, or 180, to -J10 variously miles in length, that is, from Dan, in the north,
; ;

See before, jKipf 531, note

(e).

The Athenians and

Dduhians ran

into a similar conceit as to their respective

countries; and the Chinese sively to themselves.

still

insist that

it

belongs exclu-

SECT.

I.]

DIVISION.
;

ANCIENT TRIBES.
others, who wen- more powerful; or it have been occasioned by foreign migrations. Among these seven last-named tribes, was the land of Canaan divided the Hittites dwelt in the south, about Hebron, quite to Beersheba, and the brook Besor, reckoned by Moses as
.

and from 80 to 90 broadest part, from east to west, narrowing towards the north to about The best maps, however, of this 10 miles. country, are little better than speculative; the negligence of its present occupiers, the Turks, and their jealousy of any attempts of
to Beersheba, in the south
in
its

miles

foreigners to make a regular survey, being insuperable difficulties in the way of an accurate

description: this, added to the extinction many of the ancient places, has given rise nearly as great a variety of maps of Canaan, there have been writers on its history, and all

of
to as

of

them
It
it

differing materially from each other.(d) would, therefore, be useless to look for, as would be arrogant to affect, a minute defini-

the southern limits of Canaan to the south of them, were the Avim ; (whose country w;ts afterwards possessed by the Philistines)(g) the Horim, (who were dispossessed by the Edomites)(h); and the Anakim, a gigantic race.(i) North of the Hittites, nearest the Jordan, were the Jebusites ; and on their west, were the Hivites, who also had possessions among the Kadmonites on the east of Jordan. South of the Hivites, and west of the Hittites, the
:

tion of the extent of this country.

DIVISION. In the first notice given by Moses, of the tribes who occupied the Land of Promise, ten nations are numbered, viz. the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Kephaim, Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Jebusites ;(e) but when the Israelites, under Joshua, entered
viz.

Amorites appear to have had possessions, which were broken and occupied by the Philistines but whether this was the original
;

the country, only seven primary nations appear, the llittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, peculiarly so called.(f) The cause of this variation is not stated by the sacred writer, but it probably arose out of intestine wars, by which some of the first tribes were either destroyed, or incorporated witli
(d) In the maps of Canaan, given in this Work, D'Anville, and Dr. John Blair have been principally followed. (f ) Joshua, iii. 10. (e) Gen. xv. 1921. (h) Ibid. ii. 12, 22. (g) Deut. ii. 23. from whom these Avim, Horim, and (i) It is uncertain Anakim, were defived. Of the first we only know that they were driven from their primitive settlements by the Caphtorim, or Philistines ;* and that some of them remained unconquered There were also Avites, or in the latter days of Joshua.t Ivahites, among the people conquered by Shalmanezer and Sennacherib, by the latter of whom they were settled in the land of Israel;! but vhcther these were of the same race, is doubtful. The Horim, or Horites, from an expression of Moses, The Anaseem to have been a .branch of the Ilivite family. kim are supposed to have sprung from one Arba, who in very early times built the city called after himself,|| and whose descendant, Anak, with his three sons, Sheshai, Aliiman, and TalmailT formed a powerfid confederacy, whence the place obtained the name of )TOn (CHCBRON) or Hebron, from *on (CHeBaR) to associate. It is to be observed, howDeut.
ii.

settlement of the Amorites, or only a colony from the more considerable part of that tribe on the east of Jordan, it is impossible to determine. North of the Jebusites and Hivites, were the Perizzites ; and to the north of them, the Canaanites peculiarly so called. These seven nations were subdivided into a multitude of petty kingdoms, and probably some republics of the former, 31 were included within the compass of Joshua's conquests in the space of six years ;(j) of the latter, we read only of the Gibeonites;(k) but the fact of that people living under the oligarchical form, warrants an
:

ever, that JOIN r\'~\p (KIRYOTH ARBA) signifies literally the city of the four, which throws considerable difficulty in the way of the foregoing supposition, and has given rise to several absurd notions, some of which have been noticed
in a

former page.** As to the expression of Joshua, chap, " the city of Arba, the father of Anak," it is only parallel with many others, .where, according to the Hebrew idiom, persons are called fathers and sens of places.^ The term Anak was a title of high antiquity, and seems to have been originally appropriated to persons of great strength and
xv. 13,
;

stature; and accordingly we find the Anakim represented by Moses as giants JJ and Pausanias describes Asterion, whose tomb is said to have been discovered in the isle Lade, before Miletus, as a son of Ariak, of enormous size. Necho,

Nacho,

A ec?<s,and Negus, which, in the Egyptian and Ethiopia

signify

tongues,

king,

were probably abbre\iations of

Anaco and Anachus, sometimes expressed Naclti, or Nacchi, as Kacki Rustan, the prince Rustan, who built Pcrsepolis.
24. (j) Joshua, xii. 9 (k) Ibid. ix. 3, et seq.
tt
1

23.

Joshua,
2,

xiii. 3.

$ Cump. Gen. ixxvi. Zibenii," &c.

I

" Zibcon the Hmte," with

'.'

huijs, xvii. 24, 31. xviii. .it. " err. 20, sons oi Scir
22.

Conip.
ii.

Dtiif.

iii.

15.

Josh. xvii.

1.

Chron.

ii.

21,

3.

See also

C/irmi.
}t

Joshua, xir. 15. XT. 13. See before, nole (v) p. 344.

K Kumb.

xiii.

Jothua, xv. 13, 11.

Deut. ii. 11. ix. if. Paus. lib. i. p. 87. See also Cic. De Plutarch. iVama.

50 54. Knmb. xiii. 5j.

.Yaf.

Dtor.

lib. iii.

Anaccs

and

D2

575
inference, that other

HISTORY OF CANAAN.
commonwealths existed

[CHAP. x.

among; them. CITIES. In the division of the Hittites, 1. Geder, 2. Jannuth, .3. Adullam, 4. Bezek, 7. Ziph [Zop/i], 6. Libnah, 5. Makkedah, 8. Hebron, or Kirjath-Arba [Cabr-ltu-ahim, or Tomb of Abraham] where that patriarch long resided, Sarah died, Isaac lived most of his days, and all three were buried in its vicinity :(1) it is said to have been built seven years before Zoan, in Egypt,(m) and is also remarkable for having been the beginning of David's kingdom, who reigned there seven years and a half, prior to his accession to the throne of Israel :(n) 9. Debir; 10. Gerar, Gerara, or Hormah, where Sarah was taken from her husband by Abimelech, but restored, on that prince being warned ofGod;(o) 1 1 Arad, whose king attacked the Israelites, on their approach towards Canaan, for which himself and all his subjects were devoted to utter destruction (p) 12. Cain, which, with Bela or Zoar, Sodom, Zebo'im, Admali, and Gomorrah, seem to have been of Cuthean origin, and to have belonged to the Anakiin rather than to the Hittites: the catastrophe of the four last-named cities has been
.

but which was subsequently taken by stratagem, and destroyed.(x) 5. Ilepher; <J. Lu/, or Beth-el, where Jacob had his vision of the

Gibeon, whose and saved their imposed upon Joshua, lives at the expense of their liberty :(z) the cities of Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjathjearim, were either subject to the Gibeonites, or were free republics in league with them. They joined in the artifice, and underwent the
1.

mysterious ladder.(y) In the land of the Hivites:

citizens

same
4.

fate
2.

of being

slavery.

Gezer;
;

Tappuah

5.

to perpetual La-sharon, or Sharon; Shechem, Sichem, or Sychar

3.

condemned

Naplouse], where Dinah was to the assassination of all the male inhabitants by Simeon and Levi.(a) Near this city was Jacob's well, where our Lord had a memorable conference with a woman of Samaria.(b) In a portion of the land of the Amorites, enclosed between the Hittites and the Philis[Neapolis,
defiled,

or

which led

tines,

were Lachish and Eglon

and

in

another

portion belonging to the

sea-coast,

on the were Joppa [Jaffa] and Ajalon.

tribe,

same

In the
1.

territories

of the

Perizzites
2.

were,

already noticed.(q) In the portion of the Jebusites were, 1. Jebus, or Jerusalem [Beit-el- Makdes, or KadsS/ieriJ], a very ancient city, built, according
to Manetho, by the Hyc-sos, upon their expulsion from Egypt ;(r) the king of Jerusalem was one of those destroyed by Joshua,(s) but the Israelites were not able to expel the natives till the time of David, who made it. the capital of his dominions,(t) as will more fully appear in its proper place. 2. Ephrath, or Bethlehem, where Rachel died,(u) and our Lord Jesus Christ was born.(v) 3. Jericho [Eri/ta], the
first

Jokneatn; 3, Taanach 4. Aphek, where 27,000 of Benhadad's troops were killed by the falling down
[Tai-toura],
;

Dor

a seaport;

of a wall;(c) 5. Jezreel [Esdrelon], near which Naboth's vineyard was situated ;(d) 6, Megiddo,

where Josiah was

Necho;(e)
6.

slain in battle

by Pharach-

city taken by the Israelites after they had crossed the Jordan ; or rather the first city delivered into their hands, the walls falling down before them by a supernatural agency.(w) 4. Ai, or Hai, where the Israelites were smitten on account of Achan's transgression ;

Tirzah. In the division of the Canaanites, or Galilee of the Gentiles, were, 1. Madon; 2. Laish, or Leshem, the capital of a district, which appears to have originally belonged to the Sidonians ;(f) but being at a distance from the parent state, it became an easy conquest to the Danites, when in quest of additional territories they destroyed the inhabitants, burnt the city, and built another upon, or near its site, and called it Dan. It stood between two rivulets, formed the springs of the Jordan, at the foot of by
:

mount Panium, and was,

(v)

in after times,

known

(1)

Gen.

xiii.

(m) Numb.
(o) (p)
(s)

xiii.

18. xiv. 13. 22.

3.

xxiii. 2,

19, 20. xxv. 0. xxxv. 29.

Micah,

v. 2.
vi.

Matt.

ii.

1.

Luke,

ii.

4, ct sctj.

(n)

2 Sam.

v. 5.

Gen. xx. passim.

Numb.
Joshua,

xxi. 1

(q) See before, p. 342.

x.

(r) Ibid. p.

436, 488.
v.

(x) Joshua, vii. viii. 1 passim. 22. (y) Gen. xxviii. 10 (z) Joshua, i.\. 327. 42. (a) Gen. xxxiv. passim. (b) John, iv. 1 See before, p. 665. (c) 1 Kings, xx. 30.

(w) Joshua,

29.

23. xi. 10. (t) Comp. Josh. xv. 03. Judges, i.-21. /u) Gen. xxxv. 10 19.

and 2 Sam.

69.

(d) 1
(e) (f)

Kings, xxi. 1, et.seq. 2 Kings, xxiii. 29. 2 Chron. xxxv. 20 Joshua, six. 47. Judges, xviii. 7, 28.

i.

SECT,

ii.]

CLIMATE.

SOIL.

FERTILITY.

VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS.
which the
Israelites

573

by the name of Casarea-Paneas, CtesareaC'eesarea Philiaiiias. Ctesnrea-'Beiinas, and 3. Hazor, near the waters of Merom. lij>j)i.(g) a city of the Tyrians. 4. Kedesh [Kadas], 5. Ach-shaph 0. Accho [Ptolcmcm, or Acre],
;

a celebrated seaport. 7. Shimron-meron. These were the chief cities of the Canaanites, and their brethren, prior to the settlement of the Israelites: other places will be noticed in the description of the country, as divided by Joshua among the 12 tribes.

found to be literally from the report of the appears pusillanimous spies, and from the fruit they brought as a specimen of the rest.(j) It even exceeded the so much celebrated land of Egypt, especially in the vast numbers of cattle,
All
true, as plainly

SECTION

II.

NATURAL HISTORY OF CANAAN. CLIMATE. VEGETABLE PRODUCSOIL. FERTILITY.

TIONS.TAINS.

SEAS CURIOSITIES.

SALT. 'MOUNCATTLE. FISH. FORESTS. DESERTS. VALLEYS. NATURAL RIVERS. AND LAKES.
-

CLIMATE.
this country,
is

The

temperature of the air in

and small, which it bred, and in the excellency of its oil, wine, and other fruits. The bread of Jerusalem was preferred above all other, and such plenty was there, that, besides what sufficed for the inhabitants, who made it their chief sustenance, Solomon could afford to send 20,000 cors, or measures, of wheat, and 20 measures of oil, yearly, to Hiram, king of Tyre,(k) besides what was exported to other countries. And even so late as the days of Herod Agrippa, the inhabitants of Tyre, Sidon, and their dependencies, received most of their supplies from his Since the country has groaned tetrarchy.(l) under the despotism of Turkish indolence, it has become as remarkable for its naked and
large
ste-ile

climates, to excessive

which lies under the 4th and 5th most excellent, being subject neither
heat
is

appearance, as luxuriant fertility .(m)

it

formerly was for

itg

longest day are regular, and

The nor extreme cold. about 14s hours. Its seasons

vegetation is promoted by called in Scripture the former periodical rains, and the latter rains.

SOIL.

This

is

naturally

fat

and

rich,

dung nor manure, and could be opened with a small plough drawn by a It is, however, shallow, single yoke of oxen. and lies upon a rocky bed. When the winter rains occur, every thing springs up in abundance, and the earth retains moisture sufficient for the growth of grain and vegetables during
requiring neither

the summer.(h)

FERTILITY. This country is described by Moses, prior to the entrance of the Israelites, as "a laud flowing with milk and honey; a lantl of brooks and waters; of fountains and depths, springing out of the valleys and hills a land of wheat and barley, of vines, ligs, and pomegranates of oil, olives, and honey a land in which is no scarcity of any thing, whose stones, or rocks, are iron, and from whose mountains brass might be digged. "(i)
;
; ;

VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. Besides corn, the fruits of this country were in great request among foreign nations the oil and olives of Canaan were sent by the Israelites into Egypt; and the present of Jacob to his son Joseph, the supposed haughty lord of the latter country, consisting of honey, spices, myrrh, almonds, and other fruits of Palestine,(n) afford a presumptive evidence that they must have been much better than those produced in Egypt. The wines of Gaza, Askelon, and Sarepta, were in request among the most remote countries ;(o) such as vyas made in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, in great quantities, was equal, if not superior, to any other ;(p) and that of Libanus was no less celebrated for its excellent flavour.(q) The vines yielded grapes of delicious flavour, and extraordinary size, twice, and sometimes thrice, in a year ; great quantities of which were dried, and preserved for use, as were likewise the figs, plums, and other fruits. The palm-tree, and its dates, were in no less request than the grapes and their wine: the plains of Jericho, among other
:

D'Anville places Ciesarta

1'liilippi

three leagues east of

viii. 7, f-t
<</.

(It

Act*,

xii.

20.

Dan.
(h)

(n)

Gen.

xliii.

11.
.7.

(m) Dr. Shaw's Travels, p. 365, etseq. See also Bochart. Phaleg.
(p) Joseph. Antig.

Volney.
23, etseg.

(i)

Dent.

(o)
(q)

Reland.

(j) jVtcm6..xiii.

(k) 1

Kings,

v. 11.

Hosea,

xiv.

674

HISTORY OF CANAAN.
flavour.

[CHAP. x.
so abundant,
that

for the great plenty places, were remarkable fruit ; so much so, that and excellence of this of that district was called the the

Honey was

the

metropolis

city

of palm-trees.

But what rendered

this

as well as plain more particularly celebrated, of Canaan," was the shrub, whose other parts balsamic resin was esteemed so precious a

it, and the rocks dripped with it; but whether the latter kind had been previously deposited there by the bees, or was produced some other way, is much disputed by travellers and naturalists. (s) Sugar-canes

MT\

trees distilled

Romans, Egyptians, drug among and other nations; and is to this very day
the Greeks,

of Balm of highly valued, under the name had likewise the greatest They Gilead.(r) in the highest pervariety of other fruit-trees, and which, in some sense, might be fection, deemed perennial, because they were not only covered with a constant verdure, but because the new buds always appeared on the same boughs before the former fruit was ripe and of those buds which were in too great quantities
;

were also cultivated in Palestine, together with The vicinity of mount cotton, hemp, and flax. Lebanon made cedars, cypresses, and other stately and fragrant trees, common in most parts of the land, especially about Jerusalem. CATTLE, large and small, were bred in vast,

for all to arrive at maturity, enough were and preserves, pargathered to make pickles of the citrons, oranges, and apples of ticularly Paradise, which latter hung by hundreds in a
cluster, as big as hens' eggs,
(r)

and the hilly countries not only ; afforded them variety and plenty of pasture, but also of water, which descended thence into the valleys and low lands, fertilizing all their course, in addition to several other rivers and brooks, which will be noticed in due order. The most fertile pasture-grounds were those on the banks of Jordan, besides those of Sharon, (t) or Sarona, the plains of Lydda,
numbers
Jamnia, and some others. FISH. The rivers just alluded
other parts, have so
terfeiting
(s)
it,

and of excellent

to,

the lake

Theophrastus, speaking of

this

remarkable shrub, only

it grew in some valley of Syria ;* but says, generally, that Justin, Josepiius, Strabo, and others, say expressly, that it in Judea ; the former of them names the valley or plain

many ways of adulterating, and even counreputation is now of little consequence. This wild honey, /j.&i a.y^i, which John Baptist made
that
its

of Hiericho.t which, he adds, was surrounded with mounJosetains as with a wall, and extended about 200 acres. to insinuate that it was brought into the country plius appears by the Queen of Sheba, among other valuable presents to King Solomon and that the country whence it was brought, had ceased to produce it.f But, from what we read of the presents sent by Jacob to the governor of Egypt, among which, this precious balm is proved by Bochart, Le Scene, and others, to have been included, it must have been of much earlier date in Canaan, if it were not really indigenous.
;

grew

part of his food,** and was in such plenty, in this country, that it dropped from the trees upon the ground,t't is supposed by Bochart to have been gathered by the bees, in the same manner as the common sort but Reland objects to this, quoting Diodorus and Pliny, who speak of another kind that dropped from the trees in Nabatea, Syria, &c. and was drunk by the inhabitants mixed with water; whence he concludes that this wild honey of Palestine was of the same description, and that it gave the air that delightful fragrancy spoken of
:

Indeed, several ancient writers, as Pliny, Dioscorides, and even Joseplius himself elsewhere, speak of it as peculiar to Palestine: to which may be added the testimony of Diodorus
Siculus and others, who state that it grew nowhere in the world but about En-geddi, and some other places in the On the other hand, Relancl, vicinity of the Dead Sea. Prosper Alpinus, and P. Bellonius, insist that all these writers were mistaken because the plants, or shrubs, that grow in Judea, yielding this rosin, are only to be found in gardens, and require much care and attendance whereas balsam of every sort, coming from Arabia, as from its native soil, is thence exported to other countries. Reland, however, gives both Joseplius and Dioscorides credit for speaking the truth, because plants that flourished 1700 years ago in one country, may, in length of time, be produced in others far
;
;
|

by Maundrell.JJ Without pretending to decide the question between these two writers, it may be observed, that in several parts of Asia, as well as of Europe and Africa, where bees are very numerous, they not being destroyed there as in England, they deposile their combs, not only in hollow trees, but between the branches, and in the crevices of rocks, and other such convenient places and this kind of honey is styled wild, to distinguish it from what is taken from the
;

dist.aiit.||

However

this

may

be,

it is

certain that very

little

of this balm is now produced in Palestine ; while Arabia and even Egypt, but especially the former, have it in great abundance. But the merchants, who bring it from Mecca and
Theophrast. Hist. Plant,
t

The Abbe Bossier des Sauvages, in a memoir read before tlie Scientific Society of Montpellier, describes a kind of honey, which he calls honey-dew, as exuding spontaneously from the old leaves of the holm oak ; and another kind produced by a small insect called the eikefretter; both which the bees are very assiduous in collecting, preWhether any, or all ferably to that procured from flowers. of these means, may have concurred to produce the effect mentioned in the text, it is impossible to determine ; the phenomenon having ceased with the fertility, or rather the cultivation, of the land. (t) Several places are mentioned in Scripture by the name of Sharon, or Sarona, as being remarkable for their fertility : and
hives.
** Mutt. iii. 4. }f KelaDd. Fu((in.
||

lib. ix.

cap. 6.
Lib.
ii.

Reload.

Pu/fsf/7j. lliustrat.

cup.
i.

vii.

Justin, lib. xxxvii.

tt

1 Sam. xiv. 25, 26.

Antuj. lib. ix. cap. 1.

cap. 48.

lllustr. lib.

cap. 57.

16

SECT.

II.]

SH.

SALT.

MOUNTAINS.
western

575

Tiberias, and the Great Sea (or Mediterranean,) afford plenty and variety of this kind Great quantities were brought to of food. Jerusalem (whence one of the gates of that metropolis obtained the name of the Jish gate,}
still

northward towards Laodicea Cabiosa.(w) The

ridge is properly what is called Libanus, as the eastern is Antilibanus, and Several the hollow between is Culosyria. considerable rivers have their sources in these mountains, as the Jordan, the Rochain, the JNahar-Hossian, and the Nahar-Cadicha: but Besides the first only runs through Palestine. of less consideration, these, many others, run between the valleys, particularly that of

and contributed in a considerable degree to the subsistence of the inhabitants.(u) SALT. The lake Asphaltites, or the Dead Sea, yielded abundance of this article, with which the inhabitants seasoned and preserved
their fish
to
:

and Galen

affirms

it

to

be preferable

Abouali, which flows

down

into

what

is

called

any other

for wholesomeriess, digestion,

and

penetration.

The highest and most conmountains of of these are the so frequently celebrated in the Lebanon, sacred writings, and by other authors, ancient and modern, tinder the names of Libanus and Antilibanus. This celebrated chain, or mass, divides Palestine from Syria, in the history of which last country, we have given a pretty long account of them, as well as of the cedars growing upon them, to which the reader is Jerom, Eusebius, and others of referred.(v) the Fathers, describe the Libanus and Antilibanus as a continued ridge winding about in the form of a horse-shoe, which, beginning about three or four leagues from the shore of the Mediterranean, a little above Smyrna, runs southwards toward Sidon, and there taking an easterly direction towards Damascus, bends
MOUNTAINS.
siderable
the prophet Isaiah accordingly uses the word to designate These places areas follow: 1. The territory fruitfulness.* between mount Tabor and the sea of Genesereth ;t 2. Between Caesarea-Palej-tina and Joppa;{ 3. A canton beyond Jordan, in the kingdom of Bashan, afterwards the tribe of Gad though Rcland denies this, and supposes, perhaps ,\iilioiit sufficient ground, that the Gadites led Iheir flocks as far as the neighbourhood of J op pa, C-.csarea, and Lydda, \\liith he takes to be the Sharon alluded to in the passage
:

the Romantic Valley, from its being surrounded on all sides with high rocks. This river runs with a rapid course, making a great noise, but is so covered with trees as to be scarcely visible. All these streams, in coming down from such heights, form several beautiful cascades.

Next

in dignity, for height, is

which, snow, and

like

mount Hermon, Lebanon, appears capped with once had a celebrated temple,

resorted to by the superstitious heathens the surrounding countries.(x) By the it has been rendered memorable for Psalmist, its refreshing dews, which descended on the Considerable adjoining hills of Zion. (y) has arisen as to the situation of this difficulty mountain, so as to reconcile it with what is said of it in several places of the Old Testament. Jerom says it was above the Paneas, and that its snow was carried to Tyre, Sidon, &c. to cool the drink of the citizens and the

much
from

all

the west.

Lydda and Joppa, on the south and the Mediterranean on 3. The plains on the banks of the Jaazer, east
;

The roses of Sharon have ever been remarkable, since Solomon, in his Canticles, compared the spouse of the Church to them.' (u) Vide Reland. itbi supr. lib. i. cap. 57.
of Jordan.
(v)

See before,

p.

>"> t.

Achzib, or or Acre]. 5. A the the king of which place, was conquered by Josliua,|| if, indeed, this be not the same one being the district, the other the metropolis. with No. 2 (>. A place mentioned by St. Luke,1T in the vicinity of Lydda [called by the Greeks Dioapotit, and by the Arabs Lod] but this also seems to be part of the district included in No. 2. In fact, all the six places mentioned by travellers ;ni(l critics seem to resolve themselves into three onl\, ri.~.
last

((noted.

-\.

The

fertile

plains

between

Ecdippa

[Zili], called in

and

Acdio [Ptolcina/a, Hebrew La-sharon,

Euseb. On'tiitast. (w) Hieron. Loc. Hcbr. in voc. Antilib. in Li ban. It has been conjectured, that (x) Euseb. sub. voc. Atfpor. this idol-temple gave occasion to the name of the hill, which, in the Hebrew, signifies uiuitlirina, or a place de\otcd. The apocryphal book of Enoch, ft however, attributes it to another cause, and declares it to have been so called from the oath taken upon this mountain, by the sous of Clod, called by the writer, anrjels, or watchers, by which they bound themselves, under a curse, not to return to their abode lill they had accomplished their purpose of ravishing the But it is much more probable that it daughters of men.

1.

Between Ecdippa and tiie Torrent of Sharon on the north the Sr.i of Genesereth on the cist mount Tabor and the rivers Kishon on the south and the Mediterranean
; ; ;

had

its

name from some abominable

by the old inhabitants, destruction on that very account.

upon

it

whom God

superstitions practised devoted to

on the west.

2.

and
*
}

its

district

Between Ca-sarea on the north La-tharon on the east; the waters of Jarkon, between
;

(y)

Psalm
;

p.
||

74

See also Pococke's Travels, vol. cxx.xiii. :}. Cahnet, and other writers.
xii.
ii.

ii.

/'i. xxxi'ri. y.

xxxv.

2.

Eu-eb. and IIirr>n.

J.

Loc. Heb.sub loc.

Citron, v.
l(i.

Jashua,

18.

Acts,'i\.

Acts, ix. 35.

Hieron. in

Isai. xxxiii. y.

* Cant.

1.

Citp. 1.

576
Chaldee and
inonnl

HISTORY OF CANAAN.
of snow

[CHAP. x.

Samaritan copies style it t/tc but it is very uncertain :(z)

whether what is now shewn as mount Hennon, and is called by the Turks Jebel-sheiek, and anciently Panias, be really the same as that mentioned by Moses, Joshua, David, &c. Mr. Maundrell, indeed, adduces one proof in favour
identity, for he says the excessive dews on this mountain wetted the tents of himself and his companions as much as if it had rained

(SHION) to have been two different hills; the' place of which Maundrell speaks; but many writers think it obtained the name
)

this is

of

Hermon

in later times,

sion of

David

to the

and refer the expresmountains on the east

of Jordan.
in
is spoken of by the Psalmist conjunction with Hermon, not indeed as being contiguous, but opposite to it; whence it has been thought that the position of one, whose situation is known, must determine that of the other ; and that Hermon was opposite

Mount Tabor

of

its

all night. (a)

The Sidonians

called this

moun-

and the Amorites Shenir. (b) tain Sirioii, Moses, who speaks of Zion as making part of mount Hermon,(c) also describes Hermon as the northern boundary of the country beyond Jordan. (d) Joshua speaks of Baal-gad, in the valley of Lebanon, under mount Hermon ;(e) and of the Hivites, at the foot of that mounin the land of Mizpeh,(f) from Baaltain, Hermon, to the entering in of Hamath.(g)
is also described as belonging of Bashan,(h) and as being at the Og, king From northern extremity of his dominions. these quotations, it is clear that under the name of Hermon, some mountain on the which had east of Jordan was designated, several branches, one of which was called But these are Sirion, and another Shenir. not the hills now pointed out as the original Hermon ; for those spoken of by Maundrell are On the west of Jordan, in what was once There are not wanting the tribe of Issachar. authorities from the same Scriptures in favour of this last-mentioned mountain, which some have denominated the Lesser Hermon(\) thus, David says, "I will remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hennonites, from the

to

But this inference is by no means the Psalmist says " The north and definite the south, Thou hast created them Tabor and
Tabor.
:

Mount Hermon

name." (in) Here Tabor and Hennon are only a kind of prosopopoeia for the north and south ; and may be equally taken for Tabor, between Nazareth and the Lake of Genesereth, in the south, and the mountains of Baal-gad, on the east of
shall rejoice in thy

Hermon

to

Jordan, in the north ; or for Tabor in the north, and Jebel-sheiek, the supposed little Hermon,
But, leaving this controversy, for nothing satisfactory can be obtained, we proceed to a description of what is now usually called Mount Tabor, which has been rendered remarkable by a tradition, that, upon its sumin

the south.

mit, our tain has

Lord was
its

transfigured.

name from

the

This mounHebrew lawn

navel, on account of its form, a plain. In more recent times, it rising from, was called Itabyrium and Mons Atabyrius,(n) from a city of the same name built upon it,

(THABUR) the

is

where he seems to make a between the little hill and the great mount Hermon beyond Jordan to this little hill, therefore, some critics have applied what he says of the dews of Hermon descending upon mount Zion, though it hardly mends the matter, unless we suppose )v(k) (TZION) and
little

hill;"'(j)

distinction

and mentioned by Polybius.(o) This mountain justly admired for its beauty, regularity, fertility, and constant verdure, as well as for its situation in a large plain, at a distance from any other hill. Josephus describes it as 30 stadia, or furlongs, in height, and its plain, on the top, as about 26 stadia in compass, surrounded with walls, and inaccessible on the

He likewise hints at a citynorth side.(p) within the enclosure on the top, when he being
(n)

(z)

Ad

Deuteron.

iv.

48.
to Jerusalem, p. 57.
(d) Ibid,
(f)

The word
this

(a)

Journey from Aleppo (b) Deut. iii. 9.

(c) Ilrid. iv. 48. (e) Josh. xi. 17. (g) Jutlijfs, iii. 3.

which
8.

Atabvr, or Atabyr, signifies good pasture, mount, and others of the same name, iu Syria and

and

iii.

Ibid. ver. 3.

elsewhere, afforded.* On some medals, Jupiter is (o) Lib. v. cap. 70, et al. so many cities of that styled Atabyrius; but there were

(h) Joshua,
(i)

xii.

5. xiii. 11.
( j)

Sec Calmet. Diet.

Psalm
Dent.

xlii.

6,

Psalm cxxxiii. 3. <m) Psalm Ixxxix. 12.

(k)

wary,

(1)

iv.

48.

name in Phoenicia, Persia, Rhodes, Sicily, &c. that it is no* easy to prove from which of them he had that surname. (p) This account of its dimensions is much disputed by Maundrell says, he got to the top in less than later writers.
* Vid. timer. Owwnusf.
apuii Riland, ubi supra, cup. 51.

SECT.

II.]

MOUNTAINS. TABOR. CARMEL.

;

577

speaks of liis having surrounded it with walls for 40 days, during which time the inhabitants

when the town was a bishop's see but nothing now remains of it. On one part of the mount,
a convent of Benedictines ; and on another, one of Basilians, in which latter the Greeks also perform divine service on the festival above mentioned. Next to Tabor, mount Carmel claims attention. This mountain, or rather chain of mountains, projects with a bold headland into the sea, below Achshaph, and, extends eastward as far as the plains of Jezreel, and southward to Caesarea. Its name, Carmel, signifies the vine of God; a word used in the prophetic
is

had only rain-water

it

to drink.
<rre.at

He

adds, that

plain and Scythowhich plain must be understood of polis;(q) that spacious one at the foot of mount Carmel, extending around its north, east, and south

stands between the

rather than of that of Jezreel, or EsThis mountain has been resorted to, draelon. with pious devotion, by Christians of all ages, but without any sufficient grounds, since the Evangelists are silent as to the name of the hill which was the scene of the transfiguration. On other accounts, indeed, it is well worthy of the attention of travellers, for, besides the surprising verdure and fertility that it still enjoys, its summit gives one of the most delightful prospects that the imagination can conceive; especially of many places celebrated in holy writ such as the hills of Samaria and En-gedi, on the south ; those, of Gilboa and Hermon, on the north-east and east; the towns of Nain and En-dor at its foot ; and mount Carmel on the west. There is also a view of the Lake of Genesereth, the town of Saphet, and an exten Some remains of sive plain around its base. of the wall, built by Josephus, round the top, with some of its gates, are still visible ; and on the east side are the ruins of a strong castle. Within the cincture are three altars, in memory of the three tabernacles proposed by St. Peter in his extasy, where the Latin priests, or hermits, celebrate divine service on the feast of the transfiguration. On the side of the hill is a church in a grot, to which these pious visionaries pretend Christ retired, while He charged His disciples not to speak of His
sides,
;

writings to designate any fruitful spot, or a

tract

Josephus planted with fruit-trees.(r) places this mountain in Galilee,(s) though it rather belonged to the tribe of Manasseh, being situate on the south of Asher.(t) city built upon this mountain had also the name of Carmel, as had likewise a heathen deity wor-

shipped there, though without either temple or statue :(u) yet some temple must have been there, since lamblichus relates that this place

was the favourite retreat of Pythagoras, who spent much of his time in the temple, without any person with him.(v) But what has rendered it most celebrated, among both Jews and Christians, is, its having been the residence of Elijah, who is supposed to have lived in a cave there shewn, before he was translated to heaven. It was also the scene of the great contest between that prophet and the priests of Baal, when a miraculous fire
from heaven and consumed his sacrifice, astonishment and confusion of the A church and monastery were idolaters.(w) erected on this mountain in the early ages of Christianity, which having been almost destroyed by time and the fury of its enemies, a new one was afterwards erected through the zeal of a Calabrian priest, who, upon some
fell

to

the

transfiguration

till

after

He was
to

risen.

The

Constantine the empress Helena, is said to have built a magnificent Great, church on this hill, which was a cathedral
;* Thevenot computed its height to be rather less than half a league, and adds, that some of his company ascended it on horseback ;t whence it should seem to be less abrupt in its acclivity than is commonly supposed, from its sugar-loaf figure. Pococke, who confirms both these accounts, says, it may be about two miles in height, allowing for its winding ascent : as to the plain at the top, he computes it at about half a mile in length, and nearly a quarter of a mile in breadth.; Volney says, the summit is two-thirds of a league in circumference.

mother

an hour

(r) Sandys says, that, when well cultivated, this mountain abounds in olives, vines, and a great variety of fruits and but Rauwolf and Thevenot herbs, medicinal and aromatic which is rather to be attrirepresent it as dry and barren buted to the indolence of its present possessors, than to any
:
;

inherent cause.
(s)
(t)

Joseph. Joshua,

De
xix.

Bell. lib.
><>.
ii.

iii.

cap. 2.

(u) Tacit. Hist. lib.

cap. 78.

See also Scyl. Cart/and,

xviii.

(q) Antiq. lib. iv. cap. 2.

De
t

Sell.

lib. v.

and Reland. ubi supr. lib. i. cap. 50. (w) 1 Kings, (v) Iambi, in Vit. Pythagor.
Trarels, vol.
ii.

passim.

* Maund. ubitup.

p. 113.

1'ayage

au Letml, paiti*

i.

(hp.

p. 64.

VOL.

I.

4 E

578

HISTORY OF CANAAN.

[CHAP. x.

pretence of revelation, drew to his fellowship about 10 others, and with them began to recover the veneration of the place ; and hence arose the order of the Carmelites,(x) which has since spread through all the Roman Catholic countries, and of whom a certain number still reside in this ancient monastery. Volney describes this mountain as about 2000 feet high. A purple dye, procured from a shell-fish caught along this part of the coast, bore the name of Carmel.(y) But that which claims our greatest regard is mount Olivet, or the mount of Olives, called by the Jews, the mount of unction, on account of the great quantities of oil made from the olives that grew uponit;(z) it stands about a mile east from Jerusalem, commanding a prospect of the whole city, from which it is separated by the brook Cedron, or Kidron, and the valley of Jehoshaphat, which stretches out from north to south. Upon this mount, Solomon, in his dotage, built temples to the deities of the Ammonites and Moabites, out of complaisance to his strange wives (a) whence it obtained the name of the mount of corruption.^ Josephus describes this mountain as at the distance of 5 stadia from Jerusalem, which make 625 geometrical paces ; or
, :

Uzziah, the mount of Olives was so shaken by an earthquake, that half of the earth, on the west, fell down, and rolled about four furlongs, or 500 paces, towards the mountain opposite to it on the east, so as to block up the highways, and cover the King's gardens. Maundrell says, that, going out of Jerusalem by St. Stephen's gate, and crossing the valley of Jehoshaphat, he began immediately to ascend the mountain about two-thirds of the way up, were certain grottoes, cut with intricate windings and caverns under ground,
;

which were called the sepulchres of the prophets; little higher up, were twelve arched subterraneous vaults, standing side by side, and built in

a sabbath-day's journey,

where Christ mounted the ass where He over Jerusalem, kc. which are still visited wept
;

according to St. It has three summits, or, rather, Luke.(c) consists of three several mountains, (Pococke says four)(d) ranging from north to south. From the middle summit, our Lord ascended to heaven and certain marks upon the rock are still shewn, Avhich are said to be the prints of His feet. Upon the southern apex, Solomon erected his idol temples but the northern summit, which is two furlongs distant from the middlemost, is the highest, and is commonly called the mount of Galilee, where are shewn some places mentioned in the Gospels such as
;
;
:

of the apostles, who are said to have compiled their Creed in this place. Sixty paces higher, he arrived at the place where Christ uttered His prophecy of the desolation of Jerusalem ; somewhat higher, he found the cave of St. Pelagia ; and a little above, a pillar, denoting the place where the mother of our Lord, three days before her death, was warned by an angel of her approaching end and at the top of all, the place of our Lord's ascension. On this last spot was formerly a magnificent church, built by the empress Helena, in memory of the glorious event alluded to ; but all that now remains of it is only a Gothic

memory

by
(x)

Christians of

all

sorts.

In
cVc.

the reign of

octagonal cupola, about eight yards in diameter, and standing, as the monks affirm, over the very place where were set the last footstep:of the Son of God upon this lower world. Within is shewn, upon the hard rock, the print of one of His feet. This impression is about three inches deep in the rock, and exactly represents the reverse of the sole of a foot. These pious dreamers also say, that when the empress built the great church, she would have had it paved all over with fine marble; but when the workmen attempted to cover the prints(e) of our Saviour's feet, they found it impracticable, that place not suffering any thing to be laid upon it! they therefore left it unpaved,
2 Kings, xxiii. 13. Uhi supr. p. 28. were originally two of these extraorbut the monks say, one was rcmo\ed dinary impressions by the Turks into their great mosque on mount Moriah; or, as others think, it was removed by the Christians themselves in the time of the croisades, into their ^reut church, since turned into the mosque above mentioned, and which the Christians are not allowed to enter.
(a)

Maundrell, Pococke, Calmet,

1 Kings,

\\. 7.

(b)

(y) Bocliart. Hicroz. part. i. lib. ii. cap. 48, ct al. three (z) It was sometimes called the mount

of

lights,

(c) Acts, i. 12. (e) It seems there

;

(d)

because it was, figuratively, lighted on the west by the fire of the altar, and on the east by the rising sun, while it
oil to maintain a third lipht.* But this is a vain conceit; it more probahlv obtained this name from its three summits being illumined by the sun's early ravs, which give them the appearance of three distant lights.f

afforded

* Rdand. ubisupr. cap. 5?.

See Sand}

's

dc scriptiou of

this

mount

also

Calmef and

Pococke's.

SECT,

ii.]

MOUNTAINS. OLIVET. CALVARY. MORIAH. G1HON,

&c.

579

and built this canopy or chapel over it,(f) which is round within, and octagonal without.^) Pococke adds, that this chapel stands in the midst of a large enclosure, with some buildings about it; and that it is now converted into a mosque but that, on the eve of
;

Lord is supposed to have suffered, also covered the holy sepulchre.

and which

Ascension-day, the Christians repair to the place, and encamp in the court, where they perform a kind of parasceve for the approachThe Latins have here two ing solemnity. altars, and the Greeks, Copts, and Armenians, one each ;(h) but all sorts of Christians have access to the place all the year round, on paying a certain caphar, or tax. Mount Calvary, or Golgotha, is also held in the by Christians, on highest veneration account of our Saviour's crucifixion upon it.

Both names signify the place of a skull; but why such an appellation should have been
given to
tradition
it,

is

very uncertain.

The common

is,

that Adam's head was buried here

by Shem,
view that

after the

should be might be sprinkled upon that of the first, and so make him a partaker in the benefits of His Others have dedeath and resurrection. ( j) rived its names from its roundness, or resemblance to a human skull and some conceive that, being the place where criminals were put to death according to the Mosaic law, the skulls of the sufferers were scattered about, up and down the hill but this supposition is the precept of Moses, which enjoins opposed by the burial of a malefactor on the very day in This mount which he is put to death.(k) stood originally without the walls, on the west of Jerusalem but when Adrian rebuilt the he removed its site to the north-east of city, the old metropolis, so that mount Calvary was brought almost into the centre of the new town. This removal is more generally, but
; ;
:

flood, (i) witli a prophetic Christ, the second Adam, crucified on this mount, his blood

the celebrated of Solomon, stands south-east of Caltemple vary, having Millo on the west, so called from the filling up of that deep valley, in order to raise it to a level with the rest. The threshingfloor of Araunah was upon this mount,(l) originally so narrow as scarcely to contain the temple, but afterwards enlarged by ramparts, and surrounded with a triple wall. It may be considered as part of mount Sion, to which, in the days of Solomon and his successors, it was joined by a bridge and gallery or rather Moriah, Sion, and Acra, with even Calvary, were only so many distinct elevations of the same mountain. It was upon this mountain that Abraham offered up his son Isaac,(m) according to the more general opinion ;(n) though the Samaritans, by reading, in Genesis, March, instead of Moritth, have taken occasion to affirm, that it was on mount Gerizim, near
:

Mount Moriah, on which was

when

Shechem and Moreh, that this memorable transaction took place. (o) West of Jerusalem, and nearer to it than
Calvary, was mount Gihon, about two furlongs from the gate of Bethlehem, where Solomon was anointed king by Nathan and Zadok.(p) There was upon it a celebrated pool, whose waters were brought into the city by HezeIt is still said to be a stately reserkiah.(q) 106 paces long and 67 broad, lined with voir, a plastered wall.(r) Near the town of Shechem were mounts Ebal and Gerizim, (s) opposite to each other, and parted only by a narrow valley of about 200 paces the former is very barren, the latter fertile. It was on Gerizim that Moses ordered the blessing to be pronounced, and the curse on Ebal which was done accord:

ingly

by Joshua. (t)

On

Gerizim, also, was

built the

Samaritan temple, in opposition to

erroneously, attributed to Constantino the Great, who enclosed the mount with walls, and erected a magnificent church over the spot where our
Euseb. in Vit. Constant. Jerom, et al. Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem. (h) Pococke's Travels, p. 28. (i) See before, p. 200, note (r), and 297. Ambros. Tertul. (j) Hicron. in Ephes. v. 14, et al. August, et al. (k) Deut. xxi. 22, 23. 1 Chron. xxi. 18, etseq. xxii. 1. (1) 2 Sam. xxiv. 1825.
(f )
(g)

that of Jerusalem, after the return of the

:

Jews

from Babylon and here is Jacob's well, where our Lord conversed with the woman of Samaria.
(m) Gen. xxii. 2. (n) See before, p. 344.
(o)

Comp. Gen.

xii.

0,

and xxiL

2.

(p) 1
(r) (s)

(q) 2 Chron. xxxii. 30. Kings, i. 33, et seq. Maundrell, ubl supr. Eusebius and Jerom place these mountains opposite
xi.

Jericho.
(t)

Citron, Hi. 1.

Deut.

29. xxvii, 12, 13.

Josh.

viii.

33.

4E

580

HISTORY OF CANAAN.
him
into Egypt,

[CHAP. x.

Dead

Near the confluence of the Jordan with the Sea, or Lake Asphaltites, nor far from

were on their way from

Jilead,

laden with that and other commodities. (d)

Jericho, and about 300 furlongs east of Jerusalem, is mount En-gedi, celebrated for its fruitful vines, precious balm, and tine palm-trees; on which last account, it was also called HazazonIts name, thamar, or city of -palm-trees. (yi) the fountain of the goat ; and En-gedi, imports it was in one of its caves that David so greatly
life

signalized his loyalty and fidelity in sparing the of Saul, when he had him in his power.(v)

Tothese,severalothersmightbe added, known chiefly from the names of the towns built upon them, as the mount of Samaria, of Hebron, of Na/areth, of Gibeon, of Zophim, of Shiloh, &c. but as they have nothing else to recommend them to notice, we proceed to the next head, viz. VALLEYS. These are numerous, but, for the sake of brevity, the more remarkable only are
selected.
valley of blessing; in Hebrew west of the Dead Sea, and in the Berachah,(e) wilderness of Tekoah, where Jehoshaphat gained a signal victory over the Moabites, 2. The vale of Ammonites, and Edomites. Siddim, or Hassidim, called also the woody valley, the vale of pitch, of lime, and of salt, now covered by the Dead Sea, in which was situate the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, &c. a. id
1.

Mount Amalek was

west of Samaria.
Israel,

a branch of Carmel, Here Abdon, judge of

The

was

buried. (w)

Gaash, on which stood the town of Timnathserali, where Joshua was buried,(x) had its name front a town and brook so called. The mountains of Gilboa, where Saul and Jonathan were defeated and slain,(y) were about six miles west of Beth-shan, or Scythopolis at their foot was a large place, called Gelbus, and a fresh spring, which ran through the valley of Jezreel, into the Jordan.(z) On the east side of the Jordan, we meet with Pisgah and Nebo, whence Moses had a view of the Promised Land, prior to his decease, and where he was afterwards buried. These were only parts, or summits, of that celebrated ridge, called the mountains of Abarim, near that of Peor, over against
:

where

Chedorlaomer and

his

confederates

Jericho. (a)

Peor, or Baal-Peor, had its name from an obscene deity worshipped there by the Moabites. On the same side of the river, north of Abarim, were the mountains of Gilead [Auf], so called from the memorials set up by Jacob and Laban, of their pacific dispositions towards each other.(b) This ridge, which runs in an almost perpendicular direction, was the eastern boundary of the two tribes and a half leyond Jordan, and originally enclosed the kingdom of Bashan from the deserts of Arabia. These mountains were celebrated for that excellent resin, called balm of Gilead, spoken of a little above :(c) and we read, that the merchants who bought Joseph, and carried
(u)

overthrew the kings of those cities.(f) 3. The valley of Skavelt, or royal valley, or the king's dale, where the king of Sodom met Abraham, as he returned victorious from the pursuit and It was called defeat of the con federates. (g) Shaveh, from a city of that name, which stood in it. 4. The valley of Salt, where the Edomites were defeated, first by Abishai, David's general,(h) and afterwards by king Amaziah.(i) This valley is usually placed in the laud of Edom, east of the Dead Sea.(j) 5. The valley

of Jezreel, or Esdraelon, or the great Jield, in which stood the city of the same name, where
Jezebel, the idolatrous wife of

Ahab, perished miserably.(k) This valley reached from ScyThe town stood thopolis to mount Carmel. (I) 10 miles distant from Beth-shan, or about
Scythopolis \Baisan\. 6. The valley of Mature, or Mambre, so named from its owner, an Here Amorite, in alliance with Abraham. that patriarch dwelt for some time, and entertained the three angels, under an oak, when

they were on their way to destroy Sodom. (in) Isaac also resided here.(n) This oak, or, as some versions render it, terebinth-tree, stood
(d)

Gen,

(v) 1

xiv. 7. 2 Chron. Sum. xxiv passim.

xx. 2.

Cant.

i.

14.
xii.

(w) Judges,
(y) 1

15.

(f)

(x) Jos/tun, xxiv. 30.

(z)
(a)

Sam.

xxxi. I, et seq

(bj
(c;

Jorom. Loc. Hebr Numb, xxvii. 12. Deut. xxxiv. Gen. xxxi. 46, et sejr.
Euseb.
See before, p. 574.

I, etseq.

Gen. xxxvii. 25. (e) 2 Chron. xx. 20. Gen. xiv. 10. (g) Ibid. ver. 17. (i) 2 Kings, xiv. 7. (h) 2 Chron. xviii. 12. (k) 2 Kings, ix. 3037. (j) Calmet. in voc. Save. (1) Euseb. in voc. Jezreel; and Josh. xix. 18. (m) Gen. xiii. 18. xiv. 13, 24. xviii. 1. (n) JTWd.xxxv.27.

SECT.

II.]

VALLEYS. PLAINS. DESERTS.

i

581

about 15 miles from Hebron, and 25 from Jerusalem, and was much resorted to by both Eusebius and Jeroin Jews and Christians. describe it as standing in their days.(o) The Jews have invented many fables about its plantation, growth, &c. and Josephus, who places it uirie or ten miles nearer Hebron, says it had stood there from the creation. (p) 7. The vale of Refj/iai>n,((\) or of Giants, or Titans, between mount Ephron and Jerusalem. These Rephaim, according to Mr. Bryant, were of the race of Cush.(r) 8. The valley of Jehoshaphat,(^) so called from a victory obtained there by that prince. (t) This vale is variously placed in Jerusalem,(u) or in its vicinity ;(v) while some identify it with the valley of Berachah (w) To which may be added, a fourth notion, that the term is used symbothe word Jehoshuphat signifying tlie lically judgment of the Lord; whence the generality of the Jews, and some of the Christian fathers, and other divines, have supposed it to be the intended scene of the last judgment. 9. The valley of Hinnom, or of the children of Hinnom,(x) near the walls of Jerusalem, infamous for the horrid superstitions and bloody rites In this performed there in ancient times. was Tophet, where children were made valley to pass through the fire, in honour of Moloch.(y)
;

this valley on the east side, close to the walls of Jerusalem ; but Reland is inclined to place it on the south side. 10. The so named from one of the valley of Zeboim,(z)
cities destroyed with Sodom, and consequently near the Dead Sea. The town, or rather one bearing the same name, seems to have been rebuilt, as it is spoken of after the return from the Babylonish captivity.(a) 11. The Ac/tor, near Jericho, where Achan valley of was stoned to death, for having secreted some of the spoil of that city.(b) 12. The valley oj liochim, or of weeping, so called from
(o)

Eusebius places

general mourning made there by the Israelwhen they were rebuked by a messenger from God, on account of their disobedience relative to the nations they had invaded. (c) It is at a small distance froin commonly placed Jerusalem though some think it to have been near Shiloh, where the tabernacle was when the message came to them. 13. The last worth particular notice, is the valley of Efah, where Goliath w:is slain by David .(d) Other valleys were that of Eshcot, or of lite buncli of grapes, south of the Promised Land ;(e) those of Ajalon, Sorek, Jephthael, Gad, &c. named after their chief cities; the valley of fatness, near the mount of Samaria, the valleys of slaughter, of vision, of threshing, of decision, &c. whose names are rather prophetic than topical; the valley of artificers, ne;ir the Jordan, that of cheesemongers, north of Zion, and many others, whose names and situations are still more obscure. PLAINS. There are, likewise, several plains of celebrity in Palestine, viz. 1. The great l>ljii>i., through which the Jordan runs, computed at about 150 miles in length. (f) In the New Testament, a considerable part of this tract is called the land, or region about Jor2. The great plain of Esdraelou, the dan.(g) plain of Jezreel, the fields of Esdrela, or the plain of Legion, reaching from Beth-shan to mount Carmel.(h) 3. Sharon, already noticed. (i) 4. Sephelah, or the plain, extending southward and westward of Eleutheropolis. 5. The plain of Jericho, celebrated for its palm-trees, balmshrubs, and rose-trees, of a peculiar property. (j) Other plains, though numerous, are too inconsiderable to be mentioned. DESERTS. Many deserts and wildernesses in this country, are spoken of in the Scripture; but they must not be understood as places quite barren, destitute, or uninhabited, as several of them had cities, and villages, rich
lie

ites,

cap. 52.
(p)
(q)

Demount. Evany, and In Vit. Cotutantin. Hieron. foe. Hebr. sub voc.

lib.

iii.

De

Gen.

Bell. Jad. lib. v. cap. 7. xiv. a. Josh. xv. 8. xviii. 16.

2 Sam.
iii.

v.

18, 22.

xxiii. 13.

(d) 1 Sam. xvii, passim. Joseph. Antiq. lib. vi. cap. 2. 5. Mark, i. 4. Luke, iii. 3. (g) Joseph. De Bel. (h) Kuseb. in roc. Jezreel and Esdrela. Jud. lib. iv. cap. 2. Reland thinks this great plain reached
(c)

Judges,

ii.

5.

(e)

Numb, xxxii. 0. Comp. Matt. iii.

(f )

Mylhnl. vol. iv. p. 97. Abenezra, et al. (u) Beda De Loc. Brocard,
(r)
(t)

(s) Joel,

2, 12.

et al.

(v) Cyril. Alex, in Joel, iii. (x) Jos/t. xv. 8. Jer. xix. 0,
(y

(w) Abenezra, et

al.

1113.
(z)

partly into Galilee, and partly into Samaria. See before, p. 574, note (t). (i) (j) Among other singular qualities attributed to these trees, it is said they are incorruptible, and when put into water will blow ; but on being taken out, the blossoms will
close
at

Kijic/s, xxiii. 10.

xi.

Sam.

xiii.

18, et al.

(a)

Nehem.

34.

(b) Josh. vii.

2026.

up again, and reopen on a fresh immrrsion, and any season of the year. Shaw, Pococke, &c.

this

582

HISTORY OF CANAAN.

[CHAI'. X.

and well peopled. Indeed, there were few cities that had not some desert, according to
the Scripture idiom, for the pasturage of cattle; so that the word seems to be nearly synonymous with our English commons, heaths, ivolds, &c. and means no more than a tract, that bore neither corn, wine, nor oil, but was left to the spontaneous productions of nature.(k) Accordingly, we find in the desert of Judah, where the Baptist preached, six cities, besides
villages,
viz.

the Tigris, &c. without an attention to which, it would be next to impossible to understand many passages in Scripture, especially in the prophetic books.(u) In a less extensive sense,

Beth-abarah, Middin,
city of Salt,

Secacah,

and En-gedi.(l) The most remarkable of these deserts, besides that of Judah, were, 1. Arnon, through which ran the river of the same name, in the land of Gilead.(m) 2. Ziph, where David concealed himself from Saul's fury.(n) 3. Kadesh, near Kadesh-Barnea, south of Judah, where Moses and Aaron offended in striking the rock, and Miriam, their sister, died.(o) 4. Mahon, or Moon, on the borders of Judah,

Mbshan, the

they commonly reckoned five seas, viz. 1. The Mediterranean, or Great Sea ; 2. the Dead Sea ; 3. the Sea of Genesereth ; 4. the Sumac honite, Sea; and 5. the Sea of .Inzer, or Jaazer. The first of these is described elsewhere ; suffice it here to say, that it bore several names among the Israelites, as the Great Sea, the Salt Sea, the Sea of the Philistines, and the Hinder Sea ;
for, as

south of Jeshimon, another of David's places of retreat from persecution.(p) Besides these, there were the wildernesses or deserts of Tekoah, Bezer, Bozor, or Bozra, Gibeon, or Gabaa, and others of less consideration, named after the cities they severally belonged to. FORESTS. Among these may be particularized, 1. Hareth, in the tribe of Judah, to which David retreated, when he left Adul2. Ephraim, where Absalom was slain lam.(q) by Joab,(r) not far from Mahanaira, where David abode while the battle was fought. 3. Lebanon, where Solomon built a magnificent

they had no other rule for distinguishing the points of the compass, than that of looking direct to the sun-rising, which they styled tmp (KeDeoi) or front, i. e. the east the right and left made the south and north, and what was behind the west. The second, called, by some writers, the Asphaltic Lake, and, in the sacred writings, the East Sea, the Salt Sea, the Sea of Sodom, the Sea of the Desert, and the Sea of the Plain, is so impregnated with salt, that persons who dive into it, find their bodies covered with a kind of strong brine; vast quantities of bitumen are also thrown up from its bottom,
;

which were formerly in great request among physicians and embalmers. Of the miraculous properties of this lake, some account has been
Its name of Dead given in a former page. Sea is not to be found in the sacred writings, but has been applied to it, either from a supposition that no living creature could exist in its waters, (which opinion is rather of doubtful foundation,) or from its having no tides, nor

palace, supposed to be near Jerusalem, and to have been so called from the number of stately trees that shaded it ; though some writers have placed this palace in the mountains of Lebanon properly so called .(s) 4. The forest of Beth-el, whence the she-bears came that devoured the children, who insulted the prophet Elisha.(t) SEAS AND LAKES. The Jews gave the name of CD- (YM) the sea, not only to those properly so called, as the Mediterranean, or the Red Sea, &c. but also to lakes, and even to large
pools.

To some large rivers, they likewise applied this name, as to the Nile, the Euphrates,
(k) See Reland. Paleest. Illustrat. cap. 56. (1) Comp. Joshua, xv. 61, 62, and Matt. iii. 1.

any visible outlet, though constantly receiving the waters of the Jordan, as well as those of the brooks Arnon, Kidron, Nemrin, Zared, and other springs, which flow into it from the adjacent mountains. Josephus gives this lake 580 furlongs in length, from the mouth of the Jordan, to the town of Segor, the ancient Zoar, at the opposite extremity that is, about 22 and about 150 furlongs, or five leagues, ; leagues in its greatest breadth ;(w) but modern travellers describe it as 24 leagues in length, and six or seven in breadth. Most geographers give this lake a longitudinal figure, somewhat approach;

(r)

2 Sam.

xviii.

15.

(m) Numb. xxi. 13, et seq. (n) 1 Sam. xxiii. 15. (p) 1 Sam. xxiii. 24.
(q) Ibid. xxii. 6.

Deut.
(o)

it.

36.
xx. 1

Numb.

13.

See also 1 Kings, x. 17. 2 Kings, ii. 23, 24. (u) See, on this subject, Bochart, Calmet, and others. De Jud. Bell. (w) Joseph. Antiq. lib. viii. cap. 2.
(s)
(t)
vii. 2.

1 Kings,

lib. iv.

cap. 14.

SECT.

II.]

SEAS.

LAKES.

RIVERS.

583

ing to that of the lozenge, inclining, at its southern extremity, towards the east:(x) but Father Nau, a French Jesuit, who made the tour of the Holy Land, says it declines so much towards the west, as almost to form a crescent, having no point at its extremity, but all its southern coast being rounded off.(y)
3. The sea of Geueserct/i, or Galilee, called also the sea of Tiberias, the lake of Kinncreth, Kinnerot/i, or Chinnereth, is highly conmfctuled

by Joseplms, among other thing's, for the salubrity and coolness of its waters, and the abundance of excellent fish bred in them. The river Jordan runs through it: here it was that Peter, Andrew, James, and John, exercised and here, of fishermen their profession several stupendous also, our Lord performed
;

miracles ; such as quelling the storm, walking on the water, and the miraculous draught of Its various names are derived from the fishes. neighbouring provinces or towns. Its length,

Arden, or El Sharia], is the only considerable one; the others, as the Arnon, Jabbok, Cherith, Sorek, Kishon, Bosor, Belus, &c. being but rivulets, or brooks in comparison with it, or the Euphrates. This celebrated river, the Jordan, has its source in a lake called Phiala, about 10 miles north of that of Samachon ; but its communication is under ground, and was never fully proved till the days of Philip the Tetrarch, by whose order some straw or chaff was thrown into the Phiala, which reappeared in the Paneas, or Panion, where the river first emerges from the earth, after having run 120 furlongs beneath the surface, and which till then had been supposed to be its source. This Phiala, or Phial, a name common to other springs of the same nature, is situate in a most delightful country, so well
held

adapted for internal commerce, that fairs were in the places adjacent all the summer

according to Josephus,
breadth about 40.(z)
4.

is

100 furlongs, and

its

Samaclionite Lake, near the city of about 100 furlongs north of that of Dan, Genesereth, and is chiefly remarkable for the thickness and muddiness of its waters, from
lies

The

The name of this river is variously derived ;(f) but its stream was looked upon as so considerable in comparison with others in the country, it was sometimes that
long.(e)
styled,
its rise
is

From emphatically, the river.(g) at the Panion, the course of the Jordan.

be derived, supposed This the Jordan flows through it. though lake is not once mentioned in the Old Testament, though some have supposed the Waters of Merom to be it, which is controverted by others. (a) Its length was formerly computed at near 60 furlongs, or about seven miles, and

which

its

name

is

to

mostly southward, inclining a few degrees towards the east. Its breadth has been com-

pared to that of the Thames at Windsor ;(h) its depth is said to be three yards at its very brink ;(i) its rapidity is considerable and the
;

scenery of its banks varied, according to the in some parts, very beautiplaces it intersects ful, in others choked with high and thick
:

breadth 30 furlongs, or 3k miles ;(b) but it as considerably less.(c) of the surrounding territory as Josephus speaks full of marshes, aud adds, that the city of Razor, where reigned Jabin, a king of the
its

Pococke describes

reeds, canes, and trees, which afford shelter for lions and other wild beasts.(j) In ancient times, this river overflowed its banks about the time of the early harvest,(k) or Easter,

Canaanites,(d) was seated upon

it.

5. The sea of Jazer, or Jaazcr, was but a small lake, near a city of the same name, too inconsiderable to claim farther attention. RIVERS. Of these the Jordan [Nahr-el-

contrary to the natureof other rivers, which commonly swell most during the winter ; but this has now ceased, for which many reasons have been assigned, as will be discovered on consulting the writers mentioned in the note below. The waters are commonly turbid, by reason
Vide Retain), ubi supr. cap. 43.

(\)
(v;

See the

Le

P.

Maps of Dr. Shaw, M. D'Anville, and others. Nau. Vuyaijc de la Terrc Saiiitc, lib. iv. p. 382.

(f)
(g)

Joseph. Bdl.Jiid. lib. iii. cap. 1. See Pococke and others, in favour of this opinion, and Calniet against it. (b) Joseph, ubi siipr.
(z)
(a)

Joseph. Antiq. lib. v. cap. 1. lib. viii. cap. 3. Dr. Shaw gives it only 30 yards in (ii) Pococke, ]). 33. breadth. (i) Shaw's Travels, p. 374. Re(j) See Radziville, Maundrel), Pococke, Josephus,
land, dtc.
(k)

(c)

Pococke,

p. 73. 2.
i.

(d) Joshua,-\\. 10.

(e)

Judges, iv. Sanchoii. apud Relaud. lib.

Joshua,

iii.

15.

cap. 41.

Joseph, Antiq.

lib. iii.

1 Chron. cap. 18.

xii.

15.

Ecchis. xxiv. 26.

584

HISTORY OF CANAAN.

[CHAP. x.

of their rapidity; hut they arc accounted not be only wholesome and incorruptible, but to even endowed with supernatural virtues, which makes them much resorted to by the credulous

same, and others applying the name of Bezor

to the Torrent of Egypt, or Sihor, considerably to the south. They all ran into the Mediter-

ranean.

and

superstitious.

From

the

Dead Sea

to the

The

Bel, Belus, or Beleus, [Na/tr-lLilou, or

the plain on both sides, which according to Josephus is 1200 furlongs in length and 120 in breadth, is extremely dry, sultry, and unhealthy during the summer, and every where barren, except so much as is immediately watered by the river. The Anion, which divided the country of the Moabites from that of the Amorites, had its source among the mountains of Gilead, whence it ran down from north to south, and then taking a westerly direction, turned again towards the north, and emptied itself into the Dead Sea. The Jabok [Zarca], sprang from the same

Lake of Genesereth,

Kardhand], was a small river of Galilee, which emptied itself into the Mediterranean about two This furlongs from Achshaph, or Ptolema'is.
small river
is

celebrated, in antiquity, for

its

some Phoenician mariners accidentally mixed with nitre, to form a kind of tripod to sustain their kettle but it no sooner
sand, which
;

the operation of the fire, than it vitrified, and gave the first hint for the manufacture of glass. The Nephtoah rose in the mountains of Gibeon
felt

and Ephron, whence, taking a westerly

tion, it

direc-

mountains, and taking a north-westerly direction, fell into the Jordan some distance below the lake of Genesereth, or Chinnereth. This fiver was the boundary between the kingdom of Bashan, and the territories of the Amorites. The Cherith, known only as the retreat of the prophet Elijah,(l) ran through the valley of Jezreel, and emptied itself into the Jordan, on the west side, a little below the confluence of the Jabok with that river on the east. Its source was in the mountains of Gilboa. The Sorek ran through a valley of the same name, near the place where the harlot Delilah dwelt ;(m) and after receiving the waters of the Eshcol, fell into the Mediterranean at Askelon. In many places of Scripture, the word Sorek is used emphatically to denote an excellent vine, or the fruit of it,,(n) because this vale tvas celebrated for its wines. The Kishon, or Cisson, ran through the valley of Jezreel, south of mount Tabor, and fell into the sea below Jokneam. This was a and received many springs pretty large river, from mount Carmel and the adjacent plain. It was near this river that Elijah put to death the prophets of Baal.(o) There was also a lesser Kishon, which ran into the lake of Genesereth. The Bezor, or Bosor, and the Nehel-eshcol, or Torrent of Botri, are much disputed as to

ran into the Mediterranean above Gath. The Fountain of Elisha, one league south of Jericho, after watering the neighbouring plains, runs into the Jordan. This is said to be the
spring, whose natural bad qualities were corrected by the prophet.(p) The tradition is, that these waters corrupted the fruits of the earth, and infected whatever they touched : but since the miracle of healing, just alluded
to,

they have been altogether as remarkable

for their salubrity.

to the north-east of Jerusaa stream called, by the Turks, Naluiror Nehel-frat, i. e. the river of lite el-farat, mouse, because it buries itself in the ground almost as soon as it has arisen, and continues

About a league
is

lem,

rising and disappearing alternately, into the Jordan.

till

it fall*

their situation

some

identifying

them as the
xvi. 4.

The Cedron, or Kidron, was a small brook that sprang from several fountains about Jerusalem, which, after encompassing that city on the north, east, and south sides, united their streams, and ran into the Dead Sea. To these may be added some curious fountains and springs of excellent water, along the sea-shore, a little below Bellmount, which are supposed to have their source about a league distant to the east, where is a spacious grotto, remarkable for a copious stream, that bursts suddenly out, and loses itself immediately under the cave. This place, which is nearly half. a mile long, and from 50 to 100 yards broad, is naturally vaulted in so regular a manner as to appear an exquisite effort of art.(q)
(o)

(1^

(n)

Kings, xvii. 3. Gen. klix. 11. Isaiah,

(m) Judges,
vii.

23.

Jer.

ii.

21, et al.

(q)

1 Kings, xviii. 40. (p) 2 Kingt, Shaw's Trawls, p. 373, et seq.

ii.

10

22.

SECT.

II.]

NATURAL

CURIOSITIES.

585.

NATURAL CURIOSITIES. Upon mount Carmel some admirable petrifactions have been
melons, olives, citrons, resembling and other vegetable productions, both peaches, within and without; particularly the melons, which when fresh broken are said to yield an
found,

washed His feet in them ; and this led Julian the Apostate to order their source to be stopped, out of scorn and hatred to His memory. To these natural rarities may be added, the
saline efflorescences

observed at a few leagues'

distance from the

Dead Sea ;(x)

the hillocks

agreeable smell.(r) Here are also oysters and oilier fish, and even bunches of grapes, of the Near Rachel's tomb, not same consistence. far from Bethlehem, are found small round stones, exactly resembling peas, the reputed effect of a miracle wrought by the \ 'irgin Mary.(s) The sand of the river Belus, already noticed,(t) may be classed among the natural curiosities of this country; as may likewise the grotto in the vicinity of Bellmount.(u) In the neighbourhood of Shimron, is a barren, rugged, and dismal solitude, so dreadfully torn and mangled, that the beholder is ready to apprehend the earth has there suffered some to this desert, or extraordinary convulsion it is said, our Saviour retired after wilderness, In his baptism, and was tempted by the devil. this solitary place is a very craggy high mountain, called Quadrantana, or Quarantania, of difficult and dangerous ascent, whence the tempter is said to have shewn our Saviour all the kingdoms of the world.(v) On the top of this
:

found in the plain about an hour's distance from the same lake, supposed to have been
pits where the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown by Chedorlaomer

the

and the celebrated fruit, by the Arabs zachone, in the plain of Jericho, which grows on a kind of thorny bush, and resembles a small unripe walnut.(z) An
his associates ;(y)

and

called

extracted from the kernels of this fruit, is used internally for bruises, and externally for wounds the Arabs preferring it even to the
oil
;

balm of Gilead.(a)
the

celebrated
is
is

appearance
within

On the same plain grows whose external wood-olive, similar to the common olive, but
somewhat
similar
to

kernel

pistachio-nut.(b) St. John's desert

tree,

fruit

of a convent in shew what they call the locustand pretend that the Baptist made its his ordinary food, in conjunction with

The monks

wild honey. (c) This tree, more properly called caroub, bears a fruit like a bean, but flatter, containing some small seeds; the shell, when
dry,
is eaten, and has an agreeable rlavour.(d) But the more common opinion is, that the

mountain are two chapels and about them many hideous caves and holes in the rock,
;

formerly the retreat of Christian anchorets, if not of the more ancient Jewish Essenes. Hot and medicinal waters, of which there

were many in this country, may be ranked under the present head. The Jews were such
admirers of them,
that they superstitiously attributed their virtues to some miraculous interference of Heaven though Joseplms owns them to have been natural; and the Christians
;

been much behind them in this waters of Emmaus(w) [j\'icttjjoliy], were of such efficacy in removing many distempers, that the Christians could conceive no cause for it short of our Saviour's having

have not
respect.

The

Baptist fed upon the insects called locusts, and not the fruit of the caroub. In the eastern countries, where these insects come in swarms so thick as to darken the air, it is customary for the people not only to eat them at. those make their particular seasons when they inroads, but also to preserve them in salt or The common pickle for future occasions. mode of dressing them, is by plucking off the legs and wings, and roasting them in a pan full of holes over a blazing fire; or, otherwise, they are knocked down as they pass by in

swarms,- and being laid kindled about them.(e)

in

heaps, a

fire

is

(r) Le Bruyn. Voyaite an Levant, torn. iv. p. 308, in-4to. See also Shaw's Truer/a, \t. :i72. (s) Maundrell, p. 87. Sandys, &c. (t) See before, p. OB4. (u) Idem. (v) Matt. iv. 8.

(w) The Hebrew names chamah, chamath, and c/iamim, rendered in the Greek and Vulgate by emmam, amatha,
haiiuttti, HiiKiHi,

and amathus, always indicate places that had

Maundrell, p. 81. Gen. xiv. 10. Maundrell, p. 83. Dr. Pococke takes this to be the mi/rabolanum spoken (/.) of by Joscplms, as growing about Jericho it also answers to the fruit described by Pliny, as the produce of that part of Arabia between Judea and Egypt. Le Bruyn, itbi supr. p. 278. (a) Mauiidrell, p. 87. (,b) (c) Radziv. Percgr. p. 89. (d) Pococke, p. 40.
(\) (y)
:

natural hot springs.

(e)

VOL.

I.

Leo Afer, Ludolph, 4 F

et al.

HISTORY OF CANAAN.
SECTION
III.

[CHAP. x.

The convent
left,

ARTIFICIAL AND MIRACULOUS CURIOSITIES. RUINS OF ACRE AND OF SAMARIA. JACOB'S WELL. SOLOMON'S POOLS. SEALED FOUNTAINS. POOLS OF BETHESDA AND GIHON. ANTIQUITIES OF BETHLEHEM AND NAZAABSALOM'S PILLAR. RETH. SEPULCHRES. ROCK. FIELD OF BLOOD. CLEFT IN THE PLACES REMARKABLE FROM SUPERSTITIOUS TRADITIONS.
of Achshaph,(f) or Accho,(g) fell Asher in the distribution made by Joshua, but though he had slain its king in battle, it was so strong that the tribe could not It has retained its drive out the inhabitants. ancient name to the present day ; for the Arabs From one of the Akka. (h) still call it Ptolemies, it obtained the name of Ptolemais;(i)
to the lot of

THE town

are supposed to have procured it the title of Acra, whence the knights of St. John of Jerusalem afterwards called it St. Jean cTAcre. This city had a double wall, flanked

and

its fortifications

with towers and other bulwarks each wall had a ditch, lined with stone, and many private posterns beneath :(j) but now these immense works, walls and arches, are completely overturned, and their fragments appear like so many huge rocks thrown upon the foundation. In the neighbouring fields are seen, scattered up
;

and down,

large stone balls, 13 or 14 inches in diameter, formerly used in battering the city,

before the use of cannon was known. Among the ruins, the cathedral, dedicated to St. Andrew, claims particular notice, as well on account of its superior height, as for its noble Gothic architecture, and the portico round it. Next to this, in point of curiosity, is the church of St. John, the titular saint of the knights, and of the city. This seems to have been a low massive structure, probably erected on some of the original buildings of the Amonians. In its vault is a relief of St. John's head in a charger.
(f) Josh. xi. 1. xii. 20.
(g)

of the knights hospitallers has evident testimonials of its The palace of the and grandeur. strength master still exhibits a large and noble grand Near staircase, and part of a stately chapel. the cathedral, are some remains of the bishop's There are also the remains of a nunpalace. nery,(k) once of great celebrity, and of the Besides these, the church belonging to it. ruins of about 30 churches are to be reckoned,^) and the remains of a strong building, called the iron castle, from which there appear to have been three walls by the sea-side, On the ruins of a besides other buildings. palace, are seen a lion passant, which seems to indicate our English king Henry for its founder. About half a mile east of the city, is a curious pyramidal hill, about half a mile in length, and a quarter of a mile broad, so steep as to be inaccessible, except on the south-west side(m) It has been generally taken for a mound, raised by the besiegers, to enable them to command the place ; but it is more likely to have been originally an altar of the Amonians.(n) The remains of Sebaste, the ancient Samaria, though long since laid in ruins, and a great part of its site turned into arable and garden ground, still retain some monuments of its ancient grandeur, and of the splendid edifices with which Herod the Great adorned it. Towards the north side, is a square piazza, encompassed with marble pillars, some prostrate, others erect; and at a little distance are the fragments of some stout walls. But the most remarkable object, is the church, attributed to the foundation of the empress Helena, over the
in
its

walls,

place where John Baptist is supposed to have been beheaded, or where he was buried ; the dome of which, together with other parts,

adorned with fine marble columns, capitals, and curious mosaic work, prove it to have AVhat been a noble and splendid fabric.
remains of this church,
the nuns;
is

now

divided into

Judges,

i.

31.

Pococke, p. 52. (i) 1 Mace. \. 15, et al. (j) These works partake strongly of the character of those attributed to the Semarim, and probably had the same origin. Bee note (r), p. 535, et al. (k) When the town was taken by the Turks, the abbess is aaid to have exhorted her flock to cut off their noses, and mangle their faces, to preserve themselves from the brutality of the enemy. She set the example, and was followed by ail
(h)
Maundrcll, Pococke, ft al. * Ifaereiiot. Vuyage au Levant, partie
i.

but when the Turkish bashaw beheld them ;o them to be all mangled, in a rage he ordered massacred.* the knights kept (1) In one of these.t or in the cathedral,* a treasure, concealed under a marble known only to themhorribly
selves,

away by the
(n)

many years after their expulsion, was fetched Maltese,' in the disguise of merchants. (m) i'ococke's Travels, p. 52, et seq.
which,

See note
$

(o), p.

533, et

al.

J Maundrrll, tiW supr. p. 55.

lib.
ii.

cipp. 53.

Sand/s Tnucli, book

iij.

p.

NK>,

SECT.

III.]

ARTIFICIAL

AND MIRACULOUS

CURIOSITIES.

o87

two parts; one pertaining to the Christians, the latter is paved the other to the Turks and has a chapel beneath, to with marble, which the descent is by 23 steps, and in it are
:

three tombs, surrounded with low walls, containing, as is pretended, the remains of the Baptist, between those of the prophets Elisha

and Obadiah. In
also said,

this subterraneous chapel,

it is

the

Baptist

was imprisoned and

beheaded. (o)
Jacob's well is venerated by Christians, as well for its antiquity, as for the conference held

on its brink by our Lord with a Samaritan woman. (p) This well is covered with an old stone vault, into which visitors are let down through a narrow hole, and then the mouth is discovered. It is hewn out of the solid rock, about three yards in diameter, and 35 in depth. (q)

Solomon's pools, supposed to have been for the supply of that prince's palaces and gardens with water, and perhaps also of the city of Jerusalem, appear, from their remains, to have been works of immense cost

made

the same description, are likewise the sealed fountains, (v) as they are called, which lie opposite to the pools, towards the north-east corner of the same hill, in the These fountains are vicinity of Bethlehem. one over the other, and so three in a row, disposed, that the water of the uppermost may descend into the second, and from that into the third. They are all three quadrangular,

and labour.

Of

spring by which they are supplied. The aqueduct is built on a foundation of stones, and the water runs through earthen pipes, about 10 inches in diameter, cased with stones, hewn so as to fit them from above and below these are again covered with rough stones, cemented together and the whole is so sunk into the ground, on the sides of the hills, that, in many Notwithplaces, nothing is to be seen of it. the great strength of these works, standing which once extended several leagues, and seemed calculated to endure as long as the world itself, only a few fragments are now to be met with so industrious have been the Arabs, in destroying whatever had been the pride of the country. The gardens of Solomon, are supposed to have been near these sealed fountains, but no vestige of them remains, and the ground is now described as so rocky, as to be little calculated for cultivation. (s) The celebrated pools of Bethesda and Gihon may be ranked among the most stately ruins the former, at Jerusalem, is 120 paces long, 40 broad, and at least eight deep, but now destitute of water; and the old arches, at the west end, are now dammed up. The other, about a quarter of a rnile westward of Bethlehem gate, is 106 paces long, and 67 broad, lined with wall and plaster, and still replenished with
; ;

breadth but in being about 160 length they differ, the second 200, and the third 220: paces, they are all of considerable depth, walled and plastered, and contain a great quantity of water. About 120 paces from them, is the

and about 90 paces each

the

in

first

water. In the city of Bethlehem are shewn the stable, the manger, and the place, where the infant Immanuel was born and laid ; as likewise a grotto, cut out of a chalky rock, in which, it is pretended, the holy Virgin concealed herself and child from the fury of Herod ;(t) and where some of her milk, having fallen on the ground, not only gave an uniform

Maundrell Thevenot, ubi supr. part. ii. chap. 50. the Turks have erected a small mosque over these tombs, but will admit Christians into it for a little money. (p) This well is at present too far from the remains of Samaria, for the people to have fetched their water from it: but it is to be remembered, that Josephus describes the city us no less than 20 furlongs in compass, stretching itself farther on the side towards this well, than the ruins alluded
(o)

says,

of the church's purity : but the monks have contrived to amuse travellers with a tradition, or rather legend, that the writer
which, say they, Solobe shut up, and sealed with his royal signet, that the waters might be preserved pure and uncorrupted. Those who have read the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, will remember the wonderful powers ascribed to the signet of Solomon, in scaling up : and this story of the fountaint may be placed to the same account.
really alluded to these sealed fountains,

mon caused

to

to

now
(q)

do.*

five yards' depth of water in this well, though the people of the country believe it to be dry all the year, except on the anniversary of the day when our Saviour sat upon its brink, and then, they say, it bubbles up with abundance of water, t Cant. iv. 12, is supposed to be figurative (r) The expression,
Joseph.

Maundrell found

Maundrell, p. 88. Pococke, p. 44. Thevenot, etal. be remembered that before Herod could execute his sanguinary purpose, with intent to destroy the holy child Jesus, or even before he had conceived it, Joseph and Mary had been divinely warned to retire with him into Egypt. See Matt. ii. 1320.
(s)
(t)

It is to

De

Bell.

Jud.

lib.

cap. 16.

4F2

Maundrell, p. S3.

588

HISTORY OF CANAAN.

[CHAP. x.

whiteness to the whole place, but also endowed it with a miraculous power of increasing the milk of suckling women Lumps of this chalk,
!

therefore, are broken off, and after having been taken to Jerusalem to be sealed as genuine, are Sent into some of the Catholic states of Europe,

as specifics in the cases alluded to.(u)

a magnificent church, under ground, built, according to report, in the very cave where the Virgin Mary received the the intersection angel's salutation; just at of the transept with the nave, are two pillars of granite, rather more than two feet in diameter, and about three feet distant from each other, supposed to occupy the places where the angel and the Virgin respectively The stood on that memorable occasion. descent into this church is by steps, and within is a grotto, cut in the soft rock, to which the Virgin's house adjoined, before it

At Nazareth

is

bottom, on the right hand, is the sepulchre of St. Anna, the mother of the Virgin ; and on the left that of Joseph, the Virgin's husband ; and, as some add, that of Jehoiakhn, her In each of these divisions are altars, father. for the celebration of mass and the whole is 2. The sepulexcavated in the solid rock. chre of king Jehoshaphat, likewise cut in the rock, is divided into several apartments, one of which contains his tomb, adorned with a
:

stately

portico

and entablature,

(x)

3.

The

monument, place, or pillar of Absalom, about two furlongs from Jerusalem, is nearly '20 cubits square, and 00 high, adorned below with four columns of the Ionic order, with their capitals,
entablatures, &c.
to

each

front.

From

the

Near this church to Loretto. are the remains of a much larger one, supposed to have been built by the empress Helena, or about her time. Among other fragments, are seen several capitals and bases, and an altorelievo of Judith cutting off the head of HoloBut this is much inferior to the fernes.(v) great church of the Holy Sepulchre, built at Jerusalem, by the above-named empress, and which will be more particularly noticed in the description of that city. The last class of artificial curiosities worthy of notice, consists of the sepulchral monuments, of which only scattered all over the country the most remarkable are here selected. 1. The tomb of the holy Virgin, near Jerusalem, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, to which the descent is by a magnificent flight of 47 On one side of this descent is a place steps. walled up, supposed to be the sepulchre of At the Melisendis, queen of Jerusalem, (w) was transported
;

height of 20 to 40 cubits, it is somewhat less than at the base, and quite plain, except that it has a small fillet at the upper end ; and from 40 cubits to the top it is round, gradually diminishing to a point. The whole is cut out of the solid rock and in the interior is a room, considerably above the level of the ground without, with niches in the sides, probably 'I liis for the reception of coffins, or bodies. place is surrounded by a heap of stones, which is constantly increasing, as neither Jews nor Turks ever pass by without throwing a stone at it, in detestation of the founder's unnatural 4. little to the westward of rebelliou.(y) this, is the tomb of Zechariah, the son of Barachiab, or Jehoiada, who was slain by order of king Joash, or Jehoash,(z) between the temple and the altar.(a) This fabric, which, like the former, is cut out of the rock, is 18 feet high, and as many square, adorned with Ionic columns on each face, cut likewise out of the same rock, and supporting a cornice: the whole ending in a pointed top.(b) But the most curious and magnificent pieces of this kind are the grottoes, styled the royal
;

(u) Maundrell, p. 91.

(v)

Le Bruyn,

p.

221.

Pococke,

p. 63.

(w) Ibid. p. 22.

(x) Pococke, p. 21, et serf. (y) Notwithstanding this custom, which has now prevailed for many ayes, it is much to be doubted whether this monu-

of Absalom; though Villalpandus has laboured, not indeed used in very successfully, to prove that all the orders wenSee Solomon's temple, and from thence imitated in Greece. r Dr. Pococke, as before quoted, chap. 3. >, p. 23. Maundrell, Radziville, Peregr. p. (i'2. Sandys, &c. (z) 2 Chron. xxiv. 2022.

ment be the genuine

Its situation is pillar of Absalom. seemingly nearer to Jerusalem than the text will warrant Josephus styles it a marble pillar,\ whereas this is a inoiiumeld in stories, cut out of the rock: and the Ionic columns and capitals give it the air of an age much posterior to that
:

Matt, xxiii. 35. Joseph. De, Bell. Jud. lib. iv. cap. 19. Pococke observes, that the Ionic columns have -otuctliiii" peculiar in their execution, and thinks they may have been added at some period subsequent to the original erection. See also Radxiville, Sandys, Maundrell, &c.
(a)

(b) Dr.

2 Sam.

xiii. 18.

lib. vii.

cap. 10.

SECT.

III.]

ARTIFICIAL

AND SUPERNATURAL

CURIOSITIES.

the walls of Jerusalem, north sepulchres, without of Bezetha, or the Neiv City. Whether these were really the sepulchres of the ancient kings of Judah has been much controverted ;(c) but it is certain that they were depositories of the dead, from the coffins that have been seen in them. They are all hewn out of a solid marble rock, and contain several spacious apartments. The entrance is on the east side, cut 10 feet deep into the stone, leading to a cut stately court, about 120 feet square, neatly the left, or south side, is On and polished. a grand gallery or portico, with a kind of architrave in front, supported by columns left in the process of excavation. Though now retains evidences of its it almost defaced, having been once adorned with festoons and other sculptures. On the left of this portico, is (he descent into the sepulchres, which can only be gained by creeping on the belly through a narrow passage, into the first apartment.

vastly anterior to the days of Saul or David, and that they were the production of Anionian

power and ingenuity.

the reputed supernatural rarities with though in general their monkish superstition, rather than from matter of fact, a few of the most remarkable are here selected; as, 1. The impression of our Saviour's foot, or feet, upon the rock of Bethany, already 2. The cleft in the rock, said to noticed.(f) have been made by the earthquake that accomThis celebrated panied His crucifixion. (g) fissure is enclosed in the great church of the Holy Sepulchre, and is about a span wide

Among

which

this country abounds, celebrity arises from

and two spans in depth, after which it closes, but opening again below, it reappears in a chapel contiguous to the side of mount Calvary, and runs down into the earth, to an unknown depth.(h) 3. Aceldama, or the Field of Blood,
or the Potter's Field, (i) since styled Campo or the Holy Field, by the monks, which was purchased with the price of Judas's treason, as a burying-place for strangers. This which is not above 30 yards long, and 15 spot, in breadth, has been said to have acquired the wonderful property of consuming a dead body to the very bones, though only laid upon it, and not covered with earth, in the space of 24 hours, according to some, or 48, according to But, if ever it had this quality, it others.(j) has now lost it; and the place serves the Armenians for a cemetery, to which they admit those of other nations, that it may still retain its name of a place of sepulture for Santo,
strangers.
It is

This

a large handsome room, about seven or eight yards square, forming a beautiful chamber, hollowed out of the solid marble. On three sides of this room are passages leading into several others, of similar fabric, but of various dimensions, in all of which, the first excepted, are stone coffins placed in niches, formerly covered with semicircular lids, adorned with flowers, garlands, &c. but now mostly The doors between the broken to pieces. several apartments, with the door-cases, hinges, same marble with pivots, &c. are all of the the other parts of the rooms; and the doors appear to have been cut out of the piece to which they hang. The door-cases, or frames, are cut wi'Ji an arched lintel on the outside, These works are of but are fiat within. (d) doubtful origin and though generally attributed to the kings of Judah, their character is so much like what has been described of the works of the Cutheans, in Egypt, Assyria, and other places,(e) that it leaves a strong impression upon the mind that they are of a date
is
;

walled round, to prevent the

Turks abusing the bones of the Christians; and one half of it is taken up by a kind of
charnel-house, a square building, about 12 domes in yards high, with small open the roof, through which to let down the
bodies.(k)

Opposite the valley -of Jehoshaphat, is a kind of pillar, jutting out of the city wall, on which

(c)

Consult Josophus,

Pococke,

Radziville,

Maundrell,

&c. Villalpandus, Le llruyn, Thevenot,

(d)
(e)

Thevenot, Le Brnyn, Maundrell, Pococke. See before, p. 535, note (r). (f ) See before, p. 578. xxvii. 01. (h) Maundrell. (g) Matt, xxvii. 7, 8. Acts, i. 19. (i) Matt, to have been (j) Uad/.iville" and Sandyst profess eye" Ubi.
sup. p. 64.
t

witnesses to this extraordinary phenomenon but Maundrell} says, the earth is of a chalky substance, and, by looking through the holes by which the bodies are let down, he observed many, under various degrees of decay whence he concludes, that the soil did not make such very dis; ;

quick

patch as was commonly reported.

ubi supr. p. 64. (k) Radziville,
}

Maundrell, idem, p. 101.

Trtmls, p.

In.

Ubi. supr. p. 101.

590

HISTORY OF THE CANAANITES.

SECTION
IV.

[crtAP. x.

the Turks, who are not a whit behind the Christian monks in their superstitious tradiwill sit in tions, say, their prophet at the last day, while all the children judgment

Mohammed

ORIGIN, GOVERNMENT, RELIGION, CUSTOMS, &C, OF THE CANAANITES.

shall be assembled in the vale beneath, of to receive their eternal doom from his mouth. These people have also stopped up the entrance of the temple-gate with a wall, from a prophecy current among them, that their expulsion from
:

Adam

ORIGIN. In a former Chapter, it has been seen that Canaan, the younger son of Ham, and grandson of Noah, was father of elevensons,

who
:

were
these

collectively

denominated

the land, and their final extirpation, will come in at that gate they therefore, in opposition to their avowed predestinarian principles, endeavour to contravene the decrees of fate, and to block out what they consider as inevitable! They even carry this absurdity so to shut up all the other gates of the far as city every Friday, which is their sabbath, till after the time of morning service ; it being on that day, and at that time, that they expect this event, so desirable to all but themselves,

be accomplished. (1) There is scarcely a place or transaction recorded in either the Old or New Testament, but the very spot is pointed out, as where one stood, or the other was done, even to such as are mentioned parabolically thus travellers
to
:

are very ceremoniously introduced to the olivetree, to which, it is pretended, our Lord was tied, while His enemies were seeking for new accusations and false witnesses against Him the place where He fainted under the weight of the cross, and left the print of His face on a napkin, or handkerchief, with which a woman, called Santa Veronica, came to wipe the perspiration from His brows ; the gallery where Pilate brought Him forth to the Jews, bedecked with the ensigns of mock royalty the house of Dives, a name they have given to the rich man in the parable, and the sty where Lazarus lay; with many others of a similar nature; for which the only tolerable excuse that can be offered, is the tyrannical exactions to which the Christian residents are exposed from the Turks, and the means furnished by these pious cheats upon unwary or superstitious visitors, of paying exorbitant taxations, otherwise beyond their power to satisfy.
; ;

Sidonians, the Hethites, or Hittites, the Jebusites, the Emorites, or Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hevites, or Hivites, the Arkites, or Archites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites (in) but only five of them are spoken of by Moses as occupying the Land of Promise, viz. the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, and the Hivites; to which must be added the Canaanites peculiarly so called,(n) under which denomination were perhaps included such of the younger sons of Canaan as were with their father when he first settled in the country. Besides the Canaanites and their branches, several other tribes are named by Moses as being in possession of certain parts of the promised land and its environs such were the Rephaim, the Zuzim, the Etnim, the Horim, the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Zamzum-zim, the Avim, the Anakim, and the Perizzites.(o) Most of these are as giants, and are therefore referrepresented rible to the family of Cush.(p) They seem to have had a prior possession of the country, whither they probably flew upon the overthrow of their dominion in Babylonia, and for a time were extremely powerful; but, weakened by the desolating wars of the Pentapolis, followed by the judgment of heaven upon Sodom and the neighbouring cities, they were at length nearly extirpated by the Philistines, the Amorites, the Moabites, and the Edoinites :(q) so that when the Israelites entered, they only found the Perizzites and the Anakim left of these first settlers.(r) Of these aborigines of Canaan, the Rephaim, the Zuzim, the Eniim, the Horim, the Zamzumzim, the Avim, and the Anakim, are described as of extraordinary stature and strength ;(s)
:

Canaanites

were

the

part.

Maundrell, ubi svp. p. 103, et seq. Thevenot, ubi sup. chap. ;>o. (m) See before, p. 317, and Gen. x. 1519. Exod. iii. 8. Deut. vii. 1. (n) Gen. xv. 20, 21. Deut. ii. 1012, 20, 23. (o) Gen. xiv. 5, 0. xv.10, 20. 14
(1)
i.

(p) Sec note (j), p. 415.

(q)
(r)

(s)

Gen. xxxvi. passim. Deut. ii. 10 12, 2023. Numb.xin. 22,28, 29. I)cut.i\.\, 2. JosL xi.3,21 23. Deut. ii. 9- 12, 1923, et al. See before, p. 2G7,

note (w).

SECT. IV.]

ORIGIN.

TRIBES.

ROYAL
six
in

CITIES.

and against them was the fury of Chedorlaomer and his allies directed, while the Canaanites, who had by that time settled in the country, were suffered to remain unmolested. Of the Kenites and Kenizzites nothing- is recorded after they were included in the catalogue of
nations promised to Abraham ; only it is known that the former existed in the days of Balaam, and that they were doomed to be carried away captive by the Assyrians, (t) which probably happened immediately after, as they are no more mentioned ; and the prophecy was delivered only a few months or weeks before the Israelites crossed the Jordan. The Kadmonites appear to have been the Cadmians of the Greeks, and to have migrated, either in consequence of the wars of the Israelites, or of some prior invasion of the Shemites, and in their adventures gave rise to the fabled The Perizexploits of the hero Cadmus.(u) were a noinade tribe, who did not zites(v) cross the Jordan till after the Canaanites had settled in the country ;(w) they dwelt in tents after the manner of the Scythians, and occupied a large tract between the Jordan and the sea, the Kishon and Shechem, where they were probably intermixed with some other tribes, either of the Cutheans or Canaanites, who occupied the strong cities of Aphek,
Gilgal, Tirzah, &c.

number, the same as in a subsequent promise, and in other places,(z) where the Girgashites are omitted, though they are
afterwards replaced, as in the
first

instance,

and the number is limited to seven ;(a) from which it should appear that in the course of about 400 years, between the promise made to Abraham, and its fulfilment to his posterity,

many important changes had taken place among the occupiers of the Promised Land
:

of some of these, indeed, Moses has informed us thus, the Emim had been expelled, or extirpated, by the Moabites ; the Horim by the sons of Esau ; the Zamzum-zim by the Ammonites; and the Avim by the Caphtorim ;(b) though the latter was doubtless of a date antecedent even to the time of Abraham, since we find that patriarch sojourning among the Philistines, who are supposed to be the same as the Caphtorim.(c) In the seven nations particularized by Moses, just before his death, viz. the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, we may suppose the territories of the original ten to be included, either in consequence of migration or conquest ; they w ere divided into a number of small kingdoms, according to the custom of those early times, when almost
r

In the first promise, by name, to Abraham, ten nations are spoken of, some of whom are omitted in subsequent catalogues, while others are inserted, but the number is ultimately reduced to seven. In the first we find the the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Kenites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Hittites, Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.(x) Of the three former no more is heard, except in the prophecy of Balaam, above alluded to ; and in the next recapitula-

every city had its particular sovereign. Within the compass of Joshua's conquests, we find no less than 31 kings, viz. those of Jericho, Ai, Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, Eglon, Gezer, Debir, Gedor, Hormah, Arad, Libnali, Adullam, Makkedah, Beth-el, Tap-

puah, Hepher, Aphek, La-sharon, Madon, Hazor, Shimron-meron, Achshaph, or Accho, Taanach, Megiddo, Kedesh, Jokneam, Dor, Gilgal, and Tirzah ;(d) besides the cities of

which is in Moses' commission, we meet with the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites,(j)
tion,

Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjathwhich were under some kind of popular jearirn, government :(e) and to these may be added Og and Sihon, kings of the Amorites, on the east of Jordan, who were conquered and slain
Gibeon,

(t)

Numb.

xxiv. 21, 22.

(u) Bryant's

Mythology,

vol.

ii.

p. 42(5, et seq.

(v) Their name is said to be derived from to disperse ; and, for this reason, we ralher conclude

OS

them

to

have been of the number of those who were scattered in the plains of Babylonia, than, as Heylin and others think, to have been the descendants of Sena, or Sini, the eighth son of Canaan, and who, in reality, appear to have settled ill the wilderness of Sin.

Comp. Gen. xii. 0, and xiii. 7. 8. Gen. xv. 1821. (y) Etod. iii. j(z) Exod. xxiii. 23. xxxiii. 2. xxxiv. 11. (a) Deut. vii. 1. (b) Deut. ii. 912. 1923. et stq. See (c) Comp. Gen. x*. 2, 3234. xxvi. 1, Bryant's Mythology, vol. iv. p. 376 ; and Amot, ix. 7.
(w)
(x)

(d) Joshua,
(e)

xii.

924.

Jo$hua,

xi. 3,

11, 17-

592
in

HISTORY OF THE CANAANITES.

[CHAP. x.

the life-time of Moses.(f) Nor must these be considered as the whole number of the kin^s of Canaan, since the Scripture expressly declares that the Canaanites were not wholly

the answer he should give to the proposals of Jacob's sons, till he had consulted with his

subdued

time after; whence

at that time,(g) nor indeed for some it may be inferred that

title

of king who never received material injury, if any, from the sword of Joshua. They were left to prove the Israelites, and to be expelled by degrees ;(h) thus, in the

many had the

age of the Judges, we find Jabin extremely powerful, and holding a domination over all the country ;(i) and even so late as the reign of Solomon, a remnant of the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites remained ; nor do they appear to have been completely subjected till that period,

when they became

remained
remains
:

vassals to that prince, and in subjection ever after.( j) GOVERNMENT. On this subject very little

people.(m) Indeed, throughout all their transactions, the same tenor of conduct is to be observed, wherever the inspired historian has descended to particulars nor do we read of more than one instance among them, and that in a very advanced period of their history, where the lust of rule had prompted any one of these kings to usurp a dominion over his neighbours : this was the king of Bezek, who had conquered seventy(n) of his compeers, and forced them to pick up from under his table, like so many dogs, the morsels that his caprice might afford them;(o) but this seems to be a singular exception to the geneAs to the ral observation premised above. second Jabin, he ought not to be proposed as another instance of undue ambition ; for he reigned at a time when the strength of the
:

it has been seen that the Canaanites were comprehended under a great number of states, and in most cases under subjection to

country had in a great measure been broken ; multitudes of its inhabitants had fallen by of the Israelites, others had the sword

limited

chiefs, or kings, though, in some instances, the elders of a city, or the people, are spoken of; which implies that the republican as well as the monarchical form of govern-

ment was known and adopted among them.

Their kings appear to have ruled according to the patriarchal model, and their riches mostly consisted in their herds and flocks, for whose maintenance the natural fertility of the
country was excellently well calculated. The kings may be supposed to have transacted their business in some kind of popular assemthus Abrablies, held in the gate of the city ham bowed himself before the children of Heth, not before their king exclusively ; and the children of Heth, i. e. the Hittites, answered him (k) Ephron, also, whose was the field
: :

and an universal anarchy had ensued among the old inhabitants; so that he may be considered rather as reigning by the suffrages of the Canaanites for their general protection, than in consequence of an usurpamigrated,
tion of their natural rights.

In the days of Abraham, the religion of the Canaanites, with the exception of the Amorites, seems to have been undetiled ; we read of no idolatry among them, and Melchisedek, who, if not one of their nation, dwelt among them, was in high estimation, and was acknowledged as priest of the most

RELIGION.

which the patriarch was negociating, seems to have treated with him with the participation of his whole tribe.(l) In like manner, Ham or, king of Shechem, would not conclude upon
for

high God.(p) It is supposed that idolatry began to spread among them, immediately after introduced from that it was his death; and partook of the superstitions Chaldaea,(q) of the ancient Persians ;(r) whence it may be suspected to have been brought in by the Perizzites, who, as we have seen, were of Babylonish In the days of Abraham, the Amorites origin.
(m) Gen. xxxiv. 2024. This number furnishes ample proof that there were more kings in the country, than those named in the

(f)

Numb.

xxi.

2135.
xvii.

xvi. 10. (g) Joshua, xv. 63. Judges, i. 19, 27, 2930. (h) Judges, ii. 2023. iii. (i) Judges, iv. 2, et seq. (j) 1 Kings, ix. 10, 20, 21.

12, 10.

xxiii.

12, 13.

(n)

14.
Ezra,
ii.

many

55, &8.

Nehe-

catalogue of Joshua's conquests. (o) Judges, i. 7. (p) Gen. xiv. 18, et seq.

miult, xi. 3.
(k)
(1)

Gen.

xxiii. 3, et seq.

Ibid. ver.

10

1C.

Newton's Chron. of Anc. Kingd. amend, p. 188. Shuckford's Connect, of Sacr. and Prof. hitt. book 0. p. 335.
(q)
(r)

vol.

i.

SECT. V.]

RELIGION.

CUSTOMS.

LANGUAGE. CHRONOLOGY.
widely different
conceive,
that

0.03

arc apparently pointed out as more degenerate than their brethren, (s) which may have arisen from their situation, east of Jordan, whereby they had more intercourse with the Cutheans settled in that quarter, and more early im-

from each
the

other:

but

we

bibed their

errors.

However

this

may

be,

the degeneracy certainly spread very rapidly ; for though the Hittites had shewn themselves so friendly to Abraham, in the business relative to the cave of Machpelah,(t) he chose to send his steward a long journey, into Mesopotamia, to fetch a wife for Isaac, rather than suffer him to marry with the daughters of the land

only essential variation, would be among those whose origin was derived from a distinct stock ; other diversities would be merely the accidental results of situation, or similar fortuitous circumstances. Those who resided on the sea-coast, were merchants, in which capacity they will be considered, when spoken of as Phoenicians; for, by that name, they were afterwards known to the Greeks. Those who had an inland
situation, were employed either in pasturage, or in tillage, or in the exercise of arms, in

where he dwelt and between 70 and 80 years afterwards, Rebekah was so apprehensive that Jacob might, like his brother Esau, take a
;

daughters of Heth, that she exherself as weary of her life on that pressed account.(u) At this time we can only suppose the true religion to have been corrupted, but still retaining some of its external forms ; for we read of none of those abominations then, nor during all the period that Jacob resided among them, that are afterwards charged upon them by Moses, when he commands the " to overthrow their Israelites altars, to pull
wife of the

which they appear to have been well versed. Those who dwelt in the walled cities, and had fixed abodes, cultivated the land and those who wandered about, grazed cattle, or carried arms, and lodged in tents. Hence it is easy to discern among them the several classes of mer;

chants, seamen, artificers, soldiers, shepherds, husbandmen, and, according to the nature of their religion, of priests and astrologers. It is also sufficiently obvious, that they were skilled in the arts of war, that their towns were well
fortified, (x)

and

themselves

furnished

with

weapons
were

to fight in the field, particularly

war

high places, to break down their images, statues, or pillars, to burn their groves, to hew down their graven images, and to destroy them utterly, without mercy."(v) They are also accused of offering human sacrifices,
their

down

chariots,(y)
cible, (z)

armed

and of making
fire

their children pass

through the

enterprising, and not deficient in policy.(a) Their language appears to have been well understood by Abraham, for we read not that either he or his posterity ever recurred to the use

with scythes; that they almost invinobstinate,

to

their

false

god Moloch.

To

these

abominable errors in religion, are to be added the perversion of their morals, which were as
corrupt as their doctrine adultery, incest, with uncleanness of the most filthy nature, are among the crimes laid to their charge,(w)
:

of an interpreter, to converse with them. Letters, also, we must admit them to have had, since it was from this country that the Cadmians carried them into Europe; but of what kind

they

MOV,

is

much

disputed.(b)

and brought upon them the severe doom which the Israelites were commissioned to
inflict,

even to the extirpation of their help-

SECTION
CHRONOLOGY
ALTHOUGH,

V.

less children

and sucklings.

CUSTOMS, &c.

The

customs, manners,

arts,

HISTORY CANAANITES.
in
strict

AND

OF

THE
the

sciences, and language, of the several tribes or nations of Canaan, have been supposed to be
Gen. xv. 1(5. (t) Gen. xxiii. Gen. xxiv. passim, xxvii. 40. Exod. xxiii. 24. xxxiv. 13. Numb,
xviii.
xiii.

propriety,

term

Canaanitcs should be confined solely to the

the Judges, it is evident, that without the interposition of the divine power, the Israelites could have effected nothing have perished ;iL;aiii:.t tbe Canaauites, but must inevitably
in their enterprise.
(a)

(s)

5, 0, 11,

&c.
Deut.

(u)
ii.

(v) 2. xii. 2, 3.

xxxiii. 52.

(w) Lfvit.
(x)

2125.
28.

See Numb. xiii. 31, et al. See an example of this iu the case of the Gibeonites,

Numb.

Deal.
i.

i.

28.

Josh.

ix. 3, et *<</.

(y) Josli. \\. 4.

(z)

Judges,

19. iv. 3.

From the whole VOL. I.

history of Joshua's wars, as well as of

Ad Autol.

(b) See Joseph.

lib.
iii.

p.

Contra Apioncm. lib. i. and Thcophil. 400; also Bryant's Mythol. vol. ii. p. 429.

4G

594
posterity of

HISTORY OF THE CANAANITES,

Canaan
;

[CHAP. x.

yet, in

a larger sense,

it

seems a

sufficient reason

why they

did not form

may be applied to all the inhabitants of the there country to which Canaan gave his name, no other general appellation for them being
:

more permanent establishments, and why they should, at last, have been so easily expelled by the descendants of Esau and Lot.
Whilst these people were settling themselves Canaan, and struggling for independence, a much larger body of the same family, known by the title of Hyc-sos, or Pastor Kings, after wandering in the deserts of Arabia, for at least a century and a half, where they had formed several petty kingdoms, fell upon Egypt, drove most of rj u \.Pei."-2-i-i. the Mizrai'm to the upper conn- \ A. M. *2002. "l Post Oil. *345. try, and exercised such oppresB c -*2002. sions upon such as remained, v. that several families migrated to seek asylums from their rage in distant countries. Among these, were the Caphtorim and Casluhim, from
in the borders of
-

history of the Cuiuuinites, therefore, must be included that of their predecessors and immediate neighbours, the Avim, the
in this

Anakim, the Emim, the Rephaim, &c.

It has been imagined, indeed, that Canaan was the first settler in this country but from what has been adduced in the foregoing parts of this Work, there is reason to conclude, that Canaan resided \vith his father Ham, in Egypt, before he came into the country now under
;

consideration ; (c) which supposition will be here pursued, grounded upon an old tradition, (d) that the country, subsequently called Canaan, originally belonged to the family of Shem, and that it was kept in reserve for the people of God,(e) although, in the interim, invaded and usurped by the Canaanites. On the destruction of Babel, and dispersion of the Cutheans in the plains of Babylonia, many of the fugitives sought an asylum in the land of Canaan and its vicinity ; among these, the Avim settled in the south, between Eshcol and the torrent of Sorek ; as did the Anakim to their east, about the Vale of Siddim ; the Horim south of both the Emim east of the Anakim ; the Rephaim between the mountains of Gilead and the lake of Genesereth, the Kadmonites, or Cadmians, to their north, and the Zuzim and Zamzum-zim on the borders of the desert, east of the mountains of Gilead. As to the interior of the country, it seems to have been left untouched but whether out of respect to the divine ordinance, or because the Canaanites arrived before the Cutheans were sufficiently numerous to take possession of it, is uncertain ; and though there is reason to suspect that many of the strong places, as Achshaph and Aphek, date their origin from this early
; ;

whom came

the Philistim,
his sons.

or Philistines,(f)

and Canaan and

Land was easy. The Caphtorim seem to have led the way, and, by the extirpation of the Avim, made their settlement good in the south, along the sea-coast.(g) About the same time, or more probably in conjunction with the Caphtorim, did the Canaanites enter the land, and retiring towards the midland and northern parts of the country, were in the enjoyment of tranquillity and
plenty,

The Caphtorim had been seated on the borders of the desert, near the isthmus of Suez, and Canaan is supposed to have been their near neighbour, whence the transit to the Holy

when Abraham

first

ap-

is chiefly drawn from Mr. Bryant's hypothesis, is subject to several difficulties and is opposed by the more popular notion, that Canaan settled originally in
;

peared among them. This account, which

Palestine, where, his posterity being straitened

period, as Jerusalem owed its foundation, some ages afterward, to the Hyc-sos, on their expulsion from Egypt; yet the continued warfare and persecution, if it may be so called, that was maintained for many years against the Cutheans, by the Shemites, by which they were

constantly weakened, and frequently subjected,

See before, p. 316. (d) Epiph. Hceres. 46, n. 84. (e) Dent, xxxii. 3d, 43.
(c)

room, some of them moved southwards, and others northwards among the latter, were the Hamathites and Arvadites but the former penetrated as far as Egypt, and possessed themselves of the Arabian side of that country, which the advocates for this method will have to be Goshen. Here, say they, did they settle, even under Mizra'im himself, and erected a separate kingdom and differing from the Egyptian*
for
:

(f)

Gen.
Deut.

x.

14.

Jerem.

xlvii. 4.

Amos,

ix. 7.

Allix. in

Pentat.
(g)

79,

u. 23.

SECT. T.]

PRIOR TO THEIR CONQUEST BY THE ISRAELITES.

595

in religious matters, as well as in their

life,

way of arose between them, mortal contentions

in their total expulsion ; and this, say they, occurred in the days of Abraham.(h) Both stories are encumbered with difficulties,

which ended

and the reader must adopt that which he conceives to be attended with the least insuperable therefore, leaving theories, we must pro;

ceed to the narration of such facts as have been left by the sacred historian. The first authentic account of this people
Jul. Per. 2787.^)

applies to the invasion of the five

kings of Siddim, viz. Bera, king of Sodom, Birsha, king of Goniorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, or Zoar, by Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of nations by whom they were subjugated, and obliged to pay an annual tribute. About six years after this war was finished, Abraham, pursuant to the divine call, came to sojourn in the land, and found
A. M.
2077. ( PostDil. 420. f B. C.' 1927. j
;

year, after they had been subdued by Chedorlaomer and his allies, which brought upon them a renewal of the war; for, in the Ju Per 2801 2001. 14th, the allies returned, and be- SA.M. ginning in the north, with the J Post Oil. 434. 1913 B c Rephaim and Zuzim, whom they v. conquered, they proceeded southward to the Emim, whom they also subjected and then turning to the west, they laid waste the country of the Horites, with that of the Amalekites; they then proceeded across the country, and defeated the Amorites, who dwelt in HazezonHere they were also tamar, or En-gedi.(l) the kings of Siddim in person opposed by but these shared the fate of their confederates ; they were overthrown in battle among the slime-pits, and the inhabitants of their cities were either put to the sword, or carried into
/| -

there the Canaanites.(i) He had scarcely been twelve months with them, when a famine obliged him to remove to Egypt, where he remained more than a year, and, on his return, he found that the Perizzites had also settled in the country.(j) He was, however, unmolested

captivity, or obliged to fly for shelter to the mountains. Sodom and Gomorrah, with the rest of the cities, were pillaged with the utmost rigour and among the prisoners was Lot but he was soon rescued by his uncle Abraham, assisted by the Amorites, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, as related in another place.(m) The state of excessive weakness to which the south
;
:

and though his household, and and herds, as well as those of his flocks, nephew Lot, had become so numerous as to

by

either party

country was now reduced, probably afforded a better opportunity for the settlement of the Philistines, than any that has yet been named ; and as neither they nor the Anakim are spo-

ken of in the compass of this war, it is they had not yet taken up their residence

likely there.

Jul. Per.

279G.~)
(^ i

A. M.

2086. PostDil. 429.

require a separation, the inhabitants made no resistance to their

It is uncertain whether the conquest of the whole country were in the contemplation of the

18< -'

where they respectively thought most convenient; Lot

settling

retiring into the

in the vicinity of Sodom, and Abraham pitching his tent, first between Beth-el and Ai, and afterwards in

Vale of Siddim,

Elamites; but the overthrow given them by Abraham, effectually prevented it and we read no more of their invasions in this quarter for
;

the plain of Mamre, before Hebron. It was at this time that the whole was procountry

mised

to

The five

Abraham,(k) kings of Siddim revolted

in the 13th

Melchizedek was king of Salem, and priest of the most high God but whether of Canaanitish origin, or of the stock of Shem, is mucli disputed. (o) This venerable personage came out to meet Abraham as he
;

many At

centuries.(n) this time,

(li) See Cumberland On Sanchoniatho, p 351, et seq. and Bedford's Scripture Chronol. p. 201, 202, 250 253, 257.
(i)

as

appears also to be founded upon a tradition of this warfare ; more fully discussed in the history of the first Assyrians.*
(o)

See before, p. 337. This Pentapolitan war, as it is called, was no other than the great Titanic war, so much celebrated by the poets, and appropriated by them to their respective countries the Ctesian history of'tlie conquests of Niuus, i. e. the Ninevites,
(n)
:

Gen. xii. o, 6. Gen. \ui.passim. (m) Gen. xiv. passim.

(k)

(j)
(1)

Gen. xiii. 1, 2 Chron. xx.

7.
2.

jews, for the most part, insist that Melchizedek their opinion has been received and adopted Grotius and Bishop Cumby many Christian writers. berland suppose him to be the Shem of Moses, and the Dr. Patrick differs from Sydic of Sanchoniatho ;t but tliem, and even intimates, that such a notion is antichristian :J Josephus calls Melchizedtk a potentate of the Cauaauites ;

The

was Shem, and

* See before,
t

p.

530.
p. 174.

Patrick

Cumberland On Sanchoniatho,

Joseph.

On De

Gen.
Bell.

xiv. IB.

Jud.

lib. vii.

cap. 18.

4o2

HISTORY OF THE CANAANITES,

returned from the slaughter of the
allies,

[CHAP, x.

and

suffice

presented him and his victorious army with refreshments; while Abraham, in return, gave him tithes of all the spoil,(p) for which he received the benediction of Melchi/edek. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah had fallen in the conflict;(q) but during the expedition of Abraham, such of the inhabitants of Siddim as had escaped the sword of the enemy, came from their hiding-places, and, by the time that Abraham returned, had elected, or acknowledged, a new sovereign as king of Sodom.(r) This prince, when he met Abraham, requested only to have the persons of his subjects, leaving the spoil to the conqueror's discretion : but Abraham generously refused to take any thing for himself, and left his confederates Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, to follow

here to observe that Lot and his two daughters were preserved by the mercy of God, and that at his intercession the city of Bela, afterwards Zoar, was spared but Sodom, and Zeboiim, with their Gomorrah, Admah,
it
:

dependencies and territories, were completely overwhelmed the plain in which they stood was also consumed, or it sunk, so that, forming a receptacle for the waters of the Jordan and other streams, it became a vast lake, since known by the title of the Dead Sea, &c. After this destruction of one branch of the Canaanites, with their whole territory, except
:

the city of Bela, history is silent as to their affairs till the time of Sarah's r j u l. Per. 2855. 2145. death, when we find Abraham )A.M. in treaty with the Hittites for a 1 Post Dil. 488.
burial

place;

in

which

they

B C
-

his

example
so, is

did
for

We

but whether they if they pleased not related. (s) hear no more of the affairs of Canaan
:

evince the strongest desire to retain the favour and friendship of that patriarch, (x) and all parties seem emulous to outdo each other in
generosity.

15 years, except that God renewed His promise of the country to Abraham, and continned it by the ceremony of a sacrifice, pointing out at the same time that his posterity should take possession in the fourth generaAt this time the Amorites appear to tion.^) have been the most numerous, if not the most powerful, of the Canaanitish tribes, and to have possessed the country about Hebron, or Arba, where Abraham resided ; for they are spoken of by name, to designate the whole body of the Canaanites. (u) Fifteen years after the warJul. Per. 2817.^ A. M. 2107. ( fare just spoken of, the inhabitPost Dil. 4.->o. C ants O f tne Pentapolis, who had ^ grown to so great a pitch of impiety and wickedness, that in all the five cities so few as 10 righteous persons could not be found, were visited with a severe and terrible judgment, expressed in scripture language by the Lord raining down fire and brimstone
this catastrophe

Another lapse of about 1 20 years occurs, in which nothing of consequence presents itself relative to the Canaanites. Abraham had lived honoured and respected among them, and had gone to his long home in peace: and Isaac was enjoying the tranquillity of a life of meditation
at Mamre, undisturbed by his neighbours, when Jacob entered the country, in his return from Syria, and pitched his tent in the environs of Shalem, a city of Shechem, the son of Hamor, an Hivite by tribe, of whom he purchased the ground he had chosen for his residence, and there he built an altar to the God of Israel.(y) Jacob had not resided here fj u l. Per. 2976. e r Jul. t, ma.iy months, when an event, j A. M. 2260.
'

from heaven upon them.(v) The particulars of have been already related ;(w)
and the Arabians deduce him from Peleg.* The place of this mysterious person's residence, is no less disputed than hut it is allowed, hy the most judicious critics, his pedigree that Salem was the same with Jerusalem. t (q) Gen. xiv. 10. (p) See before, p. 337. in pursuit of the (r) The distance traversed by Abraham, Elamites, could not be less than 150 English miles, or,
;

k the Shechemites, took ) Post. Dil. 609. C. 1738. ,_ the only daughter IB. Dinah, place. of Jacob, being about 16 years of age, went to visit the daughters of her neighbours, where being observed by Shechem, that prince was smitten with her charms, and took her to his
fatal

to

securing the spoil, and returning, must have taken up several weeks; so that the people of the Pentapolis had ample opportunity to recover from their panic, and collect themselves under a new leader.
(s)
(u~)

Gen.

xiv.

21

2-1.

Comp. Gen.
xxiii.

perhaps, 180,

which, with the time occupied

Hottcng. Smeg. Orient, p. 256, 260, 306.

in

fighting,

(v) Gen. (x) Gen.

xiv. 7, 13, xix. 24, et scq.

24. xv. 16.

passim.
t

Gen. xv. passim. 1 Kings, xxi. 20. See before p. 342. (w) 20. (y) Gen. xxxiii. 18
(t)

See before,

p.

297, 299, 337.

SECT.

V.]

PRIOR TO THEIR CONQUEST BY THE ISRAELITES.

5.07

bed contrary, however, to the practice of modern seducers, instead of turning with disgust
:

what they had done. No sooner were the of Jacob apprised of the success of sons(z)
nefarious enterprise, than they returned body to the city, and seized all the women, children, cattle, goods, and, in a word, whatever was worth carrying away. (a) Between this period and the next of known date, must be placed the expulsion of the Horim from Seir, and the occupation of their place by the Edomites as also that of the Emim from the country about Ar, by the Moabites, and of the Zamzum-zim from the borders of Gilead by the Ammonites ;(b) but the precise epochas of these revolutions cannot be ascertained. And as little is known respecting a subsequent invasion of the Moabites and Ammonites, by Sihon king of the Amorites, who had crossed the Jordan, and established a powerful monarchy on the east side of that river, when Moses and the Israelites advanced towards their long desired Land of Prothis
in a
;

from the object of his passion

after enjoyment, with him " increase of appetite had grown by what it fed upon," and he entreated his father Hamor to pacify the resentment of Jacob and

his family, and to procure the damsel for his Hamor accordingly went to Jacob, to wife. communicate the ardent desire his son had for

Dinah, and to ask his consent. But the sons of Jacob refused to listen to any proposals of

matrimony from an uncircumcised

all

nation, not-

the offers made by Hamor withstanding At length and Shechern of a large dowry. consented, on condition of the Shechemthey ites being circumcised, to intermarry with
this proposal their city, to

them, and to become as one people. With Hamor and his son retired to
to their subjects, the advantages that they represented must accrue from an union with so rich a people, and the prospect there was that all
it

make

known

to

whom

mi se.(c)

their property
selves.

would ultimately
representation

revert to them-

This

had
;

sufficient

weight with the Shechemites to make them submit to the painful operation Hamor and his sons were circumcised, and their example was followed by all their subjects. But now the policy and craft of the sons of Jacob appeared in the most odious and flagrant breach of contract and of honour that is upon record. They took advantage of the weakness into which the Shechemites were thrown by the inflammation consequent upon their wounds, and on the third day, when the fever was at its height, Simeon and Levi entered the city, slew all the males, with Hamor and Shechem, and, taking Dinah out of the house of the
latter,

When Israel first advanced towards the borders of the Promised Land, immediately after the spies had brought an evil /-j u i. p er 3224. night Per 32 24. Cj laamtes 2-314. report of it, the Canaanites in the ) A. M. south-eastern parts of the coun- ) Post Dil. 857. 1490. e Amalekites. (-B.C. try united with the Amalekites, the implacable enemies of Israel, and they drove them back as far as Hormah but it must be remembered that the Israelites were then transgressing the express command of
'

i.

God, by which they had been prohibited from making the attempt, on account of their
rebellion, (d)

the expiration of the forty that Israel was condemned years to wander in the wilderness,

On

repaired to their brethren, to

this transaction,

tell

them

Moses

again

approached
PART II. thee, O Moab

the

(z)

From
:

Joseph and Benjamin must be

29.
'

excluded

the former was but about seven years of age, and the latter was not yet born.

Alas for

(b) Deut. ii. 9 12, 19 23. This transaction was comme(c) Numb. xxi. 20, et seq. morated by a war song, from which Moses has given a quotation, thus translated by Dr. Kennicott, in his Remarks upon Select Passages in the Old Testament :

(a) Gen. xxxiv. passim.

Thou
He* And

hast perish'd, people of Chemosh hath given up his fugitive sons,

To
30.

his daughters, into captivity, the king of the Amorites, Sihon.

PART

III.

PART
Ver. 27.
28.
'

I.

Come
The

ye to

Heshbon

let

it

be rebuilt

'

city of Sihon, let

it

be established.
(d)
*

" The

" But on themt have \VEJ lifted destruction, " From Heshbon even to Dibon " We have destroyed even to Nophah;
:

fire

did reach to Medebah."

'

'

'

'

For from lleshhon the fire, went out, And a flame from the city of Sihon: It hath consumed the city of Monb, With the lords of the heights of Aruon.

Numb.
tlie

xiv.

4045.
}

Chemosh, god of the Moabites. t The Amorites, who had conquered Mosb.

The

Israelite*.

598

HISTORY OF THE CANAANITKS.

[CHAP. x.

southern frontiers of the Canaauites, at which time a king, called Arad,(e) reigned there. This prince, hearing of their advance by the way of the spies,(f) went out, attacked them, and took several of them prisoners ; for which the Israelites devoted him and his city to utter destruction, and he was among those who fell by the sword of Joshua.(g) Sihon, the Amorite, residing in the ancient country of the Moabites and Ammonites, as already hinted, was next applied to, by Moses, for a free passage through his country for the Israelites ; but he refused to comply, and inarched against them, to oppose their He met them at Jahaz, or Jaazer, progress. where he was defeated and killed, and all his country was taken possession of by the
Israelites.

which astonishment increased to a degree of terror, when they heard and saw how miraculously the waters of the Jordan had been divided to give them a free passage; so that, instead of
attempting to
resist,

they betook themselves

and there shut themselves while the Israelites, more secure in their up; tents, were performing religious rites, and keeping a holy festival. The fallacy of dependence in walls, gates, and bulwarks, was pointed
to their walled cities,

Og, another king of the Amorites, reigned

at that time in Bashan, and he also attempted He was of the to oppose the march of Israel. race of Giants, the ancient Rephaim, and, as

His bedstead, appears, the very last of them. made of iron, was nine cubits in length; so that, allowing it to have been one cubit longer than himself, he was about twelve feet high. His kingdom had its name from the high hill of Bashan, a branch connecting the mountains of Gilead with the Antilibauus, and has since been called Batanaea. It contained no less than 00 walled towns, besides villages. The country afforded an excellent breed of cattle, and stately oaks and was in other respects a plentiful and populous territory. Og's residence was at Ashtaroth, and at Edrei, at or near which latter place, he attacked the Israelites, and experienced a fate similar to that of Sihon, whose cause he had espoused for he was slain, with all his sons, and all his subjects, men, women, and children ; and his dominions were added to the conquests of the
;
:

Israelites.(h)

The news
Canaanites

to these powerful

of what the Israelites had done sovereigns, astonished the on the other side of the river ;

out in the singular fate of the first city that was attacked: this was Jericho, rjui. p e r. 3203 which was dismantled by the JA.M. -2.v>:5. mere shouts of the Israelites, ac- f Post Oil. 896. 1451 ^- B c companied by the sound of rains' horns blown by the priests. Not a single inhabitant, male or female, young or old, was spared, save Rahab the harlot, and her family, by whom the spies had been kindly entertained and concealed. Even the cattle were destroyed, the city itself was reduced to ashes, and a curse denounced against the man who should attempt to rebuild it.(i) The next city attacked by Joshua was Hai, or Ai, a small kingdom, at no great distance from Jericho, in the country of the Jebusites. The sovereign of this place, finding that walls had not secured his neighbours, and perhaps attributing their overthrow to magic arts, came out into the field to meet his adversaries, and actually repulsed them. This, as was afterwards proved, was the consequence of Achan's transgression ; but when he was removed, the Israelites renewed their attack upon Ai, and the king again came out at the the men head of his forces to meet them of Beth-el also going forth to his assistance. Joshua pretended to fly before these united forces ; but when he had drawn them to a convenient distance from the city, which they had left open, a party, whom Joshua had previously placed in ambush, entered and set it on fire. This was a signal to the pretended fugitives to turn upon their enemies, and a for when the men dreadful slaughter ensued
-

(e) It

is

questioned whether this were the

name of

lin-

The Septuagint and king, or of the city where he dwelt. Vulgate translate Arvad, the sou of Canaan, and head of the
his

Arvadites, hy this name of Arad, who may possibly have given name to this part of the country, as well as to the city ; or the kings, his successors, may have assumed it as a patronymic, or as a title.*
See Patrick and Le Clerc

CD'inNVi (Ha-ATHamM), called, by the Septuagint, is supposed, by Dr. Kennicott, to mean the name of 'AOajsifi, a place, rather than the way by which the spies entered, 38
(f )

years before.
(<;)

See his Remarks.

1.

Comp. Numb. xxi. (h) Numb. xxi. 3335,

Antiq.
(i)
lib. iv.

3,

and Josh. Dent. iii.

xii.

14.

111.

Joseph.

cap. 5.
iii.

On

Numfc. xxi.

1.

Joshua,

vi.

SECT. V.]

THEIR WARS WITH THE ISRAELITES.

the columns of flame and
their
city,

59.9

of Ai saw

ascending from

smoke became disthey

state only

heartened, and had neither courage to fight, nor power to flee; they were therefore cut to pieces in the field, while the women in the city met with a doom equally severe; so that there were destroyed of both sexes no less than 12,000, being the whole of the population. The king of Ai was reserved for a more igno-

a few days before ; with the same view they also produced some mouldy bread and old wine-skins, asserting that the bread was hot, and the skins new and filled with wine, at their setting out, but that the one had become musty and the other exhausted, in the course of their travels. Some of the elders of Israel to have doubted at first, whether what appear
asserted was true, and whether they were not inhabitants of the land, with whom had been commanded to make no they

they

end; for, being brought to Joshua, that general ordered him to be hanged on a tree till the evening, and his body to be then thrown
before the principal gate of his late city, with The city a heap of stones raised upon it. was laid in ruins ; but the cattle and riches were preserved for the Israelites.(j) The catastrophe of these cities could not but add to the alarm of the Canaanites; particularly of those who lived in the immediate vicinity: but only the Gibeonites thought of averting the impending destruction by timely These people were of the submission. tribe of Hivites,(k) and, as already remarked, lived under a popular government, which extended over the four cities of Gibeon,
Chepliirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim. With a view to escape the general desolation, which they either foresaw or feared, they sent ambassadors to Gilgal, where Joshua was encamped, pretending tliat they were of a far country ; but that, having heard of all that JEHOVAH had done for His people Israel, from Egypt to

minious

league :(rn) to these doubts, the Gibeonites, are turning to Joshua, simply replied, thy servants ;" and in other respects they conducted the stratagem so well, that Joshua and the elders were beguiled ; and a league was made, and ratified with an oath.(n)

"We

Whilst this treaty was negociating between Gibeon and the Israelites, the other kings of the country were forming a grand confederacy against Joshua, from Lebanon, in the north, to
the land of the Hittites, in the south
;(o)

that

general, therefore, put his army in motion, and crossing the country of the Jebusites, in three days came to Gibeon, where the trick of the

Bashan, their countrymen had sent to greet him, and were desirous of engaging with him The better to cover in an amicable treaty. (1) ambassadors these specious pretences, the to their shoes, which were worn out, pointed as were also their garments, by reason, as they
said, of the length of their
reality,

The strangers was discovered. indignation of the Israelites was immediately excited, and they would have fallen upon the Gibeonites, and put them to death: but the princes, or elders, restrained them ; observing, that as they had confirmed the treaty by swearing to them in the name of the Lord God of Israel, it would be unlawful to molest, or even to touch them. Thus the Gibeonites escaped with their lives ; but, as a punishment for their
pretended
duplicity, Joshua pronounced an against them, and condemned them posterity to the servile offices of

anathema and their hewers of

journey; though, in had been put on in that decayed they

vii. viii.

wood and drawers of

the tabernacle.(p)

water, for the service of

(j) Joshua,
?1)

(k) Jos/two,
ihis history,

ix. 3. 7.

It is evident,

from

that the Canaanites

had some latent notion of the true God, and that they were aware of the Israelites being destined to extirpate them, and but by what fatality, or delusion, to occupy their place Perthey were induced to oppose them, is not so manifest. haps, had they submitted, their lives would have been spared, and only their political existence would have perished. (m) Exod. xxiii. 31 33. xxxiv. 15. Dent. vii. 2.
:

it was usual for women and children to perform what was required of them ; but in its degrading them from the characteristic employment of men, that of bearing arms, and condemning them and their posterity, for ever, to the

for

(o) Josh. ix. 1, 2. (n) Jos/i. ix. " The bitterness of the doom of (p) Ibid. ver. 1627. " does not seem to have the Gibeonites," says Mr. Manner,* the laboriousness of the service enjoined them, consisted

315.

employment of females. The not receiving them as allies, was bitter; the disarming them who had been warriors, and condemning them to the employment of females, was worse; but the extending of this degradation to their posterity, was bitterest of all. It is no wonder that, in these circumstances, The anathema prothey are said to have been cursed." nounced by Joshua, appears but a reiteration of that of " Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he Noah; The Levites were the servants of the priests,! and the be."
t

Oburv.

vol. iv. p.

S9T.

Numb.

Hi.

59.

viii.

19.

600

HISTORY OF THE CANAANITES.

[CHAP. x.

In the mean time, a confederacy of the kings of the south had been formed, consisting of Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, Hoham, king of Hebron, Piram, king of Jarmuth, Japhia, king of Lachish, and t)ebir, king of Eglon:
these five, hearing that Gibeon had submitted to the invaders, and saved their lives at the expense of their liberty and honour, determined as first to wreak their vengeance on them, of the common cause, and then to betrayers attack the Israelites themselves. Joshua had, at this time, returned to the camp at Gilgal, for what reason does not appear. But when the Gibeonites found themselves invaded by the
Jul. Per. 3264.")

found a temporary asylum in a cave near Makkedah ; but being discovered, the mouth of the cave was closed with large stones, by
Joshua's order, till the pursuit was over, and then they were brought out before the chiefs
of Israel,

who were commanded by Joshua

when

to

put their feet upon their necks, in token of

victory ; after which they were slain, upon different trees till sun-set,

and hanged
their

allies,

they dispatched messen-

bodies were taken down, and thrown into the same cave where they had concealed themselves, and a heap of stones was raised upon its entrance. The fruit of this day's victory, besides the conquest of a mighty host, was the capture of the city of Makkedah, whose king

A.M.
B.C.

2554. ( Post. Dil. 897. f

I4i>o.j

gers to Gilgal, to make known their distress to him, imploring his assistance against a foe, whom

was also put

The king

to death. (s) of Libnah next

;

felt

the

power of

Joshua's sword

after

which the

Joshua otherwise they could not withstand. lost no time in complying with this request, and by dint of forced marches in the night, came so
suddenly upon the besiegers, that they flew precipitately with the utmost consternation.

But

lest the Israelites

should arrogate too

much

prowess, the Lord interposed, and by a miraculous shower of stones,(q) did more execution than all their swords. Thus persecuted by the heavens from above, and by
to their

own

Joshua
;

in their rear, the

enemy

fled in all direc-

tions and numbers of them would possibly, in so general a dispersion, have escaped, had not God wrought a new miracle in favour of His people; for, at the word of Joshua, the sun stopped its course, that the Israelites might have light sufficient to overtake and destroy

the scattered

multitude.(r)
:

The

five

kings

ceeded to Lachish, whose Makkedah, as we have just seen: here they were opposed by Horam, king of Gezer, who came to help such of the people of Lachish as remained ; but he only brought destruction on himself and his followers. Eglon and Hebron soon experienced a similar fate with the other cities that had fallen into the hands of Joshua, all their inhabitants being put to the sword. At Hebron, a new king seems to have succeeded the one who was slain at Makkedah,(t) but he only arose to fall by the sword of his enemies. From Hebron, Joshua proceeded to where he executed the same kind of Debir, vengeance on the sovereign and people. And now, having taken most of the strong places, he scoured, all the south country, from Gibeon after which he to Kadesh-barnea and Gaza
;

Israelites proking had fallen at

Gibeonites were their slaves yet, in the midst of judgment, is remembered ; for while they were made bondmen, they mercy were brought into the service of the sanctuary, where they were, doubtless, reclaimed from their errors, and initiated in the service of Jehovah, to their present comfort under
affliction,

It is uncertain everlasting welfare. how long the CJiheonitcs remained a distinct body after this we only know that they existed in the times of Saul and David;* and thc\ arc supposed, by many, to be the same

and

their

with the Nithinim, spoken of by Ezra and Nehemiah,t but ot this there is no proof. (q) Whether these were hail-stones, or aerolithg, has been mm- disputed : the advocates for the former opinion, resting upon the assertion of the sacred writer, who, after .saying, " the Lord cast down great stoties from heaven," ad " more died with /uiil-xtones,"l &c. and the latter maintaining, that the term hail-atones is used merely to denote the
1 1

That aeroliths, or velocity with which the stones fell. atmospheric stones, have fallen, sometimes singly, at others in numbers, even to an amount sufficient to be denominated a shower, is a fact so well authenticated, as to be no longer doubted but it is equally certain that hail-storms have been known, even of late years, of force sufficient for the purpose In either case, the means were natural, described in the text. though superinduced by a preternatural agency.^ (T) This miracle is supposed, by some, to have given rise to the poetical fiction of Phaeton, the name of whose brother
:

Cycnus, Mr. Bryant derives from Uc, or

Ucli, a king,||

and

C'nas, or Canaan, corrupted by the Greeks toKuxro;, a swan. It The miracle of the falling stones, and the lengthening out of

the day, seem to be blended founded on this fact.

(s) Josh. x.
(t)

in the fable,** if

it

be, indeed,

128.
23
x. 11. lib.
i.

Comp.

Josh. x. 3,

2fi,

36, 37.
cap. 13. * Orid.

t Sum. xi.
t ;

1, et seq.

$ Sec Dr. A. C.lurki- dn.lmli.

Kira,

ii.

4.3

5a.

viii.

20.

Nchem.

vii.

46

60.

See also

1 Chran. u. 2.

||

Jttth. x.

11.

11

Alanetho, apud Jo-i-ph. Contra Apimcm, Bryant's Mythol. vol. ii. p. 7:2.

Melamorph.

SECT.

V.]

THEIR WARS WITH THE ISRAELITES.

in

601

returned,
Gilgal.(u)

triumph, to his old quarters at

time, the states of the north had a coalition, at the instance of Jabin, formed king of Hazor, consisting of that prince, and Jobab, king of Madon, the kings of Shimron and Achshaph, and, in a word, of all the powers that remained north of Gibeon ; a far more numerous and powerful confederacy than that of the south ; so that their hosts are described, " as the sands upon by the divine historian, the sea-shore in multitude, with horses and chariots beyond number."(v) Joshua no sooner heard that the enemy was in motion, than he put his army upon the march, and, in five days, over a rocky country, came in sight of them near the waters of Merom, where they were encamped, not suspecting any danger. Assailed thus by surprise, they were quickly dislodged from their camp, and broken into as many distinct bodies, perhaps, as there were tribes, each of which hasted homeward upon the The main body fled very wiiss of fear.

By

this

escaped with his life; but it was only to As for perish shortly afterwards with bis city. the chariots, in which the Canaanites had put their trust, they were burned, and their horses were maimed, or otherwise destroyed. Having
sent,

cleared the country of the enemy, Joshua turned his force against the city of Hazor, which he took, and having put all the inhabitants to the sword, with Jabiu their king, he burned it to the ground. The confederates of Jabin also experienced a similar fate ; such of their cities as were built upon hills, Joshua preserved for the Israelites, on account of their strength; the rest he reduced to ruins: but in neither case were the inhabitants

spared. (x)
ieir Notwithstanding their nuJu Per merous losses, the Canaan- \ A. M. ,anaanites still had strength suf- ) Post Oil. til ricient to keep Joshua em- U-C. ua
x,

3264 2554

_ 70

GO.

807903.
1450-44.

ployed for the space of six years, before they

were so completely subjugated as

towards Great Zidon,(w) westward, and

;

to

Mis-

to give no farther molestation to Israel. (y) At the expiration of this time, or rather during its con-

while another large party took rephotli-maim the direction of Mizpeh in the valley, eastward: but they were everv where so closely pursued, that most of them fell in the way by the swords of the exulting Israelites. Jabin, for the pre43. (u) Josh. x. 29 (v) Josephus, Antiq.

tinuance, great
their

numbers of these people

left

and retired to various country of Africa, Asia Minor, Greece, &c.(z) parts The last tribe that experienced the exterin despair,

minating power of the

(z) It

God

of Israel,

was the

computes lliese forces at 300,000 foot, 10,000 horse, and 20,000 war chariots. (w) This is supposed to be the Sidon of the ancients,
lib. v.

cap.

1,

built either
it

by Canaan, or
It

his eldest

son Sidon, after

whom
skill

was named.

was

illustrious for the wealth

and

of

inhabitants, before the Trojan war ;* of glass is attributed to them by Pliny.t

its

and the invention

It is generally supposed, that (x) Josh. xi. passim. Joshua spent six years in war, after the conquest of Jabin but it is much more probable, that the operations, detailed in the chapter here quoted, occupied a considerable part of the latter end, or even half, of those six years and that the former part \vas taken up with the conquest of the south For, after the destruction of Hazor, no other war country. is mentioned, except the expedition against the Anakim, which seems not to have been of long duration, and may oven have been included in the war to which the southern confederacy led the way. Comp. Josh. \. 3(5 4, with xi. 21, 22: the latter passage seems to be a recapitulation of the former, introduced to particularize the Anakim, of whom the Israelites had been in such terror,! as P af t of their
; ;

has been supposed, that a party of these exiles Lower Egypt, under the title of Shepherd Kings ; but we have endeavoured to prove from Manetho, in the history of that country, that the Shepherds had occupied Egypt, and been expelled from it, before Jacob went to reside there.|| ProcopiusH says, these Canaanites founded Tingis [Tangier], the capital of Mauritania, or rather,, that and that, they built a castle in a city, where Tingis stood in his time, two pillars of white stone were to be seen there, inscribed, in the Phoenician language and character, to the
settled in
;
'

following purport:

"

We are the Canaanites, Who fled from the face of Joshua,

" The son of Nave [or Nun], " That notorious plunderer."**

"

conquests. (y) Usher.

Homer.
t Hitt.

Ibnu Rachich, or Raquiq, an African writer, cited by Leo Afncanus,-lt together with Evagriusjj and Nicephorus Calasserts the same tiling. Besides Ihose who settled listus, in Africa, Greece, and the islands of the JEgean and Mediterranean seas, many colonies of these people are also supposed to have spread themselves over different parts of Germany, Sclavonia, Ac. though Mr. Bryant rather derives
the last from the Cutheans.||||

Annal ad A. M. 2554.
289.
lib. xxiii. ver.

See the

last note.
lib.

Iliad, lib. vi. ver.

lib. v.

741. Odyss.
xiii. ;io.

xv. ver. 424.

ix. 2.

f De
*
I:

Bell.

Vandal,

lib.

ii.

Nat.
I.

cap. 19.
(Jhran.

Numb.

Deal.
p.

Jiarl, I'kal. it

Canaan,

cap. 10, p. 257. lib. i. cap. 24. col. 476.

}}
(j|j

5 See Sir
j|

NewtonN
p.

f Ancient Kingdoms amended,

354,

et sea.

tr

Part V.
Lib. xvii. cap. 12.

UK

iv.

cap. 18.
iv. p.

See before,

436,

479482, 487489.

Mythal. vol.

183.

VOL.

I.

4H

no-2

HISTORY OF THE CANAANITES.

the field
;

[CHAP. x.

Anakini.(a) These people, as already stated, were of an origin foreign from that of the Canaanites: they dwelt in the south country, and had probably been driven from their cities in Joshua's first invasion of those parts ; but they still remained in force in the mountains and natural strong holds. They were a fierce and barbarous race, of extraordinary bulk and height, and it was necessary to cut them off, before the Israelites could expect to enjoy

which they were besieged in which was carried by assault, and all its inhabitants were put to the sword. The king, Adoni-bezek, escaped amid the tumult,
after

their city,

repose in their new habitation. Against them, therefore, Joshua turned his victorious arms; and from the cursory manner in which the inspired historian speaks of them, we may conclude the conquest to have been easy, notwithstanding the terror of their name, and the monstrous size of their stature: we only read that Joshua attacked and destroyed them, so that none of the Anakim remained, except those who were
in

but he was afterwards taken, and, according to his former cruelty towards seventy tributary or captive princes, he was requited, by having His life his thumbs and great toes cut off. was, however, spared ; and he was carried to Jerusalem, where he died ; that city having been previously taken and burned by the Israelites; but whether under Joshua formerly, or by the tribe of Judah at the period now
treated
of, is

uncertain. (c)

Gaza, Gath,

and Ashdod,

cities

of

the

Philistines ;(b) but whether they were there before, or tied thither to escape from Joshua,

afterwards attacked by the tribes of Judah and Simeon. Those who dwelt in the mountains were reduced ; but those in the plains were able to make a long and vigorous resistance, being furnished In the course of this with chariots of iron. war, Hebron was taken by Caleb, who slew three sons of Anak, named Sheshai, Ahiman,

The Canaanites were soon

does not appear. Although the Canaanites had been so repeatedly defeated, and every defeat had been followed with the extirpation of all that fell within the range of the conquerors, they were left still in considerable numbers, in various parts of the country: and during the remainder of -Joshua's life they were but little molested, the Israelites being engaged in the division of their new territories ; 'so that they not only recruited their strength, but seem to have recovered or rebuilt some of the cities that had been wrested from them, as Jerusalem, Hebron, Debir, in the south, and Hazor in the north. After the division of the country, the Canaanites were again attacked on all sides by the Israelites, who wanted each to drive them out of their respective lots. The Canaanites

and Talmai.(d)

Some vigorous attempts were also made by the other tribes against the cities that had fallen to their lot ; but the Canaanites maintained their ground with such firmness and
resolution, that, after all their calamities, we only miss the tribe of the Girgashites, who are said to have fled into Africa.(e)

Canaanites, peculiarly so called, the Sidonians, and the Hivites of mount Lebanon, were left to prove the Israelites, by exercising

The

them with temptations to idolatry and sin while the more immediately devoted nations,

and Perizzites in Bezek were invaded by Simeon and Judah, and lost 10,000 men in

the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, dwelt in a great measure in common with the children of Israel ; and, being thus blended, they soon prevailed on them to intermarry with them, and to serve their gods thus did
:

they

draw them

from

their

allegiance

to

and

whom these people derived their name a descendant of one Arba, who, before in Canaan, built the city of Arba, or Kirjath-Arba, afterwards Hebron which is called by the the Septuagint n*>iTfo7roXi{ TU ~S.ta.iuy. metropolis of the Eiuikim. Compare Gen. xxiii. 2. Josh. xiv. 15. xv. 13.
(a)

Anak, from

whom
so

lineage, was Abraham arrived

many dogs

he obliged to receive their meat under his table, like or, who were supplied from his granaries.
;

Judges,
(b)

i.

20.
xi.
i.

Joshua,

2123.

Adoni-bezek must have been a prince 8. (c) Judges, of some importance, since he had no less than 70 captive kings, whose great, toes and thumbs he had cut off, and
3

1720. Josephus found some gigantic forms, which not only exceeded the ordinary size of men, but differed also from them in aspect and voice. Some of their bones are exposed as a prodigy to this day."* Bochart has some curious thoughts on the import of the names of these Anakim, for which the reader is referred to his Canaan,
(d) josh. xv. 13, 14. Judges, i. 10, " among the slain [at Hebron] were says,
lib.
i.

cap. 1.

(c)

Gemar. Hierosolymit. ad
*
Antiq.

tit.

Shebitih, cap. 6.

lib. v.

16

cap. 2.

V.]

THEIR WARS WITH THE ISRAELITES.

forces.

003
been, Sisera chariot for

Jehovah, and became in turn the oppressors of their conquerors.(f ) The Canaanites, as already observed, had, among other places, recovered the city of Hazor, where, at the period we are now about to

However
and

this
I

may have
rust
to

found
safety,

he could not
foot

his

This Jabin, reigned. king, who may be called the secorid of his name,(g) had 900 chariots of iron, and an adequate army of horse and foot all which were under the command of Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles, i.e. Galilee. Jabin had reduced the Israelites to a state of
speak
of,

a prince,

named

he fled therefore, dismounting, towards the tent of He,ber, the Kenite,(i) who was then at peace with Jabin. Here he was received by Jael, the wife of Heber, with every token of respect; she entreated him to turn into her tent, and covered him

away on

with a mantle,

his fatigue. asked for water,

slavery, and cruelly oppressed them for 20 years: but whether this subjection extended to all who dwelt in the country, or only to tho.se within his immediate district, has been

milk ; she placed herself, agreeably to his request, at the tent door, to watch, and to alarm him on the approach of an enemy. But all this civility was specious Jael had learned the policy of
:

while he reposed himself after complained of thirst, and but she presented him with and when he laid himself down again,

He

writer has not questioned; decided; though probability rather favours the I as t position. At the end Jul. Per. *3429. ") A.M. *2719. f of 20 years, the Israelites revoltPost Dil. *to<i2. C e(] at the instigation of the
for

the

sacred

attaching herself 'to the strongest party; and therefore, with a resolution disgraceful to her sex, and revolting to human nature, she no sooner perceived this miserable victim sunk into

*l28a.J

pointed

prophetess Deborah, who apBarak to command their forces.

When

Jabin

heard of

this,

he prepared his

900 war

chariots,

and issued a proclamation

for the collecting of his men of to inarch against the insurgents,

war

together,

who were but

The adverse armies met near 10,000 strong. on the banks of the river Kishon; Megiddo, a battle ensued ; Sisera was routed, and pursued with great slaughter to the gates of his own city Harosheth. The particulars of this battle are not recorded in the sacred text ; but from the language of Deborah, in her song of rejoicing,(h) it appears to have been attended with something miraculous the stars of heaven are said to have fought against Sisera, and the river Kishon swept away his
:

a sound sleep, than stepping up softly to his head, she, with a blow of a hammer, transfixed him to the ground, by driving a nail, or pin, used in bracing up the tent, through his temShe then resumed her ples into the earth station at the door, to await a proper opporIt was not tunity to proclaim her exploit. before Barak passed by, in full pursuit of long his enemy; but being called to by Jael, he entered the tent, and found the object of his search already dead, and to the pinned Thus fell Sisera, ingloriously by ground. (j) the hand of a woman, and treacherously in the tent of a friend ; with him, also, fell Jahin's power; for though the Scripture has only recorded these particulars relative to Sisera, it adds, that, the Israelites prevailed against Jabin,
!

till

they had destroyed him.(k)

7. iv. 2, et seq. Judges, ii. 20 23. iii. 1 Jabin seems to have been a common appellative for the kings of the Canaanites, as Pharaoh was for those of the Egyptians, Agag for those of the Amalekites, &c. (h) Judges, v. 4, 20, 21. Josephus, who is rarely at a loss to supply what the sacred penmen have left undecided, asserts positively, that the armies were no sooner engaged, than a furious wind arose, which drove such a tempest of hail and rain into the faces of the Canaanites, as stifled and blinded them, at the same time that it so benumbed their
(f)

(g)

foreign extraction, had been permitted to settle with Israelites in the Promised Land. They dwelt in tents,
;

the

and

the greater part of them were seated in the neighbourhood but Heber had separated of Kadesh Barnea, south of Arad himself from his brethren, and resided in the plain of Zaanaim, near Kedcsh, in the territories of Jabin, with whom

to disable them from action ; they were, consequently, easily broken, dispersed, and trampled to death by their own horses, or torn to pieces by their chariots.* the Kenite, was a descendant of Jethro, or (i) Heber, of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses. This
fingers, as

family,

though

he had probably formed some alliance.* (j) It has been concluded by some commentators, from an expression of Deborah, that Jael, after she had fastened Sisera to the ground, cut off his head with his own sword. See Judges, v. 26. (k) Judges, iv. 24. Josephus relates, that Jabin met Barak as he was in full march against the city of Hazor, and was encountered by him and slain after which, Hazor, the seat of his empire, was razed to the ground.
;

*
Joseph.

Aiitiq. lib. v. cap. 6.

Corap. Judges,

i.

16.

iv.

11, 17. 1 C/mro.

ii.

55. Jer. xxxv. 6, 7.

4 H 2

604

HISTORY OF THE CANAANITES.

this

[CHAP.

we read no more of the Canaanites; for, although the power Israelites were subsequently in frequent thraldoms, of the old inhabitants only the Philistines In the days of were troublesome to them. David, indeed, the Jebusites had Jnl. Per. 3666. ~) A.M. 2956. f got possession of the city of JeruFrom
period,

of the

salem, or, at least, of the strong hold of Zion, by what means is not stated ; but they were dislodged by that prince and Joab; and David made it his royal
residence.(l)

Post Dil. 1299. B. C. 1048.

Some circumstances, is extremely doubtful. have supposed, that such as remained of them, after the overthrow of Sisera, left the country in quest of new settlements (p) but others think they remained independent on the maritime coasts, and afterwards rose to a high degree of celebrity for their extensive navigation, general commerce, and invention of useful under the character of Phoenicians, (q) arts,
;

stand of these people was at Gezer, the reign of Solomon, they were where, invaded by Pharaoh, king of Egypt, upon what provocation is unknown their city was burnt, themselves were put to death, and Pharaoh afterwards gave Gezer as a dowry with his daughter to Solomon, who rebuilt, or repaired it (in) Thus oppressed by the Israelites on one hand, and by the Egyptians on the other, the remnant of the Amorites, Hittites Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, were reduced, in the Jul.Per. reign of Solomon, to a state of
last

The

Mr. Bryant, however, derives the latter people from a different source ;(r) indeed, it seems incredible, that Solomon should have suffered the Canaanites to remain unmolested, when he had
the remnant of their brethren it reasonable to conclude, that they had previously ensured their safety by migration to distant climes; and could we be permitted to hazard a conjecture, founded upon ancient prophecy and existing facts, we should he inclined to point at the unhappy Negroes of Guinea, those unfortunate objects of European avarice and barbarity, as the descendants of these sons of Canaan. (s) In the foregoing history of Canaan, it will be perceived, that the Sidonians are scarcely noticed, and that they were not included among know not why the conquests of Israel. were exempt from the general doom, unless they it was because they were not seated within the limits of the Land of Promise; and it is certain, that while their brethren were exposed to an exterminating war, they all the evils of

in

subjugated
is

all

much more

*3702.^

slavery; for being, as is supposed, unable to answer the *ioi2.J demands of a tribute, they were, therefore, employed in the most laborious works of the Israelites,(n) with whom they seem, at last, to have been blended under the names of " " the children of Solomon's Nethinim," and servants, "(o) In this enumeration, it is to be observed, the Canaanites, peculiarly so called, are omitted ; and it is therefore concluded, that they were exempt from the servitude: but under what
*2992. ( Post.Dil.*i335. f
v. 6 An expression, 9. 1 Chron. xi. 4 8. former place, has much puzzled commentators ; and it would be hazardous to venture conjecture, after the great authorities that have been baffled in its exposition the opinion of Josephus seems, however, to be preferable to many others, viz. that, confiding in the strength of the place, the Jebusites placed their blind and lame upon the walls, in contemptuous defiance of David. For farther speculations
(1)

A.M.

We

remained tranquil in their coasts, and were enriched by commerce from most parts of the ancient world, as will more particularly appear
in

the history of Phrenice.

(n) 1 (o) 1

2 Sam.

in the

on

this

subject,

see

Bochart's

Phaleg.

lib.

Patrick's

same

Comment, on 2 Sam. v. and Eliezer, Pirk. cap. 36. (m) 1 Kings, ix. Ifi.
;

68.

Le

cap. 36. Clerc on the

iv.

Ezra, ii. 43, 55, 58. Nehem. vii. 60. See also Joseph. Antiq. lib. viii. cap. 2, and lib. xi. cap. 4. (p) Bochart. Phaleg. et Canaan, lib. iv. cap. 34. col. 301. Heidegg. Hist. Patriarch, exerc. 23, 2, p. 491. (q) Univ. Hist. vol. ii. p. 217, 331, 8vo. vol. vi. p. 227. (r) Mythology, " Cursed be Canaan a servant of ser(s) Gen. ix. 25. Does any other portion vants shall he be unto his brethren." of the human race exemplify in any degree the operation of this early anathema, like the victims of that most borrid and abominable traffic, the African slave-trade ?
ix. 2.
;

Kings, Chron.

ix.

2022.

CHAP.

XI.]

HISTORY OF THE PHILISTINES.

CHAPTER XL
HISTORY OF THE PHILISTINES.
SECTION

I.

ORIGIN, COUNTRY, CITIES, GOVERNMENT, CUSTOMS AND CHARACTER, LANGUAGE, ARTS, INVENTIONS, AND RELIGION, OF THE PHILISTINES.
people, as observed in a former Chapter,(t) derived their origin partly from (he Casluhim, and partly from the Caphtorim, who were themselves of the race of Mizra'im.(u) was their first settlement, about the viei-

THESE

nity of mount Casius, whence they invaded the south of Canaan, expelled the Avim, or Avites, and planted themselves in their This place.(v) revolution must have taken place at a very early period, since Abraham found them in the Land of Promise soon afterlheHestrnction of Sodom; and hence it has been concluded that they migrated from their original seat in Egypt, during the commotions occasioned by the irruption of the

Egypt
(t)

Hyc-sos into that country (vv) Moses says the Caphtorim(x) destroyed the
ledges that the Cretans were originally did not come from Greece. Homer
all

See before, p. 316, 418, 594. (u) Comp. Gen. \. 14. Deut.

barbarians, and

ii.

23.

Jerem.

xlvii.

4.

Amos,
(\v)

ix. 7.
ii.

(v) Deut.

23.
r
-

>95. Also, Cumberland on Sanchoniatho, p. 372. to be only another (x) Many interpreters take Caphtor name for Cappadocia,* which they imagine to have been the but Calinet, in a disseroriginal country of the Philistines tation prefixed to his Comment on the Book of Samuel, endeavours to prove them to be of Cretan origin, for which

See before, p.

guage was spoken in the isle of Crete; that there were Greeks there, besides true or ancient Cretans, Pelasgians,&c. These ancient Cretans are the same as the Cherethites, and
the Pelasgians as the Philistines or Pelethites of Scripture. Their language was similar to that of the Canaanites, or Phosnicians, that is, Hebrew. They were descended, as well

says, a different lan-

lie

offers

the
in

strangers Scripture, as Gen.

following reasons Palestine, as appears

:

\.

14. Deut.

ii.

The Philistines were from several parts of 23. Jerem. xlvii. 4, and
translate
this

"

Amos,

ix.

7,

whence the Septuagint always

The kings using the term Strangers.-^ of Judah had foreign guards, called Chc.rethites and Pelethites,l who were of the number of the Philistines. The Septuagint, by the name of Cherethitcs, understood the Cretans ; and by Cherith, they understood Crete. Besides, the Scripture says, the Philistines came from the isle of Caphtor ; and where is the island in the Mediterranean, wherein the distinctive marks by which the Scriptures describe Caphtor and the Cherethim, agree better than in The name, Cretim, or Cherethim, is the isle of Crete ?
name Caphtorim by

The Cretans are among the same with that of Cretenses. the most ancient and celebrated people of the Mediterranean. They pretended to have emerged originally from their native This island was well peopled in the lime of the Trojan soil. war : so that Homer calls it the island with 100 cities. The
city of

Canaan, from Ham, by Mizraim.|| The manners, arms, and gods of the Cretans and Philistines were the same. The arms of both were bows and arrows. Dagon, the god of the Philistines, was the same as the Dictynna of the Cretans." The bulk of these arguments, however, only prove the probability of the Philistines and Cretans being of one origin and the Cretans may as well have passed from Palestine, as the Philistines from Crete. The assertion of Herodotus, that the Curetes came from Phoenicia with Cadmus, 1f is therefore to be preferred, as the first movements of mankind were doubtless by land, long before they ventured to explore -distant regions by sea; and hallows an adequate time for the invention and improvement of ships. It has been also thought, from the affinity between the names Casluhim and Colchis, that the Philistines first went from Egypt into Colchis, and thence returning towards Egypt, in their way seized on the country of the Avim.** On the other hand, the Caphtorim are supposed to have dwelt in Africa, on the bay of Syrtis;lt while bishop Cumberland
as
religion,
;

Ga/a, in Palestine, went by the name of Mioa, because Minos, king of Crete, coming into that country, Herodotus acknowcalled this ancient city by his own name.
* Bocliart. See before, 316. Phaleg. lib. iv. cap. 31. p. L'*k. xxv. 16. See 1 Sam. xxx. 14. Zephan. ii. 5. J 2 Sam. xv. 18. Stcph. Byzant. in Gazam. Gen. x. 6, 13, 14.
t
i|

describes them as dwelling with the Phoenicians, or Canaanon the side of Egypt next to Arabia, till being invaded by their kindred, the other sons of Mizra'im, they left it, to avoid the miseries of the impending war between the Hyc-sos and the pure Egyptians ; and removed into the land where
ites,

Abraham found
H Hcrodot.
lib. T.

them.JJ
cap. 58.

** Bochnrl. I'haleg. lib. iv. cap. 31. +t Le Clerc. in Gen. x. 14. }} Cumberland on Satichcmiatho, p. 372.

HISTORY OF THE PHILISTINES.

Hazerim,(y) even unto Az/ah, by which Gaza is generally understood and from the negociations of Abraham and Isaac with Abimelech, it appears that Beer-

[CHAP. xr.

Avim which dwelt

in

sheba was within their limits: we may therefore conclude that their first possessions in the Promised Land were very circumscribed and that they did not extend northward farther than Gaza, while they stretched much more towards the east than they are known to have done afterwards. At what time they extended their dominion as far as Gath does not appear. In their most flourishing times, however, they possessed the sea-coasts from the torrent of Nephtoah, north of Gath, to the city of Raphia; or from the port of Jamnia to the river Bezor. Their inland territories were very narrow.
;

demolished by Hazael, king of Syria. (e) On its ruins, a castle was built by Fulk, king of Jerusalem, in the a3ra of the croisades.(f) The situation of this city has been much disputed some writers make it the most southern, and Ekron, the most northern of the Philistine cities,(g) as if they had been in the two extremes of their dominions: whereas they were not above five miles apart, and Gath was the most northern, while Gaza was the most southern of the satrapies. (h) Jerom places Gath on the road from Gaza to Eleutheropolis, which being farther south, induces a suspicion that he means
:

some other
which

called by the same name, a wine-press in the Hebrew signifies indeed, several other cities, or towns, called Gath, occur in the writings of Ensebius and
place,
:

not comprehended in the number of nations devoted to extermination, and whose territory was promised to the Hebrews, perhaps on account of the oath between Abraham

Though

and
tion,

Abimelech yet Joshua, in gave their lands and cities

;

his
to

distributo the tribe

Jerom, (i) whose situation plainly shews them to be different from each other, and from the city in question, which appears to have been the most northerly of the Philistine cities, on tlie sea-coast, between the Jamnian Port and the torrent of Nephtoah. We read of one, with

of Judah, as

places
cities

remaining
of
the

be

con-

quered.

The

chief

Philistines

[Akarori], [Hasaneytin], Askelon [Scalona], and Gaza these were the seats of five distinct satrapies. Gerar was also the residence of a Philistine king in the days of Abraham and Isaac ; though in the time of Joshua it seems to have Other places of note, belonged to the Hittites. within their territories, were the port of Jamnia,
:

Gath, Ekron

Ashdod, or

were Azotus

whose inhabitants the Ephraimites, while yet in Egy.pt, had some disastrous conflict ;(j) which was probably the Gath described above as in the southern border of the Philistines, and
anterior to the northern seaof the places called Gath, were port. distinguished by an adjunct, as Gath-hepher(k) (signifying to dig at the wine-press,) Gath-

of a date

much

Some

Hazar-shual,

Ziklag,

Raphia

\Rcfah~],

Gazeorum, and Rhinocolura.

Beersheba,

Gath, or Geth, the birth-place of Goliath, (z) was first conquered by David, (a) fortified by his grandson Rehoboam,(b) and retaken by Uzziah and Hezekiah.(c) In the time of the prophets Amos and Micah, it had recovered its but was afterwards liberty and lustre ;(d)

rimnion(l) (a high wie-press,) &c. and the want of due attention to these distinctions in ancient writers, has occasioned the contradictory positions given by their successors. Ekron, or Accaron [Aharon], about five miles south of Gath, according to the foregoing supposition, (m) was at first included in the lot of Judah, and afterwards transferred to the tribe of Dan.(n) It appears to have been a very

strong and considerable city ; and it is doubtful whether either of the tribes ever really sub-

whence it should themselves at first with the borders of the land; and, from the tenor of Abimclech's covenant with Isaac, it appears that they were solicitous to obtain that patriarch's favour, to whom they tacitly acknowledge the country of right pertained.
(y)
this
is

The import of

word

porches,

(f)

seem that the

Philistines contented

(g)

See the Holy War, and Maundrell. Calmet. in voc. Getk.

Joseph. Antlq.
lib. ix.

(h)
(i)

cap. 13.
(j)
vi.

(k)
(1)

Onomast. in voc. Get/i. 2 Kings, xiv. 25. 1 Chron. Joshua, xxi. 25.

1 Chron.

vii.

21.

69.

(z) 1
(a) 1

Sam.

xvii. 4.

Chron. xviii. 1. (b) 2 Chron. xi. 8. See also Joseph. Antii/. lib. ix(c) 2 Chron, xxvi. 0. cap. 1 1, et SK<I. Reland. Paltest. Ittiutr. lib. ii. p. 79. (-t serj2 Kings, xii. 17 (d) Amos, vi. 2. Micah, i. 10. (,e)

vi. 2, ft Quad. Reland and Cellarius seem undetermined whethi-r Ekron or Gath were most northerly we here follow Josephus and Jerom.

(m) See Hieronym.

Comm.

in

Amosum,
:

ver. 19.

(n)

Joshua, xv. 45. xix. 43.

SECT.

I.J

CHIEF CITIES.
village. Origen speaks of extant in his days, which w-re the reputed work of Abraham ;(y) and profane writers mention a small lake, full of fishes, consecrated to Derccto;(z) on which account the people forbore to eat them; as they also abstained from pigeons for a similar reason. This city was made an episcopal see in the earliest ages of Christianity, and was adorned, during the croisades, with many stately edifices all which have been since ruined by the Saracens, arid their successors the Turks. Josephus places it about 320 furlongs, or 40 miles, west of Jerusalem. Gaza, the fifth and last satrapy of the Philistines, stood about 15 miles south of Askelon, about four or five north of the river Bezor, and at a small distance from the sea. It was situate on an eminence, surrounded with fertile valleys, watered by the above-named river and a number of .other springs at a farther distance, it was encompassed, on the inland with hills covered with fruit-trees of side, various kinds. Though strong, both from its and the stout .walls and towers that situation, surrounded it, it was taken by Caleb, then chief of the tribe of Judah :(a) it was soon, .however, retaken by its ancient inhabitants, who seem to have held it, when Samson effected his escape from it by carrying away the gates, &c. by

For though Judah is said to have soon after Joshua's death ;(o) yet, in the flays of Samuel, the Ekronites were the first of the five signories who proposed sending'back the ark of the covenant, whose presence had been attended with such fatal consequences to This city has, by some the Philistines. (p) geographers, being confounded with Straton's tower, where Herod afterwards built CsareaPalestina ;((]) though, in fact, the latter stood more than 40 miles north of it, in the canton of Sharon. In later maps, it is placed about 34 miles west of Jerusalem. Ashdod, Azoth, or Azotus [Hasaneyun], between Ekron and Askelon, about 14 or 15 miles south of the former, was a celebrated seaport on the Mediterranean; and continued for many years in the hands of its original owners, after it had been given by allotment to 'Judah.
jected taken
it.
it,

dwindled into a
wells,

some

that the idol Dagon was humbled and broken in pieces before the presence of the God of Israel, typified in the According to Herodotus, it held out ark.(r) for 2J) years against the assaults of Psammeticus,

In this city

it

was

being the longest siege upon was again besieged, and taken record. (s) by the Maccabees, who burned the city and temple, and with them about 8000 men (t)

king of Eg'vpt,
It

Askelon, or Ascalon [Stalona^, about eight or nine miles south of Ashdod, was esteemed the strongest place on all the Philistine coast; nevertheless, the tribe of Judah, to whose lot it fell, became masters of it soon after the death of Joshua ;(u) yet, in the days :of Saul, the Philistines appear to have reentered into
possession. (v)
built

night.(b)

It

frequently changed masters, and

passed from the Jews to the Chaldaeans, Persians, and Egyptians ; it was first ruined by Alexander the Great,(c) and a second time

by the Maccabees

;(d)

after

which

its

name

This

city

is

said

to

have been

by one Ascalus, a Lydian, son of Hymenaeus, and brother to Tantalus, who was sent by Alciamus, or Alcymus, king of Lydia, with a body of troops into Syria,(w) upon what occasion is not recorded. It was taken by Jonathan Maccabeus and on king Herod's death was given by Augustus to Salome, the sister of that tyrant, who had been a native of the place, and was thence called Asca;

occurs only once more, when St. Luke menIts distance from tions it as lying in ruins.(e)

some geographers variously stated a seaport, mistaking it for New Gaza making [Majuma], others placing it some miles from Arrian makes it only twenty furthe shore. andCalmetas many miles, distant from the longs, sea. There are many monuments of the ancient
the sea
is
;

it

lonites.(x)
(o)

It

is

still

in

existence,
Sam. Sam.
v. v.

though

grandeur of Gaza still remaining, between two and three miles from the Mediterranean ; such as rows of stately marble columns, with their
(y) Orig.

Judges,

i.

18.

(q)
(s) (t)

Hieronym. ubi supr. Herodot. lib. ii. cap. 157

1

(p) 1 (r) 1

10.

Contra

Cels. lib.

iii.

Euseb. Onamast. sub voc.

4.

Qftxp.
(z)

Died. Sicul.

lib.

i.

Lucian.

De Dcd

Syr.

Philo.

(v)

Mace. x. 83, 2 Sam. i. 20.

ct sctj.

(u)

Judges,

i.

18.

apud Eusob.

De
i.

Prapar.
18.

lib. viii. et al.

(w) Xanthii Lydiaca, apuil Stephanum. (x) Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiv. cap. 27.

(a) Judges, (c) Plut. in

(b) Ibid. xvi.

13.

Alexand.
xi.

(d) 1

Mace,

Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiii. cap. 21, 01. xiii. 43. (e).4cts f viii. 26.

GOB

HISTORY OF THE PHILISTINES.

is

[CHAP. xi.

ornaments, and some noble sepulchres of the same valuable kind of stone, finely wrought. Near the city is a round castle, flanked with four square towers; opposite to which is the

harem of the bashaw, where his women are kept and a little above are the fragments of an old

castle, the materials of which are still so that no impression can be made on them firm, with a hammer. The Greeks have here a

Roman

Josephus's account of the celebrated victory obtained by Ptolemy Philopator over Antiochus the Great :(1) it is next heard of as being taken by Alexander Janneus, and almost destroyed by the wars, till restored by Gal)inius.(m) Some ancient medals, struck at this place, have been found ; and some bishops of the see assisted at the Eastern
in

councils.(n)

handsome church, the roof which is large and bold, supported by two rows of marble pillars, of the Corinthian order. Not inferior to this, is the church of the Armenians, where a spot is shewn
on which stood the temple, pulled down by Samson, and now reduced to a heap of rubbish. (f)

The surrounding territory is still but beyond it, quite to the river of pleasant;
Egypt, the
soil is

Gaza, was the ancient Gaza, and of some consequence on port that account; but particularly so in the reign of Constantine the Great, who named it Constantia, after his son Constantius, and endowed it with many privileges, of which it was after-

Majuma,
to

or

New

moresterile.(g)

Rhinocolura, or, as it is sometimes improperly written, Rhinocorura, was the last city on this coast, north of the river of Egypt. Its founders, and the import of its name, have given rise to various sentiments: the word itself, if really of Greek origin, which is much to be doubted, signifies slit nostrils; and the current story of its founders is, that a numerous gang of banditti, who had for a long time infested the Egyptian
dominions, were at length captured, and banished, with their nostrils slit, or, as some say, with their noses cut off", to this desert
spot,

by Cambyses, where they built this city, which was, from their punishment, stigmatized with the name of Rhinocolura ;(o) or, according
to

wards deprived by Julian the Apostate.(h) This town was situated near the mouth of the river Bezor, about 10 miles south of Askelon, and as many north-west of Anthedon. There are

another .account,

it

Ethi-pia,

who

inflicted
:(p)

was Attisarus, king of the above punishment

many

bourhood, but they belonged

Gaza.(i)

curious antiquities remaining in its neighit is difficult to decide whether to New or Old originally
15 miles sea port of

the former, however, is also an old generally preferred. tradition, tiiat in this place Noah divided the earth between his three sous, and their poste-

upon the banditti

There was

south of Gaza, was the Anthedon, destroyed by Alexander Janneus, and rebuilt by Herod, who called it Agrippias, in honour of his friend and patron Agrippa. The town of Raphia [Refa/i\, on the seacoast, 24 miles south of Gaza;(j) as its name does not occur in the Old Testament, is supposed by Calmet to be the city of Gath, which belonged to the Rephaim, and the place whence the incursion above alluded to, was made upon the Ephraimites. (k) The first time this city is mentioned by Jewish writers
small
Thevenot, part. Pococke, vol. i.
ii.

About

This city was placed indifferently by ancient writers, in Palestine, Syria, and Egypt, because at various times it belonged to each of them: but by what name it was designated whilst under the Jews, or, indeed, till the fabulous Greeks gave it the above-mentioned, dors
rity.^])

nowhere appear. The river on which this city stood has been the subject of considerable discussion among the learned : some taking it to be that of Bezor :(r) others, the torrent of the wilderness, mentioned in some of the sacred books,(s) and some the river of Egypt, spoken Dr. Pococke, who calls it a of in others. (t) rivulet, seems confident that it is the same with what is called the river or torrent of Egypt
;

(f)

cap. 36.

(g)

p. Hi.

(h) Fleury, Eccl. Histor. an. 302.

Marliniere, snb voce Gaza. Strabo and Livy in Phoenicc; place Kaphia Ptolemy makes it a city of Samaria and Pliny of Idumea. Josephus and Polybius speak of it as the very first of in
(i)

La

(j)

coming from Egypt.

city

Syria,

Calmet. sub voce Raphia. (1) 3 Marc. i. 11. (m) Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiii. cap. 21. lib. \iv. cap. 10. (n) Keland. Palant. Illmtr. lib. iii. p. 97. Seneca. De Gra. lib. iii. cap. 20. (o) Strabo, lib. xvi. ()0 Diod. Sicul. lib. i. cap. 6-2. Pasc. p. 26, et scq. (q) Kpiphan. Ancorat. Chronic. (s) Amos, xiv. 14. (r) 1 Sam. xxx. 9, 10, 21.
(kl
(t)

Josh. xv. 4, 47.

Isaiah, xxvii. 12.

SECT.

I.J

GOVERNMENT. ARTS. GIANTS.

The Philistines were not only a \varlike, but an industrious and commercial people ; in which last capacity they were preferred by the Greeks to all other nations, who
the country bordering upon theirs, a great attachment and deities, did not circumcise, and, in their earlier days, held Their adultery in the greatest abhorrence.
called
all

whereas, Dr. Shaw is fully of opinion that by the river of Egypt, the Nile must be understood,^) which was quite unconnected with the town in question he likewise maintains that there was no river running by it, as Reland had before shewn, from Diodorus and other
:

authorities.

This city became very early a Christian bishopric, under the metropolitan of Pelusium ; and during the croisades it was a
its

They had Palestine.(x) to their national religion

ceremonies

strong fortress, though

name was changed

religious

were

performed

with

to Pharamica, and was of great utility in preventing the Turkish auxiliaries passing out of It is now an inconEgypt into Palestine. siderable place, and the surrounding country a

mere

desert.

ancient form of government among the Philistines was administered by kings, who all bore the appellation of Abimelech ;

The most

but their authority, as may be deduced from the following history, appears to have been In the days of Moses, their very limited. monarchy was changed for an aristocracy of five lords by the time of David, the supreme authority was again vested in the hands of a king for what reason does not appear. This
;
;

Their lanmagnificence. guage was the same with that of the Canaanites, Phoenicians, and Hebrews; and they had, without doubt, the arts and sciences in common with the most ingenious of their contemThe invention of the bow and arrow poraries. is ascribed to them, and they are said to have been particularly skilled in the use of those weapons. This invention is supposed
great
to have had its rise prior to their removal from Pelusium, where they first dwelt,(y) and

pomp and

they

second race of kings was distinguished by the well as of Abimelech. title of Achish, as During their best times, the royal residence was at Gath, whence it was removed to Askelon, and afterwards to Gaza. In the age of Abraham and Isaac, these people were hospitable and righteous; and so they may have continued under their first race of
kings ; but as idolatry crept in among them, they gave into most of the enormities of their neighbours, and became remarkable for their arrogance and ambition, as well as for their implacable enmity towards the Israelites, even before they had settled in their vicinity :(v) hence Moses was ordered to go about, lest his followers should be disheartened by the opposition of the Philistines,

stoutest men with them, called Cherethites,(z) a name they sometimes used for the whole nation, as already noticed. They had giants among them, in the popular sense of the word, men of extraordinary stature and strength ; but whether of the original breed of the Avim and Anakira, or sprung from accidental births, cannot be satisfactorily determined ; though the former idea is considerably strengthened by the circumstance of Goliath, Ishbi-benob, Saph, or Sippai,

armed

their

whom

Lahmi, and another, being all spoken of as belonging to one family,(a) called in the margin

Rapha, probably derived from the Rephaim, which seems to have been the original stock, whence the Avim, Anakim, Emini, &c. were

derived.

Under the

first

race of their kings, their

:

and

return to

Egypt.(w)

have been pure Abimelech, when he had been betrayed by the timidity of Abraham into an error, was admonished of
religion appears to
have been the aggressors, in coming down, as the text expresses it, from their own country, to seize the cattle of the Ephraimites, in the borders of the desert: but the Targum supposes the children of Ephraim, miscalculating the time they were to serve in Egypt, made too early an attempt upon the Promised Land, and were therefore repulsed.
(w) Exod.
(x)
xiii.

(u) It seems evident, however, from the last-quoted passages in the book of Joshua, as well as from other parts of the inspired writings, that there was a stream called the river of Egypt, which divided Palestine from Egypt, and emptied

itself into the

Mediterranean but whether llhinocolura was or not, is not so easily decided. (v) An incident, related only in 1 Chron. xii. 21, 22, shews " The men of this enmity to have been of very old standing.
;

near

it

17, 18.
p. 37.

Cumberland. Origin. Gentium Antiquamm,

Bedford's Script. Chronol. p. 245. Bochart. Canaan, lib. i. cap. 15.

Gath slew the children of Ephraim, because they came down to take away their cattle :" this happened during the life-time
of Kphraim, and, consequently, while the Israelites were Dr. Lightfoot supposes the Gittites to sojourners in Egypt.

(y)
(z)

(a)

1 Sam.

xx.

48.
4
I

xvii. 4, et seq.

2 Sam.xxi.

1622.

1 Chron.

VOL.

I.

010

HISTORY OF THE PHILISTINES.

;

[CHAP. xi.

God

and from

his

speech and conduct on

of heaven, which might be easily

into
Ji<Ht/-:cbnb.

converted

the occasion, he evidences as much familiarity with divine revelation* as the patriarch himIndeed, at that early period, none self.(b) but the miserable and filthy Sodomites, and
their

The form under which he

is uncertain; yet some represented, describe him enthroned as a monarch, while others paint him as a fly.(f) He had an oracle

was

appear wholly to have put away from them the fear of God. In afterlimes, however, the Philistines made as gross aberrations from the purity of religious worship, as any of their heathen neighbours, and each of their principal cities had an idol of its own. Thus at Gaza, Marna, Mamas, or Afarnash,(c) was worshipped, who is supposed to be the same with the Cretan
colleagues,
Jttpiter.

at

much
the

Ekron, which was long in great repute, and consulted. Askelon was celebrated for

worship of Derceto, or Atursfatis, the mother of Semirarnis, who also partook of the form of a fish, and to whom doves were esteemed sacred. (g) Ashtarotk, or Asturte,
:

Dairon($) was worshipped at Ashdod, or Azotus, and seems to have been the greatest, as well as the most ancient and favourite of He was the reputed inventor of their deities. or of agriculture, and is by many bread-corn, considered as the same with the Syrian goddess Derceto, being represented as partaking partly of the human form, and partly of that of a fish.(e) He had a particular order of priests, who paid him a very constant attendance. Next to Dagon, was Baal-zebub, the god of JEkron, called in the New Testament, BeelHis name is renzebub, Ike prince of devils. lord of flies, synonymous with Hercules dered, Apomyos, so called from his being supposed to keep the country clear of noxious insects; though some writers conceive this to have been a mock appellation given him by the Israelites, and that his real title was Baal-zebaoth, lord of
armies, or Baal-shmnim, or Beel-samen,
(b)
(c)

the goddess of the Sidonians, is supposed to have received divine honours at Gath and, judging from the name of a neighbouring town, Gath-Rimmon, perhaps the god of Naaman's rnaster(h) may be also reckoned among the deities of the Philistines.

Of their religious ceremonies, very little can be said in particular it can only be inferred, from what the sacred writers have left, that their solemn seasons and festivals were cele;

brated in spacious temples, or large halls ; that were attended with great when the people assembled from all pomp, parts; that they presented their gods with the chief of their spoil, and carried them about to war with them. They are nowhere. charged in Scripture with sacrificing their children but the Curetes are known to have been addicted to that barbarous practice ;(i) a difference in manners, that seems to militate against the doctrine of their having sprung from the same root ; though the Curetes might
their religious offices
;

lord

have adopted

it

subsequent to their separation.

Gen. xx. passim.

Hieronym. in Esai. (d) 1 Sam. v. 2, et scq. (c; This deity has been variously taken for Jupiter, Venus, and Neptune; Sanchoniatho describes him as the son of Uranus, and brother to Chronos.* Philo Biblus calls him y.ivs APTIK>{, Jupiter Aratriiis, Jupiter the Ploughman; and His Hebrew name Jl'TT (DaG-O) i'iT4i, from C-ITOJ, corn. of 31 (DOG) afsh, and ]l (ON) the stm;t q- d. is a compound Hence Mr. Bryant]; the god On, in the scmblanw, of a fish. identifies him with the Cannes of Berosus, as he does Cannes with Noah, the first husbandman after the flood, and consequently the inventor of the use of bread-corn. Besides Ashdod, this deity was worshipped in several other places; as at Beth-Dagon, afterwards included in the tribe <>( Judah, and at a place of the same name, in the tribe
of Asher.|| Bethsaida, also, in Galilee, signifies the house or temple of Cetus, or Dagon, where he was, without doubt, This deity continued to worshipped by the Canaauites.
* See before,
t ;

have a temple at Ashdod till the time of the Maccabees, when it was burned by Jonathan, with the wrecks of the army of Apollonius, Demetrius's general, who had taken refuge in it, after a battle, in which they had been routed It is objected to the fishby the Jewish commander.lT like form of Dagon, that it makes him too much of a monster, and that a reading of the Septuagint in Fuller, describes the soles of his feet as having been cut off, when he fell before the ark of the covenant:** but to the first of these if monstrous s!n;po objections, it may be asked, in reply, were at all uncommon among the heathen idols? and if not, why should the instance in question excite surprise,

To the other objection, it is presumed the or doubt'? was cut English version is a very sufficient answer: Dagon has it, from off, or broken from his stump; or, as the margin
Ai

fishy part.^\
(f)

Procopius Gazeus. (h) 2 Kings, v. 18. (i) Ister, apud Porphyr.

jMltun, xix. 27.

(g)
lib.

See before,

p.

525.

ii.

sect. 56.
1

p.

"71, 272.
syntag. 2, p. 188. p. 131. vol. iv. p. 140.
Si/r.

||

f
ii.

Maccab.

x.

69, &c.

SeMen. De Vhs
Mythol. vol.
iii.

Joshua, xv. 41.

ft

See Fuller's 1'hgah Sight, book 1 5am. v. 4.

chap. 10. sect. 32, marg.

SECT.

II.]

TRANSACTIONS WITH ABRAHAM AND ISAAC.

SECTION
II.

Oil

CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE

PHILISTINES.
IT would be a fruitless labour to search after the history of these people, prior to their settlement in the country of the Aviin, that being neither the first act of their's upon record can we even guess at the date of that event. Josephus reckons one Philistinus, a son of Mizra'i'm, as their first king, and the founder of
;

have been made with some reference expected occupation of Canaan by The proposal Abraham and his posterity. was accepted, and the covenant ratified in the most solemn manner by sacrifice and swearing. The patriarch also gave Abimelech seven ewelambs as a witness that he had digged a certain
ever, to to the well,

forcibly seized

which the servants of Abimelech had without his knowledge, and

their

name;(j) whatever truth

it is

maybe
it is

in this

account,
either
their's

owed
from

likely that the town of Pelusium its name to them, or they derived
:

it

for thereabouts,

commonly

agreed, they tured to affirm They do not appear to have been very numerous or potent in the early days of their empire for their king, so long after as the age of Isaac, was so weak as to be jealous of that
:

first

settled, and some have venthat they were its founders.

which in consequence of this event obtained the name of Seer-sheba, or tvell of I he oat/t.(\) After this Abimelech, some writers put Ephron the Hittite,(m) of whom rj u l. Per.28.V5 Abraham bought the field and J A. M. 2i4.. Post Oil. 488. cave of Machpelah ;(n) but this j 18 9 ' surmise is far from well founded; ^ B- Cit does not appear that Ephron was at all connected with the Philistines if he had, it is to be presumed that Abraham, who had been so well received at the court of Abimelech, would not have been a stranger to that king's successor, as he clearly was to the person of Ephron, whom he did not distinguish among the sons of Heth. In the days of Isaac, another prince, called Abimelech, (o) reigned at Gerar, ^ JuL Per * 2 9io. who had an adventure with \ A. M. *2200. e

for

patriarch's power. Their first king,

Jul. Per.

the country, after the B.C. 187. } disaster of Sodom. Reappears to have feared God, and readily relinquished his passion for Sarah, when he found her to be the wife of another ; and after rebuking Abraham for his want of confidence, he presented him with a considerable number of sheep and oxen, besides servants, and gave him permission to settle in any part of his dominions, as more fully related in the history of that patriarch. (k) Some time after tins Abimelech went with Jul. Per. *2828. ") affair, A.M. *2ii8. ( Phichol, his chief captain, to PostDH. *4C1. Abraham, at his abode in BeerB. C. *1886. sheba,as it was afterwards railed, where, after" observing that he knew God to be with the patriarch in all his movements, he requested him to enter into a covenant, confirmed with an oath, that, according to the

2817. ") 2107. ( Post Oil. 450. f

mentioned in Scripture, was Abimelech, who reigned at Gerar,

A.M.

when Abraham
p art of

settled in that

Rebekah and
to that in

which

Isaac,(p) similar lecessor his predecessor

Post. Dil. *543.

CB.C.

*1804.

had been ensnared by Abraham and Sarah. He appears to have been an upright character, and to have merited the epithet of a good and righteous prince, notwithstanding the
pains that Josephus, without the least warrant from Scripture, has taken to defame him.(q) Isaac went at first into this prince's dominions to avoid the pressure of a famine that afflicted Canaan but his reception was so hospitable, that he took up his abode there, and lived in ease and comfort, till his increasing riches excited the jealousy of the Philistines, who then began to molest him by tilling up his wells as fast as his servants digged them, and by various other ill offices. At length, Abimelech, probably at the instigation of his envious subjects, sent him a message, request:

kindness he had experienced at their hands, so should he and his posterity be kind towards them and their's. The motive of this request is not explained in Scripture; it seems, how(j)

ing
ful

him

to depart,

than they.

because he was more powerIsaac complied so far as to

Hist. Jul. in

Reyn.
343.
32.

Palcest.

(k)
(1)

See before,

p.

Gen.

xxi.

22

To

this treaty,

it is

probable, the
Israel-

(n) Gen. xxiii. (m) Theoph. Antioch. was common to the (o) This mime, it has been observed, first race of the Philistine kings, as Phichol was to their

Philistines
ites

were indebted for their security, when the catered into possession of the Promised Land.

chief captain.
(p)

Gen.

xxvi.

(q) Antiq. lib.

i.

cap. 18.

4l2

612

HISTORY OF THE PHILISTINES.

[CHAP. xi.

remove from the immediate neighbourhood of Gerar but, though he was frequently obliged
;

he did not leave the he demonstrated his pacific country; whereby disposition, which forbore to take advantage
to shift
Iris

quarters,

of his enemies, notwithstanding their acknowledged inferiority of strength, and their mulAbimelech appears to tiplied aggressions. have been convinced of his injustice, and, either led by that sense, or impelled by his fears, he went to Isaac, accompanied by an intimate friend, named Ahuzzath, and his chief captain Phichol, and requested him to engage in a covenant similar to what Abraham had formerly made with his predecessor giving as a reason, their conviction that God was with him. Isaac, after gently reproving them for their unkindness, consented to their proposal, and made a feast on the occasion ;(q) after which they departed, and we hear no more of the Philistines for at least 150 years, when we are vaguely told of some skirmish between the men of Gath, and the children of Ephraim, in which some of the latter were
;

In this interval was born Samson, who proved a severe scourge to the Philistines all his days. When arrived at a state of manhood, this celebrated character was smitten with the charms of a Philistine damsel, who resided with her parents at Timnath ; and he married her. At the celebration of their nuptials, he proposed a riddle to 30 young Philistines, who were guests, promising to give a suit of apparel to each man, if within seven days /- Jul Per 3577 they could explain it; but, if SA.M. *2867.
not, they

one

suit.

were each to give him They puzzled them-

~\

PostDil.*i2io.

'

B c
-

*H37.

selves for three successive days with this riddle, which concerned a lion he had killed, in whose carcase, a twelvemonth after, he had found honey it was couched in the following terms " Out of the eater came forth meat; and out of the strong came forth sweetness ;" but finding themselves totally at a loss, they resorted
: :

to

not

slain.(r)
is recorded of these people, decease of Joshua, when they till after were dispossessed of the cities of Gaza, Askelon, and Ekron, by the united tribes of Judah and Simeon ;(s) which, however, they soon recovered. (t) At this time, their ancient regal government was dissolved, and an aristo-

Samson's bride, and threatened, if she did sift the secret from her husband, and reveal it to them, they would burn her and her father's house, for having introduced a stranger to plunder them of their substance. This so

Nothing farther
the

woman, that, by dint of tears, and continued entreaties, she got reproaches, the solution from Samson, and communicated it to the young men, on the seventh and last day that had been allowed them for the disterrified

the

cracy of five lords substituted in its place. About 1'20 years after the reduction of these cities, the Philistines oppressed the Israelites, till they were delivered by Shamgar, who slew 600 of these enemies of his brethren with second time Jul.Per. *3409.~) an ox-goad.(u) A.M. *269. ( they oppressed the Israelites, Post Dil.*io42. f i n conjunction with the Ammonites, in the days of Jephthah;(v)

Towards the close of this day, they covery. " What is said in triumph to Samson sweeter than honey? or what stronger than a lion?"
:

Samson admitted

his

" If observed, ye had not plowed with had not discovered my riddle." heifer, ye

wager

to

be

lost,

but

my He

then went out, and having slain 30 men of Askelon, brought their garments to the expounders of his enigma; after which, he left

and a

third time, they

reduced them, by God's

in subjection

and retired to his father's house.(x) This transaction naturally begot an invincible hatred between Samson and the Philishis bride,

permission, and held them

for

the space of 40 years. (w)

Gen. xx vi. 20 31. See also note Chron. vii. 21.
i.

tines; which was productive of many misfortunes to them, and, in the sequel, added to

(q)
(r)
(s)
(t)

(v) p.

609.

Judges,

17, 18.

As may be gathered from Judges, xiv. 19. xvi. 21. 1 Sam. v. 10. 2 Sam. i. 20. Josephus denies that Gaza and Ekron were taken by the Israelites, and only speaks of Askelon and Ashdod as being conquered.* A parallel case is found in Homer, (u) Judges, iii. 31.
*
Antiq.
lib. v,

where Lycurgus puts to flight the Bacchas with a similar The Vulgate reads plough-share, instead of oxweapon. goad. Le Clerc thinks Shamgar was not alone in this transaction but that he put himself at the head of a tumultuous
;

company, or mob, of the country people, armed in manner, with such implements of husbandry as came at the moment.
(v) (x)

a rustic
to

hand

cap. 2.

Judges, x. 7. Judges, \i\. passim.

(w) Judges,

xiii.

1.

SECT.
his

II.]

THEIR CHASTISEMENT BY SAMSON.

When
;

G13

occasioned him an unthe wrath of Samson timely towards his wife had a little subsided, he resolved to visit her and accordingly repaired to Timnath, at the time of wheat-harvest, with But he found, on his a kid, as a present. arrival, that her father, concluding they should never see him again, had given her to anoThis was a new excitement to the ther. of Samson, who resolved to avenge the anger The affront on the whole neighbourhood.

own imprudence,
end.

sister of his bride was proposed to him, as a substitute for the one he had forsaken and lost: her youth and superior accomplishments were extolled ; but all to no purpose Samson meditated a dire revenge, and was not With increto be diverted from his purpose. dible labour, he caught 300 foxes, and tying them two and two by the tails, he attached to each pair a lighted firebrand, and then drove them among the standing corn, which, with the

younger

breaking his bonds, snatched up the jaw-bone of an ass, that lay in his way, and fell upon them so unexpectedly, that he quickly laid a thousand of them dead at his feet,(y) and put the rest to flight. It does not appear that the Philistines took any measures of revenge upon the Israelites for this transaction, though they never forgot the author of their disgrace for some time afterwards, [twenty years, according to the calculation of some,(z)] when he took up his lodging at Gaza, the inhabitants of that city fastened their gates, with the intention of killing him in the morning. But Samson, being by some means apprised of their intention, arose at midnight, and took the city gates, with their posts and bars, and carried them to the top of a hill, before Hebron, (a) where he left them in
:

derision.

The

Philistines next heard that their great

enemy was captivated by a woman, named

to her they repaired

vineyards and olives, were totally consumed. Samson eluded the vengeance of the sufferers ; but when they understood the cause of his
anger, they looked upon his father-in-law as accessary to the fact, and therefore burned

For this, daughter together. were again chastised by Samson, however, they in what manner is not stated; and after he had smitten them, he retired to the rock Etam, in the land of Judah, and dwelt for security on Hither he was pursued its top. Jul. Per. *3578. and the men A. M. *28G8. f by the Philistines Post Dil.*i2li. t of to preserve themselves, Judah, 136. J went up to him, and he suffered them to bind him with new cords, and to deliver him over to his adversaries. The

him and

his

~\

Philistines shouted aloud at the sight of their enemy ; but their joy was quickly converted into sorrow, and their shouts of victory were

resided in the valley of Sorek : without delay, with offers of a large reward, if she could extort from him the secret by which he possessed such great strength ; probably supposing his mighty deeds to have been the effect of some charm, or Delilah accepted their offers, which magic. amounted in the whole to five thousand five hundred pieces of silver, and used all her powers to get the secret from him. Thrice he amused her with unreal statements; and though on each of these occasions he could not but perceive her intention, yet so great was his infatuation, that on the fourth solicitation he disclosed to her the fatal secret, that he had from his birth been a Nazarite, devoted to God, and that no razor had ever passed upon his head ;(b) but if his locks were shorn, his vow
Delilah,

who

would

exchanged

for

dying

groans

for

Samson,

weak

as

be broken, and he an ordinary man.

should

become

Delilah lost no

(y)
(z)

Judges, \\. passim.

These persous suppose the 20 years of Samson's government* to be included between his slaughter of the Philistines, and his going to a harlot at Gaza they being unwilling to admit that a Judge of Israel should have been But the word, harlot, guilty of so criminal an intercourse. is doubtless here used in the same sense as in the case of Kahah, t where it only means a woman who kept a house of public entertainment, or an inn, for travellers even were it otherwise, there is no reason to suppose that Samson was expelled from his official authority on this account, since the
; ;

besides, it makes the twenty years of his government the most inactive period of his life, when we It is, ought, on the contrary, to look for greater exertions. therefore, more reasonable to calculate his twenty years as judge, from his victory with the jaw-bone, to his death, or
irregular lives;
at least to

his capture by the Philistines, in the lap of the treacherous Delilah. As the distance from Gaza to (a) Judges, xvi.

13.

Scriptures give

many examples of men

in

power leading very

ii.

less than 40 miles, it might be better " to the to read in this place, top of the next hill, in the to Hebron :" otherwise it will appear too much to be way performed in so short a time.

Hebron was not much

Judges, xv. 20. xvi. 1, 31.

t Joshua,

1.

(b) See

Numb.

vi. 5.

G14

HISTORY OF THE PHILISTINES.

;

[CHAP. xi.

time in trying the experiment for while he his strength \\;is asleep, she cut oft' his locks; and she delivered him over to the departed Philistine lords, who, after paying her the ivuard of her perfidy, put out his eyes, and then binding him with chains, or fetters of brass, sent him to Gaza, to grind in the prison-house. Not long after, the Philistines met to celebrate a solemn festibut val in honour of Dagon a thanksgiving for whether as their enemy into their hands, is having got uncertain, though they certainly had a refer; ;

The
aster,

Israelites,

taking advantage of this dis-

it must have produced, assembled their forces, and marched against their enemy but they were met by the Philistines at Aphek, and put to flight, witli the loss of about 4000 men. They then sent for the ark, from Shiloh, the news of which at first daunted the Philistines but recovering their spirits, they not only obtained a signal victory over the Israelites, but even captured the very ark, which had occasioned them so

and the confusion

;

much

alarm, after killing the priests Hophni

and Phinehas, sons of

ence to it in their praises, (c) They were number of many thousands assembled to the
there being,

upon the roof of the building in which they met, no less than three thousand men and women, besides those in the interior.

Amid

the mirth, that always succeeded the

sacrifices,

they ordered Samson to be brought before them, that they might gratify themselves with a view of their fallen adver-

heathen

the open space, near the main But it was the roof. pillars that supported the Samson whom they had bound, no longer Samson the victim of sensuality and folly. in his adversity, the Lord had had repented heard hira, and with the growth of his hair Here for a his strength had been .renewed. he stood, the subject of their jeers, and time perhaps exhibited some feats of power in casting stones, or such other performances as they At length, as if fatigued with set him to do. he requested the lad who his exertions, attended him to let him feel the pillars of the house, that he might lean upon them. And

sary.

Samson was accordingly brought

set
in

forth,

Eli, who attended it.(e) In great triumph they conveyed the ark to Ashdod, and placed it in the temple of Dagon; but the next morning they found their idol prosIt is uncertrate on the earth before the ark. tain whether they suspected the cause of this downfal; however, they set it up again; but on the second morning, they again found it fallen to the ground, with the head and hands cut off upon the threshold whence came the superstitious custom of the priests of Dagon, never treading on the threshold as they entered
:

and

into his temple,

deity.

because

by the touch of the

From their attention was quickly diverted to themselves, for the country was visited with a sudden plague ; and such as survived, were grievously tormented with cmerods.(i} Apprehending that Ashdod was a place unacceptable to the ark, or rather to the power that accompanied it, they sent it to Gath ; but the sanae plague, and
a more violent kind of emcrods, followed
it.

it had been hallowed members of their mangled concern for Dagon, their

The

Gittites, therefore, sent it to Ekron ; but the inhabitants cried out that the ark of the God of Israel was sent to destroy them. Nor

then praying to God, to avenge him on his rnemies, he bowed himself with all his might, time the two pillars, which, pulling at the same unable to resist his force, gave w ay, and the building was immediately thrown down upon
r

them

in vain ; for great numbers of died, the disorder gathering strength as it They therefore implored the lords of spread. the Philistines, to consult as to the mode of sending back the ark to its own place; but the

were their fears

all that it contained, lords and commanders, governors and men of wisdom, so that those he slew priests and commonalty at his death, were more than all he had slain in

the heads of

result of this counsel

they seem
fields;

to

does not appear, though have removed it into the open

his life.(d)

but this only increased the evils by visited, for the country was overrun with an extraordinary immediately

which they were

'

(c)

Judges,
'J

xvi. '23.
(e) 1
is

piles.

JosephlU/ and others, speak of violent disorders

01'

in

(d) Judycs, xvi.

(f)
it is

Sam.

iv.

1.1.

the intestines,

lie

nature of this plague

not precisely known; but

the subject rotting alive, or wasting by dysenteries, violent retellings, &c.

*
/l/itifl. lib. vi.

away

most generally allowed to have been the hemorrhoids, or

ca[i. 1.

SECT,

ii.]

PLAGUES ATTENDING THE CAPTURE OF THE ARK OF GOD.

The ark had now been with the Philistines about seven months, and notwithstanding their sufferings, the lords appear from this last
to

Finding, therefore, their mice.(g) condition to become every day worse, the lords sent for the priests and diviners, to demand of them what should be done on so mournful an occasion, and to know whether these calamities resulted from their detention of the ark, or were mere casualties. The priests did not hesitate to recommend the dismissal of the ark, and reminded the lords of the great judgments formerly inflicted upon the Egyptians, for detaining Israel, contrary to the will of Jehovah. They also recommended that it should be accompanied with a trespass-offering of five golden emerods, and as many golden mice; one for each of the lords of the Philistines. And still farther to convince them that the afflictions under which they laboured were produced by the capture of the ark, they recommended, as a test, that it should be put upon a new cart, drawn by milch kine, taken from their calves: then, if they went the direct road to Beth-shemesh, the nearest Israelitish town, it might be taken as a divine token that the misfortunes of the country had been occasioned by the presence of the ark ; but if the kine refused to go forward from their calves, or turned any other way, they might be concluded to be the effect of chance.
(g)

number of

recommendation of their priests and augurs, have been loth to part with it. The general

voice of the people was, however, against and, backed as it was by the decision ; of their priests, they were constrained to comThe ark was dismissed in the manner ply. recommended, accompanied with a coffer, containing the golden emerods and mice ; the kine turned from their calves, and, without a driver, took the direct road to Beth-shemesh, the lords of the Philistines following in amaze, to observe the event. When the cart arrived iti the field of Joshua, a Beth-shemite, the cattle stopped and were offered up by the men of Beth-shemesh as a burnt-offering to the Lord ; the wood of the cart furnishing fuel for the sacrifice. To all this wonderful transaction the five lords of the Philistines, and without doubt a great number of their people, were eye-witnesses ; after which they returned to

them

Ekron.(h)
years(i) after this,] the Philistines, that the Israelites had assembled at hearing The Mizpeh, resolved to disperse them. to have been called by assembly appears

[Twenty

The

1 Sam. v. passim. Joseph. Antiq. lib. vi. cap. 1. plague of mice is not mentioned in this chapter, but is

evidently inferred in the next. (h) 1 Sam. vi.

The writer rative of the 6th chapter naturally concludes. f next turns to the affairs of Israel ; and, taking up the subject where he had left it at the end of the 4th chapter, " The
departed from Israel for the ark of God is taken ;" " all the in the 2d verse of the 7th chapter, that bouse of Israel lamented after the Lord ;" the result of which lamentation was a general reform, and an assembly at Mizpeh, to hold a solemn fast, and to sacrifice. Here the Philistines attacked them, and were overthrown by the interposition of heaven, which, added to the other plagues these enemies of Israel had experienced, might occasion the consultation with the priests and diviners, as related above. From these considerations, we are induced to place the death of Samson, the capture of the ark, with its consequent plagues, and the overthrow of the Philistines at Mizpeh, or Eben-ezer, all within the compass of one year, or thereabouts the government of Samuel also commencing at the same time, leaves him 2(1 years for making his annual As to circuits,} and for growing too infirm for his charge. the time that the ark remained in the house of Abinadab, it was actually there till the reign of David,|| a space of about 70 years ; but, supposing Samuel to be the writer of the first" of those books which bear his name, or at least of the first 16 chapters, the term of 20 years may be perfectly The name correct, as including to the time when he wrote. Samuel to the stone which he set up, Eben-czrr, given by " the stone of indicative of a beginning help," is rather mercy, than a concluding one ; and what immediately folglory
is
:

116.

(i)

This number of

'20 years,*

though admitted bv most

declares,

chronologers, is attended with considerable difficulties, as it lengthens out the servitude of the Israelites at a time win n the Philistines had been much weakened, and it shortens the
for, according to this mode of calculation, the very next year after (he assembly at Mizpeh, Samuel will be found so old and infirm, as to be obliged to lake his sons into partnership in the government ; although, in the interim, we read that he made a circuit every year: it also produces an hiatus, unwarranted by the Scripture, between the death of Eli and the government of Samuel. These, and some other objections to the chronology of the Book of Judges, might be removed, by supposing the repentance of Israel to have commenced immediately after the

government of Samuel as Judge;

capture of the ark, and the congress at Mizpeh whilst it was Nor is this notion at all contradictory to the captivity. letter of the inspired writer, since it only requires a division of the subject different from what has been adopted. The sacred historian, after relating the circumstances of the battle of Aphek, the capture of the ark, the death of Eli, and the unhappy fate of his family proceeds to state what betel the and Philistines, while they had the ark in their possession then, having giu-n the particular! of its return, observes, that it remained in Kirjath-jeararn 20 years : here the narin
; ;

1 Sam.
t V'a.

vii.

'.'.

t 1
||

Sam.

ii.

1517.
1 CAroii.
xiii.

Sam.

viii. 1,

( seq.

in the

2d verse of the 7th chapter.

2 Sam.

vi. \, et seq.

passim.

616

HISTORY OF THE PHILISTINES.

[CHAP. xr.

tion,

Samuel for the purpose of a general reformaand holding a solemn fast: they were

them under the command of Saul, and pursued them with unremitting slaughter from

therefore unprepared to receive the assailants, but they entreated Samuel to cry mightily for them to God, and their prayer was accepted ; for no sooner were the Philistines ready to fall

Michmash to Ajalon.(m) The Philistines were not

ever,

by

this

so reduced, howmisfortune, but that they were

upon them, than they were by a dreadful and unexpected thunder storm (j) broken, disand thrown into confusion, so that they became an easy prey to the Israelites, who pursued them to Beth-car, and emancipersed,

able to maintain some kind of warfare against Israel during the whole reign of Saul;(n) though they did it with less ostentation than formerly. About 28 years after the disaster

above

related, they thought themselves sufficiently strong to take the field in a more formal

pated themselves from the tyrannical yoke, under which they had so long groaned, The next we hear of these people, is in the of Saul, whose son Jonathan Jul Per. *362i."i reign A. M. *29ii. ( surprised one of their fortresses,
i

and open manner, but

PostDil.*i254. '1093. B.C.

f called Geba ; whereupon they } assem bled a force of 30,000 cha" as the sand riots, (k) 6000 horse, and infantry of the sea-shore for multitude ;"(!) the rendezvous of this immense army was at Michmash, whence they sent out three bands, as many several ways, to spoil the country ; which they did without opposition, the Israelites being unarmed, and hiding themselves in holes and In the rnidst caves, to avoid their barbarity. of their depredations, however, they received

an unexpected check from Jonathan, who, under a divine impulse, and accompanied
only by his armour-bearer, made a considerable slaughter of one of their out-posts ; the noise of which spreading to the whole body, occasioned so universal a panic, that they are said figuratively to have made the very earth to shake with their trembling. They then turned their arms against each other, and after considerable slaughter, betook themselves to flight in wild uproar and fury. The Israelites, pertheir confusion, sallied out against ceiving
lows,

still apparently cautious should give battle. /-j u p er 3(550. how they They first assembled in Shochoh, \ A. M. 2010. Post Oil. 1283. belonging to the tribe of Judah ; | B> C but advancing thence, and find- *ing Saul ready to receive them, on an eminence over the valley of Elah, they pitched on the opposite mountain. They had in their army at this time, a singular personage, by name Goliath, a native of Gath, and a giant in stature ; being no less than six cubits and a span, (about nine feet eight inches) in height, and covered with armour of brass his coat of mail weighed 5000 shekels of brass (upwards of 1 89lb. Troy) the staff" of his spear is represented as like a weaver's beam for size, and the head of it weighed 600 shekels of iron (rather more than 22lb. Troy-weight ;X) and before him went one who bore his shield. This colossus stood forth as the champion of
i
.

his

countrymen, and challenged the Israelites

to provide themselves with another, who might meet him in single combat, and decide the

question of sovereignty between the two nations without farther effusion of blood. Forty days successively did he repeat this challenge, to the great terror and amazement of Saul and
his people
a large
:

no champion

appeared on their

ALL THE DAYS of

" the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines Samuel,"* could not be true, if they had only been subdued in his latter days. (j) To this storm, the inventive genius of Josephus has added an earthquake, which, he says, swallowed up part ol the Philistine host, and so terribly shook the rest, that they could scarcely keep their fcet.t The Syriac and Arabic copies read (k) 2 Sam. xiii. 5.

accession to their natural strength, at this time, from the Shepherds, who, according to his computation, were just come out of Egypt.|| (m) I Sam. xiii. xiv. Josephus states their loss at 60,000 men. The Israelites, at the onset, had no arms; but the them slaughter made by the enemy among themselves, gave

an ample and expeditious supply.

(n) 1 (o)

Sam.

xiv. .V2.

3000
(1)

only.

Josephus reckons the infantry at 300,000 ;f but Le alarm which Jonathan and hi armour-bearer occasioned the Philistines, thinks they were neither so numerous, nor so warlike, as they have been generally deemed, and concludes the text to have been cor
Clerc, judging from the

rupted.
* 1 Sam.
t

Sir Isaac
vii.

Newtou

is

of opinion, that they receivec

t

See Arbuthnot's Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights, and Measures. The weight of the arms above described, is nowise disproportionate to the size and strength of the wearer; yet Dr. PatricklT thinks they must have been too cumbersome, and therefore prefers taking the shekels above enumerated, as the value of his coat of mail and spear, rat her than the weight.
||

13.

Antiq. lib. vi. cap. 7.

Joseph. Antiq. lib. vi. cap. 2. Cleric, in 1 ,Sam, xiv. 15.

Chronol. of Ancient Kingd. amende d, p. 167.

p. 436, note (q) ; p. 488, note (t).

t On

See before, p. 433, note (d); 1 Sam. xvii. 6.

SECT.

II.]

DAVID AND GOLIATH.

seeing only a shepherd-boy, he turned away in disdain, supposing the alarm to be false, or only intended to insult him. Being, however, given to understand that this despised youth was the hero with whom he was to contend,

behalf, although the king had offered a large reward, and his daughter in marriage, to the

man who should overcome this tremendous foe. The Philistines, however, do not appear to
have been very confident of success, otherwise they would not have suffered so long a period as almost six weeks to elapse without making

any attempt upon the Israelitish camp they without doubt had learned from past experience that their enemies were only vulnerable when under the displeasure of their God ; and as they had already been woefully mistaken in
:

he asked him haughtily, if he thought he was come out against a dog, that he came with a staff in his hand ? And then cursing him by his gods, threatened to tear him piecemeal, and to give his flesh to the fowls of the air and the beasts of the earth. David, nowise abashed by the contempt, or daunted at the threats, of
the Philistine, replied that the battle was Jehovah's, whom the Philistines had defied ; and that though he was not prepared with sword, or spear, or shield, he stood secure under the protecting power of the God of
Israel, in

judgment on this subject, they were reluctant on the present occasion to run unnecessary risk. At the end of 40 days, a ruddy youth, David by name, the youngest son of Jesse a Beth-lehemite, came to the camp of
their

Saul on a visit to his brethren, to bring them refreshments, and arrived just at the moment when Goliath was proclaiming his daily chalDavid, with great impatience, heard lenge. him defy the armies of Israel, and with a holy indignation desired to be brought before Saul, to whom he professed his readiness to undertake the cause of his countrymen, and to enter the lists against the giant. The king, surprised at the boldness of the young man, and considering it only as an ebullition of youthful vivacity, endeavoured to dissuade him from the attempt, by representing the great inequality between himself, a mere stripling, and the
giant,

whose name he now came forth, and who would that day make known His

power in the overthrow of the Philistines, and the death of their champion: so saying, he
approached towards his adversary, and by a dexterous throw of his sling struck a stone into his forehead, which so stunned him that he and David immediately running upon fell, him, with his own sword severed his head from his body. The Philistines, whose hopes had all centered in their champion, no sooner

saw him

prostrate, than they fled with precipitation, leaving their tents, arms, and baggage

behind them

who had been enured

to

war from

his

home

to their

and were pursued by Saul quite own gates at Gath and Ekron,

But David soon convinced Saul early days. that he was in earnest, and that his confidence was placed in a much higher power than in the knowledge of military tactics. Saul then had him clad in his own armour; but David being unused to such a cumbrous weight about
his limbs, put
it off,

with great slaughter.(p)

preferring to go out in his

dress,

hundred Philistines were, not long afterwards, killed by David, to gratify Saul, who, jealous of his reputation, had imposed this task on him, before he would give him his daughter in marriage, conformably to the terms of the proclamation, thinking he must perish
in the attempt.(q) Soon after this event,

Two

with a staff in one simple shepherd's hand, and a sling, with a little bag containing five smooth stones from the brook, in the other. It was now announced to the Philistines, that Israel had procured a champion ready to fight with Goliath ; and both armies moved towards each other, to witness the combat. The trumpets blew the charge, and the giant advanced in front of his army to meet his opponent but
;

the Philistines were routed by David ;(r) but the particulars are. again not stated. About the same time some great change was made in their government ; for the Scripture- speaks of a king of Gath, called

Achish ;(s) into whose territories David fled from the persecution of Saul; but being discovered, and carried before the king, he pre1 Sam. xix. 8. 1927. (r) 10 15. In the title to Psalm xxxiv. he is and perhaps both appellatives mean no called Abimelech more than the lord of Gath, i. e. one of the five satraps.
(q) 1
(s)

(p) 1

Sam.

xvii.

had 30,000
pursuit.*

killed,

1 53. According to .Tosephus, they and twice that number wounded in the
*

Sam.

xviii.

Ibid. xxi.

Antiij, lib. vi. cap. 11.

VOL.

I.

4K

HISTORY OF THE PHILISTINES.

tended madness, so that Achish dismissed him, and reprimanded liis si-wants for bringing a
lunatic into his presence. AVhile Saul was pursuing David, the Philistines, who wen- never upon good terms with that king, made an inroad upon .Indah, at the moment when he was upon the point of surrounding David with his forces, in the wilbut though they saved derness of Maon; David by this diversion, they were themselves

[CHAP. xi.

and

gratify the people with such undeniable marks of their victory. The bodies \\ennot sufiered to remain long where the Philisto
tines

had exposed them

for the brave inhabit-

repulsed .(t)

Saul had recently sa\ed from imminent destruction, (v) took this opportunity of shewing their gratitude to their late deliverer, and, at the peril of their liu-s, fetched away those mangled remains by night. and gave them a more honourable burial in their own city, whence they were afterwards
ants of Jabesh-gilead,

whom

Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath, (whether the same with the foregoing is uncertain) *io(o. ) rece ived David, with his wives and followers, under his protection, when Said had made it unsafe for them any longer to remain in Judah, and allotted them Ziklag for he also proposed to their particular dwelling entrust David with the command of his arm\ but this design was overruled by the lords of the Philistines.(u)
Jul. Per.

"3654.

removed by David,
During the
civil

to Zelah,

and laid

in the.

A. M. *2944. ( PostDil.*l287. f

sepulchre of Kish, the father of Saul.(vv)

wars between David and

Ish-bosheth, the successor of Saul, the Philis tines are not known to have made any fresh

attempts upon Israel, a forbearance to be attributed, perhaps, to the kindness of Achish

Jul. Per. 3059.

Achish
")

A.M.

2<>i!. f

now

and marched
;

the

Philistines

towards David or rather to his policy, which induced him to leave the rival sovereigns to weaken the country, that he might, in the sequel, obtain an easy conquest of the whole. But no sooner did the Philistines under;

against

Saul,

they found encamped on B.C. lOoS.J raoun t Gilboa and after a sanguinary conflict, they obtained a complete victory. They drove the Israelites before them with great slaughter, slew Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, sons of Saul, and discharged their arrows with great eagerness after
PostDil. 1202.

whom

" stand that Ish-bosheth was dead, rJul. Per. 3007. and that all Israel and Judah J A. M. 2i).">!>. had submitted to David, than } Post Oil. 1300. 1,
they
;

1047. tilitie< recommenced hostilities. U.C. They accordingly encamped in the vale of

Repliaim,
there

on

the west
to

side

of Jerusalem,

whence they removed

were
so

Baal-perazirn,

ami

their father,

who was

dreadfully

wounded by

them, but not mortally, for he fell upon his own sword. This conquest put the Philistines in possession of a great part of the country of the
lites.

The day

after the

battle,

when

they came to strip the slain, finding the bodies of Saul and his three sons, among the rest in mount Gilboa, they cut off the head of the

completely routed by they David, that, intent only on saving themselves, they left their baggage behind them, and even their gods, whom they carried about with them to their wars, and which were To recover their burned by David's men.(x)
captive gods, as
their forces,
is

conjectured, they

rallied

former; stripped him of his armour, which they dedicated in the temple of As/tterot/t ; and hung up his body, with those of his sons, ignominiously upon the walls of Beth-shan. What they did, particularly, with the head of Saul, is not related though it seems as if they lirst sent it up and down with his armour, to dedicate both in the temples of their idols,
;

place ; exertion of supernatural power, as it should seem, and David chased them from Geba to Gazer,(y) a place probably on their own
frontiers.

and returned to the same but they were routed again, by some

irreconcileable enmity which had so long subsisted between the two nations, occasioned other Avars between them. The first remarkable conquest of the Israelites was the

The

Sam. \\m. 2528. (u) H>id. xxvii. 19. Sam. xi. Sam. xxxi. passim. 2 Sam. xxi. 12 14. (x) 2 Sam. v. 1721. 25. (y) Iitum. 22 Josephus supposes they were on this occasion joined l.y the Syrians anil Phoenicians, and alleges, upon what authority is unknown, that they returned home
(t)

(v) 1 (w) 1

and came back to the charge with numbers they had before that they encamped in the valley of ijiants, where the former battle was fought, and were miraculously defeated with great ease, and put to with the loss of all their baggage, and their gods.*
after their first defeat,

thrice the

flight

Joseph. Anliq.

lib. vii.

cap. 4.

SECT.

II.]

GIANTS.
'j

WARS WITH THE

number
fell

ISRAELITES.

(ilf)

Jul. Per.

3670.

city of Ciath,(z)

A. M.
Po.-t DU".

B. c.

26o. ( ries; 1303. f a sore vexation to the Philis1044. j series of hostilities tj n

es.(a)

and its territowhich must have proved

followed, remarkable only

for the destruction,

by David or his captains, of certain of the pant race, by whose help the Philistines
Mattered themselves they should be able to retrieve their honour, and avenge themselves These giants, who are upon their enemies. called sons of Rapha, or of the Repha'i'm, were probably descended from the ancient

fight him; which they did, and he the hand of Jonathan, the son of by Thus Shinieah, the brother of David, (e) exhausted of their gigantic brood, or perceiving that their mighty stature was of no use to them, the Philistines refrained from a farther prosecution of the war, which, not-

to

so

Anakim, who had been left in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod, in the days of Joshua, after the main body of them had been cut off by that commander, or driven from their strong holds The first of these was in the mountains. (b)
Ishbi-benob,(c) a son of Goliath, according to some, whose spear weighed 300 shekels of brass,(d) with a sword of proportionate size he took David at some disadvantage, and would have killed him, had not Abishai, David's nephew, stepping in opportunely, warded off the blow, after which he slew the The next was Saph, or Sippai, who, giant. in a battle fought near Gob, supposed to be
:

withstanding their repeated losses, they had Of the subseobstinately maintained. affairs of the Philistines, we hear very quent little whence it has been supposed, on the one hand, that they became tributary to David and, on the other, that having grown wise from their repeated defeats, they relinquished the idea of subjugating Israel, and applied themselves to commerce; they are also thought to have possessed themselves of the city of Sidon,(f) with the assistance of the Edomites, who had taken shelter among them, when Idumea was overrun by David ;(g) as will be more particularly noticed in the history of those people. Many years after these wars, /-j u j p er *SIQI the Philistines were harassed } A. M. *305l.
; ;

the same with Gezer, was slain by Sibbechai, In a second battle, in the the Hushathite. same place, Lahmi, a brother of Goliath, was killed by Elhanan, the son of Jair, otherwise The called Jaare-oregim, a Beth-lehemite. and last of these battles was in Gath, fourth or its vicinity, where a man of extraordinary stature, having six fingers upon each hand, and as many toes upon each foot, stood forward as the champion of the Philistines, and defied the army of Israel to send out one of their
In 2 Sam. viii. 1, David is said to (z) 1 Ckron. xviii. 1. have taken Metheg-ainmah, rendered in the margin, the bridle of Arnmah, which has given rise to various criticisms and opinions; but we shall only quote that of the Jews, who suppose that, as ammah signifies a river, David cut off the communication between Gath and Metheg, by stopping, or diverting the course of the stream, so as to prevent the Gittites from receiving reinforcements from the lastnamed place the river flowing between them. (a) It cannot be well conceived how the Philistines recovered this city during the reign of so active and warlike a prince as David; yet, in the beginning of Solomon's reign, we read of a king reigning at Gath,* who is taken by many for the same that shewed so much kindness to David. There is, however, a slight variation in their surnames,t which is thought to be a sufficient distinction or even if the mum;
-

by Nadab, king of Israel, who i Post Oil. ^ B> c> besieged them in the city of Gibbethon ;(h) which city was r j u Per. again invested, some years after- ) A. M. wards, by Elah, king of Israel; "j Post Dil.
i.

*i394. * 953>

*3784. *3074. *1417.

but in both cases they success- ^ B- Cfully resisted the efforts of those sovereigns.

Notwithstanding this vigorous opposition to the kings of Israel, they afterwards courted the favour of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, by
a voluntary payment of tribute,(i) which had probably been imposed on them by David or Solomon, but had been neglected under their
be the same, the persons may be different, as two brothers would each be called the son of the same father.
(b) Joshua, xi. 21, 22.
(c)

Called

Amchon, by

Josephus.j;

be remembered that Goliath's spear weighed 600 shekels; whence it has been supposed that this man was not above half his stature and strength. 22. 1 Chron. xx. (e) 2 Sam. xxi. 15 Josephus says, this was the last battle the Philistines had with the but the subsequent history shews him to be Israelites; mistaken. (f) See Sir Isaac Newton's Chronol. of Ancient Kingdoms amended, p. 104, 105. Justin, lib. xviii. cap. 3. 1 Chron. xviii. 1113. (g) 2 Sam. viii. 13. (h) 1 Kings, xv. 27. (i) 2 Chron. xvii. 11.
(d) It will

58.

Kingi,

ii.

39.

CoiDp. 1 Sam. xxvii. 2, with 1 Kings,

ii.

39.

Antiq. lib.

vii.

cap. 10.

4K.2

620
successors.
Jul. Per.

HISTORY OF THE PHILISTINES.

In the reign of Jehoram, however * ne y revolted, and broke
>

[CHAP. xr.

come

3826. ") A. M. *3iio. f PostDU. *1459. f

forth a cockatrice who should dissolve their whole country ;"(p) and, to add to
their misfortunes, they

kingdom, plundered his palace, and exterminated all his *88Q.j family^ except queen Athaliah, and her son Ahaziah, or Jehoahaz, who escaped their fury.(k) At the same time, they seem also to have carried off a great number
into his

of captives, some of whom they sold to the Edomites,(l) the bitter enemies of the Jews, and some to the Grecians.(m) This extraordinary success was probably owing to the assistance they received from the Arabians, who made war upon Israel at the same time. Uzziah, king of Judah, avenged these

by dismantling Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod he Post. Dil^is^. f also built strong cities, or for*807.j tresses, among them, to keep them in subjection.(n) Under this fatal blow, they groaned during 50 years of Uzziah's reign, and probably the 16 of Jotham's, his successor but in the reign of Ahaz, perceiving the weak state of
Jul. Per. *3907.

depredations,

A. M.

*3i97. (

same time besieged their chief city Ashdod, (q) and finally deprived them of their liberty. Psammetichus, king of Egypt, jealous of the increasing power of the Assyrians, and fearing that his own country might share the fate of his neighbours, undertook to drive them out of Palestine ; and with this view besieged Ashdod, but it rj u l. Per. *4044 72. *3334 62. kept him at defiance for j A. M. the astonishing term of 1 Post Dil. "1677-1705. B C 29 years before he could <reduce it;(r) during which time the Philisin common with their masters the tines, Assyrians, must have experienced dreadful
at the

were

attacked by the Assyrians,

who

'

'

calamities.

From

this time the

Philistines

were succes-

sively tributary to the great monarchies, till their total destruction accomplished the " Gaza of the :

the kingdom, they again appealed to arms, and with such success, that they added a large portion of the kingdom of Judah to their own territories, including the cities of Beth-shemesh, Ajalon,

predictions prophet Zephaniah shall be forsaken, and Askelon a tion ; they shall drive out Ashdod

desolaat the

Gederoth, Shocho, Timuah, and Gimzo.(o) These acquisitions were wrested from them ^ v Hczekiah, the son and sucJul Per *400i "}
*329i. ( A. M. Post Dil. *1634. f

noon-day, and Ekron shall be rooted up. Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea-coasts, the nation of the Cherethites ! The Word of the Lord is against you O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, 1 will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant and the
:
:

cessor of Ahaz, who verified the threat of Isaiah, that " out *713.J of the serpent's root should
(1)

sea-coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks. "(s) And thus shall all the enemies of Jehovah perish but they
;

who

trust in him, shall never

be confounded.

<k) 2 Chron. xxi. 16, 17. (m) Joel, iii. 6.

(o)

(u)

Amos, i. 6. 2 Chron. xxvi. 6.

(q) Isaiah, xx. 1.

(r)

2 Chron.

xxviii.

18.

(s)

This (p) Isaiah, xiv. to Hezekiah and the Assyrians.

2931.

prophecy equally points

Herodot. lib. ii. cap. 157. Zeph. ii. 4 6. See also Joel, iii. 4, et seq. Amos, 5. 8. 17. Jeremiah, xlvii. passim. Ezekiel, xxr. 15
ix. 5, 6.

Zechariah,

CHAP.

XII.]

THE MOABITES.

ORIGIN.

TERRITORIES.

CITIES.

621

CHAPTER

XII.

HISTORY OF THE MOABITES.

SECTION
AND

I.

ORIGIN, COUNTRY, CITIES, GOVERNMENT, CUS-

TOMS AND OCCUPATION, LANGUAGE, RELIGION IDOLS, OF THE MOABITES.

THE progenitor of these people was Moab,(q)

the son of Lot, by his eldest daughter, whose They are history has been already given. (r) said to have first resided about the mountain

boundaries cannot be precisely defined; but it may be said, generally, that it had the river Arnon on the north and west, which separated it from the conquests of the Amorites and the tribe of Reuben the Ishmaelites on the east ; and Midian on the south. In the land of the Amorites, on the other side of the Arnon, they either retained considerable possessions, or
;

where he was born, which Josephus places in Ccelosyria,(s) and others in Arabia, (t) while in most old maps we meet with a place in the
Cave.(u)

mountains west of the Dead Sea, called Lot's

When

they invaded

they had increased to a nation, the Emim, who dwelt about

mount Abarim, and having expelled them, took possession of their seat,(v) and thence spread themselves to the south and east. In their turn, they were attacked by the Amorites from the other side of Jordan, and obliged to retire beyond the Arnon.(w) The Emim, here alluded to, were of the same family as the Anakim, whom we have already supposed to be of Cuthean derivation ;(x) they were early settlers in the country, for we find them included in the conquests of Chedorlaomer, Arioch, and their allies ;(y) they are represented as giants, but they were so distressed by Chedorlaomer, and weakened by the subsequent judgment upon the cities of the Pentapolis, that they are supposed to have fallen an easy prey to the Moabites, by whom they were totally extirpated, and are no more heard of. The country possessed by the Moabites was, from them called Moabitis; its limits and
The import of
this

the places kept their name after their expulsion for Moses speaks of the plains of Moab, and the land of Moab, as the place where he made his last covenant with Israel, just before his death ; and he describes Abarim, Pisgah, and Nebo, as in the same country,(z) though he had wrested it from Sihon, king of the Amorites in Heshbon ;(a) and in his narrative of the journey of the Israelites, he expressly declares that he did not so much as set a foot upon the territories of the Moabites, but fetched a compass about it, to enter that of the Amorites ; which is farther confirmed by the message sent by Jephthah to the Ammonites, 300 years afterward s;(b) whence it appears, that, whatever territories the Moabites once possessed, the Arnon was their boundary, when the Israelites entered the Promised Land. Nevertheless, the prophet Jeremiah enumerates among the cities of Moab several that were north of that river as, Nebo, Kiriathaim, or Kirjathaim, Misgab (whence they expelled the Emim), Heshbon, the city of
: :

Sihon, Madman, Horonaim, Chemosh, Aroer, Helon, Jahazah, Mephaath, Beth-meon, Bozra, Kir-heresh, Jaazer, Shibmah, and Elealeh ; which he intermixes with others on the south, n Luhith, or Luith, Dibon, Beth-diblathaim,

(q)

name

is

generally allowed to be
lib.
i.

(w)
(y)
(z) (a)

Numb.
Gen.

xxi. 2G.

(x)

See before, p. 590.

1,

of the father.
(r)
(t)

See also Calmet's Diet. See before, p. 342. ( s ) Antiq. Stephan. DC Urb. in MuG*.
al>

xiv. 5.

cap. 12.

Numb, Numb.
Dcut.

xxxiii.

47

49.

xxi.

2120.
Judges,

Dent. xxix. 1. xxxiv. Devt. ii. 2436.

8,

(u)

Hornius, et

(v)

Dent.

ii.

011.

(b)

ji.

9.

xi.

1226.

022

HISTORY OF THE MOABITES.

'

[CHAP. xn.
the learned.
to

Beth-gamul, Kerioth, or Carioth-Moab, Zoar, and rsinirim.(c) To these Josephus has added many on the north side of the Arnon, and the Medaha, Lemba, following on the south Zara, Aulon, Pella, and Oronas, Thelitho,
:

some others.(d) With the customs and manners of people, historians seem to have been
:

these
little

however, certain that their acquainted was monarchical; that they used cirgovernment cumcision ;(e) and that their occupation chiefly consisted in pasturage and breeding of cattle. Their language is supposed to have been a
it

is,

Nebo, (1) have been another deity of the Moabites, as are liual-nieon and liital-dibon ; though others suppose these latter to be only the names of places where C/temos/t and Peor were worshipped. Of their religious rites, very little can be said, except that they sacrificed both in the open air, on mountains dedicated to that service, and in temples built in their cities; and that, besides oxen and rams, which constituted
also,
is

is

much disputed by

by some thought

their

ordinary victims, they sometimes, in pressing emergencies, had recourse to human

the obscenities charged upon writers, the Scriptures furnish no positive proof. The Psalmist, speaking of those who were joined to Baal-Peor, says only, that they ate the offerings of t/tc dead; by which he may either mean that the idol whom
sacrifices.

Hebrew. They were prohibited from entering into the congregation of Israel, because they had neglected the duties of hospitality towards them;(f) but they appear to have cultivated a good underdialect of the Canaanitish, or

Of

them by modern

standing with them, as appears from the sojourning of Elimelech among them,(g) and the kind reception David met with in his
troubles, at Mizpeh.(h)

that

they impiously worshipped was inanimate, or their oblations were made to infernal
spirits
;

in

which

latter

sense, St. Paul

admo-

That the Moabites were taught the principles of the true religion by their great ancestor Lot, is not to be doubted; but having no renewed
revelation,

as
in

had, they, away quickly to idolatry, (i) and probably adopted most of the corruptions of the Emim,

common

the descendants of Abraham with other nations, fell

nishes the Corinthians to beware of partaking of the sacrifices of devils,(m) as Moses had long before pronounced the idols of the Gentiles to be.(n)

SECTION

II.

they had conquered. The idols of the Moabites, noticed in Scripture, were C/iemosh(j} and Baal-Peor, or simply Peor;(k) but what these gods were
(c) Jer.
(e) Jer.
i.

whom

CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE MOABITES. WE are unacquainted with the period when these people first became considerable enough
2. The Targum of title of a deity ; Baal-tneon, "a city of Balak, in which Jonathan|| Israel destroyed the idol Peor, in the house of altars ;" :{. Mean was so great a title of honour, that it is given in Scriplure to God himself, though translated dwelling-place ; 1T 4. Beth mean, signifies the house, or temple of Mean, and no other than a deity, real or fictitious, can be said to have a temple dedicated to it; 5. The Israelites, changed the name

passim.
25, 26,
is

ix.

(d) Joseph. Antiq, lib. xiii. cap. 23. quoted in support of this opinion ;

proper name,

or

calls

seems to bear rather a contrary proof; and it will be remembered that Lot had separated from Abraham before the institution of this ordinance.

but

it

(f )

(h) 1
( j)

&fut. xxiii. 3, 4. Sam. xxii. 3, 4.

(g)
(i)

Ruth,

i.

1, 2.
1

Numb.
1

xxv.

3.
xi.

Numb.

\\\. 20.

Judges,

xi.

2 Kings,

xxiii. 13.

Je.rem. xlviii.

24. 13.

Kings,

7, 33.

(k) Numb. xxv. 3, 18. Deut. iv. 3. Josh. xxii. 17, etal. The Septuagiut calls this idol Phegor. Jerom supposes both these names to be applied to (I) the same idol ;* and from the unclean debaucheries into which those fell who joined in their worship, seYeral writers, ancient and modern, have represented them as similar to the But Yossius supposes Pcor to be the beastly Priapus.\ same as Bacchus I and Dr. Cumberland, who says he was more properly called JUcon, takes him to be the srnne as Menes, JHizrnim, and Osiris, for the following reasons: 1. The Septuagint and Arabic versions have Mean for a
;

of the city Baal-meon, when they had rebuilt it, as the\ did also that of Nebo, because they were so named from These reasons, however, are not quite conclufalse gods.** Mr. Bryant considers Pcor the same as Priapus, who, sive. however he might degenerate, signified at first the soul of the world, the source of life, and the principle of generation. tt As to Chemosh, he appears to have been the sun,U whose characteristics are very similar to those applied by the lastwriter to Peor: they therefore appear to have not identically the same, derived from one original idea, through two different channels. (n) Deut. xxxii. 16, 17. (m) 1 Cor. x. 20, 21.

quoted
been,

if

Ilivninviii.
t

Origen. in Num. horn. xx. See also, on Cumberland on Smchmiathu, p. 67. Throplijlact. in Oicam. the contrary side, Sclden De Diis Syria, svulag. i. cap. 5. Le Clerc in Num. Patrick on A'umft. xxv.
i.

Idem

Esui, lib. v. in Oseam. et Contra Jovin. lib.

'

i Voss.

De
xiii.

Idololatr. lib.

ii.

cap. 7.

cap. 12.

$ Josh.
||

17.

1 CJiron. v. 6.

Jertm.
2.

xlviii.

23.
xc. 1. xci. 9.

On

IVumfc. xxxii. ;iB.

Psalm

** Cumberland on Sanchoniatho, chap.

tt

Mythol. vol.

i.

p.

177.

Le

Clerc in

Num.

xxxi. 28.

MX T.

II.]

BALAK AND BALAAM.

title

of a nation, as we they expelled the and were themselves invaded by the Kiiiim, Amorites: it is only certain, that all these events must have occurred in the space of about 440 years; that is, between the destruction of Sodom, and the arrival of the Israelites on the borders of the Promised Land. Balak, the son of Zippor, was on the throne of Moab at the last-mentioned epocha; and when he saw the Israelites encamped in the plains of Moab, after their conquest over Sihon and Og, king-s of the Amorites, he was dismayed lest he should become the next object of their attack, which he was conscious he had He therefore, with not the means of resisting. the advice of his princes, and those of the Midianites, who dwelt within his borders, sent Jul. Per. 3-263. messengers to one Balaam, the ) A.M. 2653. ( son of Beor, a celebrated proPost Dil. 896. f phet, or diviner, who resided at 1451 p e thor, on the Euphrates, in
to claim the rank and arc also of the time

when

i:e.\t morning, that he durst not transgress the divine injunction and so dismissed them. On their return with this answer, or rather with only that part of it which signified the pro;

refusal, without stating his reasons; Balak, whose sole hope lay in the success of this scheme, sent other messengers, more in number, and more honourable in degree, to allure the prophet with promises of great wealth and preferment. On their arrival, Balaam told them that no wealth could tempt him to violate the divine command yet, being anxious to their master, and dazzled with the progratify mises made to him, he desired them to wait till the next day, that he might farther learn the will of God in this matter. He now obtained to go, but with a very strict charge permission to say nothing but what God should put into his mouth. He consequently set off with the ambassadors but to shew how displeasing his parley with them was to the Almighty, and to awe him into a sense of his duty, an angel was

phet's

Mesopotamia,(o) requesting him to come and curse this people, (p) which had caused him so much uneasiness, and promising a large reward if he should Balaam desired the comply. messengers to stay with him all night, that he might inquire of God, whether he should accede to their desire; but being commanded not to go, nor presume to curse a people whom God had determined to bless, he told them the
(o)

impede his progress. This heavenly agent was perceived by the ass on which Balaam rode, but not by the prophet himself. The ass seeing the angel with a drawn sword in his hand, attempted three times to turn out of the way, to avoid him and upon being as often struck by her irritated master, whose foot she had crushed in endeavouring to pass between the angel and a rock ; God miracusent to
;

Comp. Numb.

xxii.

5,

xxiii. 7,

and Dent,

xxiii.

4.

Mr. Bryant, Mijthol.

in Arabia.
(p) It

vol.

i.

p. 310, thinks lie lived at Petra,

was a received opinion among the heathen nations, that imprecations might he made, which would affect not only private individuals, hut even whole armies and nations there were particular forms and ceremonies for that purpose, two of which, used in reference to the destruction of Carthage, ha\e heen preserved by Macrobius ;* and Tacitus observes, that when Suetonius Paulinus was about to cross over the channel into tiie island of Mona [Anglesea], where the Britons and Druids had made their last stand, the priestesses, with dishevelled hair, white vestures, and torches
:

As to Balaam, it has been questioned by divines, whether he were really a prophet, or but the whote tenor of the only a magician, or sorcerer history, clearly points out his claim to the former character, In all his speeches, as well in though he had apostatized. IK -gociating with the messengers, as in his prophetical allusions, he declares himself to be subservient to the will of Jehovah nor is there the least intimation of any intercourse
of these ancient customs.
;
||

in their

hands, ran about like

furies,

devoting their enemies

to destruction; which had such an effect on the Roman soldiers, that they seemed, for the moment, petrified with
horror, and, standing still, suffered themselves to be pierced with the darts of the Britons, without resistance.t making The Jews also had a most horrible form of execration, for which the reader is referred to Buxtorf's Taliuiulii-al Lexicon ;* and the modern unchristian practice of impre-

am

cating vengeance
Saturn,
} |
1(

upon an enemy, appears

t

to be a
Iil>.

remnant
S!9.

between him and familiar spirits. The Jews say, Balaam was not bis true name, but that he was so called, because, by his counsel, Oj;"i 7D (BLA-AM), he destroyed the l>ruplr ;U and in this sense the title of Balak himself, p^D (Dr/j,K),o destroy er, may be rather considered as an appellaThe Persian magi are said to tive, than as a proper name. have had a tradition of Balaam's history;** and it has been thought, that from this prophecy the wise men of the East (mayij knew the signification of the star that appeared at our Saviour's birth :tt but this is a strained application of the parable.}* Some have supposed Balaam to be the same with Elilm, so conspicuous in the history ot Job, tor his \indication of the ways of divine providence;^ but the
)!

opinion
tt

is

purely conjectural.
p.

lib. Hi.

cap. 9.

Tacit. Annul.

xiv.

cap.

D'Hrrbelot. Bid/. Orient,

528.

Act verb.

Origen, ft at. Sue Joseph. Anliq. lib. xiii. cap. 22. Pnliick OH \Hin6. xxii. Stackhouse's Body of Divinity, p. 465, et seq. Hoi linger. Smegma Orient, p. 444.

Oil"!.

Thcoilor. TarseiiMs, apucl Hyde, De }} See Dr. A. Clarke on Xumb. xxiv. t Patrick on Kumb. xxii.

Rd.

T'et.

Pen.

p. 384.

024

HISTORY OF THE MOABITES.

bless the people,
;

[CHAP. xn.

lously opened her mouth,(q) and she expostulated with him upon his ill-timed severity. Balaam, in the heat of his anger, paid no attention to this prodigy, but only wished that he had a sword in his hand to slay her. At this moment his eyes were opened, and he saw the angel, with the very instrument he had wished

where he was met by God, and instructed to whom he had been sent for to curse and which he performed, to the great

upon him. Balaam immedidiately prostrated himself, and offered to return home but the angel suffered him to proceed, after warning him to say no more than He(r)
for,

ready
;

to fall

should direct, or suggest to him. Arrived on the borders of Moab, he was met by Balak, who, after gently reproving him
for his refusal to

mortification of his employer. On the third occasion, the divine Spirit came upon him, and, without retiring as before, he was constrained to renew the blessing, and to denounce a curse upon all who should utter any imprecation against these chosen people of God. Balak, enraged at this disappointment, ordered him to depart immediately, observing, that he had thought to promote him to

great honour, but

back from
a divine

come when

first

sent for, con-

now Jehovah had kept him Balaam now, however, under afflatus, was constrained to speak on,
it.

ducted him to Kirjath-huzoth, where the king offered sacrifices, and gave a feast to Balaam and the princes. The next day, Balak conducted the prophet to the high places of Baal, on mount Abarim, whence he might have a
prospect of the camp of the Israelites. There, the king, by Balaam's direction, built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on each a ceremony, that was afterwards on two other places of the mountain. repeated The two first times, while the sacrifices were consuming, Balaam retired from the company of Balak and the princes, to a high place,
full
:

and he pronounced,

in Balak's presence, a noble prophecy of the future successes of the Israelites, of the appearance and empire of the Messiah, and the fate of several nations and

kingdoms in the neighbourhood. With respect " Moab, in particular, he foretold that a star should come out of Jacob, and a sceptre arise out of Israel, which should smite the comers (princes) of Moab, and destroy all the children ofSheth."(s) After this, Balaam went his way to his own country, but not before he had advised Balak to act upon friendly terms towards the Israelites, and form the most intito

(q) Although the Jews arc, in general, great lovers of miracles, and were continually experiencing them in their early history,

many of
this
:

their doctors

can hardly bring themselves to credit

Maimonides pretends, that the whole was transacted in a vision or trance ;* and Philo, in his Life of Moses,
omits this circumstance altogether. St. Peter, however, puts the matter out of all doubt, and speaks of the fact as literal
interpreters explain it.{ Indeed, it is surprising that persons who profess to believe in miracles, should deem one species less credible than another, as if some things were too hard for almighty power to ;

and certain

;t

and so

all

passage in Jeremiah seems to sentence was differently " shall come out of " A read fire," says that prophet, Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and shall devour the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones," or " children of noise," as it is rendered in the The former part of this passage is taken margin. from the celebrated proverb relative to the seizure of Heshbon by the Amorites.lT the latter apparently from this prediction of Balaam : and the difference is very little in the
(s)

Numb,

xxii

xxiv.

indicate,
:

that,

in his time,

this last

||

or as

overruled the prophet, to pronounce a blessing instead of a curse, contrary to his corrupt inclination, could not as readily cause the ass, against her nature, to reprove him in articulate sounds. The heathens were more credulous in this respect ; witness the ass of Bacchus, the ram of Phryxu*, the bull of Europa, the horses of Achilles and Adrastus, the elephant of Porus, and the Egyptian lamb, in the time of Bocchoris.
if

He who

perform

original; Jeremiah, instead of ")p~)p (HORROR), shall destroy, having IpTp (KODKOD), the crown of the head (similar to the

"

(r)

The

divine

messenger speaks

in

his

own name

Only the word that I SHALL SPEAK UNTO THEE, that shall thou speak ;" whence we must conclude, that this was no subordinate ambassador from the court of heaven
but the second person in the blessed Trinity, who, upon other occasions, we have observed under the character of an angel.
More Kevoch.
i Auitin,

reading of the Samaritan Pentateuch in this very place), and instead of nu? (SHCTH), the son of Adam, he has jlNII? (SH AON), Grotius understands Seth here, to mean some king noise. of the Moabites, or a city on their borders, which should be destroyed by the star, an emblem of royalty, that should rise out of Israel. Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon paraphrases the above quotation thus: " A star shall come out of Jacob; And a sceptre shall rise out of Israel ; this this is David. And shall smite the corners of Moab; is the King Messiah. ' And he this is David, as it is written (2 Sam. viii. 2),

And shall casting them down to the ground.' destroy all the children of Seth ; this is the King Messiah, ' He shall have of whom it is written (Psalm Ixxii. 8) dominion from sea to sea.'"
smote Moab,
f

Le

part. ii. cap. 42. Clerc, Calinet, Patrick,

t
et at.

2 Peter,

ii.

15, 16.

See Patrick on Numb. xxii. A'iini6. xxi. 28. See before,

Jcrem.
p.

xltiii.

43.

597.

SECT.

II.]

WARS WITH THE

ISRAELITES.

mate connections with them;(t) a recommendation which, in the sequel, occasioned much mischief to the people of God for, in consequence of their marriages with the MidianitJsh
:

subjection. they came /-j u i. }> er< 3309. to themselves, and repented of ) A. M. W,T.>. their iniquities, the Almighty 1 P<t Oil. 1022.

When

women, they were betrayed into idolatry, and drew upon themselves a dreadful plague, which
destroyed 24,000 of them. For this attempt to curse Israel, joined to their not meeting them on their journey with refreshments, as brethren, as they were in gratitude bound for the favours conferred on their ancestor Lot, by Abraham, the Moabites were not permitted to mix, or intermarry with that people :(u) but the Midianites, who seem to have been more particularly the instruments of seducing them to idolatry, were more severely punished soon after, as will appear in their history ; and Balaam himself had his reward with them ; for he was slain by the Israelites when they avenged themselves on
Midian.(v) The next action recorded of the Moabites is, that they were the instruments of the second oppression of the Israelites, after their settlenient in the Promised Land: Jul. Per. 3371.") that people returning to 2661. ( for A. M. Post Oil. 1004. f idolatry on the death of Othniel, 43 -J God permitted Eglon, king of Moab, to punish them. This prince accordingly invaded Israel, in conjunction with the Ammonites and Amalekites, and having made himself master of the city of palm-trees, supposed to be Jericho, he there set up his head-quarters, and for 18 years kept the Israelites in

raised them up a deliverer, in Cthe person of Ehud, a Benjamite; who being appointed to carry a present to Eglon, resolved to seize the opportunity, to rescue his people
-

B C

from the oppression under which they had

so long groaned. Accordingly, having delivered the present, and accompanied those who had gone with him to carry it, as far as the

quarries of Gilgal,

on their way home, he

suddenly returned by himself, pretending he had something to impart to Eglon in private. The king, without hesitation, admitted him to a conference in a retired chamber, from which he ordered his attendants to withdraw, and on being told that the message was from God,, he rose up from his seat, to receive it with due reverence but at that moment, Ehud, with his left hand, thrust a dagger, which he had concealed in his garments, into the lower part of his belly, with such violence that the haft went in after the blade ; and then having locked the door, he made his escape, without After he was gone, suspicion, or interruption. the servants of Eglon waited a long time at the door, till, surprised at the non-appearance of their master, they ventured to force it open,
:

and, to their utter dismay and terror, found him lifeless on the floor. In the mean time, Ehud gained the other side of the Jordan, and gathering together what forces he could, he attacked such of the Moabites as were garri-

to be the most natural explication of this (t) Such appears part of the history, which is only to be inferred from what followed in the Israelitish camp,' and from an observation of Moses on a subsequent occasion, t where he accuses the Moabitish women with having caused the children of Israel to sin, through the counsel of Balaam. Expositors have generally understood that these women prostituted themselves to the Israelites, in order to ensnare Ihem, though it appears that some of them were of noble quality; but this is very improbable, and by no means a necessary deduction from the words of the sucred historian. The marriage of the Israelites with any foreigners, was a flagrant breach of a divine injunction, and when followed with the
idolatry,

ihey would do well to secure them as friends, by the most intimate ties and connections. Josephus, in the case of Ximri and Cosbi, says positively, that they were married ; though his assertion would have little weight, were it not countenanced by other evidence, deducible from the history
itstlf.

In this prohibition of the Moabites, are also included ; of which latter, it seems to be intimated that they were concerned in the business of Balaam ; though in the detail of that transaction they are not
(u)

Dent,

xxiii. 3, 4.

the

Ammonites

very

which the prohibition was designed to prevent, might well be termed adultery and whoredom ;f yet it does not appear that Balaam had any such consequence in view,
evil

On the contrary, his the adxice he gave to Balak. counsel seems to have been purely political, that since the Moabites could have no hope of overcoming them as enemies,
in
iVumfc.

observe, that Moses expresses himself masculine, Ammoni and Moabi, i. e. a male Ammonite, or Moabite; and therefore they think he meant not to exclude the women of those nations ; or, at least, that occasions. In they might be admitted upon extraordinary of this opinion, they quote the instance of Ruth support who, though a Moabitess, was, for her piety, married to Boaz, the great-grandfather of David.||
noticed.

The Jews

only in

the

(v)

Numb.

xxxi.

18, et seq.

Joseph.
Munst.

Ant iq.
Dcut.

lib. v.

cap. 5.

xx.
I.

1, et Mi).

>"umt. ixxi. 16.

fjod. xxiiv. 15

16.

Antiq.

lib. iv.

cap. 6.

in

VOL.

4 L

626-

HISTORY OF THE MOABITES.

[CHAP. xn.

soned in that part of the Israelitish territory, and slew 10,000 of their best troops; which broke
the power of Moab, and freed the Israelites from the yoke of that nation.(w) read no more of the Moabites, after this disaster, till the timeof Saul, who warred against them with great success.(x) The enmity sub-

had not the prophet Elisha procured them a miraculous supply by a land-flood. The Moabites being by this time assembled in
great force, prepared for battle ; but in the morning, seeing the water to the westward, which by reason of the reflection of the sun's rays had a reddish tinge, and not in the least suspecting that so great a quantity of that fluid could be in a parched desert, they immediately concluded it to be blood ; supposing therefore that the confederate princes had turned their swords against each other, they

We

between him and this nation, probably induced David, when persecuted by that prince, to solicit the king of Moab's protection for his parents, which was readily granted.(y) Yet when David had acceded to the crown, the Moabites formed a confederacy with several neighbouring nations against him but it was quickly crushed by a signal victory obtained by the Israelites, on which occasion David put two-thirds of them to the sword, and reduced the rest to a state of vassalage.(z)
sisting
;

From this time they continued subject to the throne of Judah, till the separation of the ten tribes, when they became tributaries to the kings of Israel ; they had indeed still kings of their own, but they were little better than One of these, named Mesha, paid viceroys. to Ahab a yearly tribute of 100,000 lambs, and as many wethers, with their wool. (a) On the death of that prince, Mesha revolted during the whole reign of Ahaziah ;(b) but Jehoram, or Joram, his successor, assisted of Judah, Jul. Per. '3810. *3819.~} ^y Jehoshaphat, king -) his vassal the king of A. M. *3109. ( and Post Oil. *1462. ( Edom, made an excursion for B.C. *895.J the purpose of reducing him, a compass of seven days' march taking through the desert of Edom, in order to fall upon him by surprise. On their arrival in the country of Moab, they were greatly distressed for want of water, and their whole army must either have perished, or surrendered to the enemy,
(\v) Judtjfs, iii. (y) 1 Sam. xxii. 3, 4.

ran hastily and in disorder towards the Israelcamp, expecting to have nothing to do but to seize the spoil. This mistake proved their ruin ; for they were received so warmly, and attacked so vigorously, that they were obliged to face about, and flee before their enemies, who pursued them into the very heart of their country, ravaged their lands, and deitish

molished

all

their cities, except Kir-harasetb,

where the king of Moab shut himself up. Here Mesha, finding himself closely besieged, made a sally with 700 chosen men, and attempted
to

the

a passage through the quarters of Edomites, where the confederates were weakest but finding his intention foiled, he took his eldest son, who should have succeeded him, and, in the height of despair, offered him for a burnt-sacrifice upon the wall;(c) an act of barbarity, which excited such horror and
force
:

indignation in the allies, that they immediately raised the siege, and returned home.(d) To avenge the losses they had sustained in this invasion, the Moabites formed a coalition with the Ammonites, the Edomites of Mount Seir, and other neighbouring nations, against

Jehoshaphat,

by whose assistance, chiefly, Jehoram had been enabled to undertake it; and they actually advanced within 30 miles
nation against Israeli on account of this sacrifice ; and we that the allies pushed their advantages no farther, but returned home, leaving the enemy to recover his strength ; and soon after the Edomites revolted from Jehoram. J His, however, to be remembered that the historian speaks of a son, and the prophet of a king ; and that sacrifices li'uuj similar to the one described in the text were not unusual among the heathens, in times of great public calamities.^ See more on this subject in the argument to the 3d chapter of 2 Kinys, in the Englitk Bible ; and Usher's Annals, A. M.
find
'.

1230.

(x) 1

Sam.

xiv. 47.

8. 2 Sam. viii. 2. 1 Chron. xviii. 2. (z) Psalm Ixxxviii. 5 Joseph. Anfiq. lib. vii. cap. 5. Le Clerc in 2 Sam. viii. 2. (a) 2 Kings, iii. 4. (b) 2 Kings, i. 1. iii. 5. (c) The prophet Amos charges Moab with having burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime ;* whence several writers have concluded that Mesha did not sacrifice his own son, but a son of the king of Edom, whom lie had taken iii the sally. This notion appears to be countenanced by the assertion of the sacred historian, that there was great indig-

3109.
(d)

2 Kings,
p.

iii.

27.

Amos,
'I

ii.

1.

2 Kings,

iii.

26, 27.

See before,

272, 536; also Porpliyr.

Justin,
lib. nviii.

De

Abstin. lib.
i'lut. in

ii.

..Elian,

Var

Ki::gf, viii. 20.

Hiil. lib. xii. caj). 28.

cap. 6.

Pulopidum, ct cL

SECT.

II.]

SUBJUGATION,

AND ULTIMATE EXTINCTION.

of their principal cities, should be destroyed within the lapse of three years, and the rest of their country be brought to contempt and desolation. As this prophecy is dated in the first of Hezekiah's reign, (j) it must have been year executed the very year that r j u i. p er .399i. Shalmaneser first invested Sa- S A. M. 3281. maria;(k) that is, he took those S Post Oil. 1024. B c 723 cities, and ravaged the country v. of Moab, in his way to the land of Israel, in order to secure himself from any annoyance
-

Jehoshaphat's imploring the assistance of God, they were seized with a sudden frenzy, and, turning their swords upon each other, they continued the slaughter with unrelenting fury, till their whole army was cut to pieces.(e) It does not appear that the Moabites gave any disturbance to Israel for many years after this unhappy enterprise but between this and the reign of Uzziah in Judah, period, (rather more than 90 years) they invaded their neighbours the Edomites, and inhumanly burned their king (alive or dead, is unknown) for which cruelty, the prophet to ashes; Amos denounced severe judgments against
:

of his capital, before he had their design. Their attempt, frustrated ; for, upon totally

any advice of however, was

this quarter, and he placed garrisons in various parts of the country, to keep in check the Arabs, who might have fallen upon his

from

rear.(l)

After

them.(f) On the declension of the kingdom of Israel, the Moabites seem to have retaken, from the

Reuben and Gad, a great part of their ancient territories, which had been wrested from them by the Amorites, and from whom it had passed to the Israelites for, in the prophecies of Isaiah(g) and Jeremiah, (h) against Moab, several cities in those territories are
tribes of
;

Moabites frequently revolted army,(m) from the Assyrians, and were as often chastised and reduced by them, till at length they were completely subdued by Nebu- /-j u p er *4i3l. chadnezzaf, into whose hands \ A. M. *342l. their king was given, in the fifth } PostDil."l764. O #"O*>
i.
.

the the

destruction

of

Sennacherib's

/"*

mentioned as being then

in their possession, or in the possession of the Ammonites, who were probably their confederates in oppressing Israel. These successes so elated the Moabites, that, to punish their pride and insolence, the Almighty, by His prophets,(i) threatened them with utter destruction ; in particular, Isaiah foretold that Ar and Kir-haraseth, two

year after the capture of Jerusalem, agreeably to a prediction of Jeremiah.(n) From this period, the Moabites were subject to the great monarchies, and at length became incorporated with the neighbouring nations, Josephus, inhabiting the deserts of Syria. indeed, mentions them as a distinct people long after, even in his own days ;(o) yet in the third century of the Christian aera, they were not to be discovered, having lost their ancient name, and being comprehended under the more general denomination of Arabians. (p)

(e)

2 Chron. xx. 127. ii. 1 3. See note (f) Amos, g) Chap. xv. xvi. h) Chap, xlviii.
i)

(c) above,

Zephan. ii. 8 (j) haiah,

Isaiah, xv. xvi. 11.

Jerern.

xlviii.

Ezek. xxv. 8

11.

xiv. 28. xv. 1. xvi. 7,

8,14.

(k) 2 Kings, xviii. 9, 10. See Prideaux's Connections, part i. book i. p. 25. (in) 2 Kings, xix. 35. See (n) Jerem. xxv. 21. xxvii. 3 6. xlviii. passim. Josephus, Antlq. lib. x. cap. 11. De Bell. Jud. lib. i. cap. 4. (a) Ibid. lib. 1. cap. 10. in Job, lib. i. (p) Origen.
(1)

4L2

028

HISTORY OF THE AMMONITES.

[CHAP. xirr.

CHAPTER

XIII.

HISTORY OF THE AMMONITES.

SECTION

1.

ORIGIN, COUNTRY, CITIES, GOVERNMENT, CUS-

afterwards Philadelphia [Amman], where the monstrous iron bed of Og, king of Bashan, was
to

TOMS AND OCCUPATIONS, RELIGION IDOLS OF THE AMMONITES.

I HIS people, who were the

AND

be seen.(x)

posterity of Benammi,(q) the incestuous offspring of Lot and his youngest daughter,(r) possessed themselves of the country, called from them Ammonitis, bordering on the northern part of Moabitis, after they had expelled the Zamzum-zim, of the race of Titans, or Giants,(s) supposed to be the same with the Zuzim,(t) who dwelt in the neighbourhood of Ham, on the borders of the desert, and were smitten by Chedorlaomer and his allies. The Ammonites, however, did not retain this seat without molestation for, in the days of Moses, they were driven from the plain
;

country, east of the Jordan, into the mountains, by the Amorites. Ammonitis, as well as Moabitis, is by some reckoned part of Crelosyria, and by others of
It was Arabia.(u) tolerably fertile in corn. In the days of the Israelitish kingdom, the Ammonites had the hills of Gilead and Bashan on the north, the deserts of Arabia on the east, the country of the Ishmaelites and Moa bites 6n the south, and the tribe of Cad on tlu>

west, from which they were separated by the mountains of Arnon, and of Gilead. (v) According to the sacred historians, their territories seem to have been anciently confined between the rivers Arnon and Jabbok.(w) Their chief city was Rabbath, or Rabbah, otherwise Rabbath-amana, or simply Aniana,
(q) His
(r)
(.in>.

great obscurity in which the early of these people is involved, renders it history impossible to give a satisfactory account of their manners, customs, &c. They are known, to have had kings,(y) are however, supposed to have practised the rite of circumcision, (z) and seem principally to have been addicted to husbandry. They were among the nations whom the Israelites were not to disturb on their settlement in the Promised Land ;(a) but were not to be admitted into the conthey gregation to the tenth generation, because they did not go out to relieve them in the wilderness, and were perhaps concerned in liiring Balaam to curse them.(b) The religion of the Ammonites, like that of their brethren the Moabites, was at first pure; but they gradually swerved from it, till they had degenerated into the most stupid and cruel idolatry. Their chief deity was Molech, or Moloch; who is also thought to be understood under the various names of Baal, Milcom, Melec/t, Adramelcch, Anameall which titles lec/i, &c. signify a lord, or //// and sometimes, as the two last, a mighty or rich kins? : these latter belonged lo the Sepharvites.(c) The image of Moloch is represented as hollow, and divided into 'seven receptacles: the first for an offering of fine flour; the second for one of turtles the third for a sheep; the fourth for a ram; the fifth for a calf; the sixth for an ox;
,

The

name

signifies
(s)

MX.UH.

" urn of my people" Dent. ii. 19 -21. (0

i.

(z)
G<'tt. xiv. 5.

The passage
it.
ii.

in

Jeremiah,

ix.
it

countenance
against
(ii)

(u) JoM-ph. Anliq.

arcr.

lib.

cap. 16.
i.

Steph.

De

this opinion,

though

25, 26, is supposed to rather seems to militate

Urb. in

Dent.

19.

\) H.-laiul. Pa/tesl. w) Numb. \\\. 24. x) Deut.

iii.

Illus.tr. lib.

p. 103.

(l) Dfut.
Josh.
xii. 2.

xxiii. 3, 4.

See also note

Seklen.

(u)

Dent.

ii.

18, 10, 37.

(c)

Vossius.

De

Idololat.

DC

page (525. Diis Syr. synt.

i.

11.

(y) 2 Sam.

\. 1, et seq.

cap. 0.

SECT.

II.]

RELIGION AND IDOLS. WARS WITH ISRAEL.

6-29-

It had the lit-;ul the seventh for a child. of an ox, and the arms of a man stretched These out, as in the act to receive.(d) seven receptacles are by some called chapels, ranged in order before the image, instead From the number of these of within it.(e) or chapels, corresponding with receptacles, that of the sun, moon, and five other plait has been concluded that Moloch nets, was a representative of the sun ; though he is variously taken for Saturn, Priapus, Mercury, and Venus, or the morning star.(f ) Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, was also worshipped by these people. The expression used in the Scriptures, of the Ammonites making their seed to pass through the fire to Moloch, is taken literally

SECTION

II.

CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE

AMMONITES.

As in the case of the Moabites, we are here also unable to fix the beginning of this people, or the time when they expelled the ancient inhabitants: we can only state the limits of
the period within which those events must be included, viz. between the destruction of Sodom, and the arrival of the Israelites on their borders. The names of their first kings /-j u i.p er 337!. do not occur: they joined Eglon, NA.M. 2<;<n. king of Moab, against Israel, and 1 p st Oil. 1004. ' B c 1343. shared in the successes of that war ; but who was their leader at that period, is not stated.
.

The by some, and figuratively by others. Jewish writers, who have adopted the former
sentiment, hold, for the most part, that the children were merely carried, or led between two fires, by way of purification ;(g) but most Christian writers think, that nothing short of actual burning is meant ;(h) and, if the account given by Diodorus,(i) of sacrifices to Chronos in other places, be authentic, we cannot doubt that the Scripture adverts to a similar horrid indeed, the practice among the Ammonites words of Jeremiah are too explicit to leave a doubt on the subject. (j)
:

About 150 years after this, one of their kings, whose name is not recorded, resolved, while
the western Israelites were oppressed by the Philistines, to attempt the recovery of the ancient territory of the Ammonites from the Israelites on the east of Jordan ; and was so successful, that he even crossed the river, and invaded the territories of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. In this distressed situation, the

upon God for help, and He up Jephthah, to be their deliverer. Tin's general having assembled his countrymen at
Israelites called

raised

Paul. Fagius, apud ennd. (el Bedford's Scripture Chronology, p. 259. According to Pausanias,* it was a (f ) Vossius, ubi supr. title given to Jupiter, at Athens, Argos, and Sicyon at Myoma, in Locris, lie also speaks of some unknown gods, caileil 9foi Mit*i;poi, and of an altar with an inscription to the
(d)
:

the expression, passin g through fa e, as meaning only that children -were carried between fires; yet allows that, upon emergencies,
insists that

though he

should be taken

literally,

same purport: a proof that this title was very extensively used. Mr. Bryant derives it from the Amonians. (") Mo- CM Maimonide.st says, "The priests, or servants of fire, persuaded men, that their children would die, if they did not pass them through Ihefire: wherefore, parents being
anxious for the lives of their children, and perceiving there neither danger nor difficulty attending the ceremony, no one neglected it, considering that the children were not to be consumed, but only to pass through the fire." Solomon Yarchi, Joseph Karo, and others, are of the same opinion; so that they consider the ceremony as little more than a solemn dedication, probably accompanied with sacrifices, of But Ahenezra the children to the god of their fathers.

was

dissents

the fin;,
fire,

from this notion, and affirms, that pausing through must here be understood of burning.

(h) SeldcnJ thinks, they not only led their children through but that they burnt them at the same time. Vo.ssiu->,i
i.

" Those who were sacrificed to Chronos," says this " were thrown into ihe arms of a molten idol, which stood in the midst of a large fire, and was red with heat. Its arms were stretched out, with the hands turned upwards, as it were to receive them; yet sloping inwards, so that Well they dropped thence into a glowing furnace below. "IT might Moses call them devils,'* whose rites were attended \\itli such hellish tortures. " (j) Ji'i-fin. vii. 31. They have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to BURN their sons and their daughters IN the fire." This valley was a delightful spot, near Jerusalem, covered with groves and gardens, and watered by the springs of Siloah. Its name, Hinnom, is generally derived from the shrieks of (he children there sacrificed as Tophct, or Tuphelh, is from Toph, a drum, or tabret, used, with other instruments, to drown those shrieks. Perhaps the former word may be better
(i)

they gave up their offspring as an expiatory sacrifice. supposes the children were really burnt.
||

Jerom

writer,

derived
||

fromAin Omphe, " the sacred fountains of the suu."tt

vii.

* Lib.
1

ii. p. 1 j'J, p. 9. lib. i/i. lib. iii. cap.

15K
38.

lib. rii.

p.

573.

lib. i.

p.

897.

IlicroMvcn. in Jo-cm,

:V2.

f Diod.
$ Idem.
tt

Sieiil. lib. \x. p.

756.
i.

** Datt.
p.

xixii. 17.
ct

Vbi supr.

See on

Uiis subject,

Bryant'" Mythology, vol.

62, -'9l, -'15,

srq.

30
Mi/peli,

HISTORY OF THE AMMONITES.

3520.-)

[CHAP. xiir.

Jul. Per.

A.M. 2816. f Post Dil.1159. ( 1188. J B.C.

message to the king of the Ammonites, in which he endeavoured to convince him of the injustice

sent an expostulatory

moment when he expected to see the men of Jabesh march out to him, to be deprived of their eyes. This sudden and unforeseen attack threw his army into such confusion, that the
Israelites

of his claim, by an historical recapitulation of what had passed when the Israelites entered upon the possession of Canaan ; reminding him that they had molested neither the Ammonites nor their brethren the Moabites ; but had only taken what belonged to them by right of conquest over the Amorite kings, Sihon and Og. But finding him bent upon war, Jephthah fell upon him near Aroer, and, having put his army to flight, pursued the fugitives with
great slaughter.
this

had
is

little

else to
:

do than

to

pursue

and put
battle,
it

to the

sword

so that, instead of a

tinued

termed a slaughter, which connoon-day; by which time the surremnant of the Ammonites was so disviving persed that two of them were not to be seen
till

together.(l)

The Ammonites
cities
;

lost

upon

occasion

20

but whether those

cities had previously belonged to them, or had been taken by them from the Israelites,

In the reign of David, the Ammonites had a person named Nahash for their king; but whether the same with the foregoing, or another of the same name, is uncertain :(m) he and the Israelitish monarch were upon the most friendly terms, on account of some kindness rendered to David, (n) probably during the time of his

the victory, however, put does not appear an end for the present to the pretensions and
:

persecution by Saul.
to

He called Nahash. ture, Jul. Per. 3619. "} flourished in the days of Saul, and revived the old claim upon the territory of the Israelites beyond Jordan. He began with the siege of Jabesh-gilead, where the inhabitants were so terrified, that they unanimously consented to surrender, and to throw themselves at his feet as their ruler. But this tender of subis

tyranny of the Ammonites.(k) The next of their kings mentioned in Scrip-

Nahash was succeeded by his son Hanun, whom David, when he heard of the old
message

king's death, sent ambassadors, with a

mission

only inflamed his pride ; and he refused to accept their allegiance unless they should consent, every man of them, to lose his right eye, that in them he might stigmatize the whole body of Israel. The Gileadites a respite of seven days, that they requested

of condolence, and an offer of renewing the amity which had subsisted between the two nations. Instead, however, of entertaining these ambassadors as the friendly nature of their message deserved, Hanun suffered himself to be persuaded by his courtiers that they were spies; and, under this false impression, he treated them in a most inhospitable and indecent manner, by cutting their garments short, and shaving off half their beards; in

might send to their countrymen, to find a deliverer and if none were found, they promised to submit to these hard conditions. This was acceded to and Nahash awaited
; ;

which ridiculous and shameful disguise, he expelled them from his city. Conduct so base and ungrateful could not but occasion a war ; and a war in consequence ensued, which terminated in his own ruin and that of his kingdom.

When Hanun

heard of the

<

j u i. Per. 3677.

preparations

made by David
he sent to

to j A. M.
all
-

2967.
-

the event with

the pride of self-confidence seven days expired; no rescue appeared ; and the cruel Ammonite felt certain of his prey. But early on the eighth morning, he was assailed in three several parts of his camp by Saul, at the very
all

and

security.

The

avenge ) B. C. |M 1037. f *i. ui e the neighbouring princes for assistance in a conflict to which he felt himself unequal, and he obtained auxiliaries from Syria and Mesopotamia, to the number of 33,000 men, including a great number of chariots. (o) To these he joined his own
this affront,
20,000 infantry from the Syrians of Beth-rehob and of Zobah 1()00 men from the king of Maatah and 12.000 men of lali-tob: and iti 1 Citron, xix. (!, 7, Hauiiii is >ai<) to have hirrd 32,000 chariots and Iwmrinen, from Mesopotamia, Syria-maachah, and Zobah, besides the king of Maachab, and his people. Josephus retrenches the 1000 10
; ;

Dil 131

(k) Judges, x. (1) 1 Sam. xi.

(in)

111.
;

79,

17, 18.

xi.

1133.

Josephus says, the former Nahash fell in the slaughter above described but lie has no authority for the assertion. (n) 2 Sam. \. 1, 2. (o) In 2 Sam. x. 6, these allies are said to consist of

SECT.

II.]

WARS WITH THE

ISRAELITES.

troops, and marched from Kabbah, to fight Joab, whom David had sent at the head of The Ammonites drew up under his army. the walls of their own city, for its protection, while the auxiliaries formed two bodies on the

severity, and put to death with the most exquisite tortures ; being thrown under harrows,

sawn

in pieces,

hacked with

axes,

and passed

designing to charge the enemy in front But Abishai, rear at the same moment. the brother of Joab, attacked the Ammonites so furiously, while Joab himself fell upon the allies with equal ardour, that they had no opportunity of acting otherwise than on the The Syrians first gave way; and defensive. then the Ammonites, who had sustained the charge with great intrepidity, thought it adviseable to retire within the walls of their city.(p) The next year, the Syrian Jul. Per. 3678. } A. M. 2068. ( allies, ashamed of their last dePost Oil. 1311. fea ^ collected their forces again; I
plain,

other cities of the Ammonites, at least such of them as held out against the conqueror, also met with a similar

through brick-kilns.

The

and

fate.(t)

After this dreadful execution, we hear no till the reign of Jehoof Judah, when they joined in shaphat, king a league against that prince, with the Moabites, and the Edomites of mount Seir ; as already noticed in the history of Moab.(u) They were afterwards made tributary by Uzziah :(v) but in the reign of his son Jotham, they revolted. At this time, they had a king of their own but

more of the Ammonites

36J but being routed by David in the Ammonites were left to shift person,(q) ibr themselves, and to endure the just resentment of their injured enemy, which soon fell For, the following year, heavily upon them
.

being the third of this war, their country was entered by Joab, w ho laid it waste on every side, l3 3 --' and at length besieged Hanun, in his capital Rabbah. The place, being very held out about two years, in the course strong, of which, Hanun made a desperate sally, and cut off many of the besiegers, among whom was Uriah, the husband of Bath-sheba.(r) At last the city, reduced to the utmost
Jul Per. 3079.")

A. M. 2i*>9. ( Post Oil. 18 12. (

'

extremities
Jul. Per. 3681.

by famine, was stormed by David

person, who came to have the honour of finishing the work. i n the assault, Hanun was slain,

A. M.

) 2971. { Post Oil. 1314. C

f^

being overthrown in battle, they were obliged to compound for a peace, by paying a tribute of 100 talents of silver, 10,000 measures of wheat, and as many of barley ; which was continued for three successive years. (w) At length, when the Babylonian power became so formidable as to threaten all this part of Asia with subjugation, the kings of Ammon and Judah seem to have thought of withstanding the common enemy with their joint forces: hence that temporary friendship between Baalis, the last king of the Ammonites, and Zedekiah, the last of Judah. But when destruction came Zedekiah and Jerusalem, the Ammonites upon exulted over the ruins of that unhappy city ; for which they were severely threatened by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel.(x) Yet Baalis received all the Jews who fled into his dominions to avoid the captivity, and, among the rest, Ishmael, of the blood royal, whom he

T 0*1*1

crown, which weighed a talent of gold (11 3lb. lOoz. Idwt. lO^gr. troyweight,)(s) and was adorned with precious
his

i J

and

stones,

was

(a sardonyx, according to Josephus) taken from his head by David. The

inhabitants were

treated

with extraordinary

persuaded to return into Judea, and to assassinate Gedaliah, the Babylonian governor of the For this, he was, a short time after, land.(y) attacked by Nebuzar-adan, who /- Ju Per *4i4 2 *3432. ravaged his country with fire S A. M. and sword, destroyed his chief "j Post Dil. 1775. (- B- c city Rabbah, and took him and
i *

men sent by the king of Maachah, and allows him and the king of Ish-tob to have contributed jointly 12,000, so that he makes the whole number 32,000. He also describes the
Mesopotamians AS footmen.* (p) 2 Sam. \. 114. 18. (<|) 2 Sam. x. 15 Josephus says these Syrians were brought by one Balama, who dwelt beyond the Euphrates, at the instigation of the Ammonites and that they were three times as numerous as the former host. Their numbers
;

hundred chariots and 40,000 horsemen ; and in 1 Chron. xix. 18, at seven thousand chariots, and 40,000 footmen. Sam. xi. 1, 17, 23. (r) 2 Arbuthnot. See before, p. 229, Tab. xxx. (s) 1 Citron, xx. 13. 31. Joseph, (t) 2 Sam. \ii. 26
Antiq.
u)
lib. vii.

cap. 7.
;

are variously stated

in the

passage here quoted, at seven

lib. vii.

See before, p. 626 and 2 Chron. xx. Joseph. Antiq. lib. v) 2 Chron. xxvi. 8. 2 Chron. xxvii. 5. Joseph, idem. w) Ezek. xxv. 1 7. 5. x) Jer. xlix. 1
(y) Jer.
il. xli.

123.
is.

cap. 11.

Joseph. Antiq.

cap. t.

632

HISTORY OF THE AMMONITES.

;

[CHAP. xin.

most of the nobles of Ammon, into captivity agreeably to what the prophet Amos had fore" I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabtold bah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof; and their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, saith Jehovah. "(z) Ezekiel, also, had prophesied to the same " Because thou saidst, Aha! against purport: My sanctuary, when it was profaned 1 will deliver thee to the men of the East for a possession I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the Ammonites a couching place for flocks I will cut thee off from the people and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries I will destroy thee and thou shalt
: ; ; : ;

that I am the Lord. "(a) After the return of the Jews from Babylon, the Ammonites are mentioned with the Arabians, Moabites, and Samaritans, as disturbing the rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem at this time, one Tobiah, called the servant, is said

know

lirts subsequent conflicts U-C. with the same enemy, lill at length their city Jaser, or Jaazer, which had formerly belonged to the tribe of Gad, with the r j u Per. 45oO. neighbouring towns, fell a prey j A. M. 3810. to the Jews, who killed the men, 1 postDa.2183, carried their wives and children ^ into captivity, and burnt Jaser to the ground.(c) From this time they never dared attempt any thing against the Jews, and little more is known of them. In the beginning of the second century of the Christian yera, they were called a numerous people ;(d) but towards the

the great monarchies, they gradually increased in strength and numbers and in the days of Judas Maccabeus, they assembled against the Jews in a very considerable army, under their elt> governor Timotheus. They were, fJul. Per. 4548. however, defeated with great loss J A. M. 3838. OSs; and the same ill fortune attended j Port DU. 2181* ded
:

'

them

in their

leu.

latter part of that period, their

name

vanished',

to

have been at their head,(b)

and they have ever since been blended with

peaceably under
the Arabians. (e)
(c) 1 Mace. v. Prid. Connect, part
(cl)
xiii.

As

the

Ammonites
i.

lived

(z) Amos,

14, 15.

68.
ii.

(a) Ezek. xxv.

110.
10. iv. 3. vi. 1, 17, 19.

book

Joseph. Antiq. iv. p. 299.

lib. xii.

cap. 11, 12.

Just. Martyr. Dial,

lib.
fi
i.

cum Tryph.

p.

'27:2.

(b) Nehem.

ii.

passim.

(ej Orig.

in Job.

CHAP, xiv.]

HISTORY OF MIDIAN. ORIGIN. COUNTRY.

CITIES.

033

CHAPTER
--

XIV.

HISTORY OF MID IAN, OR MAD IAN.

SECTION
to war, and pitching their tents wherever they could find water and pasturage.(h) The merchants travelled from place to place,
in

I.

when they went

ORIGIN, COUNTRY, CITIES, MANNERS, OCCULEARNING, GOVERNMENT, AND PATION, RELIGION OF THE MIDIANITES.

companies, or caravans as they are now called, leaving the care of their cattle to the

IT is generally agreed that this nation sprang from Midian, the fourth son of Abraham by Keturah, who, in common with his brethren, received large gifts from his father, and was sent into the eastern country, that he might be at a proper distance from Isaac, the heir of The sons of Midian were Ephah, promise. Henoch, Abidah, and Eldaah;(f) Epher, from these sprang as many tribes, which, though comprehended under the general denomination of Midianites, dwelt in various parts
some
of Arabia, and Avere diverse in their manners residing in cities, others leading an ambu:

women. These merchants, by their traffic, became extremely opulent, and by exchanging
and jewels with their brethren, for the shepherds also became rich in valuacattle, ble ornaments, as well as in apparel ; hence we read of their jewels of gold, bracelets, rings, purple raiment, and the gold chains or collars on the necks of their camels. (i) Such of the Midianites as had a fixed residence, dwelt on the eastern borders of the Dead Sea, north of the Edomites, with the Ishmaelites on their west, and the tribe of
their gold

latory

and dwelling in tents. In their most early times, the Midianites were confounded with the Ishmaelites ;(g) and
life,

afterwards those who dwelt in the vicinity of the Moabites were so blended with them, that Moses seems almost to consider the two people as one nation. Indeed, it appears that, as they happened to live in the northern or southern parts of the country, they were joined either with the Moabites or the Ishmaelites.

Reuben on their north, from which they were separated by the river Arnon so that, in fact, they were seated in the country of the Moabites, (j) though it cannot he ascertained which
:

of the two

first

was

hot, sandy,

ren; yet it At the sheep, goats, deer, and camels.(k) time of the Exodus, it was divided into a kind of pentarchy; for the Israelites are said to

Their country settled there. in many parts quite barabounded in cattle, particularly

and

This numerous race may be divided into two general classes the nomade and the Of these, the former was by far stationary. the most considerable, and consisted of shepThe shepherds roved herds and merchants.
;

kings riz. Evi, Rekem, /ur, Hiir, and Reba,(l) who appear to have been vassals to Sihon, king of Heshbon, and whose capitals are supposed to have been situate near the Dead Sea. They had also a cele-

have slain their

five

tic

about, driving their cattle before them, even

brated city, frequently mentioned in the prophebooks, as well as by other writers, named after their progenitor, "Midian, which some

Gen. xxv. 16. Gen. xxxvii. 2528, 3(. xxxix. \. Judges, viii. 3, In Isaiah, Ix. (5, 7, they are mentioned in conjunc24, 26. tion with Nebaioth and Kedar, sons of Ishmael.
(f)

(j)

Geu.

xxxvii.

35.

See Rcland.

Paltest. Illustr. lib.

i,

(g)

p. 1)8, etseq.

Calraet. in

Madian. Josephus,
Ezek. xxv.
xiii.

Philo, \-r.

(k)

Jerom. in Esa.

\\. ct

Euseb. Onomast. in

Madian.
(1)

(h) J'idges, vi. 5, 0. Gen. xxxvii. 28. Numb. xxxi. (i)

50

52. Judg.

viii.

24,

20'.

Numb.

xxxi. 8.

Josh,

21.

VOL.

I.

4 M

6.-H

HISTORY OF THE MIDTAN1TES.

iii

[CHAP. xiv.

place on the waters of Nemrim, and others on the Arnon. Josephus also describes another Midiau, or Madiau \_Meg(ii--clcity, called on the Elanitic branch of the lied Shoaib], Sea,(ni) near where Ptolemy places Madiana this is supposed to have been the capital of another canton of the land of Midian, whither Moses fled from the resentment of Pharaoh but how these two capitals came to be so far
:

The merchants must, of neceshave been acquainted with some method sity, of calculation and the. circumstance of there being trading ships in the Mediterranean so early as the days of Jacob, (t) affords a strong
that art.(s)
;

presumption that the Midianites, who were such extensive traders, and had possessions on the Red Sea, learned the art of ship-building,

and became acquainted with the shores of their

each other, is unknown. It is however, that the Midianites were probable, dislodged from their settlements on the bordistant from

own

sea, coasts.

as well as those of the contiguous

by some other tribe, lli/c-sos,(\\) when they retreated from Egypt, and afterwards built a new city, of the same name, in the country bordering on the Dead Sea. To these cities may be added
ders of the perhaps the
Sea,

Red

those of IJibon-gad, described by Eusebius, as a large town on the river Arnon, though more frequently placed on the torrent of Zered; Almon-Diblathaim, and Beeroth, the last so called from its numerous wells, or springs besides which, it is not to be doubted that they had many others, as well as strong fortresses, considering the great havoc made of them by the Israelites, and the vast numbers of men, women, cattle, &c. brought away from them.(o) Abu'lfeda,(p) speaks of a dilapidated city, which he calls Madyan, near the Red Sea, supposed to be the ruins of Midian, or Maclian, above alluded to. Near this city is shewn the place where Moses is supposed to have watered his father-in-law's cattle; it is one of the stations in the pilgrimage from ligypt to Mecca, and is called Shoaib's cave ;(q) Shoaib being the name given by the Arabians' to the
:

Though their form of government is represented rather as aristocratical than monarchical, their chiefs were honoured with royal titles, and are called kings and princes. The Midianites appear to have varied as much from each other, in point of religion, as At first, they were in their mode of life. doubtless pure, and right in their own way but by admixture with their idolatrous neigh:

bours, they gradually gave into all their corIn the days of Moses, we find those ruptions. who lived among the Moabites, even exceeding them in their endeavours to pervert the Israelites for though it was a king of Moab who sent for Balaam to curse that chosen nation,
;

they Avere Midianites

latry.(u)

who seduced

it

to ido-

According

to

Jerom, Peor was the

person

call Jethro. of the Midianites is supposed to learning have included writing and arithmetic, with a moderate share of geography, geometry, and astronomy for it is obvious, that the use of writing was very early known in those parts among the descendants of Abraham ;(r) whence Sir Isaac Newton has been induced to allow them the honour of instructing Moses himself

whom we

The

peculiar deity of the Midianitish women :(v) and, in other respects, these northern Midianites were defiled with all the abominations of the country where they dwelt, and which have already been described in the history of the Moabites, &c. In the south, they appear to have retained a more sublime and rational system, long after the degeneracy of their brethren; as is sufficiently evinced in the conduct and sentiments of Jethro, who is called
priest of Midian,

and

is

supposed to have pre-

near the Red has been supposed, from the comSea.(w) mon reading of the conduct of Zipporah, that but it is they were enemies to circumcision doubtful whether that reading be not a perversion of the original ;(x) if not, the fact rounsided

among
It

the Midianites,

(m) Joseph. Antif/. lib. ii. cap. 5. These people appear to be described by Moses under tin- term shr.phcrds, in the account of hi* adventure \\t\\\ the d;nili(trs of Uenel, or Jetliro when- llierr is a marked distinction hetnirn tin- /-'.i/if/itiini rMovrsi HIK) them.
(n)
;

(r)

Job, xix. 23, 21.

(s)
(t)

Ckron.

<>l

'Ancient Kingdoms amfmled,

p. 210.
lib. iv.

Gen.

xlix. 13. xxii. 4, 5. xxv. 17, 18.

(u)

Numb.

Joseph. Antiy.

(oj
:'i>

i\nm/>. \\\i. 10, ft

st-f/.

Judyrs,

\i.

\iii.

cap. 6. (v) Hreron. in

Nnmb.

horn. 20.
ii.

Detcript. Arab, p. 1'J, inter (ii-o. Vet. Srript. Gr<ec. min. Ka>'s Collect, of Curious Travels and (<1 Voyages, vol. ii. p. 168.

(w) Joseph. Antiq.

lib.

cap. 11.

Tremellii Bibl. Lut.

rv.

Exml.

iii.

(x) See

Joseph Mede's Sermon on Exod. 10

24

20.

SECT,

ii.]

MOSES' CONNECTIONS WITH

THE FAMILY OF JETHRO.

very affectionately by Moses, and Jethro hearing from him (he particulars of the wonderful works that had been done for Israel, he blessed the name of Jehovah, acknowledged Him to be superior to all other gods, and offered a
burnt-offering

tenances the idea, that the sons of Keturah were born before the institution of that rite, otherwise it would have been continued by their descendants, as well as by the Ishmaelites.

and

sacrifices, in

which Aaron,

SECTION
CHRONOLOGY

II.

ANp HISTORY MIDIANITES.

OK

THE

THE most
nation,
is
~~V

ancient record
til I"
I

couceruiog this
.-/ ^
1

some war, or skirmish, between them *VJI* M*M\S* and A*.**VLlHj the Horite; when Hadad, "I")') Jul. Per. *2929. *2219. ( Midian was smitten in the field A. M. which Midiau, Post Dil ostDil. *562. f of Moab:(y) *1785.J B C. Bishop Cumberland takes to have been the son of Abraham himself, and that Moses recorded the transaction out of
1.11*^.
.

the elders, participated. The next Jethro displayed his knowledge of tinday, due regulation of government for, perceiving that the people crowded about Moses all the day long, and being informed, on his inquiring the reason, that Moses had been sitting in judgment; he observed that so heavy a burden was too much for one man, and must, if continued, unavoidably wear him out: he therefore gave his advice, that while Moses attended only to the sublimer matters of consulting with

and

all

God, declaring His holy laws and ordinances,

instructing the people, &c. the task of judging them, and deciding their differences, should be committed to a select number of the most righ-

compliment

to

Jethro,
is

as

one

of his de-

scendants^/) The next event

Jul. Per. 2986.
-\

teous
their purchasing

men among

the

congregation,

who

Joseph

f his

brethren for 20 pieces of

2270. f A. M. Post Dil. 019. f 1728. J

silver, and carrying him away into Egypt, where they sold
i,;

to

tiphar,

as

already

related, (a)

from Pharaoh into Midian, Jul. Per. 3183.^ A.M. 2473. f and there formed an acquaintance Post Dil. 810. ( vvith Jethro, the priest, who gave R r i v j him Ins daughter in marriage, and kept him in his service as a shepherd for the space of 40 years, till he understood that
fled
,
i

Many

years after these transactions,

Moses

according to their abilities, be apover thousands and hundreds, fifties pointed and tens a plan that was adopted by Moses, to his great relief and comfort.(c) When Jethro returned to his own place, he left his son Hobab vvith Moses, with the friendly intention that he should serve as a guide through the wilderness; but it was with reluctance that he
should,
:

complied, notwithstanding the large promise*

made to him.(d) The descendants

of Jethro were called Ke-

nites: they joined the children of

his son-in-law

was appointed by God to lead out the children of Israel from their Egyptian
bondage.(b) When Jethro afterwards heard of the mighty deeds that had been performed by the hand of Moses, and that he had been the instrument of God in delivering Israel, he took his daughter, Zipporah, the wife of Moses, and her two sons,
Jul. Per. 3224.

Judah, and city of palm-trees (Jericho) into the wilderness of Judah ;(e) where,

marched with them from the

in consideration of their assistance, the Israelites,

A Gershom and
with his

A. M. 2514. { Post Dil. 857. 90 '-^

own

repaired to the Israelitish camp, in mount Horeb, to congratulate him on his success, and his exalted station. They were all received
(y)
(z)

Eliezer, together son, Hobab, and his son-in-law, in

when Hebron was taken, rewarded them with a large portion of ground.(f) Heber, the husband of Joel, who sotreache- ^j,,i. p t r ai-2<j. 2719. rously murdered Sisera, was of )A. M. this family; though he had re- i Post Dil. u>2. moved from his brethren, to the ^ B<1'north of Canaan.(g) Those who continued in the south, were warned, by Saul, /-j u |. p er *3i;35. to move from the vicinage of the ) A. M. *2n2->. Post Dil. *126. Amalekites, whom he was com- J
. .

mam led to extirpate, lest they should be involved in their ruin. (h)
(c) Kxod.
(e;
xviii.
i.

Thus they
2932.
lib. v.

Gen. xxxvi. 35.

passim.
(f)

the Origin of Nations, p. 14. (b) Exod. ii. (a) See before, p. 359.

Cumberland on

1522.

Judges,

10.

fd) Numb. x. Joseph. Antiq.

(JO

cap. 2.

iv.

18.

(g) Jml'jrs,

iv.

11, et seq.

v.

(j.

4M2

HISTORY OF THE MIDIANITES.

Avere preserved, and possessed abundant blessings; till, growing profane and presumptuous, tne were at last permitted to be
Jul. Per. 3003.-)

[CHAP. xiv.

A. M. 3283. ( Post Oil. 1026. ( 721 '^

lon<r

carried into captivity by the Aswith the ten Syrians, together of Israel, as Balaam had tribes

ing been guilty of idolatry, had forfeited the On this protection of their divine Benefactor. the Israelites were so terrified, that occasion, they forsook the low country, and flew to the mountains, where they hid themselves in caves and fortresses. The Midianites having, therefore,

before prophesied of them.(i) The Midianites, whom we shall now have occasion to speak of as the implacable enemies of Israel, resided chiefly in the neighbourhood Evi, Rekem, Hur, Zur, and of the Moabites. Reha,(j) were all kings or dukes Jul Per 3263 of Midian, when Moses over\. M. '2553. ( Post Dil. 890.4* came !Sihon, the Amorite, to 1401. ) whom B. C. they appear to have been These princes united with Balak, tributary.(k) king of Moab, in hiring Balaam to curse Israel; and they were most zealous in enticing them to For this perversion of the people idolatry.(l)
~i

no enemy

to

withstand them, drove off

the cattle, and carried away the fruits of the earth, leaving the distressed and scared inhaThese depredabitants in a state of famine. tions they continued for seven years successively, marching every summer season in vast multitudes, with numberless camels and herds of cattle, about the time that the fruits were ripening, and reaped for themselves : so that,

them and their immense scarcely any sustenance was left for the
between
ites,

flocks, Israel-

who

constantly fled to the mountains on

their approach. (p)

of God, a very severe judgment was soon inflicted upon them; for, while the Moabites

were only prohibited entering the congregato be tion,(m) the Midianites were ordered and vexed with continual warfare.(n) spoiled
In pursuance of this injunction, the Israelites, the same year, fell upon them; and though they made the best preparation they could, to
receive and repel their invaders, by arming their castles, and mustering their armies, the Israelites, with only 12,000 men, under the

At length the Almighty interposed in favour of his people; Gideon was ap- rj u i. p e r. 3400. 2759. pointed to deliver his country- j A. M. men; and he did it so effectu- "j Post Dil. 1102. c ally, that the Midianites never afterwards presumed to contend with them.
-

Zebah, Zalnmnna, and their confederates; marching into the country, according to their
annual custom, pitched their tents in the valley of Jezreel, on the west of Jordan.(q) Here, their camp was explored by Gideon in the the soldiers night, who, overhearing one of dream to his companion, by relate a particular whom it was interpreted in favour of Gideon, was encouraged to put into execution immediately a stratagem, in which he had been divinely instructed, for the overthrow of the

of the pious Phinehas, gave them a. total overthrow, dismantled their fortresses, and burned their cities they also ravaged the country, drove oft'their cattle to the number of

command

675,000 sheep, 72,000 oxen, and 61,000 asses ; slew all the male inhabitants with the sword,
the females, except virgins, of carried off 32,000, besides great whom they riches in gold, silver, iron, and other metals. Among theslain, were the five kingsabovenamed, and the prophet Balaam, whose fatal advice had been the occasion of all the mischief.(o) About 200 years after this catastrophe, the Midianites again appeared in force; with two as likewise
all
Jul. Per. 3402.
~)

2752. f PostDil. 1095. f B.C. 1252. J

\.

M.

princes, /cbah and Zalnmnna, at their head, leading with them

the Amalekites and Arabians, against the Israelites, who, hav-

enemy. His army consisted of only 300 men, each armed with a trumpet in one hand, and a lamp, or torch, concealed in a pitcher, in the other. These 300 men were divided into three companies, and sent to as many quarters of the Midianitish camp, where they arrived soon after midnight. Upon a signal given by Gideon, they all began to sound an alarm with their trumpets, which roused the enemy but they no sooner from their slumbers started up to look about them, than they perceived their camp beset in three quarters by
;

(i)

Numb.

xxiv. 21, 22.

(k)
(1)

(j)
Ure's,

Josephus calls these five kings, (Eus, Sures, Rohcas, the latter, he says, built the city of aiul Recein n, tailed by the Greeks Prtra, the capital of Arabia.*
;

Numb. xxxi. 8. Joshua, Numb. xxv. passim, xxxi.

xxiii. 3.

xiii.

21.
18.

(m) Deut.

(n)
xiii.

Numb.

xxv. 17. xxxi. 1, 2.

(o) Ibid, passim.

Joseph. Antiq.

lib. iv.

cap. 7.

(p) Judges, vi.

10.

Joshua,

21, 2:2. (q) Ibid. ver. 11

1C, 33, 34.

SECT.

II.]

THEIR OVERTHROW BY GIDEON,

lights,

&c.

037

a multitude of

which Gideon's men

now exposed The sound ers.

to view,

by breaking

their pitch-

of the trumpets, the sudden of the torches amid the gloom of midglare night, and the loud shouts they heard from the Israelites, struck them with such horror and amazement, that, in the general apprehension that they were surrounded by a
host, mistaking friends for enemies, attacked each other, and a dreadful they Zebah and Zalmunnah slaughter ensued. found means to escape, with 15,000 men; as did Oreb and Zeeb, two princes of Miclian; but the latter fell almost immediately into the hands of the Ephrairnites, who put them to death and by the slaughter which happened on this occasion, and had occurred before in the camp, there fell 120,000 men. Zebah and

mighty

river to Karkor, where but thought themselves in security Gideon soon compelled them to renew their flight, though at last he came up with them, dispersed their forces, and took them both On his return home, he found they prisoners. had slain his brethren at Tabor, and therefore he put them to death. (r) Thus were the Midianites a second time slaughtered, and plundered of immense wealth, in cattle, gold, jewels, and rich attire ;(s) and from thisepocha, they appear to have relinquished the pursuit of war.(t)

Zalmunnah passed the

they

ages after this period, they were increased to a considerable nation, celeagain brated for industry, riches,(u) and the magnificence of their tents ;(v) but in the first century of the Christian sera, their name was totally lost among the tribes of the more powerful Arabs.

Many

25. (r) Judges, vii. 9 (s) Ibid. viii. 25, 20.

viii.

12,

1821.
amounted
to

The

(t)

Judges,

viii.
iii.

28.
7.

(u) Isaiah,

Ix.

0.

car-rings alone

1700 shekels of gold.

(v) Habak.

HISTORY OF THE EDOMITES.

[CHAP. XT.

CHAPTER XV.
HISTORY OF THE EDOMITES.
SECTION

I.

ORIGIN, COUNTRY, CITIES, GOVERNMENT, CHARACTER, ARTS, SCIENCES, AND RELIGION OF THE EDOMITES.
people were the posterity of Esau, or Edom, the son of Isaac and Rebekah, and the twin-brother of Jacob, or Israel. The circumstances of his birth, and the transactions between the two brothers, having been already related, (w) it is only necessary here to notice the history of his descendants, of which a few fragments are all that has been preserved by

THESE

Moses, and what is supposed to relate to them in profane history has little better than conjecture for its foundation.

prevailed so far as to expel or subjugate tfir Horim,(a) and from that period we read only of the Edomites. The land of Edom, or Idumea, lay south of Palestine, being part of Arabia Petrea, with Judea on the north, the Arabian desert on the east, Arabia Petrea on the south, and Egypt, with a branch of the Red Sea, and the land of the Amalekites, on the west. It lay mostly under the 30th degree of latitude. Its extent was different at various periods. At first Esau, or Edom, from whom it received its name, and his descendants, settled along the mountains of Seir, on the east and south of the

Mount

Seir,

the

original

residence of the

Edomites, from whence they spread into the neighbouring country, was first occupied by a nation, or tribe, called Horim, or Horites, from Hor, a descendant of Hevi,(x) the sixth son of Canaan, from whose son, Seir, the mountain seems to have received its name. Of these Horim we only know that they were smitten by Chedorlaomer and his allies, in the Pentapolitan war,(y) and that they had kings,
as
is

Dead Sea, whence they gradually spread through the west part of Arabia Petrea, even In the days of to the Mediterranean, (b) and the Jewish kings, they Moses, Joshua, were confined within the Dead Sea and the Elanitic gulf: but during the captivity of Judah at Babylon, they advanced northward as far as Hebron. Hence Strabo, and after him many modern geographers, have divided Idumea into Eastern and Southern: the capital of the former was Bozrah, and of the latter
Petra, or Jectael [Karak~\.(c) Josephus disin its largest extent, by the tinguishes it, epithet of Great, as opposed to its more cir-

supposed,

immediately

afterwards, (z)

These kings were eight in 'number, and in their days Esau settled among the Horim, having previously married two or three of In proportion as the Edomites their daughters. increased in strength, the Horim became weak; their regal government was abolished, and an aristocracy of dukes was instituted, some of

cumscribed
the
to

limits

Idumean

cities, (d)

whom

appear to have been of the line of Seir, others of that of Esau. At length the latter

distinguish Loircr and the Upper Idumea. In later accounts, all that part of the tribe of Simeon, which lay south of the river -Bezor, and even Gaza, with all the other Philistine satrapies within its bounds, are included within the

and places Hebron among He likewise seems between what he calls the
;

) See before, p. 340349, 355, 362. x) Gen. xxx\i. 2, " Zibeon the Hivite."

(h)
lil).
ii.
iii.

Ileland. Palast. Illustrat. cap. 14, et al.

lib.

i.

cap. 12.

Cellar.

y) Geit.\i\.n.
(a)

(z)

Dent.

12, 22.

Cumberland. Oriy. Gent.

(d) Joseph.

(c) Brocard, Bonfrerius, Torniel, Reland, Calmer, et a/. Bell. Jail. lib. v. cap. 7.

De

SECT.

I.]

COUNTRY.

CITIES.

GOVERNMENT.
named

03!)

of which Cluverius makes the capital/e) In the sacred books, as well as those of other writers on the snhject, this country is represented as hot, dry, and mountainous in some parts barren and desert, and the mounMount Seir, tains full of rocks and caverns.
limits of Itlumea,

history furnishes no particulars resecting them,

in holy writ. of the Edomites but government little can be collected, beyond what has already been stated. The Horim, probably, at lirst dwelt under the patriarchal form, in distinct families, at great distances one from the other; but discovering their weakness during the invasion of the Assyrian allies, they seem to have adopted the regal state, and had a succession of eight elective kings these, in their tarn, gave place to the government by dukes, who were rajMMVeded by persons bearing the same title, of the family of Esau, which, indeed, was the foundation of the Edornitish power, and in this state they were found by the Israelites, on their deliverance from Egypt ;(i) but by the time Israel approached their borders, in the 40th year of the Exodus, they had a king,( j) whom Archbishop Usher supposes to be Hadar, the 8th and last; but it is very improbable that in the space of less than 40 years, seten princes should have completed their reigns, and the 8th be on the throne, unless they had been contemporaries, which cannot fairly be inferred from the text of Moses, where the death of one is stated befoiv his successor is introduced, (k) There is r without doubt, some connection intended by the divine historian between the "kings that reigned in t/te land of 7iV/o/," and the reign of " it king over the children of Israel :" whence it has been inferred, that Moses him" self, who in another place is called king in is the king here intended, and Jeshurun,"(l) that therefore the kings in tlie fund of J(hnn (not kings of the Edornites), should be all placed prior to the Exodus. (in) On this sub-

Gaza

nor of some others

As

to the

however,

and

its

immediate

vicinity,

was

than, the rest of Idumea; and, indeed, such was the perseverance and industry of the ancient inhabitants, that they made the
fertile

more

high and rocky mountains to bear corn, wine, and fruits, especially palm-trees, which were here in great plenty. For many ages past, it has lain waste and uncultivated, being inhabited by

wild Arabs, who hide themselves in the holes of the mountains, and subsist on plunder. The ancient cities belonging to Idumea, and mentioned by the sacred writers, are numerous: the most considerable were Dmhabah, the seat of Bela, the son of Beor, the first king of the Horim, that we read of. (f) Bozrah, Bezor, or Bostra [Jiosra/t], the capital of Eastern Idumea, and the royal residence of Jobab, the son of Zerah, and successor of Bela,(g) who is by many writers supposed to be the same with Job this city is commonly spoken of, as situate in a wilderness, because it stood on the confines of Arabia Deserta, and was surrounded on all sides with wild deserts it was nevertheless a considerable place, and was appointed by Joshua to be a Levitical city, and a city of refuge.(h) Avith was another the seat of Hadad, or Adad, son of royal city, Bedad, the fourth king of the Horim, who smote Midian, in the field of Moab. Rehoboth by the river, supposed to be the same with Hahabat on the Euphrates, was the seat, or native place of Saul, or Shaul, the sixth of the Horile king's; from which it appears that the Horim had a very extensive sway at that early period, i. e. while the Israelites were in Pan, or Phau, was the residence of lugypt. Hadar, or Hadad, the last king of the race of Seir. Ptolemy also speaks of Caparosu and but Gamaris, as chief cities of Idnmea
: :

ject, ho\ve\er,

nothing certain can be adduced can be stated of the nature of their authority or government. The character of the Edomites is that of a bold and daring people, always engaged wars and tumults, and anxious to distinguish themselves by their valour they were, nevertheless, much addicted to commerce, and they
;

and

as

little

(e)

Reland. ubi supr.

lib.

ii.

p. 462, et al.
(g) I/rid, ver. 33.

which was exactly

it

verified

by Judas Maccabeus, who burned

its'inhabitants to the sword. t xx. 14. (j)

(f)

Gen. xxxvi. 32.

In the
(i)

ground/and put
ir>.

xx. 8. xxi. 3fi. This city was dreadfully (Ii) Joshua, threatened by the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah ;" particularly by the former, with no less than a total destruction;
*
Isaiah, ixxiv. 6.

E.vod. xv.

AWA.

(k)

()

Gen. \\XM. 31 39. (1) Ltext. xxxiii. See Bitlip Cumberland's Oriy. Gent.
t 1 ytuce. v.

4, 5.

Jerem.

xlviii.

24. xlir. 13, 22.

K.

640

HISTORY OF THE EDOMITES.

their territories.

[cfiAP. XT.

sent out colonies to many parts. Though no annals of their nation remain, and their history is most obscure, we may venture to pronounce, that they were very rich and powergenerally, ful ; carrying on an extensive traffic by sea, and engrossing all the trade of the East. In

point of learning, they must have been very respectable; for the prophets mention "the wise men out of Edoni, and understanding out of the mount of Esau ; and thy mighty

In later times, they adopted the corrupt worship, and the idols, of their predecessors, the Horim,(v) and laid aside circumcision, till Hyrcanns incorporated them with the Jews; from which period they were considered but as one nation. The names of their false deities, the homage paid to them, and the nature of their sacrifices, are not recorded.

men,
Is

Teman!"(n)

"Concerning
in

Edom

wisdom no more

Teman?

is

counsel

SECTION
FEW
histories are

II.

perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished ?"(o) And so truly noble do they appear to have been, that Isaiah borrows his ideas from their supposed dignity and appearance, when he mystically describes our Saviour in His manhood making His glorious advances upon the earth .(p) From them, as will appear in another chapter, the Phoenicians derived Their commerce on the Arabic their origin. and Persian gulfs was so considerable that

CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE EDOMITES.

more obscure and interthan this which now presents itself: rupted, the fragments are few, and the intervals con^siderable

be useless to like an historical detail, we expect any thing must be content to take the particulars as they
:

as

it

will, therefore,

they communicated their name to both, as well as to the intermediate part of the ocean, which the former retains to the present day in the appellation of the Red Sea.(q) Sir Isaac Newton has attributed the rise of the arts and sciences to these people; and though it has been seen, in a former chapter.(r) that this honour rather belongs to the Chaldaeans and Egyptians, it must be owned,
that they were little inferior to the most The constellations ancient learned nations. appear, from the book of Job,(s) to have been known to the Edomites, among whom he dwelt ;(t) writing is there mentioned also, and ships ;(u) and many hints are given, sufficient to confirm a belief, that the secrets and beauties

without looking for their connection or dependence upon each other. As the Horites were the first possessors of the land, and what is known of them is too trivial to form the contents of a separate Chapter, we may take such accounts as have been preserved, as an introduction to the
1

arise,

chronology of Edom. From an expression of Moses, where Xibeon, the grandfather of Aholibamah, the fourth wife of Esau, is called an Hivite,(w) it may be inferred, that Seir and the Horim were descendants of Hevi, the sixth son of Canaan, as already stated. At what time they settled in mount Seir, is uncertain nor do we know
;

any thing of

their early

of nature, morality, and

much sublime know-

ledge, were cultivated among them.

In the infancy of their nation, there can be doubt that they directed their adorations towards the true God, and that, as descendants of Isaac, they used the rite of circumcision
little
;

they probably lived, when the ordered the Israelites to respect Almighty
in this state

but that they were SA.M. 2091. the desolation inflicted on that 1 Post Oil. 434. part of the world, by the war of At that time, Chedorlaomer and his allies. were probably rXiled by several indepenthey dent chiefs, or patriarchs ; but, to secure themselves from a repetition of so great an evil, they united under a more stable and perfect kind of government, and formed themselves
into an elective

state, involved in

rj u

i.

Per. 2801.

kingdom.

(n)

Obadiah,

ver. 8, 9.

(o)

Jerem.

xlix. 7.

(r)
(1)

See before, p. 511.

-\uirust.
;

(s)

Job,
I.

ix. !).

(p) Isaiah, hiii. 1.

(q)

D'
2(i.

Cifitat. Dei.
xix.
>:).

Edom

signifies

red,

which the Greeks changed

to

in")

./.<//,
t

\.

Er\thrns, a won! of the same meaning; and hence tin: ancient name of Erythraean, given to the Sea of Arabia, find to the Persian and Arabic gulfs.

of Ann <n
(v)

Kingdoms amended,

See also Sir p. 210.

Newton's

Citron,

2 Cfiron. v\v. 11, 20.

(w) Gen. xxxvi. 2.

SECT.

II.]

THEIR KINGS. OPINIONS CONCERNING

*

JOB.

641

first of their kings was son of Beor, whose resi*2093. ( Bela, A. M. Post. Dil. *43e. f dence was at Dinhabah.(x) No "1911. ) B. C. o t ner particulars are recorded of him but, according to the hypothesis here adopted from Dr. Cumberland, he reigned
Jul. Per. *2803.~i
;

The

Of this prince, reigned about the same term. lias been affirmed by many respectable writers, and as positively denied by others, that he was the same with Job, whose remarkable afflictions are the subject of a canonical
it

42 years.
Jul Per *2845.1 *2i35. ( A. M. Post Dil. *478. i"

*1869._J

Bela was succeeded by Jobab, the son of Zerah of Bozvah, who, upon the same hypois thesis, supposed to have
^.
39.

book, generally attributed to Moses. (y) 3. Husham, of the land of To- / j u p er *2887. mani, or of the Temanites, sue- NA.M. *2177. ceeded Jobab; but of his actions 1 Post. Dil.* *520. 1827 no record is left. The land of the < B c Temanites is supposed to have been so called
| -

(x)

Gen. xxxvi. Ul

history of this extraordinary person is unconnected with any other, and the above observation naturally introduces him to the reader's notice, we shall here collect
(y)

As the

so long as to be able to give an account of his death, and of The advohis numerous posterity, to the fourth generation. cates for this opinion, have laid hold on two texts to prove

the various opinions

have appeared respecting his The most ancient record extant, relative genealogy and aera. to the genealogy of Job, and which has been received and
that

allowed by Aristscus, Philo, Polyhistor,* and several ancient fathers of the Greek and Latin churches.t is an Addition to his story, found at the end of the Greek, Arabic, and Vulgate versions, and affirmed to have been taken from the ancient Syriac, to the following purport: That Job dwelt upon the confines of Idumea and Arabia; that his first name was Jobab and that he married an Arabian woman, by whom he had a son, called Ennon that Job himself was the son of Zarah, and the fifth in descent from Abraham, in that the the line of Esau, and that he reigned in Idumea order of the kings, before and after him, was as follows Balac, the son of Beor, reigned in the city of Denabah ; after him reigned Job, or Jobab; who was succeeded by Asom, prince of Teman ; his successor Adad, the son of Barad, was he who overthrew the Midianites in the plains of Moab; and the name of his city was Gethem : and that the friends of Job, who came to visit him, were Eliphaz, king of Teman, of Esau's posterity ; Bildad, king of the Zeucheans and Zophar, king of the Mineans. According -to this genealogy,
; : :
:

Job knew of the pride and overthrow of Pharaoh, and the first the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea " trouble and is, where Eliphaz says of the wicked, that anguish shall make him afraid, and prevail against him, as a king ready to battle; for he stretchetli out his hand against God, and strengtheueth [hardeneth] himself against the " diAlmighty ;"|| the other, where Job declares that God
that
:

videth the sea with His power, and by His understanding But these expressions are far smiteth through the proud. "IT too general, to admit of such an application ; nor would an indifferent reader ever suspect, that what is so plainly and broadly descriptive of the power and providence of God, should have a secret reference to the destruction of a mighty

and the miraculous deliverance of the visible church : besides which, it is to be remarked, that the original word, rendered to divide, in the last-quoted passage, rather signifies to quiet, or still, in which sense it also occurs in the pro" the Lord divideth [stillcth] the sea, phecy of Jeremiah ;
host,

when

the waves thereof roar."** Indeed, it is highly improhad this conversation between Job and his friends taken place subsequent to so remarkable a deliverance as that of the Israelites, a more ample and express mention should not have been made of it throughout the book, than
bable, that

Job and Moses would be contemporary, being each removed

four generations from Isaac
I
:

thus,

Isaac.

i.

1.

Jacob, or Israel.

Reucl.
Zcrah.
|

'2.

t
1

Levi.

3-

Ararain.

Jobab, or Job.

4.

Mosei.

If this mode of deducing the genealogy of Job be accurate, it completely transposes the plan of Bishop Cumberland, and places the kings of Edom between the two sets of dukes in the line of Esau; this, in itself, would be more agreeable to the order in which they are named in the books of GcnesisJ and Chronicles,^ but then it involves some other difficulties of a more insurmountable nature: thus, Job is said to have lived 140 years after his sufferings were ended ; but if he were contemporary with Moses, that writer, supposing him to be the author of the history, could not have outlived him

can be implied in these two obscure passages ; especially Job's desire of vindicating his own ^integrity, would have naturally led him to it the afflictions', as well as the deliverance of Israel, being a full refutation of what his in a very unfriendly manner, had urged against him friends, that if he had not been guilty of some flagrant crimes, God would never have inflicted such heavy chastisements on him. To get rid of this objection, some, who have adopted the that genealogy above quoted from the Additions, suppose the generations on Esau's side were much shorter than those on Jacob's, and that Moses wrote the history while in the But land of Midian, while he sojourned there with Jethro. for, as Moses this seems to strain the question too much lived but 40 years in Midian, and 40 more after he left it, Job, whose years amounted to at least 60 more than those of Moses at his death, must have died first, which would curtail or the genealogy more than can reasonably be supposed the latter part of his story must have been added by some but had Job been living, and reigning as kiny otlK-r hand of Edom, at the time of the Exodus, Moses would rather have spoken of him than of the dukes, in his thanksgiving

when

Apnd Ku?eb. Pray. Ewng. lib. ix. cup. 25. Vide Ftrd. Spanhciro, in Vit. Job. cap. 4. Stunica, et uL Comm. in Job.
t

Gen. xxxvi.

1543.

Chrm.

i.

38-54.

Mercer, Pineda, Dicg.

De

||

Job, xv. 24,25. * Jer. xxxi. 35.

Jot, xxv. If.

VOL.

I.

4N

642

HISTORY OF THE EDOMLTES.

5.

[CHAP. xv.
*.

from Tenian, the eldest son of Eliphaz, son of Esau, by Adah the daughter of Elon, the Hittite.
Jul. Per. *2929.~)

Samlah of Masrekah next

on

/-j u ]

Per

2071

A.M.

"2219. f

Post. Oil. *56-2. f

Hadad, or Adad, son of Bedad, was the successor of Husham. The name of his city
4.

but ; residence there, or whether he kept his royal

1785. J

whether

He

it was his birth-place, is uncertain. stated to have smitten Midian in the field is
;

of Moab by which Bishop Cumberland understands that he killed the person named Midian, the son of Abraham by Keturah,(z) some time before he was 109 years of age; and he thinks Moses recorded this, because it was a calamity to the ancestor of Jethro, his father-in-law, (a)
ode ;* nor can we imagine that so pious a character would have refused a passage through his dominions to the Israelites, in their way to Canaan. t Among the 13 sons of Joktan, the youngest is called Jobab,| and some writers suppose him to be the Job in question; but nothing can be adduced from Scripture in support of this opinion, besides the similitude of the name. The learned Bochart makes him the progenitor of the Jobabites,
called Jobarites by Ptolemy, in the south-east of Arabia. % Alstedius,|| after noticing the genealogy of the Appendix to the Septuagint, already quoted, gives another pedigree, which makes Job the son of Huz, the elder son of Nahor, brother to Abraham,1T and says that he married Dinah, the

the throne; in TA. M. *->2(ji. whose reign, or in that of his jjfl*rtDfl. -()4. successor, it is supposed Esau came into this country to settle. 6. Saul, or Shaul, of Reho- / j u p cr ^30^3 both by the river, succeeded ) A. M. *23oa. Samlah. The city of Rehoboth, ) Post Dil. *64. of which Saul seems to have been a native, was built by Asshur,(b) and is generally taken for the same as Rahabatnielek, or Reheboth on the Euphrates, on the west side, a few miles below the confluence of the Khabur with that river ;(c) though some suppose it to be the Birtha of Pto-

appeared

'

'

that the character of

with the Jewish rabbins, altogether parabolical, and that Moses wrote the history purely for the instruction of the Hebrews: but the allusions made to him by the inspired

Many

writers have supposed,

Job

is

no room to doubt of his reality. The Almighty Himself, by the mouth of His prophet Ezekiel, ranks him with Noah and Daniel, (of whom it is certain that they were no fictitious characters,) as one of the most righteous men that ever lived ;*** and the apostle James speaks of him as a person, whose patience was highly worthy of imitation. ttt
writers, leave
to the writer of his history, himself, his friend Elihu, Moses, and Isaiah, have been variously named ; but, from an observation made by Elihu, JJJ where he seems rather to address himself to the reader, thau to his companions, the

As

daughter of Jacob.

Calmet,

who supposes

the land of Uz,

where Job dwelt, to have been peopled by the posterity of Huz, the son of Nahor,** thinks Job to have been of this
family ; especially as Elihu, the friend of Job, is described as a Buzite.tt or descendant of Buz, Nahor'? second son.JJ This Elihu is farther described as of the kindred of Ram,

preference is generally given to him as the original writer in and to Moses as the translator into Hebrew. Arabic,
be, it is supposed to have been written in loftiness of the style, the sublimity of the ideas, the liveliness and energy of the expression, the grandeur
this

However

may

verse,

from the

whom

the same writer identifies with Aram, son of Kemuel, the third son of Nahor ; and from certain allusions in the speeches of Job's friends, which are supposed to point at the destruction of Sodom, this pedigree has been preferred to another, which would derive it from Uz, the son of Aram, the son of Shem. The aera of Job, it will be perceived from what has been
said,
:

must be as doubtful as his genealogy only one thing seems certain; that he lived before the promulgation of the ceremonial law, as it is never once quoted in all the history. Alstedius places his sufferings in the years of the world 2330 and 2231, so that if he married Dinah, she must have been his second wife, and there must have been about a century difference in their ages! a consequence that cannot reasonA modern writer,|||| however, accomably be admitted. modates this difference, by placing the troubles of Job in the year 1700 B. C. six years after the removal of Jacob to Egypt; at which time Dinah was about f>4 years of age but the notion of this alliance, which is borrowed from the Jews.fFH is altogether fanciful; for had such a marriage taken place, surely Moses would not have been silent on
:

of its imagery, and the variety of its characters though the metre and cadence is altogether loose and unrestrained and the frequent introduction of Arabic _and Syriac expressions and idioms, renders it difficult to be rightly understood. Eusebius and Jerom describe the place where Job dwelt, from an old tradition of the Palestines, to have been the city of Ashteroth-karnaim, near the river or brook Jabbok, where Chedorlaomer srnote the Rephaim,|||||| and which was one of the royal cities of Og, king of Bashan.HHIT But the land of Uz is more frequently placed to the westward of this city, on the eastern side of the mountains of Gilead, in the country of the Ammonites, the ancient seat of the Zamzum-zim, who were probably the Sabeans, or worshippers of the heavenly bodies, who slew the husbandmen, and seized the oxen and the asses of Job, as the Chaldaeans did by his camels and
; ;

their attendants,

(z)

Gen. xxv.

ii.

4.
p. 14.

(a) Cumberland. Orig. Gent. Antiq. (b) Gen. x. 11. (c) Geog.
||

Nub. Clim.

the subject.
Eiod. iv. 15.
Bucliart. Guig. Sacr.
lib.

4, part 6, p.

199.

t
ii.

Numb.

xx.

1421.

cap. 29.

Grn.

xi.

%7,%9.
22, 23.

xxii.

21.

} Gen. x. 29. Thesaurus Chronologia. ** Calmet. Hist. Vet. Tat. 148. (>
||

||

lit CfiuU.

Dr. Walkins, in his Biographical and Historical Dictionary. 1'ur. it. Jlaiiuou. Mare Ncvoch. ct al.
Eiefc. xiv.

14, 20.
Ii.

ttt

Jam/a,

v.

11.
||||||

ttt J<*. >

Ceri. xiv. 5.

*<>

tt Job, x*xii. 2.

Jt

Gen.

xxii.

21.

$$ Calmet.
Mill Jth.

Ditu-rt. in Jtk.
*iii.

Gn.

x.

Vide Hiertmjm. in lc.

**"

Jrt.i-

1417-

SECT.

II.]

KINGS AND DUKES.

043

or the Virtha of Aimnianus Marcellinus,(d) situate at the mouth of the Lycus, not many miles to the southward of the ruins of Nineveh, because Birtha signifies in the Chaldee the same that Rehoboth does in the Hebrew, viz. streets. Whichever of these opinions be preferable, it seems certain that Saul was by birth an Assyrian ; whence we are inclined to believe that all these eight kings were viceroys, or lieutenants to the sovereigns of Nineveh, and that the appointment began immediately after the Pentapolitan conquest, agreeably to what has been already suggested in the notes on the Ctesian msiory.^e; iviestan history Jul. Per. *so56. ^ 7. Baal-hanan, son of Achbor, 7 "3055.-J A.M. 234o. f Saul's successor; but of Post Oil. *088. f r. nothing is recorded. B.C.

lemy,

of their dukes, having fourteen, where the family of Seir have but seven, it may be concluded that they had the greatest share in Dr. Shuckbringing about this revolution. has accurately observed, that the first ford(f) series of dukes of the line of Esau, are styled dukes IN THE LAN D of Edom,(g) while those of the second series are distinguished as dukes of 7iY/flm:(h) whence it has been inferred that the children and grand-children of Esau, as well as those of Seir, grown potent, could no longer brook subjection to a strange line, or a foreign yoke ; so that the kings being expelled, the whole country was divided into several distinct
jurisdictions, each under its particular prince, called a duke,(\) or leader, both of the posterity of Seir, and that of Esau, who were collateral.

*16J9j

Jill.

Per. *3097.

8.

Hadar, or Hadad, was (he

king of this dynasty, if be so called ; of whom
city
it it

The dukes
2.

A. M. *2387. PostDil. *730. B. C. *1(UG.

last

may
is

said that his

was Pau,

or Pai, and that his wife's name was Mehetabel the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezaheb ; names that were probably well known in the days of Moses, as well as the families to which they belonged; but they have long since been written in the dust. The united reigns of these eight kings is computed at 336 years, viz. from the conclusion of the Pentapolitan war, to about live years and after them before the birth of Moses an aristocracy of rulers, styled Jul. Per. "3139.
;

of Seir were, 1. Lotan Zibeon 4. Anah 5. Dishon ; 6. Ezer, or Ezar; 7. Dishan ;(j) whose lineal descent and posterity are described in the Table at the head of this Section. The dukes of Esau, IN THE LAND of Edom, were, 1. Teman;
in the line
3.
;

Shobal

2.

Omar;
Gatam;
;

3.

Zephi, or Zepho

4.

Kenaz
;

5^

Korah, (supposed to be an interpolation)

6.

(k)

7.

Amalek
Esau;
II.

all

sons of Eliphaz, the

; ;

9. Zerah 8. Nahath 10. sons of Mizzah, or Mizrah after whom Keuel, the second son of Esau came the three younger sons of Esau, by his

first-born of

Shammah

last wife Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah, (1) the son of duke Zibeon, above named: viz.

")

A.M.
PostDil.

*24->9. f

B.C.

'772. *1575.

have been and as the posterity established; of Esau exceeded in the number
dukes,

appears to

Jeush 13. Jaalam 14. Korah. This state of things seems to have continued about forty-two years, or till about two years
12.
; ;

(d) Lib. xx.

(k)
(I)

See Dr. Kennicott's RelnarJu.

See before, p. 528, et seq. This supposition goes a great way towards accounting for the change from a monarchical government to that of an aristocracy as the Assyrians grew weak, the Horim were strengthened by their union with Esau's family and the chiefs of both probably joined in freeing themselves from a foreign yoke ; this would be the first aristocracy, consisting of dukes of Seir, and dukes of Edom, conjointly; afterwards, Ihe latter drove out their colleagues, and formed a second aristocracy of their own leaders, or dukes, exclusively. (f) Connect, of the Sacred and Profane Hist, book viii.
(e)
:

this Anah two particulars are worthy of obserthe first is a question whether he were the son, or the daughter of his father Zibeon the Hmte ; the second, a certain exploit of his, which has occasioned much debate among commentators. With respect to the wife Aholibamah is called (Gen. xxxvi. 1 ), first, Esau's "the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon;" which is repeated in the 14th verse; but in the 24th he is de-

Of

vation

scribed as a non.

Some

think that the repetilion

of the

p.

12.
(g)

(h) Ibid. ver. 43. the Laiin dux, a captain, or leader; the Hebrew T\*hn (ALIJPH), used in the original, ban the same signification.
(i;

Gen. xxxvi. 16, 17, 19.

From

word daughter belongs to Aholibamab, who was tin- daughter of Anah, and the yrand-daughter of Zibeon; but the Samaritan and the Septuagint read son, instead ot the second daughter, in verses 2 and 14, as does also the Syriae, in the 2d \.TSC, which Houbigant and Kennicott think to be the
reading: according to those versions, therefore, we should read "Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the son of Zibeon," and then the 2d, and 14th, and 24th verses will all agree. The other difficulty respecting Anah, is his found in the wilderness DO' (YeMiM) which our having
true

Dishan had two sous, LV. and Aram, whose names, being also found among the ancestors of Amalek, according to the Arabian genealogists, seem to indicate the Horites and Amalekites to have sprung from one original stock.
(j;

4N2

644
before the flight of
Jul. Per.

HISTORY OF THE EDOMITES,

Moses from Egypt to Midian, when the sons of Esau

[CHAP. xv.

"3181.

A. M.

having expelled those of Seir, or f the Horites, they assumed the B.C. *i533.j title of rfA:c* o/' -fcWowz, and gave their name to the country which before had And now succeeded a been called 8eir. of dukes, 11 in number, viz. second race 1. Tinman; 2. Alvah, or Aliab; 3. Jetheth ;

*2m.

Post Dil. '814.

ed, as is supposed, a commander in chief, called by Moses a king, u;ider whom the energies of the nation might be collected and combined for the defence of their territories us the Romans, during their commonwealth,
;

gave absolute authority

Aholibamah 5. Elah; 6. Pinon; 7. Kenaz; 8. Teman; 9. Mibzar; 10. Magdiel; 11. Iram; whose lineage is not described, though it is not improbable that they were the sons of the
4.
;

former dukes. whole, ruled in

Jul. Per. 3223.-)

Some of these, if not Edom, when the Israelites

the
first

to a dictator, in times of public danger. From the foregoing fragments, which are all that antiquity furnishes of the early history of Edom, and the observations with which they are interspersed, the following corollaries are deducible, without violence to the sacred text, the only authentic authority that we have. 1. That the country, afterwards called Edom, in the

carae lnto came into the wilderness from

A.M.

2513. Post Oil. 856.

Egypt; but beii being dismayed at the approach of so formidable a ( 1491 J hodv. as VP f lin B.C. body, yet unprovided with a seat, and dreading an invasion, which their constitution was unable to repel, they appointf

was conquered by Chedorlaomer and his allies, second war of the Pentapolis;(m) and in consequence, it became subject to the that, throne of Assyria, or to that of Aram. 2. That the kings mentioned by Moses as reigning IN THE LAND of Edom,(n) were viceroys, or
tributaries,

to

such power,

i.

e.

of Assyria

version,
Jarclii,

following the ideas of the

Targum

of Jonathan,

and those of the rabbins David Kimchi,

and

Solomon

has rendered the mules ;* while the Syriac renders it waters, evidently by mistake, for, having transposed the Hebrew letters, instead of DO' (YCMJM), it reads D'O (MOYIM),

which

signifies waters, whence some have supposed that he found a large collection of waters in the desert; but, however uncommon such a discovery in such a place, it seems too unimportant, to say nothing of the error of etymology, to claim the notice which Moses takes of it: it is however a The Septuagint have current tradition with the Jews. which seems to be only the Hebrew word, with its 'la/itix, prefix n, expressed in Greek characters, though they have and Thcodotion, Aquila, given it the air of a proper name The Samaritan text and Symmachus, have done the same. has ha-aimim, and the Samaritan version dm-aima'i, the Emim, a warlike people, supposed to be giants, who bordered upon the country of the Horites, and were, as we have seen, extirpated by the Moabites. Onkelos translates the word N'~O3 (GieaRnYA) giants, powerful or strong men; which coincides with the reading of the Samaritan. Jerorn has rendered Jj. by aquas calidus, warm springs, or hot Gusset supposes mules to be meant in this place baths. and most of the Jewish rabbins teach that he was the first who coupled the horse and the ass together, so as to produce that mongrel breed ;t while some think he encouraged the congress of wild asses with his tame ones, and therebv produced the swiftest breed of that race, called yamim : but Wagenseil believes the word to mean some useful plant, or Those who adopt Jerom's herb, first discovered by Anah.J uphination, of u-arm springs, are forced to have recourse to the Pluenifian language, and after reading O'DTT (H/IEMIM) instead of DOT! (Ha-YeMtM) have supposed it to be synony;
;

in that tongue signifies not countenanced by any reading or Bochart has adopted the sentiment of the interpretation. Samaritan text and version, that the gigantic race of Emim are meant; and he combats the reading of mules with the 1. Because mules are never called in following arguments Scripture CDO'(YCMtM) but a'T)S(PHeHeDlM). 2. Because, in Scripture, no mention is made of mules till the days of David. 3. Because Anal) fed asses only, and not horses and asses; whence a question arises, where did he procure the hordes

mous with D'OH (CHOMIM) which

is

hot baths; but this

necessary to the purpose ? 4. Because the word NVO (MT/A) rendered he found, is always used for the finding of something that before existed, and not the invention of what was till then unknown: and he quotes many passages of the sacred writers, where the same expression, he, or they found, and this is confirmed by the signifies the onset to battle ; Samaritan reading, " he found hem suddenly;" q. d. full
I

upon them by surprise, and put them to the rout. Hence Le Clerc has no doubt that the word means the proper name of a people, the D'O'N (AIMIM, or Emim), who seem to have been driven from their first settlement in Kirjathaim by Chedorlaomer ;|| and after wandering some years in the wilderness, were again attacked by Anah, probably in consequence of their depredations upon his father's herds soon after which they received a third and final overthrow from the Moabites. IT A more recent commentator,*" afler examin;

these various opinions, has deckled in favour of the English reading of mules, and thinks that Anah was not only the first who caused those animals to be generated, but that from him roy (ENH) the Enetve of Paphlagonia, celebrated for their race of wild mules, might probably derive their origin. ing
all

common

(m) Gen, xiv. 6.

* Gen. xxxvi. 24.

"a
in Tit.
.>,

lion

tGottet.
t

in

Comment. Hcb. 7.in.

Tulm. Sot.
i.

VVngcn.

A-nnttt.

princes the verb

||

1 Chron. i. 43. (n) Gen. xxxvi. 31. " met him and slew him." 1 Chron. xxii. 8, Jehu found ihe and sltw them ;" in all wliicli places, and many others of like import,
is

N'i'O^MUTZA)

used.
ii.

" the

See Jurors,

MhoM/MMd

They fnund Ailoni-bezek." 1 Sam. xxxi. S, margin, " hit Liiu." 1 A'ings, xiii. him," leuderal iu the text

Gen. xiv. 5. f Deiil. ** Ur. A. Clarke, in his Comment, on Gen.

11.

xxvi. ?).

SECT.

II.]

TRANSACTIONS WITH THE ISRAELITES.

his forces into the field,

045 and marched

lest

Aram [tiyria,(o) the seat of Tidal, 3. That in the reign of nations^ king of Had ad, the 4th of these kings, the Midianites began to be powerful, and made some inroad upon the country; but were defeated, and lost their leader, on the banks of the Jazer, in the country afterwards called the plains of Moab. 4. That in the succeeding reign, or the one immediately following, Seir and his sons began to be powerful, and, if not in the country
[Ellasar], or

out, to

intimidate

the

Israelites,

they

should

make some sudden and desperate effort to force the passage they so much desired.(p)
It seems, however, that after their departure from Kadesh, some more friendly spirit arose

among

the Edomites

for

when

the Israelites;

the the grandcountry, and married Aholibamah, daughter, or great grand-daughter of Seir,
into

before, began to fix themselves in it. Esau, about the same time, came

5.

That

Eliphaz took Timna, Seir's be his concubine; by these daughter, to unions, the two families growing into a single
\vlnie
his

son

got to Seir, though a passage was still denied, they were supplied, for money, with what (he country afforded, or their necessities required .(q) After these transactions with the Israelites, we lose sight of the Edomites for more than 400 years ; that is, till the reign of David. It appears, however, that in the mean time

they became sufficient to expel the Assyrians, or Arameans, and divided the country between them. (>. That the Edomites being the strongest, either drove out the children of Seir, or reduced them to submission, and ruled by their dukes without a rival, and 7. That to consolidate their uucontrolled. when they apprehended an invasion strength, from the Israelites, they appointed a chief, or king, and invested him with absolute authority, by which they destroyed their free confederative constitution, and became subject to a monarinterest,

they extended their dominion, applied themselves to trade and navigation, and seized the empire and the commerce of the Eastern seas, by means of the Arabic gulf. They dealt in the richest commodities, consisting of fine gold, and gold of Ophir, topazes of Ethiopia, pearls, coral, and other valuable articles :(r) so that, according to the general opinion, they must have been the most considerable commercial people of their time ; and yet not a fragment of their history during so long a period has been preserved. In this height of their prosperity, they were invaded by David, on what r j u Per. *3G74. account is not stated; but, from ) A. M. *2JX>4. Post Oil. *iso7. the connection of the history, J seem to have joined with ^- B< ^' they
l.

chical government. To this king, who

Jnl. Per.' 3263.-) A.M. *3M9. ( Post Oil. "896. (

is

not named, but

'

who

was probably one of the dukes of

sei ies
'

the second

tn

enlarged

powers,

1461. J

Moses, then drawing near the end of his days, sent messengers
from

Kaclesh, to request a pas-

sage through the land of Edoin, for the tribes

Canaan, the land by the Almighty; promised at the same time reminding him of their near affinity in blood, and assuring him of their

of Israel, in their

way

to

to their forefathers

Ammonites, Amalekites, Philisand Syrians, in an extensive confederacy against Israel. David, however, was victorious against them all and having obtained some important conquests over the Syrians, Moabites, &c. he carried the war into the heart of Idumea; 18,000 of the Edomites(s) were cut off in the valley of Salt and the survivors were either brought under the yoke by Joab,
tines,
;
;

the Moabites,

pacific intentions.

The

king, jealous for the

safety

and

a deaf

integrity of his dominions, turned ear to all the representations of the

;

Israelitish ambassadors, and refused them a passage and when Moses repeated the message in more pressing terms, he actually called
See before, p. 613. (p) Numb. xx. 1421. Deut. ii. 21. 19, has becu quoted in confirmation <r) Job, xxviii. lo of this statement ; but the words are too <;eneral to bear upon the question, and were probably written long before
(o)

or forced to retire into foreign countries ; while David put garrisons throughout the land of Edoin, and obliged those who remained to pay him tribute, according to the prediction of Balaam .(t) At this time, the king of Moab, called Hadad, a minor, was carried by a select
In the former of 1 C/iron. xviii. 12. (s) 2 Sum. viii. 13. these places, the 18,000 are said to have been Syrians, ^mitten by David ; in the latter, they are called Edomiles,
vlain

(q)

by Abishai, David's nephew:

of the confederates.
xxiv. 18, 19.

they were,

probably,

18, (100
(t)

this

epocha.

Numb.

64G

HISTORY OF THE EDOMITES.

[CHAP. xv.

Pharaoh party of his friends into Egypt, where received him with all possible respect, and, when he was of age, gave him the sister of his Tahpenes, in marriage.(u) In the mean
queen
while, Joab

him from so hazardous an enterprise; in doing which, he was probably actuated by something more than regard to Had ad's personal
welfare; for Solomon, the successor of David,

was occupied for six months in overrunning the country, and putting all the
;

had married Pharaoh's daughter.

At

length,

males to death
the

to avoid
in

Edomites flew went to the Philistines, where they fortified for them Azoth, or Azotus, and proved a considerable accession of power to that people others,
all
;

his fury, therefore, directions : some

however, according to Josephus, Hadad was permitted to return to Idumea, where he made several attempts to recover the dominions of his ancestors, but without success very few of his ancient subjects remained, and the whole
;

population was too

itish garrisons, to

much awed by

the Israel-

taking a longer route, set sail for the Persian of them gulf;(v) while a considerable body into the neighbourhood of Tyre and got Sidon, and were there subsequently known to the Greeks by the name of Phcenicians.(w) In short, they were dispersed into all parts,(x)
as there land.

was no

safety for

them
his

in their native

undertake any thing in his Thus foiled in his expectations, he favour.(y) probably returned to Egypt, and died there; for he is no more spoken of.(z) The Edomites continued subject to th^ house of David, till the reign of Jehoshaphat, when they were summoned by Jul Per 3819
<-

Hadad had a son by named Genubath, who

Egyptian wife,
a princely
;

received

education in the palace of Pharaoh but, notwithstanding this tie, and the great ease and splendour in which he lived at the Egyptian court, Hadad could not help looking with regret towards the country of his forefathers and when he heard that David and Joab were both dead, he began to solicit his brother-in-law to let him return. Pharaoh, aware of the troubles and dangers in which such an attempt
;

would involve him,

endeavoured

to

divert

89r> of Israel, against the Moabites: v. B c but in consequence of Mesha, they obeyed ; king of Moab, sacrificing his own son, or the son of the vassal king of Edom, (a) they returned home, and soon afterwards, revolting, joined the Moabites and Ammonites in an attack upon Judah. Their attempt, however, as we have seen in the history of Moab, proved abortive for when they had advanced within a few miles of Jerusalem, the Moabites and Ammonites, jealous of their former allegiance
-

that prince to accompany him \ A. M. *3i09. to the assistance of Joram, king S Post Dil. *1452. *

1 Kings, Til. 15, et seq. ) in See Sir I. Newton's Cliron. of Ancient v) Amended, p. 104, 105, 108, 109.

Kingdoms

Stephanus, (w) Herodot. lib. i. cap. 1. lib. vii. cap. 89. Sir Isaac Newton, ubi svpr. tn roc. "AO>T. Bryant's Mythology, vol. vi. p. 227, etseq. (x) Ednm and Phoinic both signify red, which the Greeks changed into Erythms, a word of the same meaning; and thus we may tiaii their extensive dispersion in the numerous
1

Newton places this dispersion of the Edomites, by David, in the days of lo and her brother Phoroneus, king of Argos and thinks the Cannes of Berosus, the Oes of Halladius, and the Euahanes of Hyginus, to be so many names given
Isaac
;

to

some Edomite commander, or commanders, who now

fled

to the Persian Gulf, and first introduced thf useful arts into Chaldaea: but this curtails the antiquity of Greece, and of

Chaldaean learning, more than we are willing to admit.

(y)
(z)

In Ionia, places to which (hey communicated their names. in Libya, in Locris, in Owotia, in Cyprus, in ^Ltolia, in AH;I, near Chios, were cities railed Erythra Erythia A era was a Erythreum was another in Crete; promontory in Libya Erythros was a place near Tibur, an ancient town of the Sabines, about 20 miles from Rome; Erythini was a city, or country, in Paphlagonia the name of Krythea, or Erythrae, was given to the island of (jades, peopled by Phoenicians and perhaps the whole of Spain received the name of I i-ria from the same people. The city of Cartilage was originally called 1'osra, the very name of the capital of Edom, though
; ;
;

Joseph. Antiq.

lib. viii.

cap. 2.

the Universal History* have supposed and reigned there because the But it royal family of that country bore the same name. will be remembered, that the founder of the Syrian kingdom, in the days of Solomon, was Kezon, the son of Eliadah, who
that
Syria,
;

The Editors of Hadad went to

it

was afterwards corrupted into Byra, which, the Greeks mistaking for Bt/ 5-<r<*, a hide, perhaps gave rise to the fable of Dido's fraud upon the aborigines of that part of Africa. Sir
Vol.
ii.

had formerly been a captain of Iladad-ezer, king of Zobah, whom David defeated uiih great slaughter, about the same time that lie conquered Edom ;t and had this Rexon bern the same with tbe exiled king of the Edomites, it eaa hardly be doubted that the sacred historian would have said so. The fact is, that Hadad was not a proper name, but a title borne by the kings of both Edom and Syria.!
.r. (a) See before, p. 02(j.
,

p.

177.

2 Sam.

viii.

3.

i. 18.

Kings,

xi.

23

Si5..

See before,

p.

557, note

(a).

SECT.

II.]

WARS, AND DISPERSION.

upon the Edomites and after which those two swords against each other,
;

B47

to Jehoshaphat, fell cut them to pieces

allies

This apostasy almost immediately afterwards cost him his kingdom, and ultimately his life.
the

turned their and experienced a similar fate.(b) In the following reign, that of Jehoram, the son f Jehoshaphat, a general Jul. Per. *3825.~) Edomites A.M. *3ii5. ( insurrection of the
Post. Dil.*i468.
1 B9 -J

Whether before or after this, is uncertain, Edomites engaged in a war with the Moabites, which proved unsuccessful; for their king fell into the hands of the enemy, who burned him to ashes; or as the prophet
it,

took place; and, after assassinat-

expresses

he burned his bones into

linie.(f )

ing or expelling their viceroy, created themselves a king, who, upon they receiving advice that Jehoram was advancing with a formidable force, marched out towards him, and contrived to surround him on all sides during the night a battle ensued, in which the Edomites, notwithstanding this advantage, were defeated with great slaughter, and forced to seek for shelter in their entrenchments ; yet were they never after reduced to a state of vassalage by the house of David. (c) Thus was the long wished for revolution brought about, according to the prediction of the patriarch Isaac,(d) after about 150 years of servitude; but who was their king on this occasion, or what other exploits he performed, or who was his successor, is not recorded. No farther attempts were made upon these people, by the kings of Judah, for upwards of
:

The
of

translators of our Bible refer this event to the occurrence before alluded to, in the war

against Jehoshaphat ;(g) but it more probably happened during the subsequent massacre of the Edomites by their allies the

Moab

Moabiies and Ammonites. When the Jews were carried into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, the Edomites resolved to wreak their vengeance upon the wretched remains of their former oppressors they accordingly burned what had been left of the temple, as soon as the Babylonians were withdrawn, butchered such of the inhabitants as fell into their hands, and even attempted to raze the foundations of the city; insulting the God of Israel with the most horrid blasphemies, and
;

years in which interval, they recovered a considerable degree In the reign ancient splendour. zia h, king of Judah, Jul. Per. *3887.~) *3887.~J A. M. *3177. 1 they experienced a
b'O
;
J.

probably-

of of

their

Ama-

however,
dreadful

flattering themselves that they should shortly see an entire end. of the whole Jewish race. At this time, they were themselves subject to the king of Babylon, but the particulars of their subjugation are not recorded: for their insosolence and impiety, however, they were farther threatened by the prophets with a severe retaliation, and that for the devastations they

Post Dil. *1 520.

slaughter for that prince, upon B.C. *827.J what occasion is not stated, fell upon them in the valley of Salt, slew 10,000 of them, took as many prisoners, stormed their city Selah, which stood upon a high rock and when the place surrendered, he threw the 10,000 captives from its summit, so that they were dashed to pieces. The city he incorporated with his own dominions, and
(
: ;

had forwarded

in

Judah, they should behold

their land desolate,

Amaziah Joktheel.(e) but he treated ; gods prisoners them with more respect ; for though they had been unable to deliver their deluded votaries from the cruelty of their conqueror, he was not
changed
its

name

to

also took their

ashamed

to take

them

bow down before them, and burn

b) 2 Chron. xx. 23. c) 2 Kinrjs, viii. 2022. d) Gi'n.
(f)
xxvii. 40.

to his capital,

and

to

when that of their now openemies should flourish.(h) pressed Accordingly, they soon after fell into such dreadful confusion, arising from intestine commotions and persecutions, that a great part of them quitted their own country, and settled in the vacant land of Judah, particularly in the south-western parts ;(i) and it was probably at this time, rather than before, that they made an end of the temple of Jerusalem, and triumphed in the habitations of their enemies, Those who remained in Edom, joined the descendants of Nebaioth, the eldest son of Ishmael, and were soon lost in the general appellation of

incense to them!

Nabateans

so that the

name of

their

2 Chron.

xxi.

310.

effect in Isaiah, xxi. (h) See various passages to this Jerem. ix. xxv. xxvii. xlix. Lam. iv. Ezek. xxv. xxxii. xxxv. xxxvi. Amos, i. ix. Obad. i. and Joel, iii.

xxxiv.

e) 2 Kinrjs, xiv. 7.

Amos,

ii.

2.

2 Chron. xxv. 11, et seq. (g) See before, p. 020.

Psalm
(i)

cxxxvii. 7.
lib. xvi. p.

Strabo,

760.

HISTORY OF THE EDOMITES.

ancient kingdom was transferred to that part of Jiuh-a which the refugees occupied, and which had formerly belonged to the tribes of is the Simeon and Judah this, therefore, the Idumeans, spoken Iduinea, and these are of by Pliny, Ptolemy, Strabo, and other an:

[CHA1>. XV.

jul Per 4 -.Epiphanes; but they were conA. M. 3840. stantly defeated by Judas Macwho at last sacked their cabeus, 1G4 chief city, Hebron, forced their and put 40,000 of them to the strong holds, sword. (k)
.
'

cient writers.

Such was the end of the ancient kingdom of Edom and it only remains to collect the fragments of history which relate to those Edom;

After this period, the Idumeans appear to have been continually agitated by wars and contentions, till they were at length finally re-

ites,

or Idumeans,

who

settled in Judea.

duced by John Hyrcanus, who compelled them to embrace the

r j u l Per. 4.^84 S A. M. 3374.

"i

On historians are silent. the decline of the Persian empire, after the death of Alexander, they were under the government of the Seleucidae, when they warred against their ancient enemies, the Jews, under
effect of this decree,

Darius Hystaspes issued a decree against them, commanding them to restore whatever they had taken from the Jews ;(j) but as to the

Jewish religion, or to leave the

Post Dil. 2217.

-

B C. 130. country. They preferred the forsubmitted to be circumcised, and became mer, incorporated with the objects of their former antipathy ;(1) so that in the first century of the Christian aera, the name of Idumean was dis-. used, and the distinction between the descendants of Esau, and those of Jacob, was entirely
'

the conduct of Gorgias, governor for Antiochus

lost.(m)

()) 1 (4) 1

Esdw,
Mace.

iv.

50.
65, 68.

v. 4, 5,

2 Mace.

x. 18, 21, 23.

part

(m) Prideaux's Connection of the ii. book v. p. 433, 434.

Old and

New

Tctt.

$) Joseph. Antiij.

lib. ziii.

cap. 17.

CHAP. XVI.

HISTORY OF THE AMALEKITES. ORIGIN.

049

CHAPTER

XVI.

HISTORY OF THE AMALEKITES.

SECTION

I.

ORIGIN, COUNTRY, GOVERNMENT, CHARACTER, MANNERS, ARTS, SCIENCES, TRADE, AND

RELIGION OF THE AMALEKITES

1

HE

most common opinion

their
to

is,

that

these

people owed

duke Amalek, origin the son of Eliphaz, Esau's eldest son, by his concubine Timna, the daughter of Seir; a supposition supported only by a similitude of
names, against the evidence of Moses, who makes them of much earlier date. Of Amalek, the son of Eliphaz, we only know his parent-

Eliphaz and Timna, among the most recent of In the margin of our English those times. " Amalek, Bible, the expression is rendered, the first of the nations that warred against Israel ;"(r) but this liberty the original will not countenance; wherefore some writers, still misled by the name, would understand by the term " first," greatest, or preeminent; but this also is a forced construction ; for when Balaam
prophesied, they appear to have been no better than an itinerant tribe, subsisting by plunder, As to after the manner of the wild Arabs. their cities, only one, and that anonymous, is spoken of in Scripture ;(s) so that, while such a kingdom as Egypt, or even the various kingdoms" of the Canaanites, existed, the Amalekites could have no great claim to preeminence: indeed, the Philistines appear to have been the most warlike people in that
quarter,
for

and that he was numbered among the dukes in the land of Edom:(n) but of the
age,

Amalekites, we read that their country was oveiTun by Chedorlaoiner, about 180 years before he was born.(o) It is true, that commentators suppose the sacred historian to have adopted a proleptical figure,(p) in speaking of the conquests of Chedorlaomer and his allies; which might be admissible, were there not other circumstances of a contrary indication thus Balaam calls them the first, or beginning of nations ; (q) an expression that could by no means be applicable to them, had they been of so recent date as Amalek, the grandson of Esau for the Israelites themselves were at
:

when

the

Israelites

were delivered;

that he led Israel about, for that reason ; (t) whereas, if the Amapurely lekites had been the most potent nation of their day, the historian would have spoken of them, rather than of the Philistines ; because, had he pursued the nearest road to Canaan, he must first have passed through their border. These considerations, if not confirmed, are

Moses declares

least

one generation older; the Moabites, Ammonites, and Canaanites, who were all at

that

moment

certainly strengthened by the following: never styles the Amalekites, the brethren

Moses

equally in the
:

were still more ancient and if a greater scope be given to his expression, so as to include all
nations,

prophet's

view,

as the Egyptians, Chaldaeans, Assy&c. it will appear that, instead of the rians, oldest, they were really, if descendants of
(n)

of never held Israel, or of Edom : the Edomites with any confederacy, or friendly harmony them, in all their wars ; on the contrary, they suffered them to be invaded and slaughtered in their by Saul, without the least interference were near neighbours: favour, though they
text
is

(p)

Gen. xxxvi. 12, Lfi. (o) Gen. xiv. Cumberland. Oritj. Gent. Antiq. p. 139.

7.

(q)
(r)
(s)

Numb.

xxiv. 20.

(t)

Exod. xvii. 816. Deut. xxv. 17, 18. 1 Sam. xv. 5. Exod. xiii. 17. The above is the sense
I.

in

which

this

VOL.

but they might be might go the win/ of the Philistines, much stress attacked by other tnhes in that neighbourhood must not, therefore, be laid upon tins argument: but the others are sufficiently strong for the question at issue, without it.
:

Moses speaks rather of the way than of the people: they

commonly accepted

though

it is

to

be observed, that

40

050

HISTORY OF THE AMALEKITES.

says

[CHAP. xvi.

though the Israelites were commanded not to abhor an Edomite, because he was their the brother,(u) they were ordered to extirpate and to blot out the remembrance Amalekites, of them from under heaven.(v) From a due consideration, therefore, of all these circumstances, we cannot be persuaded that the Amalekites were the descendants of Esau and as to the name of the son of Eliphaz, it
lastly,
;

Mr. Bryant, is a various reading of Ouc-Ad, or Vc-Ad, a title of similar import.(z) Some commentators on the Koran describe

the old Adites as of prodigious stature, the largest being 100 cubits, and the least (JO. (a) The eastern writers also describe the conquest of Egypt by the Amalekites, under much the same circumstances that the Greek historians attribute it to the Phoenician Shepherds, or

was probably given

to him, in compliment to his mother's family, who were descendants of Ham, as were also the Amalekites, as will be

immediately shewn, and with whom the name appears to have originated, in a contraction of Ham-Meleck : the former being the name of the latter a title of their great ancestor
;

honour, synonymous with that of king.(\\} The Arabians, who make Amalek some generations older than Abraham, deduce his

Hyc-sos;(b) and in this respect they may be the first of nations, as a branch of the Cutheans, who erected the first monarchies in Babylonia and in Egypt. The seat of this people was in Arabia Petrea, west of that of the Edomites; having the Philistines on the north, the Red Sea on the south, and Egypt on the west. They are not

deemed

genealogy from

Ham
Noah.

in the following

manner

V Ham,
I

or Chum.

Aram, or Aran.
Uz, Aws, or Huts.

(Ad, Aad, or Azd.

>An)alck.(x)

of these writers hold that Ad was the son of Uz, or Aws, the son of Aram, the son ofShem;(y) others, that Amalek was the son of Azd, the son of Shem; and others that Ad was the son of Amalek, the son of Ham; but the first is the most generally received. Ad, the father of Amalek, was a person of great renown ; his name appears to have been taken by many princes, after his death, as an honourable title: it signifies both a prince and a

Some

deity,

and

is

very often found in composition,

as Ad-Or, Ad-Orus,

Ad-On, Ad-Onis, Had-ad, Bed-ad, Ben-had-ad, Had-ad-ezer, &c. In Phoenice, the sun was called Ad-ad, and Ach-ad the former is translated, from Sanchoniatho, /Sao-iXwr, the king of kings ; the latter title,
:

supposed to have had any permanent dwelling, but to have wandered about, sheltering themselves, like the Arabs, under booths and tents, or in caverns of the rocks, or even under We read of no city belonging to ground. them, except that which Saul besieged, (c) and which the sacred historian has not named and as they were divided into tribes, or hordes, it is likely that such places as the one just alluded to under the title of a city, were nothing more than hamlets, and that the people shifted their abode from one canton as convenience or inclination to another, It were an useless attempt, theredirected. fore, to endeavour to set particular limits to them; as, besides the extensive tract of ground they had to range in, they might also live intermixed, on their outskirts, with their neighbours on either side indeed, we actually find them, in the time of the Judges, joined with the Midianites and Moabites, against Israel ;(d) and their situation and neighbours are so variously assigned in Scripture, that they must either have spread themselves very wide, or have changed their abode so frequently, that nothing can be determined about them, exthat cept, perhaps, what Josephus relates extended from Pelusium to the Red they
:
: :

Dent, xxiii. 7. (v) Dent. xxv. 19. (w) Bryant's Mythology, vol. i. p. 88. (x) Reland. Palast. Illvst. cap. 14. Ebn Slionah. Mr. Bryant (y) D'Herbelot, p. 51, 110. supposes that Cham, or Ham, may have been written Chem, and then mistaken for Shem, an error rendered more plausible, from Aram being the next in order ; as Shem had a son of that name, whose son also was Uz. He adduces instances of a similar nature from the Paschal Chronicle, Syncellus,
(u)

and John Malala, where the same blunder has been committed, and Shem substituted for Cham.*
See Euseb. Pr<ep. Evany, lib. i. cap. 10. Vossius A different Oriy. et Proy. de Idololat. lib. i. cap. 22. interpretation is given by Macrobius, Satitrnal. (a) Jallalo'din and Zamakshari. Koran, cap. 7. (b) Khondemir. Mirabil. Pyramid.
(z)

De

(c)

1 Sam. xv.

5.

(d)

Judges,
ti. p.

iii.

12, 13.

Ancient Mythalogy, vol,

218.

SECT.

II.]

UNPROVOKED ATTACK ON THE

ISRAELITES.

Sea ;(e) and from.Gebelotis to Petra.(f) Reland places them between the deserts of Kadesli and En-gedi, or rather nearer to the Mediterranean;^) and Dr. Shaw thinks they resided
mostly in the vicinity of Petra, the capital of Arabia Petraea.(h) Of the government of the Amalekites, it can only be surmised that it was monarchical. The first, or one of their earliest kings, was
called Agag, as was also the last ;(i) whence it is believed that all their intermediate princes bore the same appellation, as a title of honour, rather than as a proper name. Of their religion, and civil customs, nothing can be ascertained ; but we may suppose that they partook of the nature of those of the

rations, there is some ground for supposing them to have been the same with the Cutheans

of Babylonia, and the Hyc-sos of Egypt; and that they entered Arabia after the overthrow of Nimrod, and the dispersion of his adherents, whence some of them made an incursion into the territories of the Misra'i'm, while others remained about their borders, between the

Red Sea and Palestine. The first authentic notice we have

people,
is

of these

Cutheans, in general. Josephus speaks of their idols, (j) but the Scripture terms them idols of mount Seir ; so that they more properly belonged to the Edomites than to the Amaleksciences, and trade, can only be guessed at from their situation: they
ites.

days of Abra- rjul.per. 2801. ham, when they were subjected jA.M. 2oi. byChedorlaomerandhisallies.(k) j Post Oil. 434. Of the circumstances and con- *- B- c> 1913sequences of this subjugation, we are ignorant ; nor do the Amalekites again appear in the sacred writings, for the space of 422 years, by which time they had recovered rj u Per. 3223
in the
l.

As

to

their arts,

and independence; so that hearing the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea, and entheir strength

2513" ) A. M. Post Dil 850

' -

)
*-

B c
-

W1 .
;

for

it

is

probable they had the knowledge and

times,

tered the desert, they resolved, if possible, to cut them ofF, or at least to plunder them of
their cattle
fell

commerce of those

much

in

common

with their neighbours the Edomites, the Egyptians, and those of the sea-coasts of Canaan. similar remark may be made on their man-

and goods with this view, they the rear of that people, as they were upon
:

ners, genius,

and

policy.

SECTION
CHRONOLOGY

II.

AND HISTORY AMALEKITES.

OF

THE

FROM what
Section,
it will

has been said in the former

:

appear that the beginnings of this people are impenetrably obscure there
reason, indeed, to consider them as among the first of the nations if they are not themselves the very first; but there are no data whereby to fix their epocha with tolerable accuracy; though from what the Arabian historians relate
is
;

marching from Rephidim to mount Horeb but the havoc they made quickly recoiled with interest upon themselves for Joshua, as soon as he could collect a company of fighting men, assaulted them with such vigour, that, after a sanguinary conflict, they were put to flight : and the God of Israel declared, that, for this " be unprovoked outrage, their name should put out of remembrance from under heaven. '"(1) On this occasion, the Scripture speaks of " Amalek and his people ;"(m) whence some have supposed, that they were led on by Amalek, the son of Eliphaz, the son of Esau ;(n)
: :

others only understand

ratively, as indicating the

the expression figuwhole nation. Josephus says they \\ndjh-e kings, who united their forces at this time to destroy Israel ;(o) there

of their having conquered Egypt, and kept possession of that country for several gene-

is, however, no authority for this, any more than for the supposition that they were joined bysome of the petty kings of Canaan.(p) Indeed,

cap. 8. cap. 2. 'jj Reland, Palctst. Itlmlr. lib. i. p. 79, et scq. (h) Dr. Shaw's Genqr. Observ. p. 354. Josephus (Antiq. Ill), iv. cap. 4) calls the city above alluded to, Arcc, which Bochart takes to be a corruption of Rekem, its ancient
(e)

Joseph. Antiq.

lib. vi.

(i)

Numb.
Gen.

xxiv. 7.

1 Sam. xv. 8.
lib. ix.

(f)

Idem

ibid. lib.

iii.

(j)

Joseph. Antiq.
xiv. 7.

cap. 10.

(k)
(1)

Ejcod. xvii.

816.

Dent. xxv. 19.

(n)
iii.

1 5am. xv. 2,

et seq.
(in)

Ejcod. xvii. 13.

ii.

Gen. xxxvi. 12.

name, from
.

founder, one of the Midianitih kings; see xxxi. 8, and Shaw's Travels, p. 354.
its

(o) Joseph. Antiq. lib.

cap. 2.
p. 184,

(p) Universal History, vol.

G (8vo.)

4o

652

HISTORY OF THE AMALEKITES.

[CHAP. xvi.

the attack appears to have been made merely for the sake of plunder, as the Arabs in all have fallen upon ages, even to the present day, the caravans that annually pass through the desert, with the same view. The next year, when the Israelites attempted to enter tne Land of Promise, Jul Per. 3224.1 A. ivi. 2-514! f contrary to the express command PostDil. 857. f of God, who had decreed, that B.C. 1490. } for their ungrateful murmuring on the evil report of the spies, not one of them, from 20 years old and upwards, should set foot on it; the Amalekites, joined by some of the southern Canaanites, resisted their attempt, and repulsed them with considerable slaughter.(q) Jul. Per. 3263. ) Eight-and-thirty years after A. M. 2553. f this, the Amalekites seem to have Post Dil. 896. f been governed by a king called B.C. 1451. ) Agag, and to have been in the zenith of their prosperity ; when Balaam pronounced, that utter destruction should come

prisoner, and, on account of his personal accomplishments, his life was spared, till the arrival of Samuel at the Israelitish camp.

When

the prophet learned that Agag was still living, and that the best of the cattle had been preserved, under the specious pretext of sacrifice, the hoary prophet, filled with pious indignation against such disobedience, after reminding Saul that obedience was better than sacrifice, and denouncing the loss of the kingdom as the consequence of his transgression, ordered Agag to be brought before him ; and

notwithstanding his insinuating address, and his vain that " the bitterness of death

hopes caused him to be hewn in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal, as a just recompence

was

past,"

upon them;(r) which accordingly happened,

as will appear in the sequel. After this, they appear to have sought every opportunity of harassing the Israelitish nation, till they were ripe for the excision denounced

of his tyrannical and sanguinary conduct.(v) The small remnant of the Amalekites which escaped the general slaughter by a timely flight, returned to their desolate country, and lived there undisturbed, till David, flying from Saul, obtained from Achish, king of Gath, the grant of the city of Ziklag. David, for what reason
is

against them. They confederated with Eglon, king of Moab, and the Ammonites ;(s) they afterwards united their forces with those of the Midianites, under Zebah and Zalmunna, in the hope of fully dispossessing those objects of their hatred ; but their projects were all confounded by the interposition of the Almighty, and in the latter instance, vast numbers of

not stated, was scarcely settled in this asylum, when he made an excur- rj u \. Per. *3658. sion upon the Amalekites, who JA.M. *2948. were then associated with the jPostDil.*i29i. Geshurites and Gezrites.(w) laid <-B.C. waste their country, drove off their cattle, and
slaughtered or dispersed the inhabitants. (x) To avenge this injury, the Amalekites seized an opportunity, when David and /-j ui per .3659. his men were absent, to attack JA.M. 2943. which they burned to 1 Post Dil. 1292. Ziklag, the ground, and carried off all C.B.C. the people, who seem to have consisted chiefly of women and children, with whatever property was moveable. Having thus succeeded to their wishes, and taken, among the prisoners, David's two wives, Ahinoam and Abigail, they resolved to secure what they had got by an expeditious retreat ; and in their haste, one of their chiefs left on the road an Egyptian slave,

them were

slain

No
A.M.

farther
")

Jul. Per. 3635.

by their own allies.(t) mention is made of the Amalekites till the days of Saul, who,
in the

17th year of his reign, was the prophet, to fulfil the threatening of the Lord against' them. In obedience to this injunction, Saul invaded them with an army of 210,000 nien,(u) ravaged the country, and put all to the sword, without distinction of age or sex Agag, their king, was taken
2925. t Post Dil. 1268. f 79 -->

commanded by Samuel

who had fallen sick by the way. When they arrived at a convenient spot, they halted, and

(q)
(r)

Numb. xv. 2645. Numb. xxiv. 7, 20.

Judges, ni. 12, 13. v. 14. vii. 12, 22. Judget, vi. (u) Josephus, in opposition to the text of the .sacred penman, rates this force at only 70,000 ineu. (v) 1 Sam. xv. passim.
(s)
(t)

18.

(w) It is uncertain who these Geshurites and Gezrites were: the former are described by Joshua* as possessing the country from the river Sihor, before Egypt, to the borders of Ekron northward; and the latter were probably refugees from Gezer, when Joshua conquered their king.f For
farther particulars, see
(x) 1

Le Clerc and Patrick on 1 Sam.

t Joshua, xii. It.

xxvii.

Sam.

xxvii.

passim.

Chap,

jtiii.

2, 12.

SECT,

ii.]

DAVID'S SLAUGHTER OF THEM.

FINAL EXTINCTION.

653

gave loose to mirth and revelling, for several days together, in joyful exultation for their
victory.

In the

mean

time,

David had returned

from the camp of the Philistines, with whose armies he was absent at the time of this disaster, and finding his city reduced to ashes, and his wives and property, as well as those of his followers, gone, he inquired of the Lord, by means of the priest Abiathar, and was directed to pursue the enemy, with a promise of success. On his way, he found the sick Egyptian, just perishing for want, and having refreshed him, he learned from him the route of the enemy, and the place they had appointed for their rendezvous. Thither he hasted, and there he found them scattered about the country, carousing in the utmost confidence and security. At the break of day, after they had spent the atnight in debauchery, they were suddenly and slaughtered till the sun tacked by David, set, so that none escaped his avenging sword, except 400 young men, who rode on dromedaries, and who, leaving their companions and booty behind them, were burdened with
(y) 1

nothing but the doleful news of the misfortune of their countrymen.(y) Thus, by degrees, were the Amalekites reduced ; and at last, in the days of Hezekiah, they received the final blow from the Simeonites, who utterly destroyed or dispersed them, and took possession of .-j u Per 4001
j

their country;

means ful- \ A.M. *329i! S Post DU.*1634. filling the prediction of Balaam " Amalek *713. was the first of the (.B.C. but his latter end shall be that he nations;
by
tins
:

perish for ever."(z) Many years afterwards, an individual of this race, as is supposed, namely Hainan the

Agagite, would have taken an ample revenge on the Jews for all the miseries / j u p er *4250. that their nation had inflicted )A.M. *3546. his own, had not the S Post Oil. *1889. upon
j

Almighty miraculously interposed for their deliverance, and brought the meditated vengeance upon the head of the Thfs may be called the last destroyer, (a) act of the Amalekites; from which time public they are heard of no more.
(a)

Sam. xxx.

119.

(z)

Numb.

xxiv. 20.

Esther,

iii.

vii.

654

HISTORY OF PIMENICE.

[CHAP. xvn.

CHAPTER

XVII.

HISTORY OF THE PHOENICIANS.

SECTION
TIQUE REMAINS.
I name Phoenicia, or more accuPhcenice, has been variously derived rately from Phoenix, a brother of Cadmus, and son of Agenor, an ancient king of the country ;(b) or from the Greek word POIMXI?, palm-trees, from the great number of them that grew in its neighbourhood ;(c) or from i<x, red, being a translation of the Hebrew word Edom, from the Edomites, who fled hither in the days of David.(d) By a contraction of Canaan, for it was a part of that land, it was also called

I.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF PHCENICE. NAMES. SITUATION AND EXTENT. CITIES. ANNAMES.

HE

Rhabbothin and anciently the former being an Hebrew term for a great bay, and the latter its Greek translation. The Jews called this country, or its several parts, by the various names of Tyre,
;

Chna

(e)

and

Colpites,(f )

Ptolemy makes the river Eleutherus its northern boundary; while Pliny, Mela, and Stephanus, extend its limits on this side to the island of Aradus, north of that river. The western extent of Phoenice is not described, but it appears generally to have been a very narrow slip of country ; though, in the first ages of Christianity, it was so much extended, that, considered as a province of Syria, it included both Damascus and Palmyra, (g) According to Ptolemy, Phcenice stretched beyond mount Carmel, southward for he places in Phcenice, not only Ecdippa and Ptolema'i's, but Sycaminum and Dicra, which stand south of that mountain but as they more properly belonged to Palestine, they will be noticed in the description of that country after its possession by the Israelites. CITIES. On the coast of Phcenice, and south of the Eleutherus were the following:
; :

Ancient Names.

Modern Names.

Sidon, Canaan, and Syrophoenice. Sometimes the name Phcenice was extended to all the maritime countries of Syria and Judea, as that of Canaan was to the land of the Philistines, and even of the Amalekites while, on the other hand, these two names, and the rest, were more generally superseded by those of Palestine and Syria. SITUATION AND EXTENT. Phoenice Proper, so far as can be deduced from ancient geographers, lay between the 33d and 35th degrees of north latitude ; end was bounded by Syria on the north and east, Judea on the south, and the Mediterranean on the west. Its northern limits are not precisely ascertained
: :

Simyra Marathos
Orthosia, or Orthosias
Tripolis Botrys, or Botrus Byblus, or Byblos

Sumira.
Ortosa, or Tortosa. Tripoli, or Tarabolous. Batronn, or Patron. Gebail.

Berytus, afterwards Felix Julia. Barut, Beroot, or Bairout.

Saide, Side, or Seyde. Zarepliath, Zarpath, or Sarepta Sarfand. Tyrus, Tyre, or Tsor Stir, Sour, or Tzour.

Porphyrion Leonton Sidon, Tzidon, or Zidon

Rumeile. Hcle.

Palxtyrus, or Old Tyre

In the interior, were

Area, or Arce
Pakcbylus, or Old Byblus

Arka.

Aphekah
Labanath
thinks the most probable etymology sons of Anak.
(e)

(b) Syncell. p. 152.

(c) Citron.

is

Phene-Anak,

\.

e.

the

Alex. p. 158.

Newton's Chron. of Ancient Kingdoms amended, p. 108, 109. Bryant's Ancient Mythology, vol. vi. p. 227, t seq. Bochart endeavours to confute this theory, and
(d) Sir
I.

Sanchoniatho, apud Euseh.

De Prap. Evang.

lib.

i.

cap. 10. p. 40, 41. (f) Steph. Byzant.

(g)

ad

voc. *oiixn.

Reland. Palcest. Wustr. p. 217.

SECT.

I.]

CITIES.

SIDON TYRE.
Sidonians ; or, according to some, by Agenor, the father of Cadmus. It stood near the coast, about 200 stadia south of that city. Tyre must be distinguished into three different cities, in order of time: viz. 1. Tyre on the continent, or Palaetyrus [Old Tyre] ; 2. Tyre on the island 3. Tyre on the peninsula [New Tyre], after the island was joined to the main The occasion of these changes will land. in the subsequent history. Its name appear
;

Besides which, the following, though north of the Eleutherus, are reckoned among the Phoenician cities
:

AncientNanics.

Laodicea

Modern Names. Ladikieh.

Ge/iila.

Gabala
Balnea, or Balanea

Belniax.

Maraceae

Marathus Aradus Antaradus

Raphaneae

Merhub. Merahia. Ru-ad, or Ru-wadde.

Rafineh.

Sidon, Tsidon, or Zidon [Saide], was the oldest city in these parts, and may be denoFrom the minated the capital of Phcenice. similitude of name, and its vicinity to the settlement of the Canaanites, of which indeed it originally formed a part, its foundation is son generally attributed to Sidon, the eldest was seated on the This city of Canaan, (h) sea-side, and is said to have had a summer and a winter harbour, (i) or one much more enclosed than the other, though no vestiges of such a distinction remain. The Sidouians appear to have been troublers of Israel ; and for this, added to their general impiety, the prophet Ezekiel was commissioned to denounce heavy woes against them, (j) which were accomplished in the time of Artaxerxes Ochus, king of Persia for that monarch having come against them with an army, on account of their rebellion, the city was betrayed by its king; whereupon the wretched inhabitants, seized with despair, set fire to their houses, and 40,000 of them, with their wives and It is at prechildren, perished in the flames. sent tolerably populous, but much curtailed of its ancient extent :(k) and its harbour is choked with sand.(l) Tyre, anciently Tsor, or Sor [Siir], is commonly denominated the daughter of Sidon ; having been built, as is supposed, by the
:

a rock, upon which it was built.(in) though Servius, upon Virgil, derives it from It has been thought, that this city sat; a fish. communicated its name, Tsor, to the whole country of Syria, and that the words Syria, Tyria, and Assyria, were indifferently used for each other ;(n) but this is not altogether credible. Tyre had two havens, formed by the isthmus which joined the island to the continent one, towards Egypt, was called the open, or the Egyptian port; the other, towards
signifies
;

Over the enSidon, was called lite dose.(o) trance of one of these ports, was an arch, through which the shipping passed, with a chain drawn across for its defence.(p) The city, including Tyre on the island, and Palaetyrus, or Tyre on the main land, is described by Pliny as 19,000 paces, or 19 Roman miles, in
circumference though, in itself, it was only The same writer 22 furlongs in circuit.(q) the island was only 700 paces from the says, continent but Strabo places it at 30 stadia, or he about 3i English miles from Palaetyrus also says that Tyre was a complete island, like Aradus, excepting the artificial isthmus, by which it communicated with the conti;
; :

nent.^) At present, the island appears to have been of a circular form, scarcely containing 40 acres of ground, and the foundations of the wall that surrounded it are still discernible on its utmost margin ;(s) it therefore appears, that
(1)

'

(h) Gen. x. 15, 19. Joseph. Antiq. lib. i. cap. 7. Bochart doubts whether Canaan's son was called Sidon, and thinks Moses meant only to designate him as the founder of the city, and the father of the Sidonians, so called from a Phoenician word, signify ing a Jish, according to Trogus Pompeins;* and

Bruce's Travels, vol.

i.

introduct.

the same idea

is retained in its modern appellation, Saide, or Others Seyde, which may be rendered a Ji siting -place. derive the name of this city from Sida, or Side, a daughter of Belus, the son of Pha-nix.f Achill. Tat. apnd Reland. Palast. Illust. (i)

(m) Bochart, Geogr. Sacr. p. 73->. (n) Sir I. Newton's Chron. of Anc. King. Amend. (o) Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 757. in Vit. Saladin. ad voc. (p) Albert. Schult. Ind. Geogr. These bays, or ports, are still pretty large, and in Tyrns. a long ridge, resempart defended from the ocean, each by on both sides from the bling a mole, stretching directly out head of the island but it is uncertain whether these ridges be rocks or walls.f
;

(j)

Ezek.

xxviii.

2024.
cap. 3.

(q) Plin.
to

Nat. Hist.
*

lib. v.

cap. 19.
(s)

(k) Maundrell's
'

Journey from Aleppo

t

Jerusalem, p. 4a.
Tracels, p. 210.

(r)

Strabo,

lib. xvi. p.

520,521.

Mi^indrell,

vbi supr.

Apud

Justin,

lib. xviii.

Sand/s

Mauudrell, uii supr.

650

HISTORY OF PHCENICE.
vaults of the ancient foundations,
chiefly
:

[CHAP. xvir.

the old city, upon theinain land, occupied amuch more extensive site than did the new, upon the island. Owing to the deficiency in breadth in the latter, the Tyrians raised their buildings beyond what was usual in other places, and gave their houses more stories than the houses had at Rome.(t) In general, the buildings were spacious and magnificent; and above the rest, appeared the temples of Jupiter, Hercules, and Astarte, The said to have been built by Hiram.(u) 150 feet high, and proportionably walls were broad, consisting of large blocks of stone, cemented together with a white plaster.(v) The epocha of Old Tyre is unknown, though usually placed in the age of Cadmus, synchronical with the Exodus of Israel, or a few years before it ; according to Mr Bryant, it owed its foundation to those Hyc-sos, who, when expelled Egypt, retired into Judea, as Manetho

and subsist so literally has been fulfilled the denunciation of the prophet Eze" kiel They shall destroy the walls of Tyre,

by

fishing ;(w)

and break down her towers I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top
:

expresses himself; but on this nothing positive can be advanced. Josephus places the building of the new city 240 years before the Temple of Solomon, that is, in the days of Gideon. At one period, this city was the most It renowned for commerce in the world. resisted Nebuchadnezzar for 13 years, at the end of which, the inhabitants resolved to place the sea between themselves and the enemy, and passed over to the island. The new city stood out against Alexander the Great for seven months ; and before he could take it, he was obliged to fill up the strait that separated it from the continent. Being repaired by Adrian, it became the metropolis of the province. It afterwards fell into the hands of the

of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea," &c.(x) Aradus [Ru-ad, or Ru-wadde\, a city upon a small island of the same name, a short distance above the mouth of the Eleutherus, is supposed by Bochart(y) to have been, with the opposite coast, the seat of the Arvadites, descendants of Canaan's ninth son. Or it may have received its name from the fugitive Aradites of the south, who were among the first of the Israelites.(z) It is about 20 conquests or 2J miles, from the shore, and about stadia, seven stadia in circumference. The buildings, like those of Tyre, were lofty, comprising

many

stories. (a)

Dionysius Periegetes says,

it

was joined to the continent by a bridge. It was formerly renowned for its riches and commerce,
old
fort,

but

is

now

and a few cannon

ruinous, having only an to defend it. The

height of the island gives it a good appearance from a distance. In Ezekiel's time, the Arvadites were employed as mariners in the

Tyrian

fleets, It is said, that

and as guards upon their

they could, fresh water from the bottomof thesea.(c) On the continent, opposite to Aradus, was a town, or city, called Antaradus, of which little is known.
Tripolis [Tripoli, or, as the Turks call it, Tarabolous] was built by joint contributions

when the Aradians were besieged, by the help of long tubes, draw up

walls. (b)

but being wrested from ; the sultan of Egypt, A. D. by 1289, it was destroyed and abandoned, never more to rear its head. It is now a heap of ruins, and its inhabitants are only a few poor >yretches, consisting of 50 or 60 families, who shelter themsehes in miserable huts, or in the
the Christians
(t)

from whom of Jerusalem king

Arabs

it

was taken by Baldwin

II.

from Sidon, Tyre, and Aradus.

At

first

it

consisted of three cities, severally founded by those three powers, as a common mart, about a furlong distant from each other, and inhabited by colonists from the three parent cities, each
in their

respective canton,

but

all

within

one wall.(d)

Some remains

enclosed of the

(u)
et

Strabo, ubi sitpr. Menand. et Dins,

lib.
ii.

apud Joseph. Antiq.

lib.

lib. viii.

cap. 2,

doubt of the story of purple fish having been invented to conceal their knowledge of the use of cochineal.*
(x)

Contra Apion,
(v)

Ezek. xxvi.

4, 5,

1214.

Arrian.

De

Exped. Alex. Magn.

ii.

(y)
(z)

Phaleg.

lib. iv.

cap. 36.
3. xxxiii. 40.

Le Bruyn. Voy. an (w) Maundrell, nbi supr. p. 48, 49. Lev. tome ii. p. 3H, in-4to. Volncy's Travels in Syria, &c. v ii. The ruins consist of broken walls, pillars, vaults, <X.c. Mr. Bruce was curious to obtain one of the shell-fish, from wliic Ii Ihe Tyrians were s;iid to extract their celebrated purple dy; Inii wit houtfuccess ; and he thinks he was as fortunate in this Rspect as ever the old fishers bad been; for he has no
I

Numb.
Strabo,

xxi. 1

(a)

lib. xvi.

p. 518, 754, et scq.

Plin.

(b)
(c)
lib. v.

Ezek. xxvii.

8, 11.

Strabo, ubi supr. cap. 31.

Nat. Hist.

lib.

ii.

cap. 103.

(d)

Diod. Sicul.

lib. xvi.

cap. 41.
icl.
i.

Plin. ubi supr.

Brace's Travels,

introduce p. lu.

SECT.

I.]

CHIEF CITIES. ANTIQUE REMAINS.

side,

H7

ancient city are still to be seen in the fields near the shore, about a mile and a half distant from the present town, consisting of pillars of granite, anil heaps of ruins.(e)

a plain, which, from the foot of in Lebanon, runs out into the sea, narrowing to a point about two leagues beyond the ordinary

course of the shore.

raised so high

The

soil

is

fertile,

and
to be

Byblus [Gebaif], according to Sanchoniatho,

above the salt-water as

was the
built

first

city

of the Phoenicians, being

by Chronos, or Ilus;(f) but it is not understood whether he means Byblus on the sea-coast, or the old Byblus [Palcebybhts], more inland and it may even be doubted whether what the Greeks have translated
:

secure from its overflowings, as well as from all other noxious effects of that element. It lias also the benefit of good fresh springs flowing down to it from the adjacent hills. (in)
Sarepta, Sarephtha, Zarpath, or Zarephath [&arfand\, stood between Sidon and Tyre, but being subject to the former, it is called a city of Sidon. (n) This city has been rendered memorable in sacred history by the miracle of the prophet Elijah, in restoring the widow's

This city Byblus, was not originally Babel. and sacred was the royal residence of Cinyras, to Adonis. It is pleasantly situated on an eminence near the sea, and, though small, is, now too copious for its few inhabitants. (g) Berytus \_Barut, Hdirout, or Beroot\, is also described as existing in the days of Chronos, and given by that prince to Posidon, or Neptune, and to the Cabiri, and to hubaudmen and fishermen, who consecrated the remains of Pontus, father of Sidon, in or unto Bery-

son to

life.(o)

The wine of

Sarepta

is

com-

mended by
Between
itself into

several writers of the later ages.(p)

The name of this city was properly Berith, Barit, or Barith, the city of the ark :(i) it was also called by the poets Beroe, from a
tus. (h)

nymph

of the ocean, the nurse of Semele,(j)

and an attendant on Cyrene.(k)

This

city

was

celebrated for its cultivation of science, and particularly of jurisprudence, whence the emperor Justinian styled it the mother and nurse of I he Ian- s. From its academy, of which the the civilians aera is not certainly known, Dorotheus and Anatolius were called by that prince to assist in the composition of his Digest; nor would he allow any academies besides those of Rome, Berytus, and ConstanThe city was tinople, to explain the laws.(l) and pillaged, by Tryphon, the Syrian taken, but usurper, in the days of the Maccabees the Romans rebuilt it, and king Agrippa raised a magnificent theatre, and embellished it by transporting thither all that was curious in his It now retains nothing of its dominions. ancient felicity, except the situation, in which it is peculiarly happy ; being seated on the sea
;

city and Tyre, a river empties the sea, which modern geographers call Eleutherus, or Eleutherus Falsus ; but no such river appears to have been known to the ancients. ANTIQUE REMAINS. Amid the desolation of this country, some few remains of ancient splendour are still met with by travellers. Thevenot speaks of some fine antiquities at Tyre, but does not specify them.(q) Sandys(r) could only discover there a heap of ruins;
this

but most modern travellers have been more particular. They notice the remains of the metropolitan church there, near which is an extraordinary kind of column, of unusual dimensions, consisting of an entire block of
granite,

80 feet long there are also several other columns, and fragments of columns, in the vicinity, (s) But the greatest curiosity about this ruined city is a place, named by the Turks, Roselayne, where are seen what are usually called Solomon's cisterns, or wells ; the tradition is, that these wells are supplied from a subterraneous river, which the supernatural sagacity of that prince discovered to run underground at this place, and he was therefore induced to undertake the work. The people of the country pretend that they were unfathom:

Maundrell, ubi svpr. p. 19. Euseb. De Preep. Evany, lib. i. cap. 10. See before, page 271. (g) Maundrell, p. 38. See before, (h) Sanchoniatho, apud Euseb. ubi svpr. page 272. (i) Bryant's Mythol. vol. iii. p. 211. (j) Ovid. Met. lib. iii. ver. 278. (k) Virg. Georg.&b, iv. ver. 341.
(e) (f)

Apud

(m) Maundrell, p. 38. 1 Kings, xvii. 9. (o) 1 Kings, xvii. 17, et seq. Fulgent. Mythol. lib. ii. cap. 15. (p) Sid. Apol. car. xvii. Thevenot. Voyage au Levant, partie i. liv. ii. (q) (r) Lib. iii. p. 168. tome ii. p. 338, et seq. (s) Le Bruyn. Voyage au Levant, in-4to. De la lloque. Voyage de Syrie, &c. tome i. p. 17,
(1)

Justin. Prcccm. Digest.

(n)

et seq.

VOL.

I.

4p

658

HISTORY OF PHCENICE.

[CHAP. xvii.

able, and Le Bruyn so far gave into this notion, as to suppose the current at a certain depth to be so strong as to prevent a plummet from sinking to the bottom but all this is denied by Maundrell, who supposes the wells themselves to be less ancient than the days of Alexander the Great, because the aqueduct, which conveys the water from them to Tyre, is carried over the isthmus formed by that conqueror ; and he cannot think the cisterns to be older than the aqueduct, nor the aqueduct Of older than the ground it is built upon. cisterns three were still entire when these visited by this traveller ; one about a furlong and a half from the sea, the other two a little The first was of an octangular form, farther. and 20 yards in diameter on the south side, it was elevated nine yards above the ground,
:

of the ancient grandeur of Sidon, as beautiful columns, &c. The inhabitants pretend to shew the tomb of Zebulon, which consists of two stones only, one supposed to be at the head, the other at the feet of the deceased their distance from each other is nearly 3J English yards, w hich they state to have been the height It stands in a small chapel, of this patriarch. in a garden, and is much revered by the
:
r

on the north only

ableness, ten
opinion.

and as to its unfathomyards of a line confuted that The side walls consist of gravel and
six
;

Jews.(u) Mr. Bruce, in visiting this city, says he discovered the ancient pavements of Sidon, 7i feet below the level of the present town.(v) On the continent, a little to the southward of the isle of Aradus, are several extraordinary The first consists of a dike, 30 antiquities. over at the top, cut into the solid rock ; yards its sides go sloping down, with steps also cut into the rock, and descending gradually to the bottom. This dike stretches in a direct line,
east

and west,

for

more than a

furlong,

still

a strong pebbles, so firmly consolidated with cement, as to appear like solid rock. Round the brink is a walk, eight feet broad, from whence is a descent of one step on the south side, and two on the north, to a second walk, 21 feet broad. The water enters from beneath these walks; nor could the extremity of the cavity be reached with a very long rod. The whole cistern contains a vast body of excellent water, and is so well and constantly supplied, that though a stream issues from it that turns On the east four mills, it is always brim-full. side of this cistern was the ancient outlet of the water, by an aqueduct, raised about six yards from the ground, and containing a channel one yard wide. This aqueduct, now dry, is carried eastward about 120 paces, and then approaches the two other cisterns, the one 12, the other 20 yards square, with a channel of communication to each of them,

through which their waters flowed together to The aqueduct is now decayed, but Tyre. may be traced, stretching northward about

an hour's journey, and then turning

to

the

west, it passes over the isthmus to the isle on which the city stood. (t) On the outside of the walls of Saide, among the gardens, are to be seen many fragments

preserving the figure of steps cut horizontally all along its sides ; and ends at last in a marsh that extends about two furlongs between it and the sea. The use of this structure cannot now even be guessed at. little to the southward of this dike, is a court of 55 yards square, cut, like the former, into the natural rock the sides of the rock, standing round it, are about three yards high, and supply the place of walls. Three of the sides are thus encompassed, but the court is open to the north. In the centre of the enclosed area, a part of the rock, three yards high, and five and a half square, is left standing, Avhich serves for the This pedestal of a throne, erected upon it. throne consists of four large stones, three of them standing upright as sides and a back, and the fourth laid flat upon them as a covering, or canopy, in the manner of a tribunal. The whole structure is about 20 feet high, and faces towards the north, or open side of the court. The horizontal stone, that forms: the canopy, is 51 yards square, adorned with a cornice. At the two inner angles of the court, as also on the open side, are left pillars of the natural rock, three at each of the former, in a triangular position, and two at the latter. About half a mile to the southward of this court, are two towers, supposed to be sepul-

(t)

Maundrell's

Journey from Aleppo

to

Jerusalem,

p. 48, etsef.

(u) Idem ibid. p. 44. Sandys' Travels, book iii. p. Tlievenot. Voyage ait Levant, parlie ii. liv. i. chap. 3. (v) Bruce's Travels, vol. i. introduction.

KM.

SECT, n.]

CLIMATE. SOIL.

RIVERS.

NATURAL
deemed,

CURIOSITIES.

ohral monuments, as they stand over ancient bury ing-places. They are about ten yards distant from each other ; the one is in the form

of

pyramid,
:

a cylinder, crowned Avith a multilateral 33 feet in height, including the

pedestal, which is 10 feet high, and 15 feet square the other is a long cone, discontinued at about one-third of its height, and, instead of ending in a point, wrought into a hemispherical head, or cap. It stands upon a pedestal, six feet high, and 16J feet square each angle adorned with the figure of a lion, in a being
;

by some geographers, to be the northern boundary of Phcenice. 2. little above Tripolis, a river emptied itself into the sea, whose name is not given by ancient geographers; it runs through a deep valley from the heights of Lebanon ; and, near the monastery of Kanabin, it is now called Nahr3. The Adonis Kades, or the holy river. or the river of Abraham], [Nahr-lbrahim,

sitting

posture, of indifferent workmanship, Near these pillars pretty much defaced. are square holes, leading to subterraneous

and

chambers, of a square figure, and convenient height for a man to stand upright in, with long avenues, or cells branching from them, of various lengths and disposition, wherein the dead bodies were deposited all which are excavated in the solid rock.(w) These works appear to be similar to those, which in various
;

places are attributed to Semarim, or Cuthites, Sama-Ramis, or token more largely discussed

Semiramis,(x)

i. e.

the

whose banner was the of the Most High, as

in

whose waters, at certain seasons, assume a red colour, occasioned by a kind of minium, or red earth, which this river, when swelled by land-floods to an unusual height, brings down with its stream. This phenomenon was attributed by the superstitious heathens, to the re-opening of the wounds of Adonis, whose name they gave to the river, and many abominations were practised on its banks, in commemoration of his fictitious death. It fell into the sea a little below Byblus. 4. The Lycus [Nahr-Kelb, or river of dogs], which ran into the sea just above Berytus. 5. The Tamyras [Na/ir-Damur], about whose mouth the celebrated purple fish were said to be found ; near its confluence with the sea, was a fortress,
called Porphyrion [Rumeile].
ras,
6.

a former Chapter.(y)

The Mago-

SECTION

II.

a little above Sidon. 7. The Leontos, or Leonis [Leitani, or Lante, and toward its mouth, Casemieh], is supposed to be the Pseudo-Eleutherus of modern geographers,

NATURAL HISTORY OF VHOZNICE. CLIMATE. SOIL. RIVERS. NATURAL CURIOSITIES.

THIS country, bordering so closely upon Palestine and Syria, of which indeed it was
only a portion, leaves but little for observation under the present head, that has not been already said in the natural history of those countries. The climate may be reckoned the happiest; the air is wholesome, among and the soil good, producing most necessaries for food and clothing. It is plentifully watered by small rivers, which, running down from mount Lebanon, are subject to swell to an immoderate degree ; being either increased by the melting of the snows on that mountain, or by heavy rains. The principal of these rivers were, 1. The Eleutherus [Nahr-Kebir, or Great River},
(w) Manndrcll, itbisupr.
(x) Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 1071.

between Tyre and Sarepta though some maps seem to make it the same as the Magoras.
;

Of the natural curiosities of Phcenice, the red waters of the Adonis, above spoken of ;(z) the purple shell-fish ; and the vitreous sand, of which the first glass was made, are alone worth notice. With respect to the purple fish, or rather insect, Mr. Bruce affirms the idea of obtaining a dye from them, to have been a fable of the Tyrians, to conceal their knowledge of cochineal; for, he says, "had they depended upon the fish for their dye, if the whole city of Tyre applied to nothing else but fishing, they would not have coloured -20 yards of cloth in a year.'' Other writers, particularly the Abbe Kaynal, are of a different opinion. The animal is described as of tin snail kind, of the genus mure.v, and order venues lestucen. The shell consists of one
1

(z)

Maiiiidivll says he

to a surprising redness, ct
setj. ;

saw the water of this river stained and observed (bat it discoloured thft.

(/;

See before, p. 625, 532,

also 558, note (f ).

sea with the

same hue,

to a considerable distance.

4 P 2

HISTORY OF THE PHOENICIANS.

spiral valve, rough, with
ro\v.s;

[CHAP. XVH.

membranaceous

fur-

aperture terminates in an entire either straight, or somewhat ascending. canal, There are <i() species, particularly distinguished One of the shells producing by their shells. but the the dye was a kind of buccinum finest, or Tyriaii purple, was got from the These shells are found in various murex. of the Mediterranean; and immense parts heaps are to be seen about Tarentmn, evincing one place where this precious liquor was exIt appears therefore, that Mr. Bruce tracted. as other travellers have been, disapbeing, pointed of muling that fish in the immediate concluded they had no vicinity of Tyre, existence, or at least to no sufficient amount: but as the Phoenicians were extensive navigators, it is not to be doubted that they made them the objects of their research in distant parts, as well as upon their own shores. (a)
tin;

and

neither appear among the first nations, spoken of by Moses, though Sidon was known to him, nor are they mentioned throughout the Old Testament, where frequent notice is taken of the Sidonians and Tynans, with an apparent distinction from the Canaanites :(b) add to coast, this, their situation along a narrow

seems

as foreign settlers to bespeak them the aborigines. Bochart(c) and Heidegamong ger (d) have conjectured that the Canaanites were ashamed of their ancestor Canaan, because of the curse denounced on him the former also thinks, that, terrified by the wars so vigor;

ously and successfully waged against them by the Israelites, purely on account of their origin, they therefore, to avoid the ignominy of the one, and the danger of the other, abjured their old name, and changed it for Phoenicians, Syrians, Syrophoenicians, and Assyrians yet is there nothing to warrant this supposition in the be Scripture, but rather the contrary may that deduced from it nor can it be supposed so shallow a subterfuge would have saved
: :

SECTION

III.

ANTIQUITY, GOVERNMENT, RELIGION, CUSTOMS, ARTS, LANGUAGE, LETTERS, LEARNING, MANUFACTURES, AND COMMERCE, OF THE PHOENICIANS.

them. In profane historians, some other traces may be discovered of the origin of the Phoenicians, from which they will appear to be quite a distinct race from the Canaanites.
Herodotus(e) says they came originally from the Red Sea; Dionysius(f) gives much the same account of the Tyrians, Sidonians, and the inhabitants of Berytus and Byblus, whose ingenuity and knowledge he celebrates, and speaks of them as the first merchants upon the earth; and Philo the Jew(g) calls the in the Israel attacked Amalekites, who desert south of Canaan, Phoenicians from all which we conclude that though Phoanice was the Canaanites, originally in the possession of and Sidon was built by them yet the Phoenicians had their origin in some other quarter,
:

ANTIQUITY.
that

the

IT has been generally supposed Phoenicians were Canaanites by

descent; though it is equally granted that their blood must have been mixed with that of foreigners in the course of ages, as happens in all trading places. But this is by far too vague a view of the subject it is not, indeed,
:

to

doubted that the country was early, if not originally, possessed by the Canaanites; but still the question recurs of, who were the Phoenicians, and whence their name? as they
l>e

arc also found on (lie coasts of Guayaquil (a) Those insects and Guatinrala, in Peru; the shells adhere to the rocks that and are of the size of a large walnut. are washed by the sea The liquor may be extracted two ways. Some kill the animal, after they have drawn it from its shell, and then
:

dyed

dipped in it, and the process is finished. The which is at first of the whiteness of milk, becomes afterwards green, and is not purple till the thread is dry and then, says the Abbe Hayual, no colour at present known
is

colour,

flat side of a knife from head to tail, pressing it with the separate from the body the part \vi ere the liquor is collected, and throw away the rest. Others draw the fish partly out of its shell, and by squee/im;, make it yield the required fluid this operation is repeated four times, at different
:

can be compared to it, for liveliness, lustre, or duration. It succeeds better on cotton than on wool, linen, or silk. (b) See Dent. iii. !), where the language of the Sidonians and Amoritcs is different. Joshua, xiii. 4. Jiulijcs, iii. 3.

2 Sow.
(c)

animal

always with less success and if continued, tin When, by either of these operations, a sulhcienl quantity of the fluid is obtained, the thread intended to be
intervals,
;

Psalm xxiv. G, 7. 1 Kings, xi. 5. Phalcg. lib. iv. cap. 34. col. 301. (d) Hist. Patriarch, exerc. xxiii. sect. 2.
(e)

Ixxxiii. 7.

p.

491.

die.-.

(f) ntfmy. ver. 005. cap. 89. (g) Phil. Jud. (J3C, ct 115, edit. Mangey.

Lib.

vii.

SECT.

III.]

ANTIQUITY. GOVERNMENT.
in the vicinity
in

RELIGION.
the true I iod, whom they or Lortl:(n) and in the Solomon, if they did not then
yt'

And
Sea.
.

that

somewhere

of the

of Abraham, the Phoenicians must have once

had the -knowledge

has been seen

the history of Edom,(h) that the Red Sea, or Marc Erytkremn obtained its title from those people, whose name signifies red, the same that the word <pomx means in the Greek language, whence the o>omxi;, or Phu'iiicians; and as the authorities above quoted, without any apparent knowledge of the history of the Edoniites, bring those people from the same quarter, we ought not to be at a loss in determining their origin and descent. From Esau, therefore, we derive the Phoenicians, whose name is but a translation of that of their progenitor, Edom ;(i) but at what period they settled on the coast of Canaan is uncertain; a great dispersion took place in the days of J)avid,(j) and many of the refugees might then fly to that coast for protection but the city of Tyre had long before existed, (k) its sovereign was the intimate friend and ally of the prince who therefore suppose persecuted them. (1) that the coast of Canaan had been previously colonized at some early period by the Edoniites, and that the colonists had become an independent state when the refugees from the parent country took shelter among
It
;

probably called

lirutl,

days of David and

possess a pure religion, they had considerable remains of it: for we read of Hiram, king of Tyre, blessing the name of JEHOVAH, when he heard that Solomon was established upon the throne of his father David ;(o) a plain proof that the knowledge of God still remained,

though His worship might be contaminated. By degrees, however, the Phoenicians degenerated, in common with other heathen nations, to the deification and worship of the heavenly bodies, and of men who had once been mortals
like themselves.

The
:

We

Grecian Zeus, whom they usually addressed with outstretched arms.(p) 2. Chronos, or Baal, Ham, the son of Noah, whose altar was usually covered with burntsacrifices, while the priests danced around it with the most violent gesticulations, and,
cutting their flesh

adoration were same with the

JBeel-sutncn,

principal objects of their or the sun, the

with knives and lancets,

pretended
idol

prophesy by inspiration: this seems to have been the same with Baalberith, or Chronos, anciently worshipped at

to

them.(m)
Phoenice, limited as was its included several kingdoms, after the extent, ancient practice of having a king to every of these, Sidon, Tyre, Aradns, Berytns, city and Byblus, were the most considerable. In this respect, the Phoenicians adhered to the government of their forefathers, who, while they allowed their princes to enjoy the sovereign dignity, reserved to themselves the natural rights and liberties of mankind, as may be deduced from the history of the kings of Sidon and Tyre, who, when in the zenith of their Of glory, were far from being uncontrollable.
:

GOVERNMENT.

their civil laws, no particular system has reached modern times. RELIGION. As descendants of Noah, if not
(h)
;i)

3. Astartc, the same with the Berytus.(q) Aphrodite, or Venus,(r) to whom drink-offerings were poured out, as to Ilie queen of heaven ; her temple at Aphek exhibited scenes of the most abandoned lasciviousm ss in Hebrew she is called Astarotk, or Astoreth, and the goddess of the Sidonians ;(s) she must have been of very old date for Moses speaks of a place called after her, in the days of Abraham, and of another in his own time;(t) she was also one of the first objects of idolatry among the Israelites, after they were settled in the Promised Land.(u) Astarte was represented, like the Egyptian Isis, with the horns of a cow, the symbol of the moon so that she appears to have been the personification of that luminary. 4. Chronos, or Baal the

Grecian

See before, p. 640.

fj)

Gen. xxv. 25, SO. xxxvi. See before, p. (>4o.

1, 43.

Joshua, xix. 29. 2 Sum. v. 11. 1 Kings, v. 1. (m) Tor farther information, the reader is referred to Mr. This Bryant's Treatise on the Edomiies and Phoenicians. writer sometimes calls Phoinic, or Poinic, a translation of Edom, red ; and elsewhere considers it as an Egyptian and Oanaanitish title of honour, compounded of Anak, with the
(k)
(1)

Egyptian prefix Pi, or Phi. On this account he thinks the palm-tree was styled 4>om|, as being a stately and noble tree, and used as an emblem of honour and victory. (n) Selden. DC Diis Syr. synt. ii. cap. 7.
1 Kings, v. 7. 2 Chron. ii. 11, 12. Sanchoniatho see before, p. 270. (q) Cumberland on Sanchoniatho, p. 115, 152. (r) Sanchoniatho; see before, p. 272, 608. (s) 1 Kings, xi. 5, 33. Dew/, i. 4. (t) Gen. xiv. 5. (u) Judges,
(o)

(p)

ii.

13.

GG2
Second.
5.

HISTORY OF THE PHOENICIANS.

to

[CHAP, xvn.
in

supposed

Zeus Hehis, or 13aal.(\) 6. Apollo, be the Phut, qr Put, of Moses,(w) whence the Pythius of the Greeks he was in
:

to the inanimate, or brute creation

both

great repute among the Tyrians, so that when besieged by Alexander, to prevent his leaving them, and going over to the enemy, they bound him with chains of gold to the altar of Here ules /(x) 7. Melicarthus, Melcartus, or the great and ancient god of the Hercules, Tyrians, whom Mr. Bryant takes to be the same with Cush.(y) He is described as a the first who brought lead great navigator, from the Cassitorides, or island of Britain, and the inventor of the purple dye, obtained from the shell-fish murex, which he accidentally

evidently of Amoniau origin,(f) and though the Phoenicians sprang from another stock, they made no scruple of adopting the religion of the people among whom they settled. How far they retained, or lost, a due sense and notion of the true God, amid their multifarious idolatry, it is difficult to determine the instance of Hiram, already noticed, being the only fact on which
cases,

the gods

are

discovered by observing a dog's mouth to be stained with it.(z) Originally he had no statues in his temple ;(a) but this simple mode of worship was afterwards departed from, and Hiram, the friend of David, above alluded to, is said to have built a temple, and raised a His rites statue, in honour of Hercules.(\>) were performed with great solemnity; the priests offering incense in loose flowing garments, and the assistants being clad in Egyptian linen. Women were not allowed to enter his temple, and swine were carefully kept from

found a conjecture. does not appear that Beel-samen had any statue nor, indeed, does he seem to have needed any for as his votaries meant by him the sun, he was too constantly before their eyes to need any artificial representation it
to
It
; ; ;

is

therefore, that they made their addresses to him immediately, according to the ancient instituted by Genus and rite,
likely,

Genea, (g) by stretching towards heaven.

forth

their

hands

approaching it.(c) This deity was far more ancient than the Grecian hero.(d) 0. Adonis, 'Thammuz, or Osiris, whose untimely death was annually lamented by the Phoenician women
with many extravagant ceremonies. 9. Certain small statues, called Patceci, which, being venerated as the tutelary gods of seafaring men, were always affixed to the prows of the Phoenician vessels. (e) Although the Phrenician polytheism agreed, in many respects, with theEgyptian,itdoes not appear to have extended
(v) Solden.

Baal, in the Scripture, is sometimes spoken of in the masculine, and sometimes in the feminine gender; which seems to have arisen from the Hebrews knowing no distinction of sex in the gods. Fuller has described this deity as a royal hero, clad in armour, with a mantle over his body, a diadem on his head, and a sword in his hand, as in the act of He had his prophets and striking a blow.(h) 450 of them were fed priests in great numbers at Jezebel's table only.(i) Burnt-offerings and sacrifices were offered to this god,(j) while the priests and devotees danced about the altar, with violent gesticulations ; (k) till, having
:

into a frenzy, they began bodies with knives and lancets; and then they betook themselves to prophesy-

wrought themselves

to cut their

De

Diis

Si/r.

syntag.

ii.

cap. 7.

Bochart.

(g)

See before,

p.

270.

These two last Baals seems to be the same with the first Baalsamen and Ckronos, worshipped at different places with different attributes: as the Baal of Sidon was
Geog. Sacr.

(h) Fuller's Pisgah Sight. similar to those of the Saxon

His characteristics are very

Woden:

see before, p. 217,

note

(s).

Baal of the sea; the Baalof Berytus, Baal-berith, &c. Zeus Belui is supposed by bishop Cumberland to be Cush, the son of Ham.
called T/ialassus, or the

(w) Cumberland on Hanchoniatho, p. (x) Diod. Sicul. lib. xvii. p. 584.

11(5,

337. Plutarch.

Fit.

Alexand.
(y) Mythol. vol. ii. p. 340, et seq. Incertus, (z) Pin. lib. viL cap. 50.
(a) Sil. Ital. lib.
iii.

(b)

apud Suid. ad voccm. Cumberland on Sanr/ioniatho, p. 2(>.i. Menand. Ephes. and Dius, apud Joseph, lib. viii.
iii.

It will be remembered that she (i) 1 Kings, xviii. 19. was the daughter of Eth-baal, or Ithobal, king of the Sidonians, and, by her marriage with A hub, had introduced the worship and priests of Baal into Israel. (j) 2 Kings, x. 24. (k) Abarbanel thinks this dancing or leaping was a rite used in the worship of the sun, winch puts all things in motion.* If this conjecture have any weight, we should consider the priests with whom Elijah contended to be those

eap. 2.
(c) Silius Ital. lib.
(e)
(f)

(d) Lucian.

De Ded

Syr.

Herodot.

lib.

iii.

cap. 37.
p. 107.

of Jierl-samen, the SUH, rather than of Baal, who appears to be the same with Ham, or Cush. Nor does the variation of the name form any substantial objection because the sacred writers use the term Baal in a general sense for all idols.
;

CumberJaud on Sanchoniatho,

* Patrick on

t Kings, iTiii. 26.

8CT.

111.]

IDOLS.

ASTARTE. ADONIS.

003

ing and raving, as if possessed by some supernatural power.(l) Astarte, as well as Saul, and for the same reason, (m) is sometimes called a goddess, and sometimes a god. She was the daughter of Uranus, and the wife of Chronos, according to Sanchoniatho, and wore a bull's head upon her own, as the token of her sovereignty. (n) She travelled about the world, till, finding a star fallen from the sky, she took it up, and consecrated it in the holy isle of Tyre ;(o) hence the notion that a star, or globe of fire, at certain times darted from the top of mount

appears to have been the same with the Pallas, or Minerva, of the Greeks. Astarte, or Asktaroth, had priests, or prophets, in as great abundance as Haal: for Jezebel entertained 400 of them at her table,(s) besides the 450 devotees of that god. She was served with

Lebanon, near her temple at Aphek, and plunged into the river Adonis below, which was thought to be Venus throwing herself into the arms of her lover.(p) In this temple,
she was represented as mourning her lost Adonis, with her head muffled in a veil, her left hand, under her mantle, supporting her head, and floods of tears streaming down her cheeks :(q) but in other places she had a
martial appearance, and points as the goddess of
(1)

tabernacles, for her.(t) When adored as the queen of heaven, cakes, prepared with great ceremony, were offered to her they also burned incense, and poured out drink-offerings before her.(u) At By bins she was worshipped in a peculiar manner there she had a temple, as the Venus of Adonis ; and such women as would not conform to the custom of shaving their heads, at the annual time of lamenting for that shepherd, were enjoined the penance of prostituting themselves for hire, during a whole day, and the money thus earned was At Aphek, on presented to the goddess. (v) mount Lebanon, the rites were still more
: :

women were employed

much pomp,

and formality, and mystery ; to weave hangings, or

was armed at all war :(r) so that she

impure.(w)

Adonis

is

said to have been the son of one

Patrick on 1 Kings, xviii. (m) The Hebrews had no name, or term, for a goddess. Bochart. Canaan, lib. ii. cap. 17, col. 775. (n) Something of the same kind is to be remarked in the for when the enraged Orus had torn off that history of I sis diadem, because she had liberated the traitor princess's Typhon, her minister Mercury clapped on her head, an ox's or a bull's head, to supply its place.* Astarte and /sis were, therefore, originally the same, and, in both cases, personifications of the moon, whose crescent was farther typified in the horns of the Egyptian Apis and Mncvis. (o) The travels of this princess, like those of Semiramis, are to be attributed to a people, who, under the banner of the lunar deity, typified by the horns of a bull, or ox, roved about in search of a settlement; till, at length, finding a city, not a star, in a weak or decayed state, they seized it, and removed it from the main land to the island. Such appears the construction to be put upon this fragment of Sanchobut whether these people are to be considered as a niatho party of the Culheans, when driven from Babylonia, or of the Amalekites, when invaded by Chedorlaomer, or of the Hyc-sos, when expelled Egypt, it is impossible to determine. Sir Isaac Newton deems the Baalim and Ashtaroth to have both come originally from the banks of the Tigris, whence he derives all the superstition and idolatry of the Phoenicians and Syrians. t Mr. Bryant is of a similar opinion. Accord: :

he considers her under the name of Aphrodite, or Venus; and Cicero, in enumerating the several Vcnus's, says the fourth was a Syrian of Tyre, named Astarte, who married Selden thinks it indubitable that she was the Adonis.^ Bali-sama, corrupted from Baleth-samain, the queen of heaven, as also Saaltis;** and Bochart, considering that Ashtaroth, which signifies Jlochs of sheep, or goats, may be
extended to herds generally, insinuates that she may be the Grecian Id, metamorphosed into a coo;tt in which he is followed, but with a different interpretation, by Mr. Bryant, who concludes the travels of 16, Europa, Cadinus, Astarte, Isis, Osiris, Damater, Kbea, and Dionusus, to be so many allusions to the journeying of mankind from mount Ararat and the plains of Shinar.JJ (p) Bochart. Canaan, lib. i. cap. 42, col. 749.

Macrob. Saturnal. lib. i. cap. 27. Bochart. Canaan, lib. i. cap. 42, col. 664. In the English version, they ars (s) 1 Kings, xviii. 19. called prophets of the groves : but Selden has proved, by a comparison of many passages of Scripture, that they were the priests of Astarte. See also Patrick and Le Clerc on
(q)
(r)

this passage.
(t)

2 Kings, xxhi.

7.

ing to Lucian.J Astarte, Rhea, and Europa, are the same person: this writer supposes her to be the moon; as does

though he has mistaken her name, and calls her Astroarche. Theophilus,|| on the contrary, affirms that Astarte was worshipped in the star called Lucifer, but then
before, p. 486. t Chronol. of Anc. Kingd.
S- o

aUo Herodian,

Jerem. vii. 18. xliv. 17, 18. (v) Lucian. De Dea Syr. Probably in detestation of this abominable practice, the Israelites were commanded not to put the hire of a harlot into the house of the Lord, for any vow. Deut. xxiii. 18. Bochart. Canaan, lib. ii. cap. (w) Lucian. De Dea Syr. 14. col. 749.
(u) (x)
||

Apollodor. Biblioth.

lib.
xiii.

iii.

cap. 14.

AmcnJtd.
ii.

p. J61, 279.

Apud Girald. Hist. Deer. sjnt. ** Selden. ubi snpr.

tt

Cic.

DC

Not. Dear.

lib.

iii.

J De Dea .Syr. Apuvl Sclrt. De Diis

Boch. Canaan,

lib. ii.
ii

cap. 2, col. 709.

Syr. sjnt.

cap. 2.

tf Aicitnt Mythfl.iol

-1 .'&',

f<

? vol. v. p. 3.

064
Cinyras, an Assyrian,

HISTORY OF THE PHOENICIANS.

in

[CHAP. xvii.

Papbos,

who founded the city o Cyprus, (x) by his own daughter

after having tations over

priest,

it,

gone through a bead-roll of lamenlight was brought in, when the

According to some writers, the Myrrlia. Phoenicians called him Gingris, or Gingras.(y) Of his early days, the accounts are various ;
suffice
it

to say, that

Venus was enamoured of

him, that he was killed by a wild boar, and that the goddess being unspeakably grieved for his loss, followed him to Hades, where, after a long contention with Proserpine, who was also attached to him, she obtained from Jupiter permission that he should reside one half of the year with her above ground ; but he was to spend the other half in the shades below. Venus, overjoyed at this favour, returned to the earth, acquainted her followers with her success, and instituted an annual festival, to commemorate it. In consequence of this mysterious tradition, which is nothing more than a various reading of the story of Isis finding the body of Os'iris,(z) there was great grief and lamentation among the women, at Byblus especially, for the supposed death of Adonis, which was- succeeded by as great joy for his The lamentations began as soon resuscitation. as they perceived the river Adonis to assume a bloody hue, a natural phenomenon, which has been accounted for in a former Section; (a) and the cries of a mother for the loss of her only son, could not be more loud or grievous they then proceeded to their sacrifices of the dead,(b~) having first disciplined themselves with a sound whipping, probably rendered necessary, to enable them to continue the farce of fictitious woe. The next day, Adonis was reputed to have arisen, and ascended through the air to the upper regions ; they then shaved their heads, as the Egyptians did for the loss of their Apis; and, at Byblus at least, if not in other cities of Phocnice, those females who would not comply with this practice, were obliged to yield to the more shameful one of
:

anointing the mouths of the assistants, " salvation was them, in a whisper, that come, and deliverance accomplished ;" upon which their sorrow was turned into joy, and the image taken as it were from its sepulchre :(d) the priests of Osiris, in or, as others say, Egypt, wrote to the women of Byblus, that they had found that god.(e) This letter was sent in an earthen pot, or in a small ark, made
told

of the papyrus, which came by sea of itself, in seven days, to Byblus, where its appearance was greeted by the women with (lancing, feast-

and extravagant exultations.(f) The Jewish writers have a story, different from the foregoing, concerning the origin of these
ing,

prostitution, as above related. (c) According to some, on a certain night, during the solemnity, they laid an image on a bed, or bier, and

Maimonides relates that the ancient or Sabians, held Thammuz, or Adonis, Zabii, to have been an idolatrous prophet, who, preaching to a certain king the doctrine of worshipping the seven planets, and the twelve signs, was, by that prince's order, put to a cruel death on the very night of his execution, all the idols, from the uttermost parts of the earth, met together in the temple of the golden statue, or the sun, at Babylon, and were made acquainted by that image with the tragical end of Thammuz; whereupon the idols wept and lamented all night; but as soon as (he morning dawned, they all flew back to their respective and hence, says he, the custom of places mourning over Thammuz.(g) It is also said, that he was the son of a heathen king, whose image the Jewish women adored with shedding; of tears, and they even offered sacrifices toit.(h) Bishop Patrick dates the origin of these rites from the slaughter of the Egyptian firstborn, in the night before the Exodus of Israel but the more general way of explaining the mystery is by supposing Adonis, a name compounded of Ad, a lord, or king, and On, the luminary of day, to be the sun; Venus, the upper hemisphere of the earth ; and Proserpine, the lower one: so that when the sun was in
rites.
:
:

(x) Apollodor. Biblioth. lib. iii. cap. 14. (y) Jul. Pol. lib. ii. cap. 4. lib. iv. cap. 14.
(z)

(d) Jul. Firm,

(e) (f) Seller, in

apud Purchas. Pilgr.

xviii.

lib.

i.

cap. 17, p. 90.

Procop. and Cyril, in Esoi.

See before, p. 485.

(a)

Idem, p. C59.

the preface to his History of

Palmyra,

says,

Hebrew name of Adonis, signifies the concealed, or hidden one; whence the Jews, in derision, sometimes call him the dead, as in Psalm cvi. 28. Calmet thinks that Baal-Peor was the same with Adonis. Ammian. Marcell. lib. six. (c) Lucian. De Deft Syr.
(b)

Thammus, or Ammuz,

the

this

custom has made so

women
able
(g)

lasting an impression upon of those parts, that some traces of it are still observ-

the

among

those of Aleppo.
synt.
ii.

(h)

Maimonid. in More Nevochim. Philast. apud Seld. De Diis Syr.

cap. 11.

SECT.

III.]

IDOLS.

ARTS.

LEARNING, AND LANGUAGE.

blishing the hypothesis of their descent from indeed, denies that any of the nations, included under the names of Palestines and Syrians, used that rite, the

the six inferior signs of the zodiac, Adonis was said to be with Proserpine, and when in the six superior, with Venus. By the boar, that slew Adonis, the winter is understood,; for the ancients made that animal the emblem of that
rigid
fruits

Abraham: Josephus,

season.(i)

Or,

according

to

another

scheme of explanation, Adonis

signified the of the earth, which, after being for a time buried in their seeds, at length burst forth from their tomb, and appear flourishing to the When, therefore, the seed was cast into sight. the grouud, it was said Adonis was gone to Proserpine; but when it sprouted up, he revisited Venus, or the light: and hence the devotees of this superstition sowed corn, and planted gardens for Adonis.(j) Plutarch takes Adonis to be the same with Bacchus, and says that Isis had a temple at Byblus, where the heath was worshipped that had concealed the coffin of Osiris. (k) The Byblian Isis was the same with Astarte, and Astarle was the same with Venus. It therefore appears, as already

Jews only excepted:(o) but then it must be recollected, that he wrote upwards of 500 years after the Grecian historian, during which time the Phrenicians had experienced many
and great revolutions, and, in particular, the destruction of Tyre ; they had also been subject to foreign powers for about 400 years ; so that it is no wonder if they should have discontinued a practice, which was despised by their masters, and might possibly have involved

them
in

had they persevered In their food, they abstained from the flesh of swine.(p)
in great difficulties,
it.

ARTS, LEARNING, AND LANGUAGE.

The

Phoenicians appear to have possessed a very happy genius. (q) The sciences of arithmetic and astronomy, if not invented, were materially

improved by them, whence they were transtogether with their were, from the beginning, addicted to philosophical inquiries ; so that Moschus, a Sidonian, taught the doctrines of atoms before the Trojan war;(t) and Abdemonus, of Tyre, is said to have puzzled Solomon, though the wisest man on earth, with his subtle questions.(u) Phosnice, therefore, may be reckoned one of the seats of learning, though we only find the notices of their early erudition couched in general terms; but in latter ages, both Tyre and Sidon produced many eminent philosophers, among whom may be reckoned Boethus and Diodotus, of Sidon, and Antipater and Apolloriftis, of Tyre ; the latter of whom gave an account of the writings and disciples of Zeno.(v) Their doctrine of the origin of the world, (w) &c. as transmitted by Sanchoniatho, himself a Phosnician, with their account of the early ages of mankind,(x) have been already noticed. Their language is to have been a dialect of the acknowledged
into

hinted, that Adonis and Osiris, Venus and Isis, the boar and Typhon, were respectively characteristic of the same persons, whose history is of the highest antiquity, as is evident from the early use o.f the name of Ashteroth,{\) or Astarte: and, as in the case of the Egyptian

mitted

Greece,(r)

letters. (s)

They

the Phrenician mysthe flood, as the posterity of Ham ; where preserved among the boar is a symbol of the deluge, that swallowed up the inhabitants of the earth the descent of Adonis to Hades, and his reappearance, aptly typify Noah shut up in the ark, and his egress from it ; while Venus is a personification of the moon, rising mournfully over the watery expanse, and deploring the destruction of the human race, till renewed by the family of the patriarch, after the recess of the waters.

mythology,

we conclude

teries to point to the history of

who flourished about 600 years dispersion of the Edomites by David,(m) supposes the Phoenicians used circumcision ;(n) and if this conjecture were well
Herodotus,
the
after

Hebrew

founded,
(i)

it

would go very
lib.
i.

far

towards

esta-

and their letters, or characters, were ; very similar to the Samaritan.

(r) (s)
(t)

cap. 21. ii. cap. 5, p. 167. (k) Plut. ~Sympos. lib. iv. p. 671, et De Lid. et Osirid. (1) Gen. xiv. 5. (m) See before, p. 645. (n) Herodot. lib. ii. cap. 104.
i-iih.

Mac

Saturn,

Strabo,

(,j)

Vossius.

De

lib. xvi. p.

757.

Idololat. lib.

Herodot.

lib. v.

cap. 58.
viii.

(u)

Posidonius, apud Strabonem, ubi supr. Menand. et Diun, apud Joseph, lib.
lib.
i.

cap. 2; et

Contra Apionem,
(v)

(o) Joseph. Contra Apion, lib. i. (p) Herodian, (q) Bochart. Phaleg. lib. iv. cap. 37, col. 303.

lib. v.

Strdbo. ubi supra. (w) See before, p. 23G.

(x)

Idem, p. 270.

VOL.

I,

4Q

HISTORY OF THE PHOENICIANS.

MANUFACTURES.

[CHAP. XVM.

How

great soever these

people were for the sciences, and for discoveries and improvements in point of learning-, it has been supposed that they excelled much

useful to themselves, or that might be so to others. By land, also, they carried on a trade

The in the labours of their hands.(y) of Sidon, the purple of Tyre, and their glass exceedingly fine linen, were the products of their extratheir own country and invention
more
:

of no less extent: Syria, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Arabia, and even India, contributed to extend their commerce, and to
enrich their state ; and hence the prophet describes their merchants as equal to princes, and their traffickers as the honourable of the
earth. (b) Their country, though small, was the warehouse of the world, where all that could administer to the wants or luxuries of

ordinary

skill

in

building

and architecture,

induced Solomon to request their assistance in the erection of his magnificent temple ;(z) and their celebrity for taste, design, and execution, was such, that whatever was remarkably elegant in vessels, trinkets, or apparel, foreigners, by way of excellence, with the epithet of Sidoniun.

mankind, was

was distinguished by

COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION.

As mer-

to be found, which they distributed as they judged most conducive to their own interest. The principal commodities of their own manufacture were, as already Sidonian noticed, the Tynan purple, the
glass,

and linen
colour,

chants, the Pho?nicians may be said to have engrossed all the commerce of the western hemisphere; as navigators, they were unparalleled in ancient times for experience, skill, and intrepidity; and as planters of colonies, they used such astonishing exertions as almost to surpass belief, when it is considered that their native habitation was little more than a
slip of ground between mount Lebanon and In the extensive country of Syria, the sea. however, they found abundant stores of natural

and

the

that rivalled in fineness so much boasted linen of

Egypt. Their navigation was carried on in two sorts

of ships gauli, or round vessels, and triremes, or galleys.(c) If their ships, when bound on a voyage, observed a strange sail keeping them company, or watching their track, they were sure to get rid of him, either by force or stratagem; in which they sometimes went so far as to venture the loss of their ships, or even of their lives ; so jealous were they of rivals in maritime concerns :(d) and, to add to the dangers of the sea, to discourage other nations
:

produce, which they brought home and manufactured and having a safe coast, with convenient harbours on the one side, and excellent materials for ship-building upon the mountains, on the other, they directed all their energies towards trade and navigation so that they soon became masters of the Mediterranean, through which they traded to all the known to the British parts that they could reach isles, commonly understood by the Casseterides, whence they fetched tin; to Gaul and
;
;
:

from venturing upon long voyages, they made no scruple of seizing all vessels that they found at distance from home, if weaker than
In drawing up in line of battle, themselves.(e) the gauli were placed at a small distance from each other in the wings; or in the van and rear ; while the triremes were contracted together in the centre.(f ) Of their purple dye, some notice has been taken in the natural history of the country ;(g) it was deemed the richest teint in the world, and being in request among all nations, the dyers became the most wealthy of the Tyrians; whence Strabo attributes to their luxury the prevalency of dissolute manners at
Tyre.(h)

Spain, where Marseilles and Cadiz acknowledge them for their founders; and other places in the ocean, norlh and south of the straits of Hercules [Gibraltar] ; and generally to all the ports of the Mediterranean, the Euxine or Black Sea, and the Palus Mo?otis(a) [seaofAsof]. In all these parts, they had settlements and corre-

spondents, from which they drew what was

Bochart. Phaleg. lib. iv. cap. 35, col. 303. 1 Kings, v. 5, et icq. vii. 13, et seq. (a) Huet. Hist, de la Comm. et de la Navig. de* Anciens, p. 58.
(y)
(z)

According
(d) Strabo, lib.
(e)

to

Hornius,(i)

the

Phoenicians.

iii. p. 175. Huet. ubi supr. cap. 16, p. 70.

(f)

Polytenus,

lib. vi.

(g)

See before, p. 659.

(b) Isaiah, xxiii. 8.

(c)

(b) Strabo, lib. xvi.

lib.
ii.

Bocbart. Canaan,

cap. 3, col. 73J>.

(i)

De

Qrig. Gent. American,

lib.

ii.

cap.

G-

SRCT. IV.]

NAVIGATION.

ANTIQUITY. FIR ST KINGS.

;

three remarkable voyages to America under the conduct of Atlas, whom Plato, in his Critius, calls the son of Neptune; the second, when, sailing along the coast of Africa, they were driven by a tempest to the remotest parts of the Atlantic, till they came a western direction to a vast island, in from Libya ; and the third, when the Tyrians, in the service of Solomon, went for gold to Ophir:(j) this last voyage, however, is not sufficiently supported by ancient history ; on the contrary, Ophir appears to have been in another quarter, as we shall have occasion to examine in the history of that monarch and of the other two, it is to be remarked that they have been looked upon as fables. Not so the celebrated voyage, undertaken by Phoenician mariners, at the command of Pharaoh Necho, who being sent out upon a discovery of the African coasts, sailed from the Arabian gulf, through the straits of Bab-el-mendeb, steered down the eastern shores of Africa, and doubling the Cape of

made
the

SECTION

IV.

first

CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE

PHOENICIAN^.
excessive antiquity of no less than 30,000 years ;(m) a number so extravagant, that it carries its own confutation, though it is moderate in comparison of the greater number of years claimed by the Egyptians and Chinese. Their records, though
faithfully kept,(n) are now no more ; and their epochas, it is impossible to discover it is evident, therefore, that little satisfaction very can accrue from the pursuit of their chronology.

THESE people claimed an

once

It

has already been observed,

fliat

Phoenice

was divided into several small kingdoms, of which Sidon, Tyre, and Arad, seem to have been the most powerful and wealthy, and their
kings make the best figure in history. The order of their succession, however, and the years of their respective reigns, are involved in

coasted northward till they the straits of Gibraltar, by which they entered the Mediterranean, and returned to Egypt, after a voyage of three years.(k) From this voyage. Father Huet has concluded, with rather too much haste, that the Phoenicians made a common practice of trading with India by way of the Cape of Good Hope, from the times of Solomon ;(1) but it is very unlikely that they should take so circuitous a route, when they had a much shorter one open to them by land ; nor would Herodotus have spoken of this voyage, performed about 300 years after the reign of Solomon, as so wonderful a performance, had the navigation of the African and Indian seas been so common as Huet contends for neither would the mariners have been so astonished as they were, at observing the perpendicularity of the sun as they crossed the equator, and the change of its The Phoeniposition on the two sides of it. cians were certainly the greatest navigators of their times ; but the worthy father, in his admiration of their assiduity and enterprise, has overstepped the bounds of probability, and weakened, instead of strengthening, the cause he advocates.

Good Hope,
came
to

and though some writers, as Meuncertainty nander the Ephesian, and TheophiUis of Antioch, have assigned certain numbers of years to some of the kings of Tyre, their respective conclusions are discordant, and can only be considered as conjectural nor have more recent chronologers met with better success. The Greek writers concur in making Agenor, by birth an Egyptian, the first king of Phoenice, and the founder of the cities of Sidon and Tyre but some of the Latines place Belus the Elder before him and most of the moderns, upon the authority of Josephus, and a seeming coincidence of the Scriptures, make Sidon, the eldest son of Canaan, founder of the city called by his name. Josephus also I jt declares, that Tyre was not ^j u i. p er *34(jo. /- Jul. Per. *34(52. 6 founded till 240 years before \ A. M. '2752. !the building of Solomon's tem- ) Post Dil. 1095.
; :
:

ple ;(o) from which it appears, that the two cities were not built by the same person, unless it be supposed that foe founding

(.B. C.

*12J2.

spoken of by Josephus, was only a rebuilding Justin or enlargement of an ancient city. seems to countenance the opinion of Josephus, for he says Tyre was built before S-J U L p er 3530. 2020! the taking of Troy, by the Sido- )A.M.
.

nians,

who had been driven from their own country by the

(n) Joseph.

i.

Post Oil. lies, 1184.

(j) 1

Kmys,

\\.

27,

2.

x.

11.

(k)
(1)

Herodot. lib.iv. cap. 42. Huet. ubi supr. cap. 8.

See before, p. 332, note

(f).

(m) Afiricanus, apud Synccl. p. 17. Contra Apionem, lib. i.

(o) Joseph. Antiq. lib.
ii.

cap. 6.

668

HISTORY OF THE PH(EN1CIANS.

Jul. Pei
-x

[CHAP. xvii.

king of the Ascalonites.(p) Sir Isaac Newton thinks that Tyre and Arad, or Aradus, were built by the fugitive Sidonians, when they were driven from their original seat by the Edomites, who themselves flew from the vengeance of David, about the 16th year of that prince's reign, and that they made their leader, Abibal, king of Tyre :(q) but Abibal was not the first sovereign of that city ; for Josephus, speaking of Menander's history, observes, that that writer, after giving an account of the other kings of Phoenice, comes at last to Hiram, who ascended the throne on the death of his father Abibal ;(r) from which passage it is inferred, that Abibal was preceded by other
kings, whose reigns and actions Menander had described, before he came, at last, to Hiram, the contemporary and friend of David that is, he had given the history of those who had reigned from the foundation of the city,
;

*25ii. f Post. .Dil. *854. L

A. M.

B.C.
sister,

*1493.J

tions not to return without her. They accordingly set off in different directions ; but having

sought

and not caring

in vain for their lost to return at the hazard

of incurring the paternal anathema,

Cadmus

and

Cilix respectively took up their abodes in Cadmus lauded in Thrace, foreign countries.

where he discovered a gold mine in the mount Pangaeus, and having enriched himself with that metal, he left Thrace, and passed into Bo?otia, conformably to the direction of the Delphian oracle. In Bceotia, he was opposed by the Hyantes, but he drove them out, and allowed the Aones, who voluntarily submitted to him, to live in the country, mixed with his

own people, whom, for distinction sake, we may denominate Cadmians. Here he founded
a kingdom, and built a city, called Cadmea, which name was subsequently changed by Amphion and Zethus, for that of Thebes, as more fully explained in the history of Greece. In the mean time, Cilix found a settlement on. the south-east shores of Asia Minor, which from him obtained the name of Cilicia.(u) As
if he actually went from home, which is doubtful, he returned thither, and from him the dominions of Agenor obtained

above described, 240 years before the building of Solomon's temple, to the time of Hiram and David. But, not to dwell upon these uncertainties, we shall proceed to the history of the Phoenician kings, such as we find it in fragments from ancient writers, beginning
as

to Phoenix,

with the family of Agenor. According to Apollodorus,(s) Agenor' and Belus were sons of Neptune, by Libya, the daughter of Epaphus, who was king over a part of Egypt, and was succeeded by Belus, who married Anchinoe, daughter of Nilus, and she made him the father of ^Egyptus and Dauaiis. Agenor, upon what occasion is not

Of the other children the name of Phoenice. of Agenor, Isaea and Melia married their cousins, jEgyptus and Danaiis;(v) Thasus built the city of Thasos, in Thrace,(w) so that he seems to have been the companion of Cadmus one of the gates of Thebes was
;

and settled A.M. f in Phcenice, where he built *25po. Post Oil. '843. f Sidon and Tyre,(t) and became \ D f *1 " 4 the father of a numerous proJnl. Per. *32io.-\

stated, left Egypt,

'

named after Electra;(x) and Sipylus gave his name to a mountain in Asia Minor,(y) where
he probably
settled.

ft

'

expressed accompanying Europa, the daughter of Agenor, was stolen, acccording to the fable, by Jupiter, in the form of a bull, and carried to Crete, where she was married by Asterius, or Taurus, king of the island, and became the mother of the race of Cretan kings. Agenor, extremely
geny, Table.
grieved for the loss of his daughter, sent his sons Cadmus and Cilix, and, as some say, Phoenix, in quest of her, with positive injunc(p) Justin, lib. xviii. cap. 3. (q) Ckron. of Ancient Kingdoms
(r)

as

in

the

distribution of the family of Agenor, according to the Greeks; on which Mr. Bryant observes, that they have mistaken

Such was the

and attributed to the individuals Europa, Cadmus, Cilix, &c. actions so multifarious, that the longest life could scarce suffice for; and so widely extended, that little short of ubiquity could enable the performers to accomplish them. He considers the story of
tribes for persons,

Cadmus and Europa, to relate to people from Egypt and Syria, who went abroad at different
(t)

Quintus Curtius,

lib. iv.
iii.

cap. 4, follows this tradition,

(v) (x)

Amended.
i.

(u) Apollodorus, lib.

(y) Plut.

Apoll. ibid,

Joseph. Contra Apionem,

Lib.
ii.

lib.

(w) Idem. Pausan. in Eliac.

Puusau. in Ba-ot.

<s)

DC

Fiuviis.

SECT. IV.]

MYTHOLOGY. FAMILY OF AGENOR.

Wherever they passed, they behind them numberless memorials, rill which were ultimately attributed to a single Mr. Bryant then proceeds to detail person.(b) and examine, certain remains of ancient
vinces in Italy,
left

times,

Under the settled in various parts. of Europa, he conceives a tribe styled character Europeans, from their particular mode of worand

This peculiarity, ship, should be understood. he thinks, consisted in introducing the adoration of the serpent into the rites of the purer

The serpent, which /ahaisui, or Sabiism. makes so considerable a figure in the history of Cadmus, was styled by the Araonians, Opli, Eph, and Ope; by the Greeks rendered op( f
,

to substantiate his theory but as are foreign from the object immediately they before us, we return to the history of Agenor's successors, according to the Greeks.
writers,
:

oa-i?,

OMTK;

which terms were continually comtitles

bined with the different

of the Deity.

Agenor is supposed to have been succeeded by his son Phoenix, who, as already remarked, gave his name to the country, and to its
his actions nothing is that he is the reputed disexcept coverer of the celebrated scarlet colour, which from him was called, at first, P/uxnicius, and afterwards, with a slight alteration, Puniceus He is also said to have been father color.(c) to Belus the younger, who reigned at Tyre, and whose daughter Sida, or Side, gave her name to the city of Sidon, which, prior to her
;

This serpent-worship was brought by the Cadmians into Greece, where the temples, cities, hills, and rivers, were often denominated from it hence we read of such places as An-opus, As-opus, Or-opus, Char-opus, Ell-opis, Ellopia, &c. all nearly of the same import, and named from the same object of worship.
:

inhabitants

but of

known,

Europa, according to Lucian,(z) was a deity,

the same with

name

is

Rhea and Astarte; and the compounded of Eur-ope, analogous to

days, had borne

tory,
is

some other

appellation.
in

Can-ope, Can-ophis, and Cn'-uphis, of Egypt,

equivalent to Orus Pytho; which the Greeks rendered as a feminine noun, from a supposition that it was the name of a woman but it related properly to a country; and many places of the like etymology are to be met with
:

The next king of Sidon mentioned

Phalis,
:

his-

whom some

reckon as the

Media, Syria, and Babylonia; which were in the masculine, Europos and Oropus and the same is observable in Greece. Cadmus, Mr Bryant supposes to have been the the Taautes of Egyptian Taut, or Thoth Sanchoniatho, who introduced the worship of
in

expressed
:

the serpent at so early a period, that not only the Tyrians and Sidonians, but even the Egypand hence it may tians, received it from him
:

son of Phoenix he flourished in the time of the Trojan war, proved a faithful ally of the Greeks, and used his utmost ^j u p er 3.321. endeavours, though in vain, to ) A. M. 2811. draw Sarpedon, king of Lycia, ) PostDil.1164. over to their party.(d) Homer has honoured him with the title of most iHusHe is by some supposed to be the trious.(e) with the younger Belus, above noticed. same The foregoing notices of the first Phoenician kings are all that the remains of ancient Greek writers afford, and we now turn to those sources that are deemed more authentic ; beginning
i.
.

inferred, that it came from Babylonia. (a) The followers of this rite were called Cadmians : these people went first from Egypt,

be

with

THE KINGS OF SIDON.

Josephus,(f) who, in this the letter of the Mosaic instance, or rather Tsidon, the eldest account,(g) Sidon, son of Canaan, was the founder of this city, and the father of the Sidonians: but his actions, and the length of his life, or reign, are alike unknown. Neither are there any

and then from Syria and Canaan

progress westward,

in

their

According

to

they

settled

in

Cyprus,

follows

Crete, Rhodes, Samos, Lesbos, and Thrace; also in Enbcea, Attica, and Boeotia. In process of time, they were enabled to make settlements
in

other

Illyria;

parts, particularly in Epirus and and occupied some considerable proSyriaca.

(E)

DC Dea

Ku->eb. Prcup. Evang. lib. i. cap. 10, Nonmis, p. 40. alluding to the Tauric oracle, which Cadmus followed, calls
(a)
it

5. (c) Euseb. Prap. Evang. lib. i. cap. appear that Edoin, or Esau, and Phtcnix,

It

would hence were the same

627.

person.
(d

Assyrian, i.f. Babylonian. See farther on tins subject, in the Analysis

,

Dictys,

lib.
lib.

i.

(e)

Odyss.

lib. iv. ver.

of Ancient

(f ) (g)

Antiq.

i.

cap. 7.

vol.

ii.

p. 42(5, et seg.

Gen.

x. 15.

670

HISTORY OF THE PHOENICIANS.

;

[CHAP. xvn.

accounts of his successors for many ages for though the Sidonians are occasionally spoken of iu the books of Moses, Joshua, and the Judges, no particular notice is taken of their kings, till the time of the proJul. Per. 4116. -v 3406. / phet Jeremiah, who adverts to A. M. PostDil. 1749. V an embassy sent from the king Olymp. xLv.3. 1 O f Sidon to propose to /edeWJ : kiah, the last king of Jutlah, a league against Nebuchadnezzar, their common enemy. (h) The next sovereign of the Sidonians that we meet with, and indeed the first whose name is Tetramnestus, who Jul Per 4233 ~^ appears, A.M. 3523! / assisted Xerxes in his expediPostDil. 1866. v tion against Greece, with 300 Olymp. LXXIV. 4.1 galleys, which he appears to B have commanded in person.(i)

quickly routed the Persian satraps of Syria and Cilicia, so that he drove the Persians quite out of Phcenice. But when Mentor, who was then at Sidon, was apprized that Artaxerxes Ochus was advancing at the head of 30,000 cavalry, anil 300,000 infantry, to take vengeance on the Sidonians, he shamefully eluded the impending danger, by sending his trusty servant Thessalion, with offers of betraying Sidon into the hands of the Persian monarch, and of afterwards assisting him in the reduction of Egypt. Ochus received this proposal with
great joy, and spared no promises to engage Mentor in his service ; who also found means to draw Tennes into the same treason. The Sidonians, in the mean time, not suspecting the treachery of Mentor, and much less that of their own sovereign, were preparing for a vigorous defence ; their city being amply furnished with arms and provisions, garrisoned with a

When the Egyptians w< re struggling to recover their independence, and to shake oft" the Persian yoke, a prince, called Strato, reigned over the Sidonians, who united his interests with those of the Egyptians; but being in imminent danger of falling into the hands of the Persians, he determined to elude so dreadful a calamity, which would probably have brought with it a most horrible punishment, by an act of suicide ; but, fainting in the execution of. his design, his wife, snatching the sword from his hand, iirst stabbed him to the heart, and then killed
herself.( j)

body of
a
fleet

well-disciplined

His epocha

is

unknown.

In the reign of Tennes, whose predecessor 's no ^ ascertained, the PhceniJul Per *4355 ^ A. M. *3(545l I cians, exasperated at the tyranPostDil.*i88. V nical conduct of their Persian Olymp. cv. 2. 1 governors, formed a confederacy } with Nectanebis II. king of and by a general rising, attempted the Egypt, As the recovery of their ancient liberties. Persians were then making ureat preparations for the recovery of Egypt, which they intended to approach through Phoenice, Nectanebis, to keep the war at a distance, and to encourage the Phoenicians in their opposition, sent 4000 Greek mercenaries, under the command of Mentor, the Rhodian, to assist Tennes, who himself had raised a considerable army within his own dominions, and fitted out a powerful
-

fleet.

With these

forces

Tennes engaged, and

of 100 large galleys. The Persian army drew near; when, to the amazement and terror of the Sidonians, Tennes inarched out with a body of 500 men, and 100 of the chief citizens, and, instead of joining the general assembly of" the Phoenicians, as he had pretended was his intention, he went over to the enemy's camp, and delivered them up to Ochus, who received him as a friend, but caused the 100 citizens to be put to immediate death, as authors of the This treachery of Tennes, joined to rebellion. the cruelty of Ochus, struck such terror into the Sidonians, that 500 more of the most distinguished citizens, coming out with olivebranches in their hands, threw themselves at the Persian's feet, and earnestly implored his mercy but, instead of listening to their petition, Ochus ordered them to be shot with arrows on the spot, and then, in company with Tennes, he marched towards the city, which was surrendered to him, without the least opposition, by Mentor and his mercenaries. The Sidonians, on the approach of Ochus's army, had burned all their ships, to preclude the desertion of their countrymen during the expected having therefore no means of escaping, siege now that they saw themselves betrayed into the hands of their inveterate foe, they shut themselves, with their wives and children, in their
: :

men, and guarded by

(h) Je.rem. xxvii. 3.

(i)

(j)

Hieronym. Contra Jovianum,

iv.

lib.

i.

Maxim. Tyr.

Herodot.

lib. vii.

cap. 98.

Scnn.

SKCT. IV.]

FATE OF SIDON. SUBMISSION TO ALEXANDER.

houses, and setting fire to them, consumed themselves, to the number of 40,000, with their most valuable effects, in the Nor did the treachery flames.

(J71

.ful.

Per.

A. M. Post Oil.
Olyrnp. B. C.

43(3. 3653.
lyye.

interest, seems to indicate his origin to have l)fcn Persian, rather than true Phcenici;in.

cvn.2.
351.

of Tennes procure him a better fate than his unhappy subjects had experienced ; for Ochus, perceiving that he could render him no farther
service, secretly detesting his perfidy, commanded his throat to be cut, that he might not As Sidon was outlive the ruin of his country.

He is said to have died a violent death ;(r) but the particulars of that circumstance are not stated. Alexander, having deposed Strato, authorized Hephaestion to bestow the crown of Sidon
upon any
individual,

whom

he might deem

and

at this period the most wealthy city of Phoenice, a vast quantity of gold and silver was melted down by the flames, and found in the ashes,

which Ochus sold

for large

sums of money .(k)

prophets

The

threatening predictions of the

Isaiah, (1) Jeremiah, (m) E/,ekiel,(n) and Zechariah,(o) being thus awfully accomplished, all the other cities of Phoenice were terrified into

a voluntary submission, which Ochus was glad to accept, that he might no longer be retarded

from his principal design, the re-conquest of

Egypt.

Such of the Sidoniaus as were at this time absent from their country, rebuilt the ruined
city on their return, and elected one Strato to till the throne; and they ever after bore an invincible aversion to the Persian name. This

B. C.

implacable enmity induced them to submit, without repugnance, to Alexander the Great, eagerly embracing that opporJul. Per. 4381. A.M. 3(571. tunity of shaking off a heavy Post Oil. 2014. and detestable yoke. Strato, it Olyrap. rxi. 4. appears, was not cordial with
the citizens in this resolution ; for Alexander is said to have deprived hint of his crown, because he submitted rather at their instigation, than of his own accord.(p) Theopompus(q) describes this prince as a most licentious character, who, to entice together his female subjects, that he might select the most beautiful for himself, instituted public sports, consisting chiefly of dancing and singing, wherein those who excelled were
333.

worthy of so important a trust. Hephnestion named one of the chief citizens, in whose house he then lodged, and was splendidly entertained, desiring him to accept it as a pledge of friendship, and an acknowledgment of the favours he had received under his roof. The citizen modestly declined the offer, observing that he had no title to the crown, as not being of the blood royal. Hephaestion was at the disinterestedness of greatly surprised his host but finding him firm in his resolution not to accept the government, he requested that he would at least name one of the royal line, on whom it might be bestowed. Upon this, he named Ballonynuis, a man of unblemished character, descended from the ancient kings, but so poor, that he was compelled to maintain himself by his daily labour. His and mean condition, however, were no poverty objection to Hepha stion for he immediately dispatched a messenger to him, with the royal robes, and tidings of his elevation to the throne. The messenger found him clothed
; j
;

in rags,

and working
:

in a

labourer

but on

his

pected change that government, Ballonymus, without hesitation, accepted the new dignity, and proceeded with the messenger towards the city, where he was received by Hephaestion with all the marks of
distinction

garden as a common announcing the unex-had occurred in the

due

to

his

character,

and

was

munificently rewarded. This oriental practice, added to his reluctance to forsake the Persian
(k) Diod. Sicul. lib. xvi. p.
(1)

introduced by him into the forum, where he was proclaimed king of Sidon, amid the joywho were highly ful shouts of the people, Of his subsegratified with the election. (s) quent actions nothing particular is recorded, only that he embraced every opportunity of
evincing his gratitude and affection towards
Diod. Sicul.
lib. xvii. p.

531533.
(m) Jercm.
xlvii.

(s)

533.

The same occurrence

In Plutarch:

is

<-l (n) seq. xxxii. 30. (o) Zech. ix. Justin, lib. ix. cap. 10. (p) Quint. Curt. lib. iv. cap. 2. Diod. Sicul. lib. xvii.

haiah, xxiii. Ezfk. xx\ iii. 20,

related, with

some

(q)
(r)

Apud Athenaeum,
jliau. VUT. Hist.

lib. xii.

cap. 13.

lib. vii.

cap. 2.

this kmjr Atynomns; Curtius, and PluQ. Curtius, Abdotomius; and Justin, AMa/oininns. tarch makes him king of Paphos and Diotlorus ay% both The more he and his predecessor were kings of Tyre. current opinion is as above related.
;

trifling variations, Plutarch calls Justin.

^uintus'

072

HISTORY OF THE PHOENICIANS.

:

[CHAP. xvir.

the Macedonians nor does it appear that he had any successor on the throne; for after the death of Alexander, Sidon became an integer in the new kingdom of Syria, with which it eventually passed to the Romans.

KINGS OF TYRE.

The
Jul. Per.

first

king of Tyre, of

whom

mention

is

*3G57.^ A. M. 2947. ( Post Oil. M290. i"

*1057. }

made by the sacred historians, is Hiram I. who was contem-

to the supputation here adopted, he ascended the throne in the 20th year of his age, about the 30th of David's reign, and renewed the alliance his predecessor had made with that prince ; and it was probably on this occasion of his soliciting the friendship of the Israelitish monarch, that he sent him stores of cedar and other kinds of wood, when he was preparing materials for his son Solomon to build the temple with :(z) whence he is said to have

porary with David, and sent to congratulate him on his victory over the Jebusites, when he drove them from the strong hold of Ziou. He also furnished David with materials and skilful workmen,
for building his palace at Jerusalem.(t)

been always a lover of David.(si) ^ Jul Per 3G99 On the death of David, Hiram \ A. M. *2989. sent a congratulatory embassy |PostDil.*i332. B c to Solomon, his son and succes- v.
-

sor, expressing great joy to see the ment continued in his family, (b)

Josephus,(u) and Theophilus of Antioch,(v) copied their canons of Tyrian princes from Menander the Ephesian, and Dius, a native Phoenician, have not noticed this Hiram, but have included his actions with those of the second of the name, which would extend his reign to at least the length of 61 years, computing from the settlement of David on the throne of Israel, by the death of Ishbosheth, to the *20th year of Solomon,(w) though Josephus, following Theophilus, states the whole of his life at only 53 years, and his It has therefore been concluded, reign at 34. modern writers, that Hiram, contemporary by with David, and Hiram, the friend of Solomon, were distinct persons ;(x) and that they were separated by the intervention of the first of

who have

governthe return of this embassy, Solomon addressed a letter to Hiram, in the following terms :

On

war, and wider a necessity of clearing his hands

this great and before he could attend to in time of holy loork, he hath left it to me, to finish it, according peace, both to begin, and to the direction, as well as the prediction, of ALMIGHTY GOD. Blessed be his great name,
taries,

King Solomon to Icing Hiram greeting. Be it known to thee, O king, that my father David had it a long time in his mind, to erect a in temple to JEHOVAH; but, being perpetually
of his enemies, and making

tJiem all his tribu-

Josephus's series, viz. Jul. Per. Abibal, or, as Theophilus 'sees.} A.M. *2958. ( calls him, Abiemal; of his acPostDil.*i3oi. f ti ons no thing is known, and * 6 "' the length of his reign is only conjectured at 20 years. He is supposed to have joined with the enemies of David, because the Psalmist reckons the inhabitants of Tyre among his foes ;(y) but upon what occasion does not appear. Hiram II. the son of Abibal, is called by sometimes HieroJul. Per. *3688.~j Theophilus A. M. *2978. ( mus, and sometimes HieromePostDil. *1321. f nus by Josephus, Hirom and 102G.J Irom; byTatian and z onaraS) Chiramus; and by Eusebius, Suron. According
-

and for ^ lie present tranquillity of my dominions! I shall now dedicate by his gracious assistance, the best improvements of this liberty and leisure to His honour and worship. Wherefore 1 make will let some of your it my request, That you to people go along ivith some servants of mine, to assist them in cutting down mount Libanus,
materials towards this building ;for the Sidonians

understand it much better than we do. As for the workmen's reivard, or ivages, whatever you think reasonable shall be punctually paid them.

Hiram was much pleased with Solomon's answer letter, and returned him the following
:

King Hiram

to

king Solomon.
to me,

Nothing could have been more welcome

than to understand, that the government of your blessed father is devolved, by God's providence,
(x)

(t)

2 Sam.

v.

11.

1 Chron. xiv. 1.
lib. 1.

Lenglet

Du

Fresnoy.

Tab. Chronol. tome

(z)

i.

p. 431.

(u)

Contra Apionem,

(v) Lib.

iii.

Paris edit. 1778, in-12mo.

vii. 1.

(w)
i*.

1014.

Comp. 2 Sam.

v.

112.

I Kings,

vi.

37, 38.

(y)
(a)

Psalm

Ixxxiii. 7.
v. 1.

1 Chron. xxii. 4.

1 Kings,

(b) Ibid, et seq.

SECT, iv.]
into the

FRIENDSHIP OF SOLOMON AND HIRAM. IDOL TEMPLES.

in

073

hands of so excellent, so wise, and a successsor: His holy name be That which you write for for it! praised shall be done with all care and good will: for I will give order to go down, and export such quantities of the fairest cedars, and cypresstrees, as you shall have occasion for. My people shall bring them to the sea-side for you, and from thence ship them away to what part you please, where they may lie ready for your own men to transport them to Jerusalem. It would
so virtuous

be a great obligation, after all this, to alloiv us such a provision of corn, in exchange, as may stand with your convenience ; for that is the

the building and equipment of his fleet, than he had been in contributing towards the work of the temple: for when the king of Israel had determined on forming a navy at the ports of Eloth and Ezion-geber, on the Red Sea, for the purpose of trading to Ophir, Hiram furnished him with as many shipwrights as he had occasion for and when they had assisted in building and fitting out the vessels, he commissioned his most expert pilots and mariners to conduct them to the desired country, whence they fetched 420 or 450 talents of
;

gold,

and brought them

occasioned
that

to Jei*usalem.( j)

Dius(k) affirms that a

mutual love of wis-

commodity we

islanders

want most.(c)

dom

which subsisted
Josephus assures us, that the originals of these letters were extant in his time, both in the Jewish and Tyrian records.(d) And they are entirely agreeable with what is delivered in Scripture upon the same subject.(e) Solo-

warmth of friendship between Solomon and Hiram ;

mon was

highly pleased with Hiram's answer, and, in return for his generous offers, ordered him a yearly present of twenty thousand measures of wheat, and twenty measures of Besides the cedar-wood, and pure oil.(f) other materials for the building of the temple, King Hiram sent to Solomon a man, also called

that they interchanged certain enigmas, to be explained, on condition that he who failed in the solution, should incur a forfeiture ; and that Hiram finding the question too abstruse, paid the penalty. But a Tyrian, named Abdemonus, resolved the riddle, and propounded new questions to Solomon, subject to a repayment of the former penalty to Hiram, if he did

not answer them not stated.

in a

but with what success

is

Hiram, who was very famous in Tyre for working in gold, silver, and other metals, to assist
that great undertaking, (g) Neither did Hiram's friendship towards Solomon stop here; for he furnished him with the choicest wood from mount Libanus, with able architects and workmen, and advanced him 120 talents of gold towards completing the fabric.(h) Nor was Solomon behind-hand in his acknowledgments of these services for, besides the yearly supply of wheat and oil above mentioned, he gave him twenty cities in the land of Galilee, not far from Tyre but Hiram, either out of dislike to them, or generosity, declined accepting them and from this refusal, that part of
in
: :

During this reign, the kingdom of Tyre was most flourishing condition. Several cities in the eastern part were repaired and improved; the capital, by means of a dam, was joined to an island, where stood the temple of Jupiter Olympus, in which Hiram dedicated a golden
pillar to that deity. were also built, one

Two

magnificent temples

to Hercules, the other to

Astarte

and both were

this

richly

endowed.

To

prince also erected a statue ; and he repaired the temples of all the other gods, and enriched them with offerings of
Hercules,

very great value.(l)

Hiram produced
:

pacific disposition of the happiest results to his

The

the only military expedition spoken people of during his reign, being against the Eryceans,

who had

refused to pay

the country was called Cabul, i. e. displeasing, (i) or dirty. Hiram proved no less serviceable to Solomon
lib. ^(c) Joseph,
viii.

tribute: but they

him their customary were quickly reduced, and

Hiram sank peacefully into the grave, regretted by his subjects, and respected by his neighwas a Tyrian by birth but that, by the mother's was descended of the tribe of David; and tho like.
;

cap. 2.
calls this king

side,

he

(d)

Idem

ibid.

Yet Eusebius,* who

Suron,

gives this letter with considerable variations from Josephus. He therein specifies, that he had sent to Solomon

(e)

80,000

Phoenicians and Tyrians.

*

That the architect he sent him

lib. ix.

1 Kings, v. 2, et seq. (f) 1 Kings, v. 11. (g)lCAro.ii.!3. (h)l Kings,\\.l4. (i) lKings,i\. 11-13. (^iKings/m.^G,^. 2 Chron. viii. 17,18. Joseph.ubisupr. (k) Apud Joseph, ubi supr. et lib. i. Contra Apionem.
(1)

Prepar, Evang.

p. 449.

VOL.

Mcnand. Ephes.

el

Dius, apud Joseph, ubi svpr.

I.

4.R

674

HISTORY OF THE PHOENICIANS.

which
he-

[CHAP, xv ft.

hours, iu the 53d year of his age, of

had reigned
It.

34. (ui)

is

related

Hysicrates,

by Tatiau, (u) from Theodotus, and Mochus, three Phoenician

historians, that Hiram gave his daughter in who was thereby marriage to Solomon,

in the worship of As/tlarot/i, the of the Sidonians, (o) but the Scripgoddess tures do not say so much. Baleazar, Balaeastartus, or Bazor, as Theophilus calls him, sou of Hiram, succeeded to the throne of Tyre about the 24th His actions are year of Solomon's reign.

ensnared

brother Plvelles, (or Helles, according to Theowhoassumed the govern- /-j,,i p er * 3 77i. ment in the 50th year of his age ; \ A. M. *3oei but he did not long enjoy the 1 Post Dil. *1404. fruits of his fratricide ; for in the eighth month of his reign he was put to death himself by Ithobal, the son of Astarimus, and high-priest of Astarte, who immediately took possession of the throne. Ithobal, called by Theophilus rj\\\. Per. -3772. *3002. Jut/iobal, and in the Scriptures, ) A. M. P st Dil * 4( Eth-baal,(q) lived, according to 1
philus)
.
-

unknown.

Menander and Josephus make him

;

but Theoto have reigned only seven years died in the 43d year of his age. philus 17. He
Jul. Per. *3729.~i

Abdastartus, son of Baleazar,

*3019. ( A. M. Post Dil. "1362.

1 985. )

succeeded his
nurse)
j

father, and was murdered by the sons of his

n the 20th year of his reign, according to Mebut Theophilus says he died at the age of 54, having reigned 12 years. 1 ne sons of the nurse of Jul. Per. *3738.
life, and ninth of his nander and Josephus
:

")

"3028. ( Post Dil. *1371. f 976. )

A.M.

Abdastartus

having murdered

their prince, they placed the eldest O f their number on the

Josephus, 68 years, and reigned 32 ; or, according to Theophilus, he lived only 40 years, and reigned but 12. Besides reigning over both Tyre and Sidon, he built Botrys in Phoenice, and Auzates in Africa ;(r) and he married his daughter Jezebel to Ahab, king of Israelis) so that he appears to have been as powerful a prince as ever enjoyed the Phoenician throne. Of the drought brought the land of Israel, and its vicinity, by upon the impiety of Ahab, Menander, as quoted by Josephus, takes some notice, in his account of Ithobal's reign ; for he says, " In the time of Eth-baal, king of Tyre, there was an extreme drought, for want of rain, that lasted from

throne,

who assumed

the

and governed 12 years, to have been killed by

Jul.Per.*3730.i A. M. *3040. (_ Post Dil.i383. f

name of Balaeastartus, when he is supposed

month Hyperberetaeus [September], till the same month in the next year. Prayers were put up for the averting of this judgment, but they were only answered by dreadful peals of
the

"JG4.J

Astartus, the brother of Abdastartus, who having recovered the throne of his ancestors, re jg neci 12 years, and" died at

thunder."

Badezor, or Bazor, as Theo- r j u Per. *3804. *3o4. philus calls him, succeeded his S A. M.
l.

the age of 66.(p)

Jul. Per.

A. M. *3i>52. Port Dil, *1395.

After him, his brother Astarimus, or Aserimus, ascended the 1 to throne, who n-J Josephus, 54 lived, according and reigned years, 12; but Theophilus, who calls him Atharymus, says lie lived 58 years. He was murdered by his
*3762.~j
(

1 Post Dil. "us?, father Ithobal, reigned years, ' Bl c< to Josephus, arid died according at the age of 45. Theophilus rates his reign at
7 years. called

He was
who

succeeded by his son

is

Mettinus,

variously

/-j u j.

p er

Malgon, Margenus, and SA. M. Belus: the latter, however, ap- 1 Post Dil. B c vpears to be merely his title. Jo-

*38io. 3ioo. * 1143.

:

(m) Theoph. Ant inch. lib. (n) Orat. contra Graces.

(o) 1

iii.

Kings, xi. 5. (p) The ages assigned to this prince, and his brother If Abdastartus was Abdastartus, arc very objectionable. only 20 when killed, he must have been younger than Astartus, of whom he took the precedence and if 54, as Theophilus states, he must have been born when his father was about 18 months old, supposing him to have reigned 12 years, and his father 17. On the other hand, Astartus, taking the reign of Baleazar at either 7 or 17 years, would appear to have been born when his father was only 10 years el age. The latter difficulty, indeed, might he got rid of,
;

by altering the age of Astartus from (!<! to 40, or 66'; but this must be done at a venture, and without authority and when it is considered, that the reigns of five out nf six sucCOM\C sovereigns, are roundly stated at 12 years, the whole
;

of their chronology will be justly suspected. The fact is, their .eras are only to be depended on, when mentioned in the sacred writings, as is the case with Hiram, and Ithobal or Eth-baal.
(q) 1

Kings,

xvi. 31,

lie is

styled

hing of the Sidoniims,

to

whence it appears, that in his time Sidon was subject T\ re. Josephus calls him king of Tyre and Sidon.* (r) Menand. Ephes. apud Joseph. Antiq. lib. viii. cap. 7.
(s)

1 Kings, xvi. 31.

*
Antiq. lib.
viii.

cap. 7.

lib. ix.

cap. 6.

SECT. IV.]

PYGMALION AND DIDO.

075

sephus says he reigned 9 years; and TheoHe died in the 32d year of his age, philus, 29. behind him two sons, Pygmalion and leaving Barca; and as many daughters, Elisaand Anna. Pygmalion ascended the Jul. Per. *38io..-) on the death of his A. M. 3109. ( throne
father Mettinus, being at that time only 16 years of age, according to Josephus, who supposes him to have lived 56 years, and reigned 40.(t) His reign is remarkable only because it introduces the flight of his sister Elisa, or Dido, the celebrated foundress of Carthage, to notice. This remarkable event took place in the seventh year of his reign, on Jul. Per. *3825.} A. M. *3ii5. (_ the following occasion PygPost Oil. *1458. f malion, though young, had con*889. ) tracted a covetous disposition, which created in him an invincible desire of possessing the immense riches of his uncle Sichaeus, the chief priest of Hercules, and the husband of his sister Elisa, better known by the name of Dido, as we shall henceforward call her. The high character of Sichaeus with the people, added to his sacred office, would have rendered an attempt to confiscate his
f

younger brother Barca. The covetous king readily acceded to this request, because he looked upon it as the fairest opportunity of obtaining the prize he so much longed after
:

for Sichaeus,

knowing

his

nephew's mercenary

Post Oil. *1462.

*895.J

disposition, had lodged the most valuable of his effects under ground, and Dido alone, now that he was dead, knew the depository. Pygmalion, therefore, granted the ships that Dido required, thinking to seize them as soon as the treasures were embarked. But here he wasover-

reached

senators,

who were

and had

for his brother Barca, and several privy to Dido's true design* engaged to follow her fortunes, got

property unavailing, and Pygmalion, therefore, had recourse to treachery and murder. With this view, he invited the unsuspecting priest to accompany him in hunting a wild boar, and while the huntsmen and attendants were busied in the pursuit of the animal, Pygmalion contrived to get Sichaeus into a lonely place, where he ran him through with a spear, and then throwing him down a precipice, gave out that his death had been occasioned by the This story, however, gained no credit; fall.(u) and Dido, who was a woman of great sagacity and penetration, well aware of the motive that had induced the king to murder her husband,
resolved to frustrate it, though for the present she dissembled her resentment at the same time she formed the design of leaving Tyre, as the only means of saving her own life. She, therefore, requested Pygmalion to furnish her
;

the treasures on board with such secrecy and dispatch, that they had sailed, and were out of sight, before Pygmalion suspected their intention. The rage of the king was unbounded, at seeing himself thus deluded by a woman, and the vast riches, which he had deemed already as secured in his own coffers, snatched from him by an artifice that he had In the first not the sagacity to penetrate. transports of his anger, he ordered a fleet to be sent out, with all possible expedition, in pursuit of the fugitives ; but the tears of his mother, and the threats of the oracle, overcame his resentment ; and Dido and her companions, among whom were included her brother Barca and her sister Anna, were left to pursue their course without molestation. The first place the adven- /-j u p er *Z8-2G. turers touched at, was the isle S A. M. *3iu. of Cyprus, whence they carried "i Post Oil. *1459. off a great number of young women they thence steered their course to Africa, where they were kindly received by the inhabitants of Utica, a Tyrian colony, and where they landed and laid the foundations of a city which afterwards became Carthage so powerful, both by sea and land, as to be able to contend with Rome for the empire of the world. (v) From Barca sprang the illusi
'

with ships and men, to convey her and Charta, or Chartaca, a small between Sidon and Tyre, whither she tended a wish to retire, to reside with
effects to
(t)

her
city

trious family of the Barca?, which produced many heroes, particularly the celebrated Hannibal and his brothers. Anna, after the death of Dido, is said to have fled to Italy, to avoid

pre-

her

the brutal passion of Jarbas, an African prince; there she drowned herself in the Numicus, and
Eustath. in Dioni/s. VeHeius. (v) Justin, lib. xviii. cap. 4. Bell. Pun. vol. ii. Orosius, lib. iv. cap. 2. Appianus

Joseph. Cont. Apion.

lib.

i.

See also Justin,

lib. xviii.

(u) Justin* and Virgilf relate, Sichaeus at the altar.

* Lib,
xviii.

that Pygmalion murdered

JEneid. ver.

De

Liv. dccad.
t

iv. lib. iv.

Servius in

lib. iv.

JSucid.

Joseph,

cap.

-1.

348350.

ubi supr. et

al.

676

HISTORY OF THE PHOENICIANS.

the

[CHAP.

xvn.

was afterwards honoured

as the deity of that As to river, under the title of Anna Perenna.

to hold out for the space of five years,

when

Pygmalion, little more is recorded of him he i- said to have built the city of Carpasia, on the island of Cyprus ; and to have ornamented the temple of Hercules, iu the island of Gades, with a golden olive-tree, of exquisite workmanship, the berries of which were emeralds, hearing a striking resemblance to the natural fruit .(w) After his death, there is a long hiatus in the Phoenician history, of upwards of J30 years. Elulaens is the next king of Tyre, whose This prince, seeing the actions are recorded.
:

death of Shalmaneser re^j u ip er 4001 lieved them, by carrying away \ A. M. 3291. the Assyrian arrny from their < Post Dil. 1634. Elulajus reigned 30 ) Olymp.xvi.4. walls.(x) R C 71 but the date of his accesyears,
*\

sion, or of his death, is wise his successor.

unknown, as
'

is like-

Philistines weakened by the war made upon them by Hezekiah, king of Judah, embraced the opportunity of reducing Gath, which some time before had revolted from the Tyrians. This involved him in a war with Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, whom the Gittites had engaged The Assyrian monarch, at in their favour. the head of a powerful army, marched into Pho3iiice but what he did there is not stated, except that an accommodation took place between him and Elulseus, in consequence of which he withdrew his forces. Not long afterwards, Sidon, Arcae, Palaetyrus, and other maritime cities, revolted, and proclaimed ShalA new war immemaneser for their king. diately broke out, and Shalmaneser, provoked
;

IthobalH. was contemporary -, r p *il il TVT 1 f I JU1 * 6rwith Nebuchadnezzar, king of % A. M. *3409. Babylon, and is spoken of in the 1 Post Dil. "1752. *xLvi.2. Scriptures as a proud, arrogant, i Olymp. and assuming prince, affecting a ^ B C< knowledge of all secrets, and even ranking himself among the gods for which, the prophet Ezekiel was commissioned to denounce the

11

'

most heavy judgments upon him,(y) Such, however was the power Ju Per 4130 fo 4U2
,

of the Tyrians at tins time, that they kept Ne-

V A.

buchadnezzar" employed

that the Tyrians should be the only people in Jul.Per. 3996.^ Phoenice who disputed his auA.M. 3286. thority, resolved to reduce them
Post Dil. 1029.

for 13 years together, in the siege of their capital, (z) notwithstanding the fort he had raised, the mount he had cast up, and ihe military engines he used to batter down the walls.(a) At last, however, he became master of the place, when, finding it almost deserted by the inhabitants, he vented his rage upon the buildings and the few citizens who were left, by razing the houses and walls to the ground, and putting all he met with to the sword. As it is sufficiently plain, from the Scriptures, that the city of Tyre was utterly

3420 to 3132. 1763 to 177S. Olymp. XLIX.I, to LII.I. ) 684 to 572. V.B. C.
! Post Dii.

M.

Olymp. xv. 3. B.C. 718.

force. He therefore, in addition to his laud army, fitted out

by

destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar ;(b) and

as,

on

but

it

12 ships, who took 500 of the rowers prisoners; so much did these people excel in maritime concerns. Shalmaneser then, not daring to risk a second battle, turned the war into a siege, or rather a blockade, and, leaving an army to surround it on the land side, returned The besiegers reduced the citizens to Assyria.
to great
straits, by stopping the aqueducts, the springs, and otherwise cutting off guarding all the conveyances of water. Yet, by digging wells within the city, the Tyrians were enabled
~~

a fleet of 60 sail against them was dispersed by the Tyrians with only

the other hand, it is asserted by the Phoenician historians that Ithobal, after a reign of 24 years, was succeeded by his sou Baal, and Baal was followed by several magistrates, called or judges ,-(c) it is supposed that the stiff ctes, Tyrians retreated to an island, about half a mile distant from the shore, and there built a new city, during the siege ; that, after the destruction of the old town, they submitted to the conqueror, who appointed, Baal to be his viceroy, Ithobal having been slain during the assault ; and that afterwards, to make the govermnentstillmore dependenton the Babylonish

empire, the royal dignity was superseded

(a)

by

+-

'

-L

(w) Philostrat.
(x) Joseph.
(y)

In,

Antiq. Ezek. xxviii. 1

lib.
i.

Vita Apollonii, lib. v. cap. lib. ix. cap. 14. 10.

lib. x.

i.

Ezek. xxvi.

710.
xxvii.
iii.

(b)

Jcrcm. xxv. 22.

3.

xlvii.

4.

Ezek. xxvi. 3,
i.

(z) Philostrat.

apud Joseph. Antiq.

cap. 11. ct Con-

et scq. xxvii. xxviii. (c)

Joel,

4, ct scq.
lib. i.

Amos,

9, 10.

tra

Apionem,

Joseph, Contra Apionem,

SECT. IV.]

KINGS AND JUDGES. ELECTION OF STRATO.

all

the appointment of those temporary magistrates just alluded to. Baal reigned 1 years, Jul. Per. *4142 to 4158. and upon his death, the *3432 to 3448. A. M. or Post Dil. *1775 to 1791. following mjfetes, had the governOlymp. Lii.l, toLVi. 1. judges, B. C. *572 to 556. ment of Tyre ; Echnibal, the son of Basbech, tv^o months; Chelbes, the son of Abclaeus, 10 months ; the high-priest Abbar, three months ; Mytgonus, or Myttonus, and Gerastus, sons of Abdelimus, six years after which the regal title was restored. Balator was created king Jul. Per. *4159.^ *3449. f but both himself and his sueA, M. Post Dil. *1792. > cessors were tributaries to the Olymp. *LVI. 1. 1 Babylonish monarchy, for the * 555 -^ space of 70 years ; after which recovered their ancient liberty and the Tyrians privileges, according to the predictions of
: ;

others to the sword,

race.

who were

not of their
to
elect

own

They

then resolved

Isaiah, (d)
Jul. Per.

*4160.
*:3450.

A.M.
B.C.

and upon
bylon,

Balator reigned only one year, his death, the Ty-

Post Dil. *1793. Olymp. *LVI. 2.

*554..

rians invited

Merbal from Bahis

who

reigned four years,

and was then succeeded by

brother Irom,
Jul. Per. *4177.

who

reigned 20 years. In the 14th year of Irom's

A. M.

*3467. Post Dil. *1810. Olymp. *LX. 4.1

|

reign, according to the Phrenician annals, Cyrus made himself master of the Persian empire.

king out of their own body; and unanimously agreed that he should be raised to the supreme dignity, who, the next morning, should first discover the beams of the rising sun ; in pursuance of which resolution, they appointed to meet about midnight in an open field, on the east side of the city. In the mean time, Strato's slave, having imparted the whole matter to his master, whom he kept carefully concealed, was by him instructed to turn himself, not to the east, but to the west, and to keep his eyes fixed upon the top of the highest tower in the city. The slave implicitly followed this instruction, amid the jeers of his companions, who accounted him little short of a madman to be looking for the rising sun in the west. But whilst they were gazing with anxious expectation towards the east, he suddenly called to them to observe the lofty structures illumined by the sun's rays, when as Their yet it had not risen above the horizon. sarcasms were now turned into admiration, and they eagerly pressed him to name the person to whom he had been indebted for so admirable a contrivance, which they could by no means ascribe to a person of his situation and rank. He refused at first to gratify
their

B.'C.

*537.

The

successor of Irom

is

unknown.

The next king

Jul. Per.

of

A. M. Post Dil.

4234." 3524. 1867.

rians,

Tyre mentioned by histowas Marten, the son of

Sirom.

He

served in Xerxes's

Olymp. LXXV.

1.1

B.C.

480..

navy against the Greeks, and, with the other commanders, advised the engagement with

curiosity; but at last, on receiving a solemn promise of impunity for himself and the person he should name, he confessed, that the humane treatment he had always received during his servitude, had induced him to save both his master and his son, from the general massacre; and that his singular mode of watching had resulted from .Strato's instrucThe multitude, on hearing this, not tions.

their fleet at Salamis.

At this time, it appears from Herodotus, the Tyrians were subject to the Persians, by whom they were greatly favoured, on account of their naval services.(e) The next remarkable occurrence in the history of this country, is the accession of Strato ; thus related by Justin :(f) The Tyrian slaves,

only pardoned the slave, but, considering the master as an object of the divine favour, they

Such is immediately proclaimed him king. as related by the history of Strato's elevation, Justin but of his subsequent actions, and the
;

who were

very numerous,
their

conspiracy against them all in one night (except Strato, whom hi slave secretly saved) and taking possession o the city, espoused their mistresses, and put
(d)
(c)

having formed masters, massacred

period when it occurred, nothing is known, except that, on his death, his son was placed on the throne, and the kingdom of Tyre was afterwards enjoyed by his descendants as long
I

as

it

existed.

In the reign of Azelmic, a descendant of Strato, happened the memorable siege and
Lib.
xviii.

haiah, xxiii. 15 17. Herodot, lib. vi. cap. 98.

lib. viii.

cap. 67.

(f)

cap. 3.

<378

HISTORY OF THE PHOENICIANS.

[CHAP. xvir.

reduction of Tyre, by Alexander the Great,

JuLPer.
\.

M.

various success, for the cxn. 1. 1 As Olymp. space of seven months. 332 --' the the conqueror approached Tyrian territories, the citizens sent out ambassadors to meet him with presents, and refreshments for his troops but when he desired to
Post Dil.

438S.-J 3672. / 2015. >

were practised on both

with

sides,

But remembering that would receive them. his former messengers headthey had thrown long into the sea, whom he had sent to demand the surrender of the city, and fearful that a new embassy might meet with a similar or worse fate recollecting, also, that his reputation, and the future progress of his arms, depended on he the success of the present undertaking reassumed the work, with an outward show of
;

be admitted into the

city,

under pretence of

offering sacrifice to Hercules, they refused

him

entrance; which so provoked him, flushed as he was with victory, that he resolved to enter by force. The city at this time stood on an island, half a mile distant from the shore was surrounded by a strong wall, 150 feet high; and stored with plenty of provisions, and all kinds of warlike machines. The first thing that Alexander set about, was to make a causeway, or mole, from the continent to the island, which he accomplished amid difficulties that to any minor genius would have He was assisted appeared insurmountable. in raising this mole, which was 200 feet in
;

inhabitants of the neighbouring all called upon, on this occasion ; while he was supplied with stones from the ruins of Old Tyre, and with timber from

breadth,
cities,

by the

who were

mount Lebanon.
at the

The Tynans

at first

laughed

attempt, as rash and desperate ; but when, contrary to their expectation, they saw the mole beginning to appear above water, they resolved, for fear of the worst, to send their wives and children, with such men as were not fit for service, to Carthage but the
:

he repaired, with incredible cheerfulness; the breach made in the mole by expedition, the sea; and having brought it again almost close to the city, he began to batter the walls with his engines, while the archers and slingers incessantly harassed those who defended the battlements, in order to drive them from their The Tyrians, however, stood their posts. ground and by means of a new contrivance of wheels with many spokes, whirled round by an engine, they either shattered tho enemy's darts and arrows in pieces, or broke thus covered from the their force; and, of the assailants, they destroyed great weapons numbers of them, without any considerable At length the wall loss on their own side. to yield to the violence of the battering began rams, that played against them night and day ; but the besieged, no wise daunted, setting all hands to work, in a short time raised an inner wall, ten cubits broad, and five cubits distant from the outer one, filling up the interstice with earth and stones ; and the Macedonians were a long time ere they could make any impression on this new and additional
;

arrival of Alexander's fleet

from Cyprus,

cir-

cumvented the execution of this design ; and the domestic troubles of the Carthaginians prevented those people from giving the assistance by sea which they had promised. The Tyrians were therefore left with no alternative, but to fight, and abide by the issue of the conflict. They began by assailing the Macedonians employed on the works, with missile weapons, as arrows, darts, stones, &c. with which they made dreadful havoc this, added to a violent storm, that carried away a great portion of the causeway, after it had, with intolerable labour, and the loss of many lives, been brought almost to the walls of the city, so disheartened the
:

however, they succeeded, feet wide. But when they came to the assault, in hopes of breaking into the city over the ruins, the Macedonians, though encouraged by the presence of their king, before whom all obstacles had been

fortification: at last,

and made a breach 100

Macedonians, that Alexander would have sent ambassadors with proposals of reconciliation, could he have been assured that the Tyrians

accustomed to disappear, were forced, by the valour of the Tyrians, to give ground, and to retire with great loss to their ships. During the night, the citizens repaired the breach; so that in the morning, Alexander perceived that he was no farther advanced than when he first began. He now resorted to another mode of attack, and having first carried the mole close home to the wall, he caused several towers to be built upon it, of equal height with the walls. These he filled with the most resolute of his army, who, having constructed a bridge of large planks, with one end resting
3

SECT, iv.]

DESTRUCTION OF TYRE BY ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

670

on the towers, and the other on the ramparts of the city, endeavoured, sword in hand, tc gain the wall, but in vain: for the Tyriaiis were prepared with triple-forked hooks, fastened to ropes, one end of which was secured within the ramparts, while the hooks at the other extremity were thrown upon the enemies' targets, into which they stuck, and ga the Tynans an opportunity either to pluck them out of the assailants' hands, and thereby expose them, without defence, to showers of darts and arrows; or, if they were unwilling to part with their shields, of pulling them headlong out of the towers. They also threw a kind of fishing-nets upon such as were engaged upon the bridges, which so entangled them, that they could neither defend themselves nor molest the enemy while others, with long poles, armed with iron hooks, dragged them off the bridges, and dashed them against the walls, or upon the causeway beneath. In addition to these means of annoyance, a great number of engines were placed upon the walls, playing incessantly upon the besiegers with masses of red-hot iron, which swept down whole ranks at once. But what most of all disheartened the Macedonians, and forced them at last to relinquish this mode of attack, was the scorching sand, which the Tyrians showered, or rather poured upon them for this sand, which was thrown from red-hot shields of iron, or brass, getting within their breast-plates, or coats of mail, tortured them to such a degree, that many, finding no other relief, threw themselves into the sea; whilst others, dying under the anguish of inexpressible torments, struck
; :

the siege to the last, at all hazards; though, of all his captains, Amyntas only approved hin
resolution.

Having,

therefore,

exhorted his

troops to be true to themselves and to him, to remember the difficulties they had already sur-

mounted, and thence draw an inference that they should be ultimately successful in the present arduous enterprise, lie surrounded the city with his fleet, and made a general assault, by About thi* battering the walls on all sides. time, the Tyrians, alarmed by a dream that some of them had, took it into their heads, that Apollo designed to forsake them, and go over to the Macedonians they therefore hound his
;

statue, with chains of gold, to the altar of Hercules. This statue, of colossal size, had formerly belonged to the city of Gela, in Sicily,

whence
nians,

it was sent to Tyre by the Carthagiwhen they took that place, (g) In this
;

and Apollo, the Tyrians greatly confided upon the rumour that he was about to abandon them, they even had recourse to chains to secure his presence and protection: but their utter ruin being already decreed by the TRUE GOD, and foretold by His prophets,(h) all the
confidence that they reposed in this idol, together with all their care and prudence in restraining him from deserting, could not avert the impending judgment: accordingly Alexander, having at last battered down the walls, and taken the town by storm, after seven months' siege, fully executed the sentence that had been long before denounced upon the Tyrians, and partially executed by Nebuchadnezzar, as we have seen above. The city was burned to the ground and the inhabitants, with only the exception of those whom the Sidonians secretly
;

terror

by

their cries into all their

companions.

Tyrians, perceiving the confusion that prevailed among their enemies, now left their walls, and charged them with such resolution, upon their own bridges, that Alexander, to save the reputation of his army, which was on the point of giving way, ordered a retreat to be sounded. After many similar attacks by the besiegers, always attended with equal disasters, Alexander began to think of abandoning the enterprise, and continuing his inarch to-wards Egypt; but again considering the dan-

The

were either maswho, by upon his first entering the city, put 8000 to the sword, caused 2000 of those whom he had taken prisoners to be crucified, and sold the
conveyed away
in their ships,

sacred, or enslaved

the conqueror,

rest,

to the

number of

30,000, for slaves, (i)

To

palliate his cruelty towards the 2000 who were crucified, Alexander pretended that it was done to avenge upon the present Tyrians the

crime committed by their forefathers, when they murdered their masters; and that being
originally slaves, this mode of punishment w;is due to them : and to make this excuse, or exte-

gerous consequences likely to result from such a procedure, he finally determined to prosecute
(g)

Diod. Sicul.

lib. xiii. p.

300.
xxviii.
(i)

Arrian.

lib. ii.

(h) Jiaiah, xxiii.

Ezek. xxvi

680
nuation, the
;

HISTORY OF THE PHOENICIANS.

distress for money to maintain the the triumvirate. After the battle of Philippi, and the death of Cassius, Marc Antony expelled these petty sovereigns, and Tyre, as part of the province of Syria, was reannexed to the Roman

[CHAP. xvn.

more plausible, he spared all the descendants of Strato, as not being involved in that guilt and, among them, king Azelmic, who, at the beginning of the siege, was out with his fleet upon a naval expedition, in conjunction with the Persian admiral Autophradates, but had hastened home, as soon as he was acquainted with the danger of his country. When the city was reduced, Azelmic took

war against
Jul. Per.

A. M.

4072. 3962.
3.

OKmp.
CLXXXIV.
A. U. C. 712. B. C. 42.

sanctuary in the temple of Hercules, and was afterwards restored to the throne, when Alexander had repeopled the place with colonies drawn from the neighbouring cities. On entering the city, the Macedonian king unchained Apollo, returning him thanks for his good intentions of coming over to his camp; he then offered sacrifices to Hercules; and, Such is the perverseness of human nature when poisoned by flattery, he assumed the title of founder of Tyre, because he had planted a few miserable colonists upon the spot where had Stood a mighty city, that he had most ungeneAfter rously and unprovokedly destroyed
!

republic, to which it had pertained from the days of Pompey, when he dethroned Antiochus Asiaticus, the last of the Seleucidae.

KINGS OF ARADUS.
Arad, or Aradus, appears to have been governed by kings, as well as Sidon and Tyre ; but only three of them are mentioned in history, viz. Arbal, and his son ,-j ul Per * 4229 Narbal, who both served under \ A. M. *35m Xerxes, in his Grecian expe- < Olymp.
dition;(k) and, many years after, Gerostratus, who served Darius
I

^ *Lxxm^4.
'

having

performed many superstitious rites, Alexander led off his army towards Egypt, in Search of new conquests and new honours, leaving Tyre in a state of desolation, from

which she never

recovered.(j) to Marion, who, in the days of Antony, is called prince of Tyre, he was

As

Marc
one of

against Alexander, and joined the Persian fleet, as other Phoenician and rjul. Per. *438i. *307i. Cypriot princes did; till hearing )A. M. that his son, Strato, had put a golden crown upon the head of the conqueror, and delivered up to him the island of Aradus, with the cities of Marathus and Mariammia, or Mariame, on the main
land, he

deemed

it

prudent also to

those

and districts of Cassius, when that commander was in great

titles
(j)

who purchased
Sicul.

submission.(l)

Of

his subsequent fate

make we

his

are

not informed.
(k)
(1)

Diod.

Q. Curt.

lib. iv.

Justin, lib. xi.

ad Olymp. 112, an. 1. Plut. in Alexand. Arrian. lib. ii. p. 49. cap. 5, 6, 11, 15. cap. 20, lib. xviii. cap. 34. Joseph. Antig.

Herodot.
Arrian.

lib. vii.

cap. 98.
lib.ii.

DeExped. Alex.Magn.

p.119. Q. Curt,

jb. xi. cap. ult.

lib. iv.

cap. 1.

CHAP. XVIII.]

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

fifli

CHAPTER

XVIII.

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES, FROM THE EXODUS, A.M. THE DEATH OF SOLOMON, A. M. 3020.
SECTION
OF

2513,

TO

I.

THE ISRAELITES, DURING THEIR FORTY YEARS' RESIDENCE IN THE WILDERNESS.

the close of a former Chapter,(m) we left Moses and the Israelites on the eastern borders of the Red A M." 2513; ;) Post bil. 85o! !f Sea, rejoicing over their fallen Ann. Exod. i. enemies, the Egyptians ; and, whilst they surveyed their 91 dead carcases on the shore,

IN

ance and miracles wrought in their favour till, carrying their arrogance so far as to despise and speak evil of the land itself, to which they are being conducted, they are condemned to wander and die in the wilderness; while their chil;

dren, of

whom they had

become a

said, that they would are alone permitted to enter prey,(n)

'

singing praises to their almighty Deliverer, the God of their fathers, who, faithful to his promise, had extricated them in a wonderful and fearful manner, from the most cruel oppression and slavery that had till then been heard of. have now to accompany them to the land of their promised inheritance, and gee them enter into possession, notwithstanding its previous occupation by several powerful and warlike tribes, or nations. But, before they direct their march towards the desired country, they are to receive a code of laws, civil and ecclesiastical, of divine appointment; and they are to pass through a state of probation, to shew them the evil propensities of

the promised Canaan. When the Israelites had finished their rejoicof the ings, Moses, following the guidance led them three days' journey cloudy pillar, into the wilderness of Shur, or Etham,(o) where they began to be in want of water.

We

they C 5th Station, (p) however, some, and pitched their I Marah. tents but to their great mortification, the water proved to be bitter, and unfit to drink. The impatient multitude began immediately to cry out against Moses, as they had formerly done, before they crossed the Red Sea.(q) In this extremity, Moses applied to his divine Conductor, and was directed to a certain tree, which, whether by any intrinsic virtue, or by a new miracle, is unknown, sweetened the

At Marah,
;

found

their

their weakness when left to and their absolute dependence themselves, upon the omnipotent protection and love of God. This latter subject will occupy the present Section and in pursuing it, we shall behold multiplied transgressions and rebellions on their part, contrasted with continued forbearhearts,
;

own

waters, and made them palatable. This, for the present put an end to their murmurings ;

but to shew how displeasing their conduct had been, and to encourage them to obedience and confidence in God, Moses was ordered to

them an ordinance, which promised, if they would be obedient, and hearken to the voice of Jehovah their God, that none of the diseases which had been brought upon the
give
where
rivulet, which, unless diluted by the dews, continues brackish. Near this place, the sea forms itself into a large bay, called Berk-el-Corondel, or the lake of Corondel; which is remarkable for a strong current, that sets into it from the northward, and where the Arabs preserve a tradition that a numerous host was drowned.* (q) Exod. xiv. 11, 12.
is

(m) See before, page 388.

(n)
(o)

a small
still

Numb.

Exod. This name, which signifies bitterness, was given to the place by the Israelites on account of the quality of its waters, and is still iduined by the Arabs, who call that part of the country the desert of Marah. Dr. Shaw thinks these bitter waters were at a place now called Corondel,
(p)

xiv. 3, 31. xv. 22. Numb. xxx. 8.

or by rain,

Shaw's Travtlt, chap.

v. p.

307, (4to.)

VOL.

I.

4s

HtSTORY OF THE ISRAELITES,

Egyptians, should
fall

[CHAP. XVIII.

upon them; but that

be
poured down

renewed blessings should upon them.

Gth Station, Elim.
1

next place they encamped was Elim, where they found twelve fountains of water, and twenty palmtrees ;(r) and here they are supposed to have
J

The

at,

from thence confirmed what Aaron had promised, and assured them, that they should be satisfied that very evening with plenty of flesh and on the following morning they In pursuance find the heavenly bread. should
;

continued nearly three weeks. From Elim, the Israelites 1 7th Station,
the

re-

farther into the wilderBy and having rested themselves for a short ness, time at an encampment, near to, or-over-against the Red Sea, they again marched, under the
Sea. j

Red

moved

of this promise, the same evening, a prodigious flight of quails came pouring down upon them, and alighted in such quantities, that they quite covered the camp and the neighbouring country, so that the people had only to take them, and kill them for use. On the following morning, by break of day, Moses led the

guidance of the miraculous pillar, but still going away from the direction of the promised land. At length, on the fifteenth day of the second month (Jjar, or ZiJ\) after they m? ut of Egypt they 1 8th Station, f Sin. Wilderness of pitched in the wilderhere their 2d Month (Ijar, or Zif.) f ness of Sin
.

Year i of the Exodus.

bread began

to fail,

and

they again began

to give vent to their discon-

tent, regretting the good things they had forsaken in quitting the land of their captiuty,

and charging Moses and Aaron with having decoyed them into the desert, to starve them
This high provocation appears to have met with no reproof at the time; on the contrary, Moses was commissioned to convey a gracious promise to them, that God would send down bread upon them from heaven, in the morning; and that in the evening they
to death.

people into the wilderness, where he shewed them a kind of white dew, resembling hoarfrost, which covered the face of the earth, This, he told them, was the celestial bread, with which God had promised to feed them, during their abode in that place; and he commanded them to gather at the rate of an omer (about 3 quarts English) for each person's use, according to the number of their several The people, astonished at this mirafamilies. cle, began to exclaim Nin p (MN HU) what is this / for, not knowing what or whence it was, never having seen the like before, they were unable to give it a name. Moses replied, that which the Lord had given it was the bread them to eat ; and the substance afterwards obtained the name of man, or manna, from
the question they asked on its first appearance. As a memorial of this extraordinary supply,

should eat flesh, provided for them in a miraculous manner.(s) This promise, though given in the first
instance to Moses,

was communicated

to the

people by Aaron, accompanied with a command, that they should every morning collect a certain quantity of the bread, according to the number of their respective families, and a double portion on the sixth day, as they were not to expect any to fall on the seventh, which

Moses was ordered to preserve an omer full of the manna, which was afterwards to be deposited in the ark of the covenant, as a witness to future ages. When their surprise had abated, the people began to collect the manna, and when they left off, and measured out the quantity prescribed, they discovered a new miracle; for
they had precisely what was wanted, an omer Such as remained unfor every individual. "athered on the ground was immediately dissipated by the heat of the sun, and the people returned to their tents, where they set about
preparing it in various ways. the direction of Moses, they
monks
at

was
left

to

be kept holy.

Aaron had scarcely

the

towards

people, looking wilderness, beheld the divine glory displayed from the cloud, and JEHOVAH

off speaking,

when

the

At

first,

under
it

ground

in

frl

r..n>il.

this
j

lace as
s

Numb, xxxiii. 9. Dr. Shaw describes xv. 27on the northern skirts of the desert of Sin, two

II" nine of the twelve fountains, or wells; the other three being filled up with sand: but the palm-trees had increased from seventy to upwards of two thousand the dates of which bring a considerable revenue to the Greek
>:ily
;

from Tor, and 30 from Corondel, or Marah.

Beneath the shade of these trees is the Mimsa, or Bath of Moses, a place held in reat From esteem and veneration by fhe inhabitants of Tor. Elim, a distinct \iew may 'be had of mount Sinai, across \\m
Tor.

Hammam

wilderness of Sin.
(s)

Numb.

xvi.

passim.
Shaw'g Trawtls, ubi supr.

SECT.

I.]

DURING THEIR RESIDENCE

IN

THE WILDERNESS.
and
in their

C83

pounded it in mortars, and formed it cakes, whose taste resembled that of wafers made w ith honey, or with fresh oil afterwards they invented other modes of cooking it as by frying, stewing, boiling, or the
mills, or

only a few days, they advanced towards

lioreb,
at

mount

into

way encamped

Dophkah, and Alush;(t) places i whose situations cannot be asefTlaincd, and where probably part of the foregoing transactook place. After leaving Alush, they mi, station, pitched their tents in Re- f
tions
Itephidim, or phidim,(u) where again th. y were in want of water, and |.$3?" alul M*ibah. where they renewed their murmurings, with bitter reproaches against Moses for having brought them out of Egypt, fo kill them with

loth station, Alush.

They, could not, however, enjoy this favour, without transgressing the precept with which it was accompanied for although Moses had expressly charged them that none of it should be left till the following morning; he had the mortification to hear that some of them, either from curiosity, or by way of precaution, had saved part of their portion, and found it putrid and full of worms. For this, he failed not to reprove them but their stubbornness was not to be overcome, either by mercies or threateiiings for although Moses had desired them on the sixth day to collect a double quantity of manna, to serve for that day and the following, which, being the sabbath, was to be kept holy ; and had assured them that none would fall on the seventh, what they collected on the sixth while would remain good and wholesome and although they actually gathered a double portion on the sixth day, and found, as had been promised them, that what remained for the seventh was fresh and sweet ; yet they could not forbear going out into the wilderness to collect, as on other days ; but it w as only lost labour, for they found none. This drew upon them a fresh reprimand, accompanied with an injunction, that in future they should on no account go out of the camp during the whole of the sabbath. 9th Station,! On leaving the desert of Sin, Dophkah. J where they seem to have staid
like.
:

drought.

Moses,

at

first,

endeavoured
;

to in-

spire them with sentiments of humble confidence and pious resignation but their fury was

uncontrollable, for they threatened to stone him so that he was constrained to have i'e;

course to God, who commanded him to take with him some of the elders to the rock of Horeb, and there to smite the rock in their presence, with the same rod, with which he had,

Egypt, smote the river. Moses obeyed while the divine shekinah appeared over the rock, and a plentiful supply of water, gushing nor did out, ran in streams about the camp the supply fail during the whole of their resiin
;
:

dence in this neighbourhood, which was upwards of a year. In memory of this rebellion, Moses
called the place Massah(v) and Meribah.(w) During their abode in Rephidim, the Israelites

were attacked by the Amalekites,(x) who in the rear of their camp, to steal their To opcattle, and plunder their baggage. Moses sent a detachment, under pose them,

came

Joshua,(y) the son of Nun, afterwards the celebrated conqueror of the Canaanites. The next morning Moses, accompanied by his broThe waters which gushed out, wilderncss of Rephidim]. and the stream which flowed u-itlial, (Psalm Ixxviii. 20,) have hollowed across One corner of this rock, a channel, about two inches deep and 20 wide, all over encru.-teil like Beside* the inside of a tea-kettle that has been long used.
several
llie slil! preserved by over this channel a great number of boles, some of them four or five inches deep, and one or two in the lively and demonstrative tokens of their diaii.eter;

(t)

Numb,
Exod.

xxiii.

12

14.

(u)
(v)

xvii. 1, et seq.

Numb,

xxxiii. 14.

HOG (MassaH), trial, or temptation. This last (w) TO'IO (MCRIBKH), contention.

name was

also given to another place, where, 39 years afterwards, a similar miracle was wrought, and where Moses and Aaron
forfeited

mossy productions, that are

all

Numb.

the privilege of entering the promised land. xx.

See

dew, we see

rock of flint; though from the purple or reddish colour of it, i( may rather be rendered the ametlnjstivc, or granite rock. It
says,

Dr. Shaw has given an accurate drawing of the rock of Meribah, which he describes as on the west side of mount " it is Sinai. He Dent. viii. a
rightly called,

15,

about six yards square, lying tottering, as it were, and louse, in the middle of the valley, and seems to have been formerly a part, or cliff, of mount Sinai, which hangs in a
is

Thevenot,t having been formerly so many fountains."* Nordcn.j and Pococke, have also described this rock in It consists of a block of granite, K> nearly similar terms. teet long, 10 broad, and 12 high. (x) See before, p. (>>!. (y) This celebrated captain's name was at first Oshea,*
in

Hebrew
}

Jfltfin
;

variety of precipices
* Shaw's Travels
t
to

all

over

this

plain

[t. c.
v. p.

the plain, or

or salvation

(HOSHCA), signifying saeed, or a sarii-in; which Moses changed, probably, oil occasion
(8vo
edit.)
i.

Barbary and the Levant, chap.

314, (4to edit.)

'frauds, p. 144,

Voyage an Lccanl.

Description <f the East, vol.

p.

143,

et seq.

Kumb.

liii.

16.

4s2

684
ther Aaron,

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

and
Hur,(z)

[CHAP, xviir.

ascended a neigh;

whence he could see the battle and here, whilst Joshua was fighting the enemy, Moses held up his hands in prayer, and God was pleased to answer his intercession in a singular manner; for while he kept his hands lifted up, Joshua prevailed but when he let them down, the Amalekites had the suThis being perceived by Aaron and periority. Hur, when the strength of Moses failed, they seated him upon a stone, and held up his hands till sunset, by which time, the Israelites had gained the victory. Moses was ordered to rebouring
hill,
;

After the defeat of Ama- r lath Station, the Israelites conti- ) Wilderness of Sinai. nued their journey, and on ) 3d Month f,S'u-a>ij Year the first day of the third <lek,

after their departure from Egypt, they arrived at the wilderness of Sinai, (b) where, during somewhat short of a twelvemonth's stay, they received the decalogue, or law of the two tables, comprised in ten commandments, several ceremonial institutions, to be observed by them when established in the

month, Sivan,

cord this signal triumph, with a memorandum that the Lord would have perpetual war with Amalek till his name should be lost among the nations. He also built an altar to God, and called it JEHOVAH-NISSI, (the Lord is my banner.) (a)

promised land, and statutes, ecclesiastical and civil, for the government of their commonwealth. Moses, having received some important revelations from the Almighty, and ordered the encampment in such a manner that a considerable area was left between the tents and the
foot of
.Sinai, directed the Israelites to themselves against the third day, for sanctify

mount

(jfiHosHMA), he says Calmet, of the incommunicable name of God being added to his former name. In the Septuagint translation of the Pentateuch, and in the Greek Testament, he is called Jesus,* which signifies a savionr : all the three names having nearly the same imFrom this time, he became conspicuous for personal port. He valour, and steady attachment to the cause of God. was captain-general of the Israelites under Moses ; and on that great man's death, became his successor in the government. In his actions, as well as in his name, he was an eminent type of Christ. (z) Probably the son of Caleb, the great-grandson of
bis victory
17tt?1!T

of

over the Amalekites, to

the shekinah,

is

honoured with

little

chapel, which this old

shall save, or the salvation

of God ; a

letter,

Judith, (see to Bezaleei,

Citron,

ii.

19.)

and consequently grandfather

the celebrated artificer in the work of the temple. Josephus thinks that Hur had married Miriam, while others take him to be her son. the sister of Moses But most of the ancient fathers are of opinion, that Miriam
;

esteem and veneration, that, in imitation of Moses, they put oft' their shoes from off their feet, whenever they enter it. This, with several other chapels, dedicated to particular saints, are included within the church, as they call it, of the Transfiguration ; which is a large beautiful structure, covered with lead, and supported by two rows of marble columns. The floor is very elegantly laid out in a variety of devices, in mosaic work. Of the same tesselated workmanship, likewise, are both the floors and the walls of the presbyterium, upon the latter whereof is represented the effigies of the Emperor Justinian, together with the history of the transfiguration. Upon the partition, which separates the presbyterium from the body of the church, is placed a small marble shrine, wherein are preserved the skull and one of the hands of St. Catherine the rest of the body having been bestowed, at different times, upon such Christian princes, as have contributed to the
fraternity of St. Basil

has in such

died unmarried.
(a)

Dr. Shaw describes this wilderness as " a beautiful plain, more than a It-ague in breadth, and nearly three in length, lying open towards the north-CUt, where we enter it, but closed up to the southward, by some of the lower eminences of mount " the In this direction," continues the same Sinai.
1,

Exod. xviii. (b) Exod. xix.

816.
et seq.

support of the convent.

Numb,

xxxiii. 15.

writer,

higher parts of this mountain

make such encroachment*

tin v divide it into two, each of them plain, that capacious enough to receive the whole encampment of the That which lies to the eastward, may be the Israelites. desert of Sinai, properly so called, where Moses saw the angel of the Lord, in the huming hush, when he was guardThe convent of ing the flocks of Jethro, (Exod. in. 2 ) St. Catherine is built over the place of thi.i divine appearance. It is nearly 300 feet :-qtiare, and more than 40 in

upon the

" Mount Sinai, which hangs over this convent, is called by the Arabs, Jibbel Mousa, i. e. the mountain of Moses; and sometimes only, by way of eminence, El Tor, i. e. the mountain. The summit of mount Sinai is not very spacious; where the Mohammedans, the Latins, and the Greeks, have each of them a small chapel. "t M. Volney describes Sinai and Horeb as enormous masses of granite, and the surrounding country as only a pile of rugged and naked rock. The Greek convent of St. Cathehe says, has all the appearance of a prison ; the lofty walls having only one window, which, though very high up, answers the purpose of a door ; to enter which, it is necesrine,

height; being built partly with stone, and partly with mud and mortar mixed together. The more immediate place of
Htbrcwt,
l\.

sary to get into a basket, and be drawn up by ropes : a precaution adopted by the monks, from apprehension of " The schismatics," adds the same danger from the Arabs. " have so much faith in the relics of St. Catherine, writer, which are deposited here, that they doubt of their salvation, if they have not visited them at least once in their lives."!
i

8.

Shaw's Travel*, chap.

p. 313, ^4to edit.)

Volney 'i Travel* through Syria and Fgypt.

SECT,

i.]

AWFUL DELIVERY OF THE LAW FROM MOUNT

mandments.
III.

SINAI.

685
my com-

the glorious scene they were then to witness.(c) All approach towards the mount, beyond the barrier which Moses had appointed, was prohibited on pain of death for if either man or beast attempted to infringe upon the bounds, he was to be stoned, or run through with a dart, or javelin; and the signal for the people leaving their tents to behold the awful sight, was to be the sound of a miraculous trumpet, from the heights of Sinai. For once, the Israelites submitted to the injunctions of their leader without murmuring: they prepared themselves, and kept within the
;

unto thousands of them that love me, and keep

Thou
:

shalt not take the for

God

in vain

JEHOVAH
in vain.

will

Name of JEHOVAH thy not hold him guiltless that

taketh his

Name

Six the sabbath-day, to keep it holy. days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work but the seventh day is the sabbath of JEHOVAH thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, uor thy maid- servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thv gates: for in six days JEHOVAH made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore JEHOVAH blessed the sabbath-day, and hallowed it.

IV.

Remember

appointed

limits.

Their expectation was raised

V.
thee.

SECOND TABLE.
Honour thy

to the highest pitch, and on the fifth morning of the mouth, at break of day, they beheld the mountain enveloped with a dark cloud, whence issued such territic lightnings and thunders, as
thrilled

may belong upon

VI.
VII.
VIII.

father and thy mother; that thy days the land which JEHOVAH thy God giveth

them with

horror

and amazement.
scene, the
;

Amidst the awful sublimity of this

sound of the supernatural trumpet was heard on which Moses led the people from the camp towards the mount, as far as the barrier, and there they observed the topof Sinai covered with tire and smoke, like an immense furnace, while its foundations shook under their feet. The trumpet now blew louder and stronger, and Moses and Aaron, obediently to a divine call, went up the mount, and were soon lost sight of, to the multitude below, amidst the smoke and
clouds. Soon after their disappearance, the sound of the trumpet ceased, the noise of the thunder died away, and the voice of JEHOVAH, speaking from the midst of the tire and smoke,

IX.

Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness

against thy

neighbour.

X. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-senant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

While these commandments were proclaiming, the people,

astonished and almost petrified with fear, removed farther off from the mountain ; and when Moses came down, after the divine voice had ceased, they flocked around him, promising all possible obedience to the

was

pronouncing theten principal commandments, which were to be the foundation of their religious and political laws ;(d) and which were afterwards engraved by the
distinctly heard,

precepts, and entreating him in future to speak to them instead of the Almighty, lest they should die with horror at the repetition of those

awful sounds which they had heard from the Moses highly commended their humicloud. and reverence of the divine presence, and lity

were

finger of God upon two tables of stone. (e) to the following effect
:

They

I. I brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shall have no other gods before Me.

FIRST TABLE. am JEHOVAH thy God, which have

make unto

having pacified their fears by some consolatory assurances, returned to the mountain, where God was pleased to add a few ceremonial laws to the precepts contained in the decalogue ;(f) all which, as well as those he afterwards received, are collected into one view in the next
section of this chapter.

II.

Thou

shalt pot

thee any graven image, or

any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that it in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth : Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them
:

These communications

were accompanied

thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me ; and shewing mercy
for
1

JKHOVAH

with various exhortations to obedience, and as many divine promises, that the lands of the Canaauitish tribes should be given to the Israelites, provided they were careful to observe
(e)

(c)

Etod.

xix. 3, ct

(d) Exod. xx.

117.

seij.

(f )

Efod. xxiv. 12. xxxi. 18. Exod. xx. 1826. xxi.

xxxii. 15, 16.

xxiii.

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

and do
it

[CHAP. xvni.

to facilitate their
gel before them,

and to them and ensure their success, way was promised that God would send his Anall

that

was prescribed

in

whom

resided

name, who should bring them mised land.(g) They were also

into

the divine the pro-

hearing of them all, and after exacting from them a solemn promise faithfully to observe it, he ratified it, by sprinkling the blood of tinvictims upon the people, upon the altar, and upon the book.(i)

cautioned, on

their arrival there, to beware of polluting themselves with the idolatries and abominable practices of the natives, who should be struck with a panic fear at their approach, and become an

This ceremony being ended, Moses, pursuhis divine instructions, took Aaron, with his two sons, Nadab and Abihu, and
ant to

to

easy prey to them. They were not, however, make a complete conquest of them all at once, lest the country should become desolate, and the wild beasts should increase upon them,

and be mischievous; but they were to carry on gradually, till their dominion should extend from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the river.(h) That the Israelites might not forget the laws and ordinances that had been given them, Moses wrote them in a book , and still more solemnly to impress them upon tbeir memories, he built an altar, on which burnt-sacrifices and peace-offerings were offered, and round
it

seventy of the elders of Israel, some distance up the mountain, where they had a grand Here Moses sight of the glory of God.(j) took his leave of them, after committing the care of the people to Aaron and Hur, and ascended higher up the mount, in company with Joshua, the son of Nun, the glory of God still appearing above the mount, and thick cloud covering the summit. Moses and
:i

the altar he raised twelve pillars, according to He then read the book of the tribes of Israel. the covenant, which he had written, in the
This angel could be no other 23. (g) Exod. xxiii. 20 than the great Angel of the Covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom, as St. Paul says, "dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."* Some, indeed, have thought that Moses, and others that Joshua, is here meant but the attributes are such as can never be applied to any mortal, and in this view the Jews understand the passage in question, as indicative of the MESSIAH, or ETERNAL WORD. Philo Judust has a passage to the following effect: " God, as the .Shepherd and King, conducts all things according to law and righteousness, having established over them his >-ir/ht WORD, Ins only-begotten Son, who, as the viceroy of the great King, takes care of, and niini.stcis to, this sacred flock. For it is somewhere said, Behold I AM, and 1 will .send my ANGKL before thy face, to keep thee in the way."] '2:5. The boundaries here spoken of, (h) Efod. xxiii. -l-\
:

Joshua entering the cloud, disappeared from the sight of the Israelites, and abode there six days; on the seventh day God called Moses to the top of the mount, Joshua remaining w here he was at which time the glory of Jehovah was seen from the camp, like a devouring flame, consuming the summit of Sinai. (k) Here Moses continued forty days, and as many
r

nights, without

eating or

drinking,(l)

in

the

immediate presence of the divine

Majesty,

work, of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in its clearness:" and yet, in Deut. iv. 15, he expressly " MO manner asserts, that of similitude" was seen. The expression, "they saw the God of Israel,'' must therefore be only understood of their seeing the brightness of his
to fix their eyes upon glory, too dazzling, indeed, for them as we commonly speak of seeing the sun, when, in fact, we only have a glimpse of the blaze of light with which it is
;

are from the rirrr Euphrates in the cast, to the Mediterranean, orwa of the I'hil'nttiurs in the west; and from tinRed Sea and the Nile, in the south, to the desert of This promise was Syria and mount Lib-anus in the north. The only fulfilled in the times of David and Solomon. general disobedience of the people before that period prev uted a more speedy accomplishment, aitd their disobedience afterwards lost them Ike possession when they had obtained it.
(i)
(.j)

Something of the same kind occurs in St. John's enveloped. vision of the throne in heaven, where he who sat upon it, " was, to look upon, like a jasper and a sardine stone ; and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like an emerald. '* Here St. John has an idea of one .sifting on the throne, but he can only describe the teints of light emanating from the glory with which it was surrounded. As to the can only be underfeet alluded to by Moses, the expression stood of the sappharine basis, or pavement, beneath the
1

throne, on which this celestial glory appeared, and which the Israelites saw extended over their heads, as the firmament itself, but of the colour of transparent various are the hues sapphire, that is, of the rainbow, for so of sapphire, and occupying a space in the atmosphere equal

we may suppose

in

extent to the base of the mountain.

(k) E.rod. xxiv.

||

1218.

EjLod. xxJv.

Exd.

of Israel,

3 8. Moses says, " they saw the God xxiv. 9 11. and there was under Ids feet, as it were, a paved
t

convey any

oilier idea to

This awful sight could scarcely the Israelites, than that Moses ha<(
ix. 9.

perished in the flames. Exod. xxxiv. 28. (1)

$
f|

Dent.

* Coiow. u. 9.

De
f

Agri'-itltura, vol.

i.

p.

308, Mangcj's

edit.

En.

iv. 4.

Laid,

xxiii.

20.

See Dr. A. Clarke, on Efod. xiiv. 10.

SECT.

I.]

OPINIONS CONCERNING THE

TWO

TABLES.
abilities,

and received during that interval, two tables of stone, on which were written the precepts of the decalogue; he also received instructions relathe to the whole plan of the Hebrew religion, the form of the tabernacle,(m) and all the utensils belonging to it, together with several laws for the priests, the Levites, the laity, and, in particular, an order for requiring a free-will offering from all the Israelites,
it probable, that this was the first alphabetical characters ever exhibited to the world ; though there might before have been marks, or hieroglyphics : but whether these characters were what we now call the Samaritan, which are generally allowed to have been the original Hebrew, or whether they were the Chaldaic, similar to the modern Hebrew, is a point of much con-

according to their

of gold,

silver,

brass, scarlet, silk, wool, oil, spices, and other materials necessary for the tabernacle, the ark

of the covenant, the priestly robes, &c.(n) care of making all these things was to be committed to Bezaleel, r 4th Month (Thammuz) of the tribe of Judah, and lYeari of the Exodus. Aholiab, of the tribe of Dan ; two persons, supernaturally endowed for the purpose.(o)

The

(m) Dr. Winder* thinks

in

writing

On this subject, the Mohammedans relate that God commanded the angel Gabriel to take the heavenly pen, which is the naming of the name of God, and to dip it in the river of light, and to write the ten laws upon the tables; and that, after Moses had broken them, the angels carried the fragments up into heaven again, except one piece, about half a
yard long, which was afterwards deposited in the ark.JJ On the point of the contents of the table*, it lias been controverted whether the ten commandments were at all written on the first tables. Those who take the negative side of this question, contend that they contained only the terms of the covenant, without the ten words, which they suppose were superadded to the contents of the second tables. In

Moses says, the tables were written, or engraved, troversy. ntOI i"HO (MJZE UMIZE) on this nidi; untl on that ; or, as our " on both translators have rendered it, their sides on one side and the other :"t and hence the Talmudists,* and some
:

will have it, that the letters were pierced through, so as to be seen and read on either side ; on one in the usual manner from right to left, and on the other side, reversed, from left to right, after the modern European manner. And to get rid of a difficulty arising from the close

of the Rabbins,

defence of this opinion, they urge that the commandments had been pronounced from Sinai, with various political and
in the 20th, to the 23d chapters of Exodus, and they were written in a hook, accepted by the people, and the covenant solemnly ratified, before any mention is made of the tables of stone, which contained a law and precepts.^ But what were these law and precepts, if not the ten commandments, which were the foundation of all their laws! And they were written upon stone, to be laid up in the ark as a durable memorial, and an indelible original, from which, as occasion might require,

ecclesiastical statutes, as detailed

letters,

snmech

D,

which occurs twice, and the

final

mem

C3,

which occurs twenty-three times in the ten commandments, they have recourse to a miracle, by which the middle part of those letters, say they, was kept suspended in its due It probably never occurred to these position. persons, that the same words might be written on both sides of the tables, o that when lifted up, they might be read, without the intervention of a miracle, by those who stood behind Moses, as well as by those in his front. If, indeed, the writing be admitted to have been in what is called the Samaritan character, the favourite notion of pierciiiy through might be admitted but then the miracle would be lost, there not being a single close letter in all the Samaritan alphabet; and this would be giving up too much. Another question has arisen as to the writer of these tables and the subject of
:

In four places, Moses has that writing. positively as-erted, that the tables were written by God by the finger of God;\ and the same is implied in two others :|| but from an equivocal expression elsewhere,5T some critics have supposed that Moses was the writer, under the immediate influence of the Almighty;** while others, dividing the labour, attribute to God the writing of the original tables, which Moses broke on seeing the apostasy of Israel ; and that of the second to

copies were to be taken. Iloubigant suggests, that the ten commandments were written by God on the front of the stones, and the precepts, or terms of the covenant, contained Ejcod. xxxiv. 1020', on the back. But it seems more reasonable to conclude that God wrote the whole the law and the precepis ami that Moses was ordered (Exod. xxxiv. 27) to make a transcript of them: the original to be deposited in (lie ark the copy, for public use. The last objects worthy of notice respecting these tables,
;

number, and the materials of which they were Moses constantly calls them two tables of atone; but such is the perversity of critical ingenuity, that some eastern writers have increased them to ten, and others tottv/rcrt.|||| The Talmud and the Jewish Rabbins, indeed, do not give into
relate to their

made.

this

absurdity
call

but they have run into another,

full

as bad.

This opinion has gained the most extensive Moses.tt credit, and has been adopted by many of the fathers; but, considering the number of testimonies^ which are in llie full
proportion of six to one, we conceive the preference to be due to those expositors who, taking the words in their literal sense, attribute the writing to God alone, or rather to the Angel of the Covenant, before alluded to i. e. the Word of
;

them the two tables of the covenant, but, instead They of ordinary stone, some will have them to have been made of a ruby or carbuncle, and others of some precious wood.Wf They also dispute about their shape, size, the order in which the ten commandments were written, &c. in which it would
be
trifling to follow

them.

(n)

God,
*
t

the second Person in the blessed Trinity.

xxxii. 1,>.

(o)

Exod. xxv. xxxi. Exod. xxxi. 1 11.

Eml.
186.

History of Knowledge.
1',-coil.

Tnctal. Megitlatk.

Eiorl. xxiv. 12.

||

xxxi. 18. xxxii. 15, 16.

Dmt.

v.

<>.

C.ypr. Lib. de S. .S'p/n!. Angnst. Qinrst. in Kitbbm. vki. Munsi. ct at. in ttir. }} D'Herbrlut. Bi/il. Orient, p. 469.
$j Corn|>. I'xod. xx. 1, _']. xxiv. I, ft teq. D'Herbdot. Htbl. Orient, in luc. ||i|

Jun. Yiltet.

" Among
:

Eiod. xxxiv.

opinion

Eiod. xxxiv. 27, 28. others, the editors of the Universal History have adopted see that work, vol. iii. p. 410, (8*0. edit.)

1.

Deut.

x.

14.

tliis

Kf

Talm. passim,

ct vide

ilDSn iTUi!,

cantk. JTI!' 'O

TIN.

688

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

his

[CHAP.

xvm.

While Moses was thus engaged, the Israelites, who had seen him go up, and enter into the cloud, while the top of the mountain was enveloped in flames,(p) after they had waited for him above a month, began to give him over for lost. They, therefore, assembled in a tumultuous manner about 5th Month (Ab) \ Year i of the Exodus. } Aaron's tent, and after tell" Moses, ing him they were fully convinced that the man who had brought them out of Egypt," was lost, they insisted that he should make them gods, who might go before them, and How guide them in their future progress. Aaron's mind was affected by this application, does not appear: it has been thought, that when he ordered them to bring in their golden ear-rings, which they were extremely proud of wearing, he expected they would hesitate, and decline any farther pursuit of an object that was to be purchased by so considerable a deprivation: but this notion is overthrown by
(p)

subsequent proceedings, in casting and ornamenting the idol ; and his conduct can only be considered as the effects of extreme weak-

Aaron therefore ness and pusillanimity. desired them to bring in the golden ear-rings
their sons, and their and when he saw the Israelites daughters cheerfully complying with his demand, he threw the trinkets into the fire, and made a molten calf, which he afterwards finished with curious engravings. This idol he set upon a in the sight of the whole camp, and, pedestal, when the people saw it, they exclaimed, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt!" Aaron then erected an altar before the calf, and appointed the next day for a solemn festival ;(q) which was begun with burnt-sacrifices and peace-offerings, and concluded with feasting, dancing, and las-

worn by

their wives,

civious indulgences, such as they had, without doubt, learned in the land of their captivity.
others, that
it

Exod.

xxiv. 15

18. xxxii. 1, et scq.

to

(q) This

festival

Aaron proclaimed

be

in

honour of

body whatever.

consisted merely of an ox's head, without any For these opinions, there is no sufficient

the true God, JEHOVAH, (Exod. xxxii. 5.) whence it appears that he considered the calf only as an emblem of the Divine presence; yet that was a grievous offence against the second commandment. Whether the people were guilty of a breach of the first commandment also, may be doubted; though Their long there is great reason to conclude that it was so. residence among the idolatrous Egyptians, had familiarized their minds to ideas of polytheism, as well as to notions of the powers of enchantments, magicians, &c. and they seem for a long time to have had little better opinion of Moses, than that he was a potent sorcerer, who had fallen a victim to his own spells. Even Aaron appears to have encouraged
this error

authority. The expression, (verse 4)

tool,"

among them, and to have persuaded them, that the calf arose spontaneously from the fire at least such must have been the impression upon those who heard his " foolish apology to Moses : They gave me [the gold] : then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this But calf." how he could be guilty of such an act, almost before the thunders from Sinai had ceased to be heard, from the midst of which the voice of Jehovah had proclaimed " Thou shall have no other gods before ME," is quite unaccountable. As to the figure of the idol, the general opinion is, that it was a representation of the Egyptian deities Apis, or Mnevis,
: :

which were worshipped under the figures of an ox, or a bull; and this seems to be confirmed by the Psalmist, who, alluding to this part of the history of Israel, says, " they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox, that eateth grass."* There are some writers, however, who conceive the cherubim to have been winged oxen, and this calf an imitation of one of them :t yet it must be recollected, that the tabernacle was not yet erected, till when, it is almost certain, the Israelites had no idea of a cherub. Some of the ancient fathers supposed it to have only the face of an ox, with the form of a man downwards, in imitation of the Egyptian Isis;\ and
t

" fashioned it with a graving !3in (CHeRex) has been a subject of much dispute, as being an unnecessary operation to a molten image hence the word has been variously rendered a bag, (as in 2 Kings, " And Aaron vi. 23), and then the sentence would run, received them, (the gold earrings) and tied them in a bag, and got them cast into a molten calf:" or a mould, and then " Aaron cast the it would run, gold in a mould, and made a molten calf;" which is the preferable reading of the two ; for it is impossible to discover the use of the bag in the There are other process of melting and running metal. significations of the word Din, as a garment, a cloth, an apron, all of which have their advocates : but the simple meaning of Moses seems to be as we have given it above, that Aaron cast the melted gold in a mould, to give it the intended shape, and afterwards ornamented it with curious engravings; the imperfect state of the art not permitting him to derive from the mould more than the general contour of the figure. In the conduct of this festival, it may be observed, the but of the peaceburnt-offerings were wholly consumed offerings, after the blood had been poured out, the people partook, which was the exclusive privilege of the priests. Of this irregularity, indeed, they might not be aware, as the Levitical law was not yet promulgated : but they ate and drank, after the custom of the heathens, to excess ; and then, " says Moses, they rose up to play," (pTO ? Le-TSooHaK) the same word that is used by the same writer, in Gen. xxvi. 8, and xxxix. 14, 17, in the former place translated play, in the two latter mock, but in both of import too obvious to be mistaken. This was likewise according to the practice of the heathens, and could not but be abhorrent to a pure and
: ;
1

holy

God.
lib.
ii.

Psalm ci. 20. See Dr. Wall's Mixdlancws Eamjs

m Cherubs.

J Herodot.

cap. 41.
xxxii.

See Le Clerc, and Calniel's Comment, on Eiod.

SECT.

I.]

GOLDEN

CALF.

TABLES OF THE LAW BROKEN.

threw down the golden calf, in the fire, he beat the gold into thin lamina;, which he afterwards ground into dust, and strewed it upon the waters, of which he made the people drink and while this was doing, he called out, " Whoeverisfor
transgressors.

This departure of the Israelites from their allegiance did not escape the all-seeing God, to whom they really owed their deliverance,
they were indebted for their daily sustenance, by the operation of a miracle reMoses newed every morning and evening-. had now been forty days in the mount,(r) when
to

He

and

after melting

it

and

whom

JEHOVAH,

let

him come

to

me;" whereupon

the Lord

commanded him

to

go down

for the

people had corrupted themselves by making a molten calf; to which he added such threatenings as made Moses fear that a total destruction would fall upon them.(s) He, therefore, entreated the Lord on their behalf, and having obtained a suspension of the judgment, he took the two tables in his hand, and descended towards the camp, taking with him by the way, his servant Joshua, who had waited for him on It was the day of the lower part of the mount. their rejoicing, when Moses and Joshua approached the camp, and Joshua hearing the
shouts of the people, observed, there was the noise of war in the camp but Moses told him he was mistaken, for the noise was rather that of singing, than of those who shouted for victory, or of those who cried for being overcome ; from which it appears that Joshua was unacquainted with the delinquency of his brethren. He did not, however, long remain in suspense, for, coming in view of the camp, the impious multitude appeared, some dancing around their golden calf, others carousing on the plain, and others indulging in the iniquitous rites of the heathens. This sight aroused all the indignation of Moses he cast the two tables of the law from him, and broke them in pieces at the foot of the mount ; and then running up to his brother Aaron, upbraided him in the severest terms, for having acquiesced in so wicked a deed, which had laid the people open, naked, and defenceless, to all their enemies, by incurring the forfeiture of the divine: ;

the sons of Levi immediately joined him, and he commanded them to go with their swords, and slay all whom they should find still at the idolatrous festival, without regard to age, quality, kindred, or friendship. In consequence of this command, which was issued in the name of " the God of

JEHOVAH,

Israel,"

no
:

less

than

three thousand(t) fell victims to the avenging swords of the Levites, on that day a chastisement so sudden, and so dreadful, that a general consternation quickly pervaded all the tribes,

who began to apprehend impending destruction upon the whole nation. Moses, however, on the morrow, after a suitable admonition, promised that he would intercede for them and for that purpose, he reascended the mount, and pleaded on their behalf, till he obtained their present pardon, and a renewal of God's promise, that He would send His angel before them, to lead them in the right way. Both the promise and pardon, however, were so far conditional, that the people were to make an atonement for their sin, by a solemn and public act of humiliation, accompanied with a promise of obedience in future: and incase of their bringing down fresh judgments upon themselves by any farther relapse, this idolatry was to be punished with it, and they were to lose their title to the promised land, and die in the wilderness. One of these conditions was imembraced a solemn fast was kept mediately throughout the camp, during which the Israel;
:

ites
rel,

divested themselves of

all their

best appa-

Aaron endeavoured to palliate his protection. offence, by observing, that the people were bent on mischief ; but Moses, instead of listening to his excuses, immediately set about the destruction of the idol,
(r)

and costly ornaments. (u) While the people were thus occupied in the camp, Moses was called again into the mount, to have the table-; of the law renewed, and then he was
favoured with a remarkable sight of the goodness and glory of God. (v)
tables, the Jews observe a yearly fast, to the present day ; and they have a metaphorical saying, that " No affliction has ever since happened to Israel, in which there was not some particle of the dust of iln> golden calf."* (v) For the particulars of this glorious display of the almighty goodness, see Eiod. xxxiii. 18 '23, and xxxiv. 4 7.
* U. Isaac,
in TaUtuui. tract.

and the punishment of the

Deut.
ix. 9.

(s)

Exod. Exod.

xxiv. 18, xxxiv. 28.

xxxii. 7, et seq.

(t) .Son]*- copies of the Septuagint, and the Vulgate, say 20,000. -i:;i) others 30,000; but our own reading is deemed the rno-l correct.

tlie

6. (u) Eind. xxxiii. 1 sin which occasioned

In
it,

memory of

this

humiliation,

and the breaking of the two

Sanhedr.

VOL.

I.

4 T

65)0

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

staid iu the

[CHAP. xvni.

Moses

casion, forty

mount, as on the first ocand as many nights, where days

he made two new tables, to supply the place of those he had recently broken, and received some farther instructions ; after which, he presented himself attain to the people, who were 1 much surprised to observe etli iMonth (EM) Year 1 of the Exodus.} SUC J) a radiant glory in his face, that they were unable to look upon him, till he had covered it with a veil, so abundantly was the divine glory shed upon him.(w) He now communicated to them the orders he had received for erecting a tabernacle, as a place for public worship, and the depository of the ark of the covenant, which was to contain the tables of the law and he demanded of them the free-\vill offering, already alluded to, and artificers to erect it. By this time, the people were become so tractable, that both men and women contributed, with the greatest promptitude, their richest jewels, metals, and other valuables, including oils, ointments, and exfrom quisite perfumes, which they had obtained the spoils of the Egyptians and Amalekites ; so that in one day, Moses beheld at his feet more than a sufficient quantity for the purpose, which he distributed to the proper artificers and workmen, under the superintendence of Bezaleel and Aholiab nor did their offerings cease till Moses had proclaimed throughout the camp, that he had sufficient for all the work, and even an overplus. (x) This work was performed with such dili; :

fire of the Lord descending and consuming the sacrifices ;(z) and the glory of the Lord also resting upon the tabernacle, as a cloud by day, and as a fire by

monial law; the

night. (a)

next day after these memorable transthe heads or princes of each tribe appeared before Moses and Aaron, with a considerable free-will offering, in six covered waggons, each drawn by two oxen, and containing for every prince, a silver bowl, or charger, weighing 130 shekels, a smaller bowl, or bason, of 70 shekels, both filled with fine flour, mingled with oil, for a meat-offering ; a golden spoon, or censer, of 10 shekels, full of incense ; one young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the first year, for a burnt-offering ; one kid of the goats, for a sin-offering ; and two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, and five lambs of the first year, for a peace-offering.
actions,

The

Moses

at first

doubted whether

to receive this

alacrity, that in less than six the tabernacle, with all its splendid months,(y) furniture, and costly apparatus, was completed, and on the first day of the second year

gence

and

Jul. Per.

3224. A. M. 2oi4."| Post Dil. 857. 1

from their departure from Egypt, it was set up at the foot of

of God, the were suffered to make their several princes offerings, on twelve successive days, in the following order: 1, Judah 2, Issachar; 3, Zebulun 4, Reuben 5, Simeon 6, Gad 7, 8, Manasseh 9, Benjamin; 10, Dan Ephraim 11, Asher; 12, Naphtali; each tribe offering the same kind and the same quantity. The bowls and censers were taken for the use of the sanctuary and the waggons were given, two to the Gershonites, who, when the tabernacle was removed, had the care of the and four curtains, coverings, and hangings to the Merarites, who were appointed to remove the boards, bars, pillars, and sockets the former cumbersome, but light, the latter of To the Kohathites no heavy carriage, (b) waggons were given, because they had the
offering;
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
;

but being instructed

mount
j,j s

Ann.

E*d.

2. f

nt Month
(Abib)

sons

B. C. 12th Station,
Sinai.

, > the former as ^ration, ( 1490. 1 priest, the latter as priests,

Sinai, where Aaron and a ft e r a solemn conse-

...

lugh-

charge of the ark, table, candlestick, altars, &c. which were to be carried upon their shoulders, and on no account to be drawn by beasts.

began
ci-ir-

The

to offer sacrifices
altar,

upon the new

to

pleted,

according

the

now comwhich before he had been prevented from doing by the presence
dedication of the tabernacle being

Moses went

into

it,

It is supposed by commentators, lliat Moses, in this vision, saw the incarnate Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. (vi) Exod. xxxiv. passim. (\> Exod. xxxv. xxxvi. (y) Including Tinri, Marchetvan, Cisleu, Thrbet, Sebaf, ami part of Adar ; that is, from the latter end of September to the beginning of March. Numb. ix. 2-1. xl. (z) Exod. xxxvi. Numb. ix. 15. (a) Exod. xl. 3438.

(b)

Numb.
,

vii.

88.

The amount and

~>

value of these

offerings were : 12 Silver chargers, or bowls, each weigh.,

ing

130 shekels

>
\

=lo<iO

shekels.

12 Silver bowls, or basons, each weigh 1 = ing 70 shekels J

Making

in

the whole

2-100

SECT.

I.]

NADAB

ATND ABIHU.

SFIELOMITH.

FIRST CENSUS.

of the glory of (>od, with which it was filled,(c) and he heard the voice of the Lord speaking to him from betweeu the cherubim on the mercy-seat, placed upon the ark of the covenant, and giving- him farther directions as to the service of the sanctuary and of the
Levites.(d)

ing to be made for them; but ordered their bodies to be carried immediately out of the camp, and buried in their clothes, just as they

had died.
first

About the same time, that is, during the month of this year, the son of an .Egyptian, by an Israelitish woman, whose name
was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the of Dan, was stoned to death for some
divine

dedications and offerings, on the fourteenth day of the first namely, month (Abib) the passover was kept; on this occasion, certain men, being defiled by touching a dead body, applied to Moses, to know whether they might, under their circumstances, be permitted to celebrate the festival, and make an offering at the appointed season. Moses inquired of the Lord, and was answered in the affirmative; and an extension of time was also given in favour of such as might by any unavoidable necessity be prevented from keeping the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month and they were to keep it on the same day of the second month, on pain of being cut off from the congregation, in case
;

The day after these

tribe

irreverent use of the

name while
first

con-

tending with an

Israelite. (g)

2d Month ( [jar, or ZifJ\ Year 2 of the Exodus. J

On

the

day of the

second month, Moses, under the divine direction, ordered a census of the people to be taken ;(h) in performing which, twelve chief men, or princes, were
appointed to take the numbers of their respective tribes, and to verify the pedigrees of the families and the individuals belonging to them. The women, children, and males under twenty years of age, were not taken into the account, as being unable to go out to war neither were the Levites, because they were appointed to
;

of neglect.(e) It was during the festivities of this first month of the second year, that the catastrophe of Nadab and Abihn, the sons of Aaron, occurred these men, who had been consecrated priests with their father, took each his censer, and put incense therein, to offer it before the Lord ; but instead of burning it with the celestial fire, which was preserved upon the altar, they took fire of their own kindling, contrary to the command of God. The divine anger was hereupon excited against them, and fire went out from the Lord, and slew them.(f) As this was a punishment incurred by their own transgression, Moses forbade any mourn:

ecclesiastical duties

yet the*

sum

of those

who

were numbered as capable of bearing the sword, amounted to 603,550, in the following
proportions
1. 2.
3.
4.
:

Reuben Simeon

Gad
Judah
Zebulon

5. Issachar. 6.

7.
8.

Ephraim Manasseh
Benjamin

9.

10. Dan 11. Asher 12. Naphtali

46,500 59,300 45,650 74,000 54,400 57,400 40,500 32,200 35,400 62,700 41,500 53,400
603,550

Which, reduced toTroy weight, is equal to 1393oz."lOdwts >at5s. per oz.:z383 23 7'T grs.. 12 Golden spoons, or censers,! = :12 shekcls
!

d.

At this time, also, the (d) Numb. vii. 89. viii. 1, et seq. ceremonies, contained in the book of Leviticus, are supposed to have been dictated.
(e)

each weighing JO shekels,! Which, reduced to Troy weight, is equal to 69 oz. 13 dwts Sat
'.

"

Numb.

ix.

14.

4 peroz.=320 14

This fire was probably (f) Levit. x. 1, et seq. tric spark, commonly called lightning, which
victim without injury to what surrounds diate contact.
ttf
it,

the eleckills
its

if

not in imme-

IS^grs
Making a
total

of

703

It;

To this value in gold and silver, are to be added the 252 bea?ts for sacrifice, viz. 12 bullocks, 72 rams, 72 lambs, 12 kids, 24 oxen, and 60 goats; besides the 24 oxen tor
draught.
(c)

The particular nature of 16, 23. (g) Levit. xxiv. 10 this unhappy culprit's transgression, is difficult to be disin our translation ; but it covered : it is called
blasphemy

may have been

nr an

either a breach of the third

unlautul tailing upon, or swearing by, the

tli
I

commandment, name of

some
(li)

->f

deity.
i.

JEW.

xl.

34, 35.

Numb.

4x2

passim.

692

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

these,

[CHAP, xviir.

two-thirds are supposed to have been married, which skives about 402,350 lor the number of married women; and if live children under 20 years of age, or women unmarried above that age, be taken as the

Of

each family, they will make 3,QH,70; to which must' be added the mixed from muliitude(i) (hat came with the Israelites not less than 20,000: hence Eiiypt, probably the whole number of persons in the camp, exclusive of the Levites, appears to have been
average
for
:

Males, above 20 years of age

Marred women

603,550 402,350

" Children, unmarried women, and P er } o oil 750 sous under 20 j

nacle occupied an area of 100 cubits in length, and -30 in breadth this was the court of the tabernacle, or camp of the Lord, having a space of 50 cubits in breadth on each side. Then came the camp of the Levites, divided into four bodies, viz. on the cast, the pavilions of Moses and Aaron, with the tents of the priests of Aaron's family; on the west, the families of the Gershonites, 7-300 in number, of whom 20:30 were between the ages of 30 and 30, (k) devoted to the service of the tabernacle, under Eliasaph, the son of Lael their duty was to take care of the coverings and hangings of the tabernacle. (1) Ou the south, the Kohathues, in number So'OO, of whom 27-30 were between
; :

The mixed

multitude

20,000
.3,037,650

Total

30 and 50, and lit for service, under Elizaphan, the son of Uzziel, who were to carry the ark, the table, the candlestick, the altars, and the
vesstj ls.(m)

This census was succeeded by two others, of a minor description ; the one, of all the first-bora males, from a month old and the other, of the Levites from the upwards; same age. The former were devoted to the Lord, according to that law which, in commemoration of the slaying the tirst-born of the Egyptians and the preservation of those of born to God; and the
Israel, prescribed the dedication of the firstlatter were appointed to

number

redeem them. (j) In this numbering, the firstborn amounted to 22,273, and the Levites, who were numbered from a month old, to 22,000; which last number, added to the 3,037,050, as given above, makes the total of
the population of the Israelites, 3,059,050, besides what may be allowed for the Levites'
wives.

the north, the Merarites, in of whom 3200 were bet\\ 6'200, the ages of 30 and 50, under Zuriel, the son of Abihail to whom was committed die care of the boards, bars, pillars, &c. of the tabernacle, with such other vessels as did not belong All to the province of the Kohathites. (n) under the superintendence of these were After the Eleazar, the son of Aaron. (o) came the other tribes, in four large Levites, encampments, parallel to them, each camp That of Judah, consisting of three tribes.
;

On

either

because

it

was

most

considerable,

mustering 74,o'00 fighting men, or in consideration of the sceptre, or Messiah, being proto it,(p) had the post of honour, and was encamped on the east side, behind the priests; their leader, or prince, was Aahshon, the son of Amminadab, and their auxiliaries

mised

To preserve regularity and order among so vast a multitude, the Almighty, about this time, gave directions as to the form of the camp, and the position to be occupied by each 1 he plot was a square, or rather an tribe. oblong, with the tabernacle in the midst, surrounded by the Levites, round about whom the other tribes were encamped. The taberNum'i. xi. 4. '1 Ins m ,\<>d multitude, of Egyptians and others, who had formed family alliances with the lsra< hie*, ;ind the issue of sueh all i;nces. Such were the husband and son of Shelo(i)

were the tribes of Issachar, amounting to 54,400 men, under Nethaneel, the son of Zuar; and Zebulun, 57,400 in number, under These their captain Eliab, the son of Melon. were appointed to lead the van, in their marches and after them came the camp of Reuben, which pitched on the south hide, under the command of Eli/ur, the son of
fighting
;

Erod. xu. 38

probably,
;

consisted

to be initiated at twenty-five, conformably to the ordinance, \umti. viii. 28 20. In after-times they were taken into

the service at the age of twenty,

it

Chroti. xxiii.

24

though

is

doubtful whether any more than an extension of their

is

inith, |N
(.))

spoken
iii.
1

of.
I

noviliate state
18.
(1)

there intended.
iv.
iv. iv.

Numb.
It

(k) at

hr.' t,

40, ftseq. was only betwefu 'he** a.;i's, that the Levites could, -i"' lawfully perform the servue ot the talieinai. le
:

Auiab.

'

iv.

3; though, according

to the

iUhbm.-, they

23 26. (m) \itHib. iii. 29 31 37. (n) Numb. iii. 33 (p) Gen. xlix. 10.
iii.

Numb.

38
34

41.
- :)7.

45

48.

(o) Jfitmb.

iii.

32.

SECT.

i.J

ENCAMPMENT OF THE
;

TRIBES,

AND THEIR STANDARDS.

93

Shedeur.
ing captain
IIH'.I

This tribe consisted of 40,500 fightand Simeon, with 5y,300, under their
Sh* Inniiel, the

But the disposition and probable extent of the camp will be best understood by a reference
to the Plate.

son of /'urishaddai,

and Gad, with 45,050, under Eliasaph, the sou of Keuel, or Deuel, inarched under the same banner. Next iu order, was the camp of Ephraim, which pitched on the ivest side, under its captain Klishama, the son of Ammihud. This tribe consisted of 40,500 fighting men, and under the same banner marched Manasseh, 32,200 in number, under their captain Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur; and Benjamin, in number 35,400, under Abidan,
Last of all came the the son of Gideoni. camp of Dan, which encamped on the north. r l his tribe, which was under Ahiezer, the son of Amniishaddai, contained 02,700 warriors, and under the same standard were the tribes of Asher 41,500 strong, under Pagiel, the son of Ocran; and that of Naphtali, with 58,400 warriors, under Ahira, the son of Enan.(q) Such was the general disposition of the tribes; but of the space occupied by each, and the interval between the several ranks, the an inspired historian has not informed us omission that has given rise to various conjectures. The Jews say the camp was 12 miles in circumference, which is not improbable ; consequently, the front of each wing must have been three miles in extent: though, when we take into the calculation the room occupied by the tents, the cattle, &c. it will appear that a circumference of 12 miles is scarcely suffiHowever this may be, it is evident that cient. the Israelitish camp consisted of three principal divisions: 1. The tabernacle, or throne of God; the least, indeed, in extent, but the most powerful this may with propriety be denominated the camp of the Lord. 2. The
;
:

Those four large bodies, viz. Judah, consistReuben, containing ing of 186,400 men; 151,450; Ephraim, comprising 108,100; and Dan, which included 157,550; had each a general standard, to which their respective tribes, or companies, were to repair; under these were twelve others, one belonging to each tribe particularly and subordinate to these were the banners of the heads of fami;

Moses has not lies, fifty-seven in number .(t) recorded what were the colours, emblems, or devices of these standards and banners but the rabbins have, as usual, endeavoured to
;

supply the omission, in the following manner

Judah, say they, had the emblem ofalion,(n) with the motto, Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered.(v) This was painted of three colours, on the standard. (vv) Reuben's ensign had the figure of a man; to which some add the figure of a mandrake, in allusion to those he found when a boy. (x) That of was an ox, or a calf; which seems Ephraim to be taken from the words of Moses' blessing to that tribe; "His glory is like the firstTo the tribe of Dan, ling of his bullock. "(y) an eagle ; which agrees neither with they give the blessing of Jacob, who compares him to a serpent [cerastes] in the w/,(/) nor to that of Moses, who likens him to a lions irhelp:(&)

however, to make their emblem agree with the former of these prophetical blessings, they say, the eagle was painted with a serpent in his talons.(b) Others, among these writers, to Judah the emblem of a lion, with the give
in order,

pr texts and Levites, surrounding The camp of the people, which took in all ihe other tribes, who were at least about a mile from the tabernacle :(r) all which corresponded with the Holy of Holies, the Holy Place, and the Outward Court, of the

camp of
the
first.

the

3.

inscription already quoted; to Issachar, an ass, agreeably to Jacob's metaphor ;(c) to Reuben, a river; to Simeon, a, sti'ord; to Gad, a lion; to Ephraim, an unicorn; to Manasseh, an ox; to Benjamin, a wolf; to Ashur, a handful of

are taken

corn; aini to Naphtali, a stag-: all of which from the blessings of Jacob and

Moses.(d)

temple

subsequently
ii.

built

at

Jerusalem,

(s)

As we

are

now upon

the subject of the eu-

(q)
(r)

Numb.

131.

Jnsrphus, Antiq. lib. iii. cap. 4, says, the nearest approach the people dared make to the ark, except during the time of worship, was a distance of 2000 cubits. (s) Ain^wwrth. (t) Numb. ii. xxvi. passim,
(u) (v)

Gen.

xlix. 0.
Ixviii. 1.

Ptalm

Cabal. Histor. ap. (w) Ita. R. R. Jonath. Abr. Ben Levi. Cunacum. (y) Deut. xxxiii. 17. (x) Gen. xxx. 14. See before, p. 370. (z) Gen. xlix. 17. (a) Deut. xxxiii. 22. Numb. ii. (b) A ben Ezra, et Fag. in Deut. Gen. xlix. 14. (d) Gen. xlix. (c)

C94

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

its

[CHAP, xviir.

campruent, it may not be improper, though a little out of the order of time, to speak of the march of the Israelites. In decamping, whilst in the wilderness, the first thing they had to observe, was the signal from the cloud which hung over, or enveloped the tabernacle this
;

was raised up, when they were to depart, and moved before them, till they were again to
pitch their tents.(e) As soon, therefore, as this signal was observed, it was made known throughout the camp, by the priests blowing two silver other uses, by trumpets, constructed for that and the express command of God;(f) and prepa-

readiness for the reception of the ark, against arrival on the shoulders of the Kohathites ; so that every thing was done with perfect regularity, and without confusion. now return to Moses, whom we left busy numbering the people, in the 2d month of the 2d year of the Exodus; about which time he received a visit from his father-in-law Jethro,

We

who brought with him

his

daughter Zipporah,

rations were immediately made for removing. At the first sound of the trumpets, the Levites began to dismantle the tabernacle, and to pack up the furniture belonging to it; when they were quite ready, a second sound gave notice to all who bore arms to repair to their several

two sons, Gershom and Eliezer.(h) Zipporah and her sons had been sent back by Moses, when on his way to Egypt, about 18 months before, probably that they might be at a distance from the fatigues and dangers which might attend his enterprise of delivering Israel. This visit, and the restoration of his-wife and sons, gave Moses the utmost satisfaction, and new festivities took
the wife of Moses, and her
place, in the course of which, Jethro, in his quality of priest, offered a burnt-offering and other sacrifices to God, in grateful acknowledgment of the divine goodness towards his son-in-law, and the people to whom he be-

standards, whilst the invalids, women, dren, and carriages, moved towards the rear. third sound was then given, and the tribe of Judah, at the head of its auxiliaries, Issachar and Zebulim, belonging to the eastern camp,
chil-

march, and were followed, according began to the general opinion, by the Gershonites and Merarites, with the waggons laden with the
to

longed, in delivering them from Pharaoh and the Egyptians; declaring, that now he KNEW "Jehovah to be greater than all gods; for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, He was

boards,

pillars, coverings,

&c. belonging to the

tabernacle.

On

its auxiliaries,

the southern
hathites,

Reuben and Simeon and Gad, marched from camp then followed the Kothe fourth sound,
;

above them." While Jethro abode in the Israelites' camp, he observed the people continually flocking to Moses, either for instruction, or to have his

bearing the ark, altar, table, candlestick, and other sacred utensils, on their shoulders ; and guarded by the tribes of Ephraim, with its auxiliaries, Manasseh and Benjamin, who began to march on the trumLast of all, on the pets' sounding a fifth time. sixth sound, came the tribes of Dan, Ashur,

judgment

in the various

causes that arose be-

tween them. In this occupation, Moses was engaged from morning to night; and Jethro, who was a sagacious and prudent man, could not but perceive that so weighty a charge was He therefore too much for one person to bear.
represented to his son-in-law, that a perseverance in this practice would infallibly impair his own energies of body and mind, while the patience of the people would be exhausted in waiting for his decision. To avoid these evils, therefore, he recommended the appointment of a competent number of elders, to be elected from the respective tribes, who should help him to bear a part of the burden ; and who, by dishould administer more vitling his labours, speedy justice to the applicants. This advice

and Naphtali, escorting the women, invalids, luggage, and cattle. When the ark was taken

up by the

said aloud, " Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee, flee before thee!" and when they set it down, he said, " Return,

priests,

Moses

unto the many thousands of Israel. "(g) order of marching, it seems, the From Gershonites and Merarites had sufficient time
this

O Lord,

to put

up the tabernacle, and get

all

things in

(e)

Etod.

xl.

30, 37.

Numb.

ix.

1723.
These words of Moses

(f) (g)

Numb. Numb.

\. I, et seq.

are slill used by the Jews, law from its repository, and
(h)

when they take the roll of when they replace it there.

the

x.

1328,

35, 36.

Etod.

xviii. 1, et seq.

16

SRCT.

i.]

SUBORDINATE RULERS APPOINTED. SEVENTY ELDERS.

695

after consultthe people,(i) he appointed rulers of thouing sands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens, for deciding in lesser controversies, reserving to himself only the graver matters of laws and ordinances, with the power of Soon revising the decrees of the other rulers.

was approved of by Moses, and,

after this, Jethro took his leave, and returned to the land of Midian, contrary to the earnest

who wished him to and promised that he should partake in all their good fortunes.(j) The Israelites had now 2d Month, (Ijar orZj/jl Year 2 of the Exodus. J lain encamped in the wilderness of Sinai eleven months and twenty days,(k) when, on the twentieth clay of thp second month of the second year, the cloud was removed from off the tabernacle, and they
solicitation

of Moses,

remain with

Israel,

ning) into their uttermost borders, and consumed many of them but on their crying to Moses, he entreated for them, and the judgment was staid. In memory of this event, the place was called Taberah, or burning.(n) From this fresh instance of C 13th Station, the people's discontent and 1 Kibroth-hattaavah. stubbornness, Moses began to find that the weight of government was still too heavy for him, notwithstanding the assistance he derived from the newly appointed magistrates; he there;

fore presented his complaint to God, manded him to select seventy of the

who commost conof

siderable of the elders of Israel,

men

known

wisdom and

integrity, to

whom

should be im-

Avere

commanded to take their journey towards the mount of the Amorites, a place in the south of Canaan, with renewed assurances that they should be put into possession of the promised land,(l) and that their dominion should not fall short of the extent promised on former occasions.
Taberah

^he
days'

J sraeu t es

na d gone but three

to

journey, when they began

a portion of liis spirit, and to erect them parted into a supreme court, that they might share his burden. (o) While Moses was taking measures for this appointment, or, indeed, rather before his'application, the mixed multitude, which had accompanied the Israelites from Egypt, began to excite new troubles in the camp, by speaking contemptuously of the manna, with which they were daily fed, and regretting the fish and other dainties they had formerly enjoyed in Egypt ; this soon wrought upon the minds of the Israelites, who, joining in their dis-

murmur, on what account is not stated ;(m) it was sufficient, however, to excite the anger of
the Lord,

murmured also against Moses, that he did not give them flesh to eat;(p) decontent,
claring

who
xviii.

sent out a

fire

(probably

light.

that

their

souls

lothed

the

manna.

(i)

Exod.

13

26; comp. Deut.

i.

918.

(j)

(k)
(1)

Numb. \. -2932. Comp. Exod. xix. 1, Numb. x. 11. Comp. Numb. x. 11, 12, Deut. i. 6-8.

(in) Jeroni conjectures, that it was on account of the Moses speaks of it as length and difficulty of the way. " great and terrible wilderness;" Deut. i. 1J). being across a

The

place (Taberah) where this commotion happened, is not enumerated, Numb, xxxiii. among the 42 stations, and some writers suppose it to be the same with Kihrolh-hattaavah, while others conceive the three days' journey to have been to the latter place, where the Israelites halted, and that the affair at Taberah occurred by the way.
(n) (o)

Numb. xi. 1 3. The Jewish Rabbins

consider this assembly of seventy

;

elders, as the origin of their great council of the Sanhedrim and they labour to prove that it existed without any inter-

mission fioin the time of this first appointment by Moses, to the destruction of Jerusalem by THUS; a pe;'u.d of 10GO drotius, and sou e other Christian-, have also given years,
but it seems to bi no better founded than many other of the Rabbinical traditions. Had such a court continued to exist in the limes ot the Judge.; and tin Kings, or in the days of Ezra and Nehemiab, it would surelv
in to this opinion
:

have been noticed by some of the sacred writers but no traces of such a council are to be discovered in their narrations. The imparting of a portion of the spirit of Moses to the seventy elders, the Jews compare to a candle lighting a number of others, without impairing its own luminousness.t Origen and Thcodoret have also adopted tJiis comparison. (p) On a former occasion, it has been seen, when the manna first fell in the morning, in the wilderness of Zin, the eighth station, about a \t-ar before the time now in question, sent (or promised) in the evening* an(J quails had also been if the history in f'>at place be not an anticipation of vthat is about to follow, it may be supposed, that the number of beasts sacrificed during the encampment at Sinai, had supplied the Israelites with a sufficiency of animal food; or that, whilst they abode at that station, they were allowed to kill their cattle lor their own ui-e, the place, and their long residence in it, yielding opportunity for an increase of stock: a privilege withheld from them during their march through
;

On this account, the supply of birds might have ceased, which occasioned tlieir present disconIt is, however, rather probable, that Moses has, in the tent. tirst instance, blended the miraculous supply of quails with and that the people that of IIMIIIUI, out ot due order of time to Kibrolh-batlaavah, the .eii on manna alone till they came
the barren desert.
;

Selcli-n,

Grot. Comment. |w.s. and lie Jur. Bell el I'm: cap iii. art Dt Hi/nedr, Vei. llebraur. lib ii. cap. 13 ; and L jjluloor, liar,

Uiiiniuiclbar

Kabbah, et Targ. Juimth.

j|.

in loc.

llt.br.

Sec btloic,

68'.'.

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

This rebellion appears to have been conducted without tumult, and to have consisted of sullen
complaints, accompanied even \\nli \\eeping, AVhen Moses became acquainted in the tents. \vilh this defection, he went, in great distress of mind, and laid his case before the Lord.

[CHAP.

win.

door of the tabernacle, where they were all tilled with a portion of his spirit, so that they began to prophesy, exhorting the people to be quiet, and to trust in the good providence of God.

In reply, God was pleased to promise, that he wou'd send meat for the people, that they

That same night, a strong wind began to blow, which was followed, on the morrow, with an immense flight of quails, which came from the sea about the camp, and for several
miles round, in such numbers, that the people occupied the remainder of that day, with the whole of the next, and the intervening night, The birds, fatigued with a in catching them. not able, on reaching the long flight, were to soar above two cubits from the

might eat, not merely for a single day, nor for any given number of days, but, till they should be satiated, so as to lotbe it. Moses was. in this iustauce, as backward to believe, as when he first received his commission but he obtained fresh assurances, that what had been promised should come to pass on In the menu timo, ho wun comthe morrow.

camp,

ground, so that they were easily

the Israelites,
clubs.(q)

caught

by

manded
station

to

bring

the

seventy elders to the

knocked down with their The least quantity taken amounted

or
is certain," continues this writer, time that the south wind begins to which is in April, that many of these

when they were first, and In tact, the increwith quails. only tortlr.it time, supplied dulous language of Moses, when (iod promised to give them tlesli to eat, amounts to little short of proof, that lie had not
where we now
find them,

flight " that

northwards.
it

"

It

is

about

this

blow in Egypt, migratory birds return.

before witnessed the miracle of the quails, and thru- toncould not conceive how the promise should he accomplished. idea is, that they fell in such multitudes (q) The common as to lie two cubits thick upon the ground, agreeably to the " two cubits the h'njli UPON the face of English translation earth;" where the word high has heen supplied, contrary to the sense of the original Hebrew, which is much better expressed in the Vulgate: volabanlquc i;. tit re tluobus cubitis " altitudine super terrain .; they flew in the air, two cubits

they

Maillet, who joins i/utiils and turtles together, and says that they appear in Kgypt when the cold begins to be felt in Europe, does not indeed tell \is when but Theveuot may be said to do it for, after return
: :

reader that they catch snipo in Kgypt, from January to March, lie adds, that in May they catch turtles; and that the turtles return in September: now as (bey go

he had told

his

high

ABOVE

the ground."

Ludolf,* Patrick, Scheuehzcr,

and other learned commentators, have supposed that the O'lbu? (SHCLOVIM) sent on this extraordinary occasion, were not quails, but locusts, which are not only in great
plenty in Arabia as well as all over Africa, but are likewise esteemed delicious food. But if this were the fact, how could they be called flesh, and featliercd fowls, as the Psalmist! expresses himself; Bishop 1'atric'k was led to

together in September, we may believe that they return northward about the same time: agreeably to which, Dr. KuvM-1 tells us, that quails appear in abundance about If natural history were Aleppo, in spring and autumn. more perfect, we might speak to this point with great distinctness
;

at
ti>

present,

however,

it

is

so

jar from

belntj

an

suppose them
their

immense

two cubits Wing spread drying; which latter circumstanci la- thinks, would have been preposterous, had they been quails, as it would only have made them corrupt the sooner, while ii is, as he states, the principal way of preparing locusts, to keep for a month, or more, when they are boiled, or otherwise dressed. But
,

to be locusts, from their coming by a wind ; quantities, covering a circle of 30 or 40 miles, in the sun for thick; and their

being tjtMils, that their coiiiiini tens cinised. by a wind, that nothing is more natural. The same \\ind would, in course, occasion sickness and mortality among The mlrncnthe Israelites; at least it does so in Egypt. Inusncss, then, in this story, does not lie in their dying, but in the prophet's foretelling, with exactness, the coininri of the wind, and in the prodigious numbers of the quails that came with it; together with the tinusituliicss of the place,
objection
tlicir

perhaps,

Mr. HarmerJ has removed these difficulties, and vindicated the common version, by shewing, 1. That turtles, quails, and other birds, pass into Kgypt in great numbers, as soon as the cold is felt in Europe ; but as their flight is less numerous iu those years when the winters are favourable in that rather necessity than habit, that quarter, it appears to be constrains them to change their habitation; and, if so, it equally appears that the increasing heat causes their return; consequently, the hot sultry winds from the south, must
have had considerable effect upon them,
in

'2. where they alighted." Josephus supposed be quails, which, he says, are in greater numbers thereabouts, than any other kind of birds and that having crossed the sea to the camp of Israel, they i^who in common nearer the ground than most other birds') flew so low, fly through the fatigue of their passage, as to be within reach of This explains, what he thought was meant by the Israelites. their flying within the two cubits from the face if the earth And when i read Dr. three or four feet of the ground. Shaw's account of the way in which the Arabs frequently catch birds that they have tired, that is, by running in upon them, and knocking them down with their -enrtitti/s, or 1 think 1 almost see the bludgeons, as we should call them

"

them

to

Israelites before

directing their

quails."
eiiNoru)
blasts.

me, pursuing the poor fatigued and languid " The Arabs of Barbary, who have not many
or feathered faint
;

Stf his Trcotite on Locusts, at the end of the Appendix to his Description
of Aliiftiinia. t Ptaln luviii.

icingcd

iTTV

(Tzeoaii)

u'iW fouls

or

18, 80, *7.

-(Nltf

(suegn) jiesh;

^33

f|y/

(firu

$ Obicrvatious

on divert Passagts of Scripture.

SECT,

i.]

SUPPLY OF QUAILS. SEDITION OF AARON AND MIRIAM.

about 80 bushels, English
;

to ten homers, or

they had therefore an abundant supply for a Their month, as they had been promised. first care was to glut themselves with this food after which they began to preserve the remainder for use, which was probably done,
;

be expected, even in the family For Miriam and Aaron, his sister and brother, endeavoured to turn the people against him, partly by uncandid allusions to his marriage with a foreigner,(t) and partly by
it

was

least to

of Moses.

according to the present practice of the Arabs, by burying them for a few minutes in the
scorching sand. In the midst of their feasting, however, a great number of them were smitten with a sore disease, brought on, it should seem, by eating to excess, which carried them off, as it were with the meat in their mouths and in memory of this punishment, and the
:

alienating the people's minds, exciting discontent at his government, and insinuating that

much upon him, considering that had now among them other prophets, they and in particular themselves, through whom the divine will had been revealed. (u) This
he took too
could not

made no

but greatly afflict Moses, but he complaint. The Lord, however, who would not suffer his servant to be thus calum-

unreasonable desire that had occasioned it, the place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, or the graves of' lust. (r) Leaving this unhappy place, they went for14th Station, | Hazeroth. j

to

ward

to

Ha7.eroth,(s)

and there

niated and set at nought, appeared suddenly them to all the three, and commanded come to the door of the tabernacle, where, after declaring the faithfulness of Moses to his charge, God struck Miriam with leprosy.

a scliism arose, in a quarter where

Aaron, beholding his sister in this condition,

For such a quantity of either quails or locusts, would have made the clearing of places for spreading them out, and the passing of Israel up and down in the neighbourhood " The of the cairtp, very fatiguing ; which is not supposed." a day's journey, to be 16 or 20 miles, and Bishop supposes thence draws his circle with a radius of that length ; but Dr. Shaw, on another occasion, makes a day's journey but 10 miles, which would make a circle of but 20 miles diameter;
it.

" Maillet relates, conveniences, do the same thing still." 3. that on a little island, which covers one of the ports of Alexandria, the birds annually alight, which go thither for So large refuge, to avoid the severity of European winters. a quantity of all sorts is taken there, that after these little birds have been stripped of their feathers, and buried in the burning sands for about half a quarter of an hour, they are worth but two sols the pound. The crews of those vessels, which in that season lie in the harbour of Alexandria, have no other meat allowed them. Among other refugees of that time, Maillet elsewhere expressly mentions quails, which arc this manner. This pastherefore, I suppose, treated after sage then explains the design of spreading these creatures,
supposing they were quails, round about the camp : it was to dry them in the burning sands, in order to preserve them So Maillet tells us of the drying fish in the sun for use. of Egypt, as well as of their preserving others by means of Other authors speak of the Arabs drying camel's pickle. flesh in the sun and wind, which, though it be not at all salted, will, if kept dry, remain good a long while, and which oftentimes, to save themselves the trouble of dressing, they will eat raw. This drying, then, of flesh in the sun, is not
so preposterous as the Bishop imagined. On the other hand, none of the authors that speak of their way of preserviag locusts in the East, so far as I can at present recollect, give any account of their drying them in the sun. They are, according to Fellow, first purged with water and salt, boiled in new pickle, and then laid up in dry salt. So, Dr. Russel says, the Arabs eat these insects when fresh, and also To these observations, may be salt them up as a delicacy." added the following, as farther illustrating the subject, from " Their immense the same author: quantities forbid the
i

and as the text evidently designs to express it very indiscriminately, as it were a day's journey, it might be much less. But it does not appear to me at all necessary to suppose the text intended their covering a circular, or nearly a circular spot of ground ; but only that these creatures appeared on both sides of the camp of Israel, about a day's
journey.

The same word is used Exod. vii. 24, where round about, can mean only on each side of the Nile. And so it may be a little illustrated by what Dr. Shaw tells us, of the three flights of storks, which lie saw when at anchor under mount Carmel, some of which were more scateach of which took tered, others more compact and close up more than three hours in passing, and extended itself more than half a mile in breadth. Had this flight of quails been no greater than these, it might have been thought, like
;

them, to have been accidental ; but so unusual a flock, as to extend lit or 20 miles in breadth, and to be two days and one night in passing, and this in consequence of the declaration of Moses, determined that the finger of God
plainly

was there."
This was a place in the open three days' journey village : it was from Sinai; consequently, there were three intermediate stations, one of which was Taberah, mentioned Numb. xi. 3,
(r)

Numb.

xi.

434.

desert, not a city,

nor a

Bishop [Dr. Patrick] believing they were quails: and, in truth, he represents this difficulty in all its force ; perhaps, too forcibly. circle of 40 miles in diameter, all covered

but omitted in the general itinerary, other two are not named at all.
(s)

Numb,

xxxiii. 16.

The

According to Dr. Shaw,

Sinai.

this

place was about 30 miles

with quails, to the depth of more than 43 inches, without doubt, is a startling representation of this matter; and I would beg leave to add, that the like quantity of locusts would have been very extraordinary. But then this is not the representation of Scripture : it does not eveu agree with

from

of Reuel, or Jethro, priest of (t) Zipporah, the daughter In Numb. xii. 1, she Midian, Ejcod. ii. 1521, xviii. 1, 2. is called aCushite, which our version has rendered Ethiopian,
(u)

Numb.

xii.

VOL.

I.

4u

passim.

608

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

one of their staves, and brought
it

[CHAP. xvni.

immediately besought Moses, whom, though his younger brother, and himself the highpriest, he most respectfully addressed with the
title

between two

upon

their shoulders.

On

their return to the

camp, they made their

of

My

she might
plied,

lord, to intercede with God, that be restored to health. Moses com-

and obtained her pardon, but only on condition that she should be excluded seven days from the camp, conformably to the law

respecting lepers. (v)

of Miriam's purifica15th Station, 1 Rithmah. j tion having expired, the Israelites removed to Rithmah, in the wilderness of Paran, and neighbourhood of Kadesh-bar-

The time

report to Moses and Aaron, in the presence of the elders and all the people. They began with extolling the richness of the land, displaying at the same time the huge bunch of grapes, with some of the finest pomegranates, figs, and other fruits but as soon as they observed that their brethren began to evince an eagerness to take possession of so desirable a country, ten
:

Here Moses, after apprizing them nea.(w) that they were come to the mountain of the
Amorites, ordered them, without take possession of it, as the Lord manded. But the people, always wished rather to send out spies, to
delay,
to

had comself-willed,

survey the country, and bring them back word of its fruitfulness, and the strength of its inhabitants.(x) In other words, they were terrified at the magnitude of the undertaking, and resorted to this subterfuge, that they might gain time to allay But as they distrusted the power their panic. of God, who had brought them, in the course of about eighteen or twenty months, through difficulties and dangers otherwise insurmountable, they were suffered to follow their own counsel, which not only increased their fears,

of them, changing their note, represented its conquest as a thing impossible, by reason of the strength of the fortified towns, and the warlike manners and gigantic stature of the inhabitants; in comparison of whom, said they, " we appeared but as grasshoppers."(z) Joshua and Caleb, however, persisted in the contrary representation, but they could obtain no hearing, so loud were the outcries of the people, first
against

JEHOVAH

Moses and Aaron, and at length against himself, by whom, they blasphemously declared, they had been betrayed, and

brought into the desert to fall by the sword, that their wives and children might become a

but ended in their destruction. Agreeably, therefore, to their desire, the Lor-d commanded Moses to collect twelve men, heads of families, one from each tribe, and to send them to search the land. Moses did so, and, among the rest,

Oshea, or Joshua, the son of Nun, was selected for the tribe of Ephraim, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, for that of Judah.(y) These twelve, having received their commission, went privately, and took a view of the whole land, examined the strength of its cities and inhabitants, the nature and fertility of its soil, &c. and used such dispatch, that they performed
mission in forty days. In returning through the valley of Eshcol, to the other specimens of the fruits they had collected, they added an immense cluster of the grapes with which the place abounded, so large, that to prevent its being bruised, they threw it over
their
L"v.

prey to the surrounding nations. In this mood, they continued the whole night ; and the next morning, in a tumultuous assembly, it was proposed and agreed that they should elect themselves a captain, under whom they might return to Egypt. Overcome with grief, and probably filled with inward horror at the judgment they foresaw this rebellion would incur, Moses and Aaron, unable to speak, fell upon their faces before all the assembly but Joshua and Caleb, while they rent their clothes in token of their sorrow, endeavoured to tranquillize the multitude, by telling them of the excellency of the country, which they described as flowing with milk and honey they also reminded them of the promise of God, that it should be their's, and of his faithfulness to those who were obedient endeavoured to convince them, that notwithstanding the apparent strength of the cities and the inhabitants, they were really without de; ; ;

fence, while they, the Israelites, had nothing to because the almighty God was fear,

with them. Reasonings like these, however, were not to be attended to the infuriated mul;

(v)

xiii.

xiv.
xii.

(x)

Drut.

i.

22.
1, et seq.

i.

(w) Comp. 19, et seq.

Numb.

16.

xiii. 3,

26. xxxiii. 19.

Deut.

(y)
(z)

Numb. Numb,

xiii.

xiii,

2633.

SECT,

i.]

EXCLUSION FROM CANAAN. REPULSED BY THE CANAANITES.

699

to stone them, and would, without doubt, have carried their threat into execution, had not the glory of the Lord at

titude threatened

that

moment appeared,

in the sight of all the

congregation. Their fury was now turned into fear, while they heard the divine voice speaking to Moses, and telling him that the pestilence should consume those rebels, and that a nation, mightier and stronger than they, should spring from him.

had despised. They were then ordered to return into the wilderness, by the way of the Red Sea. The severity of this sentence was the more deeply felt by the Israelites, from the consideration that they were now on the very borders of the land stung, therefore, by remorse, and ashamed of their cowardice, the next morning they appeared before Moses,
:

completely armed,
that they

and

after

acknowledging

Here the piety and disinterestedness of Moses shone out conspicuously. The promise to himself, he wholly overlooked, while he
pleaded that if Israel should be now destroyed, the Egyptians and other heathens would say, that the Lord was unable to bring them into the promised land, and that therefore he had deHe therefore entreated that stroyed them. be spared, for the honour of God's they might

him, they were now ready to go against the place which the Lord had promised. But Moses replied, that they were still transgressing; for the Lord had said that they should not go thither; and if they attempted, it would turn to their disadvantage. They were not, however, to be diverted from their purpose, on which they were
sinned,

had

they told

now

as fully bent, as, the

day

before, they

had

word

making the promise; and conjured the Almighty, by his divine attributes of long-sufin

and great mercy, to forgive them on this occasion, as he had in times past. This intercession of Moses so far succeeded, that the sentence of immediate death was suspended, except with respect to the ten spies, who had first occasioned the revolt, for they died of the plague, while Moses was interceding. But the crime was of too heinous a nature, not to exact some mark of the divine displeasure upon the whole peowherefore God declared, that none of ple those who were above twenty years of age, save Joshua and Caleb, should ever enter into the promised land ; on the contrary, they should wander in the desert, from place to place, during forty years,(a) according to the number of days in which the spies had searched the land,
fering
:

been determined against the enterprise; and away they went, by themselves, without Moses, and without the ark of the covenant. Their first object was to gain the passes of the neighbouring hills but they found them so well occupied, and themselves, probably, so unused to military tactics, this being onty the second warfare in which they are known to have been engaged, that they were easily repulsed by the Amalekites and Canaanites, who, besides
;

tains, pursued them as far as Hormah ;(b) and in all probability they would have destroyed

making a great slaughter of them

in the

moun-

they were all consumed away by death ; while their children, those little ones, of whom they had said that they should be a prey, should be brought into the land which themselves
till

the whole race, had they not been restrained by a supernatural power. During the long space of thirty-seven years after this event, only two pieces or history(c) respecting the Israelites are recorded, besides the stations where they encamped,(d) but of the time they stopped at each, no record remains. It is only certain, that in all this divine providence displayed itself in interval,
name, there were some others not comprised in it as Moses and Aaron, who were afterwards excluded on another account; together with Eleazar, who succeeded Aaron, and Bat these para few others, chiefly of the tribe of Levi. the ticular exceptions by no means discredit the veracity of In memory of writer, who is speaking in general terms. this rebellion, the Jews still observe an annual fast, on the
;

(a)
in

Numb.

xiv.

passim.

The

inspired

historian

here

makes use of a round number,

which the spies searched the sequel, that the children of these transgressors entered it somewhat short of 39 years* after the sentence was pronounced so that we must take into the account, all the time between the Exodus, and the passage of Jordan, which
;

in allusion to the forty days, the land ; but it will appear in

occupied 40 years, wanting five days, viz. they left Egvpt. on the 15th day of the first month, A.M. 25l3,t and they crossed the Jordan, and entered Canaan, on the 10th day of the first month, A. M. 2553.J It is also to be observed, that though the exclusion excepts only Caleb and Joshua by
*
Coinji.

seventh day of the sixth month, Elul.%

(b)
(c) 32 3fi

Numb. xiv. 4045. The stoning of the

;

sabbath-breaker,

Numb.

xr.

and Koran's

rebellion,

Numb.
xxxiii.

xvi.

pasxim.
30.
ult. sect.

(d) See the catalogue,

Josh. iv. 19.

Numb,

19

Numb,

xxxii. 13.

Dcut.

ii.

14.

Exod.

xii.

Meghilath. Thantth. pail.

14.

4u

-2

700

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

to

[CHAP. xvnr.

a most conspicuous manner, in training the the conquest of rising generation, for whom Canaan was reserved. The miraculous cloud
still continued to direct them, as well as to shelter them from the scorching heat of the

be as holy as they. Moses, surprised at the boldness of this speech, rebuked Korah and
his
for their presumption, in severe referred his cause to God, bidding terms, but them attend the next day at the door of the

company

sun

and the manna was

daily dispensed for

tabernacle,

As to nourishment. uncertain whether they continued to supply them with meat, or whether the people, after the chastisement at Kibroth-hattaavah, conFrom the silence of the tinued to desire it. we may presume, that, with the historian, exception of Korah's rebellion, of which we
their

the quails,

it

is

are about to speak, no very grave offence arose among them collectively ; and we may charitably hope that this long period was passed generally in repentance of their folly, which had excluded them from the earthly Canaan, and in prayer that they might not It was probably finally lose the heavenly. under sonie impression of this kind, that they manifested such a laudable zeal against the sabbath-breaker, whom they brought to Moses, and whom, on the next day, according to his sentence, they led out of the camp, and there stoned and buried him.(e) Where this

with each a censer burning with incense in his hand, when it should be seen whether he and Aaron had obtruded themselves into office, or whether they were divinely appointed. Then addressing himself particularly to Korah, and such of the Levitesas were attached to him, he reproved them for their arrogance and ingratitude, in not being content with the dignity and privileges annexed to their tribe, and in aspiring to the priesthood, which God had expressly reserved for Aaron and his posthe terity. This remonstrance availed nothing retired with a determination to put conspirators the matter to the test on the following morning; and when Moses, soon afterwards, sent pri:

vately for Dathan and Abiram, whom he considered as misled by Korah, in order to argue the case more coolly with them, they not only refused to come, but sent back an insolent mes-

happened,
Jul. Per.

is

not known.

About
*3243.^
,,
.

the

18th

year J ,.

after

*2o33. / Post Dil. *877. >

A M.

anathema, according to the general computation, a most Ann. Exod.* 20. 1 dangerous conspiracy against *1471. J Moses and Aaron was formed by one of the chiefs of the tribe of Levi, and countenanced by some or the most .respectable men in the whole camp, especially of the tribe of Reuben. (f) Korali, the great-grandson
of Levi,
in the line of Izhar, as

their

which they charged him with having decoyed the whole nation out of the rich and fertile land of Egypt, under the pretext of bringing them into a better: instead of which, he only detained them in that barren wilderness, and that to make them greater slaves to him now he had only to put out their eyes, to prevent their seeing more of his ambitious and tyrannic designs than he would wish. Moses, with all his meekness, was not proof against allegations so reproachful and false: he
sage, in
;

appealed to the

Aaron

also

was in that of Amram, unable to behold Aaron and his sons raised to the priesthood without envying their exaltation, drew over a considerable number of persons to his interest,
with a view to transfer that dignity to himself

and his family among these were Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On, the son
:

of Peleth, all chief men among the Reubenites. Assisted by these, and 250 other princes of the Israelites, he began the attack upon Mose and Aaron, with upbraiding them with an inordinate ambition in engrossing all the power into their own hands, to the exclusion of the rest of the congregation, whom he affirmed
(c)

divine presence against its haste suffered an expresinjustice, sion of revenge to escape him " Respect not thou their offering," cried the indignant chief " I to God have not taken one ass from them ; He then reneither have I hurt one of them." his message to Korah, desiring him to peated be ready to appear before the Lord, with Aaron, on the following morning. Accordingly, the next day, at an early hour, Korah, at the head of his 250 princes, each with a brasen censer in his hand, repaired to the door of the tabernacle, where Moses and

and

in his

Aaron were waiting for them and they were followed by all the congregation, either from
;

curiosity to see the event of this remarkable

Numb.

xv.

3236.

(f)

Numb.

xvi. passim.

SECT.

I.]

REBELLION OF KORAH, DATHAN, AND ABIRAM.

At the
Israelites fled

701

contest; or, \vhatismore likely, to assist the No conspirators, should occasion require. sooner were they arrived, than the divine shekina/t, or glory of God, manifested itself in the cloud that hung over the tabernacle, in the and the voice of Jesight of all the people
;

sight of this dreadful visitation, the into the surrounding country, that they might all be likewise apprehensive

hovah was heard from it, commanding Moses and Aaron to separate themselves from the congregation, that the whole assembly might be But, instead of doing so, instantly consumed. Moses and his brother fell upon their faces, and entreated that the whole might not perish for The Lord accepted their one man's sin. intercession, and commanded them to order the congregation to remove from about the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Then Moses, followed by the elders, went to the camp of the Reubenites, to the tents of Dathan and Abiram, probably with a view to exhort them to separate themselves from the company of Korah ; but finding his advice rejected, he admonished the Israelites to remove far away from these wicked men, and not even to touch any thing belonging to them, lest they should be consumed with them in the impending judgment. While he was thus advising the people, Dathan and Abiram came out of their tents, and stood at the entrance, with their wives and children. Moses then addressed the assembly, by telling them, the time was now come, in which they should have an awful proof that he had acted under a divine commission, and not for his own pleasure, or benefit. " If, indeed," said " these men die a common death, then the he, Lord hath not sent me ; but if the Lord create a new thing, and cause the earth to open and swallow them up, with all that belongs to them; then shall ye know that they have rebelled against God himself." Scarcely had the terms of this awful test passed the lips of Moses, when the place was shaken with a horrible convulsion, terrific flashes of lightning darted from the cloud over the tabernacle, appalling peals of thunder roared, the earth clave asunder beneath the tents of Dathan and Abiram, and receiving them, with all their families, and whatever belonged to them, into the abyss, closed upon them ; while Korah and the 250
princes, who had
lightning.(g)
(g)

In the mean time, Eleazar, the the son of Aaron, was commanded to priest, collect the brazen censers of those who had been consumed before the tabernacle, and to beat them into thin plates, to make a covering for the altar, as well because they had been consecrated to the Lord, as to serve for a memorial to future generations, of the judgment inflicted upon the transgressors. When the Israelites had recovered from their fright, they returned to the camp, and, by an

swallowed up.

unaccountable perversity, began to attribute all that had happened to some magic art, practised by Moses and Aaron. On the morrow, therefore, they collected themselves together, and roundly charged them with having " killed the people of the Lord :" as they chose to call
those rebels. The divine glory was hereupon again manifested from the cloud, and God declared that he would consume the congregation in a moment. As on former occasions of this
kind,

Moses and Aaron immediately

fell

upon

their faces, to intercede for the people ; but the plague was gone forth, which Moses perceiving, probably from some inward intimation in

answer

to his prayer, he arose, and desired Aaron to take a censer, with fire from the altar, and incense, and to go quickly among the peoAaron did so, and ple to make an atonement.

running into the midst of the congregation, made an atonement, standing between the dead and the living, so that the plague was stayed but not before 14,700 persons had fallen victims to its power. The rebellion of Korah, there;

fore, and the consequent insurrection, Israelites nearly 15,000 lives.

cost the

From this lirne, the penalty of death wag attached to any one presuming to go into the tabernacle, except the priests and farther to confirm Aaron in his office, the heads of every each an tribe were commanded to bring with their respective names writalmond-rod,
;

upon it. Aaron rod, and they were

ten

also
all

produce his deposited by Moses in

was

to

offered incense, and remained

before the tabernacle, were struck dead by the The

place of this dreadful disaster is not stated seems to be indicated in the name of the twenty;

the tabernacle, before the ark, till the next morning, when, on bringing them forth again, the rod of Aaron was covered with buds, blossoms, and ripe almonds ; while the others had
eighth station, Hor-hagidgad, the passage of cutting or tlie pit of a troop.
off",

but

it

702

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP. xvnr.

undergone no alteration. This was a farther testimony of God's will respecting the priesthood, and the rod was ordered to be laid up in the ark as a memorial of it.(h) We hear no more of the transactions of the
Jul. Per. 3203.

the whole assembly, to SPEAK to it, and water should forthwith flow from it, sufficient for the

Kadesh-barnea, where g?..or the sister of Moses I Miriam, B. C. 1451. 33d Station, j and Aaron, died, and was buZin, orKadesh. It will be rememried.(i) that it was from a station, Rithmah, in bered, this wilderness, about 38 years before, the spies had been sent out; and here it was that
.

^SL,f

Israelites, till the beginning of the fortieth year of their Ex^ I odus, when we find them enAnn. Exod.40. camped in the wilderness of
2553. Post DU. 897.

A.M.

people and their flocks. We have, hitherto, beheld in Moses nothing but meekness, and a patient endurance of reproaches the most unjust, and calumnies the most foul, heaped upon him in the performance of a work, in which his sole object was the glory of God, and the good of his brethren.

When they offended, he was their intercessor; and when the Almighty threatened to cut them ofl', and to make of him a much greater nation, he implored the divine clemency on their behalf, and instead of seeking his own advantage, rather wished that he might be cut off for
their sakes.(j)

But, alas!

human

perfection

the

Israelites,

by

their

murmuring,

lost the

for that time, of entering into the That generation was now promised land. consumed, and their children, grown to nearly
privilege,

bounds, and even Moses, the best of was liable to declension. With his usual men, ingenuousness, Moses speaks of his error, and the punishment that ensued: but with a mohas
its

were once more approaching the borders of the country they had so long deBut they had not yet learned to put sired. their confidence entirely in God, nor had their afflictions wrought in them more patience than they had manifested on former occasions. The
maturity,

desty peculiar to himself, he abstains from entering into the particulars by which it was produced, lest he should appear to be aiming at extenuation: we are therefore left to imagine thecauses that hurried him into the indiscretion, by which he was excluded, after 40 years of

spot where they were now encamped was barand destitute of water; and, in a most insoand tumultuous manner, they assembled about the tents of Moses and Aaron, renewing their old complaints against their leaders for having brought them from Egypt into a barren wilderness, where they could sow no seed, and which yielded neither figs nor vines, pomegranates nor water; and wishing that they also had died with their brethren, who had been cut off before the Lord. As Moses and Aaron did not stand to debate with the multiren, lent

and forbearance, from entering upon the promised land. It has been seen, that when Moses was ordered to collect the congregation together, the people were in a state of absolute insurrection, and in a mood not to be easily pacified. While he was enpainful toil

deavouring to appease the tumult, therefore, and to prevail upon them to follow him to the place where the miracle was to be performed, we may suppose him to have been assailed by
the most virulent speeches ; some refusing to go, others taunting him with inability to per-

tude on this occasion,

it

may

be supposed,

form

his

promise

some

some personal violence was

ened
for they left the and repairing to the bly,
;

offered, or threat-

having

decoyed

them from

vilifying their

him

for

favourite

presence of the assemdoor of the tabernacle, there prostrated themselves with their faces on the ground. At this moment the divine effulgence shone around them, and the Lord commanded Moses to take his rod, the token of his authority, and, with Aaron, to gather the people together before a certain rock in the neighbourhood, and there, in the presence of
(li)
(i)

in Egypt, while others talked of him, and returning back under some stoning leader of their own appointment. Outrages of this nature had already more than once occurred ; and, in particular, in the very desert

bondage

itself

where they were now encamped. The place could not but fill him with mournful

recollections of the catastrophe of the generation which he had formerly led thither, and
and ing to general opinion, about four months before Aaron, Numb. xx. 1, 2229. xxxiii. eleven before Moses. Comp. Deut. i. 3. 38. (j) See Exod. xxxii. 14.

Numb. xvii. passim. Numb. xx. 1. She is supposed

to

have

lived to

about

the age of 130; taking her to be 8 or Moses was born. Sec Exod. ii. 4, 7, 8.

10 years old when She died, accord-

SECT,

i.]

OFFENCE OF MOSES AND AARON. HOSTILITY OF EDOM.

703

who, for a similar rebellion, had been cut off, even after they had reached the borders of Canaan, and had seen something of its fruitThis alone would fulness and rich produce. cause him to fear, lest the present naturally race should also fall short of their promised inheritance; and when fear takes the lead, reflection and reason are turned out of doors. The divine historian has not, as already remarked, made us acquainted with these particulars; but they are such as the general conduct of the Israelites warrant us in deducing; and we may conclude that Moses went to the rock, amid the outrageous clamour of the most refractory multitude that ever existed, broken in spirit tinder a sense of their injustice, fearing the effects of the divine displeasure against them, and stung with their In this hurried state of mind, reproaches. instead of speaking to the rock, he STRUCK it twice with his rod, as he had done on a former occasion; at the same time addressing the " Hear now, assembly in an impassioned tone ye rebels; must WE fetch you water out of this The part that Aaron took in this rock ?" but as he is transaction, is not particularized of jointly with Moses, and was included spoken in the same sentence, we must conclude that he was equally guilty perhaps, as he was to be his brother's spokesman on appointed other occasions, (k) he may have acted as such on this occasion and while Moses struck the rock, he might utter the objectionable words. However this may have been, their error was no impediment to the miracle for the water
:

came out of the rock abundantly, and supplied the people and their cattle ; but the Lord immediately told Moses, that because he and his brother had failed in honouring him before the people, they should both die in the wilderness, instead of bringing Israel into the land, whither they were going. In memory of this tumult, the place was called Meribah, or strife.(Y) On leaving this spot, the most convenient road for the Israelites was through the territories of the Edomites, who dwelt in Kadesh ; but as they were restrained from injuring those people, because, as descendants of Isaac, in the line of Esau, they were brethren,(m) they sent a respectful message to the king, requesting
permission to pass quietly through his lands,

and promising to pay for whatever they should have occasion for. This message was accompanied with a representation of their long sojournment in Egypt, and the wonders

wrought for them in their deliverance; and an appeal to the knowledge of the Edomites

was stated. But the of Edom refused to suffer them to go king through threatening, in case they should and to shew it, to repel them by force attempt that he was in earnest, he drew out his people to watch their motions, and guard against a
for the truth of all that
; ;

surprise.

The

Israelites,

therefore,
/-

tVirned

away, and edging round their coast, till they came to mount Hor, there 3tt h station, pitched their tents, on the fron- ) Mount Hor. tiers of Edom. Here Moses ) Ann. Exod. 40. (-5th Mouth (Ab.) had a painful duty to perform for he was commanded to take Aaron, with
;

(k)
(1)

Exod.

iv.

1416.

13. The name of this place, similar to xx. 2 that given to a former station,* and on nearly a similar occasion, has led several commentators to confound the two

Numb.

actions of striking the rock, as one

really distinct,
:

but that they were

appear from the following con1. The first miraculous supply of water was siderations from the rock of Horeb, part of mount Sinai, while the Israelites were encamped in the wilderness of Sin, at Rephidim, their lltli station, in the second month (Ijar or /,\f) the same place in which of the first year of the Exodus they were attacked by the Amalekites-.t but the second was after the death of Miriam, in the desert of Zin, or of Kadesh, the 33d station, considerably to the north of Sinai, in the very next to which, Aaron died, in the 5th month (Ab} of the 40th ycar.J 2. In the first, Mo*es was ordered to STRUCK the rock; and to strike it with the same rod that he had wsed in performing the wonders in Egypt particularly that
will

clearly

of smiting the river : but in the second, he was commanded " the rod from before to take the Lord;" supposed to be Aaron's, which, with its miraculous produce, we have just seen, was laid up in the tabernacle as a memorial, and which, on this occasion, was to be exhibited merely as an ensign, or token of the divine mission of Moses and Aaron no farther use was, however, to be made of this instrument; for the rock was to be SPOKEN to, and not struck, as in the former case.|| 3. The first happened before the tabernacle was erected in the second instance, Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the door of the taberuacle.lT 4. The
: :

first was performed \vithoutany diffidence, anger, or reproachful words : in the second, Moses smote the rock twice, thereby betraying his inward perturbation, at the same time,

made use of words so unbecoming, and so displeasing to (iod, that he was condemned to die in the wilderness,** after havinii LHii'ld the promised land.
he
(ui
;

Deut.

ii.

8.
||

* See before, p. 633.

t

fcxo,'.

nil 5,6.
.

Numb.

xx. 8, 9,,

Cornp. Exoii.

xvi. 1.

xvii.

Numb.

xx. 1,

a2

i!!.

1,8. xix. 1, 2. wiii.

Xumb,

xixiii.

12

IS.

'
i

Ml xvii. 4.

ATwm&.

xx. 6.

3639.

Vide, Smilcr. juu. Viilct. ti at. in foe.

704

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

into possession, the

[CHAP. xvni.

Eleazar his son, to the top of the mountain, aud, in the view of all the people, to strip the lather of his priestly robes, and put them upon the son which was no sooner complied with, than, pursuant to the sentence that God had denounced against him, Aaron died on the first day of the fifth month, in the 40th year of the Exodus, and the 140th of his age. Where he died, he was buried, but in so secret a manner, and that the place could never be discovered the Israelites remained at the foot of the mount 30 days, to mourn for him, while his son Elea; ;

vow and
the

its

fulfilment being

recorded together,

whole account

was

interpolated in the history of Moses.(r)

The repeated deliverances, and reiterated chastisements, of the Israelites, had not yet cured them of their impatience and predilection for Egypt. For, in their passage about the border of Edom, where their way lay through
a dreary wild, they became discouraged, and once more vented their complaints against God and against Moses, for bringing them out
of Egypt to die in the desert, where were neither bread nor water, but only that light food (the manna) which their souls loathed. For this contumelious language, the ( 35th Station, Lord sent serpents among them, I Zalmonah. of a peculiarly venomous kind, probably of the prcester or dipsas species, whose bite occasions a violent inflammation through the whole body, attended with immoderate heat and

zar succeeded him in the high-priesthood.(n) According to the order of the Mosaic writings, as they now stand, it was while the Israelites were encamped at mount Hor, that Arad, a chief of the Canaanites, who dwelt in the south, came out against them, and took some prisoners ; on which account the Israelites solemnly vowed, that if the Lord would deliver him and his people into their hands, they would utterly destroy them. The event answered their desire ; Arad, and the southern Canaanites, were delivered into their hands, and they put them all to the sword, destroyed their cities, and called the place Hormah, or destruction :(o) but it is not clear whether the first part of this transaction, viz. the attack of Arad, belongs to the period now under consideration, or to the warfare which the Israelites provoked during their former residence in these parts, after the return of the spies.(p) Indeed, the destruction of Arad seems to belong to the conquests of Joshua, in whose catalogue of the kings he had subdued, the name of Arad appears, as does also that of Hormah.(q) Perhaps, when the Israelites were attacked, and worsted, they devoted their enemies to destruction ; and when they had accomplished this, after Joshua had led them Numb.

from which circumstance they seem to have been called fiery seipents.(s) When the Israelites found themselves thus tormented, and saw their brethren dying daily on all sides, in the most terrible agonies, they repaired to Moses, and, in very humble terms, begged he would pray for them, that these destroyinganimals might be removed. Moses, ever to assist them when in trouble, immeready diately besought the Lord on their behalf, and
thirst,

But as unbelief was was graciously heard. the crime that had incurred the chastisement, the cure was now made the test of their faith. The Lord, therefore, did not destroy nor dismiss the serpents ; but Moses was ordered to make the model of one of them in brass, and to set it upon a pole, where all the camp might see it; and to this mystical appointment, a divine promise was annexed, that whoever was bitten, should, on looking to that
habitable, had not nature debarred them from multiplying as other serpents do but, if we may credit the Arabians, after they have coupled together, the female never fails to
:

latter place,

Dent. x. 6. In the Aaron died at Mosera, which was probably the name of some place upon, or in the vicinity of, mount Hor,
(n)
xxxiii. 38, 39.
it is

xx.

2229.

said that

kill

(o)

Numb,

xxi.
xii.

13.
14.

the male; she herself experiences a similar fate from her

;

(p)

See before, p. 699.

(q) Joshua,
(r)

See Dr. A. Clarke's Comment, on

Numb.

xxi. 1.

Bocbart and others relate that, in the spring of the year, great swarms of winged serpents fly from Lybia anc Arabia, towards Egypt and the neighbouring countries
(s)

They

spotted with various colours bat. They are 01 so destructive a nature, that those countries would be unin-

are described as short,

and having wings resembling those of a

BocUatt.

young brood, as soon as they are hatched and the young ones become objects of persecution from the ibis, the declared enemy of all the serpent race. Bochart quotes' a great number of ancient and modern authors, to prove that they are the same with the hydra of the Greeks and Latins:* and Herodotus, who went on purpose to the city of Butos to see them, says, they are not unlike the hydra, and that he had seen a great number of their skeletons, whose flesh had
been devoured by the
t

ibis.f
lib. ii.

De

Animal. Sacr. p.

ii.

Ub. 3. cap. 13.

Herodot.

cap. 75, 76.

SECT,

i.]

DEFEAT OF SIHON AND

be cured of the
effects

OG,

KINGS OF THE AMORITES.

try,

705

brazen image, wound.(t)

of his

From Zalmunnah(u) which seems to have been so called in memory of the serpent of
sutli station, (

went to Puwere now approachnon.(v) They ing the territories of the Edomites of mount Seir, from whom they experienced more favour than from those of Kadesh, and being permitted to
brass, the Israelites
Punon.
3

as they had passed through the possessions of the Edomites of Seir, and those of the Moabites, paying for the meat they should eat, and the water they should drink. At the same time, however, that Moses gave these instructions to the messengers, he foretold that Sihon would resist them, but that the Lord would deliver him into their hands. This prediction was fully verified ; for, instead of granting them

37th Station,-)

P ass

without
first

molestation,
at

they

permission to pass through his country, he collected all his forces, and fell suddenly upon the Israelites, near Jahaz, in the wilderness.(z) It appears that Sihon had been a successful warrior, and that he had enlarged his kingdom by taking Heshbon, and a considerable territory north of the Aruon, from the Moabites ;(a) so that he, withoutdoubt, expected to make an easy conquest of the Israelites, and to seize their cattle, an object, in those days, of the greatest

Ohoth.

encamped

Oboth, and then

a t Jje-abarim, or lim,(w) both in Ije-abarim. J the j r D0r(] ers At t l, e latter place, to their crossing the Zared, Moses previously cautioned them not to injure the Moabites, into whose country they were about to enter, because the land had been given them by God, us descendants of Lot, the nephew of their
great ancestor, Abraham. (x) fore, through the country of
39th Station, Dibon-gad. 40th Station, Almon-diblathaim

38th Station, f

Passing, there-

Moab, to which no opposition was made, they -\ [ encamped at Dibon-gad, and

(

a t Almon-diblathaim. They then came to river Araolljin crossing which they received a prohibitory caution respecting the Ammonites, similar to what had been given them relative to the Moabites, and

He was not aware, however, of power against which he was striving for Lord delivered him into the hands of the Israelites, who put him to the sword, as also his sons, and his whole army. The Israelites then overran all the country, from Aroer, on
importance.
the the
:

for similar

reasons.(y) Havingcrossed this river,

the Arnon, to Gilead, on the river Jabbok, destroying the cities, putting the inhabitants to death, and taking the cattle, with all their other
property, for themselves.(b). After this victory, the Israelites marched into the territories of Og, king of Bashan, of the race of giants, or rather of the Zamzum-zim, or Rephaim, the former inhabitants of that part
~
i

they encamped in the wilderness of Kedemoth, whence they sent messengers to Sihon, king of Heshbon, of the tribe of the Amorites, on whose

they were now bordering, requesting permission to pass quietly through his counterritories
(t)

i>

Numb.

xxi.

9.

Part

I.

ver. 27, 28.

let it

whence

been named after Pinon, one of the Edomitish dukes.* It was afterwards called Metallo-phunon, on account of the copper-mines in its vicinity. t
(\v)

derived from a'jV (TseteM), an image: telesm, or talisman, a consecrated image. (v) Numb, xxxiii. 42. This place is supposed to have
(u)

Perhaps

" Come ye

to

Heshbon,
it

be rebuilt :

The

city of Sihon, let

be established.

For from Heshbon the

fire

And

went out,

a flame from the city of Sihqn : It hath consumed the city of Moab, With the lords of the heights of Arnon, Part
II.

Numb.
Dent.

xxi. 10, 11.

Q.

xxxiii. 43,

44.

ver. 29.
:

(x)
it

it.

From

appears, that 38 years ites first arrived at Kadesh-barnca and that all the gene; ration of the men of war, numbered before Sinai, were dead, pursuant to their sentence, Numb. xiv. (y) Deut. ii. 19.
(z)
(a)

memorandum of Moses, (vfr. 14) had now elapsed since the Israel-

O Moab Thou hast perished, O people of Chfmosht

for thee,

" Alas

He} hath given up

And

To

his fugitive sons daughters into captivity, the king of the Amorites, Sihon.
his

Numb. Numb.

xxi. 21, et seq. xxi. 2(5, ct seq.

Deut.

On

an epinicion, or war-song, was composed, of which

24, et seq. occasion of this victory,

ii.

Part III. ver. 39.

" But on

</te;

have WE||
to

lifted destruction,
:

several verses, in their ancient poetic form, are quoted bv Moses and translated and arranged by Dr. Kennicott in his

From Heshbon even

Dibon

We
(b)
t

have destroyed even to Nopliah The fire did reach to Medebah."

Remarks, &c.
t

in the

following manner

* Gen xxxvi. 41.

Euscb. Loc. llebr. sub Pkenm.

Numb.

xxi.

2431.

Deut.

ii.

3136.
[|

VOL.

I.

is, Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, 5 The Amorites, subjects of Sihon.

That

The Israelites.

4 x

706

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

seem
to

[CHAP. xviu.

of the country. His family only remained of them, and his subjects were Amorites. On hearing that he was invaded by the Israelites, Og collected his people together, as well as the short notice would permit, and gave them batBut he fared no better than his tle at Edrei. more southern neighbour, Sihon: he and his sons were slain; his army was routed, and all his cities, sixty in number, besides several unwalled towns, became the prey of the conquerors, who put the inhabitants to death, beat

have

been

admonition,

invited

more attentive to his him into their country,

.

and sent their daughters into the Israelitish camp, to open a friendly communication, an example that was shortly after followed by the

down

the walls, and carried

cattle.(c)
}

away

the riches
it

and the
Abaiim.

4ist Station,

After the conquest of Sihon,

} seems that the head-quarters of the Israelites had been removed to the mouu-

taius

of
;

Abarim,

in the

neighbourhood of

after the warfare with Og, they 42d Station. \ were again removed to the plains PlainsofMoab.j o f Moab, at the foot of those

Heshbon

and

mountains, where the camp, being greatly enlarged on account of the cattle they had taken from their enemies, occupied a considerable extent, from Beth-jesimoth to Abelshittim.

Moabites.(e) It has been questioned whether this scheme of fraternization were done with an intent to enthral the Israelites, by drawing them away from their allegiance to the true God, or simply with the design of securing their friendship: the latter is most probable but, whatever the motive, the event was fatal to both parties. The Israelites entered into matrimonial connections with the daughters of these heathens, who soon induced them to assist at the sacrifices of their gods ; and they also partook in the impure rites of Haal-peor, supposed to be the same with the obscene Priapus, or effeminate Adonis. For this defection, the Lord sent a plague into their camp, which cut off a great number of the transgressors while Moses, under the divine authority, commanded the judges, or heads of the people, to go through the camp,
; :

lousy of Balak, king of the Moabites, who was apprehensive lest they should next fall upon him in which case he saw that he had nothing to hope for, after they had destroyed the two most potent sovereigns on that side of Jordan in conjunction, therefore, with the princes of
;
:

Here they excited the

fears

and

jea-

and put to death all whom they found guilty of open idolatry, and to hang them up on the east side of the tabernacle, as a warning to their brethren. This was accordingly done,

and there died of the

Midian, he resolved, if possible, to weaken, if he could not overcome, a people who had grown so formidable, and to paralyze their With this strength by supernatural means. view, he sent for Balaam, a celebrated prophet
t

of those times, who resided at Pethor, in Mesopotamia, to come and curse, or lay a magical spell upon, the unwelcome visitors, so as to prevent their doing him mischief.(d) Balaam came; but instead of laying an anathema upon them, he pronounced them to be blessed beyond the power of any incantations to reverse, and warned the king that a heavy doom would attend whoever should attempt to curse them he therefore advised him rather to make a league with them, and to cultivate an amicable intercourse between the two nations. Balak, disgusted with the prophet's conduct, sent him away in great anger; while the Midianites, who
:

Israelites four-and-twenty thousand, of whom one thousand are supposed to have fallen by the hands of the judges, and the remainder by the plague. This chastisement, which probably took place in the course of a day or two, brought the Israelites to a sense of their folly, and they assembled in a humble manner, in front of the tabernacle, weeping for their sins, and seeking remission of their punishment. While thus engaged, they were surprised at seeing Zimri, a prince, or head, of a principal house among the Simeonites, leading to his tent a Midianitish woman of quality: her name was Cozbi, and she was a daughter of Zur, a He had, it should prince of the Midianites. seem, been absent, from the camp, forming a matrimonial alliance, during the late executions,

and

therefore, suspecting nothing, his idolatrous wife into the camp.

had brought

The

appear-

ance of these two at so mournful a season, excited a general sensation of horror, and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the high-priest, fired

(c)

(d)

Numb. xxi. 3335. Dent. iii. 111. For a fuller account of this transaction, see before, p. 623.
2

(e)

Numb.

xxii.

xxv.

SECT.

I.]

SECOND CENSUS. COMPARISON WITH THE

FIRST.

707

with a holy indignation* flew after them with a javelin iu his hand, and entering their tent, put them both to death. This execution appeased the divine anger; and, for his zeal, God promised Moses, that the priesthood should remain in the house of Phinehas for ever.(f) At the same time, Moses was commanded to avenge the cause of Israel upon the Midianites, and to smite them ; which he did soon afterward s.(g) The plague having ceased, and order being
restored in the carnp, Moses was commanded to take a new census of the people. This was done, as well to ascertain that all the former
generations, which had been numbered, thirtyeighl years before, in the wilderness of Sinai, was dead, pursuant to the denunciation pronounced at Kadesh as to regulate the tribes previously to their entering the promised land, and to ascertain the proportion that should be allowed to each. On this occasion there appeared to be, exclusive of women, children, and young men under twenty years of age, 601,730 males capable of bearing arms; besides 23,000 Levites ; who were numbered from one month upwards, in the following proportions
;

This decrease, however, was not regular throughout the tribes; for seven of them had
increased, while the other five
to occasion a diminution of the
fell

so short as

whole number

of males of 1820, exclusive of the Levites, as will be seen more clearly from the subjoined
scale
:

Former
cciisus.

Present
census.

Difler-

ence.

Reuben Simeon

46,500 59,300

Gad
Judah
Issachar

45,50
74,600 ....54,400 57,400 32,200 40,500 35,400 62,700 41,500 53,400

Zebuluu Manasseh

Ephraim Benjamin
Daii

Asher
Naphtali

2,770 decrease. 43,730 22,200 37,100 decrease. 40,500 6,160 decrease. 76,500 1,00 increate. 64,300 9,900 increase. 60,600 :5,100 increase. 52,700 20,500 increase. 32,500 8,000 decrease. 45,600- 10,200 increase. 64,400 1,700 increate. 63,400 11,900 increase. 8,000 decrease. 45,400

:(h)

1. 2.
;J.

Reuben Simeon

Gad

4. Jutlah 5. Issachar
(j.

Xebulun

7. 8. 9.

Manasseh

Ephraim Ben jainiir

,.

10. Dan 11. Asher 12. Naphtali

43,730 22,200 40,500 70,500 64,300 60,500 52,700 32,500 45,600 64,400 53,400 45,400

it appears, that there was a decrease the five tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Gad, Ephraim, and Naphtali, of 61,020 males capable of going forth to war, but an increase in those of Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Manasseh, Benjamin, Dan, and Asher, of 59,200, leaving a balance of diminution of 1820. As to the Levites, numbered from a month old, they had increased upwards of 1000 ; being on the former occasion 22,000, and on the present 23,000. This business being completed, Moses received orders to direct the distribution of the

Hence

in

promised land, which now lay

601,730

To

these, if

we add,

as in the former case, \

. . .

...

._

two-thirds for married

Children,

men under

women, about. J unmarried women, and young ^

20, at the rate of five for each i 2,005,720

family Levites, from a

month

old,

upwards

23,000
j

General total Total of the former numbering, exclusive of the mixed multitude(i)
Decrease,
in the

3,031,590
)

j
8,0(iO

whole

full in view, with only the intervention of the river Jordan; this was to be done by lot, but the portions were so disposed, that a numerous tribe did not draw where the lots assigned small inheritances. The Levites were to have no particular inheritance, but only certain cities, distributed among the other tribes as they were to attend upon the sanctuary, and to live upon the tithes On this and offerings of their brethren. (j) occasion, the five daughters of Zelophehad, of the tribe of Manasseh, whose father had died without leaving male issue, claimed an inheritance which, being allowed, gave occasion for a new statute, by virtue of which, in all cases
; ;

(f)

(g) 'h)
(i)

NumL. xxv. passim. Kumb. xxv. 17, Itf. xxxi. 112. See Numb. xxvi. passim. Of this motley group we read no more,
by them
at

wilderness
before, p. 636.
after the in->ur-

of
left,

wheie the
sert,

Israelites

rection excited

highly probable,

Kibroth-hallaavah ; and it is that, either then, or at Kadesh, in the

they other settlement. (j) Numb. xxvi.

the next station but one to it, were doomed to wander in he dethe camp, and sought for themselves some

Paran,

5256,

62.

xxxiii.

54.

xxxv.

18.

Deal.

\. 8, 9.

4x2

70*

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP, xvni.

not enter, because he did not sanctify God at the waters of Merihah. Moses prayed that his sentence might be reversed but he received a peremptory refusal. He then requested the Lord to appoint a person to supply his place as leader of the Israelites ; and Joshua was
;

where a father left a daughter, or daughters, and no son, the former were to inherit.(k) Moses was now warned of his approaching death, and was commanded by God to go up to mount Abarim, whence he might have a view of the promised land, but which he should

When these ceremonies were over, the army returned into the camp, and an account was taken of their spoil, when it was found to
amount
til, 000 asses, 72,000 and 675,000 of sheep and small cattle. These, by the command of God, were to be divided into two equal portions one for the soldiers who had fought the battle, the other for the people who had remained at home to take care of the camp. Of the former, one in five hundred was to be taken for a heave-offering to the Lord and of the latter, one in fifty was to be given to the Levites. There was, consequently, given to the priests, from the portion of the soldiers, 32 virgins, 61 asses, 72 large cattle, and 677 sheep, kc. and to the Levites, from the portion of the people, 320 virgins, 610 asses, 720 large cattle, and 6770 sheep, &c. Of the gold, silver,

to 3-2,000 virgins,
cattle,

head of large

named, whom God commanded Moses to lay his hands upon, to set him before Eleazar, the high-priest, and to give him a solemn charge
in the sight of all the people.(l)
;

All

this,

and then the Moses punctually performed order was renewed, that he should avenge the For this purpose, a Israelites upon Midian. thousand men were drawn from each tribe, and they went out against the Midianites,
under the conduct of Phinehas, and probably The warfare was short, but also of Joshua. the Midianites could not withsanguinary stand the irresistible power of the Almighty, who overthrew them before the Israelites five
: :

of their kings fell in the conflict, all the males were slain with the sword, and with them Balaam, the prophet; their cities and castles

were burned to the ground, their cattle and goods were seized, and their women and children were carried captives towards the camp
of the conquerors.
ites

On

their return, the Israel;

were met by Moses and Eleazar

for

the for-

having preserved the lives of the male children, and all the women observing, that the women had been the cause of the trespass, which, through the pernicious counsel of Balaam, the Israelites had committed against the Lord, m the He therefore commanded affair of Baal-peor. the male children, and such women as were not virgins, to he put to the sword ; which having been complied with, the soldiers were obliged to stay without the camp seven days, to purify themselves and the spoil they had taken, by ablutions and other ceremonies, among which, the gold, silver, and other metals, with whatever else would bear it, was
;

mer of whom, reproved them

jewels, and other valuable articles, no account was taken, and the army kept them for themselves: but when they came to examine their ranks, and discovered that not a single man of the 12,000 was wanting, they were moved by a grateful sense of their supernatural protection, to take tm offering, amounting in value to 16,750 shekels of gold, (about 37,869. 16*. 5(t. sterling) and present it to Eleazar, the priest, as an acknowledgment to God for the preservation of their lives ; and Eleazar, under the superintendence of Moses, laid it up in the tabernacle for a memorial.(n) The conquest of Sihon, Og, and the five had left the kings, or princes of Midian, Israelites in possession of a large and fertile tract of country on the east side of the river

Jordan,
ites,

abounding

in pasturage

and

it

at-

tracted the notice of the Reubenites and

thren.

Gad-

respectful application to Moses, that they might be suffered to have their portion on that side, where the

who possessed more cattle They therefore made a

than their bre-

to

be passed through the

rk)

fire.(m)

country was so peculiarly adapted for keeping the cattle, which constituted their greatest wealth. Suspecting this to be only a subterfuge, to evade the fatigues and dangers of the impending warfare or a pretext to cover their design of withdrawing from the rest of their brethren Moses reprehended their conduct in severe terms; reminded them of the transvery
; ;

Numb,

xxvii.

111.

xxxvi.

112.

Deut.

x.

8, 0.

(1)

xviii. 1, 2.

(m)

Numb, xxviii. 12 13. Numb. xxxi. 124.

Deut.

iii.

23

28.
xxxi.

(n)

Numb.

2564.

SECT.

I.]

FINAL DIRECTIONS OF MOSES.

709

of their fathers at Kadesh-harnea, consequences, when they refused to enter the land, to the verge of which they had been brought; and admonished them not to rely too confidently upon their recent successes, lest, upon their defection, the Lord should be moved to leave the congregation once more in the wilderness and thus they would prove the destruction of all their breIn reply, the Reubenites and Gadites thren. assured him, that they meant nothing less than to withdraw themselves from the common cause: on the contrary, with his permission, they would first build sheep-folds for their cattle, with habitations for their wives and families; and then they would take the lead in crossing the river, and in conquering the Canaanites ; nor would they return till they saw the other
gression

with

its fatal

three more, when the enlargement of their borders should require them.(r) The nearer Moses drew toJul. Per. 3203. wards his end, the more soli- ( A. M. 2-v>:i.
citous

was he

to

complete his

1>ost

'

)l1 - ti!

'

arduous task, the brighter did 1 his zeal for the glory of God \
shine forth, and the more ar- I dent did his affection glow to- \ wards the people, who had so

"uh
42d

Moiitli

(Sebat.) B. C. I4.>i.
Station,

long been under his charge. On the first day of the eleventh month, in the 40th year of the Exodus, he assembled the Israelites in the plains of Moab, and, in a long and pathetic address, recapitulated all that had them, from their departure out of

happened to Egypt to that

tribes settled in their respective allotments; neither would they require any inheritance on This explanation and the west of Jordan. the anger of Moses; and, promise appeased calling together the rest of the tribes, he, in the presence of Eleazar and Joshua, recapitulated

time, accompanied with many admonitions and exhortations to obedience.(s) He then rehearsed the laws,(t) and ordered Joshua and the elders, when they should get possession of Canaan, to be careful to erect an altar upon

mount Ebal, of unhewn stones, covered over with plaster, upon which they should write
these laws, copies of which he delivered to the Levites,(u) and to set up the blessings and the curses upon mounts Ebal and Gerizim, in full view of all Israel ; of which the six tribes of

what had passed, and after taking from them a solemn pledge for the performance of their
promise, he divided the land on the east of Jordan between those two tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh; it appearing, on a nearer
survey,

that

the country

was

sufficient for

them
his

all.(o)

now remained for Moses to do, before commission was to end he had proclaimed Joshua as his successor, and given him all neLittle
;

Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and should stand upon Ebal, and the Naphtali, other six, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, aiid Benjamin, should stand upon Gerizim from these stations, the two companies were alternately to answer Amen, to the bless-

Reuben,

Gad,

ings

and the curses, when

set

cessary directions, in particular that of consulting God upon emergencies by the urim and I /i a >n in /in, worn by the high-priest ;(p) and he had appointed the limits of the land the people were to conquer, with the distribution of it by God's command ; the execution of which he

also prescribed a kind of exhortation, to be spoken aloud at the head of the army, by a priest appointed for the purpose,
there. (v)

He

up and proclaimed

whenever they were about to engage their enemies, in order to inspire the soldiers with an
in God, and assurance of he added, a proclamation, to be made at the same time, by the proper officers, permitting all who had left newlymarried wives, or had purchased houses or vineyards, of which they had not taken possession, or had not eaten the fruit, together with all who were of a fearful mind, to return home; lest, by their impatience or cowardice, they In conclushould discourage their brethren.

unshaken confidence
victory.(w)

Joshua and Eleazar, assisted by a council of twelve princes, or elders, one for
committed
each
to

To

this

He now gave some farther ditribe.(q) rections relative to the forty-eight cities and their suburbs, or districts, which were to be of which six were to allotted to the Levites be cities of refuge for persons guilty of inadvertent manslaughter, three on either side of the
;

Jordan ; and he added a permission

(o) (p)
((\)

to appoint

Numb,
Exod.

xxxii. passim.
xxviii. 30.

Dent.

iii.

12

20.

Numb,

xxviii.

1823.

(r)

Numb, xxxiv. passim. Numb. xxxv. 129. Dent.

iv.

41. xix.

19.

Dent. i. ii. iii. and iv. to ver. 40. Deut. v. ct seq. (u) Dent, (v) Dent. xi. 29. xxvii. 1126. (w) Deut. xx. 14.
(s)
(t)

xxvii.

28.

710
sion,

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

this

[CHAP. xvin.

he gave directions for their conduct tocities as should accept of their proffered peace, and to such as should reject it, by which they were enjoined never to begin the attack till they had sent a messenger with pacific overtures if the offer were accepted, and the gates thrown open, the inhabitants were to be made tributaries, but their lives and property were to be spared ; but if the message were contemned, the city was to be stormed, the men were to be put to the sword, and the women and children were to be consigned to slavery, while the Israelites were to take the This cattle and other spoil for their own use.

wards such

was but prophetical of what they suffered under those miserable servitudes, which they subsequently underwent for their disobedience,
not only during the time of the judges,- and the Babylonish captivity, but much more since their rejection of the Messiah. Having caused this covenant to be ratified by the whole assembly, Moses delivered a copy of it to the Levites and the elders, and commanded them to deposite it in the ark, in order that it might be read before the congregation at the end of every seven years, at the feast of tabernacles ; and he concluded, by calling heaven and earth to witness for the truth of what they had heard from him, for the reasonableness of those laws which God had given them, and the certainty of those blessings or curses that would infallibly follow the observance or the breach of them.(y) The ceremony of renewing the covenant was

injunction,

however, was only to operate in favour of distant cities; for those of the Ca-

naanites, being devoted to utter destruction, were exempted from its salutary influence.(x) Not many days after these instructions had

been given, Moses assembled the whole nation, men, women, and children, that they might renew the covenant which their fathers had made with God in Horeb. After reciting the blessings that would attend their obedience, and enforcing their observance of the divine law by the most engaging motives he endeavoured to deter them from the breach of it by denunciations of the most terrible curses, the effect of which would be, after they had experienced in
;

no sooner ended, than Moses, who on that day completed his 1 2Oth year, was called, with

and again divinely Joshua^ into the tabernacle, admonished of his approaching end: the future apostasy of the Israelites was also pointed out to him and, to leave them without excuse, he was ordered to throw the substance of his exhortations, with a view of the works of JEHOVAH in favour of his people, with their ingratitude and rebellions, into the form of an
;

their

own

land

all

the horrors of unheard-of

plagues, pestilences, wars, and famine, they should be carried away by a strange nation,
to pine

historio-prophetical canticle, or ode, which, after he had publicly recited it, he was to deliver over to Joshua, that it might be

away in ignominious captivity from which, however, it was promised they should be redeemed, on their turning with their whole
:

heart and soul to the Lord their God.

(x)
(z)

All

learned by in their use purpose of Lord then

9

rote

This very sublime 43. distinguished even by the Jews, both in their manuIn script and printed copies of the Pentateuch, as poetry. our translation it would appear to much greater advantage, if it were printed in hemistichs ; and the translation of some parts of it may be much improved, for which reason the following version, from Dr. Kennicott, has been here intro-

Deut. xx. Deut. xxxi. 14

(y) 30. xxxii. 1

Dent,

xxviii.

xxxi.

A God of truth,
Just,
5.

_^

by them, and be continually and remembrance, for the twofold The instruction and reproof.(z) encouraged Joshua to undertake

and without and upright is He.

___^
;
:

_____^_

iniquity

ode

is

They

are corrupted ; they are not His generation perverse and crooked !

sons of pollution;

6.

duced

Verse

1.
;

" Give

ear,

And
2.

hear,

O ye heavens and I will speak O earth the words of my mouth.

!
! ;

this the return ye make to JEHOVAH? people, foolish and unwise! Is not He thy Father, thy Redeemer? He who made thee, and established thee? 7. Remember thou the days of old ; Consider the years of many generations : Ask thy father, and he will shew thee :

" Is

Let Let

doctrine drop as the rain ; speech distil as the dew As the small rain upon the tender herb, And as the showers upon the grass.

my my

8.

When the Most High gave inheritance to the nations ; When He separated the sons of Adam When He appointed the bounds of the people,
;

Thy

elders,

and they

will tell thee.

3.

4.

name of JEHOVAH Verily, Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. [He is] the ROCK, perfect is His work
I

"

will

proclaim the

9.

10

Small was the number of the sons of Israel. But the portion of JEHOVAH was His people; Jacob was the lot of His inheritance. He sustained him in a desert land
;

Verily, all His

ways are judgment

Even

in the waste

howling wilderness.

SECT.

I.]

SONG OF MOSES.
by
instrumentality to bring the Israelites into the land that had been promised to their
forefathers.
'
'

the charge which was now devolving upon him, promising to be with him, and his
him about, He instructed him kept him as the apple of his eye. 11. As an eagle stirreth up her nest,
led

He He

And not JEHOVAH,

Lest they should say, Our high hand, hatk done all this.'

Fluttereth over her young, Spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them,

Beareth them upon her wings 12. So JEHOVAH alone did lead him And with him was no strange god. 13. He made him ride on the high places of the earth That he might eat the increase of the fields And He made him to suck houey out of the stone, And oil out of the flinty rock. " Butter of J4. kine, and the fat of sheep, With the fat of lambs, and of rams, Of young bulls, and of goats With the fat, the finest flour of wheat: He drank also the pure blood of the grape.
:

28. " Verily, they are a nation lost to all counsel ; Neither is there any understanding in them. 29. that they were wise, and would understand this And would consider their latter end ! 30. How should one chase a thousand,

And two

Except that

31. For not like our

32.

And JEHOVAH had shut them up? ROCK, is their rock

is

put ten thousand to flight; their ROCK had sold them,

But from the vine of Sodom

Our enemies themselves being judges

their vine,

15.

Thus did Jacob cat, and was filled. " But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked (Thou didst wax fat.grow thick, wastcovered with
;

him, And lightly esteemed the ROCK of his salvation. 16. They provoked Him to jealousy with strange [gods]; With abominations they exasperated Him. 17. They sacrificed to devils, not to GOD;

Then he forsook

GOD who made

fatness:)

from the fields of Gomorrah: Their grapes are grapes of gall, And the clusters are bitter to them. 33. The poison of dragons is their wine, And the venom of asps most cruel. " Is not ' 34. this,' [saith
'

And

JEHOVAH]

laid

with Me,
'
'

up

in store

And

sealed

up among
is

My
it

treasures
shall

35.

Vengeance
' '

Mine, and

To gods, which they knew not; To new [gods] which came of late;

'

In a short time their foot shall slide For at hand is the day of their calamity,
:

be repaid

And what
shall

is

prepared for them maketh haste.'

protect His people;

Which your
18.

fathers did not tremble at.

36. " Yet

JEHOVAH

Of the ROCK that begat thee, thou art unmindful; And hast forgotten GOD, who formed thee.

saw, and He abhorred For the provocation of His sons and of his daughters And He said, ' I will hide My face from them ; I will see, what shall be their end For a generation very froward are they ; ' Children in whom there is no faith. 21. ' They have moved Me to jealousy with what is not God They have provoked Me to anger with their vanities; ' And I will move them to jealousy with those who are
19.
'
:

"Then JEHOVAH

37. 38.

'

And He shall be comforted in His servants. When He seeth, that their power is gone, And there is none shut up, or left When men shall say, Where is their GOD, Their ROCK, in whom they trusted
'

Who

'

'

'

did eat the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink-offerings Let Him rise up, and help you ; Let Him be a protector over you.'
'

39. "
'

And
I

See now' [saith

there
is

JEHOVAH]
;

'

that

I,

[even]

I,

am He

22.

23.
24.

25.

not a people foolish nation will I provoke them to anger. ' Verily, a fire is kindled in My wrath, ' And it shall burn unto the lowest hell ' And it shall consume the earth, with its increase, ' And it shall fire the foundations of the mountains. ' I will heap upon them misfortunes ' Mine arrows will I exhaust upon them. ' Scorched with hunger,and devoured with heat The bird of destruction shall be bitter burning to them: ' And the tooth of beasts will I send upon them, ' With the poison of serpents of the dust. ' From without the sword shall destroy, ' And from within terror,
;

'
'

no god with Me.

'

With a

'
'

40.

'

41. 'I
'

'

WILL WHET MY GLITTERING SWORD, AND MY HAND SHALL TAKEHOLD ON JUDGMENT; I WILL RENDER VENGEANCE TO MINE ADVERSARIES,

and I make alive wound, and I heal; And none delivereth out of My hand. For I lift up My hand to heaven, And say As I LIVE FOR EVER,
I kill,
:

'
'

42.

AND THEM WHO HATE ME, WILL I RECOMPENSE. I WILL MAKE MINE ARROWS DRUNK WITH
AND MY SWORD SHALL DEVOUR
WITH THE BLOOD OF THE
CAPTIVES
BLOOD,
FLESH, SLAIN, AND OF

'
'

THE

'
'

The
I

Both the young man, and the

26.

'

I said, I

'

suckling, with the man would scatter them into corners would make the remembrance of them to cease from
;

virgin, of grey hairs.

'

FROM THE HEAD OF THE PRINCES OF THE ENEMY.'

Rejoice,
will

43.

"
For He

among men
27.
'

Were

it

not that

Lest their

avoided the wrath of the enemy; adversaries should behave themselves

I
;

And He
But
*
will

ye nations, with His people avenge the blood of His servants: will render vengeance to His adversaries, be merciful to His laud, and to His people."*
!

strangely

Kennicott's Remarks, p.

281285,

with some slightTariationi.

712

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

in

[CHA.P.

xvin.

laving thus completed his mission, Moses, in obedience to the divine injunction, made his final arrangements, in repeating the orders he had given to the Levites, respecting the reading of the law at the feast of tabernacles, in every sabbatic year, in exhorting the people to a steady
I

obedience, and

in

encouraging Joshua,

who was

God. He then collected the tribes around him, and, as dying Jacob had done before him, in taking leave of them, he pronounced upon each a prophetical blessing, introduced with a most sublime description of the appearance of God on behalf of his people, and ending with a
songof uncommon energy and elegance, descriptiveof their extensive and wonderful privileges. (c)
13.

to be his successor, to an implicit confidence

Deut. xxxiii. passim. This exalted benediction, like the ode just referred to, is, in the original, written in heniisticlis, or short metrical lines, the form in which all the Hebrew poetry is written, and may be rendered in the following form
(c)
:

" And

to

JOSEPH he

said

Blessed of the LORD is bis land : For the precious things of the heavens
14.

for the dew,

;

Verse

1.

"

And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death. And he said
:

15.
16.

2.

JEHOVAH came from Sinai, And He arose upon them from Seir; He shone forth from mount Paran, And He came from Meribah-kadesh
From His
right

"

And And And And And And And

for the

deep that coucheth beneath

for the precious fruits of the sun ; for the precious produce of the moons
for the top of the eastern mountains,

the precious thiugs of the ancient hills; for the precious things of the earth, and its fulness for the good will of Him who dwelt in the bush :

Let it come upon the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of the
:

Nazarite of his

brethren. 17.

hand a

fire

shone forth upon them.

3.

loved the people, Truly, And He blessed all His saints:

"

He

The And

first-born of his kine

is

his

ornament;

the horns of the

reem

his

horns:

With them

For they
I

4.

5.

And " He commanded us a Jaw, The inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. " And He became King in Jeshurun When the heads of the people were assembled,
;

His feet, hey received of His words.

fell

down

at

shall he push the people, Together to the ends of the land.

And And
18.

they [the horns] are the ten thousands of they are the thousands of MANASSEH. " And to ZEBULDN he said:

EPHRAIM

Rejoice,
19.

Zebulun,

in thy

going out;
;
:

And, Issachar,

0.

7.

Together with the tribes of Israel. " Let REUBEN live, and not die, And let his men be without number. " And thus to JUDAH and he said
:

They

[rejoice] in thy tents. .shall call the people to the mountain

And
For

there they shall sacrifice righteous sacrifices of the abundance of the seas shall they suck ;

And
:

of treasures hid in the sand.

And And And

8.

Hear, O LORD, the voice of Judah unto his people bring thou HIM ;* let his hands contend for him be Thou a help from his enemies.
!

20.

" And to

GAD

he said

" And

to

LEVI he

21.

said

and Urini be to THE MAN* thy Saint, Whom thou didst prove at Massah, And with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah. 9. Who said of his father and his mother, I have not seen him
:

Thy Thummim

crown of the head. he provided the chief part for himself; For there, in a portion from the lawgiver, was he seated And he came with the heads of the people. The righteousness of the LORD he executed ; And [performed} His judgments with Israel.

that enlargeth Gad ; As an old lion he hath dwelt, And he shall tear the arm, yea, and

Blessed be

He

And

22.

does not acknowledge as his brethren; does not own as his children; But those who observe thy word and keep thy covenant: 10. Those who teach Jacob thy judgments ; And thy laws unto Israel; Those xUio put incense before thee,

And who And who

23.

" And to DAN he said Dan is a lion's whelp He shall leap from Bashan. " And to NAPHTALI he
:
:

said: Naphtali, satisfied with favour, And full of the blessings of JEHOVAH; Possess thou the west and the south.

And

11. Bless,

O LOKD, his power, accept the work of his hands ! Smite through the loins of them that rise against him. And of them that hate him, that they rise not again. " And to BENJAMIN he said 12. The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by him, He shall be a covering to him all the day And between his shoulders he hath dwelt.
And
:

a perfect oblalion

upon thine

24.

altar.

" And to ASHER he said : Let Asher be blessed with children; Let him be acceptable to his brethren

And
And
26.

him dip his feet in oil ! Iron and brass are thy greaves
let

as thy days, [shall be] thy riches.

" There is none

like the

GOD

of the Upright;

27.

Messiah.

He rideth upon the heavens in thy help, And in His excellence upon the skies. Thy habitalion is the GOD of old times, And underneath thee the arm of ages:

SKl'.T.

I.]

DEATH OF MOSES.

713

Jl. Per. 3263. 2553. A. M.

PostDil.

No sooner had Moses coneluded tliis prophetic canticle, J 807.1 than he went up, in the sight of
I
a11 Israe1 '

to inount

Nebo

'

as ie
!

(Adar.)

B.C.

14,31.

I
I

ancj tnat Q O(\ j ia(} promised to Abraham's posterity, beginning with the land of Gilead, on the east of Jordan, and thence passing to the north and west,
4-2d station,
i

had been directed, and from its summit took a survey of all the

loab

His mortal career was now at an /oar.(d) " end; and, according to the word of the Lord," " his although eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated," he died on the mount, as soon as he had completed his view of the country he had so long desired to behold, at the age of 120, while in the act of receiving a divine
communication.(e) The character of this extraordinary person will always be unparalleled; in recording his eulogy, the .Spirit of inspiration has declared,
who ground
their arguments, or rather their belief, on his appearing with Elias at the transfiguration upon the mount ;|| as well as on that contest between Michael and the devil, about his body, spoken of by Jude.lT and perhaps alluded to by But the most probable inference that can be drawn Peter.** from this dispute is, that Satan wished to bring the body of Moses to light, that he might thereby ensnare the people in the idolatrous worship of relics, which, therefore, Michael opposed with a zeal becoming an archangel ; so that, being rebuked by the Lord, Satan was obliged to relinquish the conThe circumstance of this contest was probably tention.tt quoted by the apostle, not as a matter of faith, but of example in the conduct of Michael, from an apocryphal book, well known in his time, infilled, rif^i Ava,\n^ia^ Mufriu;, " The " Moses died Moses." The

downward

to the south, as far as the city of

28.

And He shall drive out the enemy And He shall say, Destroy! And Israel shall dwell in safety
;

from, before thee;

Alone, is the fountain of Jacob Upon a land of corn and new wine ; Yea, his heavens shall distil the dew. " How 29. great is thy happiness, O Israel ! Who is like unto thee, thou saved people ? In JEHOVAH is the shield of thy help. And of Him is thy excellent sword Tho' thy enemies deal falsely with thee, Yet thou upon their high places shall tread."
:

This prophetic song

is

exceedingly sublime, and, in

many

both the hand of the critic places, very obscure; requiring The hemistich form is here preand the commentator. served, as it stands in the best and most ancient MSS. but
to point out the force of the different expressions, or to explain the allusions, is not the province of the historian. And even the translation, part of which is from Dr. Kenuicott, is submitted to the correction of the learned and critical
reader.
(d) In taking this survey, Josephus* says, he was accompanied by Joshua, Elea/ar, and the 70 elders to which he adds, that while the two last were taking their sorrowful farewel of him, a cloud intervened, in which he was carried away into a certain valley but the text seems rather to
:
:

Assumption of Targumist says, on the seventh day of the month Adai; the same day of the same month on which he was born." Besides the Pentateuch, some other writings have been attributed to Moses, but with no great certainty such are the book of Job ; eleven Psalms, viz. from the 90th to the
;

100th, inclusive ; an Apocalypse ; his Lesser Genesis ; his Atcension; his Assumption, noticed just above; his Testament; and some books of Mysteries: but, with the exception of the book of Job, and the eleven Psalms, they have To these may also be long since fallen into oblivion. H added a treatise, spoken of by the Rabbins, under the title of

intimate, that

" Moses, the servant of the Lord, (e) Deut. xxxiv. 5 died there, in the land of Moab, according to the Word of the Lord;" in the original, niiT '3 "?J7 (AL PI JCHOVOH) at
:

Moses went up the mountain

alone.

mouth of Jehovah ; interpreted by Jonathan NIC'Q np'U?3 *iy (AL NCSHIKOTH MCYMKA uoYftYa) by a kiss of the WORD of JEHOVAH: hence the Jews have an ancient tradition, that Moses, having besought

Ben

[or upon] tkf L'zziel, "T

not to deliver over his soul to the angel of death, the to embrace him, and drew his soul out of kiss.t Although nothing can be more of the Scripture, that Moses explicit "than the declaration died and was buried, many of the Jews entertain the most absurd opinions ; some absolutely denying his death ; and others, without taking notice of that circumstance, affirming him to have been translated to heaven. J The latter of these certain of the Christians, 5 opinions has been adopted by

God

Lord was pleased his body with a

nu?Q "W3 (BECR MOSHCH), or nQ^n ISO (BKPR cHOKMan), The Fountain of Wisdom.^ Origeu believes him to have translated the book of Job from the Svriac into Hebrew ;|||| but he stands almost alone iu that belief. St. Paul is sup" For in Christ Jesus neither posed to quote those words, circumcision availeth any thing,"5I1T & c. from his Apocali/pse: Jeroin quotes a passage from his Lesser Genesis, and MI\ s that it was complete in Hebrew in his time:*** and the ancient heretical sect of Sethites, have extracts from his Tettament, and Discourses of Mysteries. The authenticity of the book of Deuteronomy has boon questioned by unbelievers, because the lust chapter contains an account of the death and burial of the writer particulars, say they, of which no biographer of himself could ever have a knowledge. To get ritl of this objection, some very well-' inteiitioned men have run into an unnecessary supposition, that he either anticipated those circumstances, or that they were especially revealed to him but the following note from
-

* Antiq.
t
J

lib. ir.

cap. 8.

tt }J

Vide

Gaulroiu's
aiwi P..

Vide Maimonid. Progm. ml Talmud, Vide Fabric. Ajiacr. Vet. Test.

Malt. xvii. 1
4.

Nathan.

DUN

'p~lD.

f$
Ill

Vide Usher, Ann. 2553, and the authors above quoted. Sec the Introduction to this Work, page 11. R. Shabtai Stiiiu. vid. et Wolf. Kb. Kabbin. Kum. 1582.
Orii;. in Job.

"
i.

f 11

Galat. v. 6.
2-1.

vi.

15.
Calroet.

Kpia. 127. ad Fabiol. Mans. 18 auti

p. penult.

Vide

Hut. Vet.

Tetl.

hide, ver. 9.

2 P(cr,

ii.

11.

torn.

VOL.

I.

4 Y

714
that

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

" there

[CHAP. xvin.

arose not a prophet since in unto Moses :"(j) he is called " the servant of God,"(k) and it is his praise, that " he was in as a servant he was faithful :(1) every respect a great man; for every virtue that constitutes genuine nobility was concentrated in his mind, and fully displayed in his conduct. Conscious of his own integrity, and of the guidance and protection of God, he betrayed no confusion in his views, nor indecision in his measures. His courage and his fortitude were unshaken and unconquerable, because his reliance was unremittingly fixed upon Jehovah ; arid having left the pleasures and honours of Egypt, with an eye to the recompense of reward in another world, he was neither discouraged by difficulties, nor elated by In his life he was tru?y prosperity, in this."(m)
Israel, like

capacity, was ordered by God to prepare for crossing the Jordan, and entering into the promised land.(w) But before we accompany him thither, it is necessary to take a view of the institutions of Moses for the religious and civil government of the Israelites, with such other matters as are connected with the manners, customs, language, and learning of that people.

SECTION

II.

RELIGION, GOVERNMENT, LAWS, CUSTOMS, ARTS, ARMS, ARMY, TRADES AND MANUFACTURES, COMMERCE, DRESS, LANGUAGE, WRITINGS, LEARNING, POETRY AND MUSIC, OF THE ISRAELITES.
I.

great;
rial,

in

his

death, happy;
all

and

in

his bu-

besides, for God himself buried him,(n) and that so secretly, in a valley in the land of Moab, overagainst Beth-peor, that his sepulchre was never known to mortals, nor his bones ever disturbed. According to Josephus(o) and Archbishop Usher,(p) the death of Moses took place on the first day(q) of the twelfth month Adar, in the fortieth year of the Exodus, and the 120th

honoured beyond

men

Of the

Religion and Laics of the

Israelites.

ofhisage;(r) of which 'he had passed forty at the court of Pharaoh,(s) forty in the land of Midian(t) and forty with the Israelites in the wilderness. (u) mourning of thirty days' continuance was observed for him in the camp of Israel ;(v) at the expiration of which, Joshua,

who had succeeded him

the

in

his

magisterial

RELIGION. The institution of the religion and government of the Israelites, is, by Moses, for which reason, attributed wholly to God makes no scruple to distinguish the Josephus latter from all the other governments and commonwealths in the world, by the name of under the Tlieocracy,(\) or a government immediate command and direction of God and though this theocracy often varied, under Moses, Joshua, the judges, kings, and highpriests, the Deity was still considered as the supreme monarch of the Israelites, the sole director of every momentous transaction under Moses, and the dictator of his laws. Their judges were valiant and wise men, whom God made choice of to govern the people, and to
;
:

Jew Alexander's Hebrew and English Pentateuch, sets the matter in a much more natural, and probably the only true " Most commentators are of light. opinion, that Ezra was the author of the last chapter of Deuteronomy: some think
it

especially as this supplemental chapter conaccount of the last transactions and death of the great author of the Pentateuch." (j) Deut. xxxiv. 10.

Deuteronomy ;

tains an

after the death of

was Joshua, and others the seventy elders, immediately Moses adding, that the book of Deuteronomy originally ended wilh the prophetic blessing upon the
;

(k) Ibid. ver. 5, et al.

Happy art thou, O Israel who is like unto people saved of the Lord,' &c. and that what now makes the hist chapter of Deuteronomy, was formerly the first of Joshua, but was removed thence, and joined to the former by way of supplement. This opinion will not appear unnatural, if il be considered that sections, and other divisions, as well as points and pauses, were invented long since those books were written for in those early ages, several books were connected together, and followed each other on the same roll. The beginning of one book might therefore be easily transferred to |the end of another, and, in process of time, be considered as its real conclusion, as iu the case of
twelve tribes
' : ;

thee,

Numb. xii. 7. Heb. iii. 5. (m) See Dr. A. Clarke on the History and Character of Moses ; comment, on Deut. xxxiv. (n) Deut. xxxiv. G.
(1)

(o)

Antiq.

lib. iv.

cap. 8.

Annul, sub A. M. 2553. the generality of (q) Or on the seventh day, according to See Sedar Holam rab. cap. 10. Maiinon. the later Jews. Prtsfat. ad Misnaioth, &c. (s) Acts, vii. 23. (r) Deut. xxxiv. 7. Exod. vii. 7. (t) Acts, vii. 29, 30. (u) Deut. xxix. 6. (v) Deut. xxxiv. 8. (w) Joshua, i. 1, 2. (x) Contra Apionem, lib. ii.
(p)

SECT.

II.]

GOVERNMENT. LAWS.

715

deliver them, from time to time, from those thraldoms which their frequent rebellions

Accordingly, when upon them. Gideon had delivered them from the Midianites, and the people offered the government to him and his posterity, he modestly replied, that neither he, nor his sons,(n) but the Lord When, afterGod, should rule over them. their desire for a king was grown to wards,

brought

such a height, that all Samuel's expostulations could not divert them from it, God was pleased to nominate Saul, and, after him, David, to the regal dignity; and he made it hereditary in the posterity of the latter, reserving to himself the power of altering the succession from the elder to a younger branch, whenever he thought fit; as he did in David's immediate successor, Solomon and if, at any
;

peregrinations in the wilderness, as occasion Whether they were the first body of required. laws that ever was compiled, whilst other nations had not so much as a name for Law (as Josephus(o) has endeavoured to prove, from the writings of Homer, the most ancient writer, in which the word o^ ? (law) is not so much as once mentioned ;) or whether the Egyptians,(p) and other nations, had already laws of their own, and Moses was permitted by God to
his own by them ; it is evident, that the greater part of them was dictated by God himself; and that the others received, if not the last perfection, at least their

model and improve

time, either the kings or the people refused to be directed by him, or disobeyed the laws

which he had given them, they never escaped

The kings of Israel, severe punishment. indeed, after their revolt from those of Judah, reigned more arbitrarily; but their endeavours to shake oft' the yoke of God, proved a source of endless evils to the rebellious tribes, till at length, when neither threatenings nor judgments
could bring them to obedience, he
cast

sanction and approbation, from him. And if we consider that the moral precepts were to be of eternal obligation; that the political^ were to and that last as long as the Israelitish polity of the ceremonial, were typical of the great part gospel dispensation, and consequently to endure till the coming of the Messiah ; if the priests and rulers were to be no more than the bare guardians of them, and were forbidden under pain of death, and of the divine curse, to add to, detract from, or alter the least part of them it will be scarcely credible, that
; ;

them

off,

and

condemned them

entirely to a

Moses could have given them such a firm and durable sanction, backed as they are with the divine authority, had they not proceeded
from
It

miserable captivity. Thus, not only the kingdom of Judah, but even that of Israel, corrupt and idolatrous as it was, may be said to have continued under a theocracy till its dissolution.

God

himself.

LAWS.
given to

The

greatest part of their laws were

;

Moses on mount Sinai and the others were added at different times, during their
(n) (o)

might not be deemed improper, in a history of the Israelites, to give the body of their laws in the same order and method in which the Jews themselves have collected and digested them, out of the five books of Moses, which they call, by way of excellency, minn (Ha-THORan) the law ,-(q) but they have so blended them with
of this book is book of words. These five books, or Pentateuch, are subdivided into fiftyfour sections, called ni'itna (paRosHlOTH) divisions, sections, or distinctions ; these are of unequal lengths, according to the subject ; and by joining two of the shortest twice together, they are enabled to read the whole consecutively every sabbath, in the course of the year : but in their intercalated years, in which they have 54 sabbaths, there is a section for each. The generality of the Jews attribute these divisions, with the practice of reading them on the sabbath, to Moses ; but the Christians, with more probability, to Esra. Of these sections, or parashioth, the book of Genesis contains twelve Exodus, eleven ; Leviticus, ten ;
in the Rabbinical

Judges,

viii.

22, 23.

Contra Apioncm, lib. ii. Le Clerc, et al. (p) Spencer de Leg. Ritual Jud. passim. The Jews divide this (THOROH) or law, as we (q) do, into five books, which they call by the first words of each: thus Genessis is n'U?N~Q (BCRESHITH) In the beginning ; Exodus is nVDUrnbNI (ve-EL/eH SHCMOTH) These are the names; Leviticus is Nlp'1 (VO-YI'KHA) And he called; Numbers is "Oil (va-YeDaB^eR) And he spake; or sometimes "O1CQ (BCMtDBaR) in the wilderness; which is the fifth word in the first verse, and is used in most Hebrew Bibles as its head, or running-title; and Deuteronomy is called O'lmn rTM* (EL/CH Ha-DeBaREeM) These are the words; though the Rabbins sometimes give it the name of fUUJQ (MISHNCH) the iteration, or doubling, a term of equal import with the Greek AiuTi{oofiio>, the second taw, becaifse it contains a repetition of the laws of the preceding books and from which our own name of Deuteronomy is derived

anm

Bibles, the running

title

IDD (sePHeR DCBaREeM)

the

mm

like the books Numbers, ten ; and Deuteronomy, eleven which contain them, they are all named according to the word or words they begin with thus, the first parasha in Genesis, beginning with chap, i, ver. 1, aud reaching to
: ;

4v

710
i

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

were equally

[CHAP, xviii.
that the

mcHtions, which they pretend

delivered by the Deity to Moses,

(r)

(BCRCSHITH) In the beyinchap. vi. vor. 8, is called nimi ; the second, commencing with chap. vi. ver. 0, and ending with chap. xi. is called nj(NooH) from Noah being the chief person spoken of in it: the third, from chap. xii. to xviii. both inclusive, is called "f? l"? (LCK LCKO) Go thy way ; from the command of God to Abraham, to leave his native land ; and so of the rest : hut for fuller information on this subject, the reader is referred to Dr. A. Clarke's Comment, at the end of Deuteronomy, where he will be gratified with a comor sections of the law, parative view of all the parashioth, and the haphtaroth, or portions of the prophets, read with
them, by the Portuguese and Italian, German and Dutch Jews together with curious and elaborate tables for finding the appropriate sections for any sabbath during a whole which embrace all the variations that ycle of 247 years, can possibly occur.
;

TWO

by Rabbi Judah, the son of Simeon, whose reputed sanctity of life gained him the surname of Hakltadosh, or the holy : he was then rector of the school at Tiberias, and president of the Sanhedrim there, and he compiled it in six books,
each consisting of several tracts, amounting all together to sixty-three, in which, under their proper heads, he methodically arranged all that had been delivered to the Jew,, of their law and their religion, by the tradition of their ancestors. Dr. Pride;iux,t from whom this account is borrowed, supposes the MUhnah to have been compiled in the reign of Antoninus Pius, about A. D. 150; and the Jew* say it was the result of 40 years' labour: but Dr. Lightfoot places it towards the end of the reign of Commodus, about A.D. 190; and Dr. Lardner,j thinks it could not have been finished before that year, or rather later whence some have comThis work was no puted its ara at about A. D. 220. sooner published, than it became the subject of the studies of all their learned men, the most eminent among whom, both in Judea and Babylonia, employed themselves in making comments upon it, and these, with the Mishnah
;

the written law, the Jews add the oral, or tradi(r) To tionary, which they pretend to have been given by God to In support of Moses, during his abode on mount Sinai.
this fancy, they very speciously ask what else he could be doing; for, say they, it were absurd to suppose that lie spent the long interval of twice forty days merely in registering the written law, when less than one-fourth of the time might have sufficed and upon these grounds they assert <hat he was all the rest of it engaged in learning the oral law by rote, which he afterwards carefully communicated verbally to Aaron, Eleazar, and Joshua; by whom, in like manner, it was revealed to the seventy elders, and from them it passed to the prophets, the three last of whom, Haggai, Zechariab, and Malachi, delivered it to the great sanhedrim, from whom the wise men of Jerusalem and Babylon received
;

Thus, they affirm, was this oral law, given to Moses, transmitted from one generation to another, entire and uncorrupted, under the name of nVap (caBftaLaH) tradition, till
it.

at length

it

was committed

to writing,

by various hands,

in

the volume called "IlQ^n

(TOLMUD) learned, consisting of tuo parts, njU?O (MisHNan) from rutt? (SHONOH) he repeated; and niOJ(GcMARraH) from TQJ (GOMOR) to com/ili'tc to
;

two Talmwds, the Jerusalem and the Babylonish. These comments they call the Gumarah, or Complement, because they explain the Mishnah, and complete their traditionary doctrine. The Jerusalem Talmud, says Mons. Tillemont, was written, or collected, by one Johanan, whom the Jews place about the end of the second century of the Christian sera though Father Morin proves, from the work itself, wherein the Turks are spoken of, that it could not be written before the time of Heraclius, about A. D. 620: this is not much esteemed by the Jews, <m account of its obscurity. They set a much greater value on the Gemarah or Talmud of Babylon, begun by one Asa discontinued for 73 years, on occasion of the wars with the Saracens and Persians, and finished by one Josa, about the close of the seventh century. Though the name Talmud, in its latitude, comprehends the Mishnah and the two Gemarahs, yet it properly that of Asa and Josa which is usually meant by it. This the Jews prize above all their other it oii

make

itself,

up

their

which they

And

they

give a decided preference above the written law. add, that the obscurity of the written law, its

a level with the Scripture itself. In the 12th century, Mairaonidcs made an abridgment of the Talmud, in which he
title

writings, setting

The impiety of these'pretensions is too obvious dangerous we shall therefore leave them as to need refutation they are, and conclude the account with the censure passed upon " Y<> have tin-in by our Lord made the word of God of
! ;
;

seeming inconsistency in several respects, and the ill use that God foresaw would be made of it by the wicked, rendered the oral law so very necessary, that, without it, the other would have proved in many respects useless, or even

retrenched it of some of of 1 'ad Hachazakah.

:

its

greatest absurdities,

under the
is

The Jerusalem Talmud

Babylon was
last

con-

tained in one large folio that of at Amsterdam in twelve folio

published volumes; at which place between A. D. 1698 and 1703, Surenhusius published the original Mishnah, with a Latin translation, and notes of his

none

effect

through

YOUR

tradition,

which

YE

have de-

livered."*

own, and others from Maimonides, in six volumes, folio. Though the generality of the Jews are so devoted to their Talmud, there is an ancient sect among them, called Karaites, who reject and abhor it. They
port the authority of the written law of Moses, and' deny that any oral precepts were ever transmitted by him to posterity: yet, according to Selden, they are not without certain of the which
ditary,
scripture," they call //<and are consequently They are proper traditions. supposed to have sprung from the Sadducees;|| and are

strenuously sup-

works are known under the name of Talmud, vi/. and Talmud of Jerusalem, and the Talmud of Babylon. Each of these, as already oldened, is divided into two parts; the Mishnah, which is the text, and is common to The former comboth, and the Gfinarah, or commentary. prehends all the laws, institutions, and rules of life, which tlie Jews believe themselves bound to obey, with
of several passages of scripture. it about the close of the second century of the
tions
Matt. Ir 6.
.

Two

uttefpretatinu

explana-

v.ns

compiled

(.'hriMian v:ru,

mortally hated by the Talmudists, or Itabbinists, who are of the sect of 1'lumsees. As we are here upon the subject of the Cabbala, or traditions, it may not be amiss to mention another, of rather a
{

Mark,

?ii.
/

13.

CtaMCt.

rol.ii. p. 44iV,

My. (edit. 11.)

S Scld.

CeHrrt. of Jciciih and Heathen Talmientes, vol. i. p. 178 Uar Iltbraic*. Abn Ezra.
||

SECT.

II.]

LAWS.

AGAINST IDOLATRY.
"

717

reader would be rather confounded than instructed by them.(s) The written laws are therefore here arranged under distinct heads and classes, so as to convey a clear idea of them ; together with the religion,

The

silver,

gold,

and other precious orna-

ments belonging to idols, shall not be turned to advantage, but be destroyed with the utmost abhorrence."(b)

government, manners, and customs, as they The all flowed from the same divine original. laws generally run in the style of the five or
six following,

which are given as specimens

II.

Whosoever sacrificeth his seed to Moloch, whether he be an Israelite or a sojourner in the land, shall be stoned to death. "(c) Besides these, several others, of similar import, are interspersed, and frequently repeated, in the four last books of Moses; but as
they are well known to every reader, .it is Of the unnecessary to dwell upon them. same nature are also those laws, prohibitory of all intercourse with idolatrous nations, and with every thing like an imitation of their ways ; as, the use of familiar spirits, enchantments, the observation of times and omens, (d) divinations, resorting to wizards or necromancers, &c. under pain of death, lest they should

"

Laws

against Idolatry, and for the pure worship of the only true God.

AGAINST IDOLATRY/

"Thou

shalt

have no

" Ye other gods before, or besides Me."(t) shall not profane, or take in vain, but hallow, God's holy Name."(u) " Ye shall utterly destroy all the idols, all other monuments of altars, groves, and Canaanitish idolatry ."(v) " Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted him in the wilderness."(w) " Ye shall make no image or representation of God, from the likeness of the celestial, or of the terrestrial, or aquatic bodies. "(x) " Ye shall not bow down, nor worship, any kind of idol. "(y) " Whoever enciteth another to idolatry, shall be stoned as soon as convicted of it."(z) " The spoil of a city doomed to anathema, shall not be saved upon any account, but be publicly burned ; the inhabitants of it shall be put to the sword, and the place shall be no more rebuilt, but continue a heap for ever. (a)
!1

be insensibly drawn away to idolatry.(e) With the same view, also, they were forbidden to round the corners, or of the head, temples,
to

mar

the corners of their beards,

to
it,

cut
for

their flesh, or to

make any marks upon

the sake of the dead ; together with the promiscuous use of apparel by either sex :(f) all

which were customary among the Canaanites and other heathens, as shewn in the foregoing parts of this work, in speaking of the religious rites of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, &c. Leaving, therefore, these negative laws against idolatry, and the incitements to it, we proceed to the positive laws, enjoining the worship of the only true God,

JEHOVAH.

different nature,

which lias been received by some of the Christian fathers, and has slill many strenuous advocates among the learned of the present day : it is called, by way of distinction, KalMa, or Reception ; and it is supposed to contain the mystical sense of the Old Testament, in which, as is pretended, the writers of the New understood and
it. This sense, say its defenders, was conveyed them from Moses, through the prophets, by divine inspiration, and is very different, if not directly contrary, to the obvious and literal meaning. In proof of this, they appeal to the interpretation given by some of the evangelists, particularly St. Matthew,* as well us St. Paul, of several of the prophecies quoted by them; where the use made of the words quoted, is so foreign from their literal sense, that, in their opinion, it can only be justified by supposing they hud

instances, overstepped the limits of propriety, in contorting the Scriptures to their own purposes.
(s)

Those who

this subject,

may

are desirous of being farther satisfied ou consult Munster's Abridgment of them,

and of the Jewish Comments upon them, with his Versiou of each, as collected from their Talmud, and other rabbinical
works.
(t)

explained
to

(v) (x)
(y)
(z)

Exod. xx. 3. Deut. xii. 2, et seq. Exod. xx. 4. Dent. Exod. xx. o. Deut. Deut. xiii. 1, et set],

(u)
iv.

Exod. xx.
vi.

7.

(w) Dctit.
puss,

10.

and

v. 8.

v. 9, et

aL

et at. pass.

recourse to this ('/iristian Ka/jli/ii, us they call it. Some of the primitive fathers, misled by this notion, have, in many
*
!.'>,

Ibid. ver. 15, ct seq. (b) Ibid. vii. 2o, 2<>V (c) Levit. xx. 2. Deut. xviii. 10, 11. (d) Levit. xix. 14. (e) Deut. xviii. 9
(a)

2028.

(f)
xxx.
vili.

Deut.
:

xxii. 5.

Comp. smong
if
5115.

others,
xiii, 5.

SJtitt.

ii.

Judges,

Sum.

i.

15, 17, S3, with Hoiea, xi. 1, Jer. xxxi. 11 : also Rom. x, 6, l scq. with Itcut.

12
4.

and Ephct.

>.

31. ivith

Cat

ii.

24

and Ut6.

ii.

6. with Psatte

718

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

JEHOVAH, who demount Sinai, is the only
all

[CHAP.

xvm.

WORSHIP OF GOD.
livered His law from

"

God
"

in

He

heaven and earth."(g) alone is to be loved with

fatherly chastisements, or trials of their obedience." (p) " The law shall be engraven upon stones,
set up upon an altar; and the blessings of obedience, and curses for disobedience, .shall be publicly exhibited upon mounts Ebal and Gerizim, for a perpetual remembrance."(q) " No forgiveness or deliverance from any

the heart,

and

mind, and strength ;(h) He only is to be feared above all things,(i) and His Name to be sanctified."

His laws in their hearts; teach them to their children and diligently grand-children ;(j) and wear them for a sign upon their heads, as frontlets between their eyes; and write them upon the gates, posts, and other parts of their houses."(k) " They shall circumcise their hearts as well

"

They

shall engrave

punishment for disobedience, shall be expected without a deep sense and acknowledgment of
the fault."(r) " sacrifices, tithes, vows, Burnt-offerings, firstlings of the flock, and freewill-offerings, shall be brought and sacrificed only at the place which the Lord shall appoint."(s)
III.

as their flesh

;(1)

and be no more

rebellious,

but serve

God sincerely,

cleave unto Him, and

swear by His Name alone. "(m) " The whole law shall be read by the and priests to all the people, men, women,
seventh year, at the feast of tabernacles ; (n) the substance of it shall be learned by heart by every Israelite; and every king of Israel shall be obliged to write a copy of it with his own hand, from that which was by Moses committed to the custody of the Levites, in order to be constantly read and
children, every

Laivs concerning the Sabbath, the Passover, and other Festivals, Holydays, and Fasts.

observed by him."(o) " All blessings shall be thankfully acknowto come from God; and punishments ledged
inflicted

Sabbath, or Seventh be kept holy.(t) No servile work Day, shall be done in it, by master, servant, slave, There shall no fire be stranger, or cattle.(u) kindled on that day,(v) nor any thing be bought or sold. No person shall be put to death for any crime whatever on that day, nor any trashall

THE SABBATH." The

by Him, submissively
Deut. vi. 4. (j) Deut. vi.

received,

as

The sabbath-breaker shall be stoned."(x) With several others to the same purpose, or of less moment.(y)
velling allowed.(w)
rest, a good week, as he had, on the the preceding evening, wished them a good sabbath.* The interdiction of travelling on the sabbath, is only to be understood of going out upon secular business, or for pleasure ; or, indeed, upon any other account, beyond what they called a sabbath-day's journey, a distance not fixed by Moses, nor mentioned by any of the prophets, but determined by general

(g)
(i)

Exod. xx. 2, 3. Ibid. ver. 13.

(h) Ibid. ver. 5.

wished himself and the

6, 7.

(k)

Kid.

69.

Deut. x. 16, et al.'jmss. 13. (n) Deut. xxxi. 9 (p) Ibid. viii. pass. (r) Ibid. xxx. pass.
(1)

(m) Ibid. ver. 20.

(o) Ibid. xvii. 18, etseq. (q) Ibid, xxvii. ad Jin.
(s) Ibid. xii. 5, et seq. (u) Ibid, xxiii. 12. (w) Ibid. xvi. 29.

(t)

Exod. xx. 10,

et seq.

We learn from Maimonides, that in all districts and (y) towns throughout Israel, a trumpet was blown on the evening of the sixth day, six different times, from some eminence, whence it might easily be heard at a due distance so that those who were in the fields might have timely notice to
;

(v) Ibid. xxxv. 3. (x) Ibid. xxxi. 14, 15.

consent at 2000 cubits. Whoever exceeded this distance, was punishable with stripes.t The prohibition of Moses, that the Israelites should not stir out of their place on the
sabbath-day,! could only apply to their going out of the camp to look for manua, contrary to his previous command ; for it is evident, that they were obliged to repair to the tabernacle, from all parts of the camp, and afterwards to the yet some of the temple, from all quarters of Jerusalem
:

before the sabbath began. At the repair to their habitations sound of the first trumpet, they, therefore, left off work, and at the second sounding, all to march homeward

later

began

Jews have been so tenacious upon this point, that wherever the sun set upon them at the commencement of the
sabbath, there they have pertinaciously insisted on remaining the next evening: thus some will choose to continue in bed all the day, or if they rise, and happen to stumble, they

shops, stalls, and places of trade, were shut up ; at the third, the pots and kettles were taken off the fire, the tables were covered, and the meat that had been prepared for the The last trump was sabbath, was set upon them, &c. the next evening, as soon as generally about sun-set ; and on two or three stars could be perceived, the trumpets blew from the same places, to proclaim the end of the sabbath ; at which time, the head of the family, after a short prayer,
Mairaon. Tract fOtt?, cap. Aaren, book iii. chap. 3. sect. 10.
T. sect.

till

will lie where they fell, till sun-set relieves them from their apprehensions of incurring a penalty for a breach of the sabbath. Fabyan, in his Chronicles, tells the following " In this story of a case of this kind: yere also (1259) fell that happe of the Jewe of Tewkysbury, which fell into a
t

27. See alao Godwin'i Notts and

Idem,

ibid.
xxiii. 3.

Etod. xvi. 29.

in

it,

SECT.

II.]

LAWS. THE PASSOVER.

FESTIVALS. " Three the males appear before
"

THE THREE GRAND

The
free
;

times a year shall all the Lord their God, at the place by him appointed; namely, at the Passover, or feast of unleavened bread ; at Pentecost, or feast ol weeks; and at the Feast of Tabernacles. They shall not come empty-handed, but every man shall offer unto the Lord according to the abi-

and

bath

day shall be kept holy, work, even as the sabexcept only, that, on the former, food
first

and

last

from

all servile

may be

two days

dressed, but not on the latter ;(e) those shall likewise be solemnized by an

holy convocation." The five intermediate days, according to the Talmudists, were to be spent in mirth and lawful recreations. All persons,
especially the

wherewith he is blessed."(z) PASSOVER. This grand festival was instituted in memory or their signal and miraculous deliverance from Egyptian bondage, the laws relating to which are to the following purport: " It shall be of perpetual obligation, both to the Israelites and to all circumcised proselity

women, were enjoined

:

to

appear

in their best apparel, to eat flesh, fish, or fowl,

even the poorest, and those their living by alms, were obliged to got take, at least, four bumpers on the first night

and to drink wine

who

No circumcised person, whether of the seed of Abraham, or admitted into the commonwealth by circumcision, unless hindered
by sickness, journeying, or some legal impurity, shall omit the annual celebration of it, under the penalty of being cut off from his
people." " No servant or stranger shall eat of it, unless he become circumcised."(b) " The feast shall begin on the eve of the fourteenth-day of the month Abib,(c} (or, as the original expresses it, between the two evenings ;)(d) at which time the paschal lamb shall be killed and the festival shall be continued till the one-and-tweritieth day of the same
:

lytes."(a)

"

of the passover, whilst rehearsing the wonders wrought by God in Egypt, and at the Red Sea. " No leaven of any kind shall be used, or even kept in the house, during those seven Whosoever useth any leaven on those days. shall be cut off from Israel all leaven, days, therefore, shall be removed out of the house
;

lamb is killed. "(f) day of the passover, shall be offered a burnt-sacrifice of two young bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year, with some inferior offerings ;(g) and, on the second day of the feast, shall be offered, besides the
before the paschal " On the first

month, at evening."
gonge upon the Saturday, and wolde not, for reverence of be pluckyd out ; whereof herying the Erie of

usual sacrifices, a sheaf of the first-fruits of that year's harvest; no new corn shall be eaten in any way, before this sheaf has been presented to the Lord."(h) Some other ordinances of less moment, about this and other festivals, are interspersed in the Pentateuch, and are there" In the same slough, tliou stubborn Jew, " Our sabbath-day thou shall spend too."

his sabot daje,

Gloucestyr, that the Jevve dyd so great reverence to his sabbot daye, thought he wolde doo as moche unto his holy day, which was Sonday ; and so kepte hym there tyll MonIf this tale day, at which season, he was foundyn dede." be a fact, it is hard to determine which which was most " Jewe in the absurd, the superstition of the unhappy gonge," or the inhumanity of the Erie ; though, considering that the " the latter had the light of Christianity, to teach him that sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath,"* the Jew will rather have the preference. This story seems to be the ground of another told by Mr. Stapleton, of one Rabbi Solomon, who fell into a slough on the Jewish sabbath, and refused to be pulled out, giving his reasons in the
following Leonine couplets : Sabbatha sancta colo,

And

so they

left

him

till

Monday morning!
(a)

(z) Dent, xvi, 16, 17. (b) Exod. xii. 43, et seq. (c) Afterwards called Nisan. (d) Exod. xii. 6, Margin. (f) Ibid. ver. 15,

Exod.

xii.

14, 24.

(e)

Ibid. ver. 16.

xxviii. 19, et seq.

19.
et seq.

(g)

Numb,

This sheaf was of barley, because that was first ripe. It was reaped in the evening of the 15th day of the month Abib, and was to be offered in The Jews add, that as soon the name of the whole nation. as the evening of the first day of the passover was come, at which time the second day began, and some kinds of work might be done, the great council assembled, and deputed and the sheaf, with a kind of solemthree men to
(h)

Lev.

xxiii.

10,

go

gather

To

holy sabbath-day I prize." which the Christians replied : Sabbatha nostra quidem,

" Out of this slough " For

De

stercore suryere nolo.

I

will

not

to Jerusalem, within the nity, which attracted great crowds The deputies territories of which, it was to be gathered.
rise,

Solomon celebrabis ibidem,

Mark,
ii.

87.

three several began with demanding of the by-standers, whether the sun was set; and on being as often answered in the affirmative, they asked three times leave to was granted, the three reap the sheaf: as soon as this each with a sickle in deputies entered three different fields, each a distinct parcel, which they his hand, and
times,

gathered

720
fore here omitted.

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

food.

[CHAP.

xvm.

During this, and the two other great festivals, weddings were forbidden, lest the joy attendant upon them should weaken the recollection of the mercies they were celebrating.

work might be done, except the cooking of A holy convocation was also to be held
on

The
year,
for

this day.(i) sacrifices

loaves,

for this day, besides the consisted of seven lambs of the

two
first

PENTECOST, OR FEAST OF WEEKS. This feast was instituted in memory of the law being given on mount Sinai, fifty days after the Exodus, and to oblige the people to appear
before the Lord, to offer the first-fruits of their harvest, riz. two loaves of the new wheat, which was then ripe, as an acknowledgment of God's absolute right and dominion over them ami their land, and of their dependence upon him. Seven weeks, or fifty days, were to be reckoned from the sixteenth day of the month Nisan, which was the second of the passover ; and the fiftieth day was to be the first day of this festival, on which no servile
put into as many boxes, and carried them to the temple. There they wen- threshed, winnowed, and parched, and an homer (containing about three pints) was tilled with the corn, and presented to the priest, who poured a quantity of oil, and threw some incense upon it ; he then heaved it before the Lord, towards the four points of the compass, threw some part of it on the fire of the altar, and laid aside the After this ceremony, it was remainder for his own use.
lawful for every

one young
a

bullock, and two rams,(j)

;

with their with a kid usual meat and drink offerings, for a sin-offering, and two lambs for a peaceburnt-offering

together

offering.

FEAST OF TABERNACLES. This festival was ordained in memory of the forty years' abode
of the Israelites in the wilderness, for which reason it is called the Feast of the Tabernacles, or Tents; not only because they lived in tents or booths during all that time, but because it was to be celebrated in such kinds of booths, made of the brandies of several sorts of trees,(k) erected in the most convenient manMoses meant no more than that they should select such trees most lasting and agreeable verdure and fragrancy

as yield the

while the Cabbalists have almost obliterated the primitive intention of the festival, by their numberless additions.]) Moses says expressly, that the design of this festival was to remind their posterity that God had made the Israelites to dwell in booths at their coming out of Egypt ;U and else-

man

to begin his harvest.*

Persons who, by reason of any legal impurity, accidental or voluntary, were unfit for celebrating the passover with their brethren, and those who were prevented by any lawful impediment, as being on a distant journey, or the like, were ordered to keep it, with the usual solemnity, on the fifteenth and following days of the second mouth, //or, or Z(f ; an
indulgence originally granted, by divine authority, to sonic men who had defiled themselves by assisting at the burial of a relative ;t and afterwards claimed by the priests and Levites, ill the reign of Ih-zekiah, because they had no! sufficiently purified themselves, nor could the people be got together to Jerusalem, in time to celebrate it in the first

where, that they departed from Rameses, and encamped at Succoth,** so called from the booths which they there reared up : and yet the Chaldee paraphrast rather understands it Some suppose it to have of their living in the open air. been instituted as a feast of thanksgiving for the conclusion of their harvest and vintage, which generally ended about the time of its celebration, which answers to the beginning of our October. But Mr. Walton thinks it refers to Moses coming the second time from the mount, with the joyful

mouth. J
(i)

In Xtiinb. xxviii. 27, these numbers are transposed, and we find two young bullocks, and oncr&m. Josephusj joins them all together, so as to make three but it i* more likely, that the bullocks, and as many rams difference has originated in some error of the copiers of the
:

Lev. xxiii. 15, ct (j) Lcvit. xxiii. 18.

m/.

" Ye shall take the boughs of (joodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and the boughs of thick tree*, and willows of the brook :" by goodly trees, the Jews and many understand citron-frees; and by thick trees, the .critics

original. (k) Moses says,

news That, the divine anger being appeased respecting the golden calf, the tabernacle was to be reared, which had been delayed for several weeks by that idolatrous defection, and God was about to dwell ainon;: them. This pacificatory the tenth day message, he observes, was brought to them on of the month Tisri, six months after the Exodus, which accounts, he thinks, for the feast of tabernacles lieing ordained for that month, rather than for the first, Ablb, when the people began to live in booths, or tents. tt AccordPsalms for this season ing to Leo De Medina,;): the proper were the lllth to the 118th; they all beginning with H'ttn (HaLLCLUJaH). The first day of this festival was ushered in by a general procession, the men carrying branches of trees in both their hands, waving them about towards the
four quarters of the heavens, some singing the psalms above alluded to, or hymns composed for the occasion, and others the trumpets crying Hosannah! (Save, u-e beseech tliee!) the feast, which sounding on all sides. On the last day of was called Honannah Rabbah, (or the day of the great Hosanuah) this ceremony of carrying palms round the altar

They are not, however, perfectly agreed upon thi.s myrtle. point, any more than they are as to the mode of .structure observed for the tabernacles. The Karaites maintain that
*
t

Numk

Maimonides, Abu Ezr. in Deut. xxxvi. rt at. ix. 6 12. } 2 Cfirort. xxx.
lib. iii.

f
1
3. tt

$ Aniiq.
||

cap. 10.

toil, xxiii. -I','. Walton. Harmon. Eaaig. ad Luc.

1<>, sc-ct.
:>.

**
iii.

Eaix'. xii. 37.

31,

apud Meyer. De Temp. Sac:

cap.
'J

Mifhna. Tract.

H3tD Arbab

iiuriru.

Ma'unon. Tract. "121D,

al.

$t Ccerem. Jud. part.

ii.

cap. 7.

SECT.

II.]

LAWS.
feast,

FEAST OF TABEftNAfLES.
offering,

721

and equal what It began related particularly to the passover. on the eve of the fifteenth day of the seventh month, called Tisri, which was the first of the civil year, and answered to part of our all the harvest September; by which time, finished and brought in, they returned being It contheir solemn thanks to God for it.(m) last of which tinued seven days, the first and were kept with great strictness, by the people
ner.(I)

This was the third grand

in solemnity to the other two, except in

with their usual meat and drink offerconsisting of a certain quantity of Hour ings, mingled with oil, and sonic wine. To tlu-se
kid, for a sin-offering, on behalf of the whole nation; besides the usual morning and evening sacrifices, \vhich were never to be intermitted. On the second day, twelve bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs, with their usual accompaniments of flour and wine for meat and drink offerings. On the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh days, sacrifices of the same description were offered, only they dropped one buttock each day ; so that on the On last, only seven bullocks were sacrificed. the eighth day, which was deemed the most sacred of the whole, a solemn assembly was held, all servile work was abstained from, and the sacrifices consisted of one bullock, one ram, and seven lambs, for a burnt-offering, with one goat for a sin-offering, besides the

was added a

or temple, with branches in their hands, marching round the and singing the praises of God by altar, sacrifices peculiar to the solemnity, besides the usual daily offering, and by a cessation from
repairing to the
tabernacle,
;

servile works, except cookery. (n) They were likewise obliged to dwell in those booths all the seven days, and to eat, drink, and unless prevented by some lawful sleep in them,
all

impediment.(o)
peculiar to this feast were on the first day, thirteen bullocks, two rains, and fourteen lambs of a year old, for a bun it-

The

sacrifices

On this daily and voluntary sacrifices, (p) the first-fruits of such things eighth day also, as were of later growth, were brought up, and
presented before God.(q)

was performed seven

times, and with greater solemnity than on the preceding days, in memory, it is said, of the taking of Jericho.* But what they testified most joy at, on this out the water, perhaps in memory day, was that of pouring of the waters gushing from the rock of Iforeb some, indeed, of late date, and to suppose this ceremony to have been have been introduced only a little before our Saviour's time; its institution to the though some of the Jews attribute
;

sprouts of citrons, or peaches, hanging to them, imagined that they also held a festival in honour of the same deity Ovid abso speaks of a Roman festival, in honour of Anna Pereniia, celebrated much in the same way ; some remained
.

in the

On this occasion, a prophets Haggai and Zechariah.t with great ceremony, drew some water in a golden priest, it into the vessel, from the pool of Siloam, and brought while the temple: at the time of the morning sacrifice, victim was on the altar, he poured this water, mingled with
with transwine, upon it ; the people all the while singing, " With of joy, that celebrated passage of Isaiah, joy ports shall ye draw water," &c.J In imitation of this feast, among the Israelites, the Plutarch speaks of heathens also had their feast of tents. feasts of this kind among the Greeks, in honour of Bacchus, celebrated in the time of vintage, when some brought out tables into the open air, furnished with fruits of all kinds, and others sat under tents composed of vine-branches and On this occasion, a nosegay, consisting of a bunch of
ivy. olive, tied

open air, others formed tents and booths of branches of trees, to repose themselves under, over which they spread their garments, and kept the festival with great rejoicings. From all this, Spencer has conjectured that the fca.-.t of tabernacles was borrowed by Moses from the hcathens,1T contrary to the express declaration of that legislator, that it was to commemorate the residence of Israel in the wilderness, and to keep up a perpetual remembrance of their former low estate, and the goodness of God towards them.
||

We learn from Buxtorf,** that the Jews were so fearful of miscalculating this festival, and that of the passover, that and by this means they kept them two days, instead of one he endeavours to remove the difficulty that has been started, of our Saviour's eating the passover one day sooner than the a subject that has been very largely disrest of the Jews cussed by Biblical critics and commentators, and for more ample information upon which, the reader is referred to Dr. A. Clarke's Introduction to his Discourse on the Sat arc and the Eucharist; or his Comment on Mutt.
: :

up with wool, on which hung great

and
laid

in form by a child, at the temple of Apollo; and hence Plutarch, knowing that, close of the year, the Jews had a festival, during which they resided in booths, and carried about branches of trees, and and palm, with little bouquets made of myrtle, willow,

was carried

at the gate

variety of fruit, of the

Design of
(1)

Holy

xxvi.

Lev. xxxiii. 40, et seq. (m) Ejcod. xxiii. 1C.

(n)

(p) (q) Sigonium, Bertram),

||

Numb. Numb.

xxix. 12.
xxix.

(o)

Lev.

xxiii.

42.

1238.
Cunaeum, &c.

Basnng.
Ai-nm, ct
Vi>:

Ilirsp'm. Orig.
,

t V-,

Feat, cap. 7. Muiut. in Calemt. ft al. Culiixt, Meier's Htbrm festivals, Goodwin's

OviH. Fast.

lib. iii.

Macs

end
$

:il.

Isiir/i'i, xit.
l'.-.,t.

6.

fi. lib. iii. cap. 8. Spencer. De Leg. Kit. Jml. lib. i. cap. * Sen aUo Cjril. Alex, in Job, xiii. Chryvost. Himiii. 32. St/nag. Jit-l.

Symp.

lib. iv,

q. 6.

Joseph. Ant.

lib. ui.

cap. 10. Clou, invcc.

Epiphauuu, and many

others.

VOL.

I.

4 z

722

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

month, or moon, and to
sacrifices,

[CHAP, xviir.

This feast, which was on the first and second days of the month kept Tisri, was ushered in by the sound of trumfree front all pets, and was to be kept holy, servile work, and distinguished from other festivals by particular sacrilices.(r) As the scripture nowhere assigns any reason

FEAST OF TRUMPETS.

for this festival, authors

are

much

divided in

offer, besides the usual a burnt-offering of two young bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs, with the appropriate quantity of flour, wine, and oil. (a) The most solemn of the festivals was that of the month Tisri, which was kept holy on a particular account. The rest had nothing to distinguish them from common days, except the

opinion about

it.

of the creation, it was affirm happened in that month ;(s) which they though some Rabbins think, it was rather in memory of Isaac being offered, and redeemed by the ram caught by the horns.(t) Some of the fathers are of opinion, it was in memory of the law being given upon mount Sinai,(u) at which time the trumpet and thunder were heard. Others, from some of the ceremonies observed by the Jews, by way of preparation
instituted in

The Jews, memory

in general, believe

sacrifices

above-mentioned, which were accomwith the sound of trumpets, and perpanied haps using some peculiar forms of devotion. Nothing of the kind, indeed, is enjoined by Moses; but so much may be gathered from David's excuse for absenting himself from Saul's table on the first day of the month ;(b)

and from what the Shuuammite's husband said, to dissuade her from going to the prophet " neither new moon nor Elisha, that it was

to put mankind in mind of the general resurrection, which is to be ushered in by the sound of the trumpet ;(w) but the most probable reason for
for this festival, (v)
it

have thought

was

this feast,

and

for proclaiming the entrance of

year by the sound of trumpets, seems order to render it more observable; since all their contracts, mortgages, bargains, &c. as well as their sabbatic years, and jubilees, were to be regulated by it; for which n ason the trumpets ceased not to sound, every where, from sun-rising to sun-setting.(x) The proper sacrifices were one young bullock, one ram, and seven lambs, for a burntoffering, and a kid for a sin-offering, besides the daily and monthly sacrifices.(y)
the
to
civil

However, though these days, in sabbath."(c) other respects, were like common days, they were very scrupulous in observing them. As they had no sure way of computing the time of new moon with any exactness, they observed two days, the last of the old, and the first of the new, for greater security. That this cus-

be

in

tom began very

in

early,

seems plainly intimated

to,

the instance above alluded

of Saul,
first

who
day,

excused David for his absence on the but resented it on the second.
;

These are all the feast-days appointed by the Mosaic law but the Jews added, in
process of time, several in memory of peculiar mercies ; such as that of JPurim, or Lots, in memory of their deliverance from Hainan's cruelty,(d) the Dedication of the Temple, and many more.

NEW

JVIooNs.(z)
lo

The
the

Israelites
first

manded
(r)

observe

were comday of every

Lev.
n

month

xxiii. 24, ct seij. the (Icmarrnk: "The world was created in the Tisri ;" and hence this festival has been supposed to

(y)
(z)

Numb.

xxix. 1

6.

be ordained, to prevent the old or civil year being obliterated by the observance of the sacred. The Mishnuh says, the first day of this nionlh is the head oft-very year, from which the seventh, or sabbatic year, the jubilee, &c. are to be
reckoned. (t) R. Sal. Fag. Munst. et
(u) Basil, iu
(v)
al.

For want of proper astronomical tables, the Jews were obliged to watch with great assiduity for the first appearance of the new moon. For this purpose the sanhedrim, or great council, assembled early on the 30th day of every month, and continued sitting till approved witnesses came to testify that they had seen the moon. As soon as their testimony was given, and properly certified, the president proclaimed
the
cralrtl,

Psatm

\\\\\.

in Lev. xxiii. Theodoret. qu. 32. in Levit.

new moon, by saying UHpQ (MfKundosH) which word was communicated with

It is cnnxcall

possible

ancient Jews had a notion, that God passed a sort of judgment upon men at this time, for the good or bad deeds of the. foregoing year; according to which, His

The

blessings :iinl punishments were dispensed lor the next. See on tlm subject, and that of the preceding note, Almiimiiidrs. Kidush*Hakodesh. cap. 9; Hottinger and Wotton on the Mis/i i:ak; Mure J\tcoclt. pai iii. cap. -I, and various others. (w) Goodwin. (x) Schindler, sub voc.
I

and shouting it expedition by the people repeating it twice, from one end of the city to the other. When this ceremony was o\er, tin- appearance of the moon was farther proclaimed by sound of trumpet, or by other means, according to the circumstance of time and place.* (b) 1 Sam. NX. .>, 18, 27. (a) Xuntlt. xxviii. 11, 12, &c.
(9)
-2

Kings,

iv.

23.

et (d) Esther, ix. 20,

et

eq.

* Vide Hotlinger in Good. Mos.

Aar.

sect. vii. cot. 5.

SECT.

II.]

LAWS. SABBATIC
IV.

AND JUBILEE YEARS.

723

Laws relative

to the

Sabbatic and Julilee Years.

SABBATIC YEAR. The Sabbatic or Seventh Year, and the Jubilee, (which happened once
in seven times seven years), are also to be looked upon as solemn times. They were appointed by God, and designed for rest and rejoicing; and as they bore a kind of analogy, or rather were a kind of consequence of the sabbath, or seventh day, they may, on that account, be also reckoned among their solemn
festivals.

earth of the former year, and for sowing it against the next ; so that the land might not lie fallow two years together.(i) Some other laws there were, relating particularly to this year; such as, that servants released in it, should receive a compensation for their service ;(j) with others respecting the

The Mosaic law distinguishes years:!. The civil, according

four sorts of
to

opening of fields, orchards, and vineyards, to all comers and the like. Among which was that remarkable one of reading the law, before all the people, on the day of pentecost for as they were to abstain from all works of husbandry, there was doubtless a greater concourse to hear it, than could have been on any
;

which

all

other occasion, (k)

political matters were regulated, consisting of twelve solar, and afterwards of lunar months, beginning at the month Tisri, (or September}. ( 01 , 2. The sacred, which began at the month Nisan, the (or March), which was the seventh of the civil of all tK?jr r^li year, and regulated the order so that the passover, which gioiis ceremonies, happened in the middle of this month, was, as it were, the mother of all the other festivals. 3. The sabbatic, or seventh year and, 4. The or fiftieth year, which was kept at the jubilee, end of seven weeks of years. The two first
;

JUBILEE YEAR. This solemnity was to be celebrated every fiftieth year;(l) and it had this advantage over the sabbatic year, that it released all such slaves as had formerly refused their liberty, annihilated all debts, and restored to every man his lands, houses, wife,
children, and possessions, however alienated and every Hebrew servant or slave, to his own tribe and family, liberty and property. (in) But it must be observed, that this privilege extended no farther than to the original Israelites, or to those who had been incorporated into their religion and commonwealth by circum;

have been already noticed.(d) The sabbatic year was to be kept every seventh year. The observation of it consisted chiefly in a total cessation from all agricultural
product of their to the poor, the orphan, and the ground stranger ;(f) in the release of all Hebrew slaves, unless they chose to continue with their maspursuits ;(e) in leaving all the
ters
;

cision; these, indeed, might claim the benefit of it, but Gentile slaves were wholly excluded. (n)

think the Israelites reckoned by as the Greeks did by Olympiads, the Romans by Lustra, and the Christians by Indictions, (o) and probably they did so ;
Jubilees,

Some

in

which

case, they

before the judges,

and bored ;(g) and in the remission of all debts between Israelites; a privilege from which strangers were excluded.(h) This sabbatic year was to begin and end with the month Tisri, that there might be sufficient

were to be brought to have their ears

because they were always to have regard to that year in all bargains of lands, houses, and the like, which sold for more or less,
according to from it.(p)

As

their nearness to, or distance for the possessions of the

priests and Levites, they had privileges and immunities peculiar to themselves. (q) During the whole twelve months, all kinds

time for gathering in

all

the fruits of the

of agricultural

employments

were expressly

(d) See before, pages 27, 34. (e) Lev. xxv. 4.

(g)
(i)

(f) Ilrid. ver.

fi.

Dent. xv. 1, et seq. Deut. xv. 13, et seq. (k) The generality of the Jews, and a great number of Christians, ancient and modern, have considered the chief design of these institutions as typical of the millennium, or thousand years' rest for, as the Pentateuch consecrates the seventh day, the seventh year, and the seven times seventh year, to rest, they conclude, that the world will last six thousand years in the state it is iu; or, a>
et seq.

Exod. xxi. 2, Lev. xxv. 9.

(h)

(j)

R. Elias, in the Talmud,* expresses it, two thousand years without the law, two thousand under the law, and two thousand under the Messiah after which comes the grand of this Sabbath of a thousand years but the discussion delicate and controverted subject appertains more to the
;
;

divine than the historian. (1) Lev. xxv. 8, et seq. (n) Ibid. ver. 40.
(o) 'Hospin. Oi-ig. Test. cap. ix.
(p) Lev. xxv. 27, et itq. * Tr/ict. Sandhedr. sect. Hdcc.

(m) Ibid. ver. 28, 41.

Goodw.
(<[)

Hotting.
32, et fey.
fl a/.

l/>id. vrr.

4z2

Vide IJospin, Goodw. Jley. Munst.

724
forbid

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

;

[CHAl'. XVIII.

the poor had the Ixnjefit of the haru st intact', and of all the product of that year; and all other things of that nature went on after the same manner as (hey did in the The beginning of it was, by sabbatic year. God's own appointment, fixed to the seventh month, Tisri,(r) which is about the time of the

and

Jews begin
ing-

As to the former, the easy to determine. to reckon the first of the fifty years, from the fourteenth after Joshua's passthe Jordan.(s)

but in what year, after they ; entered into the land of Canaan, they celebrated the first Jubilee, and whether from the beginning of every forty-ninth or fiftieth year, is not

autumnal equinox

This year was to be celebrated with the greatest tokens of joy, because it was designed to put them in mind of their Egyptian servitude, and to prevent their imposing the like on their brethren. But whatever joy the masters and landholders might outwardly express, we need not doubt that the joy of the slaves
He then reckons forward to the time 3392, or B. C, 612. of the 30th jubilee, A. M. 4030, in order to make a complete calculation of them to the 30th year of our Lord's age, (A. D. 20) when he began his public ministry, and by the proclamation of their antitype, the gospel, set them aside for ever. Notwithstanding the weight of the Primate's authothe jubilee in the rity, the calculation of those who place fiftieth year, seems to be preferable yet considerable doubts will remain whether the first jubilee year, at the end of tb bf included in tln> computation preceding forty-nine, was to or whether for thp second scrip* " f ovon sabbaths of years a new calculation was made from the end of the fiftieth year, so as to leave a clear interval of nine-and-forty years between The words of Moses are, " Thou shalt number the jubilees. seven sabbaths of years seveu times seven years and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be forty-and-nine And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year. A jubilee years. The sacred writers, shall that fiftieth year be unto thee."t not having mentioned the occurrence of two consecutive jubilees, have left us without data as to the practice of th
; ; :

" From their entrance into Canaan," says Maimonides,* " to their being carried out of it, are seventeen jubilees aud the year in which they entered into captivity, when the
(s)
;

(r)

Lev. xxv.

0.

temple was destroyed, was the seventh, or sabbatic year, and the 36th of the 18th jubilee, which they prove thus the first temple stood 110 years, after which there was an end of that epocha the land then lay waste 70 years, and then the second temple was built, which stood 120 In the years. seventh year after its restoration, Ezra went up to Jerusalem and from this time began a second epocha. In the 13th, after the rebuilding of the temple, they celebrated the second sabbatic year and seven weeks of years, or 49 years, being elapsed, they consecrated the fiftieth : for though they did not celebrate the jubilee after their return from the captivity, they yet continued to compute the years of it, in order to celebrate the sabbatic years." In this account, Maimonides has followed the computation of Josephus, Philo, and, in short, of all the Jews, who place the first sabbatic year, and consequently the Jubilee, seven years later than Usher ami Cunajus, viz. from the 14th after their entrance into Canaan
: ; ; ; ;

Israelites,

and chronologers interpret the precept according

and they

also allow fifty complete years to every jubilee

;

whereas the Archbishop thinks it was celebrated every fortyninth year in which he has been followed by many learned Christians: he, nevertheless, reckons the same number of jubilees as Maimonides, that is, seventeen, before the
destruction of the temple.f The first of them he fixes in the year 3318 of the Julian Period, corresponding to A. M. 4608, or B. C. 1396; and the 17th, or last, before the captivity, be places in the year 4102 of the Julian Period, A. M.

it: thus some will have it to have been every forty-ninth year, which excludes that part of the ordinance, which declares that the fiftieth year shall be the jubilee others place it in the fiftieth, but take that year into the next reckoning ; while a third class will have The differforty-nine clear years between every jubilee. ence arising from these several modes of calculation, will appear more forcibly from the subjoined tabulated view of

to their

own conceptions of

three jubilee periods,

computed upon these three hypotheses:

No. of

SECT.

II.]

MODES OF CALCULATING THE

sincere, at the thoughts of their This was not to

JUBILEE.

728

and poor was

approaching deliverance. take place till the tenth

day of the month,

720

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP. xvni.

exempt from doing any work for their masters, and spent their time in eating, drinking, and diversions they also wore garlands about
;

SECT.

II.]

MODES OF CALCULATING THE JUBILEE.

over the land; upon which they
to

72T
oppression of the

sound

all

prevent

the too great

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

as much as portion of the lands ; preserving, possible, the freedom and. order of Israelitish families, and a kind of equality with respect to their possessions ; than which, nothing could more effectually inspire them with a
patriparticular fondness for their country mony; whilst they knew, that the latter could never be alienated from their posterity beyond the space of half a century, at the most.

[CHAP. xvin.

on the evening- of the ninth day of the month, Tisri, and were continued till the evening of the tenth during which time all
;

and

pursuits of labour or of pleasure were equally inhibited, and the work of mortification was to be persevered in, under the penalty of being

V.

Of the
differed

Expiation, or Great

Day of Atonement.

This solemn day, the last of divine institution, from all others for while those were of joy and thanksgiving; this was a day of days fasting, humiliation, and confession of sins; the only one of its kind, of divine appointment,(t) if we except that occasional one, which God
:

cut oft' from the congregation. solemn convocation was likewise held on the tenth day, when a general confession of sin was made, and a burnt-sacrifice Avas offered. (w) The high-priest's office on this occasion was still more solemn and awful. It was the only time in the whole year on which he was permitted to enter the holy of holies, or most holy place, under pain of sudden death from the

enjoined after the affair of the golden calf,(u) but which does not appear to have been made annual by Moses, or observed by the people, till after the captivity, when they became so over religious, that they appointed as many fasts, in remembrance of the miscarriages and misfortunes of their ancestors, as filled nearly the fourth part of their calendar.(v) Some conjecture, that this expiation-day, or day of atonement, was itself ordained in memory of the golden calf but it rather appears to have been instituted for expiating- the sins of th-e whole nation, particularly those of the foregoing year. Others imagine, that it bears a typical relation to the grand expiation wrought
:

Lord ;(x) and therefore he was obliged to prepare himself for this grand ceremony in that extraordinary manner which was prescribed by God himself.(y) He was to lay aside his pontifical garments, and after having washed his whole body, he was to put on the simple Levitical vestments, consisting of a linen coat and breeches, a linen girdle, and a cap of the same material. On entering the holy place, he was to offer a young bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering, for himself and his whole house, confessing his and their sins over
the victims. After this, he received a couple of kids for a sin-offering, and a rani for a burntThen offering, for the whole congregation. two goats were set before the tabernacle, and the high-priest cast lots for them, which of the

two should be sacrificed on that day, and which should be sent away. This latter was
called (tzaze?,(z) or scape-goat. He then entered the holy of holies, with his censer in one hand,
remarkable tokens of the divine favour, the goat used to fall to pieces before it reached half way to the bottom but that after his clays, it used to be caught and eaten These accounts and opinions arc all reby the Saracens. jected by Spencer,|| who insists that A:a:cl was an evil diomon to whom the goat was sent; a conclusion to which he was
;

under the gospel.

The
(t)

ceremonies on this solemn occasion bexxiii.

Lev.

2G, et seq.

(n)

Eod.

xxxiii. 4, et seq.

(v)

Vide Mithn. Megillath Tahanitk,

xxiii.

Lamy,

Calmet,

rial.

(w) Lev.
(z)

27, et seq.

(x) Ibid. xvi. 2.

(y) Ibid. ver. 4.

Most commentators derive this word, ^twy (AZAZCL) from ?y (AZ) a goof, and 'TTN (AZOL) <o dismiss, go, escape, or tend away ; in which sense the verb rn/ is frequently used in the Old Testament.* Very many of the Jews, and some Christians, however, consider it to be rather the name of the place, whither the goat was led and which, the Jews say, was a mountain, about fW> furlongs distant from Jerusalem. t To this opinion Le ClcrcJ subscribes; for he s;\\s, that Azazcl was a steep and craggy precipice, down which the goat was thrown and the Talmudists add, that during the pontificate of Simon the Just, which was signalized by many
;

led by certain expressions in some Cabbalistical writings, us well as in those of Julian the Apostate; and which has also

been adopted by Turretinus, Cocceius, Altinga, Meyer, and

some

others.

scripture is silent as to the mode of casting lots for the azazcl; but the Jews say, the lots were two in number, made of wood, stone, or metal on one was written Czxh (Lo-SHCM) for the NAME, i. c. of Jehovah, which the\ ne\er
:

The

dared to write or to pronounce on the oilier was ?tNIl'7 (UZ-AZAZCL) for Azazel. These two lots were put into an
;

Vide Kimch.
Jonath.
cl al.

in Rarf.

Bu\torf. Tlui.
ijaiul.

a
Abn
Ezr.

In

Lfi>. x\i.

t Targ.

R. R.

Gaun. Kimcli, Salura.

Munst.

Jt/tjfcnn.

Tract.

NOT

Maimon.

in

Cn

OV

AT. Mout.

Dissert, in //ire. Lmifsar.

SECT.

II.]

GREAT DAY OF ATONEMENT.

As soon
as these ceremonies
niul the priests

720
were ended,

and a large quantity of precious incense, beaten small, in the other, that the smoke of it might fill the place, so as to conceal the mercy-seat
from
altar,

and people were

scape-goat was brought

laid his
sins,

sight.

Having

set the censer

upon the

he came out again, dipped his finger in the blood of the bullock, (which he had offered

and then returning, sprinkled it towards the mercy-seat, eastward, seven times.(a) The goat for the people's sin-offering was next slain by the high-priest, who also went and
for himself),

sprinkled the mercy-seat with its blood, as he had done with that of the bullock ; and thus the tabernacle was purified from all the pollution it had contracted by standing in the midst of a sinful people. During all this solemn ceremony, neither the priests, the Levites, nor any person, were permitted to come within the tabernacle, or even into its courts, excepting only the high-priest.(b)
urn called 'D"?p (KaLPev) and shaken together, while the two goats were placed before the high-priest, with their faces toward the west. He then put both his hands into the urn, and bringing out the lots, placed that in his right hand upon the head of the goat on his right side, and that in liis left hand upon the head of the other and according to what was written upon the lots, the scape goat, and the goat for sacrifice, were ascertained.* They also drew a good omen from the event of the right-hand lot being for ihe Lord, i. e. for sacrifice which, they say, always was the case while Simon the Just, above alluded to, was high;

hands on and those of the whole nation after which, he delivered it to a man appointed for the purpose, who conducted it into the deor sert, and there left it, according to some threw it down a steep precipice, according to others. After this, the high-priest washed himself all over, and having changed his clothes, or, as seems most likely, having put on the ephod, mitre, breastplate, and his other priestly garments, he was to offer a burntoffering of two rams one for himself, the other
; ; ;

purified, the to the high-priest, who its head, confessing his own

for the people.(c)

this day that the highentered the holy of holies in the grandest priest manner, and gave the people the solemn blessIt

was likewise on

Marseillois, whenever they were afflicted by any pestilence, used to take one of the poorer citizens, who volunteered for the purpose, and after feeding him for a whole year with the

most choice food, they adorned him with vervain, clothed him with sacred vestments, and led him about the city,
loading him, as he went, with execrations, praying that the evils to which the city was exposed, might light upon him; and lastly they threw him from the top of a rock. Suidas, speaking of the oriji^Ji/xaT* of the Gentiles, says they had an annual custom of devoting a man to death, for the safety and welfare of the community, with these words rit;ti]/i)pa it^ut ynov, Be thou our puri/ier ; after which they threw him into the
:

priest.t

On the eve of this solemnity, the Jews of old used to take a white cock, if such an one was to be procured, if not, of any other colour, except red ; and after a prayer, they struck their heads with that of the cock three times, saying, " Bear tliou my sins suffer thou the death I have deserved die
: :

sea.

And Mr. Halhead,

in his

Code of Gentoo

Laics.1I

thou for me and make reconciliation for me that I may be admitted into a blessed life, with all the people of Israel." They then killed the cock, confessing that they deserved the death which they inflicted on him, and threw his entrails upon the house-top, that the crows might bear them and their sins into the wilderness. This superstitious ceremony is said to be grounded upon the meaning of the word ~Q2 (GeBeR) which in the scripture signifies a man, but in the Talmud and Chaldee, a cock; and the divine justice required, that as (jelter in the first sense had sinned, so geber, in the second, should bear his iniquity.]: The use of vicarious sacrifices, to which the guilt of the whole community was, by means of certain rites, transferred, was not confined to the Israelites, but \\itscoinmonainong
; ;

describes a sacrificial ceremony, called Ashummecd Jugg, " various articles in which the sacrificer having written upon a scroll of paper, on a horse's neck, dismisses the horse ; sending along with the horse a stout and valiant person, equipped with the best necessaries and accoutrements, to accompany the horse day and night, whithersoever he shall

choose to go and if any creature, either man, genius, or dragon, should seize the horse, that man opposes such attempt, and, having gained the victory upon a battle, again If any one in the world, or in gives the horse his freedom. heaven, or beneath the earth, would seize this horse, and the horse of himself comes to the house of the celebrater of the Jugg upon killing that horse, he must throw the flesh of him upon the fire of the Jugg, and utter the prayers of his such a Jutjy is called a Jugg Ashummeed, and the deity merit of it, as a religious work, is injinite."
;

most ancient natinns, and is to the present day kept up Thus, we have seen, among the among the Hindoos. Egyptians, a custom of sacrificing a white bull to Apis, and of cutting oft' his head and casting it into the Nile, after they had loaded it with imprecations, that whatever evil

All these sacrifices, similar in their intention, though diverse in their forms, appear to have been either borrowed from the scape-goat of the Israelites, or from some prior ceremony of the patriarchs, revived in the Mosaical institution but not copied, as some writers pretend, from the
;

Egyptian sacrifice to Apis. 14. (a) Lev. xvi. 5

(c) Ibid. ver. 20, et seq.
i

(b) Ibid. ver. 15, et sej.

impended upon (hem, or the land, might

head.

fall

From

upon

that

Petn>iuus Arbiter||

we

learn that the ancient

* MKhnali, and Mairi'in. ufci sitpr. t Buxtorl. Carom. Jud. (.art. iii. cap. 6.

See Leo de Modena, Goodwin, and others.

Hatiriam. in
lin.

Si/nag. Jud. cap. 20.

||

1T

lutroduction, p. xix. and

ec*. ix. p. 127".

VOL.

I.

5A

730

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

he
notice that the solemnity

[CHAP, xviii.

proing prescribed by Moses,(d) in which nounced the dread and incommunicable name of Jehovah ; the use of which, according to the Je\vs,(e) was forbidden upon any other occasion ; therefore the pronouncing of that tremendous name, joined to the sacred awfulness of the place, may be supposed to have filled the high-priest with uncommon dread whilst he staid there, and induced him to as soon as decency would permit, lest, through some inadvertent breach of decorum, he should be struck dead and under the same

was over; and then dressed themselves in white, or, at least, put they on clean linen, and, after a blessing, sat down
to

break their fast, rejoicing that were expiated the high-priest, in

;

their sins
particular,

quit

it

impression, he always came out backward, keeping his face toward the mercy-seat, and bending his body toward the ground. The sacrifices and other ceremonies being ended, the residue of the day was spent in prayers, and other works of mortification, till the trumpet gave
(d)

expressed a more extraordinary satisfaction, that he had gone through the solemn and dangerous office of the day, and was come alive out of the most holy place.(f) Several other expiations, or atonements for sin, were enjoined by Moses, upon contracting any legal impurities such as touching a dead body, or an unclean person, or by the breach of any one branch of the law, whether knowingly or ignorantly, from which they could not be cleansed, but by offering such sacrifices
;

as the

law appointed. (g)

Numb.

vi.

24, et seq.

to be used as occasion required.!

The

use of these ashes

Mas. lib. iii. Joseph. Talmud, et al. Yom hakiphvr. (f ) Mishnah, Tract. Yoma. Maiinon. Tract. xv. sect. 9. Meyer, cap. who had committed any trespass, know(g) The person to the door of the taberingly or ignorantly, was to bring
(e) Philo. in Vit.

was thus

consisting of a bullock, or a goat, if he were a priest ; or a goat, sheep, kid, or lamb, if a layman ; or if too poor to afford either of these, he a might substitute a pair of pigeons, or turtle-doves, or even One or more of these, according to small quantity of flour. circumstances, was brought to the priest by the party to be who then confessed his sin, laying his hand upon purified, the head of the victim ; after which he killed it, and offered The priest then took some of the blood upon bis it up. it to the horns of the altar of fingers, and having applied he poured out the remainder at the foot of burnt-offerings, He then burnt the fat of the caul, kidneys, and the altar.
nacle, his victim, or sin-offering
;

whenever any person had contracted such a pollution as rendered him unclean for seven days, he was to be sprinkled with water, into which some of them had been thrown, on the third and seventh day and on the last he was to be clean but if he neglected to be sprinkled on the This law third day, he was not to be clean on the seventh. was so rigidly enforced against such as had polluted themselves by touching a dead body, or by going into the tent or apartment where it lay, that if they attempted to go to the tabernacle before they had been thus purified, they were to
:

be cut

off,

for having polluted the sanctuary.

vessels, that

were uncovered

in the place,

The very together with the

place itself, where the corpse lay, were also defiled, and could only be purified by sprinkling with this rcate.r of sepa-

But what is most remarkration, as it is called by Moses. able in all this ceremony, is, that while the water, thus mingled with the ashes of the heifer, purified the unclean, it
actually polluted the priest,
ing,

rump, upon the altar, and having prayed for the person, he pronounced him pardoned and absolved from his trespass.

The

flesh of the victim thus offered, belonged exclusively to the priest ; none other being permitted to eat of it.* In cleansing legal pollutions, another ceremony was added a red heifer, free from every kind of spot or blemish, and that had never been yoked, was taken out of the camp, and killed by the priest, who made a sevenfold aspersion of the blood with his ringers, towards the sanctuary. The carcase, with its skin, entrails, A-c. was then thrown upon a large lire, kindled for the purpose, together with a bundle of cedarwood, hyssop, and scarlet, and burnt to ashes, in the and the people. The ashes were then presence of the priest collected, and laid up for use: but all who had been concerned in the ceremony, were rendered unclean till the The first time this ordinance was observed, it was, evening. by special appointment, performed by Eleazar, the son of Aaron ;t and some writers think, that the ashes of the while others heifer then consumed, lasted till the captivity contend, that a new heifer was burnt every year, and that
: ;

and all who assisted at the slayburning, and gathering of the ashes of the heifer, and those who sprinkled the unclean person with it. The Jews have an ancient tradition, that Solomon, who was master of all other mysteries, and could account for every precept in the law besides, owned himself to be ignorant of the meaning of this red heifer.[| This incompetency of Solomon has, however, been supplied by more recent writers ; but with what propriety, must be left to the reader's judgment. Spencer.1I who endeavours to reduce all the Jewish rites to a conformity with, or opposition to, those of the Egyptians, says an heifer was appointed for sacrifice, in opposition to the Egyptian superstition, which held that animal sacred, and which worshipped /six under that form: and it was to be a RED heifer, because RED
sacrificed to appease the evil dirmon because Plutarch** has remarked, that if Typhon. there was a single, hair in the animal, either white or black, the it spoiled the sacrifice ; it has been held that therefore heifer was to be without spot, \. e. to have no mil-turn of any other colour.ff Spencer also adds, that a red heifer

BULLS were by them

And

some of

its

ashes were sent to every city and town in Israel,

Numb.
i"T)D.
xij.
}

t vi. Lev, iv. $ Numb. xix. 7, 8, 10, 51. Uuluta. Tract. <lc ||

Hicron.

Fpisl. 27.

IT

De
See

**
Mairoon. 3fre A'erocA.
part.
iii.

Leg. Rit.
C'alnict

lib.

ii.

cap. 15.

Lie hiile et tie Osirirle.

H21N

cap. 26.

It

on

lluu subject.

SECT.

II.]

SACRIFICES
VI.

AND OBLATIONS.
They were
them.(i)
3.
all

731

free

and voluntary, there beIsraelites to observe

Laivs relative to Sacrifices and Oblations.

ing no law that obliged the

fol-

These may be reduced under the seven

Idwing heads:
1.

The daily

sacrifice. 2.

Peace-

offerings. 3. Meat and drink offerings. 4. Offerings for cleansing. 5. First-fruits. 6. First-born;

to acthe burnt-offerings of every festival ; company and consisted of a certain proportion of wine, oil, and fine flour, to every beast that was sacrificed.
4. OFFERINGS for CLEANSING. These have been treated of under the head of expiation. 5. FIRST FRUITS. Every private man was

MEAT and DRINK OFFERINGS used

and, 7. Tithes. Besides these, there were several other occasional sacrifices, observed by particular families, which, however, were rather feasts than sacrifices, and were entirely optional. 1. The DAILY SACRIFICE, (called in the original, the continual sacrifice), consisted, first, in burning a certain quantity of incense upon the golden altar; after which two lambs of the

year, without blemish, were offered as a continual burnt-offering for the whole nation.
first

These were burnt every morning and evening, and with a slower fire than ordinary, that they There was likewise a might last the longer. meat and drink offering of a certain quantity of wine and flour mixed with oil. These offerings were ordained by the Deity on mount Sinai ;(h) and were called continual, because they were not to be interrupted on account of any other sacrifice or solemnity. This sacrifice was 2. PEACE OFFERINGS. either eiicharistical, in acknowledging of some
mercies received from God ; or supplicatory, in order to obtain some blessings; or purely devotional; or, lastly, upon account of some vow.

obliged to bring the first-fruits of his fields, orchards, and vineyards, to the tabernacle, and afterwards to the temple, as an acknowledgment that God was the giver of them. Neither the time nor the quantity being prescribed by the written law, the former was left to the convenience of the people, and the latter was determined by their wise-men ; yet so as to leave room for the exercise of liberality, according to the disposition of each person. Thus it was that they ought to offer at least the agreed, sixtieth part of the product ; but some offered the fiftieth, and some even the fortieth.(j) After the building of the temple, the first-fruits were all obliged to be carried thither ; and as soon as the person who intended to make the offering arrived in the court of the priests, the Levites began to repeat, or sing, the 30th Psalm ; after which the person made his confession " I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that
:

was ordered for this ceremony, because the Egyptians sacrificed none but male animals, and because they had a
mortal aversion to
sidered as
all

red-haired creatures,
their

whom

emblems of

dreaded

foe,

they conthe red-haired

of the latter into Egypt, we read no more of sacrifices till the time of Moses.fT who, by the help of divine revelation, restored them to their original simplicity ; and, having disencumbered them of the follies of tradition, and the trash of

But the truth appears to be, that Moses comthe use of red, or scarlet, in sacrifices for sin, only to express its flagrant guilt : and in this he is followed by all the inspired writers, who compare sins of the worst kind,

Typhon.*

manded

human invention, committed them to writing, to prevent any future corruption. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at, that strong features of similitude should subsist between a
vitiated original, and the same original restored, Numb, xxviii. 6, et seq, (h) Exod. xxix. 38.
(i) The victim was on these occasions to be brought to the door of the tabernacle, by the votary, who there laid his hands upon its head, and then killed it. The priest next sprinkled some of its blood upon and about the altar, and poured out the remainder on the ground at its foot. All the fat of the offering, with the kidneys, and (if it were a sheep or lamb) the rump, were then burnt upon the altar the breast and shoulder were the perquisite of the officiating
:

and greatest turpitude, to crimson and scarlet

as they

do

innocence to white ; thus Isaiaht proclaims, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they sdiall be as wool." The coincidence observable between some of the ceremonies appointed by Moses, and certain rites of the heathens, is neither fortuitous, nor the result of imitation; but arises from their being both derived from the same original, corrupted, indeed, in the latter case, and restored to primitive The use of sacrifices was known so purity by the former. early as the days of Abel, J and had probably been instituted immediately after the fall of Adam: it was continued by

priest

liberty to dress

Noah, Abraham,
* See
$

Isaac,

and Jacob
t

;i|

but after the descent

i.

(j) in eund.

and the rest belonged to the owner, who was at and eat it, in what manner he liked best.** Mishn. Tract. Terumotk et Bekorim, et Commentat.
;

et

Maim,

in loc.
xiii.

before, p.

4'<I5.

Gen. iv. $ See before, page 259.

35.

Chap.

18.

Gen. viii. 20. xii. 7, 8. xxxi. 54. xxxv. 3, 7. xlvi. 1.

||

4, 18.

xv. 9, et seq. xxii. pasam.

xx?L

J.i.

Exod.

v. 3.

viU. 25,

et sej.

*.

2426.

5A2

** Let. ui.fassim,

732
I

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

secrated to
;

[CHAP, xviii.

came iuto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers to give us.''(k) While he was him repeating these words, the priest assisted iu letting down the basket from his shoulders; and whilst they held it up between them, he ended his confession in the form prescribed by Moses.(l) When this was ended, the basket was set before the Lord, by the side of the
altar,

God and as they could not be re" deemed, they were brought to the tabernacle, or temple, and there killed the blood was poured at the foot of the altar, the fat burned upon it, and the rest of the flesh was the
;

priests' perquisite.

The

first-born

of unclean

beasts might be redeemed by the owner, either with a lamb, or with five shekels of money ;

ings,
fruits,

and the burnt-offerings and peace-offerwhich always accompanied the firstwere made; after which the devotee
:

otherwise
neck.(o)

it

was

to put death

by breaking

its

As

to the first

product of

trees,

every newly

went to feast with his acquaintance on his share of the peace-offerings and meat-offerings and here also he was under an obligation to dispense some portion of his good cheer, of which nothing was to be left to the next day, to orphans, widows, and the Levites, that all might
rejoice together. According to

planted tree

was reckoned uncircumcised and impure during the first three years; nor was it law-

ful to gather, much less to eat, the fruit of it. In the fourth year, all its produce was the Lord's, and, consequently, the perquisite of the priests ; from whom, however, the owner might redeem it by an equivalent, and, from that time, it be-

the

bringing their first-fruits

Talmud, the persons formed themselves iuto

came
7.

his

own

property. (p)

companies of four-aud-twenty each, to prevent confusion from their numbers. Each company was preceded by a bullock for sacrifice, crowned with olive-branches, and having hi* horns tipped with gold or silver. They had also, generally, a man to go before them, playing upon a flute, or some such instrument; and thus they marched to Jerusalem, singing some appropriate psalm or hymn. As soon as they came near the gates of that city, the inhabitants went out to congratulate them, and bid them

These, with the first-fruits, and the redemption of the first-born, were the most constant and considerable income of the priests

TITHES.

welcome
the city,

their duty, they

each band had performed continued one night within and then departed for their own

and

after

homes. (m) 6. FIRST-BORN.

The Mosaic law makes a

threefold distinction of these, namely, the firstborn of men, of cattle, and of the products of the earth. The first of these were to be consecrated to God, and redeemed by their parents, at the price of five shekels, as soon aa they were thirty days old ; at which time they were presented to the priest, and the mother offered the sacrifice of her purification. The price being paid for the child's redemption, he began then to belong to the parents, and not The children of the priests, howtill then. (n)
ever,

Moses ordained, that no clean animals should be redeemed at any rate, but that they should all be sacrificed to the Lord and that the produce of the earth, such as grain of all kinds, fruits, and the like, should not be bought off, without paying one-fifth part more than their intrinsic value.(q) These sacrifices and tithes were given to the priests and Levites, as an equivalent for their not having any share in the division of the land, nor any portion or inheritance with the rest of the people. They were of four kinds, viz. 1. Those that were assigned to the tribe of Levi,(r) which not being of the higher rank of holy things, all the Levites, men and women, clean or unclean, 2. The tenths of these might partake of. tithes, which were assigned to the priests, and were to be sent to Jerusalem by the Levites who
;

and Levites.

collected them in the provinces, before they appropriated any part of them to their own uV 3. After a layman had paid his first tithes to the Levites, he was to set apart a second tenth,

needed no redemption.
first-born of clean beasts

The
(k)
(in)

were also con4, et s<v/. cap. 2.

which he was allowed to compound for in money, but with an addition of one-fifth more than the intrinsic value this he was obliged to take to Jerusalem, and then' make a feast with it, to which he was to invite, besides his rela:

Dcvt. xxvi.

13.
2.

(1)
iii.

Kid.
lib.
iii.

(q)
(r)

Lev.

Basnag. ex Cunaeo, torn.

Numb,

(n)

Erod.

Nxviii. 30, ttseq. xviii. 20, et seg.

xviii.

Dent.

xiv.

22.

See also

xiii.

Numb,

xviii.
(,p)

15, et

set/.

2 Chron.
(s)

xxxi. 4, et scy.

(o) Ibid. ver. 13.

Lev.

xix. 23, 24, 25.

A"u/6.

20.

SECT.

II.]

OFFERINGS. VOWS.
friends, the priests
tithes,

733

and the Levites.(t) that were to be set apart every third year, and to be used in making feasts at home, to which the Levites, the poor, the fatherless and widows, and strangers residing among them, were to be invited. (u) The two last, however, are by some writers thought to be the same; only that for two years they were to be taken to Jerusalem, and in the third to be eaten at home. Under the present head of OFFERINGS, may be placed the SHEW-BREAD,(V) which was continually to stand before the Lord, upon the golden table, in the holy place. It was made of the purest wheat flour, without Ipaven, into twelve loaves, or cakes, answering to the twelve tribes. Every sabbath-morning, the priests were to remove the old loaves, which they were at liberty to appropriate to their own use,
tions
4.

and

Certain

the tree that produces myrrh, and is supposed to be the same which was afterwards called balm of Jericho; ONYCHA, supposed to be the external crust of the shell-fish murex, or purpura, which is the basis of the chief perfume made in India ;(y) GALBANUM, a resinous gum, which distils from an oriental plant, called bubon and pure gummiferum, OP African ferula a resinous substance, obtained FRANKINCENSE, from a tree in the eastern countries, but not very well known to Europeans these were to be reduced to a powder, and mixed for use.
,-

The burning

of

this

incense

continually

is

thought to typify the unceasing prayers of the saints ; but a more positive reason for its use, appears to be in the necessity there was for counteracting the disgusting effluvia that would, naturally arise from the multitude of victims
that were slain before the altar, the flesh that was burnt, and the quantity of blood that was

and replace them with new ones, while

still

warm

they were, however, to be eaten within the sanctuary, because they were most holy. Each loaf contained two tenth deals of flour ; they were set upon the table in two rows, six in each and upon them'pure frankincense was laid.
:

poured out

which, without some fumigation of this kind, must have made the tabernacle, and afterwards the temple, smell more like a slaughter-house than a place of divine worship.
;

The Jews say

musty.

they were covered with leaf gold, and that between the loaves golden plates were set, to give them air, and prevent their getting

VII.

Laivs relative to Voirs.

a solemn part of the Jewish offerings, they may not improbe joined, as an appendix, to the preceding perly articles, though their being free and arbitrary, excludes them from the same rank. How soon they began to be in use, appears in Jacob's vowing the tenth of all his acquisitions, as he went to Padan-aram.(z) However, under the
these

They also add, that the frankincense was laid in two golden dishes, one upon each row of loaves, and that it was burned before the Lord at the end of the week, for a memorial; and some commentators insist that wine was likewise
but the scriptures only offered with the bread mention frankincense and salt.(w) To the above may be added, the offering of incense, which the priests were to burn every day upon the altar of perfume, before the morn:

As

made

worship and

ing and evening sacrifice, and the high-priest once a year in the holy of holies. The mixture, which our version simply calls incense, was rather a costly perfume, the composition of which is directed by Moses, with a prohibition against its being imitated, or made for other purposes, on pain of death.(x) The ingredients were, STACTE, a gurn which flows spontaneously from
Dent. xii. 17, 18. xiv. 22, 23. (u) Dcut. xii. 28, 20.
(t)

Mosaic dispensation, several regulations were made, in order to direct and enforce the performance of them.(a) Vows were of a twofold
nature first, Of such as devoted the thing vowed, whether man, beast, money, or any part of a man's substance, to the service of God;(b) secondly, Of such as devoted them to
:

utter destruction. (c)

Under

the

first

head,

it

plainly appears, that persons might devote themselves, their children, or

from
that
their standing continually in the presence

who were mdjuris,

any
of the Lord,

(v)

The

original

CD'33

C3rh (LeCHeM PONIM)

signifies,

is, before hisyce. Lent. xxiv. (w) Exod. xxv. 30.

59.

bread of faces, which the Jews construe into loaves with four have been made thi-ni to faces, because they suppose it is far more probable that they were so called square;* but
Maiinon. Tract. P'Ofl.
Abr. Haropii.

(x) Ibid. xxx.

(y)
("z)

3438.
of

The
Gun. Lev.

ungtiis odoriferous
\xviii.

Rumph.
() ^"'- xxvn./Hmm. 29. (c) Hid. \er. 28,

20.

C3"1UJ

'Q^U?,

et al.

(b)

xxvii. 2, et seq.

734

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP, xvnr.

part of their possessions, to God; but the vows of a sou or a daughter, of a wife or slave, were of no farther force, than as they were approved by those under whose power they were ;(d) so that a parent, husband, or master, if he heard the vow when it was made, or when he came afterwards to be informed of it, was at liberty either to give it his sanction, or to disannul it. In the latter case, he was obliged to do it on the same day, according to the text; or in 24 Of hours, according to the Jewish doctors. devoting themselves in this sense, no persons plain instance appears ; but of their devoting their children, there is an instance, among
others, in Samuel, who was dedicated to God by his mother's vow, ratified, it is to be pre-

sacrifices prescribed by Moses ;(k) after which, their heads being shaved, and the hair thrown

into the

fire upon the altar, the priest pronounced them freed from their vow. Those who lived at such a distance from the temple, that they could not reach it by the time their vow was expired, might shave their heads where they resided, and send the price of their sacriThis is what fice by the next opportunity. St. Paul did, who made his vow at Corinth, shaved his head at Cenchrea.and went soon after

to Jerusalem, to

make

the usual offering.(l)

VIII.

L>aws of the Priests, Leviles, and Nethinim.

Levitical tribe consisted of three branches, distinguished by their principal

sumed, by her husband ;(e) and he was, accordingly, consecrated to God's service all his lifetime. However, in these cases, the law of Moses allowed of a redemption, or commutation, for

PRIESTS.

The

a sum of money, according to the age and sex of the consecrated party.(f) ANATHEMA. The case was quite different with respect to those things which were

namely, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari ;(m) but the priesthood was given solely to the family of Aaron, which was no more than a small branch of that of Kohath, whilst all the rest of it, even the sons of Moses himself,
heads,
as well as the other two branches, remaining in the common rank of Levites, were only admitted to the inferior functions of the ministry, and were always subject to, and dependent on, the priests. Though the latter were superior, in rank and office, to the Levites, they were subordinate to the high-priest and may be con;

vowed
had had

to destruction,

as they could not, on

;

That which any account, be redeemed .(g) was to be put to death and that which life, not, was to be destroyed by fire, or in some
other way.(h)

NAZARITES. It may not be improper to conclude this article of vows, with a short account of the Nazarites, frequently mentioned in the Old Testament. They were persons who either dedicated themselves, or were dedicated by their parents, to the observance of the laws of Nazaritism; and consisted of two sorts: such as obliged themselves to it for a short space, as a week, or a month and those who were bound to it all their life. The latter were, most comOf this monly, dedicated by their parents. kind were Samson and Samuel, (i) All that was peculiar in their way of life was, that they were to abstain from wine, and all intoxicat;

ing liquors, and to wear their hair to

length.(j)

its full

might bind themselves by this vow: and after it was accomplished, they presented themselves to the priest, who brought them to the door of the
tabernacle, or temple,
(d)

Women,

as

well as

men,

where they
1

offered the

sidered in a threefold view, in respect to their consecration, dress, and office ; yet there was nothing of pomp or solemnity used in any of them. Their consecration, if we except that of the sons of Aaron, in the first instance,(n) was performed with little or no ceremony. They were first carefully examined, to see that they were free from all natural defects and impurities; and, if so, they were introduced into the court of the tabernacle or temple, where they washed themselves with pure water ; then, being clothed in their sacerdotal vestments, they were brought to the high-priest, who presented them to the Lord; and, after the usual sacrifice prescribed by Moses, the priest in waiting sanctified them, or, as the original imports, filled their hands ; by which is understood, their being then set about some branch of the priestly office.(o)
Acts, xviii. 18. at the (m) For their descent, see the Genealogical Table head of chap. v. p. 335.
(1)

Numb.

xxx. passim.

(f ) Lev. xxvii. 3, et seq. (h) Numb. xxi. 2, et seq. (j) Numb. vi. I, et seq.

21, et seq. (e) (g) Lev. xxvii. 28, 29. (i) Judg. xiii. 5. 1 Sam.
i.

Sam.

i,

11,

(k)

Numb.

vi.

13, et

eq.

(n)

Exod.

xxix. xl.

Lev.

viii.

(o)

Numb.

viii.

5, et se$.

SECT.

II.]

PRIESTS

AND

LEVITES.

735

Their dress consisted of a vest, a pair of drawers, a girdle, and a mitre, or pointed turban, of linen,(p) but far inferior to the dress of the high-priest; and they were only to wear it during the time of ministering. Their office was severally determined by
lot,(q)

which they cast

at their first coining into

waiting, in the

presence of the high-priest and of distinction ; by which they other persons

to

Before David divided them into classes, their was in common they took it by turns, from week to week, as the priests did afterwards their business was to assist the latter, to keep the court of the sanctuary, with all the utensils that stood out of the tabernacle, clean and decent to keep watch at night before the tabernacle ; to prepare flour, cakes, wine, and
ministry
; ; ;

oil

for the

sacrifices,

and

all

inferior offices.

were

burn incense, morning and evening,

in

Some were appointed

sical instruments, at

to sing

and play on mu-

according to their classes. What relates to their maintenance, revenue, and perquisites, will be shewn in speaking of the Levites. As the several classes of priests took their names from their heads or chiefs; the heads themselves came afterwards to be called chiefThus, in two of the Evangelists (s) we priests. meet with an assembly of them, which ought therefore to be distinguished both from the highpriest and from his suffragan. LEVITES. What has already been said of the descent, tribe, and consecration of the
priests, is

the holy place, to offer up the daily sacrifice, to keep up a continual fire on the altar of burntofferings, to light the lamps, and to make and offer the shew-bread upon the golden table. Other important parts of the priestly office were, the instruction of the people, judging of controversies.(r) of vows, and of the fitness or unfitness of victims, blowing the trumpets for proclaiming the sabbaths and solemn feasts, preserving the volumes of the law, and blessing the people in God's name. Their waiting was weekly, from sabbath to sabbath, and quarterly,

proper periods of divine others to study and expound the law service; to the people, and assist the priests in the inferior courts of judicature which offices were them according to their capacities. assigned David likewise selected from among them men of learning and piety, to teach the younger Levites, and bring them up either to the ministry or the practice of the law. Their revenues were intermixed with those of the priests, by God's own appointment, at least in their main branches. According to Jacob's prophecy, the tribe of Levi was to be interspersed among the other tribes ; and they were excluded, by an express law of Deuteronomy, (u) from having any share in the division of the land ; their portion being assigned them out of the tithes, offerings of the altar, and the redemption of the first-born of the Israelites. It was therefore necessary they should have some certain places of abode appointed for them. Accordingly, as soon as they were come to the plain of Moab, over-against Jericho, God
:

also applicable to the Levites, except as they were in their mode of consecration
;

only sprinkled with the water which was used for purifying those who had contracted any legal impurity ; they were then to be shaved,

and have all their clothes washed, before they were presented by the people to the highit \vas the same with priest.(t) As to their dress,
that of the rest of the Israelites,

Moses not hav-

to assign them forty-eight cities, with their suburbs, thirteen of which were to belong to the priests, and the other thirty-five to the rest of the tribe of Levi.(v) The only difference between them was, that the cities of the priests lay, for the most part, in the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and consequently nearer to Jerusalem ; whereas those of the Levites were divided to them by lot, out of all the other tribes on each side of Jordan.(w)

was pleased

ing appointed them any

(P)
(r )

particular costume.

With respect
from without the
1.

to

their privileges, they

had

Etod.
Dent.

xxviii. 40.

xxxix.

2729.
Matt, xxvii.l. Mark, xv.

(1) 1

Chron. xxiv.

5, 31.
(s)

shall be two thousand city, on every side, " and this shall be to them cubits, with the city in the midst ;

xvii. 8, 9, 12.

Numb. viii. 5, etseq. (u) Deut. xviii. passim. spq. (v) Numb. xxxv. 1, (w) The extent and limits of these cities, with their suburbs, have been the occasion of much perplexity to commentators: In Numb. xxxv. 4, Moses directs the suburbs to
(t)
i't

the suburbs of the cities." The Septuagint and Coptic, indeed, have 2000 cubits in both verses ; but this reading is ii'it found in any other of the ancient versions, nor in any of the manuscripts collated by Dr. Kennicott and De Rossi. The Jews take both numbers jointly, so that the suburbs, or territories, according to them, extended 3000 cubits beyond the walls
:

extend owe thousand cubits from the wall of the city but he says the measurement immediately afterwards, in verse 5,
;

the

first
it

grounds,

011

which

thousand, say they, were for pasture was unlawful to build, sow, or plant;

730

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP, xviii.

to sell or mortgage their property, a.well as the other tribes, only with this advantageous difference in their favour, that they ini-jjlit redeem it at any time, if they were able the jubilee it reverted to them on if not, whereas, those alienated houses of the laity, which stood in walled cities, if not redeemed within the year, were irrecoverably lost to the

power

vine oracle oiurim and t/tnmrnim, he was solely authorized to enter into the holy of holies, and to pronounce that solemn blessing on the day of

Hence their right to their owner, (x) houses was; even stronger than that of the peofirst

There was also expiation, already spoken of. such a peculiar sacred ness inherent, in his dignity, as subjected him to several strict laws, from which the rest of the priests were exempt;(c) and, for his support, he was allowed a portion of all the offerings.
His CONSECRATION. This ceremony, prescribed by God himself on the mount, was performed by Moses upon his brother Aaron, with
a solemnity correspondent to the sacredness of He was first presented to the Lord, the office. at the door of the tabernacle, in presence of all the people then, having washed himself all over in pure water, he was invested with the pontifical garments, and with the breastplate of urim. He next offered a bullock for a sinoffering, one ram for a burnt-offering, and another for his consecration, with the blood of which last, Moses anointed the tip of his right
:

and was therefore called t/tcir inheritance. ple It is likewise manifest, that their being excluded from any portion in the distribution of the land, \vas far from depriving them of the
;

right of possession, as,

if

among
a

other regulations

his concerning vows, house or land to the Lord, and had not power, or was unwilling, to redeem them, they were then to continue sacred unto God ;(y) that is, the priests became the right owners of them.

man had vowed

Thus we
by

estate of his

find that the high-priest had some own, into which he was banished Solomon ;(z) and, even in the apostles' time,

ear,

a Levite, had some land, which he sold for the use of the church.(a)
thing farther respecting them is remarkthat they were not permitted to bury dead either within their cities or their suburbs ; but they had a piece of ground allotted to them by the people for a burying place, quite out of the verge of those limits. HIGH-PRIEST. At the head of the priesthood was the high-priest, who was also the visible head of the Jewish church, and the final judge o1

Barnabas, who was

One

able, their

to these his thumb, and his great toe were added the usual aspersions on the altar, with the wave-offerings, meat-offerings, and He was then anointed with drink-offerings. the sacred oil,(d) which completed the conseThe ceremonies of washing, the sa cration. were repeated for crifices, and the unction, and during all that seven successive days time Aaron and his sons were not permitted to
; ;

go out of the tabernacle.

On

the eighth day,

controversies, civil and ecclesiastical.(b) The laws relating to the high-priest may be reduced to three general heads his office, his consecraall
:

tion,

and his dress. His OFFICE. Besides having

it

in his

power

any of the functions of the inferior and being alone possessed of the dipriests,
to perform
but within the limits of the other 2000 cubits, they migh

the other for the people, whom he also blessed His inauguration was sigfor the first time. nalized by the glory of God appearing to all the people, and by the descent of the sacred fire from heaven,(e) which consumed the sacrifices, and was afterwards preserved till the destruction of the first temple by Nebuchadnezzar;
myrrh, sweet cinnamon, sweet calamus, cassia, and olive
in
oil,

Aaron entered upon the exercise of his office, by offering a double sacrifice, one for himself,

do either. To much the same effect Maimonides writes " The suburbs of the cities are expressed in the law to be The 3000 cubits on every side, from the walls outward. first thousand cubits are the suburbs; and the other 2000 measured without the suburbs, were for fields and vineyards and this seems to be themost rational interpretation of the text
:

the following proportions

)b.

oz.

dwt.

grs.

500 &hekels=18 11 13 13f Troy. Pure myrrh 9 5 16 18 Sweet cinnamon ..250 shekels Sweet calamus . . .250 shekels= 9 5 16 18f 500 sliekels:=18 11 13 13f Cassia 1 hin, equal to about 5 quarts wine Olive oil
measure.

Lev. xxv. 29, et seq. (y) Lev. xxvii. 14, et seq 1 Kings, ii. 26. (a) Acts, iv. 36, 37. Ibid. xix. 17. (b) Deut. xvii. 8, etseg. (c) Lev. xxi. 10, et seq. (d) This oil was a composition of perfumes, which, lik that of the incense above described, was not to be imitated
(x)
(z)

These were to be mixed together, according to the art of the compounder, into an unction, and with it the tabernacle and all its utensils, as well as the high-priest, and his sons, were to be anointed. t Exod. xl. 12 15. Lev. viii. 9, passim. (e)
* Exod. xxx.

nor used in common, on pain of death:*

it

consisted o

2233.

Exod.

xl.

91

1,

13, 15.

!<

&

SECT.

II.]

HIGH-PRIEST'S DRESS.
to

BREASTPLATE.

737

the use of any other in the holy ministry being inhibited under pain of death.

which were appended small bells, and pome granates, curiously wrought in pure gold, at
equal alternate distances from each other, to give notice by their tinkling of his approach. This vest was tied round with an embroidered girdle, which, after passing twice about the body, hung down in front. Over this robe was

Concerning his priestly vestments, that can with any certainty be advanced, is, that they were likewise prescribed by God himself, and consisted of every thing that
all

DRESS.

could make them truly rich, sumptuous, and venerable ; such as a great variety of precious stones, gold, silver, purple, scarlet, the finest of silk, linen, and the like; but as to the particular fashion of them, all that has been

advanced respecting it by different writers, is mere conjecture; even the Jewish commentators not being unanimous about it. Josephus has been minutely explicit on the subject, but the Rabbins vary greatly from him, as Jerom also differs from both. However, from the best accounts that can be collected,
the vestments of the high-priest appear to have been of two kinds ; one, made of linen, which was common to him and all the other priests, consisting of a mitre, or turban, a long robe, or vest, breeches, and a girdle the other sort,
:

which some have supposed to have been merely a series of belts, fastened to a collar, to keep the other garments closely attached to the body;(h) others think it to have been a kind of short surtout, covering the back, breast, and abdomen, and open at the
the ephod,
sides,

like

the upper

heralds.
scarlet,

But,

garment of European whatever its shape, it was

which were peculiar to himself, he was to wear only upon solemn occasions, and were so rich and magnificent, that the Jews called them vestures of gold, and Moses speaks of them as the glory and ornament of Aaron.(f ) The first, or under garment, was a tunic, called by Moses, an embroidered coat, closely encompassing the body, and having tight sleeves
for

curiously wrought with gold, blue, purple, and tine-twined linen, embroidered On each side were shoulder-pieces, together. to which were fastened two onyx stones, set in gold, and engraved with the names of the 12 and upon the tribes, six upon each stone breast was left a vacancy, of about half a cubit square, on which the breastplate was to be fastened .(i) In this description of the priestly dress no mention is made of shoes, or sandals ; for all the priests officiated barefoot, the greatest token, among the ancients, of reverence and
:

profound respect.

the

arms, answering

the

purpose

of a

Over this was the robe of blue, or shirt.(g) purple, composed of a single piece, without sleeves, and with a hole to pass the head through the border, which reached almost to the ankles, was trimmed with a rich fringe,
:

BREASTPLATE. This was a double piece of of the same texture with the ephod, four square, being a span every way, on which were set twelve precious stones in gold mountings, and each of them engraved with the name of one of the twelve tribes. These were in four
cloth,

rows, three in each row, perhaps disposed in the following order :(j)
2.

1.
..

3.

( Stone:

C31N (ODeM)

sardius, or ruby.

*
"%

~ o

^ * ^ (

Colour: Deep red. Tribe: pWTl REUBEN.

4.

(PZTDOH) topaz. Pale green.

Dp"O (BoReKer) carbuncle. Deep scarlet.

nV LEVI.
6.

SIMEON.
5.

Stone :]%) (NOPHC) emerald. ' o i Colour Bright green. JUDAH. '%**(. Tribe:
:

TDD (SOPHIR)
Blue.

sapphire.

ca^ir (YaiiaLoM) diamond.

mw
1

White.

1SSACHAR.
8.

ZEBULUN.
9.

7. ^3
..

( Stone: Ott? ?

(LeSHeM)

ligure, or jacinth.

H
Q

| < Colour: Dull red, mixed with yellow. u ( Tribe p BAN.

.-

Hefio) agate. Dead white, or yellow.

amethyst.

Purple,
1J

NAPHTALl.
11.

GAD.
12.
1

10.
..

i
.

Stone: Colour Tribe:

wunn(TaRSH
:

SH) beryl, or chrysolite.

(SHoHaM) onyx.

Bluish, or yellowish green.

Opaque
epv JOSKPH.
(.j)

horn-colour.

HDU7 (YasHpeH) jasper. Bright green.

]'D'

ASFIER.
(g)
(i)

BENJAMIN,
xxviii,

(f)

Eiod.
I.

xxviii. 2.

Josephus.

(h)

Calmet.

Ewd.

xxviii.

12.

011

See the Jerusalem Targum onExod. Cant. v. 14. Ainsworth, et al.

the

Targum

VOL.

5 B

738

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP.

xvm.

In examining what has been said on the subject of these precimis stones by the best critics, we have adopted such explanations as

appeared to be best justified by the meaning and use of the original words but we cannot say that the stones which are here mentioned, and described by name and colour, are precisely those intended by the terms in the Hebrew text: nor can we take upon us to assert, that the tribes are arranged exactly in the manner intended by Moses for, as these things are
:

such a way as to mistake, some things must be left preclude have omitted the spiritual to conjecture. which some have found so plentifully meanings, in each stone; because some of them are puerile, all futile, and not a few dangerous. This breastplate was fastened at the top by a golden hook, or ring, at the end of a wreathed chain of gold, to the shoulder-pieces, and at the bottom to the girdle of the ephod, by two blue strings, or ribbands, which had also two
not laid
in the text, in
all

down

We

gold rings and hooks : so that the whole might be secured from any chance of falling off.(k) This ornament is called the memorial, because it bore the names of the tribes ; and the breastplate of judgment, because it contained the divine oracle of URIM AND THUMMIM,(!) by which, from the days of Moses to the dedication of Solomon's Temple, the high-priest was informed of the will of God. Of the nature of this oracle, the sacred writers have left us in profound ignorance ; and if the Jewish traditions do at all retain any thing of truth respecting it, they are so
diverse and contradictory, that they only increase the difficulty by making darkness more dense. - Under these circumstances we might well be excused, were the subject passed by in silence ; but as curiosity is ever inquisitive in proportion to the difficulty of the case, the most current opinions of writers of the best repute are collected in the note below, for the
reader's gratification.(m)
embrace the whole Hebrew alphabet, the Jews pretend that the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were engraved upon the first stone, over that of Reuben; and in the last, under Benjamin, the words PI' 'ID3U;, (SHIBTI JOH) the trihet of the Lord.*) Most of the Jews believe, that the oracle consisted

The breastplate was never to 35. (k) Exod. xxviii. 12 be loosed from the ephod and the Jews say, that if at any time the high-priest, either inadvertently or wilfully, put on one without the other, he was liable to punishment. and C3'Din (THUMWIM) (1) Heb. O'llN (AURIM) lights,
;
1

perfections.

of the tetrayrammaton, or Divine Name, of four

letters,

thing that attracts attention on the subject of this oracle is the method adopted by Moses to inscribe the names of the tribes upon the stones ; for as they were of the hardest kind, it has been questioned how he so early knew the art of engraving upon them ; as if the same Power that shewed him the pattern of the tabernacle and its instruments, in the mount," could not, or did not, also instruct

(m)

The

first

supposing that he had not before learned the art among the Egyptians, or from some other nation, from whom he also procured the stones. The Talmudists, however, who multiply miracles upon every lest any portion of these valuable trifling occasion, tell us, that, stones should be wasted by cutting, a certain worm, not now in existence, being laid upon the stones, sunk itself into all the that Moses had chalked, and impressed the letters

him

in

whatever

else

was necessary

(JenovaH) written upon a plate of gold, enclosed in the folds of the. breastplate ;|| and some of the ancients thought there was a thirteenth stone in the breastplate, whose extraordinary lustre communicated the divine will respecting the thing inquired of:1T Austin** has rejected and confuted this notion; yet more modern writers have not only admitted the stone, but have added to it a 14M, that the two names, urim and thummim, might have one each.tf Cyrilj; thinks, those two words were either engraved on a plate of or embroidered upon it gold, and fixed to the breastplate, that they were two precious in raised work: and Le Clerc, stones, so called, set in a gold chain, or collar, and hung about the high-priest's neck, descending to his breast; similar to the Egyptian symbol of TRUTH, worn by the
PI1PI',

VM

places

letters, however engraved, Josephus affirms, conthe oracle of the vrim and thummim, which was consulted in the following manner: When a person went to stood with his face before the ark, and inquire, the priest the querist stood behind him, with his back to the priest's. The inquirer then put his question, and forthwith the Holy the priest, and he beheld the answer in Spirit came upon such letters of the breastplate, as composed the words of it, more prominent than the becoming brighter, or standing up But because the names of the twelve tribes did not restj

upon them, as a

seal gives its impression to

wax

!f

These

stituted

as related in the history president of the courts of justice, Da Castro, puts two Spencer,5I1T following Egypt.|||| little golden figures into a purse, contained in the breastanswers viva voce ; and plate, which he supposes gave Philo,*** from whom this fancy was perhaps originally bor-

of

rowed, says that those two figures, or virtues, viz. manifestation and truth, were embroidered upon the breastplate, as noticed already. Amid the trash of such ridiculous notions, it is no wonder that the truth should be lost sight of; and here the or three subject might be dismissed, were it not that two more judicious writers claim attention, whom it would be
*
Quitst. in Eiod. 117.

'Emd. xiv.

9, 40.

Numb.
iii.

viii.

4.
9.

t Maini'.u. Kt.lt

llammikiimh, cap.
cap. 7.
\\

}*
Illl

fjposii. &/>"'''.

tr A. Montanus, et al. $$ Comment, in Ewrf.

} Joseph. Antiq. lib. $ Maimon. u(/i supr.

Cunams, Basnage, Laray, ct ,,l. Vide R. Salom. Egub. Montanus,

Suidas in

(t a(.

Epiphan. Tract, de

*ii.

Gtmrnii.

E?f.

See before, page 420. Ditscrt. de Urim et Thummiin. * In Vit. Mas. lib. iii, PC Monarc\

lib. ii.

SECT. H.]

HIGH-PRIEST'S MITRE.
The
was
last

THE NETHINIM.

739

MITRE.
high-priest,

garment, peculiar to the

his mitre or turban,

which was

remarkably distinguished from that of the common priests, by the gold plate, with the inscription holiness to the JLord,(n) tied on the This plate is also called, in front(o) of it. some other places, a crown.(p) All that can be gathered from Josephus,(q) Jerom,(r) Maimonides,(s) and others, concerning this ornament, is, that it was a kind of cap, or turban, of a hemispherical shape, which did not come lower than the ears, wrapped several times about with a piece of fine linen, or cotton, and tied behind the head with a blue ribband or string. Josephus adds, that this mitre was covered with another, of fine blue or purple, having a triple crown of gold about it; and that, on the top, just in the middle, it had a kind of golden cup turned upward, resembling the cup or petal of a flower. There can be no doubt of its being extremely elegant, and that the words engraved on the gold plate, were designed to characterize the holiness of the
The first of these is the Rabbi Menawho speaks to the following effect " The urim and thummim were NOT the work of the artificer neither had
injustice to pass by.

wearer, who was required to be so undefiled and immaculately pure, that the least contamination, however involuntary, disqualified him from performing his office, till he had been and it was at the imminent legally purified
:

hazard of his life, to enter the holy of holies with any defilement upon him. NETHINIM. These were the last sort of persons dedicated to the worship of God. They were not of the children of Israel, but are supposed to have been descendants of the strangers who came with them from Egypt, and of the Gibeonites, who obtained a treaty of peace
with Joshua by stratagem in consequence of which, that general condemned them to the lowest and most laborious offices in the tabernacle, under the Levites such as drawing of water, fetching and hewing of wood for the This name of Nethialtar, and the like.(t) nim, was probably not given to them till after the captivity, when a small number returned with Ezra and the rest of Israel, from
;

Babylon.(u)

chera,

the artificers, nor the congregation of Israel, in them any work, er voluntary offering: but they were a mystery or they were delivered to Moses from the mouth of God the work of God himself; or a measure of the Holy Spirit." Hottinger,* also, rejecting all the fables of the Jews and
:

To the present day, an ornament of the same kind is worn by the Chinese mandarins and judges; if we may credit their painters, who always represent them with a piece of embroidery on the breast, on which is wrought a while bird, with expanded wings, of the heron kind. Many instances of
may be observed in the collection of Chinese paintings belonging to the London Missionary Society, in the Old Jewry, London: and there can be no doubt that both Egyptians and Chinese borrowed the idea from the same At what original, the Israelitish breastplate of judgment.
this

Christians, supposes, that when Moses is commanded to put into the breastplate the urim and t/mmmim, it means only

that he should select the most perfect stones, and have polished so as to give the most consummate lustre:

them and

Dr. Prideaux believes those two words were chosen, merely to express the clearness and certainty of the oracle, by a particular divine virtue communicated to the breastplate at
its

consecration.!

period this happened, it is impossible, perhaps, to discover; it is also to solve the question, whether those two nations, now so distantly situated, were originally one people, and in that unity received tlxe emblem, which both parties retained on their separation. See M. De Guignes' Memoir I'M proof of the Chintte havintj been an. Egyptian Colony; and Mr.
as

breastplate of the high-priest of Israel appears to have been a subject of imitation among the heathens thus, as has been noticed, the Egyptian judges, or presidents of judicial courts, wore a symbol, called truth, hung about the neck by a golden chain. Diodorus, speaking of this symbol, says, it was srt about with, or composed of, precious stones ;l and .'Elian describes it as an imatje, engraved on a Peter Du V'al, in a letter from Cairo, speaks of a sapphire.^ very ancient mummy, which he had seen, about the neck of which was a large collar, or chain, reaching down to the breast, with a gold plate appended to it, bearing an engraved This mummy is supposed to representation of a bird.\\ be the remains of one of the presidents, or judges, and the plate, with its figure of a bird, of what kind is not mentioned, the emblem of truth and justice, which he had worn in his life-time probably of more ancient date, and consequently more .simple, than those spoken of by Diodorus and J
:

The

Bryant's Ancient Mythology, vol.

(n)

iv.

and

v.

Enid,

xxviii.

:><i.
1

mn ^ Itnp, (o) The Jews pretend that these words, (KODesH LO-YCHOVOH) Holiness to the Lord,were embossed, or raised by a kind of enamel, upon the plate of gold ;5T but Moses says, they were to be written like the cnyravixys of a tiynet, which scarcely leaves room to doubt that they wero sunk. They also say the plate was about two fingers' breadth, and that it was tied upon the forehead between the hair and eyebrows: but it is more likely to have been appended to the front rim of the mitre.
(p)
jcod. xxix.
(>.

xxxix. 30.
iit.

Lev.

viii.

9.

(q) Joseph. Antiq. lib. (r) Hieron. ad Faliiol.

(s)
(t)

cap. 7. cap. 9, 10.

Maim. Kele Ilannnikdesh,

Josh.
ix.

2327.
lib.
ii.

(u) See before, p, 599, 604.

J Bibliolh. lib. i. cap. 75. 4 Var. Hist. lib. xxxiv.
^f

* In Mos. tt Aar. t Prid. Connect, di Ur. tt Thumiiiitt.

lib.

i.

cap. 5, note 11.

p.

cap. 3.

vol.

i.

213,

tt sro.

et vide Buxtorf, jufl.

Eicrcit.

ill.

Delia Valle, K, *(.

sect. t.

Jlahuon. Ktle Hununikdath , cap. 9,

740
IX.

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

was always the nearest

[CHAP, xviri.

Of the
The

Cities
cities

of Refuge, and other Sanctuaries.

of refuge were originally six
in

relation to the deceased,) justice, he and his evidence were heard, and the judges either continued their former sentence, in favour of the man-

came

to

demand

number; they were chosen out of those fortyeight which had been assigned to the Levites.(v) They differed from theAsy/a of the Greeks and Romans, in being designed to protect innocent
persons only, from the rigours of the law, in cases of involuntary homicide; whereas their's afforded equal shelter to the guilty and to the
innocent.

slayer, or delivered

him up to be punished. He was then conducted to the place where the fact was committed, to be tried a second time; and if again found innocent, he was re-conducted
to the place of refuge, under a sufficient guard, and remained there free from all farther prose-

There

is

an express

command

in

cutions, till, on the death of the high-priest, he was at liberty to return to his own home. This

Exodus, with respect to wilful murder, that the guilty person shall be seized, even from the And, indeed, so altar, to be put to death. (w) severe were God's laws against murder, that if
it

mode

of proceeding is what the generality of interpreters agree in but the account we have of it from Moses, is far from being con;

clusive.

was even committed in an affray, in correcting a servant, or in some other cases, which
our laws call chance-medley, the guilty person could not go unpunished. (x) These cities were not only for the Israelites, but for all strangers that either lived among them, Moses ordered three or came occasionally. (y) of them to be assigned on each side Jordan, (z) which partition seems indeed somewhat unequal; because one side had but two tribes and a half, and the other nine and a half; but the extent of the country of the former was at least
as large as that of the latter, though less inhabited, which made it necessary for them to have so many of those cities. However, as to

Besides these

cities

of refuge, the tabernacle,

and afterwards the temple, had likewise the

privilege of being sanctuaries; especially the altar of burnt-offering ; but those who had been guilty of wilful murder, sheltered themselves there in vain.(b) Proper judges were

there appointed also, to make a strict examination into the case, and either to deliver up the criminal into the hands of justice, or send the

innocent, under a proper escort, to one of the cities of refuge. But if he ventured out of the limits of that city, and was discovered by the avenger of blood, and slain by him, the latter was not considered as guilty of murder.(c)

those tribes on the other side,

God

permitted

X.

them

to

add three more

to their

number, when-

ever the extent of their conquests should render it necessary. (a) As soon as a man had been guilty of accidental homicide, his first business was to flee to the next city of refuge. The ways leading to it were, by God's own appointment, to be kept in good repair, that nothing might retard
his

Of

the Tabernacle, the Ark Altars, Golden Candlestick, bread, JBrazen JLaver, <^c.

and Mercy-Seat, Table of Shew*

built

THE TABERNACLE. This was command and directions of God

wilderness,

by the

himself, that he might dwell in the midst of his people.(d) As the Israelites, during their residence in the

speed
the

with

and direction-posts were set up, word Refuge upon them, that he
;

might not mistake

came

to the place,
;

judges there
:

his way. As soon as he he presented himself to the declared the occasion of his

coining, with the manner of his killing the person and, as his account appeared true or
false,

he was admitted
If the

to,

their protection.
(v) A'i/j6. xxxv.
(>.

or excluded from, avenger of blood (who

(w) Exod. xxi. 14. (y) Numb. xxxv. 15.

and perhaps during the first six years after they entered the promised land, were obliged to reside in tents, or moveable habitations, the Almighty condescended to dwell among them,(e) and to manifest his presence in a moveable temple, suited to their circumstances and frequent inarches, that might be easily set up and taken down, as occasion
required.(f)

(x)
(/) (a)

Exod.
Deut.

xxi. 12, 20.

Numb. xxxv.
xix. 9.

14.

Deut.

xix. passim.

(b)

Exod.

xxi. 1-1

Numb. xxxv. 20, 27. (d) Exod. xxv. 8, 9, et seq. Exod. xxv. 8. xxix. 45. Le. xxvi. 12. (f) For this reason, among other names which it has in the Mosaic writings, it is most commonly called by that of
(c)
(e)

SECT.

II.]

THE TABERNACLE.

741

the most costly and precious had brought with them things, from Egypt, with the spoil of the Amalekites, whom they had conquered, were put in requisition by Moses, and being liberally bestowed by the people, they were put into the hands of the ablest artificers, who were divinely inspired for the work.(g) The tabernacle was of an oblong square figure, having two apartments within, divided by a row of four columns of shittim-wood, covered over with massive gold, fixed on the same number of pedestals or sockets of silver. To the tops, or rather chapiters, of these, was fastened, by golden hooks, a rich embroidered curtain, which divided the whole breadth of the place, and distinguished the outward, called the holy, from the inward apartment, At called the most holy, or the holy of holies. the entrance, which was at the east end, hung a second curtain to another row of columns, concealing the interior of the holy place from common observation. The curtain (or, as it is called, the veil,} which parted the holy from the most holy place, was made of the richest stuff, both for matter and workmanship, with figures of cherubim, festoons, and other ornathis end,

To

which they

like the columns. They were fastened to each other by a fivefold row of golden rings, at equal distances, one over the other, five to each board ; and through these were run bars of gilt shittim-wood, which locked them on those three sides. The east end had no boards, but was sheltered by a veil, like that which divided the two apartments, except that this

outward one had no cherubim embroidered upon it, as the innermost had for these were never exposed to public sight; it was only adorned with flowers, leaves, and other embellishments of needle-work, (i) How low this
;

curtain hung, is neither expressed in the text, nor agreed about some thinking it came no lower than five cubits, and afforded the people a view of what was done in the holy place ;(j) others believing that it touched the ground, and concealed it all;(k) which last opinion
;

ments, curiously embroidered upon it. The whole was enclosed, on the north, west, and south sides, with boards of shittim-wood, (h) covered also with plates of gold, and fixed

below and

above into sockets, or mortises,

signifies

the most probable. If we may credit Josephus, there was another curtain over the foregoing, which reached the ground, and was merely a defence from the weather, being made of stuff that was proof This, he says, against the rain and dews. was drawn aside on the sabbaths and festivals, to give the people a view of the under curtain, or veil, and its ornaments. The tabernacle had four distinct coverings : the first consisted often curtains of fine-twined linen, interwoven with blue, purple, and scarlet, and richly embroidered with cherubim. These
is

(OHPL) which not only

but such a magas might inspire, not the Israelites alone, but all other nations, with an awful respect and regard for the service of God. In other
a tent,
nificent one, in structure, materials,

and

utensils,

places,

it

is

called lyiD SlN,

(OHCL MOED)

the tent,

or
I

tabernacle of the congregation, or of assembly ;* UHpO, (MtKenasH) a holy place, or sanctuary ;t because it was

made

holy by the divine presence; plUDH, (Ho-MtSHCeN) dwelling, or habitation, i.e. of God, rendered in our translation, tabernacle ;J nnyn pu?0n, (Ha-MtsHceN pUTH) the habitation, or tabernacle of testimony;^ and
^371, (HeYCal.) palace, or temple,\\ of the name was given to the more durable

H-Hlast

Lord; which

building

afterwards

erected by Solomon. Dr. SpencerU has expended a vast deal of learning, in endeavouring to prove that the tabernacle, the ark, the altars, and all their appurtenances, were borrowed from the Egyptians ; though the inspired historian and architect expressly declares that he was shewn a supernatural pattern in the mount, by God himself.** Saurin, in his Discourses on the. Pentateuch, has taken the pains to expose the
fallacy
Enid. xxviii. 43.
} t Ibid. xxv. 8.

of such an hypothesis, which might have been thought too weak not to fall of itself; and yet it appears to have been necessary, since Le Clerc.tt in other respects a writer of It is certainly well great merit, has ventured to defend it. known that the heathens had their portable temples and shrines, very much resembling those of the Israelites; but to suppose that the holy God should order them to be imitated, in condescension to the prepossessions and frailties of his people, whom he was training for himself, so as to make them peculiar and distinct from all other nations, is, to say the least of it, a most gross absurdity. Exod. xxv. 1, et seq. xxxi. 1 6. (g) but the most (h) This wood is not accurately known ; current opinion is, that it was the acacia Nilotica, a species of thorn, but solid, light, and very beautiful and the only See Bellon's Observ. tree that grows in the wilds of Arabia. lib. ii. cap. 56, 80. Thevenot, ^Etiiis, lib. iv. cap. 11.
;

La Roque,
(i)
(

Exod.

Radziville, xxvi. 36.

Ludolph, &c.
iii.

Joseph. Antiq. lib. (k) Philo, ap. Basnag.

j)

cap. 6.
ii.

torn.
i.

lib.

i.

cap. 5.
viii.

f De
* It

Ibid. xxv. 9.
1

$ Ibid, xxxviii. 21.

iii.

Lev. Kit. Hebr. Eiod. xxv. 9, 40. xxvi. 30. xxvii. 8.

dissert,
xii.

Kumb.

4.

Sum.

i.

9.

3.

BMioth. A. M. tome

part.

ii.

itct. 1, passim.

742

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP. xvin.

were hangings for the inside, and were each 28 cubits (about 16i yards) long, and four cubits, (about 24 yards) broad. They were five on each side, by fifty coupled together, loops of blue, and as many gold clasps; so that those on each side might have the appearThe second coverance of a single curtain. (1) was of goats' hair, or mohair, and consisted ing of eleven curtains, each 30 cubits long, and six of these were coupled four cubits broad together for one curtain, and five for the other, with loops and brass clasps. This was an outside covering, to go over the top of the tabernacle the sixth curtain being to drop bethe entrance,(m) fore Over these were two of what dimensions does not other coverings, appear; the one of rams' skins, with the wool
:

from the censer of the high-priest, when he entered it on the day of expiation, and upon that he was commanded to burn incense, so as to obscure the mercy-seat with the smoke. THE ARK AND MERCY-SEAT. These were the two chief things that were deposited in the most holy place, or holy of holies. The ark
chest, made of shittim-wood, covered over with beaten gold. It is called the Ark of the Covenant, and the Ark of the Testimony, because it was a symbol of the covenant made between God and his people, and contained the two tables of the law, the pot of manna, and Aaron's miraculous rod. For its dimensions, and other particulars, the reader is referred to the chapter just alluded to. During a march, this ark was carried by the priests, by means of two wooden bars overlaid with gold, and run through four golden These bars were rings, two on each side. never to be withdrawn. The mercy-seat was a kind of lid or cover It was made of to the ark. pure gold, with two cherubim placed on it.(p) Most versions

was a small

on, dyed red the other of badgers' skins,(n) or rather of dyed skins, perhaps of a blue co:

lour, (o)

The

interior of the tabernacle

must have been

quite dark, excepl as it was relieved by the lights from the seven lamps on the candlestick, which stood in the holy place ; as to the holy of holies, it had no light but what proceeded

(1)

Exod.

xxvi.

16.

(m) Ibid.

ver.

713.

(n) Ibid. ver. 14. (o) The term O'U;nn mj?, (OROTH TecnasHlM) rendered badgeri skins in our translation, is only acknowledged by the Chaldee and Persic versions, to mean an animal; all the other versions understand it to relate to a colour : thus, " skins the Septuagint and Vulgate read dyed of a violet the Syriac azure, the Arabic black, the Coptic colour;" violet; the Chaldee reads badgers' skins, which has been adopted by European translators; and the Persic rams'

Of nearly the same spirit of these extraordinary creatures. " beasts" seen appearance were the by St. John ;1T only he seems to describe them as four distinct animals, of what shape he does not say, having each sir wings, and one the face of a man, another that of a lion, a third that of a calf, and the fourth the head of an eayle ; they were &l*o full of
Whether the living creatures" seen by Ezekiel, and the " beasts" of St. John, should be classed with the cherueyes.

"

bim of Moses and Solomon, may be doubted

for,

though

Bochart, who has minutely examined them all, contends that the hysingus, mentioned by Pliny,* is intended, which is a very deep blue. 20. The form and nature of cherubs, (p) Exod. xxv. 18 or cherubim, has always been, and ever will be, subjects of All the several descriptions of conjecture and dispute. them in the Scriptures, differ from each other; as they are spoken of under the shapes of men, eagles, oxen, lions, and a composition of all these figures put together. From Ezekiel's description of the temple.t it appears that the cherubim made by Solomon,} which were copies of those of Moses, had tieo faces, one of a man, the other of a lion, and two wint/s each; ^et in the tirst vision of the same " the living creatures," which are supposed to be prophet,]] the same with the cherubim, had four faces ami four ivinys: the faces were those of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle ; their bodies being upright, like the body of a man, with but their j't.<-t were like calves' ftunds under the wings; feet. They were also accompanied with mysterious wheels,
skins.

they are generally considered as belonging to that order, they are more characteristic of the seraphim of Isaiah,** which, however, were diverse from all, for they had only one face and six wings, with feet and hands. From these various descriptions, commentators have drawn conclusions as numerous. Grotius says, the cherubim were similar in Bochart thinks they were more like an ox : figure to a calf. Spencer is of the same opinion ; and they are followed by Dr. I. Watts, who conjectures the cherubim to have been figures of flying oxen; and that the calf made by Aaron, in the plains of Sinai, was no more than a representation of one of them. Josephus says, the cherubim were extraordinary creatures, of a Jiyure unknown to mankind ; and yet, in the description of the temple, they are pourtrayed with such minuteness, as proves it to have been well known in the days of David and Solomon. Clemens of Alexandria believes, that the Egyptians imitated the cherubim of the Hebrews in their sphinxes, and other hieroglyphical animals. Besides the application of the term cherubim to the figures upon the mercy-seat, it probably means, in other places.

of immense
t Kick.

circuit,

and full of eyes;

} J

in

which resided the

2 Chrm.

ajiyurr of any kind; whether sculptured on stone, engraved

Eiod. xxv.

.Nut. Hiit. lib. ix.

xli.

cap. 6i.

1820.

xxxvii.

79.
Rev.

1
iv.

19.

Kinfi,

vi.

2328.

iii.

1014.

Ktek.

i.

4, et <}.

69.

Klagt, viH. 6, 7.

**

liaiali, vi. J.

SECT. H.]

MERCY-SEAT, ALTAR OF INCENSE, CANDLESTICK,

the

&c.

Propitiatory, (q) others the the Mercy-seat; because Oracle,(r) there God heard the prayers of his people, delivered his oracle, and dwelt between the
it

render

and

our's

cherubim which covered it. Besides, it is evident that it had a more than ordinary sanctity attributed to it, and that it was looked upon as the place of God's immediate presence for which reason there were such severe judgments inflicted on those who presumed to approach it.(s) Besides the ark and mercy-seat, there was, in the most holy place, the original volume of the law, which Moses gave the Levites to deposite in the side of the ark.(t) For as there were several copies of it, this prototype was
;

cubits to ascend. Two bars of the same wood, covered with gold, and put through four gold rings, served to carry it, like the ark only these might be taken off, and the others might not. There was a golden crown, or ornament, round its top, and four horns on the four corners, all likewise covered with gold.(v) THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK. This was by
;

piece in the whole sanctuary, weight being a talent of the sanctuary, of pure beaten gold.(w) Its base, or foot, had a trunk or stem over it; out of which proceeded
far the richest
its

thus carefully preserved, to prevent the rest from being corrupted. The utensils kept in the holy place, were the altar of incense, the golden candlestick, and the table of shew-bread. THE ALTAR OF INCENSE, or PERFUME, is

adorned with cups and flowers, and equidistant; and on the top of each was fixed a lamp, shaped like an almond, which might be taken off as occasion served. It was the business of the priests in waiting,
six branches,

alternate

sometimes called the Golden Altar, because, though made of shittim-wood, it was so overlaid with gold, as to look like a solid piece of
that metal. It is also called the inner altar, to distinguish it from that of burnt-offerings, which stood without the tabernacle. Its use was twofold to burn incense morning and night and to be sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifices, which were offered for sins of committed either by particular ignorance, or by all the people in general. (u) It priests, was one cubit square upon the plan, and two cubits high, so that the smoke had still eight
:

every evening, at the time of incense, to go in and, about the same time in light them the morning, to put them out, and clean and replenish them.(x) The oil was of the purest kind, pressed from olives, as none but such would have been fit to burn where the furniture was so exquisitely rich.

and

THE TABLE
made

OF SKEW-BREAD.

This was

with the ark, and It was two cubits long r one broad, and one and a half high. It had a golden border, or crown, possibly like a rim, round it. Likewise two rings of gold were fixed on each side, through which two bars of the like wood, covered with gold, were put,
to carry
it

of the same covered with gold.

wood

about.(y)

THE COURT
court was

OF THE TABERNACLE. This 100 cubits long, and 50 broad,

on metal, carved on wood, or embroidered on cloth thus, the cherubim upon the inner veil of the tabernacle, and upon the curtains, may signify no more than that the veil and curtains were covered with ornamental needle-work, &c.
:

(q)
(s)
(t)

LXX.
1 Sam.
vi.

(r)

Hieron. in Vulgat. et
vi. 6, et

al.

19.

2 Sam.

seq.

incense, in a subterraneous vault, which Solomon, under the influence of a spirit of prescience, had constructed, with such care and privacy, that they never could, nor will, be found, till the coming of the Messiah.t As to the holy fire, however, the author of the book above quotedj says, that the priests, at the time of Ihe captivity, hid it in a dry pit,

Dcut. xxxi. 26. Lee. iv. 37, 1318. (v) This altar, with the ark and its contents, which were wanting in the second temple, says the author of the second book of Maccabees, were hidden by the prophet Jeremiah,
(u)

captivity, in a cave of mount so secretly, that the place could never afterwards be But the Talmudists assert, that king Josiah, discovered.* having been admonished by sonic prophets, that all the

on seeing the approaching

Nebo

vessels of the sanctuary would be taken away to Babylon, deposited the holy tire, the ark, the pot of manna, Aaron's miraculous rod, the breastplate of urim, and the altar of
* 2 Marc.
t
ii.

and covered it over, so that none but themselves knew where to find it and when Nehemiah returned from the court of Artaxerxes, he sent the children of those priests to fetch it Neheup, but instead of fire, they found only thick water. miah, however, commanded the sacrifices and wood to be sprinkled with it, and when the sun shone upon the allar, it burst forth into flame. When the Persian monarch heard of this, he ordered the place to be enclosed and consecrated. (w) Exod. xxv. 31, ct seq. Exod. x\x. 8. Lev. xxiv. 2. 1 Sam, (x) Numb. iv. 16.
:

iii.

:'..

(y)

Exod. xxv. 23,

{
i!

et seq.

l,rt seq.

.Vice.

i.

1922.
33-

Buuorf, De Arc. cap. 21, 22.

ill.

R, Jackut.

Prideaux's Conned, part

i.

look

Cuiixu.*, Basnagc,

tl at,

Ibid. ver.

744

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

all

[CHAP. xvin.
to preserve

enclosed with curtains on

sides but the east, where it had an opening of 20 cubits for the priests, Levites, and people, to go in

and carried

in

such a manner as

enough of
required.

it

to kindle a greater

when occasion

and out with their offerings. This enclosure was not designed to conceal what was done in the court, as the curtains which surrounded
it

The were made of a kind of net-work. circuit of 300 cubits whole court had a indeed a less space would hardly have sufficed
;

for all the

work

that

was done
it

multitude of utensils used,

and the the only being

there,

and place where all the victims were slain, all other offerings were brought, and where presented to the priests.(z)

THE BRAZEN LAYER. This was a reservoir of water, for the use of the priests, when they washed their hands and feet, they being exjressly prohibited, under severe penalties, from jerforming any part of their function previous ;o that ceremony, It was here likewise, (b) that they washed the entrails and legs of the victims slain for sacrifice.^) It was the office of the Levites to keep this fountain continually
replenished with water.(d)

THE ALTAR OF BURNT-OFFERINGS.

This

XI.

was placed at the east end of the court. It was called the outward, to distinguish it from that of incense, which was within the It was made of shittim-wood, sanctuary. covered with brass; was five cubits square, and three high, with four brass rings, through which two bars were put, for its conveyance on the priests' shoulders. It had likewise four horns at the four corners, of the same wood, It was on covered with the same metal, (a) this altar that the sacred fire, which descended
altar

Laws

respecting Proselytes.

There was an express command of God, that if any stranger was desirous to eat of the passafter over, he must first be circumcised which he was to be admitted, not only to that grand solemnity, but to all the other religious
;

privileges, in

common with the Israelites ;(e) but bastards, and all illegitimate issue, as also eunuchs, were totally inadmissible.
Moses
also

made some

difference

between

from heaven
nacle, was The carcob,
fire,

at the

consecration of the taberbe continually maintained. to or vessel which contained the

off when they

was probably taken

removed,

nation and nation, with respect to their admission into what he terms the congregation of the Lord.(f} The Amalekites were on no account to be admitted, being under the divine
silver,

8. Exod. xxvii. 918. (a) Ibid, xxvii. 1 Exod. xxx. 1821. another reservoir (c) Some of the Jews think there was for this latter use ;* and we find it really was so ordered in Solomon's temple where the brazen sea was exclusively for the use of the priests, and ten other lavers were provided for If no provision of this kind were washing the victims. t made in the Mosaic tabernacle, we must suppose that the water was laded out of the laver into some other vessels, to for it was not even lawful for 'the wa>h the entrails in For to wash their hands and feet in the same water. priests
(z)

and a composition of copper and

tin.\\

The con-

(b)

struction of the passage is, therefore, either that Moses made the brazen laver, and its pedestal, or foot, of polished

of the women resorting to the tabernacle II or that the women gave up their mirrors of brass, or mixed metal, and with them Moses fabricated the The latter is the preferable reading and is greatly laver. strengthened by what Cyril, of Alexandria,** relates of the Egyptian women, that when they went to the temples, they always took their mirrors in their hands; and Dr. Shaw
brass, as bright as the mirrors
; ;

Talmudists have provided the laver with a number of cocks, through which the water ran first upon their feet, then upon their hands, and was received into a bason beneath. J In Exod. xxxviii. 8, Moses says, the laver of brass, and it foot of brass, were made of niOQ, (MOROTH) which our translators have rendered looking-glasses of the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle. This, as usual has given ground for various speculations and some interpreters have even ventured to turn the brass into steel, to But the ancien bring it to a more near resemblance. mirrors, which ought to have been the rendering of the wore maroth, were made not only of steel, but also of tin, BRASS
this reason, the
;

carry them constantly hung at the rest of the furniture of the tabernacle was supplied by freewill-offerings, it is not to be supposed that the women made any difficulty in foregoing this article of finery for the construction of the laver especially
states, that

the Arab

women

their breasts.

As

all

as they had, on a prior occasion, so readily parted with their jewels of gold for the molten calf.
(d)
(e)
(f)

Vide N. De Lyra, in loc. Exod. xii. 48. Numb. ix. 14.

The meaning
is
it

of the Lord,
thinking that

of being admitted into the congregation some not agreed upon among expositors intends admission into the Israelitish com:

monwealth and trust.

||

others, an eligibility to

fill

places of authority

Vide Kimchi.
} Mithna,
$

in loc.
in. loc.

2 Chran.

iv. J, 6.

spud Ar. Montan.

iu loc.

Vidt Tremel.

Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xxxiii. cap. 9. {/nip. J/ut. vol. iii. p. 114, note F. (8vo. edit.) * De Adorat. in Spirit, lib. u. apud Calmet, sub roce Mtrotr.

SECT.

II.]

PROSELYTES. JUDGES AND COURTS.

XII.

745

anathema, for their unprovoked attack upon the Israelites just after they had escaped from
IVIoabites and Ammonites were Egypt. () excluded to the tenth generation which some Understand to mean for ever; because they were deficient in hospitality towards Israel, and even hired Balaam to curse them.(h) Edornites and Egyptians were to be received after the second generation; the former, on account of their kindred with Israel, the latter, because the Israelites had been strangers in Egypt. (i)
;

Laws of The

the Second Table. Judges, Courts, Punishments, and Customs.

Judges,
Israel

peculiarly

so

called,

who

from Joshua to Saul, being governed from time to time by God himself, appointed were entirely controlled by his laws, and, in doubtful cases, by his Spirit, with which they were endowed they had the supreme authority, and differed in nothing from kings but
:

Israelites distinguished between prosethe gale, and proselytes of lytes of righteousness:

The

the

continuing uncircumcised, and observing only the precepts of Noah, were kept in a state little better than slavery ; of this description were perhaps the descendants of the Gibeonites,( j) and others of the conquered Canaanites for in Solomon's time, they amounted to upwards of 153,000, and were employed in the most servile works.(k) Every proselyte of righteousness was obliged to circumcise all the males, and baptize all the females in his family, under the age of
former,
:

in their dignity not could makepeace and being hereditary. They war, summon the tribes to arms, consult God by urim, and the like. Besides these, Moses, and, after him, those who were at the head in title

and grandeur, and

of the Israelitish

commonwealth, were com-

to appoint a number of judges and magistrates in all cities, to administer justice to

manded

such as were above that age, might choose whether to submit to the initiatory ceremony, or to remain in their own religion but those under thirteen could not be received as proselytes without the consent of their parents. They were then admitted to all the privileges of true-born Israelites their admission was considered as a new birth; their natural parents were no longer esteemed as such and these new converts were supposed to receive a new soul after baptism. (1) In a word, so completely was their condition changed, that, if we might credit the Talmudists, all former ties of blood and alliance were dissolved, and parents and children might intermarry, without incurring the guilt of incest These excessive interpretations, however, proceeded from their traditions, not from their larv, and well deserved the reproach cast upon them " Ye by our Lord compass sea and land, to make one proselyte ; and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. "(m)
thirteen
;
:

the people in every tribe. Samuel was himself a most upright judge and yet his two sons, who acted under him, proved altogether unrighteous. David was likewise a pious monarch, and yet, had not a great deal of corruption crept into the courts of judicature, his son Absalom could
;

have had no pretence for wishing he had been a judge, that he might do justice to every one who applied to him.(n) In the flourishing reigns of David and Solomon, these courts, which were held in the gates of cities, increased
very much ;(o) and, in process of time, became so corrupted, that the prophets were obliged, from time to time, to declaim against them. How these courts were constituted, the number and powers of their judges, &c. cannot be collected from scripture but Josephus and the Talmudists have furnished us with many particulars though they seem rather to relate what they were after the captivity, than before it. learn from the Talmudists, that, besides the grand council of seventy, or great sanhedrim, to which all other tribunals were subordinate, there were, in every city or town that had to the number of 120 inhabitants,(p) two courts; one consisting of three judges, The former the other of three-and-twenty.
:

We

were only chosen pro

Minister.
*

re

nata,

one by each
Altinjja.

(g)

(h)
(i)

(j)
(1)

AW.

Exod. xvii. 816. Dent. xxv. 1719. A'//;. xxii. xxiv. Deut. xxiil. 3d. Deut. xxiii. 7, 8. Jnshun, ix. 27. (k) 2 Citron, ii. 17, 18. Vide Selclen. De Si/ned. lib. ii. cap. 2, art. 5. J)c Jur.
et

Dent,

xxiii.

Dispitt. dc Proselyt. Sect, et ;il.

(ni)

Calmet. art. Proselyte. Drusius. R. Mos. Kotz.

De
4.

Trib t

Gent.
I.

lib. v.

cap.' 16.

De

Success.

Bon.

lib.

ii.

ct al.

VOL.

Matt, xxiii. 15. (n) 2 Sam. xv. 2, 3, Ckron. xxiii. et seq. (p) Qnc hundred and twenty families, say some.
(o) 1

5c

746
party, the third

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

:

[CHAP. xvni.

by the other two their cognizance extended no farther than to disputes

tions,

about servants' wages, petty larcenies, restituand such like nor could they inflict a heavier punishment than whipping. The other
:

condemnation and execution, longer than was necessary to convey the culprit from one to the other. The accused was allowed a counprocess,

court, of three-and-twenty, sat upon all capital offences, and had the power of condemning In case of a difference criminals to death.

of opinion

among them,

the

sentence
.in

the majority; though, cases of considerable interest, or of a doubtful nature, the high-priest was to be consulted. These courts, however, could take no cognizance of causes, in which the high-priest, a whole tribe, or false prophets, were concerned ; for such could only be tried by the great council.(q) The council of twenty-three sat in a semicircular court, with the president, whom they called prince, in the centre ; with the father of the senate on his right-hand, and the rest of the judges on either side, according to At each end of this or merit. seniority, crescent, sat a clerk, or secretary, to write down the depositions ; (r) and at the feet of the judges sat their disciples, in three rows, observing all that was said or done, and gaining experience, from the practice of the court, to qualify them for the succession, when vacancies occurred upon the bench through death, old age, or other disqualifying causes.

decided by

was some

plead for him, called the master of the at the right-hand of the prisoner. After a full hearing and investigation of all parties, the votes of the judges were collected, and according to them, the party was either absolved or condemned, in words to the following effect " Thou, N. art innocent;" or, "Thou, N. art guilty." In the former case, he was immediately set at liberty; in the latter, he was seized by the officers, and led away to execution ; or if it were only an offence that deserved whipping, they inflicted it on the spot, in presence of the whole court. If the culprit was condemned to death, a crier went before him, to the place of execution, proclaiming the crime for which he was
sellor to

whose place was

and inviting all persons, who knew any that might clear him of the charge, to thing come forward, and declare his innocency. If
to die,

any one appeared in his behalf, he was taken back before the judges, and allowed the benefit

of a second, or even of a third hearing; and

if

what was advanced on

this

new

trial

was

The accused was placed upon an eminence,

where he might be seen by the whole court and the witnesses stood opposite to him. Not only the testimony of the witnesses was scrupulously examined, but their character was also closely scrutinized and if any flaw appeared in it, they were set aside but if a false witness was detected, the law of retaliation was immediately applied, and he was condemne<l to the same punishment that awaited the accused, had he been found guilty .(s) These courts were also attended by the
;
; :

him, the sentence was A similar indulgence was also alreversed. lowed him, if, on his way to the place of execution, he complained of being unjustly condemned. In this case, he was allowed to appoint two wise men to plead his cause, and, if possible, to get a reversion of the sentence. But, if neither of these means availed him, he was forthwith executed by the witnesses.(t)
sufficient to exculpate

PUNISHMENTS. These were either appointed by the Mosaic law, or made use of at the Those of the inferior sort were, prince's will. 1 Fines, by way of compensation for wrongs, 2. Selling for slaves those theft, and the like.
.

and leathern

or executioners, with rods or scourges, in their hands, ready to execute the sentence of the
officers,

sergeants,

who were unable to pay their debts, or to make satisfaction for offences punishable by fines. 3. The law of retaliation, applicable
to false witnesses, as just alluded to.

thongs,

ping, which was not

for

judges; no interval
(q)
(r)

being

allowed

between

one offence.(u)

Whipexceed forty stripes, The capital punishments

to

4.

Vide Prac. Aff.

1.

97111.
who

Mishnah, Tract. Sankecollected the votes of the

drin, cap.

Some add a

third clerk,
1!J.

The Jews were so tenacious of (u) Deut. xxv. 2, 3. short at infringing this precept, that they always stopped " Of the 3!) kishes. Jews, five times Thus, St. Paul says,
1

judg
Deut. xi*. Hi,
(t)

rt

that they

reived forty stripes, save one:"* and the reason wa.s inflicted this punishment with a whip of time
2 Cor.
xi.

Vide Mishita/t, Tract. Sanhedrin, cap. 5.

et at.

Maiinon.
21.

M.

KoUs,

SECT.

II.]

PUNISHMENTS.
viz.
1.

717
precipitating the as of a hill, or

were of four kinds, ing; 3. Beheading;

Stoning;

2.

Burn-

4. Strangling.

method of stoning, by culprit from some eminence,

other

Of these
and was

last,

stoning

was the most common,

inflicted for incest, unnatural gratifi-

such virgins consenting to be

cations, adultery, violations of betrothed virgins, defiled, blasphe-

scaffold erected for the purpose, at least twice the height of a man, having first had his hands tied behind him by one of the witnesses, after

my, sabbath-breaking, witchcraft, idolatry, the enticement of others to idolatry, rebellion in children against parents, the offering of children to Moloch, with others of a similar nature; and generally wherever an offence in
is made punishable with death, without specifying the mode.(v) For some of these crimes, the malefactor was to be hanged, but he was always stoned first. These executions took place without the camp, or without the city, on a rising ground, hill, or Before execution, the culelevated scaffold. was exhorted to confess his crime, and prit to pray that his death might atone for it, as well as for all his other sins: if he did this, he was presented with a cupful of wine mixed with myrrh, or frankincense, to stupify, and render him insensible to the horrors of his death. He \\as then stripped naked, with the exception of a cloth about his waist ; and the witnesses laying their hands upon his head, said aloud, " Thy blood be upon thee." Then one of them struck him with a stone upon the loins ; and if he was not killed with the blow, a very large stone was lifted up by two men, and thrown upon his breast, which finished him. This is to be understood of regular cases, or such as had been adjudged by the courts; for there were others of a more irregular nature, where it was allowed to stone the criminal upon the spot such as a blasphemer, idolater, or adulthese were put to terer taken in the fact; death without farther trial, and the unhappy delinquent became the prey of an infuriated muiThe Talmudists also mention antitude.(w)

the Mosaic law

which he was thrown down by the other; and if the fall did not kill him, they threw stones him till he was dead. upon If the culprit was to be hanged, as in cases of idolatry, blasphemy, &c. he was not stoned till about an hour before sunset, and then, his hands bring tied behind him, the body was suspended
to a gibbet, or tree, till just before the going down of the sun, at which time it was taken

down, and buried, together with the halter and the tree, the same evening, to blot out, as quickly as possible, the remembrance of the crime.(x)

The punishment of burning was in use long before the days of Moses, as appears from the sentence of Judah against his daughter-in-law Tamar. (y) Her crime was alleged incontiand it was perhaps the usual penalty nency for all cases of that kind, till Moses confined it to the incontinence of priests' daughters,(z) and the taking to wife a woman and her mother. (a) Some commentators think this was rather branding with a hot iron in burning some conspicuous part of the body, so as to render the delinquent infamous but as the of Moses, " that there be no wickexplanation edness among you," seems to imply a putting away of the offender, this mild construction of the law is hardly admissible. It is, therefore, more probable that the parties were either stoned or strangled first, and burnt afterwards; as in the case of Achan, who, though expressly commanded to be burnt for his sacrilege, was first meet with no other instoned.(b) stances of the infliction of this punishment in the scriptures ; but the Jews pretend that it was resorted to in some kinds of incest, as
;
:

We

laslies,

stripes,

30; exceeded the prescribed number, and inflicted 42 stripes. For the >ame reason, if the offender was adjudged to receive 20 stripes, only 18 were inflicted that is, he was smitten six times a seventh repetition would have made the
;
;

thirteen so that each blow was counted for three therefore, with this threefold whip, wen? equal to had they given a fourteenth hlow, they would have
:

But, if we may judge of the rest, from oasy kind of death. the case of adultery, which both Ezekiel.J and the Jews in our Saviour's time, understood to be punishable by stoning, it may be concluded, that the sense above given is
right.

(w) See Calmet, art. Stoning

xxiv. 23.
(\)

and Ainsworth, in Lcrit.

."i.

number 21.* (v) Some modern Jewsf

the
particular
*
t

rather think, that in cases where

(y)

Dcut. xxii. 22, 23. Gen. xxxviii. 24.

Mishnah, Tract. Sanhedri/i, cap.

fz)

Levit, xxi. 9.

stranijUtiy,

kind of punishment is not prescribed, and not stoning, was inflicted, as being a more
<J.

(a) Levit. xx. 14.

(b) Joshua, vii. 15, 25.

Ecrfc. xvi.

Mairoon. in Sunhcdrin, cap. xvii. sect. Vide K. Salom. in iliud. iii. 16.

38, 40.
4, o.

John,

viii.

5c

748

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

by Solomon's command,
altar ;(j) not to

[CHAP. xvni.
at

well as other crimes; and that it was of a sometimes the criminal was twofold nature to a stake, and burned ; and somechained times melted lead was poured down his throat .(c) Of the punishment of beheading, there are no instances in a judicial way, prior to the in the Mosaic captivity ;(d) nor is it mentioned
:

the foot

of the

mention the mode by which Manasseh is supposed by several ancient fathers to have put the prophet Isaiah to death, by causing him to be sawed in two from the head As to crucifixion, it is genedownwards.(k) allowed to have been a Roman punishrally ment, and therefore foreign from the present
subject though there are writers, who think " it is If a implied in the precept of Moses man have committed 'a sin worthy of death,
;
:

code.

The Rabbins

say

it

was

appointed

only for murderers, and the inhabitants of It was towns that had fallen into idolatry.
therefore considered as a disgraceful punishment, and is still so accounted in the East. The sacred text makes no explicit mention of death by strangulation, as a punishment; yet the Talmudists reckon six sorts of crimi-

nals

who were condemned

struck
their

to

it,

viz.

1.

Those
;

who

3. Priests,

parents; refused to conform to the determination of the court; 4. False prophets, whether in the name of Jehovah, or of a false

2.

Men-stealers

and he be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree; his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an This inference has arisen from inheritance."(l)
;

who

Adulterers; and 6. Those who had unlawful connections with priests' daughters. The mode of execution is said to have been as follows the culprit was immersed in dung and filth up to the knees ; and then two executioners tied a napkin about his neck, which was they continued to twist till the vital spark

god;

5.

the application of the apostle Paul(m) of the curse here denounced against such as were hanged, to the case of our Lord ; and is, without doubt, founded in misconception of the
apostle's meaning.

Terrible as were some of the punishments here enumerated, none of them was so dreaded as excommunication ; of which the Jews The first, reckon three kinds, or degrees.

extinguished.(e) In all cases of capital executions, the criminals were buried apart, by themselves, with the instruments of their death. To the foregoing might be added some other modes of punishment, but as they were

of an irregular kind, adopted on particular occasions, they can hardly be said to belong Such were the to the penal code of Israel. of persons to death by the sword, and putting

they call 'vu (Nzorfui) from mj (saoau) to separate, or put away : 30 days were its usual limits, but the delinquent could shorten it, by doing penance or, if he proved stubborn, it might be prolonged even to the end of his life. In the latter case, his children were not to be circumcised, and if he died impenitent, the judge ordered a stone to be thrown into his coffin, or bier, to indicate that he had merited stoning.
;

The second degree

they

call

enn

(CHCRCM) ana-

hewing them in pieces; as Samuel killed Agag, king of the Amalekites ;(f) Saul, or rather Doeg by his orders, destroyed the priests and inhabitants of ]\ob;(g) David caused the messenger of Saul's death to be slain ;(h) that which David inflicted upon the Ammonites ;(i) and Adonijah, Joab, and Shimei, were slain,
GoodSee Mos. Kolz. In Tract. Snnhrdrhi, cap. 1. MHU-S and Aaron, book v. chap. 7, sect. 13. ''I The decollation of Ahab's 70 sons,* was an act of mid even in that case violence, not a judicial execution seem to have been first put to death by some other they
(c)
;

thema, which, they say, the niddui, because it excluded the party subjected to it, from the synagogue, as well as from all civil intercourse with his neighbours. The last kind, they call nrott (SHCMTHH) an-

was more severe than

swering to the Syrian maran-atha, used by St. the Paul,(n) which signifies, in both tongues,

Lord
(f)

comes, or

i'.v

at hand.

Enoch
1 -*>''

is

the sup18. 1931.

Sam.

xv. 33.
i.

(g)
(i)

**
xii.

vii:\

(h) 2 Sam.
(j) 1

15.

2 Sam.
4fi.

means.
(e) Alis/ittah, Tract. Sitnhcdrin, cap. 5.
King.',
i. 7.

Kings, ii. 2325, 2834, Orig. ex (k) See Just. Mart. Dialog, contra Tryphon. Ilieron. in Isal. et al. Lib. Apncr. Deut. xvi. 22, 23. (m) Gal. iii. 13.

30

(1)

Cor. xvi. 22. (n) 1

16

SECT.

II.]

MURDER. ADULTERY. WATER OF JEALOUSY.

his,

749

it, because St. .Tude quotes a " Behold the Lord comet/t, with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment ;'\o) though the Jews rather deduce it from a passage in Deborah's Song " Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord ; curse ye This, they bitterly the inhabitants thereof."(p) was proclaimed with the sound of 400 say, trumpets ; and the person so excommunicated was never again to be received into the congresome even pretend that it was lawful gation

posed author of
saying of

eyes seen it done ; after which, they were to pray to Cod not to lay it to their charge.(z) Notwithstanding these strong prohibitions and cautions against the shedding of human blood, there were some cases in which it was permitted without the sentence of a judicial court; as when the avenger of blood found a manslayer beyond the limits of the city of refuge ; when a man, being attacked, killed the assailant in his own defence ; or when an aggressor was slain, in defence of a brother

him to deatli ;(q) and Josephus says his Israelite. It was also permitted to destroy an goods were all confiscable to the holy trea- infant in the birth, in order to save the mother's life; but not vice versa. The Israelites sury.^) It is much doubted, however, whethan two kinds of also exercised what they called the right, or ther there were really more excommunication, the greater and the less, for judgment of zeal, founded on the conduct of both which the terms niddui, cherem, and she- the Levites, who killed 3000 worshippers of the golden calf,(a) and upon the act of Phinemalkah, were used indiscriminately.(s) MURDER. Whatever might have been the has;(b) by which they accounted it lawful for punishment of this crime before the flood, a number of men to fall upon any whom they Moses tells us, that, from that time, murder caught in the commission of any abominable could only be expiated by the death of the crime, as blasphemy, idolatry, adultery, &c. ADULTERY. The command against adulUnder the law, God seems to murderer.(t) a much greater abhorrence against it. tery, was equally levelled against all other carexpress He not only forbad it in the decalogue,(u) but nal gratifications and unnatural lusts, which are appointed avengers to punish the guilty where- likewise forbidden by several express laws.(d) WATER OF JEALOUSY. In order to deter ever found, (v) permitted him to be torn from wives from all unlawful liberties, as well as to the most venerable sanctuaries to condign punishment,(w) and expressly forbad both the prevent the innocent from being unjustly susavenger and judges to accept of any recom- pected, and ill-treated by their jealous huspence for the crime (x) and these laws ex- bands, Moses was commanded to appoint the water of jealousy, with the promise of a contended equally to Israelites and to strangers stant miracle, by which the guilty should be dwelling among them.(y) There was also another institution, extremely proper to excite punished in a dreadful manner, and the innoto put
;

horror against wilful murder. As soon as a man was found murdered, the judges who lived near the place were to be informed of it ; and they were to summon the elders of the city,

who were thereupon obliged to bring an heifer that had never been yoked, and driving her into a rough uncultivated valley, there to strike her head off; they, and the priests, were then to wash their hands over her, and to profess, that their hands had not shed the blood of the party found murdered, neither had their
(o)

cent cleared with applause. The ceremony was as follows :(e) When a man suspected his wife's chastity, he was to take an offering for the priest, of the tenth part of an ephah of barley-meal, without oil or incense, and to attend with his wife before the priest, there to declare the reasons he had for impeaching her fidelity. The priest received the accused woman, and conducted her before the Lord, either in the tabernacle or temple, where he uncovered her head, and put the offering into her hand ; while
Numb. xxv. 19. Numb. xxxv. 31,
Deut.
(w) Exod. xxi. 14. (y) Levit. xxiv. 22.
(a)

(q) Hottinger. See also et seq.

(r)
(s)
(t)

Jude, vcr. 14. Diss. Hist.

Buxtorfou

(p) Judges, v. 23. Thcol. de Pitititcnt. the same subject.

lib.
i.

(v)

p. 49,

(x)
(z)

32.

xxi. 1, et seq.

Exod.

xxxii. 28.

Joseph. Antiq. lib. ix. cap. 5. Selden. De Synedr. Vet. Heb.

(b)

Numb.
Lev.
seq.

xxv. 7, 8.
Ibid. xx. 10, et seq
.

cap. 7, 8.

(c)
2-1,
i't

xviii. 0, et ncq.

Deut.

xxii.

(u)

Gin. ix. 0. Exod. xx. 13.

xxi.

12.

Dent.

v. 17.

Lev. xxiv. 17,

(d)
(e)

Deut.

xxiii.

etal.

Numb.

v.

17, 18. Lev. xxi. 7, 24.

750

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP. xvin.

he himself took some holy water,(f) impregnated with wormwood, or some such bitter herb, into which he swept some of the dust from the floor, and read over it, in her hearing, the words of the curse, to this effect: That if she had been guilty of defiling her marriagebed, those waters should swell and burst her belly; but, if she was innocent, they should have no power to hurt her. If she persisted in going on with the trial, she answered, Amen; and the priest, after writing the words in a book, washed them out again in the bitter water, and gave it to her to drink, whilst he took the offering of jealousy out of her hand, waved it before the Lord, and burnt part of it upon the altar. If she was guilty, the water operated with all the dreadful effects described in the curse, and she soon died ; but, if innocent, she not only remained unhurt, but, as a reward for her chastity, she became more
(f) Moses simply calls this holy water, that caitseth thecurte: the Rabbins have

healthy and fruitful: and the husband was to take her home, and cherish her the more, for having given him such a proof of her conjugal The Jews assert, that these waters fidelity. could have no effect upon the wife, though had likewise transguilty, if the husband the laws of wedlock but, if she died gressed under the ceremony, the man who had been the partner of her crime died also, under symptoms nearly similar, though at a distance, and unconscious of the ordeal she had
:

undergone, (g)

MARRIAGE.

Moses

restrained the Israelites

from marrying within certain degrees of consanguinity, which had till then been permitted, to prevent their taking wives from among the idolatrous nations with whom they lived. This is the reason which Abraham gave for choosing a wife for Isaac from his own kindred,(h) and his descendants followed his example ;(i)
from the vellum into the pitcher of water. While he was thus occupied, another priest tore open her clothes, and pulled them down below her breasts, where they were he also untied the tresses of her hair, fastened with a cord (or, according to some, cut off the locks) and then put into her hand a flat dish, containing the tenth part of an ephan (about three pints) of barley meal, without oil or incense, being the offering of jealousy. The first priest, having by this time prepared the water of jealousy, he now presented it to the woman to drink, immediately after which, he took the offering of meal out of her hand, and waved it before the If Lord, throwing a handful of it into the fire on the altar.
:

and bitter water, added the worm-

wood.
sub voce Adult, et al. The Mosaic account of very concise, nor have any of the sacred but the writers given an instance of its being resorted to Rabbins are very particular in their accounts of it, though they own that it had been disused for several centuries
(g) Calm, this ordeal
is
:

before their time. They say, that before the woman was consigned, to the ecclesiastical power, she was taken before the judges, who, after hearing the accusation and the denial, sent both the man and his wife to Jerusalem, to appear The members of this supreme tribefore the Sanhedrim. bunal endeavoured to confound the woman, and to make her confess her crime : but if she still denied it, she was led to the eastern gate of the court of Israel, where she was stripped of her clothes, and dressed in black, before a number of persons of her own sex. She was then delivered up to the priest, who told her, if she knew herself to be innocent, she had no evil to apprehend; but if guilty, she might expect to suffer all that the law threatened to which she answered, Amen, Amen. The priest then wrote the words of the law upon a piece of vellum, with ink that would easily wash outf to the following purport : " If a strange man have not come near thee, and thou art not polluted by forsaking the bed of thy husband, tho>e bitter waters that I have cursed will not hurt thee: but if thou hast gone astray from thy husband, and polluted thyself by coming near to another man, may thou be accursed of the Lord, and become an example before all his people! may thy thigh rot, and thj belly swell till thou burst ! may these cursed waters enter into thy belly, and, being swelled
:

the woman was guilty, she began to look pale and ghastly ; her eyes started out of her head, she lost her sight, her body became visibly swelled, and they used all possible expedition to remove her out of the temple, lest she should defile it by dying there; nor did she survive many minutes. If, on the contrary, she was innocent, no exterior change took place ; and the waters, instead of she returned with her husband proving her bane, rendered her more healthy and fruitful than ever: if she had been barren before, she now began to bear children; if she had only had daughters, she now began to have sons ; if before her travail had been difficult, it now
;

became easy. Such is the account of the Rabbins respecting this most At what time it was laid aside, ancient and awful ordeal. is not some affirming that it was disused ever after agreed the captivity; and others that it continued till within a
;

century

thy thigh putrefy!" The priest then look a new pitcher, filled it with water from the brazen laver that was near the altar of burntoft'erings, cast some dust into it from the pavement, mingled wormwood, or some other bitter ingredient with it, and having read the curses which he had written to the woman, and received her answer of Amen, he washed off the words

therewith,

may

of the destruction of the second te-nple. The it was laid aside, because adulteries were so common among the Jews, that the priests and judges would have been constantly employed about them and they were, besides, fearful that the name of the Lord might be pro-

Rabbins say

faned, by being so frequently appealed to (h) Gen. xxiv. 3, et s<ij.

(i)

'

I/>id. xxvi.

34,

3~>.

x\\iii. 1, et seq.
Uior. Nrb.
lib.
i.

* See Srlden, De

Syrirfr.

et

Buxtorf, Minister in Xitmb.

cap. 12,

T.

Lamy, Cunscus,

liasnage, Rep. Heb.

aud

oilier*

on

this

subject.

SECT.

II.]

MARRIAGE. POLYGAMY.

751

but the practice ceased when they became so exceedingly numerous. The law called the Levirate, which obliged a man, whose brother died without issue, to marry his widow, to raise up seed to his brother, (j) had been the practice in Judah's time,(k) and was retained by Moses, though

some measure optional for the man with it, or not: in case of a refusal, comply the widow could only summon him before the judges of the place, where, if he persisted, she untied his shoe, and, spitting in his face, " Thus shall it be done unto the man that said,
he
left it in

to

ages,(n) was not only permitted by Moses, but he also appointed laws for its regulation thus, he forbid the first-born of one wife to be disinherited through undue partiality towards the offspring of another :(o) and he commands a man, upon taking a second wife, to continue the cares and duties of a husband towards the first.(p) There was, indeed, a distinction between wives of the first and second rank, or degree ; but not such as might be inferred from the term by which the latter
:

after up his brother's house which he was branded with the appellative of t/ic man whose shoe was unloosed. The contracting of marriages was generally transacted by the parents or relations on both sides and, when the matter was agreed on, the bridegroom was introduced to his bride, presents were exchanged, and the contract was signed before witnesses. After consummation, the bride continued some time with her relations ;(1) and when she was at length conducted to her husband's habitation, it was done with singing, dancing, and music. It was

refuses to build

;''

are designated in our translation. Wives of the first rank were called CTUM (NSHIM), and they had the privilege of being taken into fellow-

ship with their husbands by solemn stipulation, with the consent and rejoicing of their friends;

likewise customary to contract these marriages while the children were young; and this was called espousing, or betrothing ; after which both parties continued with their parents till they were of mature age ; when, if the girl disliked the match, it might be dissolved. It does not appear that their marriages were accompanied with any religious ceremony ; such as going to the tabernacle or temple, offering sacrifices, or even that any reference was had to a priest; only, from the examples of Isaac with Rebekah, of Boaz with Ruth, and of Tobias with Sarah, it may be concluded that the parents, and the rest of the company, prayed for the prosperity of the new-married These nuptials were attended with couple. feasting and mirth, which usually continued a

week. Polygamy, which began before the flood, (in) and was continued through the patriarchal
(j)
(1)

they brought with them dowries ; they had the government of the family and household ; and the inheritance belonged to their children : while those of the second rank, who were called nnwVD (PILGCSHIM) rendered impro perly in most versions by concubines, /tarlots,(<q) &c. had no authority in the household, and were little better than servants to those of the first order: their children could not inherit, but their father might provide for them in his life-time, by making them presents, as Abraham did for his sons by Hagar and Keturah.(r) It does not appear that the Israelites, at least in the days of their monarchy, observed any limits with respect to their wives David had seven of the first degree, and ten of the second ;(s) Solomon had 700 of the first order, who all lived in the quality of queens, and 300 of the second ;(t) Rehoboam had 18 of the and 60 of the second degree ;(u) and first, Maimonides, from the Talmud, says there was no power to prevent a man from taking as many wives as he could provide for.(v) Heiresses were forbidden to marry out of their own tribes ;(w) but other females were not subject to that restriction. Men of all ranks were at liberty to marry, not only in any of the twelve tribes, but even out of them, provided it was with nations that practised cir:

cumcision.(x)
(r)

Deut. xxv. 5, tt Gen. xxiv. So.

seq.

(k)

Grn.

xxxviii. 0, et seq.
iv.

Ge.n. xxv.

ff.

(m) Hid.

19.

(s)
(t)

2 Sam.

iii.

>

>.

xx. 3.
(u) 2 Citron, xi. 21.

(n) Ibid. xxvi. 34.xxviii. 9. xxix. 24, 28. 17. (o) Dent. xxi. 1;3 (p) /;.!</. xxi. 10. (q) The word pitr/ashim occurs about 'ofl tini^s in the Old Testament, but is no where used in the sense implied in the versions alluded to it only means secondary wives.
:

1 Kings,

xi.

3.

(v)

Maiinon.

Tnu t. Hnlck
j)ni..iiin.
:?.

h/toth, cap. 14.

7,

(w)
(\)

Numb,
iii.

xxxvi.
ii.

See Dent.
3.

vii.

xxxiii.

8.
; .

Ruth,
-J.

iv.

2 Sam.

17, et.scq.

1 CAi

Kittys,

iii.

1.

752

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

tirely at

[CHAP.

xvm.

or rather slave, of a foreign converted to Judaism, was not nation, though entitled to tlie privileges of the connubial state, till manumitted ;(y) and if a woman was not to have entirely free, her marriage appears been in a kind of suspense, neither fully in force, nor absolutely void ; for in cases of un-

A maid-servant,

was only to be whipped whereas a free \\oman would have been put to death. A Gentile virgin, taken captive by an Israelite, was the property of the victor, and he might when, if he lie once with her before marriage to set her at did not like her, he was obliged a recompence for liberty without a ransom, as the loss of her virgiuity.(z) DIVORCE. This was permitted to the Is" because of the hardness of their raelites, hearts," as our Saviour observes,(a) but it does not appear to have been ever practised by any of the patriarchs. The causes of divorce are so undefined by Moses,(b) as to give the husband every latitude that a capricious temper might suggest and it was the exercise of that temper which occasioned our Lord to stigmatize the practice. It has, indeed, been thought, that Moses intended to limit divorces to cases of adultery but as that was a capital crime, a divorce could not be required against those who were to be put to .death. As to cases of the jealousy, the husband had his remedy, by ordeal of the bitter water, just spoken of. When a man had repudiated his wife, and she had married another, if she was divorced from the second, she might marry a third but the first husband might on no account take her again. After a woman was divorced, she was as enchastily she
: ; :

her own disposal as if she had been a but in both cases she was obliged to ; stay at least ninety days before she was married to another, lest she should prove pregnant by the last.(c) THEFT. The Israelites understood the words " Thou shalt not in the decalogue. steal, "(d) as relating rather to men-stealing, than to that " Thou sort of theft implied in the precept ; The stealing of a man was shalt not covet." the only capital theft under the Mosaic law,

widow

and whether the

or were
still

stolen persons

had been

sold,

the transgressor was to be put to death.(e) All other theft was punishable by restitution, with the addition of a fine, according to the nature of the crime but if the thief was unable to make satisfaction according to the law, the
in the possession
thief,
;

of the

prosecutor, if an Israelite, might sell him, together with his wife and children, if he had them, till a proper remuneration was made.(f) FALSE WiTNESs.(g) This was a crime of equal import with what we call perjury. In cases of this kind, brought before a court of judicature, the judges were bound to decide according to the testimony of two or three wit nesses, especially in capital cases ; a single witness not being sufficient to condemn any man.(h) The punishment was the same that would have been inflicted upon the innocent person, had he been condemned upon the false accusation. (i) COVETING. The tenth precept of the deca" Thou shalt not covet,"(j) &c. is justly logue, esteemed, by the Jewish doctors, as the foundation and support of all the other laws of the
daughter of F, of the city G, (or, if thou have any other name, or suruamr, thou, or thy father, or thy place, or thy but now father's place) who hast been ray wife heretofore and leave thee, and put thee away, that thou I dismiss thee, mayest be free, and have power over thy own life, to go away to be married to any man, whom thou wilt; and that no man be refused of thine hand for my name, from this day and for ever. And thus thou art lawful for any man and this is unto thee, from me, a writing of divorcement, and book (instrument) of dismission, and an epistle of putting away, according to the law of Moses aud of Israel.
:

(y) Selden.
i.

De

Jur. Nat. ct Gent.

lib. iv.

also Josephus, Aittiq.

see lib. v. cap. 17 cap. 8; and Carlton's Concord.

;

part
(z)

chap.

7.

Deut.

xxi.

1014.
Mos.
yl'.gypt.

(a)

Matt.

xix.

39.
5<>.

(b)
(c)

Dwt.
For a

xxiv. 1, et seg. farther account of divorces

p.

among
ii.

the Jews, see

fol.

Mos. Kotz.
Ux. Hel>.

133.
cap.
:

part.

Seld.

Buxtorf. Synag. Bartolocci. Biblioth. Rahli. from which last, vol. iv. p. 550, the following form is extracted
lib.
iii.

1,

20.

" In day of the day of the week, [or, year from the creation of the world, mouth] A, in the supputation (of Alexander)] after the account [or, from hat we are accustomed to count by, here, in the place B, if there be any oilier I, C, the son of D, of the place B, (or, name, which I have, or my father hath had, or, which my or my father's place "hath had) have voluntarily, and jilner., .uith the wjlliiigness of my soul, without constraint, disjui ,,cd. and left, and put away tliee, even thee, E, the

"
"
(d)
(f) (g)

A, sou of B, witness. C, son of D, witness."

(e) Ibid. xxi.

Exod. Exod. Deut. Exod.

xx. 15.
iv. 1.

10.

2 Kings,

Matt,
xxxiii. 1.

xviii.

25.
v. '20.

xx. 10.
xvii. 6.

Deut.
(i)

(h)
(j)

laid. xix.

1610-

xx. 17.

Deut.

v.

21.

SECT.

II.]

FOOD. DIET.

753

second table: for he that observes this, is in no danger of breaking the rest. 'Whether the ancient Israelites understood it in that strict and refined sense which the gospel doth, or only of such overt acts as tended to the procuring of any thing by unlawful means, is not easy to determine. The Talinudists, however, condemn by it the very desire formed and indulged
in the heart,

pertaining to God: it was therefore held sacred .(q) The flesh of animals torn to pieces by wild beasts, or that died naturally, was likewise forbidden.(r) The carcases of unclean beasts, when living,

was also a prohibition against eating the fat of even clean animals, because, in sacrificing, that, part was to be burnt upon the altar, as

though

it

may

not proceed
the
li-

might be touched without imparting any impurity, but

to action. (k)

when dead, they became

:

FOOD.

God

having

given to

Noah

so very de-

berty of eating the flesh of animals, as is most generally supposed, forbad, at the same time, the eating of the blood itself,(l) or even the flesh mixed with it; that is, of any animal, either strangled, or killed by any other way than by drawing the blood thoroughly from it. It was no less expressly forbidden by Moses to the Israelites, than to the strangers who lived among them,(m) even under pain of death. God is pleased to give a reason for this interdiction ; that it is the blood (which is also the life) of the victim, that makes atonement for
sin.(n)

and liquors touched by them were rendered unclean the latter were to be thrown away; the vessels, if of earthenware, were to be broken; and the person who had touched them was obliged to wash himself, and remain unclean till the evening. A founiiling,

that all vessels

or a well, or a large receptacle of water, however, into which an unclean animal fell and was drowned, was not contaminated; though the person or persons, who took it out, became unclean till the eveniug.(g) A similar impurity was also contracted by the touch of (he carcase of a clean beast that had died of
tain,
i;self.(t)

JNext to blood, the flesh of a great number of bea.sts, fowls, fishes, and insects, was prohibited to the Israelites, as being unclean. The distinction of clean and unclean animals was known before the flood, (o) but why it was made, or whether it was the same with that enjoined by Moses, is uncertain. The direction of the Israelitish lawgiver, general was, that of beasts, whatever chewed the cud and divided the hoof, was to be reckoned clean; and whatever did not both these, as the swine, which divides the hoof, but does not chew the cud, or the rabbit, the hare, the camel, which chew the cud, but do not part the hoof, was unclean; of Jmc/s, all carnivorous all that birds, as the eagle, and the vulture had four feet, yet i!ew with wings, as the bat; were unclean : of Jis/ies, all that had both fins and scales, were clean; but all that wanted either or both, were itnclcnn : of insects, all that had wings, and could rise above the earth, but such as could only might be eaten crawF upon the ground, were unclean. (p) There
; ;

XII.
Diet, Diversions, Houses, Trades and Manufactures, Dress, Circumcision, Arts and Anns, Mourning, Funerals, Sepulchres, $-c.

DIET.
Israelites

Except on
to

festival

occasions,

the

have been very abstemious appear in this respect. Boaz, a wealthy man, complimented Ruth with " drinking" of the same water, eating of the same bread, and dipping her morsel in vinegar with him."(u) Even the present of provisions brought to David and his men, whilst in a kind of exile, consisted

parched corn, bread, dried raisins, and a few fatted sheep.(v) Their bread figs, was made either of barley or wheat, baked in thin cakes, with or without oil and they often used parched corn instead of bread.
;

chiefly of

Their feastings (except those used at births, marriages, or on extraordinary occasions) were neither frequent nor sumptuous. At the commencement of them, the master of the house

(k) Prttc.
(I)

Nee. 158.

(q) Lrvit.
(r)

iii.

911.
31.
Lf-vit. xvii. 15.

Grn.

i.\. -I.

Eiod.
Ruth,
1

xxii.
xi.
ii.

xxii. 8.

(in) Li'c. xvii. 10, ctseq. Heti. i\. 22. (nj LPV. xvii. 11.

() Levit.
xiii.

HI

38.

(t;

Ibid. vcr. 39, 40.

14.

(u)
(v)

9, 14.

(K) tiVH.

vii.

2, et seq.

(p) Levit. xi. patsini.

Sam. xxv. 18.

2 Sam.

xvi. 1. xvii. 28, 29.

VOL.

I.

5D

754
craved

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

it

[CHAP.

xvm.

a blessing, provided there was no stranger present, nor any person of superior

rank;

in

which

case, he

complimented him

He then took a cupful of with that office. wine, and, having blessed the Creator of the vine, he sipped a little of it, and gave it to the next person, and so it passed round.(w) He then proceeded to the blessing and breaking of the bread, and distributing it to the guests. (x) As soon as they had done eatwho had craved the blessing, the same person which all the rest joined ing, gave thanks, in and the meal was concluded with another cupful of wine, called the blessing of plenty.^ In this cup they blessed God for their present refreshment, for their deliverance out of Egypt, for the covenant of circumcision, and fbr the law given by Moses. After this, they prayed to his people Jsthat God would be merciful to Sion, the residence of rael to Jerusalem and to the kingdom of his own Majesty David also, that he would send the prophet Elijah, whom he had promised ;(/) and that he would make them worthy of Messiah's kingdom : the whole ceremony ending with singing a psalm suited to the occasion. (a) Some of these latter ceremonies were probably used only at their grand, or solemn festivals, such as the passover, &c. but the first was never omitted.
; :

was necessary to study coolness. Their beds are thought to have been very high from the ground, because the Scripture speaks of climbBefore the time of David, ing up to them.(b) a wonderful economy seems to have reigned but the immense treasures of in every family that monarch, having inspired him with a desire of building a sumptuous temple, a number of
:

foreign artificers

during his reign,

was thereby introduced, both and that of his son Solomon,

the people a taste, not only for a building, in imitation of the stately palaces of the latter monarch, but for luxury and extravagance in general. TRADES AND MANUFACTURES are not found among them before David or Solomon's time, except such as were absolutely necessary.

who gave

more elegant way of

They

built their

servants spun, wove, and

;

own houses their wives and made their clothes,

;

baked, cooked, and attended to other domeswhile the husbands were occupied tic affairs
in

the fields, w ith their flocks and herds. The plainness of their food, their clothing, and their furniture, rendered trades and manufactures almost unnecessary, till a more luxurious mode of living obtained among them, as remarked in the preceding article.
r

less,

DIVERSIONS. Their diversions seem to have consisted chiefly in dancing and music, Gamto ing, and sports of all kinds, they appear have been entire strangers to ; and the Scriptures frequently express the simplicity of their happy lives, by the figure of sitting and regaling themselves under their own vines, and their own fig-trees. Their dancing and their musical entertainments appear to have been chiefly confined to solemn occasions, and to the seasons of sheepshearing, harvest,

Their clothing was plain and artboth in materials and make; consisting of a long tunic and drawers, made of linen, next to the body and a loose garment, something like a cloke, to throw over them when they went abroad. The beauty of their dress consisted either in the fineness of the materials, or

DRESS.

the richness of the dye, as purple, scarlet, blue, or yellow; but white was most commonly worn,

because

it

could be more easily washed, and

therefore

it is

recommended by Solomon, (c)

it

and
flat,

vintage.

HOUSES.
plain,

Their

houses

were

commonly

low, and

suitable to the climate.

Their furniture was equally plain. Chimneys, sashes, and casements, were needless, where
(w) This was called the Jn nrro, (.BtRKaTH HayaYtN) the Blessing of the Wine. (Our Saviour is observed, by St. Luke, to have began with it, and distributed it among

being necessary in hot climates to shift freWhat covering they wore upon their quently. heads is unknown. Their shoes, or rather sandals, seem to have consisted of a sole, tied to the foot, which made the washing of their feet so frequently necessary.
This part of the ceremony, of course, (z) Mulaclii, iv. 5. was introduced subsequent to the captivity. Shukkan Haruh, n. 201 ; et vid. Seb. (a) Jos. Karo. Munst. in Matt. xxvi. These may, how(b) Psalm cxxxii. 3. 2 Kings, i. 4, 16.
ever,
(c)

ibe twelve, at his

(x)

Supper.*) what Christ did to the apostles, and it was called the Blessing of the Bread, t (y) Our Lord is supposed to have instituted the Sacrament in this last cup.;

last

This

is

likewise

be only figurative expressions.

Eccles. ix. 8.

* t

Luke,

x*ii. 17.

DHM.

in Nov. Tett. pt. ult.

nd Goodvr.

lib. iii.

cap. 2. sect. 15.

Fg.

in

Pmc.

Hebr.

KCT.

II.]

DRESS.

CIRCUMCISION. ARTS

AND ARMS.

755

women, particularly of the was more attracting, as they bestowed more ornament upon it, chiefly of needress of the
richer sort,

The

dle-work,
also

of their

own performance.
silver,

They
it is

therefore led about, and inured by degrees to the discipline and privations of a military life. The order of their encampments, the success of their engagements, and the conquest of the Canaanites,

wore jewels of gold and

which

have been adduced

but their

in

proof of their military

probable they had, as well as several rich stuffs and tine linen, from Tyre, in exchange for their corn and other commodities. After Solomon's
time,

pride and luxury advanced to such an excess, that Isaiah has occupied almost a whole chapter in enumerating the costly ornaments with which that sex used to decorate

of encampment was genius :(h) of divine appointment, and their victories were Their the result of miraculous interference. laws of war also came from the same source. As soon as the rulers had resolved on a war,

mode

themselves in his time.(d) CIRCUMCISION. This ceremony was not enjoined by the Mosaic law, but by virtue of an
express divine
It
it

command

given to Abraham. (e)

the option of the parent, either to himself, or to have a priest, a surgeon, or any expert friend, to do it for him. They were not obliged to carry the child to the
left to
it

was was

to

be performed on the eighth day; but

perform

notice was sent to every tribe ; when all who were able to bear arms, were obliged to repair to the place of rendezvous, where a certain number, proportioned to the nature of the expedition, were drawn out for service; the rest were sent back ; and as soon as the enterprise was accomplished, the troops were disbanded, and returned to their respective habitations, (i) Their arms consisted of swords, spears, javelins,

bows and arrows, and

slings.

Their

synagogue, or to the temple, but had him circumcised at home. This ceremony was usually accompanied with feasting and rejoicing; and at this time also the child was named by the

short, crooked, and broad, which they girded on their thigh .(j) They were remarkably expert at the sling, as appears from

swords were

As parents, in the presence of the company. for daughters, there was no particular ceremony used, except that of giving them a name unless it were, that when the mother was purified, the priest bestowed a blessing upon the child, as well as on the parents. ARTS AND ARMS. The arts in which the Is;

raelites chiefly distinguished themselves, were Whether they those of husbandry and war. had ever been used to the latter in Egypt, is uncertain ; but we have the testimony of profane writers to the capacity of Moses as a commander and an expert general,(f ) in addition to what may be deduced on the same score from his own account of the regularity and order in which he marshalled so mighty a host as the Israelites, into whom he also infused a

David's killing Goliath ; and it is recorded that they could hit to a hair's breadth .(k) Their defensive arms were the helmet, shield, breastplate, and target; some wore a coat of mail, and greaves on their legs but these were more common among their neighbours than Their weapons were comthemselves. (1) made of brass and sometimes of iron monly or steel. In so mountainous a country, cavalry could be of no great utility ; and therefore, in the more early times, they did not use any. Solomon, indeed, sent for a considerable number of horses from Egypt, with a proportionate number of chariots,(m) but some think he did for grandeur than use. it rather They kept no regular forces before Saul's time, and he is mentioned to have had but few standing
:

troops, in comparison to that prodigious

num-

degraded state during bondage, it may be presumed they were quite unused to arms ; and hence God would not lead them by the way of the Philistines, lest they should be disheartened at the idea of war.(g) They were
(d)

kindred martial

spirit: for, from their the latter years of their

ber which David augmented them to, which was upwards of two hundred and eighty thousand, besides the Cherethites and Pelethites,

who were
pay.(n)

In

strangers kept in that monarch's the day of battle, the army was

drawn up
(i)

in

12 separate bodies, according to

al.

(f)

haiah, Diod.

iii.

Sicul.

16, et seq. lib. 40,

(e$ Gen. apud Photium,

xvii.

10.

p.

1152.

See

(j)
(j)

1 Sam. xi. passim, xiii. 2, et Exod. xxxii. 27. Psalm xlv.

3.

(k)

Judge*, xx. 16,

before, page 375, note (h). (g) Exod. xiii. 17.

(h)

See the Universal History, vol.

iii.

p.

178 (8vo.

edit.)

1 Sam. xvii. 5, 6. (m) 1 Kings, \. 26. (n) 1 Chron. xviii. 17.

xxii.

passim

5D2

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

the number of tribes: these were subdivided
dead,
all

[CHAP, xvnr.

the near relations

came
sat

to the

house

hundreds, tens, and even threes each under its proper officer and they observed a regular system in all their military
into

thousands,
;

in their

mourning habits, and

down upon

evolutions.

In the beginning of their monarchy, their kings fought on foot, as the judges also had done before them ; nor do we read of chariots

the ground, in silent dejection, whilst another part of the house echoed with the lamentations of lured mourners. (q) These continued till the funeral was over ; when the nearest relatheir melancholy postures If the person the time of mourning. during was of considerable rank, the body Mas embalmed ; if otherwise, they contented themselves with washing it, and sometimes adding a mixture of swet drugs and spices, in which it was either wrapped, or which they burnt

tions

resumed

and cavalry among them, till long after their settlement in Canaan. The officers under the king, consisted of the general in chief, the princes of the respective tribes, the commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens, and threes ; the scribes, or muster-masters, and the soterim, or inspectors.

about

it.(r)

SEPULCHRES.

The

provident care

of

ttie

LEPROSY.
course of
life,

From

their

frugal

and regular

and the healthfulness of their few diseases were known among the country, Israelites. There was one, however, among them, peculiarly distressing, disgraceful, and defiling. This was the leprosy and those who were infected with it, were forced to live secluded from society till cured. Monarchs themselves were not exempted from this law, as appears from the instance of king Azariah, (or Uzziah,
;

patriarchs to secure a sepulchre for their posterity, made them deem it a severe calamity to
to

be deprived of a burial-place,(s) and a blessing be interred among their ancestors. Those who inherited a sepulchre, were extremely
careful

to preserve it to their posterity; and not, were no less solicitous to As the law ordained nothing one. provide

those

who had

called in the Chronicles), who having himself into the priestly office,(n) was smitten with an incurable leprosy, deprived of his government, and obliged to live apart to the day of his death. And, indeed, one kind of this disease was of so infectious a nature, that too much caution could not be used to prevent its spreading ; so that those who died of it were even buried separately from the rest.(o) As for the other sort, called the it was rather a dry leprosy, disgustful than an infectious disease. MOURNING. Their mourning for the death of near relatives, or for any afflictive dispensaas he
is

obtruded

concerning them, they were indifferent whether they had them in a garden, an orchard, a field, a mountain, or a rock. They had separate bury ing-places for strangers, as Aceldama, or the Potter's Field ;(t) and for such as were
put to deatli for crimes, as Golgotha, or Persons guilty of suicide were Calvary. denied the privileges of sepulture, though they

were interred

after sunset.

XIV.
Synagogues, Schools, and Prophets.
,

their clothes, their breasts, tearing their hair and smiting upon beards, putting ashes and dirt upon their
tion,

was expressed by rending

heads, going barefoot, putting on sackcloth next the skin, lying on the bare ground, fasting till sunset,(p) and keeping a profound
silence.

FrNERALS.

equally mournful.

Their funeral ceremonies were As soon as a person was

SYNAGOGUES. It is doubtful whether they had any synagogues before the captivity, though it is far from improbable, considering the great distance at which some of them lived from the temple; but for prayer and instruction, they had the schools of the prophets, to which they might repair on the sabbaths, new moons, and other festivals.(u) By the prophets are to be understood, not those strictly so called, (men endowed with the spirit of prophecy), but their disciples, or, as the Hebrew idiom ex(r)
(s)
(t)

(n)
(o)

(p)
<<j)

Comp. 2 Kings, xv. 5, and 2 Chron. xxvi. 16, et scq. 2 Chron. xxvi. 23. 2 Sam. i. 11, 12. xii. 10. Ezek. xxiv. 1C, 17.
JVT.
ix.

2 Chron.
Jer.
viii.

xvi. 14. xxi. 19.

Jcr. xxxiv. 5.

17, 18.

(u)

Matt, 2 Kings,

1, 2. xxvii. 7.
iv.

Eccles.

vi. :$.

Acts,

i.

10.

23.

SECT.

II.]

SC HOOLS.

PROPHETS.
their labour to those wants, that they

757

the sons of the prophets, who were brought up for instructing the people in the wavs of virtue, morality, and the worship of (Jod. SCHOOLS. It does not appear that they had any schools, or colleges, for the instruction of their youth, if we except those of the prophets, just mentioned, which were of a different nature. They had not so much as a word to

presses

it,

might spend the more time in prayer, study, and retirement. Riches were no temptation to them
;

arid therefore Elisha not only refused Naaman's presents, but punished Gehazi for having clan-

destinely obtained a portion of them, (a) This laborious, recluse, and abstemious course of life, joined to their meanness of dress, gave

and, from their manner of education and life, they had no great use for them. They bred up their sons to bodily exercises,
;

express them

them such a strange aspect, especially among the courtiers, that they were looked upon as little better than rnadmen.(b) Their extraordinary freedom in reproving even princes for their wicked deeds, likewise exposed them frequently to persecutions, and sometimes to death ; especially in the reigns of some wicked princes, as Ahab and Manasseh ; but they were, in general* respected by the better sort, even of the highest rank, and treated with the utmost reverence and regard. (c) We do not read of any women living among them; yet several of them were married, and had children,
as Samuel, (d) Isaiah, (e) Ezekiel,(f) and Hosea,(g) and it was the widow of one of the sons

either for husbandry or war; and their daughters to household occupations, without con-

cerning themselves much about cultivating their minds, farther than to instruct them in the knowledge of their religion and laws ; and this was the province of the parents, chiefly on the sabbaths. All that related to religion and morality was contained in the Mosaic books, and interspersed in the others besides which, in process of time, they had the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, and the Prophets, with uiany edifying writings of Solomon, which are now lost. All these they were to be instructed in, even from their infancy ; and to hear them expounded on the sabbath and other festivals,
;

by the prophets and Levites. PROPHETS. These had

chiefly in the
ciety
;

country themselves, and had generally one or more of the inspired prophets to be heads over them, to whom they gave the title of Their houses were but mean, and Father.(v) of their own building, (vv) Their food was chiefly pottage made of herbs ;(x) unless when the people sent them better fare, as bread, corn, c. Their dress was honey, dried fruits, (y) plain and coarse, and tied about with a leathern girdle.(z) Their wants, being few, were

their habitations lived in a kind of sothey

among

of the prophets, whose oil Elisha miraculously multiplied.(h) The prophetesses, likewise, were married thus Deborah was the wife of Lapidoth ;(i) and Huldah, whom king Josiah sent to consult, was the wife of Shallum, and she is said to have lived in the college of Jerusalem. (j) These inspired persons, whilst they continued in Israel, which \v;ts till the return from Babylon, were expounders of the Mosaic law, and
:

supplied by their
1 Sam.

own hands; and

xiii.

they limited

proved a stong barrier against schism and heresy, that political one of Jeroboam excepted ; whereas prophecy no sooner ceased, than a variety of sects arose, -which gave such a scope to their fertile fancies, that, as the Talmudists themselves own, Elias would be at a loss to solve the subtile difficulties which they raised against each other.(k) "The methods by which the Almighty was
many of whom are known The prophets, they say, were,
;

(v)

ix. 5.

2 Kings,

14.
(x) Ibid. iy. 38, et seq.

phetesses

to

us only by their

(w) 2 Kings, vi. 2, 3, 4. 3. 2 Kinys, (y) 1 Kinys, xiv.

(z)

names.
1.
2.

iv.

42.

(b)
(c)

(d) viii. 1.
(e)

2 Kings, i. 8. (a) I/nd. \. 2027. 2 Kinys, ii. 23. ix. 11. 1 Kinys, xviii. 7. 2 Kings, i. 13. xiii. 14. This may be inferred from Iiis having sons; 1 Sam.
Isaiah,
viii.
i.

3.

(f)
(!i)

(g)
(i)

Hotea, Judges,

2.

Ezck. xxiv. 18. 2 Kings, iv. i.

iv. 4.

(j)

2 Kings,

xxii. 14, 15.

(k) Tract.

prophets,

The Talmudists reckon forty-eight from Abraham to Malachi, besides six proMcyil/ath.

Nathan. Gad. *ddo. 3. Jacob. David. 4. Moses. Solomon. 5. Aaron. (5. Joshua. Micaiah, son of Imlah, 7. Phinehas. (1 Kings, x\ii. 8.) 8. Elkanah, father to Samuel. 17. Obadidh. the Shilonite, 0. Samuel, son of Elkanah. 18. Ahijah,
Isaac.

Abraham.

11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 10.

10. Eli.

(1

Kings,

xi.

29.)

758

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP, xviii;

were pleased to reveal his will to the prophets, various to some he appeared in a human form,
:

manner it is generally prophet's mind; in which the book of Psalms was dictated to supposed
the writers.(x)

as to Abraliau,(l) Jacob.(in) and Joshua ;(n) to others by the divine shekinah, or glory, as to Moses, at the bush,(o) and at various times on the mount and in the tabernacle ; to others by a voice only, as to Samuel,(p) Jeremiah, (q) sometimes by visions, as to Isaiah,(s) Hosea
;(r)

XV.
La/iff IKI^C,

Hebrew Letters and Points, Poetry and Music, Division of Time.

dreams, Ezekiel,(t) Daniel and Joseph,(w) the husband of as to Daniel(v) Mary but the most usual and general way was
;

times in ;(u) at other

LANGUAGE. The language of the Israelites was the Hebrew, such as it appears in the authors. writings of Moses and other sacred
It is generally

by the operation of the Holy

19. Jehu,
(1

Spirit

upon the

of

all

supposed to have been the root others ; its idiom and genius are pure,

son

of

Hanani,

Kings, xvi. 1.) 20. Azariah, son of Oded, (2 Chron. xv. 1.) 21. Jahaziel, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of
Mattaniah, the Levite, (2 Chron. xx. 14.) 22. Eliezer, son of Dodavah, (2 Chron, xx. 37.) 23. Hosea.
24. Amos. 25. Micah. 26. Amos II. supposed to be the father of Isaiah,
(Isaiah,
i.

34. Zephaniah. 35. Jeremiah. 36. Urijah, son of Shcmaiah, (Jerem. xxvi. 20.) 37. Ezekiel.

38. Daniel. 39. Baruch. 40. Neriah, father Seraiah.

o~\ to

/
Ne-l

41. Seraiah, son of

riah.

(
father

'

42. Maasiah,

toV
'

Neriah.
43. 44. 45. 46.

1.)

Haggai. Zechariah. Malarhi.

27. Elijah. 28. Elisha. 29. Isaiah. 30. Jonah. 31. Nahuni. 32. Joel. 33. Habakkuk.

Mordecai, (Esther, ii. 5.) 47. Shallum, uncle to Jeremiah, and husband of H ul
dah, (2 Kings, xxii. 14.) 48. Hanaraeel, son of Shallum, Jeremiah's cousin,
(Jer. xxxii. 7, 8.)

Canaan, out of which he passed all his mature age and, according to some, that he had been made an eunuch, which excluded him from the congregation of the Lord.J In supof port of the last position, they adduce the threatening of whom Daniel was a descendant. Isaiah to Hezekiah, Indeed it cannot be doubted, that Daniel and his three comall underwent this panions, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, shameful operation, when their names were changed to or whyBelteshazzar, Shadracb, Meshuch, and Abed- nego were they committed to the care of the chief of the eunuchs ?|| But whether it were so or not, it was evidently no liinderance to their piety, nor to the interference of God on their Some behalf, when persecuted on account of their religion. learned Jews have endeavoured to vindicate him from the last-named imputation,1T but they leave the other two in and their Gemarah adds, what nobody will full force, believe, and what his subsequent conduct clearly disproves, that while Nebuchadnezzar was setting up his golden image, and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed nego, were condemned and cast into the flames, for refusing to
;
;

The
1.

prophetesses were,
the
sister

Miriam,

of

5,

lull hili,

the wife of Shal

Aaron and Moses.

2.

3. 4.

Deborah, judge of Israel. Hannah.mothertoSamuel. Abigail, the wifeofNabal, and afterwards of David,
(1 Sam. xxv.
3,

6,

him, (2 Kings, xxii. 14.; Esther, cousin to Mor decai, and consort of

king Ahasuerus, (Eth.

ii.

0, 7, 17.)

42.)

To whom some add the two Egyptian midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, (Ejcod. i. 15.) When the father of any prophet. is mentioned, he is also a prophet and say the Talmudists,
;

when

the place of his nativity is not particularized, it is supposed to have been at Jerusalem.* Though the Jews rank Daniel among the number of the
will not admit his writings among their's, but prophets, they put them in the hagiographa, which they consider as of the The book ot least authority of all the canonical books. Daniel is therefore clashed by them with those of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, &c.t The reasons they assign for
this, are,

to worship it, Daniel had stolen away privately into Egypt, to say how, or where purchase swine !** It is impossible but it is Daniel was employed at the time of this fiery trial which he had easy to conceive, that, in the eminent situation held for about 30 years, of governor of Babylonia, he might and the miracle be necessarily absent from the capital wrought iu favour of his brethren put an end to the persecution as soon as it was begun, so that, before he could His conduct in return thither, the whole affair was over. the persecution under Darius, proves that he was not to be daunted in the performance of his duty, and the character who mentions given of him by Ezekiel.tt his contemporary, him with Noah and Job, completely exculpates him from this The rancour of these writers, without doubt, vile charge. arises from the great use made of the prophecies of Daniel by the Christians, iu their controversies with the Jews but Josephus, who wrote before those controversies had attained any importance, not only gives him the title of a prophet, but, in many respects, gives him a preference.^ (m) Gen. xxxii. 2430. (1) Gen. xviii.
; ;
:

(n) Josh. v.

13
iii.

15.

(o)

Exod.
i.

iii.

(p) 1
(r)
(t)

Sam.

(q) Jer.
(s)
viii.

4.
i.

that he

and grandeur
that

courtier, and spent his life in luxury in the service of an uncircinucised monarch ;

was a

Hosea, i. 2. Ezek. i. 1, 4.

Isaiah,

1. vi.

1.

(v)

Dan.

the spirit
Kiroch. in Has.

of prophecy was confined

i.

to the

land of

(x)
t

ii. (w) Matt. See Hieron. Pruefat. in Psalm.

et seq. 19. vii. 1.

(u)

Dan.

x. 4, 5.
i.

20.

Ilirronjm

Prajat. in Itai.

Maimon. More. Kewch

pt.

ii.

Grot. Prafat.

DuU. xxiii. 1. See Abmczra,

14

2 Kings, xx. 18.

in

||

Dan.

i.

37.

Dan.

**

Tractat. Sanhedr.

in hai.

tt E"ek. xiv.

20.

}} Joseph. Antiq. lib. x. cap. IS.

SECT.

II.]

LANGUAGE. LETTERS. POINTS, OR VOWELS.

7/if)

primitive, natural, and exactly conformable to the native simplicity of the Hebrew patriarchs. Its words are concise, yet expressive; derived from a small number of roots, yet. without the studied composition of the Greek and Roman. It has the happiest and richest fertility in its verbs of any tongue, either ancient or modern ;
arises from the variety and significancy conjugations, some of which even imply a whole phrase, and cannot be well expressed in any other language without paraphrasing. Whether the ancient Assyrian or Chaldee characters were the same with those in which we now have the sacred books, or whether those were originally written in the old Samaritan,

which
of
its

which have been preserved only in some few medals, and in the Samaritan Pentateuch, is a
point that has been strenuously controverted among the learned, though brought to no decided conclusion. That the present Hebrew alphabet contains the exact number and order of their letters, is demonstrable from those acrostic pieces, both in the Psalms and elsewhere, whose every half or whole verse, or every other verse, begins with one of these letters successively, as in the 119th Psalm.

learned, for the two last centuries, whether the Hebrews used any Voiret-lt'ltern ; or whether the points, which are now called by that name, were substituted instead of them and, if the latter, whether are as old as Moses, they or invented by Ezra, or by the Masorites ? It is, however, the general opinion, that the N n he, van, n/t'/j/i, yod, and y <d>t, did serve instead of vowels, though they were sometimes omitted, or understood, in declensions and conjugations ; they often varied in their sound ; having sometimes the power of consonants, as may be seen by referring to grammars of that tongue. The Samaritans never admitted of any other; and the same may be said of the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, which latter did not begin to use points till several centuries after our Saviour's time ; and it is evident, that Hebrew may be, and is, easily read without those points ; which seem to have been invented for the greater ease of learners, as well as to preserve the true pro; i
>

The Talmud ists have

the

declared themselves for character :(y) and they have been followed, with almost universal conSome of the Fasent, by all their successors. thers, and other ancient authors,(z) were of Jews exchanged their old opinion, that the Samaritan for the more symmetrical Chaldee characters, after their return from the Babylonish captivity, whilst the Samaritans chose to Others have enpreserve the ancient letters. the difference, by supdeavoured to commute two sorts of posing the Israelites to have had and the common; the first letters, the sacred of which they think was the Chaldaean, now in use; the latter, the Samaritan. (a) HEBREW POINTS, OR VOWELS There has been likewise great contention, among the

Chaldee

Their authority nunciation of that tongue. have been the subject antiquity, however, of much learned disputation and research, in which Jews and Christians have equally partaken. Elias Levita, a learned German Jew, who flourished at Rome about the middle of the 16th century, insisted that they had never been in use till after the Talmud was finished ; that is, according to him, about 500 years This declaraafter the aera of Christianity .(b) tion did not fail to raise him many opponents, among the advocates for the antiquity of points among whom, the two Buxtorfs appeared in the foremost rank they produced some cabbalistical books,(c) of great reputed antiquity, in which the points are expressly mentioned.

and

These were answered by Capellus and others and at last Morinus, having examined all that had been advanced on either side, wrote a dissertation, which has been generally approved, and from which it appears, that neither Origen,
;

(y)
(/.}

Tract. Sanhedr. apud Walton. Prtilegom. Vid. Orig. Hexapl.

Hieron. in Ezek. et
'

alib.
at.

Euseb.

Crcsav. Tarsens. Cyril. Alex. Procop. Syncell. et

(a)

R.

II.

A /aria b. Ab. De
et
til.

Bartenor.

Postel, Buxtcrl",

Conting. Schambat,

refers to it, not much above a century while the third is reputed to be about 9000 of a conference between years old, and contains an account a learned Jew and Chozroes, king of Persia, by which the The antiquity of these latter was converted to Judaism.* books is fictitious, as they contain relations of

which quotes and

afterwards
:

evidently

(b) Eli. Levit. Prtefat. 3. in

(c)
tlic

Mitxomth

lianiiuasor.

events that happened about 1000 years after their reputed

date.

These were

the "ITQ (BOHIH), the

nny FSoHau), and

(
;

'"iTO

(KOFSKI).

The

first, it is

little

before the nativity

pretended, was written and the second, of our Lord

Vide
Uasnas;. et

tib. Jtichasin.
al.

\i.

Aznria, cap. 19.

Cuxtorl'. Capel.

Muriu.

H. Nictto.

Cfiosri II.

760
Jerom, (which

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

rolls

[CHAP, xviir.
still,

nor the compilers of the Talmud he thinks was not finished till the seventh century) knew any thing of these points; nor did even the Jewish Rabbins of the 8th and 9th centuries. The first indications of them, he says, appear in the writings of the Rabbins Aaron Ben-Asher, chief of the western school, and Moses Ben-Naphtali, chief of the eastern ; who wrote about the middle of the 10th century: they can therefore, bethinks, be hardly supposed older than the beginning It is now generally supposed of that century. that the invention of these points originated with the Masorites, the most extensive comJews ever had : their mentators that the 450 years before the Chrisschool began about tian aera, and continued to about A. D. 1030
;

of this kind

in their synagogues.

With respect
it

may be

was graving on stone or wood

first

to their instruments for writing, concluded they had two sorts; the made of some hard metal, for en-

the other was for ; writing on skins, or parchment, but whether made like our pens, pencils, or in some other way, cannot now be ascertained. POETRY. In this sublime art, the Hebrews, at least since Moses's time, have excelled all other nations ; with this singular advantage, that its

being divinely inspired, consecrated wholly to the honour of God, and adapted it to the service of the temple. Their monarchs,
authors,
it

but at what period, in this wide interval, they discovered it, must ever remain doubtful. GRAMMATICAL POINTS. These were introduced about the same period with the vowelpoints and consist, of the comma and full-stop, to divide the periods and verses, which, till then, had lain confused and undistinguished, not only in the sacred, but in all other Hebrew books. This has been very useful to the learned world, though few Christian interpreters have thought it necessary to confine themselves to their divisions. Nevertheless, it must be owned, that they have been very instrumental in making the knowledge of the sacred books much more easily acquired, than it could have been without them. What the Israelites wrote upon, and the instruments they wrote with, we have but little
;

jndges, priests, and prophets, men and women, have eternized their memories by some excellent performances of this kind ; witness the two inimitable songs of Moses, (g) those of Deborah (h) and Hannah, (i) the whole book of Psalms, the Canticles, the thanksgiving of Hezekiah,( j) the book of Job, a great part of the prophecy of Isaiah, and the book of L.amentutions; besides several others of the prophets, who are likewise supposed, from the loftiness of their style, to have written at least part of
their prophecies in verse. Indeed, it is univerthat nothing can be conceived sally agreed,

It is plain that the decalogue or rather engraved, upon tables of stone; but it is probable, that Moses made use of some more portable material to write the copy of those Tables, and the rest of his laws, upon. The custom of writing upon tables, or thin smooth boards, was in use, not only in Isaiah's days,(d) but till our Saviour's time. (e) But, besides these tables, frequent mention is made, in Job, the P&ulms, and the Prophets, of Iheir writing upon rolls,(f ) vhich are supposed to have been made of skins, (a kind of parchment) or some pliable matter, capable of The Jews retain being rolled up, or round.
of.

information

surprisingly sublime ; the variety of action, greatness of sentiment, richness of figures and imagery, or strength, beauty, and exuberant fulness of expression in addition to which, a strain of the most seraphic piety, and of the most excelBut lent morality, runs through the whole. these poetical pieces, like all unfortunately, ancient works of that, kind, frequently allude

more majestic, or more

whether
in

was

written,

are

and sayings, to which we perfect strangers and likewise abound with words and idioms, whose true meaning
to things, customs,

now

it is easy to translations must necessarily be, and how far they must, fall short of the beauty and energy of the original, since

we

are

left to

guess

at.

Hence

discern,

how

defective

all

many sentences and passages can only be judged of by conjecture and analogy. This is one of the reasons why the Psalms, the book of Job, and many other poetic pieces of holy
writ, lose so

much
in

when rendered
(g)

of their native excellence, a foreign tongue ; nor will

(h) Judges, r.

(d)
(f)
i

Ixmah, xxx. 8. Job, xxxi. 35, 38. Ezek.

ii.

(e)

Lukr,
Zcch.

i.

03.
viii. 1.

Exod. xv.
1

Dfut. xxxii.

Psalm

xl. 7.

Iiaiah,
v. 2.

Jer.

(i)

Sam.
6

ii.

110.
9
20.

xxxvi. 4.

9.

iii.

1, et *eq.

(j)

Isaiah, xxxix.

SECT.
this

II.]

POETRY. MUSIC.
of that book, the verse
dees, occasionally
foot, or feet,
is

761
mostly hexameter

circumstance appear surprising, when we on the prodigious remoteness of the when they were first recorded probaperiod bly between 3000 and 4000 years. If Homer
reflect
:

and pentameter, consisting of dactyls and sponintermixed with some other

verses,

and that some

though

still

Virgil are so justly admired for their judicious choice of such words and phrases as carry a strong- idea of the action in their very sound, those who have but the least knowledge of the Hebrew, and will but give some attention to this particular beauty, will easily feel it and if the most beautiful figures, in every line the strongest metaphors and allegories, be the sign of a poetic tongue, the Hebrew here exceeds the Greek, and every other. The general form of the Hebrew poetry is that of hemistichs, or short half-lines ; but from want of due acquaintance with the language, we are now at a loss to determine its rules, Jews and Christians, as metre, or cadence.
:

and

more irregular, preserve such a cadence and harmony as never fail to please those who are
In another place he judges of poetic rules.(l) the song of Moses, in the book of Deutersays, onomy, was written in iambics of four feet, as were also the 119th Psalm, with some But for all this, we have neither others.(m) Of the English translaproof nor example. tions of Hebrew poetry, Dr. Kennicott's is esteemed the best, as coming the nearest to the spirit of the original and from him we have therefore given some specimens.(n) Music. Of their music, with which they used to enliven their poetic performances, little is known, and therefore conjecture has been busy neither can it be ascertained that it was equal to their poetry; though it would be inconsistent to suppose their music to have been otherwise than sweet, harmonious, and beautifully varied yet attended with a solemn gra;

Josephus and Philo, Origen, Eusebius, and Jerom, have largely expatiated on the subject, but with very little success and the ingenuity of more recent writers has added nothing to
:

its

elucidation.

According

to the writers just

quoted, the two songs of Moses were written in heroic verse; the Psalms were of a mixed

some trimeters, some pentaand others hexameters, (k) Jerom has meters, even gone farther for he says, the songs of Moses, the books of Job, Isaiah, and some others, were in hexameters and pentameters ; the Psalms in sapphics, iambics, and aicaics, after the manner of Horace and Pindar; the
sort, containing,
;

the grandeur of the subject and read of their musical instruments consisting of those of eight and ten strings; also of the nebel<\\u\ /cinor, which were probably like the lute and harp, and from which the Greeks had their nabla and ciuyra; besides several kinds of wind instruments, such as the trumpet, flute., and what several translators call the organ, but what resemblance
vity, suitable to

occasion.

We

Lamentations in sapphics; and, as if he were perfectly familiar with the Hebrew pronunciation and the rules of that poetry, he goes on, in his preface to the book of Job, to declare, that from the third verse of the third chapter
(k) Joseph. Antig. lib. ii. cap. ult. lib. iv. cap. ult. lib. vii. Philo. in fit. Mas. et lib. de Vit. Contemplat. rap. 10. Grig, apud Euseb. Prtepar. Evany, lib. xi. cap. 2. I) Hieronym. Epist. ad PauKn. et Prafat. in Chron. Ki/xt'b. Comment. Ezfk. cap. xxx. (m) Hieronym. Epist. 135, ad Paul Urbic.

unknown. To drum and the cymbals; which last some take to be the same with our But if we may judge of the kettle-drums.(o) excellence of the Hebrew music from its wonit

might have to

our's, is totally

these they joined the

\vhich the Psalmist speaks of tsiltzele-shamd and tziltzclctfritriah,^ and the distinction he makes between them and the other instruments spoken of in the same place, indicates
that they were of a more martial and masculine sound, than any that could be produced from such small instruments, played in the manner above described; though, if playi-J after the manner of the cymbals used in modern military bands, they would have a much more considerable, and not

387, 70o, 710, 712. endeavoured, with some pains, to prove that the '"TiOX, (TZiLTzeLev) rendered by our version, after lie Septuagint, cymbals, were only a couple of hollow hemispheres of brass, or some other tinkling metal, about six inches in diameter, shaken one against the other, like a because some such instrument* are known pair of castenets to have been used by the ancients, and because tza/tzal
Hi)
Sec. before,

paes

(o)

Le Clerc*

lias

unplcasing effect.

The
to
in<ml/i

3^i?,

have been

similar, to

(AUGOB) which we translate organ, is supposed what is now called Pan's rfed, or the

frequently
*
Si-c his

signifies
Essay on
I.

to tinkle.

The manner, however,

tome
ix.

in

onjan, consisting of a row of six or eight pipes, of and various notes, anil play d by passing them under the upper lip, and blowing into them. This instrument is the most ancient of all others, \\ith the exception
different lengths
t

Hebrew Poetry,

in tile H'Miotiiique Univtrs.

Psalm

cl. 5.

VOL.

5 E

762
derful effects

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

DIVISION OF TIME.
solar into

[CHAP, xvirr.

upon Saul, in his melaucholy and distracted moods,(p) and in calming the souls of the prophets, and fitting them for divine inspiration, (q) we shall be constrained to acknowledge, that it was far more energetic, soothing,
affecting, than any modern composition. Indeed, it is by no means wonderful, that it should have attained such perfection, when it is considered, that, from the time of Moses it was in constant use both in their worship, in

The changing

of the

and

year, and the complete month of thirty days into the irregular moons of twenty-nine and thirty days; the distinguishing of the days of the week, not by the seven planets, of which they do not seem to have had any knowledge, or names for, but by first, second, and third day; or first, second, &c. from the sabbath the division of the day and night,

the lunar

lic

their religious and civil festivals, in their puband private rejoicings, and even in their

mournings.
It

not into twelve equal parts, as the Egyptians are thought to have done long before, but the day into four parts, and the night into four watches; were calculated, and perhaps designed by their lawgiver, to prevent them from applying to the study of astrology, which would have ensnared them in the worship of those heavenly bodies. What instruments they had to reckon the time by, whether the Egyptian clepsydrae, or water glasses, or sun dials, or any other, cannot be confidently affirmed ; though we read of the sun-dial of Ahaz,(r) or, as the original word signifies, the staircase, or but, allowing it to have been a flight of steps real and regular sun-dial, it may be supposed to have been rather the work of some foreign astronomer, than a common thing among them. As they divided the day into four parts, the two first of which were from the sun-rising to its meridian, and the two last from noon to its setting, it was not difficult for them to make out the intermediate divisions by observations on the shadows of trees or houses, as every ploughman with us is able to do and the division of the four night watches might be according to the motion of the stars.(s)
; ;

would be

lost

labour to attempt giving a

farther account of all the various kinds of musical instruments mentioned in holy writ, which

the Jewish rabbins reckon to the number of thirty-four, by taking the titles of several psalms,

such as Michtan, Sigaion, Sheminith, &c. for particular instruments on which these psalms were to be played. But, setting even these aside, there will remain at least twenty different sorts, which it will be needless to attempt to describe, because there is so little reason to be satisfied with the various conjectures of commentators about them. All that need be added is, that they were of three kinds, namely, wind
instruments, stringed instruments, and those of the tabor or drum kind. To go farther upon the subject, would not only be venturing in the dark; but would far exceed the limits of our the curious and inquisitive reader is plan therefore referred, for a more copious account of them, to Calmet's Dissertation on Hebrew Music, and Bedford's Discourse on the same
:

subject.

of the harp; and was, with it, invented probably before the flood, by Jubal, the sixth in descent from Cain.* It is likely that it consisted at first of only hollow canes, or reeds ; while the harp was nothing more than three strings strained upon a wooden As the latter was, in process of time, changed for frame. an instrument of ten strings, there can be little room for doubt, that the organ among the Hebrews received equal, or greater improvement, so as to become a favourite among them ; and hence its name, derived from 23V, (HAGUE) to delight in. The O'ffibu;, (SHULISHIM) one of the instruments, with which the women came out to meet Saul.f and which the Scptuagint have translated KVjjaKa.,cymbala, Jerom,sis<ra,and our version, instruments of MUSIC, or, as in the margin, threestringed instruments, is supposed to have had a triangular figure, like the letter A, through which a number of rings were strung, so that, on the instrument being struck with a tick, or shaken by the hand, the rings clashed against the

the sides, and against each other, causing a most inharmonious jarring. An instrument, somewhat resembling this, is described Sir William Chambers,! as in use among the by

Chinese
years,

and one not very dissimilar, has, within these few been introduced into our own military bands from
;

Turkey, only furnished with small tinkling bells, in lieu of rings; and the shalishim may have been as above supposed. Yet as the only ground for this inference is that ^'btt?, (sHaLlsn) implies the number three, it may as well be supposed to indicate an instrument with three strings, perhaps on a triangular frame, as one with three sides only. It is more likely to have been of the latter description, or even of the lute kind. (q) 2 Kings, iii. 15. (p) 1 Sam. xvi. 23. and xix. 9. (r) 2 Kings, xx. 9, 10, 11. to the Jewish division of (s) Farther particulars relative time, will be found in the Introduction, p. 25, 27, 34.
J

Cm.

i. tl.

t 1

Sam.

xviii. 6,

See his Chinete Architecturt.

SECT.

III.]

RAHAB, AND THE

SECTION
III.

SPIES.

76.V

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES, FROM THE DEATH OF MOSES, A. M. 2553, TO THAT OF JOSHUA,
A. M.

2578.

Jul. Per. 3263.

DURING
mourning

the

A. M. 2553.
Post
Oil.

thirty

days of
their de-

897.

Ann. Exod. 40 1st Month,

(Abib.)
B. C. 1451.

Moses, ceased captain and legislator, the Israelites continued in their

for

in the plains of with the promised land Moab,(t) full in view, waiting for the signal to cross the This term was no sooner expired, Jordan. than Joshua, their new leader, was favoured with a divine communication, in which the Almighty encouraged him to the impending enterof protecprise, with the most ample promises tion, and assurance of ultimate success.(u) The head-quarters of Joshua were now at Abel-shittim,(v) or the plains of Shittim, whence he sent two discreet men, in the character of the state of Jericho, a strong spies, to examine on the frontiers of Canaan, in the country city of the Jebusites, and the first that would lie in the way of the Israelites. These men crossed the Jordan, arrived in safety at that city about the fall of the evening, and took up their abode at a house of public entertainment, or an inn, kept by a woman named Rahab :(w) the knowledge of their arrival, however, could not be long concealed ; the king of Jericho was informed, that two men from the early the next morning, had entered the city, and he camp of Israel sent to the house of Rahab, to demand them to be given up. The intentions of the Israelites

encampment

had by this time become well known among the Canaanites; they had seen what havoc they had made on the east of Jordan, among the Amorites, where the extensive dominions of Og and Sihon, as well as the country of the Midianites, had been overrun, the inhabitants put to the sword, and the property seized by the conquerors. A panic fear had therefore seized all classes of the Canaanites, and the name of Israel sounded terribly in their ears. Rahab was aware of this, and resolved to embrace so favourable an opportunity to ingratiate
herself with her visitors, in the hope of saving her own life, and the lives of her relations and
friends, in the event of Jericho falling into the Israelites' hands, of which she entertained no

With this view, she secreted the two the top of her house, among the stalks of flax, or hemp, deposited there for drying in the sun ; and when the king's messengers arrived, inquiring for the spies, she told them, that two men, answering the description given, had indeed refreshed themselves at her house; but that they had again departed about sun-set, just before the time of shutting the gates; to which she added, they were so recently gone, that they might be soon overtaken, if pursued. Satisfied with her assurances, the officers set off towards the Jordan, and made a diligent search as far as the fords ; but, as might be expected, without success. In the mean time, the gates of the city being closed ; and Rahab seeing the perilous situation of her guests, she went up to them, and after relating what had passed between herself and the officers, advised them to
doubt.

men on

(t)

Dtut. xxxiv.

8.

(n) Josh.

i.

19.
this

(v)

the LXX. ito^rn, a designated, has been translated by or prostitute, which is followed in most other verharlot, sions ; though it is far from certain, that those interpreters nor is it warranted by the used wo$u in so bad a sense general meaning of the Hebrew term, which properly signifies an innkeeper, or one that sells victuals and drink, derived
is
;

(w)

Comp. A'uwfi. xxxiii. 48, 49. Josh. ii. 1. The Hebrew term run, (ZONOH) by which

woman

from the root

JT,

(ZON)

to give food.

And

thus

it is

rendered,

an innkeeper, or tavern-keeper, by the Chaldee paraphrast, and some of the most learned of the Jews though Kimchi* As to the Greek allows that it may be rendered either way. word wop, it comes from 7tt(**u, to sell, derived from iropo, to
;

pass from one

to another, which is certainly as applicable to We also rind, from the vender's effects as to her person. ancient writers, that among the Egyptians and Greeks, t it was customary for women to keep places of public entertainment; and from the circumstance of their publicity

added, perhaps, to the general laxity of their manners and morals, the term, which originally signified an hostess, might be converted to designate a harlot. But this could scarcely have happened so early as the days of Rahab, whose character should be taken in the best sense of the term, from the following considerations: 1. It cannot be imagined, upon any principle short of absolute madness, that two men, charged with so important and dangerous an enterprise, as were these spies, should, on the first moment of their arrival in the enemy's city, resort to the house of a prostitute: if their religion would not deter them, their prudence, and apprehensions for their personal safety, must have made them more circumspect. 2. Had she been such a character as our translation implies, her subsequent marriage with Salmon, a prince of the house of Judah, and probably one of the spies on this occasion, would be one of the most imprudent and extravagant actions recorded in history ; even supposing he could have lawfully taken her for a wife, which is much to be doubted.
t
lib.

In Rod,

See Hcroclut. in Euterp. cap. 35.

i.

Apuleius. Metamorph. dc Asino A*r.

4E2

764

HI STOW Y

OF THE ISRAELITES.
injunctions
;

[CHAP, xviii.

Red Sea, and against had so recently conquered. To this she added, an acknowledgment of her belief that their's was the only true God, against Avhose decrees all opposition would be vain and dangerous and begged that as she had inIsrael

escape from a window, her house being npon the wills, from which she could let them down She also told them of the dreadunperceived. ful panic which had seized not only her fellowcitizens of Jericho, but the inhabitants of Canaan generally, on account of what the God of

had done

at the

the nations they

terested herself so

much

for their safety, they

the city, save her family, consisting of her father, mother, brothers, and sisters. Whatever might be the disposition of the Israelitish spies towards a daughter of the Canaanites, they were certainly in no condition to dispute about terms so that, whether impressed by her confession, or anxious to get away from a place where they

would, when

they

took

and her

were surrounded by enemies, they readily promised to grant her request, and confirmed the promise with an oath, with but the saving condition that they would be answerable for
only such of her relations as should be with her in the house on the day when the Israelites should become masters of the place. Being thus assured of her safety, Rahab produced a scarlet cord,(x) with which to let them down from the window in a basket; this cord they desired her to bind, after their departure, upon the window, that it might be a token by which to know the house, when they returned with
their

and, in letting them down from the advised them to repair to the mounwindow, tains, and there secrete themselves for two or three days, by which time the vigilance of their enemies would be abated, and they might return without hazard to their camp.(y) On the third day, the spies left their retreat in the mountains, and repaired to the camp of Joshua, at Shittim, to whom they related all that had happened to them, and all that they had heard of the consternation occasioned by the approach of the Israelites adding their own firm belief that the Lord had of a truth delivered the enemy into their hands. (z) Animated by these accounts, and the assurances he had received of divine protection, Joshua sent officers throughout the host, to order preparations to be made for the passage of the river, which was to take place within three days;(a) and at the same time he reminded the Reubenites, Gadites, and halftribe of Manasseh, of their covenant with
;

Moses, to accompany their brethren, and assist conquest of the Canaanites, although their portion was already allotted to them on the east of Jordan ;(b) to which they replied, that they were ready to perform all that they had pledged themselves to do and promised that they
in the
;

would obey him as cheerfully as they had obeyed Moses. (c) Joshua, however, did not avail himself of the whole force of these tribes, which amounted to 110,580 fighting men,(d) in the first attack upon Canaan, but left more than half of them behind, (e) as well to guard their own possessions and families, as to relieve their brethren in the course of the warfare. He then ordered the tents to be struck, and the camp was removed from Shittim to the banks of the Jordan, where it rested(f) for three days. On
(a) Calmet supposes this proclamation to have been made, and these three days to hi- reckoned, after their removal from Shittim, to the banks of the Jordan which is very
;

companions

in

arms

they also charged

her to keep the whole transaction a profound secret, on pain of being excluded from the benefits of the covenant they had just entered into with her. Rahab promised to obey their
In verse 15, (Josh, ii.) it is said, " she let them down a cord through the window ;" and in verse 18, " thpu halt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which Iliou didst let us down by ;" and both the cord and the line are supposed to relate to the, rope by which their escape

00

liy

was
line

effected.

But Dr. A. Clarke

thread
OUJfl 131H

probable. (b) See before, p. 708.

(d)
(e)

(c)

Josh.

i.

1018.

is

of opinion,
that let

that

the

Numb.

xxvi.

of scarlet

mpfi (TiKAcvoTH CHUT

them down,

Only about 40,000 went over the Jordan, when the

it.

rather be rendered, this piece of scarlet cloth, or, this cloth of scarlet thread, alluding to a piece of scarlet cloth then before them, cither belonging to llahab, or given to her from their own garments,

HsiiuNi) has no reference to the cord but that the Hebrew here quoted should

Israelites first crossed

(f)

Josh.

iv.

12, 13.

which she was to hang out of the window, from which they
descended, by way ofajlay. 25. (\) Josh ii. 1
.

(*)

Ibid. 23, 24.

This movement, according to Archbishop Usher, took place on Wednesday, the 28th of April, in the 40th year after the Exodus, A. M. 2553, B. C. 1451 about which time the waters of the Jordan, being swelled by the melting of the snows of Lebanon, and other neighbouring The distance mountains, generally overflowed its banks. from Shittim to this new encampment, according to Josephus, was about GO stadia, rather less than eight English
Josh.
iii.

1.

SF.CT. III.]

PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN.

765

the third day, Joshua sent officers throughout the tribes, to communicate the order in which they were to march towards the promised land
;

initiate, till, rising above the level of their source, their direction became inverted, and they ran backward into the lake of Gennesareth; while

which on this solemn occasion was somewhat varied from what was observed in their ordinary removals.(g) The priests, instead of the Kohathites, were to carry the ark and instead of moving in the centre of the army, the ark was to precede, and a space of about two thousand cubits, (or three-quarters of an English mile,) was to be left between it and the fore;

those below, naturally ran off into the Dead Sea, and were there restrained, by the same

most of the troops, that all the host might see it as their Joshua then harangued the guide. people himself, and admonished them to sanctify themselves against the next day, because the Lord would then do great wonders among
them.(h) The next morning, Joshua desired the priests to carry the ark towards the river, of which the waters at this time overflowed the banks. While the priests were thus engaged, Joshua received a divine communication, by what means is not stated, in which the Lord promised to magnify him that day in the sight of all Israel and assured him that the waters should be divided as soon as the feet of the priests dipped in them, so as to leave a free passage for the people, without injury, or inconvenience. Joshua had no sooner received
;

The priests power, from returning. ark continued to move onward, till, reaching the midst of the channel, they there made a stand upon dry ground, to the admiration of all Israel, and the unspeakable terror of their enemies. An ample passage thus opened, the Israelites began their being march, directly in front of Jericho, and in a few hours they were all safely landed in their long-desired country the inhabitants of which, petrified with astonishment, had no power to dispute their passage, but shut themselves up for security in their walled cities.(i) This miraculous passage of the Jordan took place on the tenth day of the first month( j) Abib, or Nisan, A. M. 2553 and as the Israelites had left Egypt on the fifteenth of the same
invisible

with

the

this revelation,
;

than he

made

it

known

to the

same time he exhorted them to people have a full confidence in the power and goodness of God telling them that the accomplishment of the impending miracle would be an assurance to them of the fulfilment of all that
at the
;

had been promised to their ancestors, and of triumph over the Canaanites. He then desired them to prepare for the passage of the river, and to send him twelve men, one from each tribe, to be witnesses of what was about to be done. By this time, the priests, bearing the ark, had reached the shallow waters which overspread the banks; and no sooner did their feet dip in them, than the course of the stream was interrupted, as if a vast mound had been thrown in its way. At some distance above the city Adam, the waters, ceasing to flow onward, began to accutheir
Calmet supposes three days to have elapsed between the return of the spies and the removal of the camp from Shittim. (g) See before, p. 694.
niiles.

month, (k) A.M. 2513, it -appears that forty years, wanting five days, had elapsed from the Exodus, to the entrance of Israel upon the promised land. While the people were passing over, the priests continued with the ark in the middle of the river; nor did they afterwards remove till the twelve men, who had been selected from the tribes to attend upon Joshua, hud, under his direction, first taken twelve large stones from the channel, to set up as a memorial in the place where they should encamp that night, and also erected a kind of monument in the bed of the river itself, with twelve other stones, on the spot where the feet of the priests bearing the ark had stood. Every thing being thus arranged, Joshua, in obedience to a
divine admonition, ordered the priests to quit their station, and come out of the river; which they had no sooner done, than the waters

accustomed course, and flowing the Dead Sea, soon overspread The whole camp now their borders, as before. moved onward, with the tribes of Heubru and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in its van, till it reached Gilgal, a place about 50

resumed

their

down

into

(h) Josh. iii. (i) Josh. iii.

(jl Josh.
iv.

2
19.

5.
v.
i.

017.
6, 14,

vi. 1.

(k)

Exod.

xii.

29-39,

51.

706

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP. XVHI.

from the Jordan, and ten from and Jericho,(l) where the tents were pitched, the twelve stones, just alluded to, were set up as a monument of remembrance.(m) It might have been expected, that, now the Israelites were on the right side of the river, and their enemies stupined with fears, they would have taken advantage of the general and immediately began the consternation, attack but it was not so. They had first to observe a religious festival, and to prepare for it by a painful operation, that, for a time, would lay them at the mercy of the inhabitants
furlongs
:

wounds, the Israelites, on the fourteenth day of the month, kept the passover, for the third time, in Gilgal, (p) on the next day, they ate unleavened bread, made of the corn of the
land, together with corn parched in the ear; and on the following morning the supply of manna, which they had regularly received for nearly forty years, ceased .(q) It was either during the seven days' feast

bread, which succeeded the or immediately after, that Joshua, passover, while under the walls of Jericho, perceived a

of unleavened

The season for celebrating the of the land. passover was at hand, of which no uncircumcised person was to partake,(n) but as the rite of circumcision had been neglected ever since the rebellion at Kadesh,(o) it was necessary that all the males, young and old, should now This was done in obedience to submit to it. the express command of God, who, as soon as the operation was over, told Joshua that he had now removed, or rolled away from them, the reproach of Egypt in memory of which, the place was called Gilgal, i. e. a rolling away. Being thus prepared, and recovered of their
;

man, completely armed, with a drawn sword in his hand, standing by his side. It is pro|

bable that Joshua, like a wary general, was at this moment, in the fall of the evening, taking a private survey of the strength of the walls, and contemplating the best method of attack. Surprised, but not dismayed, at seeing a man thus armed come suddenly upon him, he demanded whether he were for Israel, or for Israel's enemies: to which the stranger rejoined, " I come as captain of the host of Jehovah ;" and the words were no sooner pronounced, than Joshua, understanding their full import, prostrated himself before him, and asked,
appear in the sacred records but it is difficult to reconcile the non-observance of the rite of circumcision, with the jealous vigilance of Moses over their conduct, or with the As superintendence of God, upon any other principle. to the passover, it seems rather to have been intended for observance after their settlement in Canaan, than before,)]
;

(1)

Joseph.
iv.

De

Bell. Jud.

lib. v.

cap. 4.

Calmet on

Josh.

iv. passim. According to Archbishop Usher, the passage of the Jordan took place on Friday, the 30th of April, the day on which the lamb was to be selected for the

19. (m) Josh.

passover.
(n) (o)

Exod.

xii.

48.
their observing this festival,

except by special appointment, as during their encampment

at Siuai.5T

(p)

Numb. xiv. The first time of

was at

Egypt, the night before the Exodus ;* the second, at the setting up of the tabernacle at the foot of mount Sinai ;t since which time it had not been kept, probably on account of the anathema, under which the generation that murmured at Kadesh was laid.f which also seems to be the reason of their not circumcising their children. Something of this kind may, perhaps, be implied in the idea of " rolling away the reproach of Egypt ;" they had, on the return of the spies to Kadesh, proposed to make themselves a captain, under whom they might go back to Egypt and therefore they were doomed to perish in the wilderness, instead of entering the promised land thus Egypt became a reproach to them, not only as their desires after it had excluded themselves, but as they were for nine-and-thirty In after-times, persons years an hinderance to their children. under excommunication were incapable of assisting in any of the great festivals ; nor were they permitted to have their sons circumcised, until, by repentance, they were reconciled to the church how far the same rule may have been observed towards the rebels in the wilderness, does not
its institution in
;
: ;

As the Israelites crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month,** and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month,^ Mr. HarmerJJ supposes the latter took place on the fourteenth of the second month, according to
the provision in favour of persons under peculiar circumotherwise they must have been healed of the stances ; wounds, inflicted by circumcision, in a miraculous manner : for, according to Sir John Chardin, who derived his infor-

mation from several renegadoes,

who had been circumcised

among

the

Mohammedans,

obliged to keep operation ; or, at the best, they are only able to walk about And Moses himself says, that on the. with great difficulty. third day, the inflammation was at its height :|||| so that, supposing the Israelites underwent the operation on the next day after their arrival at Gilgal, they could be in no condition, two days after, to prepare for the passover, and to celebrate it on the evening of the third, which was the beginning of the fourteenth, their days beginning with tlm

adults, when circumcised, are to their beds for about three weeks after the

evening instead of the morning.

(q) Josh. v.

112.

*.
Sec before,
Eiod.
xiii.

Numb. U.

Numb.

xir.

f Numb.

ix. 1, 2.

**

Josh. iv. 19.

tt Josh. T. 10.

748. 5. Deul.
p.

xri. 2.

}{ Observations, &c. ol. iv. p. $$ JVurot. ix. 10, et KJ.

427,

jej.
||||

Gen. wxiv. 25.

.SECT. III.]

SIEGE

AND RUIN OF

JERICHO.

767

" What saith my Lord to his servant ?" to which the answer was similar to that given to Moses, when he beheld the burning bush " Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy."(r) Joshua obeyed, and then the Lord, for it was Jehovah himself, gave him directions as to the method in which the city was to be besieged, with assurances of the success that should attend it; to the end that all the Canaanites might know, in case of their resistance, that they strove not merely against an arm of flesh.(s)
:

was to be put to death, even the cattle were not to be spared, the houses were to be burned, and the silver, gold, and other metals, were to go into the treasury of the tabernacle; nor
were they on any account to appropriate aught of the spoil to their own use, on pain of bringHe then directed ing a curse upon themselves. the priests to sound the trumpets, and the peo pie to give a loud shout ; which was no sooner done, than the walls, falling down flat before them, left the inhabitants defenceless ; so that the Israelites had only to march straight forward, and execute their commission of destruction. Their first care was to discover the house of Rahab, a charge that was committed to the two men whom she had concealed ; and when they had brought her forth, with her parents, kindred, and property, and conducted her in safety to the outskirts of the camp, the city was set on fire, the men, women, children, and cattle, were put to the sword, and the vessels of gold, silver, brass, &c. were seized, and conveyed to the tabernacle. Thus was Jericho, a strongly _ Ju , Per 3263 fortified city, and full of inhabit- IA.M. 2553! ants, reduced to a heap of ruins, as J Post Dil. 897.
in an instant; and that it might I Ann.Exod.40. remain a lasting monument of v.C.

The

city of Jericho

was

at this time fast shut

up: no one was permitted to enter from without, nor were any of its inmates suffered to pass
the walls, also, as the spies to Moses, were high and strong :(t) but the heavenly Messenger assured Joshua they should fall without any visible agency, beyond that of the sound of trumpets, and that the inhabitants should become an

through the gates

had formerly reported

easy prey.
this celestial Visitor being returned to the camp, and gave over, Joshua immediate orders for the siege, which was to be of seven days' continuance. For six days, seven priests, bearing the ark, and blowing each a trumpet,(u) accompanied by the men of war, in silent march, were to go round the city once each day ; but on the seventh day, they were to repeat the ceremony seven times. All this was punctually observed ; and after the last circuit, on the seventh day, Joshua harangued the Israelites, telling them, that now the city was about to be delivered into their

The interview with

the vengeance of God upon idolaters,(v) Joshua adjured the Israelites, or bound them by an oath, that they should never rebuild it ; at the

same time he pronounced a prophetical malediction against any one who might attempt it ;
that he should lay the foundation in his firstand set up the gates in his youngest son.(w) As for Rahab, and her family, they had a

born,

tion

hands, it was to be devoted to utter destrucevery soul, save Rahab and her family,
;

15. The divine person (r) Josh. v. 13 generally allowed to be the second in the the Lord Jesus Christ ; for as he is called in by the name of JEHOVAH, nothing short
is

here introduced, blessed Trinity, the next chapter of deity can be

(t)

Numb.

xiii.

28. Deut.

i.

28.

(u) Josh. vi. 4.

O^avn nriSU?

(SHopHeROTH-HaYOBe-

LIM) on (he authority of the Chaldee version alone, has been

rendered in our translation, Irumpets of rams' horns : but they were more probably the trumpets ordained for proclaimin<> the jubilee; but" whether made of silver, horn, or other material, cannot be ascertained. Josephus only calls them /(orns.-f but the difference between horns and trumpets, or iciiid instruments, is not great. (v) Or rather as a spot devoted to God by being the of the Israelites, first-fruits ofthe conquests and possessions as all other first-fruits, and even first-born, were to be consecrated, j The Jews understand by this imprecation, (w) Josh. vi. that whoever should rebuild Jericho, should lose all his children by premature deaths, beginning with the eldest, and so descending to his youngest, during the progress of the
t Antiq. lib. v. cap. 1. J

attributed to him. The vision was, without doubt, designed to encourage Joshua, as well as to instruct him relative to the operations of (be siege. Consonant with this

high " See, I have given into thine language: hand Jericho," <tc. \\ Inch no created being, however exalted, could, under these circumstances, have presumed to use neither could lie have permitted the act 01 adoration on the part of Joshua, without reprehending him, as the angel, in another place, rebuked St. John.*

character

is

his

From the expressions used has been conjectured that the king of Jericho had invited into his city warriors from all the Canaanitiah tribes, to assist him.
(s)

Josh.

vi.

5.

xxiv. ll.

in the latter place, it

Rev. xix. 10. xxii. 8, 9.

Enod.

xiii.

2, 12, 13. xxii. 29. xiiii. 19, rt

at

768

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

when

[CHAP. xvin.

of the place assigned them for a time out Jsraelitish camp ; but she was soou after received as a proselyte into the congregation, and was married to Salmon, (x) prince of the tribe of Juduh, from whom David, and afterwards our Saviour, according to the flesh, descended in a direct line. From Jericho, Joshua dismissed a reconnoitering party, to examine the strength of the next city, Ai, or Hai, belonging to the Amorites, about ten or twelve miles distant, built upon a hill, probably with orders to summon it to surrender, agreeably to the ordinance of Moses.(y) On their return, they reported that the place was so inconsiderable, and the inhabitants so few, that two or three thousand men would be sufficient for its con-

the Canaanites, and other inhabitants of the land, should hear that Israel had turned their backs in the day of battle, they would not fail to surround them, and cut them ofl'; and beseeching God, for the honour of his

great

Name, which otherwise must he blasphemed by the heathens, to interpose in behalf of his people. About eventide, a divine communication was made to Joshua, and he was
Israel could not stand before the because some person or persons among enemy,

told

that

them had

sacrilegiously stolen

part of the

devoted spoil of Jericho, and thereby brought the curse that had been pronounced against
that city, upon the whole congregation. He was therefore directed to order the people to

Joshua, therefore, dispatched quest. three thousand ; but they no sooner appeared before Ai, than the citizens made a sortie, and attacked them so vigorously, that they

about

sanctify themselves against the morrow, that they might appear before the tabernacle by
families, by households, and by indiin order to the discovery of the delinviduals,
tribes,

by

found it prudent to ensure their safety by flight, but not till they had lost about six-and-thirty Astonished to see them of their companions. Ihus return, and still more to hear that the

enemy was pursuing;

perceiving also that a

general panic was spreading through the camp, Joshua and the elders rent their clothes; and, putting dust upon their heads, they prostrated

quent, who, when found, should be put 1o death, and burned with fire, together with all that belonged to him. Joshua lost no time in making these instructions known throughout the camp ; and the next morning, at an early hour, the tribes were presented by their representatives before the tabernacle, when that of Judah was taken. (/)

From

tribes,

Joshua proceeded

to families,
;

and

themselves with their faces to the ground, Here Joshua implored the before the ark. divine favour and assistance; representing that
;* though some writers think it only means that it should go on so slowly, and with so many interruptions, that though he should begin with the birth of his first-born, he should not finish till that of his youngest son. The first opinion is preferred, and the curse, whatever was its nature, fell with all its force, 530 years after it had been pronounced, upon Hiel the Bethelite, who, in the degenerate days of " laid the founAhab, king of Israel, rebuilt Jericho, and and set up its gates in dation of it in Abiram, his first-born It is questioned whether Jericho his \oungest sou Segub."t was wholly neglected from its overthrow by Joshua to the time of Hicl ; for it is mentioned as an inhabited place early in the days of the Judges, shortly after Joshua's death ; if, indeed, it be the same with the city of palm-trees,\ which is rather doubtIn Eglon's time, al>o, we read of ihecity of palm-trees,^ ful. the name by which the writer of the last chapter of Deuter-

that of the Zarhites was taken among whom the lot fell on the household of Zabdi the scrutiny was now reduced to a narrow com:

work

eelebrated balm of Gilead flowed .IT It seems likely, however, that the city of palm-trees was another city in the vicinity of Jericho; probably Hazezon-tamar, afterwards called En-gedi. In David's time Jericho is spoken of by its own name,''* but not as a city and nothing more seems there intended than that the ambassadors should remain in some village near the ruins of Jericho, of which the name had been extended to the surrounding district.
;

(x)

(y)
(z)

Matt. i. 5. Dcut. xx. 10,

et seq,

Many

inquiries

have been instituted as to the means

to designate Jericho,|| and which was given on account of the number of palm-trees that grew in the neighbouring plains; though it obtained the name of Jericho, which .signifies odour, or scent, from ihe number of fragrant that from which the ,rees that grew thereabouts, particularly

onomy is supposed
it

by which the guilty tribe, family, household, and person, were discovered: the most probable answer is, that it was done by lot, which was in frequent use among the Israelite, upon their most solemn occasions ;tt but the Jews, among other conceits, suppose that, the representatives or heads of the tribes being brought before the high-priest, he examined
his

breast-plate,
lost its

when

the

stone,
is

belonging to the guilty

tribe, (;<ul

lustre.

This

what they term consulting

by urim and thummim, as related in the preceding

Judges, ix. 9. 1 Sam. xi. 41, 42. 1
al.
;

section.^}
xiv. t.

Vide MunMer mJosh.

t Judges,
i.

vi.
SS

86?
Jtiilgef,
iii.

1 A'III K
||

16.

13.

xyi. 31. Vcut. \\xiv.

i

Chrm.

vi.

63, 65. x*iv. 5, 7, SI.

:;.

Joseph.

L>t Belt.

Jwl.

lib. v.
.xi.

cap.

-1.

x\v. K, ct
}}
lib. v.

Sam.
y.

x.

.i.

See before, p. 738

cap.
1.

see also Munst.

in Josh.

vii.

and Joseph. Antiq.

*t Lev. vvi. 8.

iVunift.

xxvi.

ixxiii.

54. xxxiv. 13. xxxvi.

Jath.

xiii. fi.

1.1

SECT, in.]

ACHAN'S OFFENCE, AND DEATH. AI DESTROYED.

709

the individuals of Zabdi's family were brought forward, and Achan, or Achar, the son of Carmi, and grandson of Zabdi, stood impeached as the guilty person, who had been the occasion of sharne and defeat to the Israelites. Joshua immediately exhorted him to con-

pass

so that, while they were engaged in the pursuit, a force previously placed in ambush, might enter the undefended city, and set it on fire.(e) Joshua punctually observed his instructions ; the city was taken and burnt; the inhabitants were put to the sword and the king was taken
;

what he had done and he, finding himself detected, acknowledged that he had been tempted to take from among the spoils a beautiful and costly robe, or garment.(a) with two hundred shekels of silver, (b) and a wedge of gold, weighing about fifty shekels ;(c) all which he had secreted in a hole dug in the middle of his tent. On this confession, messengers were immediately sent to his tent, and there they found the articles, as he had described them whereupon he was taken, with his sons and daughters, his oxen and his sheep, his asses, and his tent, and the stolen articles, with all
fess
;
:

and hanged

after

which

his

body was thrown

that he had, into the valley of Achor, a place so called, from its being the place of his execution, where he was stoned, and his oxen, asses,

and sheep, were put

they were
with his
;

to

death; after which,

burnt, his body and his cattle, tent, his household stuff, the stolen
all

garment, the shekels of silver, and the wedge of gold and a heap of stones was raised upon their ashes,(d) as a memento of his crime. The cause of Israel's disaster being now re-

moved, God commanded Joshua to renew the attack upon Ai, promising that it should be taken, and that he should do to it, and to its king, as he had done to Jericho and her kiui; that is, utterly destroy it, and put the inhabitants to the sword only the spoil and the cattle were now to be taken by the Israelites for their own use. Joshua was also directed to use a stratagem on this occasion, and to draw the enemy from their gates by a pretended flight;
;

before the gate of the city, and a heap of stones raised over it.(f) After the conquest of Ai, Joshua seems to have directed his inarch northward, without opposition, to the valley, between the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim ; for the sacred historian immediately introduces an account of his observance of the injunction of Moses,(g) relative to the building an altar upon mount Ebal, and reading there the curses and the blessings, before all the people, half of whom were stationed on that mountain, and the other half upon Gerizim. This ceremony was attended with burnt* offerings and peace-offer ings ; after which Joshua read all the law in their hearing.(h) accompanied, without doubt, with suitable admonitions and exhortations. Hence it should seem that the fall of Jericho and Ai had put the Israelites in possession of all the country from the Jordan on the east, to the mountains of Ephraim on the west and from Jericho in the south, to the mountains below Tappuah in the north, (i) the inhabitants of the intermediate places having either submitted, or removed to other quarters. The numbers and force of the invaders had by this time become better known to the Canaanites, who, seeing they were too powerful for any single city to withstand, resolved upon forming a general confederacy, consisting of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites peculiarly so called, the Perizzites, the Hivites,
;

(a)

In the original, this

plain of Shinar,

is

"COT nTJN (ADCRCTH sni.NcAH); but

in

called a splendid robe of Skinar, as Babylon was built

ment, that they might be deterred from following his example,

is

largely discussed.

the

Babylonish garment ; been tlie royal robe of the king of Jericho. These garments were very splendid, and in high request they were of various colours: but whether the colours were dyed in the raw material before it was woven, or whether they were interwoven in the manufacture, or afterwards embroidered with
:

generally translated a goodly and many writers suppose it to have

it

is

the needle, or painted,

(b)
(c)

is

disputed by different writers.*

About .30. sterling. Worth about 113. sterling.

in order to (e) This stratagem was probably resorted to, check the rising hopes of the Canaanites: they had seen the Israelites fly before the garrison of a small city, and therefore could not but expect they would do the same when they came to encounter the mighty force which they were comsecond occasion, they petent to collect: but when, upon the found the flight to be merely a ruse de guerre, which involved the pursuers in ruin, they would rather attribute the first or want of due prepamiscarriage to some mismanagement,

See Dr. A. Clarke on this chapter, where the question, whether Achan's children were put to death ivilh him, or only brought out to see their father's puiii>h(d) Josh. vii.
* See Calmet on Josh,
iti.

ration, than to
(f)

weakness, or cowardice.

Josh.

viii.

129.

(g)

Deut.

xxvii.
viii.

(h) Josh.

See before, p. 599. See before, p. 709. 30 35. (i) See the Map of Canaan.

VOL.

I.

5 P

770

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

a

[CHAP, xviir.

and the Jebusites; besides the nations that dwelt on the sea-coast.(j) At this time Joshua was in his camp atGilgal, where he was waited upon by certain ambassadors, who pretended to have come from a distant country to make a league with Israel, having heard of what God had done for them in Egypt, and against the two kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, on the west of Jordan. These were, in reality, a
dwelt deputation from the Gibeonites, who a few miles from Beth-el, the next city to only Ai; but they played their part so well, that Joshua and the elders were induced to make a league with them, and to confirm it with an Three days afterwards, the fraud oath.(k) was discovered, and the Israelites went to view their cities, four in number, viz. Gibeon, Chewhich phirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim, kind of federative republic. constituted a Israelites Indignant at being so deceived, the them ; but the princes of proposed to destroy the tribes interfered, and observed, that as they had ratified the league with a solemn oath, they could do no other than receive the Gibeonites into their alliance ; yet, as a punishment for their duplicity, they condemned them to the servile offices of hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation in other words, they were reduced to a state of slavery.^) This defection of. the Gibeonites was no sooner known to Adoni-zedec, king ol Jerusalem, who seems to have been the most potent sovereign in that quarter, than he sent
;

them should remain. This Mas fully for he fell upon them unexaccomplished at Gibeon, and after making a great pectedly slaughter of them there, he pursued them in
of
:

man

the

Avhere they were a dreadful shower of stones,(n) by which destroyed more than had fallen by the sword ; upon this they turned about, and fled towards Azekah, still pursued by the exulting Israelites, and annoyed by the storm; nor was it till they arrived at Makkedah, where the five kings concealed themselves in a cave, and the remnant of their army was dispersed, that the chase was discontinued. In this pursuit, a distance of between 30 and 40 miles was over-run ; and the march of the Israelites from Gilgal to Gibeon, before the battle, amounted to 15 or 20 miles; which, with the time occupied in fighting at the onset, would have been far too much for the execution of a single day. But, when Joshua saw his enemies likely to escape under cover of the night, he prayed to God, and the sun was stopped in its progress, and did not go down till they were totally
assailed

way towards Beth-horon,

routed. (o)

Joshua had pitched his tent at Makkedah, and having learnt that the five kings had hidden
themselves in a cave there, over which, in the heat of action, he had ordered stones to be
rolled to prevent their escape ; he now had them brought out, and hanged ; after which their bodies were thrown again into the cave,

to the neighbouring princes, desiring them to join him in an attack upon Gibeon, that they

and the mouth was closed with large stones.(p) This attack of the five kings upon Gibeon,
fatal to the confederacy, at least so far as the southern states were concerned, for it had introduced a victorious enemy into the very heart of the country Makkedah appears to have been taken by a coup de main during the
:

was

might, by

inflicting exemplary vengeance upon the inhabitants, deter others from deserting the common cause. He was joined by Holiam, king of Hebron, Piram, king of Jarmuth Japhia, king of Lachish, and t)ebir, king 01 Eglon; and they made a sudden irruptioi

upon the

territories of the Gibeonites.(m)

pressing message being immediately dispatchet to Joshua, at Gilgal, by the Gibeonites, who were probably disarmed, he set off, withou On his way, he wai delay, to help them. favoured with a divine promise, that the enemy should be delivered into his hand, so that no
(j)

pursuit already described, and here Joshua took up his quarters, till the Israelites returned from the slaughter of those who were flying before them;(q) and in the mean time, he put the king and all the inhabitants to death. He next attacked, in succession, the cities of Lib-

nah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, and Debir; and they all experienced a similar fate.(r) Lachish sustained an attack of two days, in which it
(n)

Juah.

ix. 1, 2.

j>necl to have

The nations on the sea-coast are sup been the Tynans, Sidouians, or Phoenicians, it
ix.

See before, p. 600.

(o)

On

this

subject,

see Dr.

A. Clarke's Comment, on
(q)

the north, and the Philistines in the south. (k) See before, p. 609. (1) Josh. 5. (in) Josh. x. 1

Josli. \.

327.

12. (p) Josh. x. (r) Josh. x.

627.
29-39.

Comp.

Josh. x. 21, 28.

SECT.

III.]

CONQUEST OF CANAAN, UNDER JOSHUA.

by Horam, king of Gezer ;(s) but
east

771

was

assisted

his interference only occasioned the destrucThe king of Hebron tion of his own anny.(t) had shared the fate of his allies of Jerusalem,

Jarmuth, &c. at Makkedah but by the time that Joshua came to attack the city, a new king had been placed on the throne, and he was taken and put to death, as his predecessor had been nor did the king of Debir expeThe principal places rience a better destiny. in the south being thus in the hands of Joshua, and the armies exterminated, the rest of the towns and villages were easily subdued so that in the course of a single campaign, the Israelites were put into the possession of all the
; ; ;

with the strength of the Canaanites on tho and on the west, of the Arnorites and the Hittites, the Perizzites, and the Jebusites who dwelt in the mountains, and of the Hivites, or Kadmonites, dwelling in the land of Mizpeh; forming altogether so vast a multitude, that the inspired historian compares them to the sand upon the sea-shore, besides horses and
chariots.

Kadesh-barnea and Gaza, and from Goshen to Gibeon. They do not, however, for the present, appear to have made any settlements for we find that Joshua, and
country between
:

The place of rendezvous for this mighty host was by the waters of Merom ;(v) and Joshua appears to have been at no great distance; for in the sequel he proved to be the assailant ; and the night before the battle, the Lord encouraged him, by promising to deliver them all into his hand ; he was also directed to hough or hamstring the horses, and to burn the chariots ; to disable the former, and destroy the latter, which it was not permitted to the
because they were to depend upon almighty strength, rather than upon thd
Israelites to use,

all Israel

afterwards, returned to the

camp

at

Gilgal.(u)

While Joshua was thus employed in the south, the powers of the north were actively organizing a confederacy among themselves,
and fortifying their cities. They seem to have been much more powerful than their southern neighbours; their forces more numerous, and
their cities

number or power of horses and chariots.(w) The confederates had scarcely assembled
at the place appointed, before they found themselves attacked in their camp by Joshua, at

the

head of the whole force of

;

much

stronger,
hills.

being situated for

Thus taken by surprise, all revived and away they fled,

and
infantry, their heels.

the most furnished

part

upon

They were

also

with

Israel, (x) their panic feara cavalry, chariots, the exulting Israelites ;it

with numerous cavalry and war chariots ; a species of force which the IsraelAt the head ites had not before encountered. of this coalition was Jabin the Canaanite, king of Hazor, assisted by Jobab, king of Madon, and the kings of Shimron and Ach-shaph to were joined the forces of jul. Per. 3264.") these all the kings on the north of the A. M. 25.34. f_ Ann.Exod.4i. f mountains, and in the plains south 14.30. J B.C. of Chinnereth those in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west ;
: ;

the road to Great Mizrephoth-maim, (y) westward, while others went towards the valley of Mizpeh eastward but whichever way they turned, they were continually annoyed by their pursuers, who did not leave them, till they were either all killed, or so dispersed, that not one of them remained. Returning from the carnage of their enemies, the next care of the Israelites was to burn the chariots which they had left behind* and to maim or destroy such of their

Some took

Zidon

and
:

same with Gaza; though it was (s) Supposed to be the see 1 Mace. xiv. 34. probably nearer to Azotiis, or Ashdod
:

(t)

Josh.

(v)

The

puted; of Megiddo, mentioned Judges,

x. 32, 33. (u) Josh. x. 404:5. situation of these waters of Merom is much dissome supposing them to be the same with the waters

v. li);

stituted the lake Samechou, above denoted in the Map. (w) Deut. xvii. 1C. (x) If the waters of Merom were the same with Lake Samechon, it is difficult to guess how Joshua could come upon the allies so unexpectedly, as lie would have a con-

others, tliat they conthe Sea of Chiuuereth, as

when- his march must have been observed, if not disputed and retarded. This difficulty is in a great measure removed, by supposing the waters of Merom t" be another name for those of Megiddo: for we have already seen the Israelites on mounts Kbal and Gerizim and if that part of the still remained unoccupied by the Canaanites, the country ua\ to Megiddo was easy and uninterrupted. But on this
;

subject, every thing

(y)

is left

to conjecture.

Misrephoth-maim, which literally signifies lurniug of the waters, is supposed to have been celebrated tor its hot
springs
:

it is
;

of Sidon
Sarepta,

siderable tract of country first to pass through, interspersed with strong cities, as Aphek, Megiddo, and Jezreel, at

rive or six miles north generally placed about, but Calmet conjectures it to be the same with The valley of several miles to the southward.

many

the very "entrance of this part of Uie enemy's territories

Mizpeh stretched from Sarepta, in a north-easterly tion, between the mountains of Lebanon,

direc-

5 F 2

772

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

made

[CHAP. XTHI.

horses as had escaped amid the confusion of so extensive a rout. They then repaired to and set it on fire, after putting all the Hazor, inhabitants to the sword. The Canaanites having no Jul. Per. 320470. } 255460. f longer any forces to bring A. M. Ann. Exod. 41 47. C into the field, they were B. C. 1450-44. J O i,|j ffe< i to s }, u t themselves
their cities and strong holds, where were successively besieged and vanquished they

Besides these inmates, for so tributary. be called from their dwelling among they may the Israelites, some tribes or nations upon
the borders of the land remained unconquered, and indeed xmassailed, though their territories came within the promise such were the five lordships, or satrapies, of the Philistines, the country of the Sidonians, as far as Misrephothmaitn ; the land of the Giblites,(d) on the east of Tyre and Sidon with all the hill-country of Lebanon and the residence of the Hivites, or Kadmonites, from Baal-gad to the entering-in of Hamath.(e) Enough, however, of the land of promise was now subdued for the immediate use of the
:

up

in

by the Israelites.(z) The process, however, was long and tedious, occupying upwards of
but in all cases, such of the inhabitsix years ants as did not escape by flight were put to
:

the sword ; none of them choosing to submit to Joshua, except only the Gibeonites, whose hard fate probably deterred others from capitulating.
all

Israelites

and

as

Joshua was

far

advanced

The cities in the flat country were burned, but those that stood upon hills
it

in years, God directed him to set about the division of

were preserved.(a)
indeed,

may

the latter description, be doubted whether any of

Of

among the nine tribes and half, who Arere to reside on the
and to dismiss the two tribes and a half of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, to the inheritance given them by Moses on the other side.(f) In consequence of this instruction, Joshua made arrangements for a general distribution by lot; but before the portions were laid out, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kenezite, reminded him of a promise made
east of Jordan,

them, except Hazor, which was burnt, fell into the hands of the Israelites during the warfare in question for notwithstanding the
:

general devastation, many cities in the north were enabled to hold out till after the division of the land among the tribes ;(b) and some of those in the south, were re-occupied and fortified by fugitives from other quarters, while Joshua was employed in over-running the country :(c) but in the sequel they were mostly
See before, p. 601, note (x). Joshua, xi. In our translation it is said that, with the exception of " the cities that stood still in Uazor, Israel burned none of " on their their strength;" or, as the margin reads, heap," from CD'WI, (TCLOM) rendered by the Vulgate, collibus ct " hills and eminences." It has been thought that tumults, Joshua left them uninjured, in order to place garrisons in them ; but as we find so many of them, immediately afterwards in the hands of the enemy, it is far more likely that, on account of their strength, and the time it would take to reduce them, he left them in a state of blockade, till a more convenient opportunity, after he had cleared the open counThis is agreeable to the design of God, that the try. Canaanites should not all be expelled at once ; but some should remain, to be reduced by degrees, after the Israelites
(*)

on a former occasion, when he returned from viewing the land, that he should have Hebron, and the mountainous country about it, for his
in Aijalon,

and Shaalbim,]: which are not spoken of among

(a)

Joshua's conquests.

The

appears to have escaped

till

city of Bezek, in the south, also, after the death of Joshua. $

(c) This was the case with Hebron and Debir, or Kirjathsepher ;|| and perhaps with Hormah, Sephaat, or Zephath,1T if it be the same place alluded to by Moses,** as some writers but as Hormah was a general name for any anathethink As to matized place, it might be another, probably Arad. Beth-el, and Jebus, or Jerusalem, the king of the former is supposed to have fallen in the conflict at Ai.tt but it is uncertain whether his city was taken at that time and though one king of Jerusalem was put to death by Joshua,;; and his city was burnt by the tribe of Judah, it does not
: ;

were put into possession.* (b) Among these were Gezcr, Aphek, Aceho, or Ach)haph, Taanach, Megiddo, and Dor, whose kings are enumerated those slain in the war;t with Beth-shan, or Kilron, Nahalol, Ahlab, Achzib, Ibleam, Helbah, Rehob, Beth-shemesb, Beth-anatb, mount Hercs,

among

appear that the Israelites made any permanent settlement till David tliere,|||| finally expelled the Jebusites in the last year of his government at Hebron, and first of his reign over the whole of Israel.flU (d) They were celebrated workers in stone, or masons;*" and their capital was Gebal.ttt the Gabala of Ptolemy.
(e)
(f)
||

Beth-shean,

Joshua, Joshua,
17.

xiii.

6.

Judges,

iii.

3.

xiii. 7, et

seq.
i.

Eioi xxiii. 29, 30. Deut. Comp. Josh. xiii. 12, 18,
i.

vii.

22.
xvi. 10.

Comp.

Joth. x.
i.

3639.

20, 21, 23.

Judges,

i.

27, 89, 31.

IT

Judges,

** Numb.

Judges,

1013.
3. tt Josh. viii. 17.
xii.

xxi. 1

16.

1 A'ingi, ix. 16.

t Judges,

$ See Judges,

27,30,31,.; i. 4 7, where

it

xii. 10. }{ Jos*,, x. |U Josh. xv. 63. Jiu/ees, xix.

2326.

1012.
ttt

Judges,

i.

8.
v.

f f 2 Sam.
Psalm
liiii. 8.

19.

mentioned

for the fust time.

***

1 Kings, v. 18, margin.

Esek. xsvii. 9.

SECT.

III.]

CITIES OF

THE PRIESTS AND

ites,

LEVITES.

773

particular inheritance, independently of the This promise is not determination by lot. recorded by Moses, in his account of the rebellion at Kadesh-barnea;(g) but it was perfectly well understood by the Israelites at that, time; so that his claim was admitted, without any dispute ;(h) yet, before he could outer into possession, he was obliged to con<juer the present occupiers, in which he was assisted by his brother Othniel, and others of the tribe of Judah.(i) The tribe last named, of which he M'as chief, with that of Ephraim, and the other half-tribe of Manaspeh, had likewise their lots assigned, (j) after which Joshua,

twelve, in Reuben, Gad, and /ebnlun. The distribution of these cities, were a\ follow

names and
:

fKirjath-arba, or

Hebron

Libnah
Jattir

Esktemoa Holon
Debir
a
ja
,, -^

>In Judah
Ithnan ....

J nt til h, or

Beth-shemcsh Ain

In Simeon.

S
7
j
">
.
,

Gibeon
a

hoth::::::::::
..

_AIitton

who was now at Shiloh, sent proper persons to survey the remainder of the country, and, according to their report, he divided to the rest of the tribes their portions, agreeably to their respective lots,(k) as will be particularly
About this described in the next Section. the bones of Joseph, which had time, also,
been brought from Egypt, were buried, pursuant to his desire, at Shechem.(l) The division of the land being completed, the tribes gave the territory of Timnath-serah, on mount Ephraim, to Joshua, for his own inheritance, where he built a city of the same name, and passed the greater part of his

, Shechem
v=

C eT

K Kibzaim Beth-horon
El-tekeh

VInEphraim.
I

^
a
_=
"Z

Gibbethon
Aijalon

I, > In
i

Lian.

[2

Gath-rimmon Taanach ^Gath-rimmou

Golan, in Bashafl Beeshterah
Kislinn

*
j \ j ]
-.

In the half of Manasseh,

on the

\vc,t.

In the half of Manasseh, on the east.

abar e ''

f t Jarmuth
En-gannim

(in
i

Issachar.

* J Mishal
I-.

remaining years.(m)

Abdon
,

I , i

The last thing that remained to be done was the appointment of the cities of refuge for manslayers, and those for the residence of the priests and Levites: of the former kind, Joshua
Kedesh, in Galilee, on mount Naphtali; Shechem, on mount Ephraim; and Kirjath-arba, or Hebron, in the mountains of Judah, on the west of Jordan; with Bezer, in the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth-gilead, in that of Gad and Golan, in Bashan, in the half-tribe of Manasseh, on the east.(n) For the priests and Levites forty-eight cities were assigned in the different tribes for the children of Aaron, that is, the priests, thirteen, in Simeon, Judah, and Benjamin ; for the Kohathites, ten, in Ephraim, Dan, and the half-tribe of Manasseh on the west of Jordan for the Gershonites, thirteen, in Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and the halftribe of Manasseh on the east; for the Merars;tsigned
;
.,-

Helkath

> In Asher.

Rehob
Kedesh,
in Galilee

J
-.

Hammoth-dor
LKartan
, Jokneam ^ ,
|

In Naphtali.

Dininal

rtah
.

(inZebuhm.
(

Nahalal Bezer

}
,
,'

JSS*', Kedemoth
Mepliaath Ramoth-gilead

In Reuben.

*
-.

Mahaaaim Hesbbon
Jazer

IT In
f ^
cities, it will

Some

of these

be observed, were

also cities of refuge ; and all of them had a territory, or suburbs, annexed, of one thousand cubits on each side, besides a farther extent of two thousand cubits for fields and vineyards.(o)

(g)

Numb.
Joshua,

xiv. 24.

Deut.
16. xv.

1.

30.

(k)
(1)

Joshua,

xviii. xix.

(h) Josh. xiv.

(i)

xiv.

(j) Josh. xv. 1

12, 21

1320. Judyes, i. 1013. 62. xvi. passim, xvii. 1, 2, 7 18.

25. Exod. xiii. 19. Josh. xxiv. 32. (n) find. xxi. pastim (m) Josh. xix. 49 51. Numb. xxxv. Josh. xxi. (o)

Gen.

i.

774

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

time,

CHAP. XVIIT.

Every thing pertaining to the division and distribution of the land being thus completed, and the ancient inhabitants either destroyed,

two expelled, or reduced to submission, the tribes and a half, who had preferred their portions on the east of Jordan, were dismissed in
Jul. Per.

A.M.

3271. } 2561. f

an honourable manner, laden with their share of the spoil,

Ann. Exod. 48. f

1443.

consisting of cattle, silver, gold, } brass, iron, and raiment, after having received a blessing from Joshua, accompanied with encomiums upon their fidelity and services, and earnest exhortations to them, that they should walk in the -ways of God.(p) On crossing the Jordan, the two tribes and a half began to consider, that being cut off by the river from the rest of their brethren, they might possibly be forgotten in the course of time, or their own posterity might forget that they formed a part of the general commonwealth. With a view to obviate so detrimental a consequence, they set about erecting an althe bank of tar(q) of immense magnitude on the pattern of the river, on their own side, after the altar in the court of the tabernacle, not indeed {or sacrifice ; but as a permanent testimony of the identity of religious worship between the tribes on both sides, and to perpetuate the memory of the relation that subsisted between them.

Joshua sent ten of the chiefs, or princes, with Phinehas, the high-priest's son, at their head, to inquire into the reason of the Reubenites, and their companions, erecting this altar, to expostulate with them on the impropriety of their conduct, and to endeavour to reclaim them from their error, without an appeal to arms. Phinehas delivered his message in he reminded strong but affectionate terms them of the danger to which they would be exposed by introducing a new mode of worship; referred to the dreadful chastisement that had followed the defection to Baal-peor, while they lay in the plains of Moab, of which the effects had not yet ceased to be felt in the recollection of near and dear relatives, who were cut off on that occasion ; and invited them, if they were fearful of living at so great a distance from the sanctuary, to recross the Jordan, and take up their abode among their brethren, who, he assured them, would rather straiten themselves to make them room, than that wrath should fall upon the whole nation in consequence of their trespass, as it had by reason of Achan's.
:

though good in its intent, had appearance of an imitation of the heathen practice of worshipping upon highaction,

This

the

speech of Phinehas excited the greatest surprise in the persons to whom it was addressed, that their intentions should be so misunderstood, it was heard with respectful silence: but when he had finished, they made a most solemn appeal to the great God of heaven and earth, to whom all things are

Though

this

places, as well as of a purpose to offer sacrifices in a place that God had not appointed and so it was construed by Joshua and the rest of
:

known, for their integrity, declaring that they had not reared the altar with a view to sacrifice upon it, but purely to prevent their posterity

being excluded the privilege of going to

the Israelites, who, indignant at this supposed apostasy of their brethren, determined upon
it, and began to collect their forces at Shiloh, where the ark and tabertogether In the mean nacle were, for that purpose.

make

chastising

and oblations in the their offerings of God's appointment, under pretence place that they were separated from the commonwealth of Israel, by the intervention of the river Jordan.
the Egyptian pyramids, and the reputed shape of the tower of Babel.j Such an erection could not but excite the pious jealousy of their brethren west of Jordan: and hence Phinehas so strongly alludes to what had happened in the defection to Baal-peor, the false deity of the Midianites, whose worship was celebrated on high-places.

no more than an immense mound of earth,* with an ascent by an inclined plane on the
eastern side
tion,
it

9. (p) Josh. xxii. 1 (q) This alter was probably

so that to persons unacquainted with its intenmight be mistaken for one of those high-places so common among the descendants of Ham, and which the
;

Israelites

were positively commanded

to destroy,

whenever

they met with them :t the only difference was, that the altar of the two tribes and a half was square upon its base, while those of the Heathens were generally round, or conical ; though these were also sometimes square, as appears from
Agreeably to the direction,
t Erorf. xx. 24.

or testimony

Reubenites was called TV, (ED) a witness, on a former occasion, gave the name of iy hi, (GOL-ED) heap of witness, to the heap of stones set up between him and Laban.||

This

altar of the
;

as Jacob,

See Bryant's Mythology,

.

vol. iv. p.

43. vol.
II

v. p.

196.

Knmb.

xxxiii. 5,2.

Dent.

vii.

6, xii, 2, 3.

$ Kumb.~i.iM. 41.

Gen. xxxi. 46, 47.

SfiCT. III.]

JOSHUA'S FAREWEL.
the tribes, and after recapitulating
all

77-",

This answer, and the air of sincerity with which it was delivered, satisfied the deputies, and they returned to Joshua and the Israelites, at Shiloh, who, after hearing their report, laid aside their hostile intentions, and retired to their
several habitations.(r)

that

God

long Joshua lived after writers reckoning seven others seventeen or eighteen, and others years, twenty or twenty-one. However this may be, he governed Israel in peace during the remainder of his days. It seems to have been in this interval, that the people were rebuked at Bochim, by some messenger sent by God from Gilgal, for their remissness in not destroying the remaining altars of the heathens, and in making treaties of amity with the people of the country, contrary to the reiterated injunction of Moses ;(s)for which, he told them, the Canaanites would become as thorns in their sides, and their false deities would be a continual snare to them.(t) This reproof brought the Israelites for a moment to their recollection, and in a general assembly in the place where it was given, they humbled themselves 'and wept before God, whence it obtained the name of Bochim.(u) It was probably at this time that Joshua, who seems, indeed, to have been himself the messenger, or angel, from Gilgal, assembled
It is uncertain
;

how

this transaction

some

them, and reminding them, that now settled in the promised land, although much of it still remained to be conquered he exhorted them to refrain from intercourse with the remnant of the Canaanites, lest God should leave them to perish in the midst of their enemies, who, if treated as friends, would

had done

for

infallibly become snares to thera.(v) The effect of this address is not

recorded

but
to

evident, that the Israelites had form matrimonial alliances with

it is

begun
their

heathen inmates, and even to defile themselves Wherefore privately with their idolatries.(w) Joshua, finding his end fast approaching, convoked another assembly at Shechem. (x) Here he renewed his exhortation with more earnestness, strengthened with arguments drawn from the same source as on the former occasion so that, at length, he obtained from them a solemn promise that they would serve the Lord, and Him only. Indeed, they had not, as a body; yet been guilty of any open defection, except that of too familiar intercourse with the Canaanites for they served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived him ;(yj but Joshua was aware of, and therefore levelled his cautions at, the
;
;

private sins

of particular individuals, though

(r) (s)
xii. 3.
(t)

Josh. xxii. passim. Exod. xxiii. 32, 33.

xx. 16.

xxxiv. 12, 15.

Deut.

vii.

2, 5.

Judges,

ii.

5.

each other, and Joshua's habitation, in the territory of Timnath-serah, was about half way between both and ad the text says that he gathered ALL THE TRIBES, as well as their ciders, the heads of families, the judges, and the officers,
;

tears, or weeping; in Greek In 2 .Sam. v. 23, 24, the same word is translated mulb<'rr\i trees ; and as the place there mentioned was near Jerusalem, and the one above alluded to is supposed to be the same with Shiloh, it has been concluded that there were two Bochims. See Calmet's Diet. The similarity of this address to that of (v) Josh, xxiii. the angel, or messenger from Gilgal, spoken of in Judges, ii.

(u)

Heb. D'313, (BOCHIM)

KXauO/iSn.

1 3, scarcely leaves room to doubt that they were the same, It is uncertain where this only related by different writers. assembly was held some contending that it was at Timnathserah, the residence of Joshua, others at Shiloh, where the ark was, and others at Shechem, where the next congress,
;

mentioned in the following chapter, was held. (w) See Joshua, xxiv. 14, 23. was now at Shiloh, and the people (x) As the tabernacle are said to have presented themselves before the Lord, it has been held by many commentators that Shiloh, and not Shechem, should be read in this place: and thus the Septhough two editions, the Aldine and Comtuagint has it the name of Sychem, or Shechem. To get plutentian, retain rid of this difficulty, it has been observed, that Shiloh and Shechem were only about ten or twelve miles distant from
;

very probable that the former, i. e. the tribes, who must have composed a very extensive camp, were collected in the plains of Shechem, while the elders, &c. went with Joshua to Shiloh, to ratify, in the name of the rest, their covenant with God, by sacrificing before the door of the tabernacle; after which they returned to Shechem, and, in the presence of the whole host, set up the stone of remembrance, in memory of this solemn transaction.* Dr. Shuckford is of this opinion; but Mr. Mede thinks the Ephraimites had a temporary oratory, or synagogue, whither the people resorted for divine worship, when they could not get to the tabernacle and that is called " presenting themselves before the Lord." A more recent commentator! prefers the reading a* we find it, Shechem; a place remarkable in the patriarchal to inspire the people history, and therefore well calculated with holy recollections, especially as it was in that neighbourhood that Joshua, after the conque>t of Jericlio and Ai, had made a former covenant with the people, between mounts Ebal and Gemini. J He therefore supposes that Joshua had cafised the ark of the covenant to be removed from Shiloh to Shechem, on this occasion, on account of his age and infirmities, which rendered him incapable of travelling.
it is
;

(y)
t

Joshua, xxiv. 31. Judges,

1,

ii.

7.
t Jofhna, viu.

Umcersal Hist.

vol.

iii.

p.

482, note B. (8o. edit.)

Dr. A. Clarke, OH Josh. XXJT.

3035.

776

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

to

[CHAP,

xv

he addressed the whole as a nation. When, therefore, they pledged themselves to obedience, and a strict observance of the law of God he took the opportunity to remind them of the solemnity of their engagement, and put it to them again, to make their choice between the service of Jehovah, or of the gods of the Chalda-ans, whom their early ancestors had worshipped, or the gods of the Egyptians, or those of the people of the land. Finding them determined in their first declaration, he made a solemn sacrifice, by way of confirming the covenant by which they had bound themselves, and wrote au account of the transaction iu the book of the law at the same time, he set up a a stone as a memorial of witness, to recal to their recollection the engagement they were under, should they at any time be tempted to
;

suppress the rising tumult, by assuring the people that the enterprise would be easy, After the and the success indubitable, (e) when he took the command death of Moses, of the Israelites, he is not once found repining at the orders of God, his sovereign, nor shewing any diffidence of the fulfilment of His pro-

apostatise. (/)
Jul Per

3288

^
")

ms Was tne
in
;

engaged for very shortly after, 1426J he went the way of all flesh, dying in peace at the age of one hundred and ten years, and was buried in the border of his inheritance, in Timnath-serah, in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of
B.C.

2578. ( A. M. Ann. Exod. 65. f

action

' ast P u ^ uc transwhich Joshua was

Gaash.(a) The character of this eminent general and ruler is every where marked by the deepest piety and most distinguished heroism. In an early part of his career, we see him at the head of his countrymen, just released from a degrading bond age, resisting the attacks of the Amalekites, supposed to be one of the most warlike nations then in existence,(b) and ultimately defeating them.(c) When sent with others to examine the promised land, only himself and Caleb, of all the twelve, remained undaunted at the terrible aspect and military habits of the inhabitants, or the strength of their fortresses ; for he trusted in ONE whose name is a tower of
strength ;(d) and
his pusillanimous comthe people by their ill-timed panions dispirited rc|>r 'sentations of the difficulty, of the proposed invasion of Canaan, he and Caleb endeavoured

opening the campaign, that was to put him and his people iuto possession of the country, he was detained for about six weeks in the performance of religious rites.(f ) His confidence was unshaken, and he obeyed implicitly all that was commanded him. When he met the armed man, under the walls of Jericho, his courage was equally undaunted, (g) During the whole of the war with the Canaanites, he always manifested the same heroic firmness and in his latter days, his earnestness with the Israelites that they should not depart from, nor corrupt the worship of God, is a demonstrative proof of the genuine piety of his soul towards God, and of his love to his brethren. In other respects, his conduct was nobly disinterested. Though the conqueror of nations, and the hero of his day, he appropriated to himself no large domains, no splendid city, no part of the spoils of the vanquished. All his reward was the privilege of choosing- a
:

This was most eminently exemplified conduct immediately after the passage of the Jordan; when, cut off from retreat by an overflowing river on one side, and surrounded by enemies on every other, instead of
mises.
in his

when

place of residence in the territories of his own barren particular tribe, where, among the mountains of Ephraim, he found only the ruins of what had once been a town, which furnished him with materials to build another.(h) It has been disputed whether Joshua were the author of the sacred book which bears his name, on account of several prochronisms with regard to the names of places, &c. as the laud of Cabul, which was not so called till the time of Solomon.(i) the city of Joktheel, which till the reign of Joash was called Selah, ( j) the city of Tyre, (k) which, according to
Sherah,
or

(z)

(a) Ibid. xxiv. 29, 30. Joshua, xxiv. 1 27. (c) Exod. xvii. 813. (b) See before, p. 651, 683. (d) Prov. xviii. 10. (e) Numb. xiv. 12. See before, p. 7(, note (p). (f) Joshua, v. 2 (g)
li

Serah,
at

the

daughter,
is

or

grand-daughter of

Joshva, b

v. 13. Ibid. N:X. 50.

;,Ii,

It quite uncertain. then called Uzzen-sherah ;* afterwards Tinimith-lieres.t 1 Kings, ix. 13. (i) Comp. Josh. xix. 27. (j) Comp. Josh. xv. 38. 2 Kings, xiv. 7.

Ephraim; but

what period,

was

This town or city seems to have been with the Upper and Lower Beth-boron, by 3

(k)

Josh. xix. 26.

* See
1

Chron.

vii,

24.

Judga,

ii..*

SECT.

II1.J

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF JOSHUA.

777

was not built till nearly two (I) hundred years after Joshua's deatli these, and such expressions as "the twelve stones in Jordan, remain to the present set up " a heap day ;"(m) the city of Ai was made for ever, even a desolation to the present
Josephus,
:

names of places, and interpolated those memorandums, or remarks, which have given risi- to the doubts of its authenticity.(u) The name of this great general was originally Oshea, or Hoshea, a Saviour, as before related:
but Moses afterwards changed it to Jeh.osh.ua, or Joshua,(v) the salvation of Jehovah; in reference to his instrumentality in bringing the people of Jehovah into the promised land, saving them from their enemies, leading them from conquest to conquest, and at length giving to each his portion in the country. He was early

day;'\n) the account of Othniei's marriage with Achsah, the daughter of Caleb, which properly belongs to the time of the Judges ;(o) as does also the history of the capture of Leshem, by the Danites;(p) have been adduced as proofs that the book of Joshua was the work of some other hand. It is not, however, to be supposed that Joshua, who had seen the practice of Moses, should neglect to make a register of the important transactions in which he

was engaged

known

that

especially when he must have such a record was essential, not

;

only as a supplement and continuation of the annals of his predecessor, but as a testimony to after-ages, of the faith fulness of God in fulfilling his promises ; as well as to prevent contentions among the tribes about their several boundaries and cities. (q) If any proof is desired from internal evidence, that the writer of this book was an eye-witness of what he related, it may be found in a remark made immediately after the passage of the Jordan, " until WE were passed over;"(r) and that he was contemporary with Rahab, is certain, for he describes her as " unto this Continuing among the Israelites i. e. when the book was written day ;" ;(s) but as he has not spoken of her marriage with Salmon, (t) it may be inferred that he wrote before it took place. On these grounds, therefore, we conclude that the substance of the may fairly book of Joshua, with the last chapter of Deuteronomy, with which it should properly begin, were the work of Joshua himself; that the account of his death was added by Eleazar the priest, whose own decease was also inserted by his son Phinehas, or some of his brethren ; and that the book was afterwards revised, first by Samuel and then by Ezra, who changed those
(1) Contra Apion. lib. i. Josephus, however, here speaks of the island-city of Tyre; prior to which, a city of the same name had stood on the continent, and might be even older than Joshua.

the elders, when Moses went up to receive the tables of the law.(w) He is called the servant of Moses, and appears in the various characters of secretary, aide-de-camp, and general, under
that great legislator
;

attached to Moses, by whom he was always highly esteemed, and he accompanied him to a higher station upon mount Sinai, than any of

on whose decease he was

preferred by God himself to take the lead of His people Israel. Joshua left no children: nor does it appear that he was ever married. On his death, which was shortly followed by that of Eleazar, the high-priest,(x) Caleb, as head of the tribe of Judah, took the lead in military affairs,(y) and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, succeeded to the By degrees, the seventy elders, priesthood. (z) who had outlived Joshua, died also, together with the whole generation that had seen the

wonders wrought by God

for

their defence

With these worthies against the natives.(a) all sense of religion, and regard to the perished laws of God insomuch that Joshua had been dead thirteen years, before the scarcely Israelites had so corrupted themselves with the idolatries of the natives, that they were judicially given over for a time to the power of their enemies,(b) as will be seen in its proper place.
;

The Mohammedans(c)

relate

many more

transactions of Joshua's life, than are recorded in our own sacred book ; but they are mostly arrant fables the same may likewise be said of
:

(u)
(v)

See Prideaux's Connect, part.

i.

book

v.

(w)
(x)
is

Numb. xiii. 16. Deut. xxxii. '44. Comp. Exod. xxiv. 1, 9, 1214. xxxii. 15, 17. Joshua, xxiv. 33. The precise time of Eleazar's death

(m) Joshua, iv. 9. (n) Ibid. viii. 28. (o) Joshua, xv. 16, 17. Judges, i. 12, 13. (p) Joshua, xix. 47. Judges, xviii. passim. (q) See Shuckford, Connect, vol. iii. p. 498, et scq.
(r)

Josh. v. 1.
I.

(s)

Josh.

vi.

25.

(t)

Matt.

i.

v.

uncertain : some suppose it to have taken place soon after that of Joshua ; others think he outlived him six years. (z) Judges, xx. 27, 28. (y) Judges, i. 1, 2, 12. (b) Ibid. ii. 11, et seq. (a) Ibid. ii. 10. D'Herbelot. JBibl. Orient, sub voce Joschota.
(c)

VOL.

50

778

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP, xviir.

a book of Joshua, among the Samaritans, conwhich those taining forty-seven chapters, on
the people ground their pretences against of this book, which does copy Jews.(d) not appear to have been ever printed, was pre-

sented, by Joseph Scaliger, to the university of Leyden, written in Samaritan characters, but the Jews acknowin the Arabic tongue no other book of Joshua besides what ledge \ve have in our own Bibles. They, however, attribute to him a certain prayer, part of which they commonly repeat on going out of their synagogues, as an acknowledgment that it is their duty to praise the great Creator of heaven
:

and earth, who hath granted them an inheritance inestimably richer, than to the rest of the
nations upon earth.(e)

SECTION
TRIBES.

IV.

GEOGRAPHY OF PALESTINE; OR, DIVISION OF THE LAND OF CANAAN AMONG THE TWELVE
IN a former Chapter, the ancient state of this country, under its first inhabitants, has been
described, with its boundaries, rivers, lakes, mountains, &c.; a general view has there also been taken of its climate, soil, animal and

various authorities, most of which will appear in the notes, and that it is not more liable to objections than any that have preceded it. The land of Canaan, after it was possessed by the Israelites, exchanged its name for Israel and Judea; the ^former from the people at large ; the latter from Judah, the most considerable of their tribes. In a large sense, Jiulea \vas divided into maritime and inland, mountainous and champaign ; and when taken in conjunction with the territories of the Reubenites, &c. it consisted of Judea on this side Jordan, and Judea beyond that river. But the most considerable division, and that which claims our present attention, was made by Joshua, as related in the last Section, into twelve tribes, of which nine and a half were seated in Canaan, properly so called, on the west of Jordan, and two and a half on the east. In the reign of Solomon, the kingdom of Israel was divided into twelve provinces, or districts, for the purpose of taxation, each under a particular officer, whose duty it was to levy a monthly supply of provisions, by turns, for the king's household ;(g) the extent, limits, and quota, of these provinces are not

mentioned

vegetable productions, and curiosities (f) it remains, therefore, only to speak of its division subsequent to its conquest by the Israelites, and to describe the bounds of the several tribes, with the names of the cities and towns they respectively contained. In pursuing this
:

but Reland, assisted by Josephus, has attempted to give a description of them, for which the reader may consult his work.(h) Under Rehoboam, ten of the twelve tribes revolted to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which occasioned a' new and fatal division in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the former of
;

which
ria,

is

frequently called in Scripture,

Sama-

subject, nothing like geographical truth

:

from its capital of that name, and Ephraim, from the tribe in which that city stood. Under

is

to

be expected by far the greater number of the cities have been long since ruined, and the very site on which they stood is unknown for though the country has been repeatedly visited by the most learned and intelligent travellers, who have published maps and topographical descriptions, no two of them, in general, agree in the position of places so much, indeed, do
: :

Romans, it was divided into tetrareliies and toparchies, of which the larger were those of Judea, Samaria, and Upper and Lower
the
Galilee; the lesser, those of Geraritica, Sarona, and others of inferior consequence, all on the west side of the Jordan those on the east
;

they differ, that even an approximation to truth is not to be hoped -for. As to the map, all that can be said in its favour, is, that it has been constructed with considerable labour from
f<1)

were Gilead, Pera a, Gaulonitis, Auranitis, Batanea, and Decapolis: though, according to Pliny,(i) these toparchies were ten in number,
j

viz.

I.

Jericho;
5.

'1.

Enimaus
6.

3.
;

Acrabatena; Joppa; Gophna 8. Bethleptephane 9. Orina; 10. which Josephus,( j) who says there were eleven,
7.
;

Lydda; 4. Thamna; Herodium;

<<,

Fabric. Apvt:i-i//>/t. Vest. Test. p. W;.|iM:il. Ttla J;/iini Stitantt,

'

H7,

ct

seq.

(h) Pala-st. ll/ustrut. cup.

(i)

'Jit,

ct

seq.

p. 'J2U,
(j)

In-fore, p.

670,

ct

A'/. Hiit.

Ill),

v.

sey.

cap. 14.
iii.

(g)

Kings,

iv. 7, et seq.

De

Bell. Jud. lib.

cap. 4.

SECT. IV.]

CITIES OF JUDAII.
ten, 2. ;

77!)

yet
4.
8.

names only
:

order

Gophna
;

ranks in the following Acrabatta 3. Thanina

;

Pella; 7. Idumea 10. Jericho: in another place,(k) indeed, he speaks of Bethleptepliane (supposed to be the same with Bethlefiaoth, in the tribe of Simeon), as a toparchy, which may make up his number of eleven. The last-named writer also mentions another division, made in the time of Gabinius, into five rttitym, or councils, vis. Jerusalem, Jericho, and Sephoris, on the west, and Gadaris and Amathus, on the east of Jordan. (1) Under the Christian this country underwent a new diviemperors, sion into Palestina Prima, Palestina Secunda, and Palestina Tertia, or Salutaris ; after which it experienced various changes, while subject to the Saracens, &c. from whom it ultimately passed to its present possessors, the Turks, who have reduced the whole of Palestine to a district, or province, under the beglerberg of Sham, or Scham, who has seven sangiacs subordinate to him, styled, according to the places of their residence, 1. Of Damascus; 2. Of Jerusalem, called by the Turks Cudsembaric, or Coudscherif ; 3. Of Aglum ; 4. Of

Lydda

5.

Enimaus

6.
;

Engadae;

9.

Herodion

bounded on the east by the Dead Sea; and on the west by Dan and Simeon, which lay between it and the Mediterranean. The land was beautifully variegated with fertile plains, hills, dales, small lakes, springs, &c. and produced corn, wine,- oil, fruits, and pasture in abundance, except in those parts contiguous to mount Seir, where the country was barren. It was in this part of Canaan, that Abraham and Isaac resided. The principal places(o)
were Achzib, of unknown Joshua seems to place
:

situation,
it

except that between Keilah and

Mareshah.(p)

Adadah, somewhere

Septuagint Arouel, Judah.(q) Adithairn. Eusebius speaks of two places, called Aditha, (or, according to Jerom's reading, Adia) ; one of which Reland supposes to be the same with Adada, just mentioned, and the other, the place in question, near Gaza. Adullam, celebrated for the retreat of David
in the northern part of

called

in

the

during his persecution by Saul, (r) royal city, and the fourteenth in
catalogue.

It

was a

Joshua'*

Bahara

bolos, or ziamets, and these each a number of timariats, under them,(m) as will be more particularly explained in the modern history of Turkey in Asia.
I.

Of Scifat 6. Of Gaza 7. Of NaNaplous. Each of these have several

5.
;
;

OF THE

NINE TRIBES AND A HALF WEST OF JORDAN.

IN pursuing this subject, the tribes will be taken as they came out by lot when Joshua
distributed them; beginning with

OF JuDAH.(n) This tribe, the and most populous of the whole, was the chief, or royal tribe, from which the kingdom of Rehoboam was denominated and its inhabitants were deemed the most valiant
1.

THE TRIBE

largest

among

It extended south of mountains of Seir, or Edom, Benjamin, which separated it from Idumea; and was
all their

brethren.

to the

Ain, afterwards given to Simeon.(s) Amam, of unknown situation. Anab, among the mountains of Judah. Jerom takes it for the same with Beth-hannaba, 8 miles to the east of Diospolis ; and Eusebius places Bethoannab at four miles' distance from that city ; while Epiphanius (t) speaks of a town, or village, called Anablata, in the diocese of Jerusalem, near Beth-el but Calmet thinks neither of these places was the ancient Anab, which Joshua classes with Hebron and Debir; and for this reason he thinks it lay more to the southward. Aphekah, or Aphek, near which the Philistines encamped, when they fought with Israel, and captured the ark.(u) There were several other cities of the same name ; one in the tribe of Asher,(v) another in Syria,(w) &c. The king of Aphek stands in the nineteenth place of Joshua's list of conquests ;(x) but whether his city was in Ashur, or in Judah, or in the valley of Jezreel, is uncertain.
:

De Bell. Jud. lib. v. cap 4. (1) Antiq. lib. xiv. cap. 10. (m) See Sir Paul Ricaut's Account of the Ottoman Empire. (n) Joshua, xv. passim. (o) In the above list, the modern names, when known, are
(k)

(r)
(t)

(p) Joshua, xv. 44. 1 Sam. xxii. 1.

(s)

Palest, p. 544. (q) Reland. Comp. Josh. xv. 32. xix. 7.

(v) Josh. xix. 30.

Epist.

ad Johan.

Jerosol.

(u) 1 .9am. iv. I, et seq.

added

[in Italics,] as, in many instances, are also the significations of the ancient names.

(w) 1 Kings, xx. 20. (?) Josh. xiii. 18.

3 Kings,

xiii.

17.

5o

780

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

or

[CHAP, xvrii.

Ereb, according to Jerom, or Ereraintha, according to Eusebius. The former of these writers thinks it was the same with a village, called in his time, Heroinit, in the south of Judah. Ashan, afterwards given to Simeon.(l) Ashdod, or Azotus. This was one of the five satrapies of the Philistines,(m) and never appears to have been possessed either by Judah, or by the tribe of Dan, within whose borders It was a maritime it afterwards was included. with a port on the Mediterranean, becity, tween Askalon and Accaron, or between Jamnia and Askalon, according to the author of the book of Judith, (n) or between Gaza and

Arab,

the Pelusiac, or east branch of the Nile, upon a supposition that the river of Egypt, called also Sihor, mentioned with it, is the Nile: it is more likely, however, that Sihor was some other river between Canaan and Egypt. Baalah, or Baalath,(x) near a hill of the same name, afterwards given to Simeon. Baalah, or Kirjath-jearim, or Kirjath-baal, also reckoned among the cities of Benjamin ;(y)
it

was a frontier town, but belonged

Bealoth, of

unknown

to Judah. (z) situation: as its name

signifies the goddesses

the seat of

of Baal, it was probably some impure worship paid to Ash-

Jainnia, according to Josephus;(o) which several statements, Calmet thinks, may be recon-

taroth, Astarte, or Venus. Beer-sheba, the ivell of the oath, or of the seven, i. e. the seven lambs given by Abraham to Abimelech,(a) is celebrated for the residence

by placing it between all those places. Psamrnetichus, king of Egypt, was engaged for twenty-nine years in besieging Ashdod, (p) being the longest siege mentioned in ancient history, and only exceeded in modern times by the siege of Ceuta. Ashnah. There seems to have been two places of this name the first is mentioned in conjunction with Eshtaol and Zoreah ;(q) the other with Jiphtah and Nezib:(r) Eshtaol and Zoreah, or Zorah, were afterwards given to
ciled,
;

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. about forty miles from Jerusalem, in the way between Canaan and Egypt and was afterwards taken into the tribe of Simeon.
It lay
;

of the patriarchs,

Beth-anoth, the house of affliction, of unknown

situation.

Beth-arabah, the house of the flat country, terwards given to Benjamin.(b)

af-

Beth-dagon, the house, or temple, of Dagon, an idol of the Philistines ;(c) probably in some part of their territories, though its situation is

Dan,(s) and perhaps the first Ashnah went with them. Azekah, a strong city, both from situation and its walls, stood in the valley of Terebinth, where David slew Goliath ;(t) and was one of the last cities that held out against Nebuchadnezzar.(u) During the troubles in Judea, occasioned by the incursions of foreign enemies, the inhabitants of Azekah, as well as those of Lnchish, Libnah, and Makkedah, revolted from the kings of Judah, and formed themselves into free states. In the days of Eusebius and Jerom, there was still a city, called Azekah, upon, or about the site of the place in
question.

now unknown.

Azem, afterwards given to Simeon.(v) Azmon, the last city of Israel, towards Egypt,(w) is placed by some geographers on
(1)

Beth-lehem, the house of bread, or Ephrath, fertility or abundance, the birth-place of David, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, though once a royal city, is IJOAV a poor village. It is situated on a hill in a fertile and beautiful plain, a few miles(d) south of Jerusalem; and is still held in great esteem by the Christians, for the magnificent church, built by the empress Helena over the grot where our Lord was born ; to which there is yearly a great resort of pilgrims. The building is roofed with cedar, supported by four rows of stately white marble the walls also are faced pillars, ten in a row with the same kind of stone. Some other of this place have been already deantiquities scribed. (e) This was originally part of Caleb's inheritance, and he named it after his second
;

Comp.

Josh. xv. 42. xix. 7.

v.
i.

(y) (n) Judith, in. 2.

(z)

Comp.

Josh. xv. 9, 60.

xviii.
xii.

28.

(m) 1 Sam.
(p)
(T)
(t)

vi.

17.

(o) Anti(j. lib. xiii. cap. 23.

(a)

Herodot.

lib.

ii.

cap. 167.

(q)

Joshua, xv. 33.

(c)

2 Sam. vi. 2. 1 Chron. Gen. xxi. 2830. See before, p. 010.

6.

(b) Josh. xv. 6. xviii. 2:2.

Joshua, xv. 43. (s) Ibid. xix. 41. 1 .Sam. xii. (u) Jerem. xxxiv. 7. (v) Josh. xix. 3. (\v) Numb, xxxiv. 4, 5. Josh. xv. 4. (x) Joth. xix. 3, it is called Balali.

(d) Five or six, according to Josephus and Eusebius ; seven or eight, according to Maundrcll, Pococke, and other

modern
(e)

travellers.
p.

See before,

587.

SECT. IV,]

CITIES OF JUDAH.

781

From Caleb it wife, Ephrath, or Ephratah, seems to have passed to his son Hur, from one of whose sons it received the name of Beth-lehem.(f) It is called Beth-lehem of Judah, (g) and Beth-lehem Ephratah, (h) to distinguish it from another Beth-lehem in the tribe of Zebulun.(i) The Arabs still call it Beytkh'ham, or the house offood. Beth-palet, or Beth-phelet, the house of expulsion, in the south of Judah, afterwards given

St. Philip, in memory of that transaction. This part of Judah, though denominated a desert, (p) or wilderness, produces plenty of
oil, wine, &c.(q) Bezek, supposed to be the capital of Adonibezek, whose cruelty towards his captives was so amply repaid upon himself by the children of Judah. (r) Eusebius says there were two called Bezek, at no great distance from places each other, about seven miles from Sychem,

corn,

Simeon. Beth-shemesh, converted from a temple of the This city is not sun, to a city of the priests. found, at least under this name, among those enumerated by Joshua, as belonging to Judah; but Eusebius places Beth-shemesh at the distance of ten miles eastward of Eleutheropolis, not far from Nicopolis. Reland(k) distinguishes between Ir-shemesh, in the tribe of l)an, and Beth-shemesh, in that of Judah while Calmet conceives them to be the same place, upon the borders of both tribes, designated by the several appellations of city of the
to
;

towards Scythopolis ; and Calmet supposes Bezech, or Bezechat, to have been in the neighbourhood of that city, near the passage or
ford of the Jordan. Bizjothjah, in the neighbourhood of Beersheba, and probably included afterwards in the tribe of Simeon. Bozkath, or Boscath, the native place of Its situation is unking Josiah's mother.(s)

known. Cabbon, Chabbon, or Chebbon, of unknown

situation.

sun,

house, or temple of the sun.(Y) Beth-tappuah, the house of the citron, or apple-

and

to

Cabzael, or Catzeel, supposed by Reland(t) be the same with Jekabzeel, spoken of by

tree,

probably so called from the number of those

or the perfection of their fruit, which grew in the neighbourhood. Eusebius calls it the last city of Palestine, towards Egypt, and he places it fourteen miles from Raphia. Beth-zur, or Beth-sora, so called from its situation on a high and strong rock, was fortified by Rehoboam, to keep the Uanites in awe. In the time of the Maccabees,(m) it was a remarkably stout fortress, and a key of the kingdom on the side of Idumea.(n) The author of the second book of Maccabees(o) places it within five furlongs of Jerusalem; but Eusebius, with greater propriety, says it was twenty miles, or seven leagues, distant from that capital, on the road to Hebron. Near Beth-zur the fountrees,

city, though usually placed in the desert of Tekoah, at no great distance from the Red Sea, is said to lie in the country of the Philistines, and to have been built by Cain before the flood :(v) Bishop Cumberland thinks it might have been founded by the old Philistines, prior to the days of Joshua; and these, being descended from the Mizraim,

Nehemiah.(u) Cain. This

might believe, as Sanchoniatho reports, that they were of Cain's line, and therefore called the city by his name.(w) Mr. Bryant, howderives it from C'na, or C'naan, the ever, younger son of Ham, and progenitor of the CaIt was probably a city dedicated to naanites.
the sun the term cohen, cahen, or caen, being a title of honour among the Amonians, signifying lord, or prince ; as also a priest. (x) Carmel, on a mountain of the same name, near Maon, the residence of Nabal the Carmelite ;(y) and the same place where Saul, after
;

tain is

still shewn, in which Philip is said to have baptized the eunuch of queen Candace and oa the top of the hill, where Beth-zur is supposed to have stood, there is a village, called
;

(f)

Comp.
Judges,
ii.

1 Chron.
xvii.

ii.

(g)

7.

Ruth,

19, 50, 51, 54. iv. 4. i. 1 Sam. 1, 2.

xvii.

12.

Matt.
(h)
(j)
(1)

5.
v. 2.
(i) Jos/two, xix. 15. (k) Palrxt. Illmtr. p. 056.

Micah,

(p) How the term desert, or wildcrntts, in the scripture geography, is to he understood, see before, p. 581. (q) See Maundrell and Pococke. () 2 Kings, xxii. 1. (r) Jitdijvs, i.

47.

Joshua, xxi. 16.

(t)

Comp../osA. xix. 40. xxi. 10. iv. 9. 2 Kings, xiv. 11. 1 Chron. (m) 1 Maccab. \. passim. (n) See Jerom and Eusebius.

Sam.
59.

vi.

12.

1 Kings,

Palest. Ittvstr. p. 008. (v) See Univers. Hist. vol.

(u)
i.

Chap.

xi.

25.

vi.

182, note T. (8vo. edit.) (w) Cumberland on Sanchoniatho, p. 22, ct seq. (x) Bryant's Mythol. vol. i. p. 48, vol. vi. p. 138.
p. (y) 1

(o)

Chap.

ix. 5.

Sam. xxv.

2.

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

the defeat of the Amalekites, erected a pillar, or trophy.(z) Chesil, of unknown situation. J)annah, situated among the mountains of
it

[CHAP. XVMI.

were for a short time, in the days of Caleb ;(i) for in Samuel's time it belonged to the Philistines.(j)

Judah.
Debir, or Kirjntli-sannah, or Kirjath-sepher. Otlmiel received Achsah, the daughter of Caleb, in marriage, for taking this city.(a) It stood at a little distance to the south of Hebron, and was inhabited by the Anakim, It was afterwards when Othniel took it.
given to the priests.(b)
lean

[* 1/imouao

'] 3
.

both unknown.

about 17 miles from Eleutheropolis, according to Euscbius and In the Vulgate, and most editions of Jeroin.
l)uniah, in the south,

the Septuagint, it is called Rumu. Eder, or Edar, celebrated for a watch-tower, about a mile from Beth-lehem, said to have been built by the patriarch Jacob, to observe

from

it

whence

what was passing among his shepherds, its name, which signifies the toiver of

Eltekon, on the confines of Benjamin. Eltolad, afterwards given to Simeon. Emmaus, in Hebrew Chammin, from it* natural hot-baths, is celebrated for the appearance of our Saviour to two of his disciples, on It stood the evening of his resurrection, (k) about 60 furlongs south-west from Jerusalem ; and after the destruction of that city, Titus left a garrison of 800 soldiers, to whom he church gave this town for a residence.(l) was afterwards built on the spot where our Lord manifested himself to his two disciples. Enam, or Enaim, supposed to be the place where Tamar presented herself to Judah. (in) Its name signifies a fountain., by the side of which she sat, before any city was built there. Eusebius speaks of it as a village, called Beiltcnim, in his time, not far from Terebinth, or t/ie oak of Mamrc, near Hebron. En-gannim, of unknown situation.

the flock. Moses, however, does not say that Jacob built this tower, but that he spread his tent beyond it,(c) and here he had the mortifi-

cation of hearing of the crime of Reuben.(d) There is a tradition, that it was near this tower, that the angel announced the nativity of our Lord to the shepherds, and that the empress Helena built a church over the spot, of which certain ruins, still visible, are said to be the remains.(e) Eglon, called by Eusebius Odolla, though the sacred text makes them two distinct places. Eusebius describes it in his time as a large village, about ten thousand paces east of Eleutheropolis. Ekron, the most northern of the five Philistine satrapies, or lordships, and celebrated for the idol-worship of Baal-zelmb.(C) This city is described as near the border of Judah ,-(g) and though it is afterwards spoken of in the lot of Dan ;(h) it does not appear to have l)i Tii ever in the possession of either, unless
(z) 1 (a)

En-gedi, the fountain of the goat, originally Hazezon-tamar,(n) f/te city of palm-trees, or .>f one of change, stood on the summit of a steep rock, near the Dead Sea, surrounded by a territory much celebrated for the number of palms and other odoriferous trees that grew there. This district is frequently called a wilderness, on account of the mountains and woods with which it is interspersed and it was in one of the caverns of this wildernes*, that David spared the life of his persecutor This seems to be the city of palmSaul.(o) trees, spoken of in the book of Judges, rather than Jericho. (p) Eshean, of unknown situation. Eshtaol, between which and Zorah, or Both these Zoreah, Samson was buried.(q) places were afterwards included in the tribe of Dan.(r) Eshtemoh, or Eshtemoa.a city of the priest,-. Ether, afterwards given to Simeon. (s)
;

Sam.

xv. 12.

Joshua, xv. 1517. (b) Joshua, xxi. 15. (c) Gen. XXXT. 21. (d) Gen. xxxv. 22. (e) Corn. Diet. Doubdan. Voyage de la Tcrrr Sainte. (f) 2 Kings, i. 2, et setj. (g) Joshua, xv. 11. (h) Joshua, xix. 43. (i) Judges, i. 18.
(j) 1

have confounded with the above; but Reland has proved them to be two distinct towns, in the same tribe:* yet most geographers place Nicopolis in the tribe of Benjamin. the (m) Gen. xxxviii. 21. In the text of our translation, original word cnajim, retained in the margin, is rendered " the

Sam.

v.

10.

by

(k)
lib.

Luke, xxiv. 13,

vii.

Bell. Jud. (1) Joseph. another city, called Emmaus,

cap. 29. There was on account of its mineral hot waters, and afterwards Nicopolis, which Jerom seems to

De

c< seiy.

way-side."

2 Chron. xx. 2. (o) 1 Sam. xxiv. passim. 31. (q) Judges, xvi. (p) See before, p. 768, note (w). xv. 42. xix. 7. (s) Comp. Josh. (r) Joshua, xix. 41.
(n)
* Palxit.
Illustr. lib.
ii.

cap. 6.

SECT. IV.]

CITIES OF JUDAH.

783

Gaza, one of the five lordships of the Philiswas conquered by Jirdah, in the time of Caleb ;(t) but the Philistines soon recovered till the reign of it,(u) and kept possession David. Gederah, or Gederothaim, supposed by Calini't to be the same with Gedor and Gederoth. Gedor, perhaps the same with Gedor, whose king is the tenth in Joshua's catalogue of vanquished enemies.(v) Gibeah, unknown.
tines,

Giloh, the city of the traitor Ahithophel.(w) Goshen, from this city, the surrounding district obtained the name of the land of Goshen,(x) which Calmet, and others after him, have supposed to be the same with the country occupied by the Israelites, while in Egypt: and, to accommodate the geography, they extend Egypt, or the dominion of the Egyptians at that time, from the Nile, along the frontiers of the land of Gush, or Arabia, to the Dead Sea, and call the whole country Goshen. This tract, however, is a barren,
desert
;

near the spot i.s a village, where the empress Helena built a handsome church over the cave, of Machpelah, the burying-place of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Leah, which the Turks have converted into a mosque; and the place is much revered by them, as well as by the Jews and Christians. It is the capital of a district, called by the Turks, t/ie ti-n-itoi-;/ of the friends of (rod, consisting of about five-andtwenty other villages. (c) Its ancient name of Kirjath-arba, or the city of Arba, was derived from the father of Anak, of the giant-race ;(d) or rather of the family of Cush.(e) Hebron aiid
its

dependencies were at first given to Caleb for an inheritance but afterwards the city and suburbs were given to the priests for a city of
;

refuge.(f)

Heshmon, of unknown situation. Honnah, where the Israelites were attacked

and defeated by the Amalekites and Cannanseems originally to have been called Zephath,(h) and it received the name of HorIt was* inah, on being devoted to destruction. afterwards given to Simeon. (i) Holon, a city of the priests.
ites :(g) it

and Goshen,

in

Egypt,

is

described

as a place of and I he best of t lie land: pasturage, it is evident, therefore, that they are two distinct places ; one in the Arabian nomes, on

the u-cst of the Nile; the other in Canaan, in the lot of Judah.(y) Hadashah, or Chadashah, one of the least of the cities of Judah, having, according to the Eusebius Rabbins,(z) only about fifty houses. describes it as a village near Taphnas, or Gafnas, as Jerom calls it.

Huintah.. i lim ....... > Ithnan ..... j

.

all

of

unknown

situation.
in the

Jagur, or Jadur,

somewhere

south of

Hadattah Halhul Hazar-gaddah

^
>
.

all

three

unknown.

Hazar-shual, afterwards given to Simeon. (a) Hazor, or Hezron, unknown.

Hebron,

[Cu/ir-Ibm/nm],
It

or

Kirjath-arba,

Judah, but the precise spot is unknown. Janum, or Janus. Eusebius(j) speaks of a village, named Janua, three miles from Legion, towards the south, which he supposes to be the same with this Janum: but Legion was near mount Tabor, and consequently too distant from the tribe of Judah, for Janua and Janum to be the same. Jarmuth, supposed to have been about 18 miles distant from Jerusalem. There was another city of the same name, which fell to the

[El-ka/til], the ancient seat of

had taken Jerusalem. (b)

David, before he stands on a ridge

of mountains, overlooking a delightful vale, about twenty miles south of that metropolis. The old city was long ago a heap of ruins; but

was the royal city, the catalogue of Joshua;-^) It is the Jattir, a city given to the priests. same with Jether. Jebus, or JERUSALEM, [Beit-ef-MaMis, or
tribe of lssachar,(k) but this

mentioned

in

(t)

Judges,

i.

18.

(u) Juttijcs, \\\. 1, 2.

(c}

Maundrcll's Journey, &c.

Reland's PaUist.

I/luslr.

(v) Jiinliiia, xii. 13. (\; Jon/ma, x. 41.

(w) 2

Sam.

xv. 12.

'272, 7.J2, et al.

(y) Set- tins subject treated at length in Bryant's Mytltol. ol. VI. p. 105, ft S(Y/.
i/
(<iy

(d) St-e before, p. 344, 571. (e) Ibid. p. 571, 590, <>02. 13. 15. xx. 7. xxi. 9 (f) .///. xiv. 6
(g)
Ii

Numb,

xiv 45. xxi. 1

3.

Deut.
(i)

i.

t.

In Ernvint.
Joaku.ii,

xix. 3.
ii.

Judyi-a, i. 17. (j) OiuiiMint. p. ill!.

(1)

Joshua, (k) Joshua,

xix. 4.

xxi.

2).

(b)

2 Sam.

2, et seq.

Joshua,

xii.

11.

784

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

or princes of the
theatre, built

[CHAP.

xvm.

Kads-sherif,] the capital of the whole kingdom, under David and Solomon and the metropolis of Judah, under Rehoboam and his suc;

Asmonean line ; the amphiby Herod, capable of containing

;

cessors.

Till the
is
it is

Jerusalem sometimes
to

time of David, the history of encumbered with difficulties attributed to Judah, sometimes
;

Benjamin: the fact is, it was on the frontiers of both, and each possessed a part of it. The king of Jerusalem is the third in Joshua's catalogue of vanquished sovereigns ;(m) and he was at the head of the southern confederacy against Gibeon :(n) but though he fell at Makkedah,(o) and his city was burnt by the Israelites, they were not able to expel the Jebusites from the strong hold of Zion till the days of David :(p) or, if ever they gained a settlement there, they were dispossessed during the troubles in the David had no sooner days of the judges. taken this city, than he set about fortifying and adorning it with some new works and edifices ; and he is supposed to have given it the name of Jerusalem, which signifies the vision, inheritance, or possession of peace :(q) but it was under Solomon that it attained its zenith of opulence and grandeur. In its most flourishing state, this city was divided into four parts, each enclosed within its own walls, viz. 1 The Old City of Jebus, on mount Zion, where the pro.

80,000 spectators the strong citadel of Antiochus, which overlooked and commanded the temple, afterwards razed by Simon Maccabeus; and the citadel, called Antonia, built by Herod, on a high and craggy rock. 3. The New City; mostly inhabited by tradesmen, artificers, and merchants. 4. Mount Moriah, on which stood
first by Solomon destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar; rebuilt by the Jews, on and afterwards their return from Babylon beautified by Herod. renewed, enriched, and Josephus gives the circumference of Jerusalem at 33 stadia, (r) that is, about four miles and 125 paces; but Hecateus,(s) who flourished in the reign of Ptolemy Lagus, describes it as 50 stadia in circuit, in which he is supposed to include the outskirts, beyond the walls. The

the temple, built

tion of Jerusalem

last-named author also asserts, that the populaamounted to twelve myriads,

or 120,000 souls, which seems rather too few for a city of such extent ; and we learn from Josephus, that no less than 1,100,000 perished in the last war with the Romans, besides

97,000
this

who were taken

more

prisoners.

To make

phets dwelt, and where David built a magnificent castle and palace, called the city of David, and which from that time was the royal residence of the kings of Judah. Solomon greatly enlarged and beautified this citadel; but being destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, it was never thoroughly rebuilt till the reign of Herod the Idumean, surnamed the Great, who raised it to a most sumptuous structure, and dedicated it to Agrippa

credible, he quotes Ctesias's enrolment at the passover, when 255,600 lambs were numbered, with an average of ten persons to each lamb so that the number of

the

those

who were

purified according to the law,

must have been 2,556,000, besides those who were not qualified. Instead, therefore, of
120,000, the population may be more justly rated at about three millions. The situation of Jerusalem was extremely

and

Caesar.

2.

The Lower

City, called also the

daughter of Zion, from its being built after the former. In this part stood the two magnificent built by Solomon, for himself and his palaces, queen as also the palace of the Maccabees,
;

advantageous; encompassed with rising grounds, itself upon a hill, or hills, with fruitful plains in the interval, interspersed with pleasing
rivulets

and salubrious streams.

Of

the

hills,

on which the city stood, the two largest were Zion and Acra, directly opposite to each other;
Chrerilus, to be the

(m) Joshua,

xii.

10.
(o) Ibid. ver. 21, et seq.
8.

same with the Jews, notwithstanding the

(n) Ibid. x. 1, 3.
(p) Cornp. Joshua, xv. 63.
et seq.

Judges,

i.

2 Sam.

v.

fi,

authority of Tacitus* and Josephus.t who have decided otherwise. The city was sometimes, indeed not (infrequently, in thr Psalms, called the holy city, I or Jerusalem the Ao//;
is denominated the city of GW;|| in the prophets, the throne of Jehovah ;1T and by our Saviour himself, the city of the great King:** all which titles re)*-i to its being the special residence, upon earth, of the only true God.
it

(q) It is generally supposed, that Jerusalem is the same with Salem, the city of Melchizedek, but without sufficient The Greeks and Latins called it Solyina, and grounds. Hierosolyma, which latter some writers conceive to be a compound of 'lijjf and Eo'^/xa, but with no better reason neither can we admit the Solymi, spoken of by Homer and
:

(r) (s)

De

Bell. Jud. lib.

vi.

cap. 4.

Apud

Joseph. Contra Apionem.

t.

/fist. lib. v.

Nehem.

xi. 1,

cap. ?. is.

IsaM,

xlviii. 2.

Matt.

iv. 5.

Contra Apim. lib. xivu. S3.

i.

The
||

I' sain xlvi.

old Jewish shekels b.^r :lii- liile. 4. If Jcr. in. 17.

v.

35.

ERT
Adjacent

\/t(tttl!

/li.r,

SECT. TV.]

DESCRIPTION OF
the

785

but the most celebrated was Moriah, about three quarters of a mile in compass, on which stood the temple. Mount /ion bounded the whole of the .southern side, reaching from east to west the western side was the highest, and had the valley of Hinnom(t) at its foot, as the eastern side had that of Jehoshaphat, (u) which is also thought to have joined the other towards the south :(v) in fact, they were only two names for different parts of the same vale to which a third, that of Tophet, may be added In this valley were several in the south. springs, particularly those of Gihon(w) and 8hiloah,(x) or Siloam,(y) which yielded abundance of good water. North of Zion, was another valley, called by Josephus the valley of
;
:

fort, was Mizpah,(e) or Maspha, which was subdivided by Nehemiah into two parts, and committed to the care of two rulers :(f)

of these, the one towards the east contained the arsenal, or armoury. Another quarter, also divided into two parts, under two rulers, bore the name of Jerosalem.(g) This is what Josephus(h) calls the city, with respect to the

and both together made the upper city. Besides these, there were three quarters, or wards, in Acra, viz. BetJi-a/cerem, Beth-zur, and Keilah, but only their names are known. The only street in Jerusalem, mentioned by the sacred writers, is one called Haophim, or
citadel
;

the Bakers'-street
like

it from Acra, cheesemongers, which separated and was probably the same that Zephaniah distinguished by the epithet of Maktesh,(z) a

;(i) and probably others, in manner, bore the title of the trades carried on in them. In Josephus's time, the valley was called Tyropeon.( j)

Of the public buildings in Zion, the first that claims attention is David's house, or palace,
on the top of the mount, in the midst of a forThe ascent to it was by a flight of steps ;(1) on the north of which stood the tomb
tress.(k)

hollow place. North of Zion, stood the hill called Acra, a name borrowed from the Greek, and signify-

a citadel, ing sometimes an eminence, sometimes this hill stood the lower city, On or fortress. so denominated in contradistinction to Zion,
or the high city. Here also Antiochus built a fortress, to command the temple, \rhich Simon Maccabaeus levelled with the ground. (a) The principal quarter of Jerusalem was that called the city of David,(b) on the top of This was a mount Zion, towards the west. which enclosed that king's palace; fortification, and it is supposed that near its site stood Herod's house, which served as a citadel :(c) is yet what is commonly called Herod's house, mount Acra.(d) To the west of placed upon

of David and at the foot of the hill was the house of the mighty, (m) which seems to have been a guard-house to the palace. Near this, or immediately adjoining, was the armoury, or
;

arsenal; (n) and not far from this, but more towards the middle of the city, was a pontifical palace, occupied by Eliashib, in the days of Nehemiah.(o) Lower down, at a very little was the house of Azariah, a man of distance,
distinction, of the tribe of Benjamin.(p)

The book of Kings speaks of three houses, or palaces, built by Solomon ; one, in which he dwelt himself; the second, the house of the forest of Lebanon; and the third for Pharaoh's
xii. xiii. (a) Joseph. Antiq. lib. Zeph. i. 11. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 14. Nehem. xii. 37, et al. (b) (c) Joseph. De Bell. Jnd. (d) See the Plan, Figure 7. From Jerem. xl. 10, et seq. it hai (e) Nchcm. iii. 15. been supposed that Mizpah was a small town near Jerusalem but there seems no necessity for this, as Gedaliah might have had that quarter of the city, which had suffered least in the

sometimes called the valley of the son of the children of Ilinuom;* but the reason of The image of the idol Moloch this appellative is unknown. was set up in it and here the apostate Israelites dedicated their children to that daemon, by the ceremony of passing or between the flames or, as some will have them
(t)

This

is

(z)

Hinnom, or of

it,

A part elsewhere. t by burning them alive, as described of this valley was called Topheth, where, it is supposed, continual fires were kept up, to consume the filth and became the receptacle, after Josiah impurities, for which it had defiled it; and hence it became the emblem of hell, or
place of the unregenerate. (v) R. Kimchi in (u) See before, p. 581, 589. (w) 1 Kings, i. 33. 2 Chron. xxxii. 30.
(x) Itaiah,
viii.
.

through,

siege, repaired for his residence.

(f)

(h)
(i)

In Ecphrasi, et De Bell. Jud. lib. vi. cap. 6. Bell. Jud. lib. vi. cap. 6. Jerem. xxxvii. 21. (j) De

Comp. Nehem.
2 Sam.

iii.

15, 19.

(g)

Nehem.

in. 9,

12.

loc.

(k)

v. 9.
iii.

(D Nehem.
(?)

in.

15.

(y)

John,
2 Chron.

ix. 7.
xxviii. S. xxxiii. 6.

16. (o) Ibid. ver. 20.

t

(m) Nehem.

ver. 19. (n) Ibid.

/**
DC

ver - 23 Diit Syrit. .yntag.

i.

Joshua, xv. 8. xviii. 16.

t Kings,

xxiii.

10.

See before, p. 581, 628. See also Selden.

cap. 6.

Jerem, xix.

2, 6.

xxxii. 35.

VOL.

I.

f-H

786

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP. xvin.

danghter.(q) The first of these raft almost parallel with the water-gate,(r) and communicated with the third, by means of a terrace carried over the \alley ; so that in fact they constituted but one palace. As to the second, it was probably a place for summer retreat, among the mountains of Lebanon, or in their vicinity ;(s) though some are of opinion that it was nothing more than an additional wing to the former the cedars of palace,- and had its name from which had furnished the chief mateLebanon, rials fur its construction. Not far from the palace, the mattara, or prison, (i) as it is translated, is supposed to have But it probably partook more of the stood. nature of a court of law, or guard-house, at the avenue of the palace, than such a place uf confinement as is usually understood by the term For while Jeremiah was confined here, prison. lie was allowed a great deal of liberty ; and made the purchase of an estate in the presence of several witnesses, who signed the deed of agreement, and of all the Jews who lived When he was seized, going out of there.(u) Jerusalem,(v) he was again lodged in the mattara, and there he remained till the taking of the city, prophesying in the hearing of all the
people.(\v)

do neither of them imply such a kind of building as is spoken of by the sacred writers,(x) and therefore they are less likely to express what Millo was, than the three other propositions of a rampart, a mound, or a wall. This whatever it was, seems to have been structure, an original work of the Jebusites; for when

David took from them the top of mount Zion, he " built round about, from Millo and inwards ;"(y) which is understood of a castle built upon this mount, surrounded with strong
walls, with Millo on the east, as a rampart ; the other sides being defended by the natural rock. It is said, indeed, that Solomon built Millo, but the context shews that he only completed, enlarged, or repaired, what his father

hud begun liezekiah, also, when his dominions were invaded by Sennacherib, repaired Millo, which proves it to have been intended for defence, rather than for communication between the two parts of the city.
:

place worthy of notice in this that called Millo, respecting which quarter, there are various opinions ; some supposing it to have been a rampart ; others, an open place, or public square, like the Campus Martius at Rome, where the people met on festival-days, or other occasions of general congress. Some it to have been a kind of mound, suppose only to fill up the space in the valley between Zion and Acra; others imagine it to have been a street, beginning at the steps of the city of David, and reaching as far as Acra, or to Moriah ; some think it was a trail running along the valley, between the two hills ; while others
last public
is

The

buildings less remarkable for magnificence, dignity, or strength, the following may be said to claim attention Ophel, the residence of the Nethinim, eastward, near the valley ;(z) and the hall, or place of the merchants,^) over-against the gate Miphkad, or prison-gate ; these merchants (parokelim) are supposed to be the same with the moneychangers (collybistce) of the New Testament,(b) a kind of dealers very usual at the gate of the temple, whither strangers resorted in great numbers, from all parts. Besides these, there were some few other places of note, for which the reader is referred to the Plate. It is now time to advert to mount Moriah, and the temple built upon it. This mount was originally without the walls of Jerusalem, and so narrow as to be scarcely sufficient for the
:

Of

temple,

till

it

was enlarged by ramparts, and

take

it

to

mean
it

uncertainty,

is

the valley itself. impossible to

;

Amid

so

much

decide which

opinion

is

to

embraces the truth served that an open

be preferred or, rather, which it may, however, be obplace, a street, or a valley,

:

surrounded by a triple wall. It may be considered as part of mount Zion, to which it was joined by a bridge and gallery. (c) On this mount, it is generally supposed, Abraham offered up Isaac; and here also stood the threshing-floor of Araunah, or Oman, the Jebusite,(d) which David purchased, when he built an

(r) Nehem. iii. i:>. Kings, vii. 1 8. () 1 Kings, ix. 19. 2 Chron. viii. (i. Jerem. xxxii. 2. (t) Comp. Nehem. iii. 25.

(q) 1

(x) 1
(y)
(a)

Kings, 2 Sam. v

ix.
.

15, 24. xi. 27.

9.

(z)

2 Chron. Nehem.

xxxii. 5.
iii.

26, 31.

Nehem.
Matt.

iii.

(u) Jcrem. xxxji. 7, etseq. (w) Ibid, xxxviii. 13, 28.

26, 31.

(v)

Ibid, sxxvii, 12, etseq.

(b)
(c)

xxi. 12.

Mark,
lib. viii.

Joseph. Antiq.

xi. 15. cap. 2.

(d)

2 Chron.

iii.

1.

I
.

'

'

^s
r

'
,

?/t' /'<//'('//
n-llll
III-

f'/
1

///f

///////'
///>//
////

/'/

,'/<>////'//

f
tfl'r/i

/'/////. ////,/

I'htinilirrx ,11

)/(/

.tiilm.

li\-

.//vV/.l

Mi'tltil/l I l.v. In

/,.>/ /VM-

tinrrr

fj[ll<-tt\-

r/ltw r/'i"> '"

tlir

\i-

SECT. IV.]
altar,

SOLOMON'S TEMPLE.

787

offerings,

and offered burnt-offerings and peaceto stay the pestilence, which lie had brought upon his people by numbering

them.(e)
front of the temple, on the east side, stones, of vast bulk, built up 300 cubits from the valley below, to the level of the top of the mountain,

The

was sustained by ramparts of square

The holy of holies, or oracle, was tabernacle. a square room of 20 cubits ;(h) the sanctuary, or holy place, was 40 cubits long,(i) and 20 broad ; consequently, the length of both together, constituting what is called l/ic hoiisr e. the holy of holies) and (i. temple (i. e. the
The d'orf, was 00 cubits.(j) which stood before the sanctuary, was 20 cubits long, and 10 broad.(k) In this portico stood the two brazen pillars, called Jachin and Boaz,(l) 40 cubits in height, and about four in diameter.(ni) About the temple \vas a
sanctuary) of
portico,

above which the temple rose 120 cubits, and, above that, the principal tower stood (50 cubits; so that the whole height of this stupendous building, from the foundation in the valley, was 480 cubits or from the plain level of the The ramparts in the valley, hill, 180 cubits.
;

court,

tabernacle

thus raised, to make a sufficient area for the length and breadth of the superstructure, were 1000 cubits in length at the bottom, gradually diminishing to 800 at the top, and 100 cubits in thickness. These were supported by huge buttresses, of the same height with the walls or ramparts, square at the top, 50 cubits broad, and projecting to 150 cubits at the foot. The stones, of which they were built, according to
Josephus,(f) were 40 cubits in length, 12 in breadth, and eight in height; all of marble, and so exquisitely joined, that they bore the appearance of one continued mass of polished rock. The same historian speaks of 1453 columns of Parian marble, and twice that number of pilasters, of such thickness, that three men could scarcely embrace them ; their height and capitals (of the Corinthian order) being proportionable: but it is likely that he has taken these two last articles from the temple of Herod ; as they are unnoticed by the sacred writers, who, in other respects, are very
in their descriptions.(g) The temple itself consisted of three principal parts; the holy of holies, the sanctuary, and the portico; corresponding to the most holy

corresponding to the court about the its size is not given but as Solo:

every part of his temple in the proof about twice the dimensions of the portion tabernacle, it may be estimated at about 200 cubits in length, and 100 in breadth; and as the tabernacle stood westward in the court, leaving two-thirds, or more, of the space towards the east, so we may conclude that the east side of the court of the temple had by far the greatest capacity. From this description, it will be seen that the temple of Solomon was by no means so
as commonly represented yet was it magnificent in structure, and splendid in ornament; being built with the most costly materials, the finest marble, and cedar-wood, from Lebanon, covered with plates of gold. INo less than 163,300 workmen(n) were employed for seven(o) years in the building: the stones \\ ensquared in the quarries, and the cedars were
large
:

mon made

minute

reduced to planks, beams, and boards, in Lebanon, before they were brought to Jerusalem so that there was no sound of axe, hammer, or any tool, heard in the rearing of it. This temple did not long continue iu its
;

pristine

magnificence

for,

in

place,

the holy place,

and the court of the

Uehoboam, Solomon's immediate was plundered of most of its it

the 1'fittatfiick

the reign of successor, riches by

(e) (f)

2 Sam. xxiv. Ubi su,pr.

1 Chron. xxi.
vii.

ig)

(h) 1
(i)

See 1 Kings, vi. Kings, vi. 20. 1 Kings, vi. 17.

llnd. \
t-r.

2 Chrnn. 2 Chron. iii.

iii.
''

iv.

(j)

Ibid. ver.

'>.

(k)
(1)

3.

In; slutll t'stttlilhh, and by which Solomon seems to declare his dependence on the Almighty, tor the security and It has been duration of his temple. conjectured, that each of these pillars had ;m inscription, one beginning with ihe 'word Jachin, the other with Boa/; whence the pillars obtained those names, in the same manner that the books of

These names
in

signify,

Jachin,

Boaz, xtrcnyt/t

in hint

are called by the words they respectively begin with. The dkiwter is judged of from un) - ('/iron. iii. 15. the expression, 1 /VI'/K/.V, vii. l">, " a line of Uv.-lve cubits did compass either of them about;" i. >' they v.erv tuelve cubits in circumference, and c.iiiHMiuently lour in diameter. In the Just quoted passage, and in .A-r. Hi. 21, the pillars are said to have been only eighteen cubits in height, be.-Mes their chapiters of live cubits; and hence it is supposed that of ubits, not they stood upon bases, or pedestals, included in the measurement by the writers of the books of
..

Kit/i/s

and
1

Jcri'tniu/i.
\.

(n)

5H2

Kings,

1317.

()

Ibid.

vi.

37. 38.

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

Shishak the Egyptian,(p) it was repaired by Joash,(q) and again spoiled in the times of Ahaz(r) and Hezekiah;(s) and after being restored by Josiah,(t) it was finally demolished by Nebuchadnezzar ;(u) having stood 428
years.(v)
particular,
rebuilt

fCHAl'. XVlIi.

what had been

ra/.ed

by

On

the return of the

Jews from the

captivity,

this edifice

was

rebuilt,

Zerubbabel the Jeshua, the high-priest but it fell so deficient of its original lustre, that the old Jews, who remembered the first building, and were present when the foundation of the second was In laid, could not forbear shedding tears.(w) particular, it was destitute of five remarkable appendages, which were the chief glory of the first temple, viz. the ark and mercy-seat ; the s/teki/ut/t, or tlicinc presence ; the celestial Jire upon the altar ; the urim and thummim ; This temple and the spirit of prophecy, (x)
;

under the direction of Joshua, or governor, and

Joash, king of Israel, and added another wall " built a wall Manasseh, likewise, witliout.(d) without the city of David, on the side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in of the fish-gate, and compassed about Ophel ;"(e) which includes almost the whole circuit of Jerusalem, from the south to north by west. When the city was broken up by the Chal" fled daeans, the soldiers by the two walls, the way of the king's garden, "(f) which by was in the south ;(g) one of those walls being built by David or Solomon, close to the city and the other, the new one without, by Hezealso read that the kiah, or Manasseh. Chaldaeans " brake down the wall of Jerusalem round about ;''(h) and so it remained till Nehemiah's time, with open breaches on every
;

We

side.(i)

by Antiochus but afterwards purified by Judas Epiphanes,(y) Maccabaeus ;(z) and after it had stood about 500 years, it was repaired, or rather rebuilt by Herod, in a style of magnificence little inferior to that of Solomon ;(a) and it was destroyed by the Romans, in the same month, and on the same day of the month, in which the original edifice was burned by the Babylonians ;(b) all which will be more particularly
noticed in the chronological order. Leaving, therefore, the temple, it only remains to notice the walls, gates, and towers of Jerusalem, in its ancient state. Respecting the former of these, we learn, that David, when he had taken the strong hold of Zion, "built round about from Millo, and inward :"(e)

was plundered

and polluted

external gates of Jerusalem were ten in number, and may be reckoned in the following order; five from west by north towards the
east,

The

and
2.

five

from west by south

1. Valley-gate,

Nek. ii. 13, 15. iii. 13. Old-gate, Neh. iii. G. xii. 39; supposed to be the same with the corner-gate, mentioned by Jeremiah, chap. xxxi. 38, and by Zecliariah, chap,
xiv. 10.

3.

Ephrahn-gate, Neh.
Fish-gate, Nclt.
iii.

viii.

1C.

xii.

39.

4.
!>. (5.

3. xii. 39.
1,

Sheep-gate, Neh.

iii.

32.

xii.

39.
:

I
1

the same Dung-gate, A'eA. ii. 13. iii. 13, 14. xii. 31 with the east-gate mentioned Jervm. xix. 2 and
, ;

alluded to by Ne/tcmiah, chap. iii. 21). -J 7. Fountain-gate, Neh. ii. 14. iii. 15. xii. 37. 8. Miphkad, or Prison-gate, Neh. iii. 31. xii. 39. *f! J I). .3 I Water-gate, Neh. iii. 2(5. viii. 1, 3, 16. xii. 37. ^ V 10. Horse-gate, Neh. iii. 2*1.

understood that he surrounded city of David with walls. Solomon and his successors, took no less care to improve those works, and to add to them, as the city increased in size. Hezekiah, in
is

by which

These are

all

the

gates

enumerated by

the fortress

and

Neherniah ; but there appears to have been another, called Benjamin-gate, (j} where the prophet Jeremiah was seized in attempting to make his escape ; though many commentators
1
lib. iv,

1 Kings, xiv. 25, 26.

'2

2
2

2 2
4ii.

2 Chron. xii. 2, et soy. Kings, xii. 2 Chron. xxiv. Kings, xvi. 17, 18. 2 Chron. xxviii. 24. Kings, xviii. 15, 16. Kings, xxii. 37. 2 Citron, xxxiv. 813. Kinys, xxv. 0, ctseq. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 10. Jerem.
Josephus says

Mace.

i.

2 Mace.
lib.

v. vi.

(z) 1
et

Mace.

iv.

Joseph. Antiq.
,

xx.

cap. 8;

De
lib.

Hell. Jud.
xx. cap. 0,

cap. 6.

in fin

Cornp. 2 Kinys, xxv. et Joseph. Antiq.

it

According to Usher's computation. hml stood 476 years. Ezra, iii.

12, 13.

2 Sam. v. 7, 9. 2 Ckron. xxv. 23.

Ibid, xxxiii. 14.

xxvii. 3. xxxii. 5.

2 Kinys, xxv.
J?)
>t

4.

Nehem.
Ittid.
ii.

iii.

15.

fr

Talm. HierotoL in Taanith, cap. 2;

1.

Babyl.

(i)

1215.

Jerem. xxxix. 4. (h) 2 Kings, xxv. 10.

Juma, cap.

(J)

Jerem. xxxvii. 13.

SECT. IV.]

GATES OF JERUSALEM. WATERS AND SPRINGS.

789

with the high-gate, or high-gate of Jienjamin,(k} by, or in the house of the Lord, where the king held his court, when Ebedmelech petitioned for the prophet's removal from the dungeon.(l) Ezekiel also speaks of a
identify
it

which he calls the higher gate, that lieth toward the northern) and is supposed to be the same that Jeremiah endeavoured to escape by. The other gates mentioned by the sacred writers, are the city gate,(n) and the middle gate ;(o) but these were not in the exterior wall. The former is supposed to have been a gate of the city of David, or Zion, to the north-west,
gate,

The

following: According to the Targum, (iihon and Shiloh are the same; but as Gihnn is called the upper pool, and it is evident there was also a lower one ;(x) this last might be Shiloh, of which the upper was the spring.

King's pool

is

mentioned by Nehemiah,

the fountain-gate,(y) west of Zion. Isaiah Josephus(z) calls it the pool of Solomon. of tile old pool, of which the water had speaks been made to run between the two walls ;(a) and this might be the same that Hezekiah

as near

leading to the dung-gate, or valley-gate, and since called Zion-gate ,-(p) the latter, a gate in the midst of the valley between Acra and Zion, as may be deduced from what is said of Nebuchadnezzar's army, after having entered Jerusalem by the north, advancing as far as this middle gate; of which Zedekiah being informed, he made his escape between the walls, and through his garden to the south, (q) or
south-east.

The most renowned, however, of made.(b) the waters of this city, was the brook Kidrori, or Cedron, which surrounded Jerusalem on the north, east, and south sides, with a branch running between Acra and mount Zion. In summer time, this rivulet was generally dried up at the fountain-head but in rainy seasons, the waters falling from the mountains, increased it to such a degree, that it assumed the appearance of a river. Its name imports dark, or
;

of Uzziah, that he " built towers in Jerusalem, at the corner-gate, and at the valley-gate, and at the turning of the wall ;"(r) but it is not said how many he built; and Nehemiah has only given the names of four, viz. 1. Meah, eastward, near which they passed, in the dedication of the walls, going to the sheep-gate (s) 2. Hananeel, north-eastward ;(t) 3. Hattanourim, or tower of the furIt is said
:

black,(c) and Josephus, who often calls Kidron a valley, says it was very deep, and at the foot of the mount of Olives, on the east.(d)

This once stately and opulent metropolis of the Jewish monarchy, is now reduced to a poor and thinly inhabited town, under the oppressive domination of the Turks, who call It stands on a it Cudscmbaric, or Coudshenff.
mountain, surrounded on all sides, except on the north, with steep ascents, and deep valleys below which are also environed, with other hills, at some distance. For want of proper culture, or rather through the operation of the divine anathema,(e) the soil has

rocky

westward, from beyond which they went to the broad u-<tll.(u) 4. Ophel, south-eastward, from which the ward, or quarter where it stood, and the wall near it, received their
naces,

name.(v)

waters and springs in and about Jerusalem, some notice has been taken in a former Chapter,(w) to which we may here add the
(k) 2 Chron.
(1)
xxiii. 20. xxvii. 3. Jercm. xx. 2. Ezek. Jerr.m. xxxviii. 7. (m) 7?;' ix. 2. Jci-em. xxxix. 3. n) 2 Chron. xxxii. 6. p) Maundrell. So) Jcrem. xxxix. 2 ())

Of the

for the most part, stony, sandy, and yet in particular spots, it produces some corn, wine, oil, &c. It is now under the government of a saugiac, who resides in a house said to ha\e liccn that of Pontius Pilate,

become,
barren
:

(b) 2 Kings, \\. 20. Nehem. iii. 16. (c) Hieron. in Jerem. xxxi. 40. (d) Joseph. De Bell. Jud. lib. vi. cap. 7.
4.

lib. vii.

2 Chron. xxvi.
Nr.litm.
J
iii. iii.

!).

1.

xii. 3!).
xii.

(I) Ilnd.

AWtem.
iii.

11.

38.

Dent, xxviii. 23, 24. Isaiah, iii. 1. (e) Lev. xxvi. 19, 20. Ezek. iv. 16. vi. 14. xiv. 13. Canaan was naturally a most fertile country, and capable of producing, in the sabbatic sufficient for the inhabitants, without culture: yet
years,

(v) Ibid.

2G, 27.

The name

tower; and perha;>.< this for which purpose Manasseh raised it to a great height.* (w) See before, p. 587. Isaiah, xxii. 9, (x) Comp. 2 Chron. xxxii. 30.
liiyh

property signifies was used as a n-atch tower,

itself

was

it

his sons to

when

subject to visitations of famiue, as when Jacob sent buy corn in Egypt, and in the rei,'ii of Ahab, rain had been withheld for three years and a half.

(\

Nehi-m.

ii.

14. (a) Isaiah, xxii. 11.

* 2
C/tron. xxxiii. 14.

(7.)

In Ei-phrasi.

This was the effect of God's displeasure; and we may weJl arises from the operation of suppose that its present sterilit\ the judgment denounced upon the disobedience of the people for whom it was especially intended, while the indolence and barbarism of its occupiers may be the promoting cause.
.,

790

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP, xvin.

opposite to the castle of Antonia, built by Herod the Great ; where they pretend to shew the stairs by which our Saviour ascended the gallery where the governor exhibited him to the people.(f ) After Titus had destroyed this city, it lay desolate till Adrian rebuilt it, under the name of JElia Capitoliiia ; he adorned it with walls and other noble structures, and the It Christians were permitted to settle in it. went to decay, so that in the soon, however, days of Constantine the Great, it was little better than a heap of ruins. Helena, mother to this emperor, resolved to restore it ; and caused the rubbish to be removed that had been thrown upon the places memorable for In doing this, the sufferings of our Saviour. the workmen are said to have found the three crosses on which Christ suffered with the two malefactors ; and, by the intervention of a miracle, they were farther enabled to discriminate the very one on which He offered Mount his vicarious and expiatory sacrifice. Calvary being cleared, Helena caused a magnificent church to be built upon it, of such dimensions as to enclose most of the scenes of her Lord's sufferings which stood till within these few years, when it was accidentally burnt down. This edifice is described as having Avails of stone, and a cedar roof: the east end enclosed mount Calvary, and the west covered Over the latter was a the holy sepulchre. noble cupola, supported by 16 massive columns, encrusted with marble. The centre was open at
;

top, just over the sepulchre; and over the high altar at the east end was another stately dome. The nave constituted the choir, and in the

shewn the places where the most remarkable circumstances of our Lord's passion were transacted, together with the tombs of Godfrey and Baldwin, the two first
inner isles were

An ascent of kings of Jerusalem. 22 steps led to a chapel containing the hole in the rock, in which the holy cross was fixed
Christian
:

the altar
richly

had three crosses upon it, and was adorned with 46 lamps, of great value,
;

constantly burning before

;

it.

Adjoining to

this,

was another small chapel, also fronting the body of the church and at the west end was the
chapel of the holy sepulchre, hewn out of the solid rock, with a small dome, or lantern,

supported by porphyry pillars. The cloister round the sepulchre was divided into various
chapels, appropriated to the several sects of Christians who resided there; as, Greeks, Armenians, Maronites, Jacobites, Copts, Abyssinians, Georgians, &c. and on the north-west were the apartments of the Latins, who had the care of the church, and were forced to reside constantly in it, the Turks keeping the keys, and not suffering any of them to go out, but obliging them to receive their provisions through a wicket. Easter was the time of the grandest ceremonies being performed within this place : they chiefly consisted in representations of our Lord's passion, death, and resurrection ; to which every pilgrim, paying a certain fee,

was admitted. (g)

(f)

The

takeu to

Rome

old stairs, called scala santa, they admit, were but they have got a new flight erected upon ;

the same spot.

(g) This account is chiefly abridged from the works of Dr. Shaw and Dr. Pococke: to which the following extract from Chateaubriand's Travels in Palestine, will form an appropriate supplement, as coming from the pen of a more recent and living writer " I repaired to the church which encloses the tomb of All preceding travellers have described this Jesus Christ. church as the most venerable in the world, whether we think as philosophers or as Christians. " It no longer exists, having been totally destroyed by I am, tire since my return from Judea. I may say, the last
:

Bochart, Arrias Montaniis, Reiuvich, Hesse, and Cotovic, would impose the necessity of making translations, which, after all, would furnish the reader with no new inforI have therefore adhered to the French travellers, mation. and among these I have preferred the description of the
Fureri,

Holy Sepulchre by Deshayes. " Deshayes will, therefore, furnish us with the description of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, to which I shall subjoin my observations. It comprehends the Holy Sepulchre, It was mount Calvary, and several other sacred places. partly built bv direction of St. Helena, to cover the Holy
Sepulchre ; but the Christian princes of succeeding ages caused it to be enlarged, so as to include mount Calvary, which is only 00 paces from the sepulchre. " The church of the Holy Sepulchre is very irregular, owing to the nature and situation of the places which it \\as designed to comprehend. It is nearly in the form of a cross, being 120 paces in length, exclusive of the descent to the It has discovery of the Holy Cross, and 70 in breadth. three domes, of which that covering the Holy Sepulchre, serves for the nave of the church. It is 30 feet in diaim In. and is covered at top like the Rotunda at Rome. Tin ii i-

traveller

by

whom

it

was

visited,

and

shall,

consequently,

be

its last

historian.

1 found nothing satisfactory on the subject of the Holy in Pococke, Shaw, Maundrell, Hasselquist, and Sepulchre MIIIIC otherij. The scholars and travellers who have written in Latin concerning the antiquities of Jerusalem, as Ada-

"

ruanmis, Bede, Brocard,

h,

Willibajd, Brcydi-nbach, Sauulo, Keland, Adrichomins, Quarc.smius, Baumgarten,

SECT. IV.]

REMAINS OF JERUSALEM.
in the south-east quarter of
still

791

On

mount Moriah,
is

the city,
no cupola,
rafters,

a building,

called Solomon's

that celetemple, upon, or near the spot where brated structure stood but when, or by whom
:

the roof being supported only by large it is true This church had brought from mount Lebanon. three entrances, but now there is but one door, the formerly the Turks, lest the keys of which are cautiously kept by the nine pilgrims should gain admittance without paying I allude or 3G livres, demanded for this indulgence sequins, to those from Christendom; for the Christian subjects of the Grand Signor pay only half that sum. This door is with always shut; and there is only a small window, crossed an iron bar, through which the people without, hand provisions to those within, who are of eight different nations. " The first is that of the Latins, or Romans, which is
;
:

rock.

The entrance, which faces the east, is only four feet high, and two feet and a quarter broad, so that one is obliged The interior of the sepulchre to stoop very much to go in.
and
It is six feet, wanting an inch, in length ; wanting two inches, in breadth and from the There is a solid block floor to the roof, eight feet one inch. of the same stone, which was left in excavating the other This is two feet four inches and a half high, and part.

is

nearly square.
six feet,

occupies half of the sepulchre

one inch,

represented by the Franciscan friars. They are the keepers of the Holy Sepulchre; the place on mount Calvary, where our Lord was nailed to the cross the spot where the sacred cross was discovered; the Stone of Unction, and the Chapel where our Lord appeared to the blessed Virgin after his
;

for it is six feet, wanting and two feet and five-sixths wide. On this table the body of our Lord was laid, with the head towards the west, and the feet to the east but, on account of the superstitious devotion of the Orientals, who imagine
;

in length,

resurrection.

" The second nation is that of the Greeks, who have the choir of the church, where they officiate; in the midst of it is -A small circle of marble, the centre of which they look upon as the middle of the globe. " The third is the nation of the Abyssinians, to whom belongs the chapel containing the pillar of Impropcre. " The fourth nation is that of the Copts, who are these have a small oratory near the Christians
Egyptian
:

Holy Sepulchre. " The fifth nation

is

the

Armenian.

They have

the

cast lots chapel of St. Helena, and that where the soldiers for, and divided the apparel of our Lord. " The sixth nation is that of the Nestorians, or Jacobites, who are natives of Chaldea and Syria. These have a small Lord appeared to Mary chapel, near the spot where our Magdalen in the form of a gardener, and which is, on that

account, denominated Magdalen's chapel. " The seventh is the nation of the Georgians, who inhabit the country between the Euxine and the Caspian Seas. They

that, if they leave their hair upon this stone, God will never forsake them, and also because the pilgrims broke off pieces, it has received a covering of white marble, on which mass is now celebrated. Forty-four lamps are constantly burning in this sacred place, and three holes have been made in the roof for the emission of the smoke. The exterior of the sepulchre is also faced with slabs of marble, and adorned with several columns, having a dome above. " At the entrance of the sepulchre, there is a stone about a foot and a half square, and a foot thick, which is of the same rock, and served to support the large stone which closed the access to the sepulchre. Upon this stone was seated the angel when he spoke to the two Marys ; and, as well on occount of this mystery, as to prevent the sepulchre from being entered, the first Christians erected before it a little chapel, which is called the Angels' Chapel. " Twelve paces from the Holy Sepulchre, turning towards the north, we come to a large block of grey marble, about four feet in diameter, which marks the spot where our Lord appeared to Mary Magdalen in the form of a gardener. " Farther on, is the Chapel of the Apparition, where, as tradition asserts, our Lord first appeared to the Virgin Mary This is the place where the Franafter his resurrection.

was prekeep the place on mount Calvary where the cross was confined, till pared, and the prison in which our Lord the hole was made to set it up in. " The nation is that of the Maronites, who inhabit
eighth

ciscans perform their devotions, and to which they retire ; and hence they pass into chambers with which there is no other communication.

mount Lebanon.
of the Pope.

Like us,* they acknowledge the supremacy

" On first to the Stone ol entering the church, we come Unction, on which the body of our Lord was anointed with
aloes,

myrrh and
say that

before

it

was

laid in the sepulchre.

Some

of the same rock as mount Calvary ; and others assert that it was brought to this place by Joseph and Nicodemus, secret disciples of Jesus Christ, who performed Be that this pious office, and that it is of a greenish colour. as it may, on account of the indiscretion of certain pilgrims, who broke off pieces it was found necessary to cover it with white marble, and to surround it with an iron railing, lest they should walk over it. This stone is eight feet, wanting three inches, in length, and two feet, wanting one inch, in breadth ; and above it eight lamps arc kept continually
it is

" Ten paces from this chapel, is a very narrow staircase, the steps of which are of wood at the beginning, and of There are 20 in all, which ascend to stone at the end. This spot, once so ignominious, having mount Calvary. been sanctified by the blood of our Lord, was an object of the particular attention of the first Christians. Having removed every impurity, and all the earth that was upon it, like a lofty they surrounded it with walls, so that it is now It is lined in chapel enclosed within this spacious church.
i

burning. " The

in the
:

Holy Sepulchre

is

30 paces from

this stone,

exactK
'

centre of the great dome, of which I have already spoken it resembles a small closet, hewn out of the solii
* The
writer,
it

of arches into the interior with marble, and divided by a two parts. That towards the north is he spot where our Lord was nailed to the cross. Here 32 lamps are kept conthey are attended by the Franciscans, who tinually burning mass in this sacred place. daily perform " In the other to the south, the Holy Cross part, which is was erected. The hole dug in the rock is still seen to the depth of about a foot and a half, besides the earth which was above it. Near thi* is the place where stood the crosses of the two thieves. That of the penitent thief was to the north, and the other to the south ; so that the first was on
:

nw

will

be remembered,

is

Roman Catholic.

the right hand of our Saviour, who had his face turned towards the west, and his back to Jerusalem, which lay to

792
-

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

is

[CHAP, xvrii.

The entrance erected, is utterly unknown. under an octagon, adorned at the east end, with a cupola, roof, and lantern; towards the west is a handsome though narrow aisle ; and the whole is surrounded with a spacious court, walled on all sides. The extent of this place is 570 paces in length, by 370 in breadth. In the midst, when- the Jewish holy of holies is has supposed to have stoot,, a small mosque been erected, which is held in such veneration
the east.
Fifty
tliis

by the Turks, that they will riot permit strangers to approach its border.(h) Having thus briefly noticed all that is material in the history of Jerusalem, (i) in its ancient and

modern

return to the geographiof the tribe of Judah, continuing cal description the towns in their alphabetical order: Jether, or Juttier, a city of the priests.
state,

we now

Jezreel.

Jiphtah.

lamps are kept constantly burning

in

honour

of

this

" Below
and

holy spot.

his brother

chapel are the tombs of Godfrey de Bouillon Baldwin, on which are these inscriptions:
I.

HIC JACET INCLYTUS DUX GODEFHIDUS DE BULION, GUI TOTAM ISTAM TEKRAM ACQUISIVIT CULTUI CHRISTIANO, CUJUS ANIMA REGNKT CTM CHRISTO. AMEN.
II.

we find the two flights of steps leading, the one to the church of Calvary, the other to the church of the Discovery of the Holy Cross. The first ascends to the top of Calvary, the second goes down underneath it: for the cross was erected on the summit of Golgotha, and found again under To sum up, then, what we have already said, the that bill. church of the Holy Sepulchre is built at the foot of Calvary its eastern part adjoins that eminence beneath, and upon which, have been constructed two other churches, connected by walls and vaulted staircases with the principal edifice. " The origin of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, is of
that
; ;

REX BALDUINUS, JUDAS ALTER MACHABEUS

SFES PATRI.S, VIGOR ECCLESIJE, VIRTUS UTRIUSOUE,
CUI DONA TRIBUTA FEREBANT CJEDAR ET JEGYPTUS, DAN AC HOMICIDA DAMASCUS. PROH DOLOR! IN MODICO CLAUDITUR HOC TUMULO.

high antiquity.

QUEM FORMIDABANT,

" Mount of the Calvary is the last station of the church for, 20 paces from it, we again come to Holy Sepulchre the Stone of Unction, which is just at the entrance of the
;

author of the Epitome of tke Holy 46 years after the destruction of Jerusalem by Vespasian and Titus, the Christians obtained permission of Adrian to build, or rather to rebuild, a church over the tomb of their God, and to enclose, in the new city, This church, the other places venerated by the Christians. he adds, was enlarged and repaired by Helena, the mother ofConstantine. Quaresmius contests this opinion, 'because,'

The

Wars*

asserts, that,

' the believers were not allowed till the reign of Constantine to erect such churches.' This learned monk

says he,

church. " It is obvious, in the

is

first

place, that the called

church of the
:

forgets that, anterior to the persecution Christians possessed numerous churches, brated the mysteries of their religion.

by Diocletian, the and publicly celeLactantius and

prosperity of

Holy Sepulchre Holy Sepulchre, properly so

composed of three churches

;

that of the

Eusebius

boast

of

the

that of Calvary ; and tlie church of the Discovery of the Holy Cross. " The first is built in the foot of Calvary, valley at th where it is kuown that the body of Christ on the

opulence and

the

believers at this period.

spot

This church is in the form of a cross, the in fact, the nave" chapel of the Holy Sepulchre constituting, of the edifice. It is circular, like the Pantheon at Rome, and lighted only by a dome, beneath which is the sepulchre. Sixteen marble columns adorn the circumference of this rotunda; they are connected by 17 arches, and support an upper gallery, likewise composed of 16 columns and 17 arches, of smaller dimensions than those of the lower range. Niches, corresponding with the arches, appear above the frieze of the second gallery, and the dome springs from the arch of these niches. The latter were formerly decorated with mosaics, representing the twelve apostles, St. Helena,

was deposited.

" This church was ravaged by Chosroes II. king of Persia, about 300 years after its erection by Constantine. Heraclius recovered the genuine Cross; and Modestus, bishop of Jerusalem, rebuilt the church of the Holy Sepulchre. Some time afterwards, the calif Omar made himself master of Jerusalem, but he allowed the Christians the free exercise of

the emperor Constantine,

and

three

other

portraits

oi

unknown " The

originals.

choir of the church of the Holy Sepulchre is to the east of the nave of the toinb : it is double, as in the ancient cathedrals ; that is to say, it has first a place with stalls for the priests, and beyond that a sanctuary raised two steps above it. Round this double sanctuary run the aisles of the
choir, and in these aisles are situated the chapels. " It is likewise in the aisle on the right, behind the choir,
Epitome Belkrwn Sacrorum,

About the year 1009, Hequem, or Hakem, then reigned in Egypt, spread desolation around the tomb of Christ. " The Croisaders having gained possession of Jerusalem the 15th of July, 1099, they wrested the tomb of Christ from It remained 80 years in the power the hands of the infidels. of the successors of Godfrey of Bouillon. When Jerusalem the Syrians ranagain fell under the Mohammedan yoke, somed the church of the Holy Sepulchre with a considerable sum of money, and monks repaired to defend with their in vain lo the arms of kings. Thus, prayers, a spot entrusted amid a thousand revolutions, the piety of the early Christians preserved a church, of which the present age was destined to witness the destruction."t
their religion.

who

(h) Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo Dr. Shaw's Travels, p. 14.

(i)

to

Jerusalem, p. 106.

Some

farther particulars will be found, p. 587, et teq.

t

See some further particulari, p. 589.

SECT. IV.]

CITIES OF JUDAH.
Nebuchadnezzar ;(u)
appears to
itself into

793
at

Jokdeara. Joktheol. Juttah, a city of the priests.(j) Kabzeel, probably the same with Cabzael, spoken of above. Kadesh-barnea, or En-mishpat,(k) a frontier town of Judah, on the edge of the wilderness of Paran, about 24 miles from Hebron.(l) It was near this place that the Amalekites were

which

latter period,

it

have followed the example of Azeand other cities in its vicinity, iu forming kah,
a free state.
:

Libnah

this city

was

also included in

tin-

confederacy against Gibeon, and shared the

and was given

fate of its allies.(v) It fell to the lot of Judah, to the priests.(w) Sennacherib

overthrown by Chedorlaomer and his allies here, also, Miriam, the sister of Aaron and Moses, died ;(m) and here those two eminent
;

been obliged to raise besieged it, after he the siege of Lachish.^1) It is called indifferently Libnah, Lebna, Libona,

hd

and Lobna,

in

the Vtdgate, and by Eusebius, Jerom, &c.

characters incurred the penalty of exclusion from the promised land hence it obtained the name of Meribah-Kadesh, or the contention of
:

Kadesh.(n) Karkaa, supposed to be the Coracea of Ptolemy, in Arabia Petraea.(o) Kedesh, or Kadesh, about eight leagues south of Hebron. There was another Kedesh, in the tribe of Naphtali, and one of the two was a royal city, the twenty-seventh in Joshua's
catalogue.(p)

Maaleh-acrabbim, the. ascent of the mount of scorpions, a place on the frontiers of Judah probably so called from the numbers of those animals found there. Maarath.
;

Keilah, near Hebron, where David shut himself up, after he had obliged the Philistines but finding that the to raise the siege of it intended to deliver him into the hands people of Saul, he retired to the mountains.(q) It is said to have been the burying-place of the pro:

phet Habakkuk. Kerioth. Kinah.

Kithlish.

royal city, near which the confederate kings were put to death by Joshua,(y) into whose hands it fell at the same time. It was very strong, and is placed by Eusebius about eight miles from Eleutheropolis. Maon, a strong city, on a barren eminence, at a little distance to the south-west of the Dead Sea. It gave name to the neighbouring wilderness ; and in one of the caves with which the surrounding hills abound, David took refuge for a considerable time from the persecution of Saul.(z)
five

Madmannah. Makkedah, a

Lahmain.
Lebaoth. Lachish, a city much celebrated in the Scriptures. The king of Lachish joined in the southern confederacy against the Gibeonites, after their alliance with Israel, and lost his life
igriominiously in consequence.

The

city

was

afterwards taken by Joshua, notwithstanding the efforts of Horam, king of Gezer, to save it, and all the inhabitants were put to the sword.(r) In the distribution of the country, this city fell to the lot of Judah; and here Amaziah was slain by conspirators. (s) It was besieged by Sennacherib, without effect ;(t) and by the army of
(j)
(1)

Mareshah, called also Maresheth and Manear which was fought the great battle between Asa, king of Judah, and Zerah the Cushaean, or Cuthite, king of Ethiopia, who invaded Judah at the head of a million of men, and 300 chariots. Asa defeated him, and took immense spoils.(a) Massada, a celebrated fortress, built by Judas Maccabaeus, and often mentioned by Josephus as impregnable. It stood a few miles south of En-gedi, west of the Dead Sea, on a high craggy rock, inaccessible on all sides but On the one, and that very difficult and steep. top, however, was a spacious plain, fertile enough to supply the town with corn, fruit, &c. Herod the Great greatly improved the fortifirasthi,

cations

and other
7.

edifices,

and made large

Joshua, x. 57.

Joshua, xxi. 16. Calmet.

(k)

Gen.

xiv. 7.

(u)

Jerem. xxxiv.

(v)
vi.

(m)
(o)

Numb.
Calmet.

xx. 1.
xxiii.

(w) Joshua, xxi. 13. 1 Chron.

(x)

(n) Numb. xx. 1, 13, 16. (p) Joshua, xii. 22. (r) josn.ua, (r; Joshua, x.
(t)

2 Kings,
1

xix. 8. Isaiah, xxxvii. 8.

(q) 1
(s)

Sam.

13.

(y) Josh, x. 17, et seq..

(z)

2 Kings,

xiv. 10.

Sam.
I

xxiii.

24, et seq.

2 Kings,
I.

xviii.

14, 17. Isaiah, xxxvii. 8.

(a)

2 Citron,

xiv.

915.

VOL.

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

reservoirs,

[CHAP. xvin.

or cisterns, for receiving the rainlikewise well stored it with proand built himself a palace in it, as a visions, place of refuge, in case of a revolt among his The walls were seven oppressed subjects. in compass, with corn, vines, and furlongs other fruit-trees, growing within and without them. The hill on which this city, or fortress, stood, was called Collis Achilhu, by the Rowater.

He

Simeon. (k) It is placed by Eusebius sixteen miles south of Eleutheropolis.

Sansannah. Secacah. Shamir, or Saphir. Sliaraim, called Saraza by Josephus, who makes it the place of Samson's sepulture.(l) It is supposed to be the same with Zorah.(m)

Shema.
Shilhim.

mans,(b) cumstances as remarkable as any on record, as will appear in the sequel of the Jewish history. Melach, or the City of Salt, situated near the Dead Sea; by some supposed to be the same with Bela, or Zoar, the city to which Lot retired when sent away from Sodom. (c)

by whom

it

was besieged under

cir-

Socoh
liath.(n) name in

near this place, David slew GoThere was another place of the same Judah or the name is twice mentioned
: ;

in the catalogue. (o)

Middin, judgment; or process. Migdal-gad, the totcer of Gad; or happy tmrcr. Mizpeh, or Mizpeth, on mount Ephron, between Judah and Benjamin, to both which This place is tribes this city is reckoned. (d) celebrated in the sacred writings for here the Israelites assembled to deliberate concerning the violence done by the men of Gibeah to the Levite's concubine ;(e) and here Samuel collected the people to exhort them to renounce their idolatry, after the ark had fallen into the
:

Tappuah, perhaps the same with Beth-tappuah,(p) which is placed by Eusebius fourteen miles beyond Raphia, on the way to Egypt. Tekoa the building of this city is attributed to king Rehoboam, the son of Solomon ;(q) but he could only have repaired it; for, in the reign of David, we find Joab suborning a woman of Tekoa, to contrive the return The city of of Absalom from banishment, (r) name to the neighbouring wilderTekoa gave ness, where, in the reign of Jehoshaphat, the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites of mount
:

hands of the Philistines. (f ) In this place, also, Saul was elected king ;(g) and in aftertimes, it was deemed so sacred, that the Jews assembled here to seek their God, when their enemies were in possession of the temple. (h) Moladah, afterwards given to the tribe of
Simeon. (i)

who had invaded Judah, destroyed each The prophet Amos was a herdman other.(s)
Seir,

this wilderness (t) and probably a native of the same place. Telem, or Telaim, on the southern borders of Judah, where Saul assembled his for prior to his invasion of the Amalekites.(u) Timnah, or Timnath, a frontier town of the
in
;

Naamah.
Nezib, according to Eusebius, seven miles from Eleutheropolis, or nine miles according to Jerom, and not far from Hebron.

where Samson got his wife.(v) there were two cities of this one in the mountains, the other in name,(w)
Philistines,

Zanoah

Nibshan, or Nipshan. Odalla, supposed to be the same with Adullam, otherwise Odollam. Rabbah, by some supposed to be the same with Arreba, or Arabba, i.e. Rabbah the Great arid this again is taken for the same with Arba, -or Hebron.( j)
;

the plains but nothing is known of either. They are supposed to have been built by Jekuthiel, the father of Zanoah, (x) and to have
;

Rim in on,
(b) Joseph. (c) Gen. xix.
(e)

or

Remmon,

afterwards given to
vii.

been peopled by his posterity. Zenan. Ziklag: though this city was included in the possessions of Judah, by Joshua, the Philistines retained it till the days of David, to whom it was given by Achish, king of Gath, for a
(m) 2 Chron. xi. 10. (o) Comp. Josh. xv. 3">, 48.
(p)
(r) (s)

DC

Bell. Jud. lib.

Judges, xx.

13.

(d)

Comp.
(0

cap. 28, 31, et al. Josh. xv. 38. xviii. 26.

1

(n) 1

Sam.

xvii. 1.

(K) 1
(i)

(k)
(1)

Sam. x. 17. Comp. Josh. xv. 26. Comp. Josh. xv. 32.
Joseph. Atitiq.

(h) 1

Sam. vii. 5, 6. Mace. iii. 40.

(j) Martinicrc.

Comp.JosA. xv. 3 1,53. 2 Sam. xiv. '2.

2 Chron. xx. 20, et seq. 1 Sam. xv. 4

(q)
(I)

2 Chron.

xi.

0.

xix. 2.

Diet.

Amos,

i.

1.

xix. 7.

(u)

(v)

lib. v.

cap. 10.

(w)

Comp.

Josh. xv. 34, 56.

Judges, xiv. (x) 1 Chron. iv. 18.

SECT. IV.]

CITIES OF JUDAH,

AND OF EPHRAIM.
The upper being in the tribe of Benjamin. Beth-horon was to the north-west of Bethhoron the lower; but its precise situation is not known. One of the two was given to the
Levites.

residence ;(y) after which it pertained to the kings of Judah, but was included in the tribe

of Simeon. (z)
Zior.

there were two cities of this the tribe of Judah, one of which, according to Jerom, stood on a high hill, about eight miles east of Hebron, and was still a considerable place in his time.(a) The other Ziph was near, or upon, mount Cannel, in the same tribe, (b) The neighbouring desert had its name from one of these towns, and is celebrated for the retreat of David, when persecuted by Saul, and the attempts made by the inhabitants to deliver him up. It was here that he entered Saul's tent by night, and took away

Ziph \ZopK\
in

name

Castrum Hyrcaneum, a

fortress

towards

tin-

mountains of Arabia, surrounded by a town called Hyrcanion.(i) Doch, Dog, or Dagon, a fortress in the plains of Jericho, according to Calmet, where Ptolemy, son of Abubus, treacherously murdered his father-in-law, Simon Maccabaeus, with his two sons, Mattathias and Judas.(j) Gazer, or Gasera, or Gezer Horam, king of this city, went to assist the people of Lachish against Joshua, after their sovereign had been put to death at Makkedah but his army was cut to pic^co, and himself probably slain iii the conflict, as his name appears the eighth in Joshua's list of conquered princes.(k) The city, though given to the Levites, appears to have remained in the possession of the Canaanites,(l) or to have been recovered by them soon after Joshua's death till Pharaoh, king of Egypt, in the days of Solomon, burned it to the ground, slew the Canaanites who dwelt in it, and gave the territory as a dowry with his
:

his pitcher

and

lance.(c)

This tribe 2. THE TRIBE OF EpHRAiM.(f) extended from the Mediterranean on the west, with Benjamin to the Jordan on the east and part of Dan to the south, and the halfThe country tribe of Manasseh on the north. was for the most part rocky and mountainous, yet covered with trees and pasturage; while the low lands, or plains, were luxuriantly rich and fruitful. The cities and towns were numerous, large, and well peopled among which were the following: Archi, the birth-place of Hushai, the friend of David. (g) Ortelius, and SOUK; others, join
; ;

Zoreah, afterwards given to Dan:(d) between this place and Eshtaol, Samson was buried, it being the burial-place of his fathers.(ej

daughter to that prince,

it.(m)
:

who

afterwards rebuilt

this with Ataroth,

after,

which follows immediately and read Archi-ataroth.

illustrious;

Ataroth, or Ataroth-addar, i. e. Ataroth the supposed to have been about 15 miles north-east of Jerusalem, on a small river that ran into the Jordan. Beth-horon there were two towns of this name, distinguished by the titles of Upper and Lower; both built by Shevah, the daughter of Ephraim.(h) Calmet places the nether Bethhoron about 12 miles north-west of Jerusalem, on the side of Emmaus, or Nicopolis ; but his authority is not much regarded Nicopolis
: :

Janohah, or Janoah this city was taken by Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, during the reign of Pekah, king of Israel, or Samaria.(u) Kibzaim, a city of the Levites. Lydda, originally Lud, or Lod, afterwards Diospolis, and during the croisades, St. George. Though in the tribe of Ephraim, it appears to have been ceded to that of Benjamin, on the return from the captivity.(o) It was here that St. Peter wrought a miraculous cure on old This was one of the three toparjEneas.(p) chies that were dismembered from Samaria, and given to the Jews;(q) and one of those places where the same people, after the destruction of their capital, set up an academy.(r)

The emperor

Justinian built here a magnificent

it

church, and dedicated

Joseph.

to St. George,

who

is

(y) 1

Sam.

xxvii. 6.

(z)

Comp.

Josh. 31. xix. 5.

(i)

{a) (b)

Hieronym. Loc. IJebr. sub voce.

(j)
(1)

Josh. xv. 24, 55. 24. xxvi. 1, et se.q. (c) 1 Sam. xxiii. 14 (e) Comp. Josh. xv. 33. xix. 41. (d) Judges, xvi. 31. 10. (f) Joshua, xvi. 5 (g) 2 Sam. xv. 32. (b) 1 Chron. vii. 24.

Comp.

De Bell. Jud. lib. 1 Mace. xvi. 11, et seq. Josh. xvi. 10. xxi. 21.
2 Kings, xv. 29.

i.

cap. 14. (k) Josh. x. 33.

xii.

12.

(n)

(m) 1 Kings, ix. 1C. (o) Nehein^ xi. 35.

(p) Acts, ix.

(q)
(r)

3235.

Joseph. Antiq. lib. xvi. cap. 8. Basnag. Hist, ties Juifs.

796

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP.

xvm.

reported to have been martyred and buried

here.

Michmethah, a frontier town on the borders of Ephraim and Manasseh. Naaratb, or Naaran, not far from the Jordan, and near the border of Benjamin. Naioth, in Ramah, where Saul, pursuing David and Samuel, was seized with a spirit of

from among his own subit with colonists From this time, Samaria languished, jects.(a) till at length it was destroyed by John Hyrcanus.
Gabinius, governor of Syria, in part rebuilt it, and called it Gabiniana; but he left it unfinished,
till Herod completed what he had begun, and gave it the names of Sebaste, and Augusta, in honour of his good friend and Herod patron, the emperor Augustus.(b) adorned it with magnificent buildings, fortified it with walls and towers, arid invited six thousand foreigners to settle in it who, finding the soil very fertile, became rich in a short time. Herod allowed this renewed city a circuit of 20 stadia (about two miles and a half); and in the centre he made a spacious square of about a stadium anrl H half, with a stately temple in the In short, he spared no cost to render midst. it one of the richest and most beautiful cities of his realm, and looked upon it as his favourite masterpiece, where he might secure a retreat in case of necessity, Sebaste is now an (c) inconsiderable village, surrounded with magnificent remains of its former splendour.(d) Sharon, or La-sharon, an ancient royal city, the 20th in Joshua's catalogue,(e) was so called from its delightful and fertile situation,
;

Near this place, Samuel had prophecy.(s) a house, in which, after his death, he was
buried. (t)

Pirathon, or Pharaton, in mount Amalek, the birth-place of the judge Abdon.(u) Its derived from *rvf fire, designates it as an name, ancient altar to the sun. Ramah, Ramathairu-zophim, or Arimathea, in mount Ephraim, on the borders of Benjamin, to which tribe it is frequently attributetl.(v) Between this place and Beth-el, dwelt Deborah the prophetess.(w) Elkanah, the father of Samuel, also dwelt here,(x) as did the prophet himself, or rather in the district to which it gave name, which also included Naioth, spoken of above. Baasha, king of Israel, intended to fortify this town, to prevent all intercourse between his subjects and those of Asa, king of Judah ; but Asa having bribed Ben-hadad, king of Syria, to attack the northern provinces of Baasha, he was obliged to desist, after making great preparations, and even beginning the works whereupon Asa seized the stones and timber, and with them built Geba of Ben;

in the plains of the

same name.

Its real site is

jamin, and Mizpah.(y)

SAMARIA
which
it

[Sebaste]

originally

Shomerom,

from Shomer, the owner of the mountain on

was the capital of the built, revolted tribes, from the time of Omri, the father of Ahab, who purchased the hill for two talents of silver, and built the city upon it,(z) which he and his successors made their royal residence, and raised it to a great height of splendour. When Shalmaneser, the Assyrian, overran Israel, Samaria held out against him for three years, but being at length taken, the inhabitants were all sent into captivity, beyond the Euphrates, and the conqueror repeopled
(s)
{\)

was

but some suppose it to be the same with Saron, about 15 miles north of Lydda ;(f) Josephus places it on an eminence about twelve miles south-west from Antipatris on one side, and as many from the sea on the other.(g) Shechem, Sichem, or Neapolis [Nabolos], remarkable, in the history of Jacob, for the seduction of Dinah, and the massacre of its
;

unknown

inhabitants by Simeon and Levi,(h) was an ancient royal city, in the valley between mounts Ebal and Gerizim, ten miles east from Hyrcanium. It was given to the Levites, and appointed for a city of refuge, by Joshua.(i) After the destruction of Samaria, it became the metropolis of the revolted tribes, on which account the Jews, in contempt, gave it the name of Shicar, or Syc/iar, i. e. drunken, in allusion to the prophet, who styles them the
(b) 'Joseph. Antiq.
lib.

1 Sam.
I

Sam. xxv.

xix. 18, et scq. 1.

xv.

(u) Judges, xii. 13, 15.

The
(c)
(c)

cap. 11.

term Sebaste

signifies the

same

in

Hieronjm. et al. Greek, that Augustus

(v) Josh, xviii. 25. (*) 1 Sam. i. 1. ii. 11. (y) 1

(z)

(w) Judges,

iv. 4, 5.

does in Latin.
Antiq. lib. xv. cap. 13. Joshua, xii. 18.
Antiq.
lib. xvi.

(a)

Kings, xv. 1622. 1 Kings, xvi. 24. 2 Kings, xvii. xviii.

2 Chron.

xvi.

16.

(d) See before, p. 586.

(f) Acts, ix. 36.

(g)

cap. 8. 1

Mace.

xi.

(h)

Gen. xxxiv.

(i)

34. Josh. JM. 7. xxi. 21.

SECT, iv.j

CITIES OF EPHRAIM,

AND OF MANASSEH, WEST OF JORDAN.

707

The Samaritans drunkards of Ephraim. (j~) built here a schismatic temple, which is still standing, and held in great veneration by that
sect,

who

resort to

it

in all their religious fes-

tivals.(k)

Shilo, a considerable place

on the borders of

Ephraim and Benjamin, and nearly in the centre of the whole country of Canaan; about ten or twelve miles south of Shechem, and fifteen
from Jerusalem, in the district of Acrabatene. To this place, in the days of Joshua, both the camp of Israel, and the ark of the Lord, were removed from Gilgal, after a residence there,

like its neighbour Ephraim, extended across the country, in a narrow slip, from the Jordan on the east, to the Mediterranean on the west ; having Zebulun and Issachar on the north, and Ephraim on the south. The country was agreeably diversified with a variety of plains, mountains, valleys, and springs; and was well stocked with stately cities, among which the following were the most remarkable: Abel-meholah, the birth-place of Elisha the It was situate in the plains of prophet.(v) at the foot of the mountains of Gilboa, Jordan, near the place where Gideon routed the

remained 326 years,

supposed, of seven years; and here it till captured by the Philistines. (1) After the removal of the ark, this
as
is

Midianites.(w)

Aner, a Levitical

city,

supposed to be the

place went so rapidly to decay, that it became a kind of proverb ;(m) and in Jerom's time nothing was left of it but the foundation of the altar of burnt-offerings.(n) Taanath-shiloh, a small town to the northeast of Shiloh. Tappuah, a royal city, the 17th in Joshua's catalogue,(o) on the borders of Ephraim and Manasseh, with a district belonging to it, The city was called the land of Tappuah. but Manasseh had the given to Ephraim;

same with Tanach, or Taanach.(x) Aphek, in the valley of Jezreel, where the
Philistines collected their forces prior to the battle in which Saul and his sons were slain.(y)

uncertain whether this were the royal city mentioned by Joshua.(z) Antipatris, built by Herod on the spot where stood the ancient Capharsalania,(a) or Capharsaba, and so called from his father Antipater. Josephus places it 50 stadia from Joppa, on the road from Jerusalem to Caesarea.(b) Though
It is
it belonged to old itinerary of Jerusalem places it 10 miles from Lydda, and 25 miles south of Cssarea. It was situate in a delight-

in the tribe of

Dan, or Ephraim,

country round about.(p) Timnath-serah, Timnath-heres, or Uzzensherah, the inheritance of Joshua, and where

Mauasseh.

The

he was buried. (q) It was also called Thimnastra, and gave name to a jurisdiction called A few miles from it Toparchia Tamnitica. stood the fortress of Hyrcanium.(r)
Tirzah, the 31st royal city in Joshua's list.(s) situation is uncertain, although it was, before the building of Samaria, the capital of the kingdom of Israel, and the residence of its It is supposed to have stood on mount kings.(t) south of Samaria ; though some place Ephraim, it on the torrent of Tirzah, about eight miles west of the Jordan.
Its
3. THE HALF-TRIBE OF MANASSEH, WEST OF THE JORDAN. (u) This portion of Manasseh,
(k) Maundrell. 614. (1) See before, p. (m) Jerem. vii. 12, 14. xxvi. 6, 9. et Epitaph. Paul*. (n) Hieron. Com. in Sophon.
(j) Isaiah, xxviii. 1.

ful plain,

encompassed with a stately grove, and so well watered as to be esteemed the

spot in all Palestine. (c) Beth-shan, Beth-shean, or Scythopolis, [Ba'isan] stood on a small neck of land that ran into the tribe of Issachar, and became one of the ten cities in the district styled Decapolis. From the remaining ruins, it appears to have been an opulent city. In the second book of the Maccabees, it is placed 1600 furlongs, or 75 miles, north of Jerusalem ;(d) and Josephus Its places it about 120 from Tiberias.(e) of the Greek name of Scythopolis, (the city
fairest

Scythians)

is

said to have been given to

(v) 1
vi.

it

by

(u) Joshua, xvii. passim.

Kings,
70.

xix. 16.

(w) Judges, vii. 22. (x) Comp. Josh. xxi. 25. 1 Chron.
(y) 1
(z)

Sam.

xix. 1.

(o) Josh. xii. 17. (p) Josh. xvii. 8. 50. xxiv. 30. Judges, ii. 9. 1 Chron. (q) Josh. x'rx. Belt. Jud. lib. i. cap. 14. (r) Joseph. DC

(a)
vii.

See before, p. 779. 1 Mace. vii. 31.

Joseph.

Aphekah, or Aphek,
xiii.

in

Judah.

24.

(b) Joseph. Antiq. lib.

(c)

De

(t)

() Joshua, xii. 24. 1 Kingt, xiv. 17. xv. 21, 33. xvK

(d)
6, 8, 0, 15, 23.
(e)

2 Mace.
Joseph.

Bell. Jud. xii. 29.

Fit.

lib.

cap. 23. i. cap. 16,

De

Su,

p.

1025.

798

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP, xviii.

the Scythians, who made an irruption into the the reign of country, and rebuilt this city, in Josiah, kins: of Judah ;(f) or it may have been so called from the Scythians, or Cuthites, who were sent into the different Samaritan cities by the kings of Assyria.(g) Bezek, a royal city, the residence of the some geotyrant Adoni-bezek,(h) is placed by in Manasseh, near the torrent of graphers

Manasseh. (o) It is remarkable for the residence of the witch consulted by Saul, the
night before his death.(p) Enon, on the west bank of the Jordan, not far from Salim, where John baptized.(q) Gath-rimmon, or Bileam, a city of the
Levites,(r)
;

between Aphek and Megiddo.

Shimron; by others, with more probability, in Judah, south of Jerusalem.(i)

Caesarea-Palaestina, in the tribe of

Ephraim, and country of Sharon, among the cities of Manasseh.

originally a fortress, called the

is

Dan, or of reckoned This city,

Gilgal, a royal city, the 30th in Joshua's catalogue (s) supposed to be the capital of Upper Galilee, or Galilee of the Gentiles, or of the Nations, and the ancient seat of Tidal It stood somewhere in king of nations. (t) of mounts Ebal and the neighbourhood

was adorned and fortified it the name of Caesarea,

Augustus,
his patron
;

Tower of Strato, Herod, who gave by

in

after

the residence of the Roman Josephus places it metropolis of Palestine. about 600 furlongs, or 26 miles, west of JerusaIt had a commodious haven, and was lem. inhabited partly by Jews, partly by Greeks,

honour of Caesar which it became governors, and the

Gerizim, (u) and must be distinguished from another place so called by Joshua, where the Israelites encamped when they first crossed the Jordan. (v) Ibleam, on the waters of Megiddo, between

Jokueam and Taanach.

Jczrccl [Esdrelon, or Esdraelon], a royal city, situated at the foot of mount Gilboa, west of Beth-shan, or Scythopolis, and south of the

mountains

of

Hermon,

in

an

open

plain,

who were always plotting against each other, and hatching sedition, till Vespasian put a Roman colony in it.(j) Here it was that St. Paul pleaded before Festus and Agrippa, and made Felix tremble.(k) This city was standing in the time of the croisades; but now nothing but its name remains. Castrum Alexandrinum, a place fortified by Alexander the son of Aristobulus, against the insulting Romans.(l) Dor, or Dora [Tartoura], a royal city, the 29th in Joshua's catalogue,(rn) situate on the
sea-coast,

called the valley of Jezreel.(\\} Ahab, king of Israel, had a palace here, from the windows of which Jezebel was thrown by order of Jehu,

and dashed to pieces, after which her carcase was devoured by dogs.(x) Here it was, also.

below mount Carmel, three leagues from Caesarea Palaestina, and seven from Ptolemai's, was a strong city, though an indifferent the It was seized by Tryphon, seaport. also of assassin of Antiochus-Theos, and Jonathan Maccabsus, who was induced to go
thither by the fair promises of that traitor, and there met his death. (n) En-dor, in the tribe of Issachar, belonged to

Naboth was unjustly put to death, by the contrivance of Jezebel.(y) Megiddo, the 26th royal city in Joshua's catalogue,(z) on a stream called the waters of Megiddo, south-east of Taanach. In common with Ibleam, it was within the borders of Issachar, or Ashur, but belonged to MaIn the neighbourhood of this city, nasseh. (a) was the grand struggle for mastery between Jabin and his allies on the one hand, and the Israelites under Deborah and Barak on the other ;(b) here died Ahaziah, king of Judah, of the wounds he received in flying from Jehu ;(c) and here also Josiah met his death from Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt.(d) Salem, or Shalem, nor far from Tappualr,
that
(r)

(f) Syncel. p.

214.

(h) Judges,
(j)

\.

47.
Sell. Jud.
lib.

(g)
(i)
i.

Joseph.

De

2 Kings, xvii. 24. See before, p. 781.

Antiq.
lib. xiii.

cap. 3.
(1)

Josh. xxi. 2o. 1 Chron. Josh. xii. 23. (u) Deut. xi. 30.
(s)

vi.

69, 70.
(t)

Gen.

xiv. 1.

cap. 19. xxvi. (k) Acts, xxiv. (m) Josh. xii. 23.
(n) (q)

(v) Joshua, v. 9, 10.

(w) Calmet.
(z)

Joseph, ubl supr.

(x) (y)

2 Kings,

ix.

3037Josh.
xii.

1 Kings, xxi. passim.

21.

1 Mace.
John,
iii.

xiii.

xv. 11, ct seq.

(p) 1

(a) Josh. xvii. 11.

(o) Josh. xvii. 11.

Sam.

xxviii. 7.

(c)

2 Kings,
2 Kings,

(b) Judges, v. 19.

ix.

27.
29, 30.

23.

(d)

xxiii.

2 Chron. xxv. 22,

et seq.

ECT. IV.]

CITIES

OF BENJAMIN.

709

and near the west bank of the Jordan, is supposed to have been the residence of the cele brated Melchizedek, by those who cannoi allow him to have reigned at Jenisalem.(e) Taanach, or Thanach, a royal city, the 2-jtIi in Joshua's list,(f ) and given to the Levites,(g)
supposed to be the same with Aner,(h) a contraction perhaps of Taanach. It stood near the waters of Megiddo.(i) Thebez, in the plain of Jezreel, where the
is
'

place of Lazarus and his two sisters.(t) Some remains of an old castle are still shewn, as having belonged to them; as is likewise the

tomb from which La/arus was raised il lut^ ;i descent of 25 steps, and at the bottom is a small apartment, where he is said to have lain. It is held in great veneration by both Turks and
;

Christians.(u) Beth-el, originally Luz, where Jacob had his vision of the ladder, and set up an anointed
It stood on the west of Ai, about 12 miles north of Jerusalem, on the road to Shechem, and is the 10th in Joshua's enumeration of royal cities.(w) Being on the borders of Ephraim, Jeroboam set up a golden calf there;(x) from which time it obtained the name of Beth-aven,(y) the house of iniquity, instead of Beth-el, the house of God. It was strongly fortified by the revolted tribes, and was very troublesome to the kings of Judah, who often tried in vain to recover it: till at length Ahijalt

usurper Abimelech met his death.( j)

4.

stone.(v)

THE

TRIBE

OF

BENJAMIN, (k)

was

or Samaria, on the north, the river Jordan and the Dead Sea on the east, Judah on the south, and Dan on the west, which parted it from the Mediterranean, or Great Sea. It had but few cities and towns in comparison with the other tribes, but it contained the largest portion of the metropolis, Jerusalem, already described in the tribe of Judah. The other cities and towns of note

bounded by Ephraim,

were, Ai, or Hai, a royal city, and the second in Joshua's list,(l) called by the Septuagint Aai, by Josephus Aina, and by other writers Ajah, situate east of Beth-el, and at a short distance north-west of Jericho, was remarkable for the

took

it,

and

refortified

it

against them.(z)
to

Beth-hoglah, two miles, according from the Jordan. Chephar-haammonai.

Jerom,

repulse that the Israelites met with, on account of Achan's sacrilege it was, however, taken after the crime had been detected and punished,
:

and laid in ruins, as already related. (m) Almon, a city of the priests.
Anathoth, a city of the priests, (n) between by Jordan and Jerusalem ;(o) the birthplace of Jeremiah,(p) and the inheritance of many of the high-priests. It seems to have received its name from Anathoth, the son of Becher, and grandson of Benjamin. (q)
Gilgal

Chephirah, a city of the Gibeonites. Eleph. Gaba, or Geba, supposed to be the same with Gibeah of Saul, was a city of the Levites. Gethsemane, a village on the mount of Olives, chiefly remarkable for the garden in its vicinity, to which our Lord used to retire at night, and where he experienced that dreadful agony which caused a bloody sweat, just before he

was betrayed by Judas.(a) Its name signifies received from oil-press, which it probably of oil by expressome considerable manufacture
an

A vim.

Beeroth, one of the four cities of the Gibeonand the native place of the two murderers of Ish-bosheth.(s) Bethany, a celebrated village on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem, the dvvellingites,(r)
(e)

on the mount. or Gibeath, of Saul, so called to Gibeah, distinguish it from Gibeath-Phinehas, in the tribe of Ephraim ; it stood about seven or eight miles north of Jerusalem, and is supposed to be the same with the Levitical city of Gaba. It was the birth-place of Saul ;(b) and infamous
sion from the olives cultivated
\. 1. xxxii. 7 9. See 1 Chron. vii. 8. (r) Joshua, ix. 17. xi. s] 2 Saw. iv. 2, t'< seq. (t) John, 79. Pococke, p. 29. Mauudrell, p. (,', n. xxviii. (w) Jys/(K, xii. 1C.

See Calmet,
xii.

Relaud,

Basnage,

and

others,

on

this

p) Jvrem.

subject. (if) Josh,

(h)
(j)
1

(\)

ai.
vi.

(g) Josh. xxi. 25.

Cliron.

70.

(i)

Judges,

ix.

(k) Junh. xviii.

5055. 1128.

Judges,
Josh.

v. 19.

2 Sam.

xi.

21.
xii.

B
Luke,

(1)

9.

Kings,

xii.

(m) Josh.
(o)

vii. viii.

See before, p. 708, 709.

//osea,
xxii.

iv.

20, e< icy. 15. v. 8. x. 5.

(n) Josh. xxi. 13.

Mutt. xxvi.

3050.
xi. 4.

xii. 20. (z) 2 C/<ro. 3/arA, xiv. 20, 32, 43, e/ teq.

About

three miles north of the latter, according to

3948.
x.

Jerom.

(b) 1

Sam.

20.

xv. 34.

800

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES

circuit ;(m) to proclaim

[CHAP.

xvm.

for the insult offered to the wandering Levite and his concubine; a transaction that had from the nearly proved fatal to the whole tribe, of the Benjamites, in refusing to

and here he assembled the people,

obstinacy
deliver

Saul king, after his election at at which time it was the general Mizpeh,(n) rendezvous for public worship, although the
ark was at Kirjath-jearim.(o) At this place, also, Samuel put to death Agag the Amalekite.(p)

up the offenders.(c)

Gibeon, or Gabeon, or Gibeah, the chief city of the Gibeonites, and remarkable as well for the stratagem made use of by its inhabitants, who were of Hivite origin, to obtain peace with Joshua, as for the confederacy of the five kings
against Israel.(d)
lican,

Irpeel.

The government was

repub-

and included the neighbouring cities of Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim, but whether as allies or subjects, is uncertain. This that it is city was so large and powerful, esteemed a royal city, though it had no king :(e) Josephus says it stood upon an eminence, about 40 or 50 furlongs north, or rather north-

Near this city was a west, of Jerusalem. (f) or collection of waters, rendered remarkpool, able by a severe conflict between Abner and Joab, generals of Ish-bosheth and David ;(g)
as also

Jericho \_Eriha\ the first city taken by the Israelites,(q) is placed about six miles west of the Jordan, and 22 north-east from Jerusalem. It is now a poor village, where are seen the remains of an old couduit, supposed to have been made for conveying the waters of Elijah's fountain to the city and adjacent parts. (r) Kirjath, or Kirjath-jearim, or Baalah, or Kirjath-baal, one of the four cities of Gibeou, where the ark remained, after it was sent back by the Philistines, till David removed it to Jerusalem.^) Though reckoned among the cities of Benjamin, it belonged to Judah.(t) Michmash [Byrci], where the Philistines had
t

by a meeting between Johanan and

encamped

when they were overthrown by

Ishmael, after the destruction of Jerusalem. (h) After the removal of the ark from Shiloh, and
capture by the Philistines,(i) the tabernacle, on what occasion is not known, was also removed and, in the days of David, it appears to have been standing in Gibeon, where it remained till Solomon fetched it away, and set
its
;

it

dedicated.(j)

temple, when that edifice was In the distribution by Joshua, Gibeon was given to the priests.(k) Gilgal, about three miles west of the Jordan,

up

in the

Jonathan.(u) Mizpeh, a frontier town, on mount Ephron, indifferently ascribed to Judah and Benjamin.(v) Mozah, on the borders of Judah, probably built by Moza, the son of Caleb. (w) Nob, a city of the priests, destroyed by Saul, because Ahimelech had given entertainment to David.(x) Jerom describes its ruins as in the neighbourhood of Diospolis.(y) And Masius takes it to be the same with Anab, called Beth-

Joshua first encamped after crossing that river,(l) and where he seems to have had his head-quarters for about seven years, was one of the stations where Samuel held his annual
(c)

where

anoba by Jerom others call it Bochonopolis and William of Tyre(z) says the popular name was Beth-umble.
:

Ophni. Ophrah, the birth-place and inheritance of

jearitu in 1

Judyes, xix.

xxi.

(d) Joshua, ix. x.

Sam.

vii.

1, 2.

and

in

Gibeah, or Gibeon,
See before, p. 766.

in

(e) Joshua, \. 2.

2 Sam.
(k)

vi. 3.
(1)

Antiq. lib. i. cap. 10. De Bell. Jud. lib. ii. cap. 37. 2 Sam. ii. 1317. (li) Jerem. xli. 11, et seq. (i) See before, p. 614, 797. f 1 Kings, iii. 4. 1 Chron. xvi. 39. xxi. 29. j) Conip. 2 Chron. i. 3. In these places, it is possible that Gibeon may be used in an extensive sense for the district in which that city stood, and which included three other cities, as
(f)

(g)

Joshua, xxi. 17. (m) 1 Sam. vii. 16.

(o)

Comp.
Sam.

(p) 1
(q)

1 Sam. xv. 32, 33.

(n) 1 Sam. x. 8, vii. 1, 2. x. 8. xiii. 7

1724.

xi. 14, 15. 12. xv. 21.

mentioned above among these was Kirjath-jearim, whither the ark was sent, on its return from the Philistines, and whither, in all probability, the tabernacle was removed from In this sense Shiloh, on that account. Kirjath-jearim, whence David fetched the ark, and Gibeon, \\ hence Solomon be considered as synonymous removed the tabernacle, may terms indeed they are so used by the sacred writers themselves, for the house of Aminadab is said to lie in Kirjath14
: :

Sec before, p. 572, 598, and 767, note (w). Other particulars relative to this (r) Pococke, p. 31. city, have been already given, p. 584, 585. (s) Comp. 1 Sam. vii. 1. 2 Sam. vi. passim. 1 Chron. xiii. (t) Comp. Jos/t. xv. 9,60. xviii. 28. 25'om.vi. 2. 1 Chron.
xiii. (i.

1 Sam. xiii. xiv. (v) See before, p. 794. (w) 1 Chron. ii. 4(>. (x) 1 Sam. xxi. xxii. (y) Hieron. in Epitaph. Paula. Euseb. in Locis Hf.br. voce Nombra. Calmet. Diet.
(u)
(z)

Lib. xiv. cap. 8.

SECT. IV.]

CITIES OF BENJAMIN,
lot

AND OF SIMEON.
of Judah.(j)

80!

Here Gideon, and where he was buried. (a) Abimelech slew his 69 brethren.(b) Parah. Raman, or Ramathaira-zophim, on the borders of Ephraim, the inheritance and buryirigplace of Samuel.(c)

Rekem.
Taralah. Zelah, the burying-place of Saul, Jonathan, and the family of Kish.(d) Zemaraim, probably an ancient city of the Amonians, of whose standard it bore the

There were many towns of name, which signifies a fountain, or an eye, on which account they are mostly distinguished by some addition, as Ain-sheraesh, t/ie fountain of the sun, in allusion to some spring dedicated to that luminary. Eusebius calls the place in question Beth-ain and Beth-anim, the house of the fountain, and places it about four miles south-west of Hebron. (k) It was afterwards
this

This tribe 5. THE TRIBE OF SIMEON. (f) was circumscribed to a very small lot, in the southern corner of Judah, out of which it was taken, and which formed its eastern and northeastern boundary on the north it had Dan on the west the country of the Philistines; and on the south the desert of Kadesh-barnea, from which it was separated by the rivers Bezor and It was Nehel-eshcol, or torrent of Botri. mountainous, sandy, and barren, except mostly
:
;

name.(e)

given to the priests.(l) Anthedon, a small seaport on the Mediterranean, to which it does not appear that the Simeonites ever had access till the days of Alexander Janneus, by whom it was taken and destroyed, as related in the history of the
Philistines.

Ashan, given from the tribe of Judah, and frequently confounded with Ain. Azem, another city given from Judah.
Baalath-beer, probably the same with Baalatb,

towards the north-east, where it bordered on The proximity of the Philistines on Judah. one hand, and of the Idumaeans on the other, gave the Simeonites so much trouble, and so

reckoned among the cities of Judah. Its name signifies the well of the queens, or mistresses; and it was probably the seat of an idolatrous worship paid to the moon.
Balah. Beer-sheba, the well of the oath, so called from the well where Abraham, and after him Isaac, renewed their covenant with Abimelech, king of Gerar.(m) The city was situated on the southern verge of Judea, as Dan, or Laish, was on the northern point and hence the proverb " From Dan to Beer-sheba ;"(n) to signify the whole extent of the land. We learn from Jerom and Eusebius, that it had a Roman garrison in their days but it is now a poor village, beyond which lies a sandy and barren desert.
: ;

hemmed them

in,

that,

finding neither

room

nor sustenance enough for their wants, nor quietness in their inheritance, they were obliged to seek a better fortune among the other tribes: some hiring themselves out(g) to assist their
brethren in the conquest of their several lots, for the sake of having some small share allowed and others dispersing themselves to them ; among the other tribes, where they served as scribes, notaries, schoolmasters, &c. so fully was the prophetical anathema of Jacob upon their father accomplished in them, (as well as in the tribe of Levi,) on account of their " I will treachery towards the Shechemites :(h) DISPERSE them in Jacob, and SCATTER them in

Their towns were few, and none Israel"(i) of them considerable. Their names were as
follow
:

Beth-lebaoth, the house, or city of lionesses , probably so called from the numbers of those animals in the neighbourhood, or from the worship there paid to them, as to lions in Egypt. Beth-marcaboth, the house, or city of chariots: perhaps the place where the Canaanites kept
their war-chariots.

Ain, Aen, or Hain, a city originally in the

(a)

Bethul, a virgin, of which only the remains.

Joshua, xix.

name

Judges,

vi.
i.

(c) 1

Sam.

1, 10.

11, 24. viii. 27, 32. (b) Judges, ix. 5. ii. 11. xv. 34. xvi.13. xxvi. 1. xxviii. 3.

(f)

19.

(g)
(i)

Judget,

i.

3, 17.

(h) (j)

Gen. xxxiv.

Gen.

xlix.

57.

See before,
(d)
(e)

p. 7SX5. Sam. xxi. 14.

See before, p. 525, 532, ft seq. on the name of Seniiramis, and the Sama-ramis of the Amomans. See also Bryant on the same subject.

See before, p. 779. (k) Euseb. Lou. Heb. sub. Beth-anim. (m) Gen. xxi. 22, et seq. xxvi. 26 33. 438, note (p), and 611. (n) 2 Sam. xvii. 11, et seq.

xxi. 16. (1) Josh. See before, p. 343,

VOL.

1.

5K

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

El-tolad, a city already mentioned tribe of Judab. Ether, also given from Jiulah.
in the

[CHAP. xvin.

Gerar, or Gezarah, a city of the Philistines, and the royal residence of the kings called Abimelech, in the days of Abraham and Isaac.(o) Jerom and Eusebius make it the most southern of the Canaanitish cities, placing it on the river Bezor, about seven miles south-west of Debir, and six east of Beer-sheba.(p) Hazar-shual, given from Judah. Hazar-susah, supposed to be the same with the last mentioned they both signify the dwell:

having the sea of Genesareth, or Chinnereth, and part of Issachar, on the east the tribes of Issachar and Manasseh to the south and the Mediterranean on the west. In its vicinity to the sea, the number of its ports, and the extent of its commerce, it fully verified the
; ;

prophetical blessings given to this tribe by Jacob and Moses. (w) The cities and towns were Beth-lehem, the house of bread, a different place from that in which our Lord was born.
:

Its situation

unknown.

ing of the fox.

or devoted, a royal city, originally called Sephaat,(q) in the kingdom of Arad,(r) from which, in Joshua's catalogue, it seems to have been disjoined by copyists, or translators; and geographers, following the error, have made two distinct places of them. It was first included in the lot of Judah, and afterwards given to Simeon.(s) Moladah, a city originally in the lot of

Hormah,

rejected,

Bethulia, a strongly fortified town, on the torrent of Sharon, the residence of the celebrated Judith, who, in the reign of Manasseh, fascinated the Assyrian general Holofernes, cut off his head, and thereby caused the siege of the city to be abandoned. (x) Cana the Lesser, or Cana of Galilee, where

our Lord performed his water into wine.(y)

first

miracle, of turning

Judah.

Ramath.

Rimmon, a pomegranate, probably so called from the trees of that kind in its vicinity. It was taken from Judah, to enlarge the territoThere was another city of the ries of Simeon. same name, in the tribe of Zebulun ; to one of which, the Benjamites, when chastised by
their brethren for the affair of the Levite's concubine, flew, and sheltered themselves in the

Chisloth-tabor, or Caseluth, a town near the foot of mount Tabor, on the borders oi' Issachar. Dabbasheth, on the west border, not far from Ach-shaph, or Ptolema'is. Daberath, or Dabareh, a Levitical city,(z) on the eastern border of the tribe it is accounted a city of Issachar as well as of Zebulun. Dimnah, or Damnah, a Levitical city. Dothaim, or Dothain [Ain-ellugiar], south of mount Tabor, three leagues south-east of
;

Nazareth.
Gittah-hepher, or Gath-hepher, the birthplace of the prophet Jonah.(a) Hannathon, on the northern frontiers next
to JNaphtali.

neighbouring rocks,
offered to them.(t)

till

terms of peace were

Rhiuocolura, or Rhinocorura, is sometimes reckoned among the cities of the Simeonites, but without the least authority as they never extended their dominion so far.
;

Idalah.
Ittah-kazin. Japhia, a Levitical
city,

Sha-ruhen, the prince of grace, of unknown fame. Sheba, equally unknown with the preceding. Ziklag, already described in Judah, to which Eusebius places it on the it was first given. southern frontier of Canaan. (u)

on

the border of

Issachar.
Jiphthah-el, on the borders of Asher. Jokneam, a royal and Levitical city, the 28th in Joshua's catalogue,(b) at the foot of mount Carmel, on the river Kishon, but ou which side is uncertain. It is frequently called

TRIBE OF ZEBULUN. (v) This lot <i. THE was south of those of Asher and Naphtali;
(o)

Jokneam

of Carmel.
10
16.

ip)
(<j)

Gen. xx. xxi. xxvi. Hieronym. et Euseb. in Loc. Heb. sub voce.

(v) Josh. xix.

(r) Numb. xxi. 1, ct seq. Judges, i. 17. See before, p. 772, note (c), and 783. (t) Judges, xx. 45, 47. xxi. 13. (u) Eu&eb. in Loc. Hebr. sub voce Siceleg.
(s)

(w) Gen. xlix. 13. Dent, xxxiii. 18, 19. (x) See the history of Judith, in the Apocrypha.
(y)
(z)

John,

ii.

1, et seg.
vi.

Josh. xxi. 28. 1 Chron. (a) 2 Kings, xiv. 25.

72.
(b)'

Joshua,

xii.

22.

SECT. IV.]

CITIES OF ZEBULUN,

AND OF
burnt
it(k)
it

ISSACHAR.

803

Kattath, probably the same with Kartah ;(c) a Levitical city. Maralah. Nahallal, or Nahalal, a city of the Levites. Nazareth [Nasara], the city in which our Lord was brought up, situate on a hill, a few miles from the brook Kishon. Neah, north of the river Sharon.

to the ground, after

he had plundered

7. THE TRIBE OF ISSACHAR.(!) This tribe was enclosed on the north, west, and south, by Zebulun and the half-tribe of Manasseh on the east it had the lake of Genesareth and the river Jordan. The principal towns were
;
:

Remmon-methoar, or Rimmon.
Sapha,
Saffa, or Sephoris [Sefburi], afterwards
,

Abez. Anaharath.
Beth-pazzez.

Dioeaesarea. Sarid.

Shimron, or Shimron-meron, the 23d royal

city in Joshua's list.(d)

Someron. Sycaminos
at the foot of

[Atlik], or Porphyreon \Caiphd], mount Carmel, on the north side,

and on the gulf of Ach-shaph, or Ptolema'fs, from which it is parted by a spacious haven.(e) According to Dr. Pococke, it is now the port of Acra, where ships ride at anchor in safety, which they cannot do on the other side, on account of the shallowness of the water. D'Anville considers Sycaminos and Porphyreon, or Hepha, as two distinct places. Tabor, the same as Chisloth-tabor, already described. On the mount of the same name, near this town, Barak, by the advice of Deborah, assembled the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, which began the war between the Israelites and Jabin, king of Canaan ;(f) arid in the same place, the brethren of Gideon were
slain

Beth-shemesh, the house, or temple of the sun: a name given to many of the cities of the Canaanites.(m) Castrum Peregrinorum, a fortress of late date, built in the time of the croisades, for the It security of pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem. stood about seven or eight miles west of the last-named town.
Chesulloth.

Chinnereth, or Genesareth, an ancient city,

by the Midianite princes Zebah and

Zal-

Mount Tabor is generally conmunnah.(g) sidered to have been the place where our Lord
was
transfigured. (h)

which gave name to the lake near which it stood it was rebuilt by Herod, who called it Tiberias, in honour of the emperor Tiberius. Some geographers make them distinct cities, and place Chinnereth in the tribe of Naphtali, and Tiberias in that of Issachar. Dabareh, a city of the Levites. En-dor, though situated in this tribe, belonged to Manasseh, as already noticed.(n) En-gannim, a city of the Levites.(o) En-hadda: Eusebius places a city, called Enada, ten miles from Eleutheropolis, on the road to Jerusalem, which is supposed to be the same with En-hadda. Genesareth, the same with Chinnereth, men;

tioned above.

Zebulun, the capital of the tribe, on the torrent of Sharon ; or, according to Josephus,(i) on the Mediterranean, near the mouth of the

Haphraim, on the borders of Zebulun, a

to the east of Daberath.

little

Being named among Jiphthah-el, or Jephtael. the boundary towns of Asher(j) it is supposed to have originally belonged to that tribe. It was adorned with fine buildings, after the manner of Tyre, Sidon, and Berytus ; and, on account of its extraordinary populousness, was sometimes styled Zabulun Andron, or of men.
Cestius,
(c) (e) (f)

Jarmuth, a city of the Levites. Kishion, or Kishon, a Levitical city,(p) between En-dor and Genesareth, near the lesser

Kishon

river.

Nairn, or Nain, where our

Lord

raised the

widow's son to

life.(q)

though he much admired

Josh. xjx. 15. xxi. 34.

this city,

Rabbith, or Rebbuth, a few miles to the north-west of Abez, at the foot of mount Herrnon.
(1)

Comp.

(d) Josh. xii. 20.

p. 819.

Josh. xix.

1723.
:

Nubien. Geograph. apud Reland,

Judges, iv. C, 12, 14. (g) Judges, viii. 18. (h) See before, p. 570. Bell. Jud. lib. iii. cap. 2. (i) (j) Josh. xix. 27. Hell. Jud. lib. ii. cap. 22. (k) Joseph.

De

De

(m) See, amongst other places, Josh. xv. 10, where one is mentioned in Judah and Judges, i. 33, where one is spoken of in Naphtali. (o) Josh. xix. 21. xxi. 29. (n) See before, p. 798. (q) Luke, vii. 11, et seq. (p) Josh. xix. 20. xxi. 28.

5 K

-2

804

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

mon

[CHAP, xviii.

Remeth. Shahazimah, situated at the confluence of the two branches of the greater Kishon. Shion, or Seon, according to the Vulgate. Eusebius and Jerom speak of a place, called Seon, in their times, near mount Tabor. Shunem, where the Philistines collected their
armies,
in

prior to the

fatal

battle of

Gilboa,

which Israel was totally routed, and Saul Here also the and his sons were slain.(r) entertained by a pious prophet Elisha was woman, whose son he restored to life.(s) The
situation of this city
it is

gave to Hiram, king of Tyre, who, being displeased with its cities, gave it that contemptible narae.(b) The chief towns were : Abdon, a city of the Levites. afterwards Ptolemais Accho, or Acca, [Acre], a strongly fortified town on a headland in the Mediterranean, of great celebrity during the croisades; and in more recent times, for the first check given to Buonaparte, by Sir Sydney Smith and the Turks.(c) Achshaph, a royal city, the 24th in Joshua's catalogue ;(d) a few miles west of Accho, with

is

extremely uncertain

frequently placed nasseh, on the borders of Ephraim ; and the writer of the book of Joshua only describes the border of Issachar as being towards Shunem, though, to make up the number of sixteen
cities,
it is

in the half-tribe of

Ma-

which it is frequently confounded. It does not appear that the Israelites possessed either of these two cities. (e)
Ach-zib, afterwards Ecdippa [&], nine miles

necessary to give

it

to that tribe.(t)

Others place it a few miles west of Jezreel. Tabor, the same with Chisloth-tabor,(u) or Caseluth, a frontier town, between Issachar and Zebulun, but to which it belonged is
uncertain.

from Accho, on the road to Tyre, according to Eusebius and Jerom, or twelve miles from Accho, according to the itinerary of Antoninus. Though given to the Asherites, they were unable either to expel or subdue the original inhabitants :(f) Joseph us calls it a maritime
town.(g) Al-am-raelech.

Tarichea, a fortified city of great strength, made a remarkable resistance against Vespasian. Josephus(v) places it on the sea of Galilee, about eight miles south of Tiberias but Pliny(w) says it was on an island towards the west end of the lake. Tiberias [Tabarieh], on the lake of Chinnereth, or Genesareth, otherwise called t/ie sea of Tiberias ; the same with Chinnereth, described above.
that
;

Am -ad.
on, the northern fronuncertain whether it was at this place, or at another of the same name, that Benhadad, the Syrian monarch, hid himself, after the rout of his army by Ahab, and the destruction of 7000 of his remaining troops by the fall of the walls.(h) Beten. Beth-dagon, where was a temple of Dagon,
tier
:

Aphek, or Aphekeh,
it is

8. THE TRIBE OF ASHER.(X) This tribe was seated on the north-west corner of the pro-

as

its

name

implies.
in

mised land, adjoining, on the north side, to Phoenice ; and having the tribe of Naphtali to the east, Zebulun on the south, and the Mediterranean on the west. It was fruitful in corn,
wine, oil, &c. of the best kinds, according to the blessing of dying Jacob ;(y) with some considerable cities near the sea, though no It was in this port of any consequence.(z) tribe that the land of Cabul(a) lay, which Solo(r) 1
(t)

Beth-einek, or house of the valley, plains of Sharon.

sun.

the

Beth-shemesh, another city dedicated to the It was on the river Letane, which divided Asher from Naphtali; but it is uncertain to
tribes
it

which of the
Cabul:

belonged.

called long before of Cabul, dirty, mean, or contemptible, to the district containing the Joseforty cities given him by Solomon. (i)
this city

was so

Hiram applied

the

name

Sam.

xxviii. 4, et sey.

(s)

2 King*,

iv. 8, et teg.

Joshua, xix. 18, 22. (u) Joshua, xix. 12, 22. (v) 7* Vita Suit ; et De Bell. Jud. (w) Vide Reland. p. 81.
(x) Joth. xix.
(y)
{*')

lib.

ii.

cap. 26.

24
20.

31.
this coast,

posed to have belonged to the Asherites but it does not appear that they ever drove the ancient inhabitants from it. (a) Dirty, or contemptible. (b) 1 Kings, ix. 11, et seq. (c) See before, p. 686. (d) Joshua, xii. 20. (f) Judges, i. 31. (e) Judges, i. 31. (g) De 'Bell. Jud. lib. i. cap. 11.
;

Gen.

xlix.

(h) 1

Kings, xx. 26

30.

The

city

of Tyre, situated on

Las been sup-

(i)

Comp. Joshua,

six. 27.

1 Kings,

ix.

11

13.

SECT. IV.]

CITIES OF ASHER,

AND OF NAPHTALI.
his time

805

phus(i) speaks of a city, called Choboulo, by the sea-side, not far from Ptolema'i's, which is supposed to be the Cabul in question. Cana, surnamed Cana the Greater, to dis-

from Cana of Galilee, or the Lesser, already spoken of. Gabala. Gischala [Am-ezzeitun], four leagues northThe inhabitants were wholly east of Sephoris. and obtained favourable to agriculture given terms of Titus.
tinguish
it
;

Hali.

Hammon.
Hebron, or Hebran, a royal city, near the mountains which separate this tribe from
Naphtali.

understands Zephronah, in Cilicia, called in Zephyrium. But Reland(s) insists that Zephyrium was too distant from the Holy Land, to be the place in question. 9. THE TRIBE OF NAPHTALI. This tribe (t) between Asher and the Jordan, having lay Coelosyria and the mountains of Lebanon on the north, and the tribe of Zebulun on the south. It was very fertile, and contained the following cities and towns Abel-beth-inaacha, where Joab besieged Sheba, who was killed by the inhabitants to procure peace.(u) It was taken by Ben-hadad's captains, from Baasha, king of Israel, at the request of Asa, king of Judah ;(v) and again.
:

Helkath, a Levitical city,(j) bordering on the territories of the Sidonians, probably the same with Hukok.(k) Hosah, not far from Palae-tyrus, or Old Tyre. Hukok, a city of the Levites, mentioned 1 Ckron. vi. 75, probably the same with Helkath, given by Joshua to the Gershonites.(l) Calmet takes it to be the same with Hukkok, on the borders of Naphtali and Asher.(m) Jiphthah-el, on the borders of Zebulun it is uncertain to which tribe it belonged, being
:

by Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, in the reign of Pekah, a few years before the captivity of the ten tribes.(w) Ablala. Adamah, a fenced city. It is called Edema in the Vulgate, and Armaith by the Sepniu^int.

Adami-nekeb. The Septuagint call rhis pi.-.re iie Arme, and distinguish it from INabok. " Adami, also called Nekeb." Vulgate reads
I

equally accounted to both.(n)

Kanah.
Misheal, or Mishal, a city of the Levites. Neiel, or Nehiel, a frontier town. Ramah, a frontier town of Asher and Naphtali ; or, according to Eusebius and Cyril, there were two towns of this name, one in Asher, the other in Naphtali.(o) Jerom reads Hormah in the Hebrew ; but the Septuagint and Eusebius read Ramah. Rehob, or Rahab, a Levitical city,(p) on the river Letane. Shihor-libnath, perhaps the same with Sithor.

Ummah.
The Zephronah, north of Beth-shemesh. northern limits of the land of promise are described as extending to Zephronah, and to tlie
village of

It may readily be perceived, that the J\abok of the one, and the Nekeb of the other, are the same word, altered by the former, for the Hebrew reads Nekeb, and seems to join the two words together, Adami-nekeb, as in the Latin version of Schmidt, and the German of Luther. In the English version, (x) the words are separated, Adami, Nekeb ; and the Talmudists, who also consider them as two distinct places, say that Adami was afterwards called VOT, and, that Nekeb, or Hannekeb, received the name of Tziadatha.(y) Ahion, perhaps the same with Ijon,(z) Ein, or Enan, on the frontiers of Syria of Damascus. According to Ptolemy, there was a place called Inna, in Coelosyria, which was probably the ancient Ahion, or Ijon, in lat. 33.

long. 68. 3(y.(a) Allodina.

Allon. Arbella, a village of Galilee, in the neighbour(s)

(t)

Hazar-enan
et

(q)

by which Jerom(r)
lib.
iii.

(i)

In Vita Sua,

De

Bell. Jud.

cap. 4.

Pattest, Illustr. lib.

iii.

p.

104.

(j) Josh. xix. 25. xxi. 31. (k) Conip. Josh. xxi. 30. 1
(1)

Chron.
(o)

Comp. Josh. xix. 29, 36. (q) Numb, xxxiv. 9. Ibunt con/inia usque ad Zephrona, (r) In Ezec. xlvii. quam urbem hodie Zephyrium oppidum Cilicite vacant.

Josh. xxi. 30. (n) See Josh. xix. 14, 27. (p) Joshua, xix. 28. xxi. 31'.

vi. 75. (m) Josh. xix. 34.

Josh. xix. 32 39. (u) 2 Sam. xx. 14, et seq. (v) 1 Kings, xv. 1820. (w) 2 Kings, xv. 29. (x) Josh. xix. 33. (y) Keland. Pattest. Itlustr. p. 545. (z) 1 Kings, xv. 20. 2 Kings, xv. 29. (a) Calmet, from whom this article is taken, has transposed
the latitude and longitude, reading

"

lat.

68.

3Qf. long.

33."

15

806

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP, xviii.

hood of which were numerous

caverns, of of robbers, who difficult access, the retreat were reduced by Herod, but not so completely as to prevent their being very troublesome to Ptolemy, whom he appointed governor of Bonfrerius rethat part of the country.(b)

The expression, however, rather habitants.(e) seems to point at its opulence and civic consequence, than to any local elevation.
Carthan. Chinnereth this is reckoned among the fenced cities of Naphtali, (f) and therefore many geographers make it a distinct place from Tiberias, mentioned in the tribe of Is:

marks

that

Adrichomus has endeavoured

three
in

to

Galilee, called places distinguish one in Naphtali, a second in Zebulun, Arbella; and a third in Issachar; but he thinks one sufficient, which he describes as at the

sachar.

only distance of nine miles from Legion, either in the tribe of Zebulun, or of Issachar, or of

Manasseh, that is, upon the confines of all the three, where, he says, was the large field mentioned by Jeroin. The same writer, Bonfrerius, farther observes, that the Arbella which Jeroin, following Eusebius, says was at the eastern extremity of Judah, and which he refers to under
the word Bela, is not to be found any where in the sacred writings; and that his Bela is no other than the Bala, otherwise Segor, or Zoar,

Dan, originally Laish, or Leshem ; afterwards Paneas, and Caesarea Philippi, [now Banias, or This city M as taken from the CaSelinas.] naanites, by a colony of Danites, who, finding themselves straitened for want of room in their
r

own

on the Dead Sea.

Arbites,

Aznoth, or Aznoth-tabor, on the borders of Zebulun and Asher.

Beerim, Beth-anath, on mount Naphtali. Beth-saida, a fishing-house, a small town on the Lesser Jordan, above the sea of Tiberias ; a place frequently visited by our Lord, and severely threatened by him, on account of the unbelief of its inhabitants.(c) Beth-shemesh, on the frontiers of Asher, mentioned above.

Capernaum, the village of consolation, situate on the north-west side of the sea of Tiberias, some distance below the mouth of the Lesser Jordan, according to general belief; for, though
said to have stood till the seventh or eighth century of the Christian aera,(d) the true situaIt is supposed to have stood tion is quite lost. some eminence, from the threatening of upon our Saviour, (who spent three years there, and performed many stupendous miracles in it), that though proud, and exalted as it were to heaven, ft should be brought to the lowest pitch of degradation, on account of the unbelief of its init is

allotment, went out and made good their settlement here :(g) on getting possession, they changed the name from Leshem, or Laish, to Dan, after their father; this name it retained till taken by the Romans, who called it Paneas. After some time, this city was given to Philip, son of Herod the Great, who, in honour of the emperor, called it Caesarea ; and, to distinguish it from other places of the same name, he added his own. Some writers, however, will not allow Leshem to be the same with CaesareaThe city of Dan became infamous Philippi. from the time of Jeroboam, for the calf set up there by that king ;(h) and as it stood on the northern verge of Canaan, as Beer-sheba did in the south, it gave rise to the proverb, noticed under the last-named place,(i) to express the whole extent of the promised land. It was from this city that the woman went after our Saviour, to be healed of her loathsome haemorrhage;^) and in memory of her miraculous cure, she is said to have raised a statue in honour of her divine Physician, which remained till Julian the Apostate ordered it to be thrown

down.(k)
Edrei, a fenced city. En-hazor, a fenced city. Calmet thinks it may be the same with Hazar-enan of Moses

and Ezekiel.(l) Hamath-dor, or Amathar, or Hammoth-dor,

a city of the Levites.(m) Mammon, a city of the Levites ;(n) by some supposed to be the same with Hamath-dor ; so called on account of its hot springs.
(h)
(j)

BeM. Jud. lib. ii. cap. 25. (b) Joseph. (c) See Matt. xi. 21. Mark, vi. 45; Luke, ix. 10, (d) Adamnamus. Villibaldus.
xi. 23. {g) Josh, xix. 47, Judges,

De

(e)

Matt.

(f)

Josh. xix. 35.

xviii.

passim.

1 Kings, xii. 26, et seq. (i) See before, p. 801. Matt. ix. 20, et seq. Mark, v. 25, et seq. (k) Euseb. lib. viii. cap. 4. Niceph. lib. viii. cap. 15. (1) Numb, xxxiv. 9. Ezek. xlvii. 17. xlviii. 1. (m) Joshua, xxi. 32. (n) 1 Chron. vi. 76,

SEC?, iv.]

CITIES OF NAPHTALI.
Cal-

TRIBE OF DAN.
Masaloth.

807

Hammath, a fenced city, supposed by inet to be the same with Hamath-dor.

Harozeth, or Arazoth, or Haroseth of the Gentiles, on the Semechonite lake, the residence of Sisera, general of the forces of Jabin, king of
Hazor.(o)
little

Hauram, or Horem, on the Upper Jordan, a above the lake Semechon. Hazor, a royal city, the 22d in Joshua's

Merom, supposed to be on the southern margin of lake Semechon, [Bahr-el-houlet] thence called the waters of Merom: though some deny the existence of such a place, and luppose the lake 'to be so called from a small river called Merom, which ran into it ; while a :hird party will have the waters of Merom to
the same with the waters of Megiddo, in the of Manasseh. Its name signifies Migdal-el, a fenced city. the tower of God. Naphtali, the capital of the tribe, and probably the same with Kedesh, or Kadesh-naph;ali, mentioned above. Brocardus, who places it three to the east of Nason, and as leagues many to the north of Dothaim, thinks it was called Jonapa, at the time that Jerusalem was destroyed, and that it was also three leagues from Beth-saida. Ortelius, citing Postellus, says it is now called Sizir by the Arabs, and by others Syzin and Suziz.(z) Ramah, another fenced city, probably the same with Ramah described in the tribe of Asher.
lialf-tribe

list,(p) the seat of the Jabins, kings of the Cauaanites, whose defeat has been already related .(q) Josephus(r) places it above the lake

Semechon
side of
it,

but Dr. Shaw and others, on one on the stream that issues from the
;

It spring Daphuis, in the valley of Serinim. was burnt by Joshua; but in the days of Deborah, it had recovered its former consequence in the hands of the Canaanites, from whom it was again wrested. (s) It was taken by Tiglath-pileser, together with the neighbouringcity of Kedesh ;(t) and it is supposed to have given name to the valley, or plain of Hazor, or

Nazor, between

it and Kedesh, where Jonathan and Mattathias defeated Demetrius, and slew 3000 of his men.(u) Heleph, called Meheleph in the Hebrew, as also by the Septuagint, and by Eusebius. Horem, the same with liaurem, spoken of

Sedadah.
Sepher, or Kirjath-sepher, the city of books, supposed, from its name, to have been an ancient university, or seminary, in the north,
as Debir, also called Kirjath-sepher, was in It is not in Joshua's enumeration the south. of cities in Naphtali, and was probably only an appellative, tantamount to our term university,

above, a fenced

city.
;

Hukkok, a city of the Levites probably the same with Hukok, spoken of in the tribe
of Asher.
tribes.

It

stood on the borders of both

same with Ijon, a fenced taken by the captains of Ben-hadad, king city, of Syria, in the reign of Baasha; and afterwards by Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, in the reign of Pekah.(v)
Iron, probably the

Jabneel.

Kartan,
Levites.(w)

or

Kirjathaim,

city

of the

Kedesh, or Kaclesh-naphtali [Kadas], a royal

27th in Joshua's catalogue,(x) given to the Levitts for a city of refuge.(y) It was taken by Tiglath-pileser, in the reign of Pekah, with Hazor, Ijon, and other cities of Naphtali, as noticed above.
city, the

Lakum.
(o)

belonging to some other city. Zaanannim, on the frontiers, /er, a fenced city. Ziddim, another fenced city, near the river Letane, between Kedesh and Sedadah. This portion 10. THE TRIBE OF DAN.(a) of the land of promise was bounded on the north and north-east by the tribe of Ephraim ; on the east by Benjamin and Judah ; on the south by Simeon, and the country of the Philistines ; and on the west by the Mediterranean ; though the Danites were long before they could wrest the seaports from their original warlike possessors. In its greatest length from north to south, this tribe did not exceed 50
(w) Josh. xxi. 32. 1 Chron. vi. 76.
(x) Joshua, xii. 22.
(z) Terrce (a)

Judges,

iv.

2.

(p)
(r)

(q) See before, p. 601, 771.

(SO

Judr/es, iv.
1

(t)

Joshua, xii. 9. Antiq. lib. v. cap. 6 2 Kings, xv. 29.

(y) Joshua, xxi. 32.

p. 16.

in)

Mace.

xi.

6374.

Sancta Descr.
48.

(v) 1

Kings, xv. 20. 2 Kingt, xv. 29.

Joshua, xix. 40

808

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP, xviii.

miles; it was extremely narrow towards the north ; and in its utmost breadth southwards was scarcely 20 miles across. This straitness of territory induced several of the Danites, after the division of the land by lot, to go out in search of other settlements, and they found one What the territory at Laish, as noticed above. of Daii wanted in room, was amply compensated by the fertility of the soil, which pro-

It was to this, city that the Hir-shemesh. ark returned, after it had been dismissed by the Philistines, on which occasion some of the

inhabitants were struck dead for presuming to look into that sacred symbol. (j)

duced corn, wine, oil, and fruits, in abundance, Some geographers besides other necessaries. place the celebrated valley of Nehel-eshcol, or of the grapes, in this tribe, whence the spies, sent by Moses, took those fine specimens of fruit to the Israelitish camp at Kadesh-barnea, as related in a former page ; (b) but others place this valley in Simeon, in the neighbourhood of Hormah, or Sephaat. The tribe of Dan contained, within its small extent, a good number of cities ; of which the principal were Ajalon, or Aijalon, a city of the Levites,(c) near the border of Benjamin. There were four cities of this name one in the tribe of Benjamin ;(d) a second in that of Ephraim, two miles from Shechem, on the road to Jerusalem ;(e) a third in that of Zebulun, of uncertain situation ; and the fourth in Dan, between Beth-dagon and Lydda, or Diospolis. It was this last, of which Joshua spake, when he prayed that the sun might stay its course in Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of
: :

Casphin, a small, but well-fortified town, celebrated in the times of the Maccabees ; situated on a small lake about six miles east of the port of Jamuia.(k) Ekron, a well-known city of the Philistines, and the capital of their five satrapies. It was first given to the tribe of Judah, (or rather it is described as in the border of Judah), and afterwards to Dan ; but it is very doubtful whether either of these tribes ever possessed it.(l) Baalzebub was worshipped here, and is called in
Scripture the god of Ekron.(m) Elon, the same with Elon-beth-hanan, mentioned 1 Kings, iv. 9. It was probably built the Hittite, whose daughter, Baby Elon,

shemath, was married by Esau.(n) Eltekah, a Levitical city,(o) not far from Lehi, where Samson slaughtered a thousand
Philistines.(p) Eshtaol, at first given to Judah, afterwards to Dan. Between this place and Zoreah,

Samson was

buried, as already noticed. (q)

Etam, a celebrated rock, in the neighbourhood of Eltekah, where Samson took refuge after he had destroyed the harvest of the
Philistines.(r)

Ajalon.(f) Baalath, between the waters of Jarcon and the torrent of Nephtoah. Josephus calls it
It was one of Baleth, not far from Gazara.(g) the cities rebuilt by Solomon.(h) Bene-berak this place should be read in conjunction with Jehud, which precedes it;(i) and it will then mean Jehud of the children of
:

Berak;
to

i. e. the praise of the sons of lightning, a name which carries with it a strong allusion

the

idolatrous

phenomena among

worship of the the Canaanites.

celestial

Beth-shemesh, another city dedicated to the sun, perhaps the same with Ir-sliemesh, or
(b) See before, p. G98.

Gath-rimmon, a Levitical city,(s) six or seven miles north of Ir-shemesh, or Beth-shemesh. Its name signifies the press of pomegranates; and it is that both here and at Gath-rimmon likely in the half-tribe of Manasseh, considerable quantities of wine were made from that fruit. Gibbethon, a Levitical city;(t) supposed to be the same with Gabbatha, on the frontiers of Judah, twelve miles from Eleutheropolis, where the tomb of Habakkuk was shewn in the times of Eusebius and Jerom. Ir-shemesh, or Hir-shemesh, the city of the sun, supposed to be the same with Bethshemesh, the house, or temple of the sun.
(j)

Joshua, xxi. 24. This, however, may have been the (d) 2 Chron. xi. 10. same with Aijalon, in Dan, on the borders oi' both. (e) I^ufeb. Loc. Hel>. sub voce; et Hieronym. ibid.
(c)

(k)

Sam. vi. 12, 19. Vide Reland. Hieronym. in Loc. Hebr.

p. 656.

(1) Comp. Josh. xv. 45, 40. see before, p. 600, 782.

xix. 43.

1 Sam.

v.

10

and

Joshua, x. 12, 13. (g) Joseph. Antiq. lib. (h) I Kinys, ix. 18.
(f)

(m) 1 Kings, i. 2, fi. (o) Josh. xix. 44. xxi. 23.

(q)
(s)

viii.

cap. 2.
(i)

See Joshua,

xix. 45.

See before, p. 782. Josh. xix. 45. xxi. 24.

(n) Gen. xxvi. 34. (p) Judges, xv. 14, et seq. Ft seq. (r) Judges, xv. 8,
(t)

Josh. xix. 44. xxi. 23,

SECT. IV.]

CITIES OF

DAN AND OF REUBEN.

Me-jarkon.

809

Jamnia, [Jebna or Ib/in] a seaport town, on the Mediterranean, between Joppa and Azotus, or Ashdod. Josephus(u) says it was given from Jndah to Dan ; and the second book of Maccabees.(v) which makes it a considerable town, places it about 240 furlongs west of Jerusalem. It is not mentioned in the Hebrew text, unless it be the same with Jabneh, which Uzziah took, with others in the neighbourhood, from the Philistines.(w) It is also known under the several names of Jamni, Jamnes, Jemne, and Jemmais and in the early ages of Christi;

Modin, the native city and place of burial of the Maccabee, or Asmonean princes, whose
tombs, which were very magnificent, could be seen at a great distance from sea, the city being b'uilt upon a hill so that they served as
;

mark

to mariners,

and were standing

in

Jerom's time.(c)

Rakkon.
Shaalabbin, or Shaalbim, a city given to the Danites, but of which they were incapable of dispossessing the Amorites.(d) Thimnathah, orThimnah, probably the same as Timnah, reckoned among the cities of

anity,

it

was made an episcopal

see.(x)

Japho, or Joppa, [Jaffa,] the principal seaport of the twelve tribes, stood on a hill, commanding a prospect of the sea on one side, and of a delightful fertile country on the other. It is frequently mentioned in both the Old and New Testament, as well as in profane history.

Judah, where Samson procured his wife.(e) Zorah, or Zoreah, first given to Judah, and afterwards taken into the lot of Dan.(f)
II.

During the croisades, it was so entirely ruined, that scarcely any of the buildings were left standing, except the old castle on the hill, and a smaller fort near the beach. The town was afterwards rebuilt with good stone houses, and still carries on a considerable trade but the harbour has been so damaged in former times, that no ships of burden can enter it consequently they are obliged to ride at anchor in the roads, which are safe and convenient. On the west side of the haven is a fresh spring, from which the town is supplied with wholesome water.(y) Joppa is supposed to have been the scene of the celebrated adventure of Perseus and Andromeda ;(z) and Jerom relates that even in his days some of the links of the chain, which liad fastended the latter to the rock, were still TO BE SEEN !(a)
:

Jehud, already noticed with Bene-barak.

Jethlah.
the jaw-bone, or Ramath-lehi, the lifting up of the jaw-bone ; the place where Samson killed the Philistines, who attempted to seize him, when he left his retreat on the

Lehi,

rock Etam.(b)
(u)
(v)

OF THE TWO TRIBES AND A HALF EA9T OF JORDAN.(g) 1. THE TRIBE OF REUBEN.(h) This lot extended from the north-east coasts of the Dead Sea, along the eastern banks of the Jordan and was separated from the territories of the Midianites and Moabites, in the south and east, by the river Arnon having on the north the tribe of Gad. It was every where fertile in corn, fruits, wine, and especially in pasture-grounds; which last consideration induced the Reubenites to solicit Moses that they might remain there, instead of going over the Jordan.(i) The chief towns were Abel-mizraim, on the banks of the Jordan: its name signifies the mourning- of Mizraim, and was given to it on account of the public mourning made here by the Egyptians and others, who accompanied Joseph with the remains of his father, to deposite them in the cave of Machpelah. The situation of this place is Moses merely describes it as quite uncertain " beyond Jordan, "(j) by which the east side of that river is meant and Jerom supposes it to have been about two leagues from Jericho. It
; ;
:

DeBell. Jud. Chap. xii. 9.

lib. v.

cap. 1.
(w) 2 Chron. xxvi. 6.

(e)

(x) Notit. (y) Sir P.

(z)

(a)

Patriarch. Hierosol. et al. Lucas, Reland, Josephus, Cellarius, &c. Stepban. De Urb. sub Joppe. Hieronym. In Jonte, i. et Epitaph. Paul,
xiii.

(d) Joshua, xix. 42. Judges, i. 35. See before, p. 612. (f ) Ibid. p. 795. from their (g) The reason of these tribes being separated

brethren, has been explained in a former Section, p. 708; see also p. 764, 774. (h) Numb, xxxii. 33, 37, 38. Josh. xiii. 1523.
(i)

(b) Judges, xv. 14, et seq. (c) See 1 Mace. ii. 16. ix. 19.

Numb,
Gen.
1.

xxxii. 1, 4.

19.

Joseph. Euseb.

(j)

11.

Yet some geographers introduce

it

on the

Jerom, &c.

west of that
I.

river.

VOL.

1.

a in

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

the floor
fields,

[CHAP. xvnr.

was

originally called threshing-floor, in the

of Atad;

belonging to open some eminent farmer, or chieftain of a tribe and may therefore be rather considered as a place, than a ton-it. Abel-shittim, or Shittim, in the plains of Moab, opposite Jericho, the last encampment of the Israelites, prior to their crossing the Jordan. (k) It signifies the mourning of those u-/io go aside; and was so called from its being scene of Israel's defection with respect to the the Midianitish women, and the worship of
;

Bezer, or Bezer in the wilderness, a city of refuge, and of the Levites.(r) Dibon, a city celebrated in the song of the It Israelites after the overthrow of Sihon.(s) stood on the river Arnon. Elealeh, rebuilt by the Reubenites. Heshbon, the former capital of Sihon, the

Amoritish king.(t)

It

was

rebuilt

by Reuben,

and given to the Levites.(u) Jahaza, or Jahaz, a Levitical city,(v) near which was fought the battle between the It should not be, as Israelites and Sihon. (w)
it

Baal-peor.(l)

the neighbourhood of Adam, probably the house of passage, where the Beth-abara,
in

frequently is, confounded with Jaazer, which was considerably to the north, and belonged

are, by some, supposed crossed the Jordan. The name is compounded of two Ammonian terms, Ad, a royal title, and Am, or Ham, the head of their family, or the object of their worship, the sun.(m) Aroer, on the river Arnon, the southern boundary of Sihon's dominions.(n)

Israelites

to

have

to the tribe of Gad.(x) Kedemoth, a Levitical city,(y) of uncertain situation. It was from this place that Moses sent to Sihon, king of Heshbon, to

messengers

Ashdoth-pisgah, or the springs of Pisgah, or of the hill, a city at the foot of mount Pisgah,

request a free passage through his territories.(z) Kirjathaim, or Kiriathaim Eusebius place* It was this city nine miles west of Medaba. an ancient city, originally belonging to the Emim,(a) who were driven out, or extirpated
:

by Chedorlaomer and

his allies,

where were some celebrated

springs.

passed to the Moabites,

from whom it and from them to the

Bamoth-baal, or the high-places of Baal, probably a city on a hill, where Baal, or the Sun, or, as some suppose, Priapus, was worIt was oh the eastern border of shipped. Reuben, next the country of the Moabites.
Beth-abara, or house of passage ; see Adam, above. Beth-baal-meon, the house of Baal, or idol of the dire lli--plac e ; rebuilt by the Reubenites,

From the Arnorites Amorites, under Sihon. it was taken by the Israelites, and rebuilt by the tribe of Reuben, with whom it appears to
till they were carried away by the Assyrians into captivity, when the Moabites again took possession.(b) Lasha, afterwards Callirrhoe, an ancient city of the Canaanites, and their eastern boundary before the destruction of Sodom and the conversion of the plain on which it stood It was rebuilt into the lake Asphaltites.(c) by Herod, and was celebrated for its hot

have remained,

and called Bc on.(o)

j

Beth-jeshinioth, the house of sorrow,

or of

desolations, a city in the plains of Moab, not far from the Dead Sea; the last station of the

baths.

of the trouble* then- experienced, in consequence of their they intercourse with idolaters. See Abel-shittim, above. Beth-peor, the house, or temple of Peor, situated on a mountain of the same name ; whence Balak shewed the camp of Israel to
lsraelites,(p)

and

significant

Balaam. (q)
(k)
(in)

Macheron, or Machsrus, afortified city, about two or three leagues from the confluence of the Jordan with the Dead Sea. The castle was fortified by the Maccabees, and destroyed by Gabinius. It was restored by Aristobulus, and greatly enlarged by Herod the Great ;(d) and here it was that John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded by order of Herod An(v) Josh. xxi. 36. 1 (w) Numb. xxi. 30. (y) Josh. xxi. 37. (a) Gen. xiv. 5.

Numb,
S'c-

xxxiii. 49.

(1)
i.

Numb.

\\\. passim.

Chron.

vi.

78.
(x)
(z)

Bryant's Mythology, vol.

xii.
'2.

p. 3, 30.
xiii.

Numb,
Dent.

xxxii. 35.
ii.

(n) Joshua,
(")

26.
xxxii.

f'omp Numb,

xxxii. 3, 38.

Joshua,

17.

(p)
(r)

Numb,
Dent.
ml,.

iv.

(u)

Numb,

fq) Numb, xxiii. 28. 43. Josh. xx. 8. xxi. 3f. 1 Cfiron. vi. 7U. \xi. 30. See brfw, p. 70-3. (t) Ibid. xxxii. 37. Josh. xxi. SO.
xxxiii. 4!).

(b) Calmet.

Comp. Drut.
1!).

37. Ji'rrm.
(c)

xlviii.

ii. 0, 10, 20, 23. Ezck. xxv. 9.

3234. Numb,

Gtn.

x.

11. (d) Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiv, cap. 10,

SECT. IV.]

CITIES

OF REUBEN AND OF GAD.

Israelites.(p)
It

811
rebuilt

There were some hot springs in the neighbourhood, much resorted to on account
tipas.(e)

Gud,(q) with
tribes

of their restorative qualities. Mattanah Dr. Kennicott

:

by the tribe of remained till the two and a half beyond Jordan were led into

was

whom

it

place,

which

the

great

signifies the gift of well in Moab, dug

supposes God, to be

this

captivity

by the Assyrians,

after

which

it

seems

by

public

have reverted to the Moabites.(r) Ataroth, or Ataroth-aroer, supposed to be

to

authority.(f) Medaba, [AlJKe/caa,] three leagues south-east

of Heshbon, according toEusebius. Stephen the geographer says it was in the country of the

Nabatheans.
places
it

in

Ptolemy calls it Medava, and Arabia Petraea; and William of

Tyre calls it Medavon. The prophet Isaiah reckons it among the cities of the Moabites,(g) because they had wrested it from the Reubenites while Josephus(h) and some others attribute it to the Arabians, who became masters of it towards the close of the Jewish monarchy ;(i) but it was recovered by Alexander Janneus. Eusebius and Jerom place this city ten miles from Kirjathaim. Mephaath, a Levitical city,(k) on the fronafterwards tiers of Moab, on the river Arnon
;

the same with the preceding. Atroth, or Ataroth-shophan, rebuilt by the Gadites ;(s) supposed by Calniet to be the same with the two last-mentioned. Beth-aram, or Beth-harau, an ancient city, rebuilt by the Gadites ;(t) and afterwards by Herod, who called it Livias, in honour of Livia, the wife of Augustus. Josephus calls it Julias, from Julia, the name usually given by the

Greeks to Livia.(u)
Beth-nimrah, or simply Nimrah, also rebuilt

by the Gadites.
Betonim.
Debir.

a Roman presidency. Nebo, rebuilt by the Reubenites supposed to have had an idol of the same name. Sibmah, or Shibmah, remarkable for its It was rebuilt by the Reubenites, vines.(l) and its name changed.(m)
;

Dibon, an ancient city, on the river Arnon, by the Gadites, but included among the cities of Reuben.(v) It originally belonged to the Moabites, from whom it was wrested by the Amorites, and from these it passed to the tribe of Gad, or Reuben, for it is uncertain
rebuilt
it After the belonged. of the ten tribes, it again fell into the captivity hands of the Moabites.(w) Jerom observes,

to

which of the two

Zareth-shahar,
try, as its 2.

be seated on, or near

or Sarathasar, supposed to to a hill in some flat coun-

name

signifies.

OF GAD.(H) This tribe was seated north of Reuben, having the Jordan on the west, the Ammonites on the east, and the It was half-tribe of Manasseh on the north. no less rich and fertile than the former tribe,

THE TRIBE

in his time, it was called indifferently Dibon and Dimon. In Sauson's Map of the Holy Land, Dibon is placed between Heshbon and the Jordan, much nearer to that river than
that,

The especially in pasture-grounds for cattle. chief cities and towns were Aroer, on the borders of the Ammonites,
:

It originally belonged afterwards to the Moabites, from Emim, whom it was wrested by the Amorites ; and these, in their turn, were expelled by the

upon the

river Arnon.(o)

Arnon, with Dibon-gad, the encampment of the Israelites, while in the desert, near the north bank of the torrent of Zared. Ephron, a considerable and ancient fortified city, opposite to Scythopolis, inhabited by people of various nations. Bonfrerius supposes it to have been to the south of the river Jabbok, because Judas Maccabeus, when he and his
followers were obliged to pass by it, came from the north, and after crossing the river, they arrived at Scythopolis.(x)
(o)

to the

to the

(e)

Joseph. Antiq.

lib.

xviii.

cap. 7.

Matt.

xiv.

112.
Select

Deut.

ii.

36.

iii.

12. iv. 48. 2 Kings, x. 33.

Mark, vi. 1629. See th<>. Doctor's Remarks upon (f) Numb. xxi. 18. Passages in the Old Testament, p. G2.
(g) Isaiah, xv. 2.
(i)

(p)

(q)
(r)
(s) (t)

Numb. Numb,

xxi.
xxxii. 34.

2 Kings, xv. 29.

Jerem.

xlviii.

1520.

(h) Antiq. lib, xiv. cap. 2.

Antiq.

lib. xiii.

cap. 23.

Numb, Numb,

xxxii. 35. xxxii. 30. Joshua,

xiii.

27.
xiii.

(k) Josh. xxi. 37. (1) Isaiah, xvi. 8, !). Jerem. xlviii. 32. (m) Numb, xxxii. 33. (n) Joshua,
xiii.

(u) Calmet.
(v)

2428.

Comp. Numb, xxxii. 34. Josh. (w) See Isaiah, xv. Jerem. xlviii. (x) 1 Mace. v. 4552.

17.

5L2

812

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

this city, already spoken of, is reckoned among those of Reuben,(y) and

[CHAP. xvni.

Heshbon:
also

pitched his

was given

to the Levites. Jazer, or Jaazer [Zira], an ancient city, which underwent all the revolutions described under Aroer. It was seated on a lake, called the sea of Jazer, and belonged to the Levites. Jogbeah, rebuilt by the Gadites.(z) Maged, or Maked, in the land of Gilead, supposed by Calraet to be the same with Maa-

A city tents, whence its name.(j) was built upon the spot, which the Jews say was afterwards called Darala.
Tishbi, Thishbi, or Thesbah, the native place of the prophet Elijah.(k) Reland(l) thinks there was no such city in the tril>e of Gad but that Elijah, though he resided for a long time in the country of Gilead, was a native of Thisbe.
;

in Naphtali,

where Tobit

also

was born.(m)

Zaphon.
3.

was taken by Judas Maccabeus. (b) Mahanaim, where Jacob had his vision of two camps of angels, prior to his meeting with It was given to the Levites, and Esau.(c) stood on the northern bank of the river Jabbok. Minnith, near which Jephthah subdued the Ammonites. (d) Peniel, or Penuel, on the south-west bank of the Jabbok where Jacob wrestled with an angel, and received the name of Israel. (e) Rabbah, or Rabbath-aimnon, or Ribboth,
chath.(a)
It
;

THE HALF-TRIBE OF MANASSEH EAST OF

JORDAN.(II) Northward of Gad, was seate( the half-tribe of Manasseh; having that tribe on the south, the Jordan, the sea of Chinnereth, and the waters of Merom, or lake Semechon, on the west, Crelosyria and the mountains of Lebanon on the north, and the hills of Bashan

and Hermon, which separated it from Ituria, on the east. This territory, which was almost as large as both the other tribes on the same
side of

the

Jordan,

afterwards Philadelphia, the capital of Bashan, on the east bank of the Jabbok. Ramath-gilead, or Ramoth-gilead, a city of refuge, given to the Levites; (if) on the west bank of the Jabbok.

Ramath-mizpeh

by some supposed

to

be

the same with Ramoth-gilead ; by others, a distinct place, on the eastern border of Gad. Rogelim, in the land of Gilead, the native place of Barzillai.(g) Sharon, on the banks of the Jaazer. Reland, who cannot admit of the existence of a Sharon on the east of Jordan, insists that the Gadites led their troops to the district so called in the But Calmet thinks this vicinity of Joppa.(h) incredible and very justly observes, that the country of Bashan was so beautiful and fertile, as not to be exceeded by the plains of Joppa. Shophan, an ancient city, rebuilt by the Gadites. (i) According to the Jews, its name
;

Upper Galilee; siderable districts, as Gilead, Batanea, Argob, Gaulonitis, Auranitis, Machonitis, and Geshur. Of these, it may be briefly observed, that Gilead received its name from the celebrated mountains, so called from the heap of witness raised there by Jacob, between him and Laban ;(o) and, from the same circumstance, it was also called the land Baof Mizj>eh.(p) tanea was properly the land or kingdom of Bashan, bounded by mount Hermon on the north, Gilead and the Ammonites on the east, the river Jabbok on the south, and the Jordan on the west. It included Argob, and was celebrated for its stately oaks, and vast herds of cattle. Gaulonitis extended from Peraea Auranitis, or Auran, (a quite to Lebanon. name which marks the practice of fire-worship, or the worship of the sun, among its ancient
was a fertile canton, between the upper spring of Jordan, and the country of Geshur: or, as others will have it, along the lake of Chinnereth, or Genesareth :(q) while
inhabitants,)
(k) 1

was afterwards called and contained several con-

was changed

to

Hamath.
the Jabbok,
17. xxi. 39.
(a)

Succoth, tabernacles, or booths; a place on

the west side of
(y)
(z)

where Jacob

Comp.

Josh.
v.

xiii.

Kings,

xvii. 7.
ii.

Numti. xxxii. 35.

Joshua,

xii. 5.

xiii.

11, 13.

(I)

Palcest. Illustr. torn.

p. 103.5.

(b) 1
(c)

Mace.

36.

See before, p. 355. (e) Gen. xxxii. 30, 31. Judges, xi. 33. (f) Deut. iv. 43. Josh. xx. 8. xxi. 38. (gj 2 Sam. xvii. 27. xix. 31. (h) Pates/. Ilhistrat. lib. i. cap. 10, p. 370 ; lib. iii. p. 988. Numb, xxxii. 35. (i
(d)
1

Orfelius, quoting Andrew Masius on this (m) Tobit, i. 2. passage, says we should read 0rA, instead of (<T>I. 31. (n) Joshua, xiii. 29
(o)

Gen. xxxi. 25

48.
to call that coast

(p) Ibid. ver. 49.

(q)

The

Syrians ami Aral>s are said

i.

still

by the same name.

Paltest. Illustr. lib.

(j)

Gen.

See Golius on Abu'lfaragius; and llclaud,

cap. 20.

xxxiii. 17.

SECT. IV.]

CITIES OF
makes

MANASSEH, EAST OF JORDAN.

times, for the victory of the Israelites over

813

Josephus(r) Machouitis,

Iturea. it the same with or Maachonitis, from its capital Maachah, was a small district, near the source of the Jordan, on the way to Damascus. Geshur, another small canton, lay next to the last-mentioned these formed the utmost northern border of the Manassites, who forbore to destroy the ancient inhabitants, known ly the name of Kadmonites, or Eastern Hivites, and
:

Og,

king of Bashan, who had a palace here;(a) and, in modern history, for the defeat of the troops of the Eastern empire by the Saracens,

under Omar, A. D. 636. Esdrai, or Edrai, probably the same with

the last-mentioned.

lived

The

on friendly terms with them.(s) chief cities and towns of this

:

half-tribe

were the following Abel, probably the same with the next article; though Reland thinks that to the name of Abel, which was borne by many places, was joined
that of

some neighbouring mistakes; and he supports

city,

to

prevent

this

opinion by

Gadarah [Kedar], the capital of the country of the Gadarenes, where our Lord recovered the demoniac, and permitted the evil spirits to enter into and destroy the herd of swine.(b) It stood near the Hieromax. Gamala [Baut-sah], built upon a rock, surrounded by precipices, two leagues north of Golan, opposite to Tarichaea. The inhabitants of this place obliged Vespasian to retire, after he had gained the lower parts of it.
Gershon. Gilead, a city upon the mountains of the same name, probably built by Gilead, the son of Machir, to whom the district was given.(c) " It was the birth-place of Jephthah.(d) Girgesha, or Geraza, an ancient city of the
Girgashites, or Gergesenes.

citing the instances of Sarepta of Sidon,(t)

and

Taanathof Shiloh.(u)
or Abel-beth-maachah, or Calmet, who takes this city to Abel-maim.(v) be the same with Abila and Hobal, Abila of Lysanias, and Abila in Libanus, says, it was Reland is doubtful to the north of Damascus. whether it is the same which Eusebius places between Paneas and Damascus. In the recital of the progress of Ben-hadad, it is named between Dan and the country of Chinnereth.(w) Josephus(x) speaks of Abel-machea as a strong Israelites. city, and metropolis of the eastern between Hippus and ChoArgob [Ergab], raisin, gave name to a district, included in that of Batanea, as noticed above, which contained sixty cities, taken by Jair, the son of Machir, whence it received the name of Havoth-jair, or

Abel-maachah,

Golan [Agheloun, or Agdelown], capital of the district of Gaulonitis, on a hill about midway between the Jabbok and the Hieromax. It was made a city of refuge, and given to the Levites;(e) and was the birth-place of Judas Galilaeus, or Gaulonites, chief of the Herodian
sectaries.(f)

Hadrach, or Hadrach-kedar, i. e. the tents of Kedar, though mentioned as a city, is considered to have been rather a canton(g) of the Kedarites, a branch of the descendants of
Ishmael,(h) who are mentioned by Pliny and other ancient writers, under the names of Cedarenes, Cedraei, &c. as leading a nomade
life,

Bashan-havoth-jair.(y) Ashtaroth, or Ashtaroth-carnaim, or Beeshterah, on the torrent of Hieromax [Yermufc], the capital of Bashan, and royal residence of Og. It was given to the Levites.(z) Choraizin, or Chorozaim [Tel-om], frequently confounded with Beth-saida, or Julias. Edrei, or Adraa [Adreat-Bitinia], a few miles below Ashtaroth, is celebrated, in ancient

about Arabia, Phceuice, Syria, and parts adjacent. They are still to be met with, not only in those parts, but also in Africa, into almost every part of which continent they have spread themselves, subsisting on plunder. Havoth-jair, the same with Argob [Ergab],

(r) (s)
(t)

Antiq. lib. xvii. cap. 7. Joshua, xiii. 13. Luke, iv. 26.

(z) (a)

Deut. Deut.

i.

iii.

4. Josh. xiii. 12, 31. xxi. 27. 1.

(v) Comp. xvi. 4.

2 Sam.

xx. 14, 15. 1

(u) Joshua, xvi. ft. Kings, xv. 20. 2 Chron.

ii.

(b) Luke,
(c)

viii.

Corap.

Numb, xxxii.

26, et seq. 39, 40. Deut.

(e)

iii.

1215.

1 Chron.

23.
(d) Judges, xi.

(w) 1 Kinys, xv. 20. (x) Antiq. lib. vii. cap. 10. xxxii. 41. Dent. (y) Numb,
iv.

Josh. xx. 8. xxi. 27.

lib. viii.
iii.

cap. 6. 14. Josh. xiii. 30. 1 Kingt,

4, 14. 1 Chron.

ii.

23.

Joseph. De Bell. Jud. ( S ) See Zech. ix. 1. (b) Ge. xxv. 13.
(f)

814

CHRONOLOGY OF THE
able

ISRAELITES,

[CHAP. xvni.

so called from Jair, the descendant of Manasseh.(i)

log-rs, in the course of sixteen centuries,

been

Hippo, or Hippus, a city on the lake of Chinnereth, or Genesareth, not far from Gadara. Jabesh-gilead, four leagues east of Golan, a city that suffered severely for remaining neuter in the war between the Israelites and Benjamites.(j) It is also memorable for the defeat of the Ammonites, by Saul, when besieged by Nahash ;(k) and for the valour of its inhabitants in rescuing the bodies of Saul and his sons from the insults of the Philistines, after the fatal battle of Gilboa.(l) Maacha, or Maacathi, near the spring Phiala, on the mountains of Lebanon. Calmet supposes it to be the same with Beth-maacha,

furnish a satisfactory elucidation. The author of the first book of Kings, (r) declares that the foundation of Solomon's temple was laid in the 480th year after the Exodus of Israel but this is so irreconcileable with the particulars given in the books of Judges and Samuel, taken in succession, that many writers have discarded the verse as spurious; and some have taken the larger chronology of Josephus, or of the Septuagint, to make room for the years of the Judges and of the
to
;

several servitudes; while more have formed systems of their own, in which they have lengthened or shortened the period at their

pleasure, from the extremes of 440 to 962 years, as will be seen from the following catalogue
:

or Abel-beth-maacha, described above. Nobah, originally Kenath, taken by Nobah, a descendant of Manasseh, who called it after his own name.(m) Stephen the geographer, following Josephus,(n) calls it Nomba; while the latter, in another place,(o) calls it

Years.

Pezron
J ulius

Africanus

Serrarius

873 and 962 741 680

(55!

Syncellus Des Vignolles Paschal Chronicle

Oba.
Pella, on the
river

Jabbok and

confines of

the tribe of Gad ; between Jabesh and Gerasa, six miles from the former, according to EuseThe name is not to be found in the bius. sacred writings, and authors are much divided

Hales Josephus and Theophilus Septuagint, according to the Cnnstantinopolitans 7 nc\i and Alexandrian MS j 600 Eusebius, Preep. Evang Josephus and Vossius, following the particulars of ) ,_, the Samaritan Version $
Sulpicius Severus Vossius, and Du Fresnoy, following the particulars 7 of the Hebrew Text j
,
'

648 632 621 612

was prothe same with the Hebrew Abel and bably Greek Abyla.
in their opinions respecting it.(p)
It

688

Salcah,
shan.(q)

in

the southern extremity of Ba-

Jackson Clemens Alexandrinus Petau

Playfair

Kennedy
Touruetnine
Strauchius,

579 573 519 and 560 540 512 500

480(s)

SECTION

V.

Marsham, and Houbigant, following thel Samaritan whole numbers, and the Hebrew v
Text
J

CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES, FROM THE DEATH OF JOSHUA, A. M. 2578, TO THAT OF SOLOMON, A. M. 3029.
entering upon a period of sacred history, which, of all others, presents the most formidable difficulties nor have all the labours of the most learned and indefatigable chrono:

Eusebius, in his C/tronicon, Usher, Blair, and Lang 479(s) 440 Septuagint Version, common copies

WE are now

In a former page(t) the detail of some of these schemes has been exhibited, from which we may form a judgment of the others. The prevailing opinion is to place the governments of the several judges, and the times of theiuter-

(i)

Numb,
I

xxxii. 41. (k) 1

ii.

(q)

Dent.

iii.

10. Joih.
vi. 1.

xii.

5.

xiii.

11. 1 Chron.

v.

11.

(j)
(1)

Sam. xxxi. 1113. 2 Sam. (m) Numb, xxxii. 42.

(o) Antiq. lib.
i.

Judges, xxi. 8, et seq.

Sam.

47.

passim. 1 Chron. \. 12.

lib. viii.

xi.

(r)
(s)

1 Kings,

(n)

Antiq.

cap. 14. (p) See Calmet. Diet. Hist. torn. ii. p. 1<>7. J)e Hierei. lib. i. p. 126. Polyb. Hist, lib. v. et

Epiphau.
al.

These two sums may be taken as the same 479 being the number of clear years between the extremes of th*> period and -180 tiie number of the current year.
; ;

(t)

See before, p. 69.

SECT. V.]

FROM JOSHUA TO SOLOMON.

;

813

vening servitudes, in succession upon each other, which would occupy about 580 years but besides the years of each captivity, and of each judge, the advocates of the enlarged calculation pretend that certain intervals of anarchy arc implied, for which no number of years being
given, they

reducing Saul's reign of 40 years(x) to two years only. Their chronology, therefore, appears in the following order
:

A.M.
(y)2448

B.C.

Yean.

2489
2 196

assume them

other hand, those who term below the 580 years, couple some of the judges' administrations with the times of thus, Tournernine includes the oppression 18 years' servitude to the Ammonites and Philistines in the 22 years of Jair's government; Eli he makes comemporary with Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, Samson, and 20 of the 40 years' servitude to the Philistines by which he reduces the sum total to 500 years. Petau pursues a
;

On the at pleasure. are for reducing the

2516

2556

1312 Exodus of Israel. Under Moses 4L 1271 Joshua, till the conquest of Canaan 7 1264 Conquest of Canaan completed fol- 1 2Q lowed by an interval of } 1244 Othniel's administration, during which 1 occurred the first servitude, of 8 >40 years, to Chushan-mhathaim ) 1204 Ehud's government, during which occurred the second servitude, of 18 years, 80
; "
'

to Eglon, king of

Moab

Shamgar, contemporary with Ehud ....

2636

1124 Deborah and Barak's

administration, du-" ring which occurred the third servitude, of 20 years, to Jabin, king of (
1

40

Canaan 2676
1084 Gideon's government, under which the 1
fourth servitude, of 7 years, to the >40 Midianites, occurred j 1044 Abimelech, with the title of king 3 1041 Tola, judge 23

method with respect to the fifth servitude and the government of Jair but gives to Ibzan, Elon, &c. the clear number of years assigned to them by the sacred writer, and makes
similar
;

the sixth servitude, of 40 years, to the Philisso that, upon the tines, distinct from them all whole, he increases the period to 560 years. more recent writer,(u) and warm admirer of Josephus, has from that historian formed what he terms a corrected chronology of the
;

period in question, amounting to 621 years, which he thinks was the original intention of the Hebrew annalist and he insists that the term of 480 years is an arrant forgery of the Jews, foisted into the text of 1 Kings, vi. 1. in order to shorten the age of the world,(v) and thence to prove that Jesus was not the Messiah. (w) In support of this assertion, he quotes the testimony of Ganz, that the Jewish chronotogers make out the detail of the 480
;

2716 2719 2742 2764 2781 2787 2793 2803 2811 2831 2871 2882 2884 2924 292

1018

Jair,

judge
the

996 Fifth servitude, to 979 Jephthah, judge 973 Ibzan, judge 967 Elon, judge
9-77 Abdoii,

Ammonites [18]
[7]

. .

22 17

6 6
10 8 20 40 11 2 40

judge 949 Samson, judge 929 Eli, high-priest, and judge 889 Samuel, high-priest, and judge 878 Saul, king [40].... 876 David, king 836 Solomon begins to reign. 832 Foundation of the Temple laid, in the year of Solomon j

~)

480

1. By including the four first servitudes in the years of the Judges, who put an end to them, contrary to the express declaration of Scripture; 2. By curtailing one year from the 18 years' servitude to the Ammonites, which they are obliged to allow to be distinct from Jephthah's administration, because it was too long to be

years,

included in it; and by dropping another year in Ibzan's administration; By sinking enthe sixth servitude of 40 years to the tirely Philistines, because it was too long to be comprised in Samson's administration ; and, 4. By
.'5.

The objections above quoted from Ganz, appear to have been made too precipitately ; for the years said to be dropped in the servitude to the Ammonites, and in the government of Ibzan, are to be looked for in the odd months of those years in which they began and ended, for it is not to be supposed that in the various terms spoken of by the sacred writers in round numbers, they could always intend that nothing should be wanting of a The sixth servitude, to the complete year. Philistines, the Jews could not have overlooked, when it was attended by so memorable a catastrophe to them and their enemies, as the capture of the ark and, therefore, it is more
;

(u)

Dr. Hales.

Sec

his

Analysis of Chronology, rol.

i.

p. 101. (v) Ibid, p. 17.

00 Acts, >iii. 21. (w) See before, p. 56, note (k). from the Creation (y) The Je\\s reckon only 3760 years to the Christian a>ra.

810

CHRONOLOGY OF THE

ISRAELITES,
"

[CHAP. XYIII.

reasonable to suppose they included it in the time of Eli's government. The curtailment of Saul's reign is indeed singular: but the scheme, which appears to have suffered a mutilation in the course of time, may be supposed originally to have had another article between Samuel and Saul, making them joint rulers for 27

being understood by them that Samuel died about two years before Saul. This correction is the more necessary, as without it, Samuel, who was very old when he died, must have been under 50 at his death ; and Saul, who was but a young man when anointed, would not have had such song as Jonathan, Abinadab, &c. so shortly as two
years
;

it

years afterwards. But as this correction would lengthen the chronology, beyond the given servitude to the Ammonites limit, the fifth

must be supposed

to have been originally included in the years of Jair, upon the same

principle that the four first servitudes are in this calculation included in the years of the

There will then be reduced and as it was the opinion of some chronologers before the days of Clemens Alexandrinus, that Abatthan [Abdon], and Ebron [Elon], were contemporaries, the correction may be found there. The mutilations that most ancient manuscripts have undergone, are a suffi-

same number of judges,

" the land had rest forty years ;" that is, says the archbishop, forty years after the rest given by Joshua; and when Ehud had slain Eglon, and expelled the Moabites, " the land had rest fourscore years" after the rest given by Othniel. The peace of Deborah, and that of Gideon, are reckoned in the same manner; and the fifth and sixth servitudes are included, the former in the years of Jair's administration, the latter in that of Eli, in which also are included the 20 years of Samson. Thus the period, so much extended by other writers, is comprised in 479 complete year's as exhibited in the following table ; where certain inconveniencies will be observed to arise from a too early coupling of the servitudes and the periods of peace, which might be avoided by making some of the latter judges contemporaries, in different parts of the country, at the time when the commonwealth
sion of

the land had rest [so many] years years," after the rent given before:" thus, when Othniel had delivered his countrymen from the oppres-

Chushan,

remain nine or ten years

to

appears to have fallen into anarchy.

ARCHBISHOP USHER'S COMPUTATION OF THE TIMES OF THE JUDGES, &C.

A.

M.

B. C.

Years.

the conclusion that such have crept into the Jewish may chronology, so far as particulars are concerned though they do not in the least affect the sum total of 480 years. The only question of
cient warrant
for

2513 2553 2559 2578

2591

errors as these

1491 1451 1445 1426 1413

The Exodus.

under Moses. 40 Moses dying, is succeeded by Joshua. G Division of Canaan, after a warfare of .... Death of Joshua First servitude, of eight years, to ChushanIsraelites
rishal liaim

The

2599

1405 Othniel defeats Chushan, and

to
Israel in the

40

importance, therefore, relates to the genuineness of the text, 1 Kings, vi. 1.; but as this is a subject of extensive criticism, which would far exceed the intention and bounds of the present Work, we must refer the reader to those who have engaged in the controversy, if he has curiosity or patience to enter into it. The text is here taken as genuine, and the object is to reconcile it to the given particulars of the times of the Judges, with as little violence as possible to the expressions used by their
historian.

2661 2679 ****

**

gives peace 40th year after the rest given by Joshua 1343 Second servitude, of 18 years, to Eglon ... 1 1325 Ehud delivers Israel, and gives peace in the >80 80th year after that of Othniel . )
. . .

2699 2719

1305 1285

-\ defeats the Philistines Third servitude, of 20 years, to Jabin . . . . / Deborah and Barak defeat Jabin, and give V40 peace to Israel in the 40th year after I

Shamgar

that of

Ehud Ehud

) J
V<! gives V40 that I

2752 2759

1252 Fourth

Mi-"\ servitude, of 7 years, to the Miide, dianites

1245 Gideon routs the Midianites, and

peace
in i
'

the 40th year

after

Archbishop Usher, whose computation forms

the ground-work of our chronology, has, with Eusebius in his Chronicon, adhered to the 480 years given in the book of Kings; and he makes them out by reading, in those places where it is said " the land had rest [so many]

2768
2771 2794

J given by Deborah After this peace Gideon, governs 1236 On Gideon's death, Abimelech assumes the 1
regal
title,

and reigns
under

1233 Tola, judge 1210 Jair, judge, 22

red the

23
years,

whom

occur-

^
(

279

1206

Fifth servitude, of 18 tines and Ammonites

f years, to the Philis-

2816

1188 Jephthah defeats the Ammonites, and governs 6 2

SECT. V.]
A. M.
B. C.

FROM JOSHUA TO SOLOMON.

Yearn

817

2822 2820 2839 2847 2848

28(8 2807 2888 2909 2949
2!)!!!)

1182 Ibzan, judge 1 175 Elon, judge TICS A bdon,. judge 1157 Eli, high-priest, and judge, 40

7
10

8
years,

under

whom
tines

country was in quietness FORTY YEARS in Ids daysjz) a government of only nine years is allowed, though he was evidently in the vigour of life when he slew Zebah and Zalmunnah,

occurred the
years, to the Philis
10

1156 Sixth Servitude, of 40

1136 Samson slays 1000 Philistines 1117 Death of Eli and Samson 1116 Samuel, high priest and judge
sixth servitude

end of the

21 40
*

and had attained to "a good old age," when he died .(a) A grand and fundamental error has been committed by chronologers, in supposing the events of the book of Judges to be detailed in their
terms of servideliverance succeeding each other, just as they are narrated, and affecting the
tude and
real order of succession; the

2992

1095 Saul, king 1055 David, king 1015 Solomon begins to reign 1012 Foundation of the temple laid,
fourth year

40

in

n's t Solomon's > 4

479

great objection to this scheme is, that the early part of the Hebrew commonwealth more disastrous than the latter, contrary to the inference that may be drawn from the motive of the people in asking for a king, viz. that they found themselves
it

makes

divided, and weakened, in having many governors: they had seen the ill effects of this in the days of Eli and his contemporaries, or predecessors, and contrasted them with the peace and security they enjoyed under the single government of Samuel, till he took his sons into the administration. Seeing those sons conduct themselves unworthily, the people became desirous of a king, who, by a comprehension of the whole government under one head, might save the country from that division and subjugation they had formerly

whole commonwealth. This fiction, for it is no better, has been the fruitful source of all those discordant theories that have at variors times appeared. But from a careful investigation of the history, it will appear that the servitudes seldom extended over the whole country at once and, consequently, that the rests by which they were severally followed, should be understood only as belonging to that part of it which had been the previous
;

experienced.

and
of

it is

much

This is indeed but conjecture; to be lamented, that the paucity

to

scene of oppression. The first servitude, to Chushan-rishathaim,(b) is so tritely noticed, as scarcely to give an idea of its extent but as the deliverance was effected by Othniel, one of the chief men of Judah, it may be presumed to have spread at least over all the country west of Jordan. The next servitude, to Eglon,(c) seems confined to the south ; to which, consequently, the 80 years' peace of Ehud must be applied but it is not necessary to prolong Ehud's life to the end of the 80 years; for he is not spoken of as a judge, ruling so many years, but as a deliverer, raised up for the particular occasion. The inroad of
; :

facts,

joined

the

irregular

which they now appear under

title

order in of The

the Philistines, which

gar,(d) nature,

was

repelled

by Sham-

appears to have been of a transient

Book of

Judges, should leave so wide a scope

Such as they are, howfor bare hypothesis. it must be allowed that they cannot ever,
sanction the inclusion of the four first servitudes in the periods of peace, by which they are expressly said to be followed; for, by such a construction, the 40 years' rest given by Othniel is prolonged to (J2 years ; while the next peace, procured by Ehud, is reduced from 80 to 20 years. The peace of Deborah, also, is thereby reduced from 40 to 33 years and to Gideon, of whom it is said, " the
:

and may be comprehended in the same term. In the song of Deborah, on the overthrow of Jabin and Sisera, very particular
mention
is

made of the tribes engaged in the and some, who absented themselves, warfare, are severely censured (e) but as no notice, good or bad, is taken of Judah and Simeon, they may be concluded to have been under some other influence. As to the tribes on the other side Jordan, they were evidently unconcerned spectators of the distresses and exertions of
;

their brethren.

The

third servitude, to Jabin,

(z)

(a)

Judges, viii. 28. (Jump. Judges, vi. 12.

I.

viii.

20, 21, 32.

(b) Judges, iii. (d) Ibid. ver. 31.

811.

(c) Ibid.

iii.

(e) Ibid. v.

1230. 1418.

VOL.

818

CHRONOLOGY OF THE

ISRAELITES,

[CHAP,

xvm.

and the subsequent peace of 40 years, may therefore be safely limited to the tribes on the west of the river, north of Ephraim, where Deborah held her seat of judgment.(f ) The fourth oppression, by the Midianites, was more extensive than any of the preceding servitudes, and included the tribes east of Jordan, with Judah, and most of those oa the west, as may be deduced from the enemy destroying
the increase of the earth

Ibzan and Elon, both of Zebulou and after them Abdon the Pirathonite, of the tribe of Ephraim, in conjunction with his 40 sons, and 30 grandsons, or nephews, set up a very
;

Gideon being obliged to hide Manasseh, (h) and Zebah and

as far as Gaza,(g) his corn in

Zalmunnah

remaining with a small force in security at Karkor, in Gilead.(i) This general subjugation to a foreign enemy, led to a general submission But this union was to Gideon as judge. destroyed by the tyranny of Abimelech ; and upon the death of that usurper, Tola appears to have assumed the government on the west of Jordan, as did Jair on the east.(j) At this period, the Israelites were in a degraded state as to religion ;(k) and as their defection in this respect was ever productive of chastisement, the oppression of the Ammonites and
Philistines(l) may be placed soon after Abimelech's death, or at the farthest, after the decease of Tola and Jair. Eighteen years afterward, Jephthah defeated the Ammonites, and having secured the peace of the country east of Jordan, was acknowledged as judge and

powerful government, that reached from his native tribe, through all Galilee, over the country east of Jordan. In the mean time, the tribes of Judah, Simeon, Benjamin, and Dan, under the high-priesthood of Eli, were dreadfully oppressed by the Philistines, till Samuel gave them a signal overthrow at Eben-ezer; which victory, added to the sanctity of his character, and the wisdom of his government, occasioned him to be ultimately acknowledged
as judge by
all

the tribes.

This geographical distribution of the times

of oppression and peace, contains nothing repugnant to the sacred text; and while it presents fewer difficulties than most others, upon the calculation of 480 years, allows all that can be wished for, with respect to inter-

regnums and anarchies. Throughout the history of the Israelites, under their kings, there
is

marked
;

the northern tribes west he ruled over Gilead and Galilee ; the south-western parts continuing in the mean time subject to the Philiswho were occasionally chastised by tines, Samson, the champion of Dan. Jephthah, on his death, was succeeded in rotation by
is,

ruler there, and in of that river; that

Simeon, and expressed most commonly Benjamin, is spoken of in a peculiar sense, as if in fact it had no connection with the other tribes, which are designated by the terms Israel, or all Israel ;(m) and, not un frequently, those on the other side, or eastward of Jordan, bear the appellation of Gilead ;(n) and no where do these distinctions appear more necessary, though not clearly expressed, than

distinction of parts, thus, Judah, including

implied, or

book of Judges: the reason of their is worth observation. That book now consists, as already hinted, of a number
in

the

omission

of

fragments,

loosely

thrown

together,(o)

(f)

Judges,

v. 4, &.

(g) Ibid. vi. 4.

(h)
( j)

KM.

vcr. 11.

(i)

Ibid.

viii.

10.

Ibid. x. 1

5.

The

distinction of the residences of

though, upon the scheme here proposed, not the last in point of order, as Abdon outlived him about five years. (m) ('(imp. 1 Sam. xi. 8. 2 Sam. ii. 4, 9. iii. 10. iv. 2. 5. xix. 40 v. 1 43. xxi. 2. xxiv. 1, 9. 1 Kings, xii. 16
21, et
(n)
al.

these two judges warrants this conclusion. 35. (k) Judy ex, viii. 33 xiii. 1. In the former place, the (1) (,'onip. Judges, x. 7. Philistines and Ammonites are said to have mutually oppress-

but in the subsequent history, to the death of Jephthah, only the transactions with the latter are related, and they are confined to the eastern tribes, except in what relates to the quarrel between Jcphthah and the Kpliraimites; Hie issue of which .seems to have given Jephthah a power in tinAfter >!, that otherwise he would not have aimed at. a briff notice of his successors, the history returns to the oppression of the Philistines in the south, and carries it forward to the death of Samson, the last of the secular j'nlgrs, engaged tu the destruction of his country's enemies;

ed Israel

Judges, xi. 5, etseq. xii. 4, 5. xx. 1. 2 Sam. ii. 9. (o) The account of Micah's idolatry,* and of the war between the Benjamites and the other tribes.t is notoriously dislocated from its proper place and instead of standing at the commencement of the book, before any of the servitudes, it stands at the The history of very end, after them all. Ruth, also, may be presumed to have formed part of the original annals, though it now constitutes a separate book. But, besides these admitted transpositions, there are others, which, though less generally noticed, are quite as palpable. The first chapter, for instance, begins with the relation of events subsequent to the death of Joshua;; but it quickly
;

Jiulgts, xvii. xviii.

Ibid.

xU.

xxi.

} Ibid.

i.

7.

SECT. V.J

FROM JOSHUA TO SOLOMON.

Text.

81!*

of some original annals, compiled by various hands, in the several parts of the commonwealth, as they were respectively affected by the events recorded. Had those annals been
properly digested and arranged, we should, without doubt, have found the same distinction of districts, so that the particular extent of each subjugation might be satisfactorily de-

Septuagint, or the shorter one of the HebrewFor this arrangement, the historians of the Judges have left us no data, except in the case of the Benjamite war, which single occurred in the days of Phinehas,(p) though placed at the end of the narrative ; a transposition sufficient in itself to destroy all confidence in the order given to the other events,

Even under its present disadvantages, book of Judges furnishes almost indubitable evidence, that some of the judges were contemporary, and that the times of oppression,
fined.

the

and which leaves the imagination of modern writers free to form their own conjectures and Vain, therefore, must be the hypotheses. pretension, that would affect to decide upon
I

instead of following each other in alternate succession with the times of peace, apply to different parts of the country, sometimes during the same period, and sometimes during the repose or government of a judge in another The question, therefore, is not whether part. the 480 years, mentioned 1 Kings, vi. 1, be genuine or spurious ; but how the several terms of servitude and of release shall be arranged ; for the plan here proposed will equally suit the longer computation of Josephus and the
slides off to

the chronology of the Judges, upon any system of computation, as free from objections ; but as the suggestions here thrown

out are mostly novel, the detail of the plan which they tend is given in the subjoined Table, which, though necessarily defective, is presumed to approach nearer to the truth, than any of those calculations that take the various times of servitude and of the Judges, in a regular order of unbroken succession.
to

the detail of transactions during his lifetime,

which are continued into the second chapter, where his death and burial, with the subsequent defection of the Israelites, are a second time recounted. The anger of the Lord is then thrice spoken of,|| apparently by as many different narof transactions in their respective districts. The message by the prophet, during the oppression of the Midianites,1T is nothing more than the introduction to some exhortation, now lost : it alludes only to the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, and their settlement in the Promised Land : whence we may conclude it either to have been spoken prior to the times of Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, and Deborah, whose victories, had they then taken place, would as naturally have been alluded to, as in a subsequent
rators
31.
II

during the oppression of the Philistines and Ammonites ;** or to have been given in a part of the country that had not felt the oppression from which those judges were the deliverers. There is also a remarkable variation
message,
in

the style of the preamble to the Midianitish servitude, from that of the other oppressions in this case it is said, " the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord ;"tt
:

not,

as in other instances, they "did evil AGAIN,"JJ &c. hence a suspicion arises that the invasion of the Midianites was brought on in consequence of a. first offence, in that part of Israel which was most exposed to it ; but nothing positive can be concluded, where the premises themselves are so vague and uncertain. (p) Judges, x. 27, 28.
*
tt

Corop. Jishua, x. 36> xi. 21, 22. WT. Judges, I 8, tt seq. ii. 1, ct seq. Judges, ii. 13, 14, 20. iii. 7, 8.

615.

iv.

1319, 63.
If Ibid. ji.

xxiv.

28

Judges, x.
Ibid. vi. l.
Ibid.
iii.

1016.
iv. 1.

710.

12.

x. 6. xiii. \.

M2

820

CHRONOLOGY OF THE

ISRAELITES,

[CHAP, xviii.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE
A.M.

FROM THE EXODUS TO THE DEATH OF SOLOMON, ACCORDING TO THE PRECEDING HYPOTHESIS.
ISRAELITES,

SECT. V.]
A.

FROM THE EXODUS TO SOLOMON.

821'

2568 2569 2570

2571

2572 2573
2.'.74

2575
257(5

2577 2578 2579 2580 2581 2582 2583 2584 2585 2586 2587 2588 2589 2590
2591

2592 2593 2594 2595 2596 2597 2598 2599 2600 2601 2602 2603 2604 2605 2606 2607 2608
2(509

2610 2611 2612 2613 2614 2615 2616 2617 2610 2619 2620
26-21

2622 2623 2624

202-J

2626 2627

22
2629 2630 2631 2032

822
A.M.
Ann. Exod.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE
B
C.

ISRAELITES,

[CHAP. xvin.

2633 120121 2634 121122 2635 122123 2036 123124 2637 124125 2638 125 126 2639 126127 2640 127128 2641 128129 2642 129130 2643 130131 2644 131132 2645 132133 2646 133134 2647 134135 2648 135136 2649 136137 2650 137138 2651 138139 2652 139140 2653 140141 2654 141142 2655 142143 2656 143144 2657 144145 2658 145146 2659 146147 2660 147148 2661 148149 2662 149150 2663 150151 2664 151152 2665 152153 2666 153154 2667 154155 2668 155156 2669 156157 2670 157158 2671 158159 2672 159160 2673 160161 2674 161162 2675 162163 2676 163164 2677 164165 2678 165166 2679 166 167 2680 167168 2681 168169 2682 169170 2683 170171 2684 171172 2685 172173 2686 173174 2687 174175 2688 175176 2689 176177 2690 177178 2691 178179 2092 179180 2693 180181
2!)4 2695 2697

1371 1370

1369
1368

1367 1366 1365 1364 1363 1362 1361 1360 1359 1358 1357 1356 1355 1354 1353 1352
1351

1350 1349 1348 1347

181182
182
1B3

l4

183 184 186

SECT. V.]
A.M.

FROM THE EXODUS TO SOLOMON.

Exoc!

823

Ann

B C
l :

230- -231 231- -232 232- -233 233- -234 234- -235 235- 236 236- -237 237- -238 238- -239 239- 240 240- -241 27. >4 241- 242 2756 242- -243 243- -244 2"l-iC, 2757 244- 245 245- -246 27-".H 2759 !Jl- 247 27('i 247- 248 27! 248- 249 1243 2762 249- -250 1242
;

2698 2G99 2700 2701 2702 2703 2704 2705 2706 2707 2708 2709 2710 2711 2712 2713 2714 2715 2716 2717 2718 2719 2720 2721 2722 2723 2724 2725 2726 2727 2728 2729 2730 2731 2732 2733 2731 2735 2736 2737 2738 2739 2740 2741 2742 2743 2744 2745 2746 2747 2748 2749 2750 2751 2752 2753

185 186 187 -188 188 -169

189- -190 190- -194 191- -192

30 1304 130 1302 1301 1300

1

"

192 -193
193- -194 194- -195 195- -196

196- -197 197- -198 198- -199 199- -200 200- -201 201- -202 202- -203 203- -204 204- -205 205- -206 206- -207 207- -208 208- -209 209- -210 210- -211 211- -212 212- -213 213- -214 214- -215 215- -216 210- -217

217- -218 218- -219 219- -220 220- -221 221- -222 222- -223 223- -224 224- -225 225- -226 226- -227 227- -228 228- -229 229- -230

1299 1298 1297 1296 1295 1294 1293 1292 1291 1290 1289 1288 1287 1286 1285 1284 1283 1282 1281 1280 1279 1278 1277 1276 1275 1274 1273 1272
1271 127U

42 43 < Shamgar chastises the Philistines. 44 45 o 46 "*> Bukki, or Boccejas, high-priest; ob. A. M. *2752. 47 P 48 a. " 49 K
50"S 51 |

52 5 53 a 54 n> 55 S 56 57 p
.

58

g.

59 g 60 '
61
1

Third servitude,
*

62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77
78 79

2
3

years

to Jabin, king of Canaan, who oppresses the north of Israel 20 during which time the peace of the south is preserved by Shamgar.

4 5 6
7
s.

8g 9* 10
11 12
g] =p

13-. 14

15^
16 a 17 H 18 ? 19 20

1269 1268 1267 1266 1265 1264 1263 1262 1261 1260 1259 1258 1257 1256 1255 1254 1253 1252 1251 1250 1249 1248 1247 1246 1245 1244

80

Jabin extends his power towards the south. Deborah, 3d judge, and Barak, deliver Israel, and give 40 years' pace.

GJ?
7 g*

83
11
12.8

The removal of Climelech

13 14 15
16

to the land of Moab, the prelude to the history of Ruth, is by some chronologers placed about this time. Usher places it about 60 years earlier, as remarked before.

17 18 19

Uzzi, or Ozics, high-priest.

20
21 22 23

24 25
26 27

824
V.M.
Ann. ExoJ.
B.C.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE
250251 251252 252253 253254 254255 255256 256257 257258 258259 259260 260261 261262 262203 263264 264265 265266 266267 267268 268269 269270 270271 271272 272273 273274 274275 275276 276277 277278
i

ISRAELITES,

[CHAP.

xvm.

763 764 765 766 767 _768

1769

241

770
771 772 773

240 239 238 237 236 1235 234 233 1232

1231 1230

28 29

2
S,

30
31

32?
sag"

343

35?
36-=

37

38?
39 40

774
:775

2776 2777 2778 2779 2780 2781 2782 2783 2784 2785 2786 2787 2788 2789 2790 2791 2792 2793 2794 2795
271*6

1229 1228 227 226 225 1224 1223 1222 1221 1220 1219 1218 1217 1216 1215 1214 278-279 1213 279280 1212

280281 281282 282283 283284

1211

1210 1209 1208

1207 1206 1205 1204 1203 1202 1201 1200 1199 1198 1197
119(5
11! if)

2797 284- -285 2798 285- -286 2799 286287 2800 287288 2801 288289 2802 289290 2803 290291 2804 291292 2805 292293 2806 293294 2807 294295 2808 295296 209 296- 297 2810 297- -298 2811 298 2! 2812 299 2813 300301 2814 301- :t(). 2815 302-303 2816 303- 304 2817 304- 30 2818 305 306 281 B 306 .) 2820 307 :<0t
I

i<

1194 1193
1192
1

:i

<

I'M

1189

1188 1187
lli'.ii

U84
,

'282

3<>
.-,i)9

i:3

28-2-2
28-2.'.

:ii
:5l

310-

lisa 1181
I I

2824 2825
282(5

31131312-31:
31

lilt

i7!>

2827

314310

1178 1177

SECT. V.]
A.M.
Aim. Exod.
B. C.

FROM THE EXODUS TO SOLOMON.

1176
1175 1174 1173 1172 1171 1170 1109 1108 1167 1166 1165 1104 1163 1102 1101 1100
1159 1158 1157 1156 1155 7 3
o

H25

2828 2829 2830

2831

2832 2833 2831 2835

283<i

2837 2838
283!)

315316 316317 317318 318319 319320 320321 321322 322323 323324 324325 325326 326327
;I27

10 11512

F
n
'

13-= 14 S 15
'

2840
2841

328

17

s.

2842 2843 2844 3313:32 2845 332333 2846 333334 2047 334335 2848 335336 2849 336337 2850 337338 2861 338-339 2852 339-340 2853 340341 2854 341342 2855 342343 285G 343344 2857 34434.3 2858 345346 2059 346347 2860 347348 2861 848349 2862 349350 2863 350351 2864 351352 2865 352353 2866 353354 2867 354355

328329 329330 330331

18
'

f
S-

20
21

22' 23
I

1154 1153 1152 1151 1150 1149 1148 1147 1140 1145 1144 1143 1142 1141 1140 1139 1138 1137

2868 2869 2870 2871 2872 2873 2874 2875 2876 2877 2878 2879 2880 2881 2882 2883 2884 2885 288 2887

3553563573583593003013*52-

356 357 358 359 360

361
-302

363
-364 -305

363364 365366307368369370371372373374-

1136 1135 1134 1133 1132 1131 1130 1129 1128

1127 1120 1125 1124 1123 1122 1121 1120 1119 1118 1117

306 367 368 369

-370

371 372 373 374 375

2888

375370

1116

820
A.M.
Ann. Kxod.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE
B.C.

ISRAELITES,

[CHAP.

xvm.

2889 2890 2891 2892 2693 2894 2895 2896 2897 2898 2899 2900 2901 2902 2903 2904 2905 2906 2907 2908 2909 2910 2911 2912 2913 2914 2915 2916 2917 2918 2919 2920 2921 2922 2923 2924 2925 2926 2927 2928 2929 2930
2931

376377 377378 378379 379380

380-381

381382 382383 383384 384385 385386 386387 387388 388389 389390 390391 391392 392393
.'193394

1115 1114 1113 1112 1111 1110 1109 1108 1107 1106 1105 1104 1103 1102 1101 1100 1099
1098

t-

oc
Yrs.of

Abdou

ill

the

..I

north-west,

and
ill

394395 395396 396397 397398 398399 399400 400401 401402

402
403

1097 1096
1095

Gilead.

; ;

1094 1093
1092 1091 1090 1089 1088 1087 1086 1085 1084

403404 404405
405
406

406407 407408 408409 409410 410411 411412 412413 413414 414415 415416 416417
417-418

1083 1082 1081 1080

1079 1078 1077 1076 1075 1074 1073 1072 1071 1070 1069 1068
1067

418419

2932 419420 2933 420421 2934 421422 2935 422 423 2936 423424 2937 424425 2938 425426 2939 426427 2940 427428 2941 428429 2942 429430 2943 430431 2944 431432
!>945

2916
'2!)47

432433 433434
4344:i.">

2948 2949 2950

->!">
I

2952 2953

435436 436437 437438 438439 439440 440411

1066 1005 1064 1063 1062 1061 1000 1059 058 1057 1056 1055
1

1054

1053 1052 1051

SECT. V.]
A.M.

FROM THE EXODUS TO SOLOMON.

J5-27

828
A.M.

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP. xvin.

SECT.

V.]

MICA MS IMAGES TAKEN BY THE DANITES.

own
of Judah, in search of a livelihood, and who readily accepted the invitation to become his priest, for a stipend of ten shekels of silver

ryes," that Micah, a wealthy mail of the tribe of Ephruiin, is supposed to have erected an idol in his house, which was soon after taken from him by the erratic Danites, and set up by them in their newright in his

by the year, a

suit of apparel,

and

his food.

The history built city of Laish, or L)au.(v) of this affair is indeed placed at the end of the book of Judges, whence it has been variously concluded, by different writers, to have happened, either after Samson's death,(w) or about the latter end of Joshua's life;(x) but by far the greater part, as between the death of Caleb, and the time of Othniel becoming judge.(y) Till this time, the apostate Israelites seem to have been content with the idols of their neighbours, without setting up any of their own; but Micah thought fit to go beyond them. This man had privately robbed his mother of eleven hundred shekels of silver; but on hearing her curses against the thief, his conscience smote him, and he restored them. The old woman, in the excess of her joy at seeing her money again, resolved to consecrate it to what she deemed a religious use, in order to avert the curses she had unwittingly pronounced upon her son. She accordingly

Micah now thought himself highly Messed. and that nothing could possibly hinder him
of the favour of the Lord.

was
the

his

felicity

But short-lived and confidence; for about

afterwards, the themselves too mum-rous Danites, for their allotment, sent out hve of their principal men to seek for an additional terri-

same

time, or very soon

who found

These spies, passing accidentally by the residence of Micah, recognized the Levite, and having learned the nature of his engagement and office, they consulted him as to the final success of their enterprise ; he gave
tory.

them a favourable answer, and they went on their way, till they arrived at Laish, a town
trict,

purchased, for two hundred shekels, two and with idols, one carved, the other molten the remainder of the money, she and her son built a chapel, to set them up in, together with some teraphim/z) which they appear to
;

they added

have had previously in the house. To this an ephod, with which Micah invested his son, and consecrated him to the This priestly office of his new sanctuary. of the true religion had not, howomiption
(

belonging to the Sidonians, in a fruitful disthe inhabitants of which were rich, and lived in careless security, without magistrates, This spot appearing soldiery, or strength. to correspond with their wishes, they returned, and acquainted their tribe with the news; upon which the Danites of Zorah and Eshtaol armed (500 of their men, and these, with the live spies at their head, marched immediately towards Laish. In their way, the spies acquainted them with Micah's having a young Levite with him, from whose month they had received a promise of success in this expedition. The Danites, therefore, on their arrival at mount Ephraim, the residence of Micah, instead of reproving him for his apostacy,

so completely blinded Micah as to prevent him from observing the impropriety of his son's officiating as priest longer than the supposed exigency of the case continued, and he accordingly embraced an opportunity, that shortly afterwards occurred, of engaging the services of a young indigent Levite, named Jonathan, the son of Gershom,(a) who had wandered from his native city of Beth-lehem
ever,

persuaded Jonathan to leave his service and go with them, observing that it was better for him to be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel than to the house of one man; at the same time they forcibly entered the house of idols, and carried away both the images, with the teraphim and ephod. Micah, thus robbed of what he had held most valuable, collected his neighbours together, and followed the but on their loud outcries spoilers with
;

Judges, xvii. xviii. (w) Vide Seder H'.lmn, Serrarius, et al. (x) Vide Masius, De Lyr. I'.ibcra, ft al. Usher, Monster, Cal(y) Cornel. a Lapide, Grotius, met, et al. (z) See before, on the subject of teraphim, p. 352, note (f ). (a) In our translation, (Judges, xviii. 30) following (he Hebrew text, this Jonathan is called "the son of Gershom,
(v)

the son of MANASSF.H ;" but, according to some Greek MSS. and the Jewish rabbins, he was grandson of MOSES and The rabbins say so the Septuagint and Vulgate have it.
;

added

the suspended letter in mi? O (MO nsseH) has been here for the honour of nu?O (MoseH) Moses, that he

might not be recorded as grandfather of the

priest.

first

idolatrous

830

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

As soon
the

[CHAP, xvni.

reminding him that his pursuit and clamour might cost him his life, he took their advice, and returned home, convinced that he could raise no adequate force against them. Pursuing their way without molestation, the Danites soon arrived at Laish, which, taking by surprise, they burned to the ground, and then put the inhabitants to the sword. They
built a
nitor,

as this had taken place, , Jul Per Almighty raised them up a \ A. M. the person of < Post Dll. *<)4:>. in deliverer, Ann. Exod. '87. of whom some notice Othniel,
B. C.

new city, calling it, after their progeDan and they set up their stolen idols
;

in

it,

retaining

to be their priests, in

tinued till years afterwards. The capture of Laish, and the destruction of its inhabitants, in a time of presumed tranto have roused the indignation quillity, appears of Chushan-rishathaim, called in scripture king of Mesopotamia,(c) or of Aram-naharaim,(d) and by Eutychius, king of Tyre and Sidon;(e) for he soon afterwards made an inroad upon Canaan, and kept the IsraelJul. Per. -ssoi.^ * a state subjugation A.M. *29i. / ltes Of the partiPostDil. *!34. V for eight years. Ann. Exod. 7!>. L culars of this invasion, and the 1413 -J warfare with which it was attended, nothing more is recorded than that it was permitted by God, as a judicial punishment of the iniquities of His people, and was therefore only continued till they were sensible of their errors, and repented of them.

young Jonathan and his sons which office they conthe capture of the ark,(b) about 300

has been already taken ; and he drove out the invaders, and gave rest to the land during the subsequent forty years that he acted as judge.(f ) For some years the Israelites lived undisturbed ; when an affair took place, which shewed that depravity had made a sad inroad into at least one of their tribes, and almost occasioned its extirpation,(g) at the same time
that
it cost many lives in the others. The concubine of a certain Levite,

*140u.

residing

on mount Ephraim, had eloped and taken up her abode at her father's house in Beth-lehemJudah, and some months elapsed before the Levite could gain tidings of her. Understandat length where she was, he repaired thither ing with a view to a reconciliation, and was kindly received by her and her father. After a few in conviviality, the Levite and his days spent concubine set off on their return home, and arrived at Gibeah, in the tribe of Benjamin, about sun-set, where they expected to be received with the accustomed rites of hospitality. But in this they were disappointed no one came out to invite them to pass the night under his roof; and, after waiting till it was
;

almost dark, they began to prepare to lodge

30th verse, and that instead of the land, it originally stood
the ark.
(c)

(b)
in

The Hebrew

text, as

it

iiow stands,

and
his

says to the tribe of Dan, until priests

the.

our translation,

Jonathan

and

is rendered sons "were

Dlbj, the captivity }l")Nn ni^J, the capture

l'~ii<n

of of

the, day of the captivity captivity has been taken by some to of be at least that of the ten tribes, by Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser,' if not that more final one by Nebuchad-

LAND;" which

Judges,

iii.

8.

(d) Ibid, margin.

nexzar;t but in the next verse it is added that the Danites " all the time that the house of God set up Micah's image in Shiloh,"] which was only till the ark was carried \\-A-i thence into the Israelitish camp, and there captured by the Philistines^ about the beginning of Samuel's administration, or just before it; for on its return, it was not taken back to Shiloh, but to Kirjath-jearim, where it remained Neither is it credible that so notorious till David's time.|| a piece of idolatry should have continued under Samuel's government, when it is expressly said that he made the children of Israel put away their strange gods, to serve the Lord alone ;1! or that so pious a prince as David should have suffered it during his long reign of 40 years. The reading above has therefore been preferred, on a presumption, that, from the similitude of the final letters, a mistake hag been committed in transcribing the last word of the
2 Kings, xv. 29.
t
||

He seems to have (e) Eutychii Annales, tome i. p. 118. possessed an extensive, but short-lived empire, in which were included Tyre and Sidon, with the rest of northern Canaan. Mr. Bryant, finding the term Cush, or Chus, in his name, supposes him to have been at the head of those Cuthaeans, who in their expulsion from Egypt, betook themselves northward, where they built

and

settled in

Padan-aram and
Ur,

its

vicinity,

the cities

of

otherwise Urhoe,

or

Abor, or Chabor, and Carchemisb, originally Carcusb, or Carcushan.** 11. (f) Judges, iii. 8 Archbishop Usher places the defeat of Chushan 21 years after the death of Joshua, and

40 years
(g)

Judyft, xix.
this

after the rest given by that commander. xxi. The only chronological

datum we

have for
priesthood

transaction,

is

that

it

was during

of Phinehas,

the

son of Eleazar,

the highthe son of

Aaron.tt

xvii. passim, xviii.

9
J>

12.

f
1 Sam. iv.
1
vi.

1 Sam.

yii.

16id. XXT.

j
vi.

Judges,
vii. 1.

xviii.

31.

**

3, 4.
vi. p.

Coinp. 1 Sam.

10

21.

Sam.

Chron.

xiii.

XT.

Bryant's Mythology, vol. tt Judges, xx. 28.

850.

SECT. V.]

THE TRIBE OF BENJAMIN NEARLY DESTROYED.

831

themselves in the open streets, when an old man, who was a sojourner there, coming from
his

work

in

the

fields,

insisted

upon

their

but by delivering up his concubine whom they so grossly abused, that, on the next morning, he found her dead upon the threshold of the door. Sensible that in such a place, it would be in vain to complain of this outrage, the Levite quietly departed, taking with him but on his the corpse of his concubine arrival at home, he divided the body into twelve pieces, and sent a piece to each tribe, with an account of the occasion of so extra;
:

They accordingly went; but had scarcely refreshed themselves, when a band of profligate young fellows surrounded the house, and demanded to have the stranger given up to their unnatural desires. The old man expostulated with them in vain, and the Levite found no way of saving himself

going home with him.

ordinary

present.

The

indignant

tribes

immediately assembled at Mizpeh, to the number of 400,000 fighting men; and having heard the story more at length from the
till

mouth of the Levite, resolved not to separate they had inflicted exemplary vengeance upon the delinquents. They therefore sent to the chiefs of Benjamin, demandmessengers
:

ing the delivery of the profligate Cibeathites but, instead of complying with their request, the Benjamites armed 25,000 of their best warriors, besides 700 Gibeathites, and bid The tribes, defiance to the rest of Israel. thus finding themselves treated with contempt in a cause, in which they had every reason for expecting to be joined by their brethren of Benjamin, vowed to take a more ample revenge upon the whole tribe. They inquired of the Lord, by Phinehas the high-priest, which of the tribes should lead the van; and were answered that Judah should go first. They gave them battle accordingly the next morning, not doubting of a complete victory but they had the mortification of being repulsed, with the loss of 22,000 men ; nor had they better success on the second day, for they were forced to retire with the loss of 18,000 of their comrades in arms. The reason of these severe chastisements is not set down by the inspired writers and they are the more remarkable, as on both occasions the tribes
; ;

acted under the divine direction.(h) and the original motive of the war was the punishment of the most flagrant of crimes, the perpetrators of which they were commanded by their law always to put to death. (i) Finding themselves thus defeated by an enemy, inferior in numbers, and fighting in a bad cause, the Israelites appointed a day of solemn fasting and prayer, upon which occasion the soldiers and all the people repaired to Shiloh, where the tabernacle was, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before the Lord ; at the same time inquiring whether they should again attack their brethren the Benjamites, or whether The answer, as before, they should forbear. was that they should renew the war; and it was accompanied by a promise, that, on the next day, the guilty tribe should be delivered into their hands. This reply inspired them with fresh courage, though they thought fit to adopt a stratagem to ensure success. They divided themselves into three bodies ; one to lie in ambush, and be ready to enter the city, and set fire to it, as soon as the enemy's troops should sally out another to make a feigned assault and flight, to draw them out of the place in pursuit of them ; and the third, to be concealed in the neighbourhood of Baal-tatnar, to watch a proper opportunity for attacking
;

them

in the

rear,

and

The

Benjamites,

success, easily fell drawn out, the town was fired, and themselves were so surrounded that 25,000 of them were laid dead on the field, being the whole number of their warriors, except about 000, who

to cut off their retreat. flushed with their former into the snare; they were

escaped by

flight,

and secured themselves on

Rimmon, where they abode four months. The conquerors, not satisfied with this victory, burnt down all the cities and
the rocks of
villages

of the

inhabitants,

and

Benjamites, massacred the cut their cattle to pieces,

without pity or distinction, making, as they thought, an utter end of that unhappy though At length, they began to feel guilty tribe. some compunction, and to reflect with remorse, that, instead of chastising, they had destroyed one of the tribes of Israel they therefore went to Shiloh again, where being informed that the GOO who had escaped from the slaughter, were still upon the rocks of Rini:

(h) Judy's, xx. 18, 23.

(i)

Exod. xx. 14.

Levit.

xviii.

20, 22, xx. 10, 13.

832
iiion,

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

to

[CHAP. xvin.

they implored the divine direction how they might recal them peaceably, and by their There was, means restore the lost tribe. indeed, one great impediment, in a rash vow they had made at Mizpeh, to withhold their daughters from marrying into that tribe ; but they adopted an expedient, which, though
unjust, answered their pursanguinary pose. Searching their muster-rolls, they found

say nothing of their policy respecting the virgins of Shiloh, demonstrate that genuine piety had given place, on the one hand to open profaneness, and on the other to an external zeal for religion without its spirit. To this may probably be attributed the losses
the tribes were suffered to sustain, before they could overpower the Benjamites ; which chastisement not having its due effect, they were shortly after consigned to a second oppression under a foreign power. Although the invasion of the Israelitish
territories

and

that none of the men of Jabesh-gilead, belonging to the half-tribe of Manasseh, on the east of Jordan, had come to the general assembly,

and that, consequently, they were exempt from the obligation of the oath. They, therefore, dispatched 12,000 armed men to destroy the inhabitants of that city, for not coming to assist their brethren, with the exception of the virgins, 400 of whom were taken captive and brought to the camp in Shiloh. In the mean time, pacific overtures had been made to the 600 refugees on Rimmon, and on their return to the camp they received these 400 There remained, young women for wives. however, 200 still unprovided for; and they were advised to lie in ambush among the vineyards, when the damsels of Shiloh came out, to dance on some annual festival, and to carry off such of them as excited their admiration. The Benj'amites did so ; and in a few years their tribe recovered its former strength. From this history, and that of Micah, a judgment may be formed of the degree of degeneracy that had pervaded the whole nation, in the short period of less than 60 years, perhaps not more than 50, from the death of Joshua, even during the lifetime of
such men
as Caleb, Eleazar, Othniel, and For this declension, they had Phinehas. been punished by a subjugation of already

by Eglon, king of Moab, which followed close upon the last-named transactions, was superinduced by the Almighty, to punish His people, the external motive with
that prince appears to have been the weakened state to which the commonwealth was reduced by the civil wars just recounted, in which one tribe had been almost annihilated, the inhabitants of a considerable city in another quarter had been put to the sword, and the rest of the tribes had lost 40,000 of their best warriors. For 18 years did Eglon keep them in servile subjection ;(j) till, sensible of
their errors, they
in sincerity,

repented, and calling upon God Ehud, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, probably one of those who had taken refuge on the rocks of Rimmon, was raised up to be their second judge and deliverer ; and by the assassination of their he procured them a peace of 80 oppressor,
years' continuance.(k) It seems to have been during this interval, that the Philistines first became troublesome to Israel, on what occasion, or to what extent, the text does not inform us but they were
:

eight years to Cluishan-rishathaim; and though for a time brought back to a sense of their duty by the exertions and authority of Othniel, joined to the pious exhortations of Phinehas, the foul offence of the Benjamites, the injustice and savage ferocity of (lie other tribes towards them and the people of Jabesh-gilt-ad,
(jl
t
tliu

chastised by Shamgar,(l) the son of Anath, of what tribe is unknown, who destroyed (500 of them with an ox-goad, (in) as related in a former chapter.(n) While Shamgar thus preserved the peace of the south, a potent enemy appeared in the north, in the person of Jabin, king of the Canaanites, in Hazor and its vicinity,(o) a power that had sprung up almost uaperceived
the term
ftuirbnyi,

See before, p. 025, where Usherian computation.

iii.

tin:

ilate is

given according

an ox-goad,
Anioiiiun,

is

a Greek

corruption, or

perversion
(1)

of

the

or

Hebrew

(k) Judges,

1230.

Ibid. ver. SI.

and

(m) "(pan TOSo (Mal-MflD HoBaKoH) an instrument by Mr. Bryant, comparing whirh nxe.n arc broken to labour. this p;iss;i,, \ v i;|, ;l parallel one in Homer, in which Lvctirgus puts the Bacch.i: to ill-lit with an ox-goad, contends that

p'jS (PSLOCH) to separate ; and to he " he overthrew them with a great dispersion ;"
tii,

1U (BOUj ijrmt, that the reading might

i.

e.

he

totally routed
(u)

See before, p. 012.

* Anal. ofAnc. Mythol.

(o)

See before, p. 603.

i9.

vol. iv. p.

SECT. V.]

DEBORAH AND BARAK DEFEAT

manded him
tribe

JABIN.

833

by the Israelites during their intestine dissentions and supine confidence in the remains of the old inhabitants. This prince had 900 warchariots, with cavalry and infantry in proportion, commanded by Sisera, who, independently of his high office, appears to have been a person of consequence, and resided This third at Harosheth of the Gentiles. was of longer duration than either oppression of the former, for it continued 20 years, although there is reason to believe that it did not, for the greater part of that time, extend lower than mount Ephraim,(p) and therefore it is included in the 80 years of peace given

and that of Zebuluu,

that

to collect 10,000 men of his own at mount Tabor,

whole host should be delivered into his hand on the banks of the Kishon. It is uncertain whether Barak had before been accustomed to military enterprise but if he had, he was so daunted at the disparity of his forces, that he positively refused to obey the prophetess, unless she would go
promising of Jabin,

and

Sisera, with the his war-chariots,

Deborah immediately promised to but, as a reproof for his accompany him diffidence, she told him that the expedition
with him.
;

by Ehud, which belonged exclusively to the south, where the seat of Eglon's oppression had been. Not only was this oppression longer
than the former, but, at least towards its close, it was more severe not daring to travel by the high-roads, the Israelites were forced to seek by-ways, to avoid the cruelty and insults of their enemies neither could they dwell in safety in their villages, being attacked by the archers iff they went but out to draw water; and as a badge of their servile condition, they were not suffered to keep any arms.(q) At length, when they were brought to a due sense of their misery in consequence of their trans: ;

gression, two women, Deborah and Jael, were chosen to be the chief instruments of their

deliverance.

inspired that time acted as judge in Israel ; and, under the influence of the Spirit of God, she sent for Barak, the son of Abinoam, of the tribe of Naphtali, and com-

The former was an

at

woman, (r) who

should not be for his honour; for Sisera should fall by the hands of a woman. Departing together for Kedesh-naphtali, which was Barak's residence, he soon enlisted 10,000 volunteers, and led them to mount Tabor, where they could not fail to attract the notice of Jabin, whose forces were immediately assembled under Sisera, on the borders of the Kishon, with the design, it should seem, of cutting them off from all communication with the south, where the people of Ephraim and Benjamin, with those of Issachar, were preparIn this situation, Barak, at ing for insurrection. the command of the prophetess, attacked the Canaanites, and made them give way as far as Megiddo, where they were probably met by the forces of Ephraim and Benjamin, and were, besides, assailed by some supernatural power: a general rout was the consequence, and Sisera, flying from the victorious Israelites, met his death from the hand of Jael, as before narrated, (s) This victory was celeDeborah should be styled the woman of Lapidoth ; same word that, in the passage referred to, is rendered wife, being elsewhere used for a woman in an absolute sense.
lliat

(p) In Deborah's recapitulation of the tribes which went to the war against Jabin,* Judah and Simeon are unnoticed,

the

and Dan

is

reproved for remaining

in his ships,

an unmoved

spectator of what was passing ; Benjamin is spoken of as an auxiliary to Ephratm ; but Zcbulun, Issachar, and Naphtali, while Reuben and the other are described as principals tribes in Gilead are expressly said to have absented themselves : from all which, it may be presumed that the northern tribes only were involved in this servitude to Jabin. The privation of arms could 8, 11. (q) Judges, v. 6 only be of a local nature ; for we shall presently find 10,000 of the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun armed and following Barak at the first call. "a (r) In our version, Deborah is called prophetess, the as the termination is feminine, and wife of Lapidoth ;" but seldom used for the names of men, and there is some incongruity in supposing that a married woman should act as a civil judge, and go out with an army, uncontrolled and unassisted by her husband, it has been conjectured that Lapidoth is the name of a place and not of a person ; and
;

Deborah's residence is, however, particulary described as being under the palm-tree, or oak, of her namesake, t in mount Ephraim, between Rainah (supposed to be the same with Rainathaim-/ophiin, or Arimathea,) and Beth-el and as Lapidoth is not named in any other part of scripture as a place, it most likely was intended to designate either the occupation or the quality of Deborah, instead of her husband or her abode. The original signification of the term is a lamp, whence illumination, or enlightening, the two latter being deduced from the first hence some have thought that her employment was that of making lamps; but others, with more propriety, refer it to the inspiration of the The passage Almighty, with which she was favoured. " may therefore be rendered, Deborah, a prophetess, the woman of inspiration, [or, au enlightened woman,] judged
; :

Israel at that time."

(s)

See before,
t

p.

G03.
8.

Judges,

v.

1418.

Comp. Gen. IXXT.

Judges,

iv. 4.

VOL.

I.

5 o

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

brated by Deborah and Barak, in a commemorative ode,(t) composed for the occasion, which has been preserved to modern times
(t)

[CHAP,

xvm.

Israelites continued to prevail against Jabiri, they had destroyed him, and reduced the Canaanites to so low a condition
till

and the

celebrated song of triumph," says Jttdges, v. "TLis " is most in his Remarks, deservedly admired ; some parts of it are very obscure, and others uninthough translation. Besides particular telligible, in our English which pervades the whole ; difficulties, there is a general one, considered as entirely the song of arising from its being Deborah ; though it is said to have been sung by Deborah Barak. There are also in it parts, which Deborah and

Deborah. Let them, who meet armed at the wateringplaces,

Dr. Kennicott,

There shew the righteousacts of JEHOVAH,

Barak.
Both.
Andtherighteousnessof thevillagesin Israel: Then shall they go down to the gates,

THE PEOPLE OF JEHOVAH.

PART
II.
!

by could not sing, as well as parts which Barak could not that some probable sing and therefore it seems necessary With this view, the distribution should be made of it." doctor has made a new translation, wherein the several parts are assigned to Deborah and Barak separately, or to both in chorus, of which the following is a copy, where the most material deviations from the authorized English version are
:

" 12. Barak.

Awake, awake, Deborah Awake, awake Lead on the song. Deborah. Arise, Barak and lead thy captivity captive; Barak, thou son of Abinoam!
!

" 13. Barak.

Then, when the remainder descended

their chiefs,

after

distinguished

by

Italics.

JEHOVAH'S people

descended

after

me,

"

1.

\Titk.]

Then sang Deborah and Barak

Abinoam, on
that

the son of

day

saying,

PART
"
2.

I.

" 14. Deborah. Out of Ephraim was their beginning, at (mount) Amalek And after thee was Benjamin, against the
;

against the mighty.

Deborah. For the leaders, who took the lead in Israel For the people, who offered themselves willBarak.
;

nations.

Barak.
" 15.

ingly

Both.

BLESS YE JEHOVAH!
! !

From Machir came masters in theart of war ; And from Zebulun those who threw the dart. Deborah. The princes in Issachar were numbered,
Barak.

"

3.

Deborah. Hear, O ye kings Give ear, O ye princes Barak. Deborah. I unto JEHOVAH will sing; I will answer in song to JEHOVAH, Barak. THE GOD OF ISRAEL. Both.
Deborah.

And

Together with Deborah and Barak Issachar was the guard of Barak,
:

Into the valley sent, close at his

feet.

"4.

O JEHOVAH!
Seir;

at

thy

going

forth

from

At thy marching from (he

Barak.

The

field of Edom: earth trembled, even the heavens poured

"5.

down; The thick clouds poured down the waters. Deborah. The mountains melted at JEHOVAH'S presence
;

Deborah. At the divisions of Reuben, Great were the impressions of heart. "16. Barak. Why sattest thou among the rivulets'? What, to hear the bleatings of the flocks ? Deborah. For the divisions of Reuben, Great were the searchings of heart. " 17. Barak. Gad dwelt quietly beyond Jordan ; And Dan, why abode he in ships ? Deborah. Asher continued in the harbour of the seas,

And

Barak.
Both.

Sinai itself, at the presence of

JEHOVAH,

THE GOD OF

ISRAEL.

"

6.

Deborah. In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath ; In the days of Jael, the highways were
deserted.

" 18. Barak. Zebulun were the people, and Naphtali, Deborah. Who exposed their lives unto death, ON THE HEIGHTS OF THE FIELD. Both. " 19. Deborah. The

remained among

his

craggy places.

"

7.

For they who had gone by straight paths, Passed by ways that were very crooked Deserted were the villages in Israel. Deborah. They were deserted, till I, Deborah, arose; Till 1 arose, a mother in Israel Barak.
:

kings came, they fought the kings of Canaan At Taanach, above the waters of Megiddo : Barak, The plunder of riches they did not receive. " 20. Deborah. From heaven did they fight

Then fought

The stars, from

" 21. Barak.

their lofty stations,

"

Fought against Sisera. The river Kishon swept them away

It

ft.

They chose new gods

Barak.
Then, when war was

Theriver,interceptingthem, the river Kishon!

Was
"
9.

at the gates, there a shield seen, or a spear,

" 22. Deborah.

It

was there my soul trod down strength. was then the hoofs of the cavalry were
battered the scamperings, the scamperings of its strong steeds
!

Amongst forty thousand in Israel ? Deborah. My In-art is towards the rulers' of Israel: Barak. Ye, who offered yourselves willingly among
the people;

By
" 23. Barak.

Both.

BLESS YE JEHOVAH
ride

"10. Deborah Ye, who

Ye,

upon white asses

Curse ye the land of Meroz, Said the messenger of JICHOVAH: Deborah. Curse ye heavily its inhabitants
;

"11. Barak.

who sit upon the scat of judgment; And ye, who travel upon the roads;
Talk ol'IIiM with the voice of
praise.

Because- they

tame not

for help.
f

Both,

JF.HOVAH \VASFORHELP! JEHOVAH AGAINST THE MIGHTY

SECT. V.]

OPPRESSED BY THE MIDIANITES.

com-

835

that they never afterwards molested the

monwealth. (u)

of harvest, and carried off the fruits of their labours, with their cattle, and whatever else

The peace obtained by Deborah continued 40 years in which interval some chronologers place the famine that occasioned the removal of Elimelech and his family into the land of Moab, where his son Mahlon married the Moabites, Ruth,(v) who, by her subsequent union with Boaz, was great grandmother of David, and an ancestor of our Lord, accord;

was valuable, and otherwise so ill-treated them, that at length they forsook their habitations, and sought refuge among the mountains, and These in tlic clefts and caves of the rocks.(x)
depredations, though they did not subject the Israelites to a foreign yoke, would, if continued, have destroyed their political existence, either by forcing them to migrate, or by starving them at home: of this they were fully sensible, as well as of the cause of their misery, and, therefore, as the only remedy, they had recourse to that God whom they had offended, and who had permitted these
evils

ing to the flesh.(w) The security and ease in whirh the Israelites lived during this period, became a fresh snare to them; they again transgressed the laws of God, and were again consigned to the oppression of their enemies, in a more severe degree than they had before experienced.
.

plicating for help, a

years, their whole territory was the scene of rapine and desolation, by the Midianites, who, in company with the Amalekites and other tribes, made frequent incursions upon them, especially at the time

For seven

made

Whilst they were supprophet appeared among them, by whose expostulations they were brought to a due sense of their folly, and to a proper state of repentance.(y) The people being thus prepared, God provided an instrument for their deliverance, in
to befall them.

PART

III.

Deborah.
will
*

'

prize

of divers

colours,

of era-

" 24. Deborah. Praised among women

The Among women

" 25. Barak.

be Jael, wife of Heber, the Kenite ;

in

the

tent

will

she

be

broidery ; coloured piece of double embroidery, for my neck a prize !

praised.*

asked water, she gave him milk In a princely bowl she brought it. " 26. Deborah. Her left hand she put forth to the nail, And her right hand to the workman's
;

He

"31. Chorus,
by both.

So

PERISH ALL THINE

O JEHOVAH!

ENEMIES,

" Grand chorus

by the whole procession.

AND LET THOSE WHO LOVE HlM,

BE AS THE SUN, GOING FORTH
IN HIS

hammer
Barak.
She struck

Sisera, she

smote his head

MIGHT!"
(u)
(v)

Then
" 27. Deborah. Barak.
Both.

At At

struck she through, and pierced his temples. her feet, he bowed, he fell ! her feet, he bowed, he fell !

WHERE HE BOWED, THERE HE

DEAD
called
!

FELL
and

" 28. Deborah. Through the window she looked

out,

Nicholas De Lyra, GeneUsher places the history of Ruth in brardus, and others. the time of Shamgar, about 120 years after Joshua's death : but Josephus puts it after the death of Samson, contrary to the Targums and most of the Jews, who think Boaz to have been the same with the judge Ibzan, on account of the
conformity of their names, and because they were both of Both Irlu'Mi. The city of Elimelech and his kinsman Boaz was, however, Beth-lehem of Judah, or Beth-lehem-Ephratah ;* but from the connection in which Ibzan is mentioned, t he seems to have been of Beth-lehem in Xfluilun.;
(w) Ruth,
iv.

Judges, iv. So Tostatus, Tremellius,

Even
Barak.
" 29. Deborah. " 30. Barak.
' ' '

the

mother of Sisera, through the

lattice

Why Why

chariot ashamed to return ? so slow are the steps of his chariot Y

is his

Her wise ladies answered her Nay, she returned answer to herself
Have they not found, divided
Embroidery,
'

1322.

Matt.

i.

u, et seq.
this

the spoil

6. (x) Judges, vi. 1 10. (y) Ibid. ver. 7

The message of
;

prophet

is

double embroidery, for the

!

very

trite,

and ends abruptly

captain's head!^ prize of divers colours for Sisera * Dr. Kennieott cannot admit of Jael being, in a sacred song, called blessed

Israelites, it

of the deliverances of the only notices that from Egypt, although they
recently

had been delivered more

an exquisite compliment Israel, aud which is here put mother; the true sense (which the hopes she had of to be
tains

from Chushan,

from

Above women, for an atrocious act of treachery; though she would doubtlessly be fntiimd among the women of Israel, whu by her means had been released

from the terrors occasioned by Jabin's tyranny. " There being no authority for rendering these words a damsel or two ; t and the words in Hebrew being very much like to two other words in this eame verse, which make excellent sense here it seems highly probable, that And at the end of this verie, which conthey were originally the tame.
;

of the daughters of paid to the needlework with great art into the mouth of Siscra's been expressed) seems has seldom, if evcT, a very rick prKc to adoiu her ou-n -neck."

Kennicott's Remarks, p. 96.

Ruth,

i.

1, 19,

2sf.

ii.

1, 4. iv. 11.

t Jurfgts, xii. 8, et seq. } Joshua, xix. 15.

5o2

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

the person of Gideon, the son of Joash, the Abi-ezrite, of Ophrah, in the tribe of MaThis celebrated character was na.sdi.(z)
privately thrashing

[CHAP. xvni.

saved from

corn, which he had the rapacity of his country's foes,

some

Angel of Jehovah appeared before him, and saluted him with the title of valiant saviour of His people. Gideon, though partially aware of the divine character of his visitant, was so depressed in spirit, on account of the miseries under which the Israelites were groaning, that he could not credit the assurance given him, that he should overcome the enemy, and deliver his brethren. At length, to confirm his faith, the heavenly messenger permitted him to fetch a sacrifice, consisting of a kid of the goats, and unleavened cakes, and to offer it at his feet which he had no
the
;

when

should give up his son, to be put to death* for his sacrilege against Baal; but the old man, who had been previously convinced of his own folly and sin in that respect, soon made them sensible of their absurd zeal for an impotent deity, that could defend neither his altar nor his honour against his son at the same time, he threatened with immediate death all who should persist in advocating the cause of the false deity. This conduct of Joash soon restored his fellow-citizens to their senses the tumult, subsided and in commemoration of the event, Joash gave his son the
;
:

surname of Jentb-baal,(a) that

is,

Let Baal

avenge himself. It was now about the time when the Midianwere accustomed to ites, with their allies,
their incursions and they soon appeared a vast body, and encamped in Jezreel upon this, Gideon, actuated by a divine impulse, sounded a trumpet, and collected the Abiezrites about him. He then sent messengers the tribes of Manasseh, Zebulun, through Ashur, and Naphtali, (b) who raised such numbers, that he presently found himself at the head of two-and-thirty thousand men. Whilst these were collecting, Gideon beheld with dismay the immense armies of the enemy assembled in his vicinity; and he besought God to give him some token of assurance. The sign he proposed was, that a fleece which he spread upon the thrashing-floor at night, should in the morning be wet with dew, while the surrounding floor should be dry. The
;

make

sooner done, than, upon the angel's touching it with the end of his staff, a miraculous tire arose out of the rock, on which it was laid, and consumed the whole the angel, at the
;

in

same instant, disappearing from his sight. Gideon was now filled with consternation, at the thoughts of the divine presence, which he had beheld but his fears were speedily allayed, by a voice from heaven and he built
;

on the spot, in memory of the interview, which he called Jehovah-shalom, or The

altar

an

Lord send peace. On the same night, Gideon

received a divine the work, to which he begin had been called, with the destruction of the altar and grove of Baal, belonging to his father, and to sacrifice a bullock of seven years old on an altar he should rear on the Gideon immediately called top of the rock. ten of his servants to assist him, and set to the work with such earnestness, that when the men of the city arose early in the morning, they found the altar of Baal overthrown, the grove that stood by it cut down, and a new altar erected, on which the second bullock of his father's stock had been sacrificed. Gideon was soon known to have been the author of this change; and the citizens came in a tumultuous manner to Joash, demanding that he

command

to

Almighty condescended to his weakness, and Gideon found the fleece upon the dry floor so
of moisture, that he wrung it out into a bowl. Still incredulous, he again petitioned, that the miracle might be reversed, and that the fleece might be dry and the floor wet ; in this he also was indulged but to shew him that he was neither to depend upon, nor to be afraid of numbers, when he had got his forces together, and marshalled them to the well of Harod, overagainst the Midianites, who were in the valley beneath the hill of Moreh, God told him, that the people whom
full
:

Eglon, and from Jabin : the same omission is observable in Gideon's speech (ver. 13) ; which seems to indicate that the history has been transposed from a much earlier period.
(z)
(a)

Judges,

-vi.

11, e< sey.

for

Hence Gideon has been taken

the Jerombal,

spoken of by Sanchoniatho, as priest of Jao.

(b) The absence of the southern tribes of Benjamin, Judah, and Simeon, throughout the history of Gideon, indicates that they were not concerned in this war, nor in the oppression that preceded it but whether they were then in servitude to the Philistines, or enjoying the rest procured them by Ehud, it is impossible to decide.
;

SECT. V.]

GIDEON DEFEATS THE MIDIANITES.

837

he had with him were too numerous, and that they must be diminished, lest they should he was attribute the victory to themselves therefore directed to proclaim throughout his camp, that all who were fearful of the event of the impending conflict, should return home;
:

into three companies, he marched to the Midianitish camp, soon after midnight, where ordering his men to sound an alarm with
their trumpets,

and by shouting, " The sword

upon which, to his utter astonishment, he was deserted by no fewer than two-and-twenty thousand of the thirty-two thousand who had Such a reduction of come to his standard.
a force before too small, in comparison of the hosts it had to encounter, would have disconcerted any commander; but before Gideon
could express the effect
it

of JEHOVAH and of Gideon," and at the same time breaking the earthen vessels, and exposing the lights suddenly to view, he excited such a terror among the Midianites and their
confederates, that, mistaking objects, they fell upon each other, and, after an immense slaughter, those who remained fled from the camp, leaving a rich booty behind them.(c) The news of this dispersion, which cost the enemy 120,000 men, rapidly spread through the neighbouring tribes; and those who had forsaken Gideon upon his proclamation before the

had upon
;

his mind,

he was again told, that those who remained must be still farther reduced and for that purpose he was desired to lead his men down to the water, and there dismiss all such as should stoop down to drink upon their knees, and to retain only those who lifted the water to their mouths with their hands. By this
ordeal,

the

number of

Gideon's

men was

brought down

the the victory, and ordered Almighty promised the rest to be sent away. The faith of Gideon was now confirmed ; for with means so inadequate, he was convinced that nothing short of divine power could destroy the enemy ; and seeing that God was determined to have the honour of the victory to Himself, he yielded
to three hundred, to

whom

now recovered their spirits, and went in of the flying enemy. To the Ephraimites, pursuit Gideon sent a message, to secure the fords of Jordan, that none might escape ; while he, with his 300 men, crossed that river, in pursuit of the two Midianitish kings, Zebah and Zalmunnah, who were in Karkor, in the tribe of Gad, with about 15,000 men.(d) By the time that
assault,

Gideon and his men reached Succoth, they were so faint and weary, that he sent to demand some refreshment out of that city ; but the magistrates of Succoth, who were unacquainted with what had passed on the
other side of the river, could not believe that such a host as the Midianites, had been so suddenly destroyed, and ridiculed his pretensions to the conquest of two such mighty princes as Zebah and Zalmunnah, with a handful of followers; telling him it would be time enough for him to exact such a supply of provisions, when he brought those two As time was too kings prisoners with him. precious to be lost in vain parleys, Gideon contented himself with threatening to punish their insolence on his return ; and, turning aside to Penuel, renewed his application to the elders of that place, but with no better success. He was therefore obliged to continue his journey, with such trifling refreshments as the country people could afford him, till he

implicit obedience to His directions.

The same night, Gideon visited the outskirts of the hostile camp, attended only by his servant, and, as he passed along, he overheard one of the soldiers telling his comrade, that he had dreamed of a barley cake falling into the host of Miclian, and laying a tent prostrate; to which the other replied, that it meant the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of
Israel,

into

whose

hand he

felt

persuaded

God had

delivered Midian, with all the host. From this, Gideon perceived that a panic had already filled the minds of his adversaries, He thereand that no time was to be lost. in haste to his little host; and fore returned having prepared them, each with a light concealed in an earthen vessel in one hand, and a trumpet in the other, and divided them

came
upon

to Karkor, where falling unexpectedly the Midianites, he quickly put them to

See before, p. 636. It is likely that Zebah and Zal(d) Judges, vii. viii. tnnnnali had taken up their quarters in Karkor, to make excursions in the country cast of Jordan ; while the main
(c)

body of the Midianites, &c. crossed the river to ravage the tribes on the west. They had, indeed, slain Gideon's brethren at Tabor ; but that might have been at some former period.

83R

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

and took Zebah and Zalmunnah
pri-

[CHAP, xriir.

flight,

soners.

had entertained towards the two kings, and put them to death on the spot.(f )
thus delivered from their laden with their spoils, thought oppressors, and they could no otherwise shew their gratitude to their brave deliverer, nor secure their freedom more effectually, than by vesting the
Israelites,

In the mean time, the Ephraimites had taken two other princes of the Midianites, Oreb

The

Zeeb, whose heads they brought to Gideon, as he was returning from Karkor with Their success had his two royal prisoners. and they accosted him made them arrogant, with an insolent demand, why he had not summoned their tribe to the war against Instead of resenting this affront, Midian?

and

supreme authority in him and his posterity ; and Gideon, who had seventy sons by several wives, might have been induced to accept their offer, had he not been decidedly convinced, from
recent experience, that their security depended
solely

Gideon

flattered

them, by his own, telling them that the gleanings of Ephraim's laurels vastly exceeded the vintage of his own tribe. Having thus soothed them, he directed his march towards Succoth and Penuel, to punish the inhospitality of the In his way, he met with a youth citizens. of the former place, from whom he obtained
the names and description of its princes and elders, seventy-seven in number ; on entering the city, he shewed them his captives, Zebah

their vanity, and appeased extolling their achievements above

upon
:

their obedience

to

their divine-

Protector he therefore advised them not to confide in their own strength, nor in the valour of their general, but in God ; and to ensure His protection by a stricter obedience to His the laws. Frail, however, is human nature of most men is little more than goodness
:

alloy ; and Gideon, disinterestedness and piety

brilliant

whose previous

we cannot but

and Zalmunnah, and after expostulating on the insolence and inhumanity of their conduct towards him and his fatigued followers, he caused them to be severely scourged with He then repaired to thorns and briers. Penuel, where, whether the people had carried
their insolence to a greater extent, or whether they resisted his entrance, on hearing of what had happened at Succoth, he beat down the tower, and slew all the men of the
city.(e)

glory by asking of his a free-will offering of the golden countrymen ear-rings they had taken from their enemies. The Israelites readily consented to this de-

admire,

sullied

his

mand, and brought in the ear-rings to the amount of 1700 shekels, or 774 ounces of gold,(g) besides collars, chains, and other ornaments, of the same precious metal,(h) with some purple and other costly garments, of which they had stripped the confederate Instead of laying up this spoil in princes.
the tabernacle, or giving it to the priests, (i) as an offering to the Lord, Gideon made an ephod of it, and set it up in his own city, Ophrah, where it became the occasion of a new species of idolatry to the Israelites, and a snare to himself and his household.(j) After this, Gideon seems to have retired from public affairs ; for it is not said of him, " he as of others, that judged Israel ;" but " he went and dwelt in his own that house," where " he died in a good old age, and was
hood, or of the tabernacle or ark, in the history of the several judges, from the death of Joshua till the days of Eli and Samuel. The ephod, in itself, was a (j) Judges, viii. 2227. Gideon set up, or priestly garment ;J but what it was that how it should become a snare, is not obvious. Some have more supposed it to have been an idol others, with perhaps reason, a trophy, in commemoratioH of the deliverance of
;

the devastations that had taken place during the incursions of the Midianites, Zebah and Zalmunnah had put to death some men at Tabor, and after the punishment of the men of Succoth and Penuel, Gideon questioned those princes concerning them

Among

finding, from their description, that they were his own brethren who had been slain, he laid aside the thoughts of mercy he

when

(e)

Judges,

viii.

117.

(f) Ibid. rer.

1821.

According to Dr. Arbuthnot. Some writers estimate them at 850 ounces, Troy weight. not only wore such ornaments them(li) The Midianites selves, but they also decked the necks of their camels with them, of which they had brought vast droves into the field.* They were of a lunar shape, t and probably worn as
(g)

amulets.
(i)

It is

remarkable that no mention

vi. 5.
vii.

is

made of
Ibid. via. 21,

the priestmargin.

Israel.
}

Judgu,

It.

viii.

21.

See befoie, p. 737.

&

SECT, v.]

THE FRATRICIDE AND USURPATION OF ABIMELECH.

sepulchre and that " the land was
the

buried

in
;"

of his

Ophrah

father, in in quietthis

this

While the Shechemites were employed in ceremony, Jotham, the only surviving

ness forty years in his days."

However

son of Gideon, seized the opportunity to get

towards the close had greatly corrupted themselves, and, forgetting both God and the services of Gideon, they gave themselves up to the worship of Baal-berith,(k) and treated his family with black ingratitude. (1) Gideon, at his death, left seventy sons by his wives, besides a son by a concubine, a woman of Shechem. This son, whose name was Abimelech, was of a base and intriguing genius, full of ambition and cruelty; and immediately on his father's death, he repaired to Shechem, where he filled the minds of the people with strange jealousies against his

may be, it is certain, that of his life, the Israelites

upon mount Gerizim, which was near the place of their assembly, and after calling their
attention to a simple, but beautiful apologue, intended to dissuade them from their iniqui-

tous enterprise, he entered upon a bold expostulation on their ingratitude, and the injury done to his family ; at the conclusion of which

he fled to the city of Beer, and continued there till after Abimelech's death. (o) The government of this usurper proved both
thorny and short-lived for, besides his mortification in not being acknowledged by the tribes at large, a spirit of jealousy arose between him and the Shechemites, which ended in a full determination on the part of the latter
:

brethren, by representing that they would divide Israel ; but if they would give him the

government, he would keep

their city, which stant residence.

was

entire, his birth-place, his con-

it

and make

By insinuations and promises of this kind, seconded by the exertions of his mother's relations, he obtained from the Shechemites the sum of seventy pieces of silver, out of the treasury of their idol Baal-berith, with which he immediately hired a number of dissolute fellows, and led them to Ophrah, where falling upon the seventy sons of Gideon by surprise, he murdered them all, except Jotham, the youngest, who contrived to hide himself. This unnatural fratricide, which to have made him abhorred by all, ought who had the least grateful remembrance of Gideon, brought the Shechemites, with the family of Millo,(m) completely into his interests; and, without consulting the rest of Israel, they proclaimed him king, in the plain of Shechem, expecting the nation at large to follow
their example.(n)
(k) This, according to Mr. Bryant,* was the arkite deity, with whose idolatry the Israelites in general were infected, soon after they were settled in Canaan. It was more pecuwho had a city called after liarly a god of the Pho?nicians, rVG (BCRITH) from which have been formed it, IVrytus.

put him to death. For the moment, how ever, he escaped the snare they had contrived, in hiring assassins to way-lay him in the mountains but they soon afterwards joined themselves to one Gaal, the son of Ebed, who, informed of the hatred that subsisted between them and their king, had gone over to them with his brethren, in order to increase it to an open rupture, that he might set himself up for
to
;

Abimelech, who had now years, had a trusty servant, reigned named Zebul, whom he had made governor of the city, and who failed not to acquaint him privately Avith all that passed, while he
their governor.

three

externally appeared to side with the insurgents ; at the same time he advised him to repair to Shechem in force, and recover the city before the insurrection should spread. Abimelech followed his counsel, and coming by night with his troops, appeared in the mornGaash, ing unexpectedly before the gates. after mustering his household and such of the
the witness, juries and broken agreements, similar to Jupiter or the faithful, of the Greeks and Romans.
(1)

Judges,

viii.

2835.

and BJI^UTO;, signifies a covenant, and relates to the great covenant (iod was pleased to make with Noah, of which the bow in the cloud was a memorial, on his egress from the ark. Hence it is sometimes taken for the ark itself, as well as the mountain of Ararat, on which that vi-sM-1 rested. By an easy, transition, Bual-lerith, of which little is in reality known, miht signify the god presiding over contracts, covenants, and oaths ; the avenger of perBijotj

house of Millo," which joined the Shechemites occasion, is supposed to be the kindred ot Abimeand Millo lech's mother, whom Josephusf calls Drunia The Septuagint and Vulgate himself is taken for her father. but no such city is mentioned render it the city of Millo
(in) on this
;

"The

in the

geography of the country.

6. (n) Judges, ix. 1 21. (o) Ibid. ver. 7

The

situation of the city of

it

Beer

is

quite uncertain

some placing
in
t

near Jerusalem

others, ia

Nauhtali

and others,

Reuben.
lib. 6.

Mytkol.

vol.

iii.

p.

209.

Antiy.

cap. 9.

840
citizens as

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

the
west,

[CHAP. xvni.

ing to the practice of those times. On Abimelech's entering the city, the garrison of the tower of Shechem, with many of the inhabitants, had fled for refuge into a hold of the temple of Berith ; a sanctuary in which the tyrant did not think fit to attack them; but that they might not escape, he ordered a party of his men to follow him into the next wood, where every one, after his example, cut down a bough from the trees, which they piled round the temple, and set fire to them; so that the wretched inmates, amounting to about a thousand men and women, were all suffocated .(p) Having thus wreaked his vengeance upon the Shechemites, Abimelech marched against the inhabitants of Thebez, in the valley of Jezreel, who had also taken up arms against him. The citizens, repulsed by his victorious troops, soon retired in a consternation to a tower, where he thought to have burnt them alive ; but on his approaching the gate, to set fire to it, a woman from the battlements threw a stone upon his head, and thereby delivered her people from the impending ruin. Abimelech, thus suddenly deprived of the victory, and ashamed of receiving his death from a woman, prevailed upon his armour-bearer to terminate his life by thrusting him through with his sword ; upon which his troops disbanded, and returned to their respective

were devoted to him, sallied forth ; but finding himself too weak to contend with the royal army, he turned about, and being prevented by Zebul from re-entering the town, betook himself to flight, pursued by Abimelech's soldiers, who slew many of his men. The next day, the city being stormed by the royal party, the walls were beaten down, and the inhabitants put to death the city itself was also destroyed, and sown with salt, accord:

the

man, named

Gileadites set up a wealthy Jair, of the half-tribe of Manas-

seh east of Jordan, to be their ruler: but what he did in that capacity is not recorded, though he enjoyed the dignity for 22 years. He possessed an extensive territory in Gilead,
cities, which he distributed to 30 sons, whence they obtained the name of Havoth-jair, or Villages of Jair ; and in one of them, called Camon, he was buried. As a

containing 30
his

mark

of the great dignity of his family,

;

it is

observed that his 30 sons rode upon as many asses' colts a high honour in those days.(s) From the time of Gideon, the Israelites had been gradually relapsing into their favourite sin of idolatry, and on the death of Tola and Jair, as is supposed, their enemies, the Ammonites and Philistines, were suffered to chastise them. The pretext for this warfare, on the part of the Ammonites, who took the
this two-fold oppression, was the of those lands, of which, some ages recovery before, they had been dispossessed by the Arnorites, and which, on the overthrow of Sihon and Og, had fallen into the hands of the Israelites.(t) In support of this claim, the tribes on the east of Jordan were quickly overrun and having secured their submission, the invaders crossed the river, and spread desolation and terror through Judah, Benjamin,

lead

in

homes.(q)

On the death of Abimelech, the government of the western tribes passed into the hands of Tola, the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, of the tribe of Issachar ; of whom nothing more is recorded, than that he dwelt at Shamir, upon mount Ephraim, where he died and was buried, after he had been judge 23 years. (r) After Tola had obtained the government in
(p) Judges, ix. (r) Ibid. x. 1, 2.

and Ephraim, which was increased, the following year, by the inroads of the Philistines In this distress, upon the southern territory. the Israelites had recourse to prayer; but neglecting to put away their idols, they were rebuked, and told to apply for deliverance to those gods whom they had preferred to Jehovah, the only true God, who hud so repeatedly delivered them on former occasions. As no prophet is spoken of on this occasion, the communication was probably made through the high-priest, by means of the urim and thummim it brought the Israelites to see their
:

images, applied themselves again, in deep humiliation, to seek

folly,

so

renounced
for

that they destroyed their their impure rites, and

;

pardon and relief from God and their cries were heard. In the mean time, an assembly had been held at Mizpeh, to consult as to the appointment of a captain and judge, when
(s) (t)

2249.

(q) Ibid. ix.

5055.

Judges, x. 3 5. See before, p. 628, 620.

SECT. V.J

JEPHTHAH'S VICTORY, AND RASH VOW.

he would, on his return, dedicate to
living house, or offer
first

341

the choice fell upon Jephthah, then residing in the land of Tob and an invitation was sent to him by the Gileadites, in whose vicinity the Ammonites were in great strength .(u) Jephthah, a descendant of Gileacl, the grandson of Manasseh, was the illegitimate son of his father, and having been shut out of the inheritance by his brethren, he had retired into the land of Tob, where, becoming a chief of banditti, he had frequently signalized himself by his valour.(v) In all Israel, therefore, there was no man so proper for the enterprise It was against the Ammonites as himself. not, however, till the elders of Gilead had confirmed their promise of making him their judge, by a solemn oath, that he would consent to
;

God

the

creature
it

Jephthah

found

his for a burnt-oflfering.(w) up the Ammonites at Aroer,

that

came out of

with their line extending to Minnith and Abel; and he gave them so signal an overthrow, that for many years they were not in a condition to renew the warfare.(x) Returning laden with spoil, and cheered with shouts of victory, Jephthah bent his course towards
his

house at Mizpeh

report anticipated

his

arrival, and his only child, a virgin, exulting in her father's glory, went out, at the head

of the maidens of the

dances,
to

city,

with timbrels and

return.

welcome

his

At

that

go with them.
in
this

they had satisfied him he accompanied them to respect, Mizpeh, where the ark then was, and took upon He then sent an him the magisterial office. to the king of the expostulatory message Ammonites, upon the unreasonableness of his claim ; but finding him more intent upon conquest than negociation, he went through Gilead and Manasseh, raising such forces as he could, till he came to Mizpeh of Gilead, where he fixed his residence, making frequent attacks upon the enemy, though with little success indeed his popularity was at so low an ebb, that few of the Israelites chose to resort to him and when he invited the Ephraimites, the most warlike of the tribes,
; ;

When

moment, Jephthah stopped before his own house, and the first object on which he cast his eyes, was his beloved daughter, coming out to meet him. Pierced with jitiutterable
appalled chief rent his clothes, his face ; at length, recovering from the stupor of surprise, he disclosed the nature of his vow to her, with the most She pathetic expressions of a tortured heart. listened with surprising constancy; and only requested a respite of two months, during which she would retire with some of her companions to the mountains, there to bewail her unhappy fate. Her request was granted, and at the expiration of the stipulated time, she returned, and submitted to the conditions of her father's vow :(y) that is, she became a Nazarite, consecrated to the service of God, and doomed to a life of celibacy. In consequence of which, a custom obtained among the virgins of Israel, of going yearly upon a visit of four days, to condole with her, upon her exclusion from being a mother in Israel, and to extol her fortitude in bearing her misfortune.(z) The victory over the Ammonites was succeeded by a civil war between the Ephraimanguish, the

and covered

to

assist him in expelling the enemy, they ridiculed his pretensions. At length, upon the thorough repentance of the Israelites, that is, of those on the east of Jordan, Jephthah was divinely instructed to attack the Ammon-

with his little band of brave Gileadites, and to depend for success upon the power of God. He readily obeyed but, on setting out, he rashly vowed, that if he should be victorious
ites
;

(u) Judges, \.

618. xi. 411.

33.
it

"OR

(w) Ibid.
I will
it

xi.

11

The
is

offer

up,"

" preferable to the text,

1

(v) Ibid. xi. marginal reading, here adopted,

13.

their idea has

AND

been adopted in the text above. His grief was only natural, on seeing himself cut off from all hopes

will offer

up

;" the particle

van admitting of a disjunctive

of transmitting his name or estates to posterity; a privation in those days ranked among the worst of misfortunes.

as well as a conjunctive sense. (x) See before, p. 030. (y) Judyei, xi. (z) The excessive grief of Jephthab, and the miscohception of the particle alluded to in the foregoing note, led the

The

3440.

controversy on this subject is of very long standing ; but the main stress of the arguments on either side lies on
the ('(instruction give to the Hebrew particle 1, and on the question whether the paternal anguish of Jephthah could have been excited by any thing short of the death of his daughter? These are points beyond the province of the
historian,

generality of ancient critics, as well Jews as Christians, to suppose that he actually slew his daughter, and burnt her body upon the altar of the Lord but more recent writers
:

have proved, that the original may be better rendered without the admission of so barbarous and impious a sacrifice ; and

have

written

and therefore the reader expressly on them.

is

is

referred to those

who

This catastrophe of

Jephthah's daughter

supposed by those who would make

VOL.

I.

5 P

842
ites

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

nions

[CHAP. xvin.

and the Gileadites, which apparently ended the extension of Jephthah's power over the western tribes north of mount Ephraim. The Ephraimites were an ambitious and turbulent people, impatient of restraint, and arrogating to themselves a superiority over In Ehud's and Deborah's wars their brethren. had acted a conspicuous part ;(a) and in they that of Gideon they had the honour of taking two princes of Midian prisoners, as well as of finishing the war on the west of Jordan ;(b) but they then felt themselves aggrieved that they had not been at first invited to the field, in preference to the Abi-ezrites, and the tribes of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali;(c) and had it not been for the prudent answer of
in

had pursued previous to his call to the So gross an affront was not to government.
be borne by men who had just delivered their country from a cruel enemy, and they immediately fell upon the insolent Ephraimites, and, after a short but sharp conflict, put them to flight. To secure their victory, the Gileadites seized the passes of the Jordan, and put to death every Ephraimite that attempted to cross over so that no less than 42,000 of them perished by the sword. In order, on this occasion, to distinguish their enemies from their friends, the Gileadites made every man who presented himself at the passage, pronounce the word nbau? (stUB#0LrrH) an ear of corn, which the Ephraimites, in their local dialect, called rhzo sibboleth ; (the samech o being used for the shin \y) and thus discovering themselves, they were slain without mercy.(f) After this affair, we read no more of Jephthah than that he judged Israel altogether six years, and on his death was buried in [one of] the cities of Gilead.(g) But, although these are the only particulars recorded by the writer of the book of Judges, there are others, respecting the commencement and extent of his government, to be obtained by inference, worthy of observation. It has been already hinted, that the language of Jephthah to the Ephraimites,
;

Gideon, their resentment would have precipitated them into open hostilities.(d) The same of Jephthah spirit pervaded them in the days and that general had scarcely returned to his habitation, when they assembled in a riotous manner, threatening to destroy both him and his possessions, because he had gone out against the Ammonites without them. Jephthah, who was of too rough a disposition to soothe
;

their pride with a flattering speech, retorted the

blame upon themselves, accusing them of baseness and cowardice, in not answering his sum-

mons when he originally sent for thein.(e) This reproach was too just for its force to be evaded,
so stung them, that, in the height of their irritation, they stigmatized the Gileadites as a spurious breed of fugitives and mongrels
it

" a

and

and

man newly
;

my

people," was much too strong for raised to the command of a

between Ephraim and Manasseh,

to

in allusion

the illegitimacy of Jephthah's birth, and the mode of life which he and his compa-

whose fidelity he could have little and the same remark will apply to his message to the king 'of Ammon. But if we suppose him to have been raised to the government some time before the thorough
people, in

confidence

the Jewish history the foundation of all others, to have given the hint lor the fahle of Iphigenia's sacrifice, in which

heroine became also a priestess, and was perpetual virginity. (a) Judges, iii. 27. v. 14.
the
(b) Ibid.
(c)
vii.

doomed

to

24, 2o.
to the

(d)

Comp. Judges, vi. 34, 35. viii. 1, 2. From this conduct of the Ephraimites, added

circumstances of Ehud's resorting to them for assistance, after lie had slain Eglon, and Deborah's residing among them in the public capacity of judge, during the oppression of Jabin ; it may be concluded, that amid all the oppressions to which Israel had been subject, they had been able to
preserve their liberties. (e) The language of Jephthah on this occasion, indicates something of continued warfare between him and the Ammonites, prior to that victory which ended in their

with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their hands."* This would not be the language of a man just raised to the government, Part of but of one who had held it for some time. Jephthah's six years' dominion, should therefore be includedin the 18 years' servitude to the Ammonites. 6. (f) Judges, xii. 1 The words one of, are supplied in our (g) Ibid., ver. 7. translation their omission in the original has given rise to
strife
:

two singular and opposite traditions among IheJews: the first is, that as a punishment for his rash vow, he \v.ts smitten with a sore disease, and became so rotten, that there was scarcely a city in all Gileiul in which he did not drop one

The other pretends that the Gileadites, in the great deliverance they had obtained by him, dissected his body, that every city might have some part
of
his limbs.

memory of

to preserve as a relique.t
*

overthrow: "I and

my

people," says he, "were at great

Judges,

xii

>.

Munsttr

in Ice.

SECT. V.]

JEPHTHAH'S GOVERNMENT. IBZAN.

843

Tepentance(h) of Israel, and before the Spirit of the Lord, under which he went to the war,

came upon him

in

answer

to

their prayers,

those expressions of authority will be natural In all historical descriptions, it is enough. to make occasional digressions, to necessary introduce persons, or events, by a retrospective view of circumstances, connecting them with the main design of the writer, but which could not be conveniently narrated in due order of time. Of this nature appears to be all that intervenes between the repentance of the Israelites and the inspiration of Jephthah ;(i) and therefore we have considered him as carrying on the warfare against the Ammonites for a time without success, calling upon the Ephraimites for their assistance, and being treated by them with disdain ;(j) till the
interfered, and instructed him, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong ;" but that he should conquer by the Spirit of the Lord. During all this time

monitish servitude, that the Philistines also oppressed Israel ;(1) but no farther notice is taken of them till after the death of Jephthah and his three successors, when they are again introduced as keeping the Israelites in subjection for 40 years,(m) during which time tinhistory is confined to the tribes of Judah,

Simeon, Dan, and Benjamin, respecting whom is observed in the narrative of Jephthah's conquest. It has already been hinted that the Ephraimites had maintained their independence during the Midianitish oppression, and that they held a kind of sovereignty over the tribes in the north, as appears from
a total silence

"

Almighty

he may be supposed

to

have taken up
;

his

residence at Mizpeh of Gilead for we read of his having a house in Mizpeh, (k) which
scarcely be accounted for, if, on his being fetched from the land of Tob, and proclaimed judge, he had immediately put himself at the head of an Under all the army. circumstances of the case, therefore, the first years of Jephthah's government may safely

can

way to the attack of Jcpliservitude to the Ammonites thah.(n) was evidently confined to the eastern tribes, except that occasional depredations were committed in the west; and the appointment of Jephthah was exclusively the act of the Gileadites, as was also the overthrow of the enemy.(o) From all this, there can be little doubt left, but that Israel, in the days of Jephthah, was divided into three parts: Ephraim and the north-western tribes, in a free state; Judah and the south-west, subject to, or oppressed and Gilead, or the eastern by, the Philistines In the tribes, overrun by the Ammonites. last of these divisions, we consider Jephthah as beginning his reign, and afterwards extend-

their passing that

The

ing his dominion over

federates, in

Ephraim and

its

con-

be made to synchronise with the latter years of the Ammonites' oppression the only diffi;

consequence of

his severe chastise-

culty
text

but

number, for which the leaves no ground even for conjecture as the whole of his time, as judge,
is

to fix

their

amounted to only six years, it may not be too great a liberty, to take half of them into the servitude, and leave the other three for the warfare with Ephraim, the extension of his dominion over the north-western tribes, and the re-establishment of peace and order. It is stated in the introduction to the Am(hl That is, after they had been rebuked for their idolatry, their first application,* and while they were engaged in

their insolence. Following this of reasoning, we take Ibzan of Bethlehem, tlie successor of Jephthah, to have been a native of Beth-Iehem, in Zebulun,(p) and not of Beth-lehem-judah.

ment upon

mode

Of Ibzan, it is only recorded, that he had 30 sons and as many daughters, whom he lived to see all married, and that he was judge seven years ;(q) that is, according to the foregoing supposition, he reigned over Ephraim and the north-west, and over Gilead.
(

j)

Judges, Judges,

xii.

2.
xi. ">9

on

(k)
(1)

Comp. Judges,
x. 7.

32, 34.

xii.

1.
xiii.

destroying their idols, and restoring the pure worship of the

living
x. 17, to xi. 20 all which (i) may be considered as episodical and, when removed, unites the compassion of the Almighty for the misery of His people, xvith the pouring out of His Spirit upon Jephthah, to be their deliverer, as in the cases of Othniel, Ehud, <Vc.
; ;

(m) Ibid.

1.

God. That is, from chap.

(n) Ibid. xii. 1. (o) Ibid. x. 8, 9, 17, 18. xi. (p) The Rabbins will have

511.

xii.

47.

Boaz,

who

Ibzan to be the same with married Ruth, the Moabiiess;; but without any

foundation.
(q) Judges, xii.

10.
Munster
in Jud.
xii. 8,

Judges, \. 10

14.

Ibid. ver.

15, 16.

5P3

844

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

the child's
to

[CHAP. xvni.

Elon, his successor, was a Zebulonite: he ruled ten years ; but of his actions no memento On his death, he was has been preserved. in Aijalon,(r) which was probably also buried
his native city.

his life, because he was from his birth. All these be a Nazarite injunctions were punctually observed and as he grew up, he gave early marks of extraordi-

head

all

the death of Elon, the Ephraimites again the superiority, and Abdon, the son of of the city of Pirathon, on mount Sit illel, Ainalek, was raised to the government. The annals of his reign, which was only of eight but years' continuance, are no longer extant the short notice left of it is insinuated, in him, that he was more magnificent than his
;

On

predecessors ; for his 40 sons, and 30 grandsons, rode upon as many asses' colts, after the manner of the great men of Israel in those After his death, which, upon our supdays. position, took place in the days of Samuel, he was buried in his native city.(s) While Gilead and the north-west tribes enjoyed tranquillity under the successors of Jephthah, the southern tribes experienced a

nary courage and strength, exerted against the enemies of his country, as related in a former chapter,(w) till his incontinency led to his ruin and premature death. The great actions of this extraordinary character would, doubtlessly, have emancipated Israel, had they been accompanied, on the part of the people, with repentance and reform: but corruption in religion, and laxity in morals, h;)d pervaded all ranks. Even Eli the priest, a pious man, was condemned for though suffering his two sons to run into excesses of intemperance that scandalized the whole nation. He reproved them, it is true but
:

they deserved punishment

his negligence ; to inflict it was so displeasing to God, that a prophet was commissioned to upbraid him,

and

and
the

to

most oppressive servitude to the Philistines, which had begun in the third year of the Ammonites' invasion of eastern Israel, and about the seventh month of Jul. Per. 3558 A. M. 2818. Eli's(t) priesthood and governPost nil. 1191. ment as judge. (u) No particulars are
B. C.
1156..

denounce against him and his posterity which terrific most awful retribution
;

years afterwards repeated to Samuel in a vision, and by him related young

to Eli.(x)

doom was some

Samuel was another child of

Jul. Per.

*3558.

recorded of
lasted

this servi-

40 years, the strife maintained against them by except Samson, and the two concluding battles.

tude, which

Samson, who first signalized himself in Dan, about the middle of the servitude, was the miraculous son of old age and barrenness. His birth and prowess had been foretold by an angel, first to his mother, then to Manoah his father, a native of Zorah, with a strict charge to the mother that she should abstain from wine and from strong drink, as well as from all unclean meats,(v) during the time, of gestation, and that no razor should pass upon
(r)

*2848. A. M. extraordinary birth, obtained PostDil. *1191. the prayers of his mother by Ann. Exod/336. Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, B. C. *1156. a descendant of Levi, in the line of Koran ; and being dedicated to God by a solemn vow, he entered into the service of the sanctuary at the early age of three

As he grew up, he was appointed years.(y) to minister to Eli in the holy functions, girded with a linen ephod, and to open and shut the "When arrived at doors of the tabernacle.(z)
twelve years of age,(a) he was disturbed one morning, before break of day, as he lay in his bed near Eli's chamber, by hearing himself distinctly called by name ; on which he ran to
Boccejas, and Ozies, who are followed by Zerahiah and Mcraioth but it is quite uncertain how long any of them lived, or from which of them the pontifical dignity was trans;

Judges,

xii.

11, 12.

(s) Ibid. xii.

(t) Eli

IS

15.

was of the family of Ithamar, the younger branch of Aaron's house; and the high-priesthood had been translated into it from the elder branch of Eleazar, on what account does not appear. In the book of Judges, no mention is made of any high-priest, except Phinelias;* and the first book of Samuel, which is a continuation of the history, opens witli EH as high-prifst. this hiatus, of upwards of two centuries, is supplied in the book of Chronicles^ by the introduction of Abishua, Bukki, and Uzzi, called by Josephus,} Abiezer,
:

ferred to Eli.

Ann. sub A. M. 2848. This charge of abstinence from unclean meats, proves the law of Moses to have been but little regarded at the
(u) Usher.
(v)

time.

(w) Sec before, p. 612. (y) 1 Sam. i.

(a)

(x)

1 Sam.
ii.

ii.

(z) Ibid.

12, et seq. 11, 18. iii. 1.

Judget, xx. 28.

.1

Chron.

vi.

4,

et seq.

Antiq.

lib.

v.cap.

nit.

Josephus (Antiq. lib. v. cap. 10) says, Samuel was 12 years complete, at the time of his call.

SECT. V.]

THE PROPHET SAMUEL, AND SAMSON.

;

845

Eli, supposing that the old priest wanted him but on being assured that he had not been called, he returned to his bed, where he had not long lain before the voice again called him, and he again went to Eli, and was again The call being told that he was mistaken. repeated a third time, Eli perceived that

inspiration, in the

dan,(c)

neighbourhood of Mahanehon the borders of Judah and Dan.(d)

something extraordinary was meant by

therefore directed
to

it, and young Samuel what answer

make, should he hear the voice again. Samuel obeyed his orders, and the Lord was pleased to reveal to him the heavy judgments he had denounced against Eli's house. This was the beginning of Samuel's JuLPer. '3570.-1 for although he would A. M. "2860. / fame
;

his enemies.(e) When he had destroyed their corn and their vineyards, by setting them on , fire,(f) and had otherwise chas- , Ju] Per 357 g tised them, they began to make I A. M. *2868. reprisals, by overrunning and < Post Dil. '1211. J Ann. desolating the territories of Exod.^'356.

afterwards, that celebrated controversy broke out between Samson and the Philistines, on occasion of his wedding and riddle, which only ended with his life, and was productive of many severe losses to

About seven years

Israel nearest their

own

bor-

^ B- C

'

Post Oil. *1203. >

An.

Exod.^*348. 44 '-'

willingly have concealed the dreadful purport of the vision, he was so strictly charged and
;

and would probably have extended their ravages, had not the men of Judah undertaken
ders,

to deliver

adjured to disclose it, by Eli himself, that he could not withstand his importunity and Eli, comparing it with the message formerly delivered by the prophet, could not but know that Samuel was intended to succeed him as judge in Israel he therefore presented him in that quality to the people and Samuel, favoured with farther divine communications, was soon acknowledged as a prophet of the Lord, from one end of the commonwealth to the
:

The attempt, him up to them. was productive of a fresh disaster to however, the Philistines, who were put to flight by Samson, after he had slain a thousand of them, with no better weapon than the jaw-bone of an ass and from this period he may be con;

sidered in the quality of a judge, acting in that part of Israel, which bordered on the
Philistine satrapies. This partial jurisdiction of Samson continued 20 years ;(g) that is, till his death, an

other.(b)

was about this time, according to our comto the governputation, that Jephthah was raised ment in Gilead, which led to the expulsion of the Ammonites, and, by the chastisement of the
It

haughty Ephraimites, to the extension of his dominion over the northern tribes, west of Jordan. Samson, also, about the same time, or shortly after, began to evidence his divine
Sam. iii. Mahaneh-dan, or The camp of Dan, was so called from its being the place where the Danites assembled, when near Kirjathgoing on their expedition against Laish. It was
(b) 1
(c)

event that was accompanied with a most terrible destruction to his enemies, of all their chief men, besides an immense fj u p er *3o97 multitude of the commonalty, V A. M. "2887. male and female, upon whose < Postl Dil. *1230. An Exod heads, as well as his own, he \ ;JJJ* threw down the temple of their idol Dagon, as related in a former chapter.
i.
.

The

Israelites, presuming that this disaster, which had weakened their enemies, and thrown

jearim, in the tribe of Judah.' (e) See before, p. 012. (d) Judijes, xiii. 25. of the Philistines, t this transaction is (f) In the history narrated as it stands in our version: but the following remark from Dr. KennicottJ is worth transcribing, as it puts the matter in a more point of view, and does no violence

remarked, that the word D'ViU? (SHUALIM) here (Judges, xv. 4,) .signifies also handful*, (Ezek. xiii. 19, handfuls of has been inbarley,) if we leave out that one letter 1, which No less serted or omitted elsewhere, almost at pleasure. than seven Hebrew manuscripts want that letter here, and
read
that

D'bjW (SHAaLiM).
Samson took

Admitting

this

version,

we

M-P,

probable " Besides the to the original. improbability arising from number of the foxes, the use made of them is also very the If these animals were tied tail to tail, they would strange. probably pull contrary wa\s, and consequently stand still: whereas, a firebrand tied to the tail of each fox singly, would have been far more likely to answer the purpose litre To obviate these difficulties, it has been well intended.
Jtulges, xviii. 12.
t

put midst; and then, setting the brands on fire, sent the The same the Philistines. Jire into the standing corn of word is now used twice in one chapter (Ezek. xiii. 4, 1!),) in the former verse signifying foxes, in the latter, handfuls: and in 1 Kimjs, \\. HI, where we render it handfult, it is See Memoirs of Literature, aXajwi|i in the Greek version.
in
t/ii'

three hundred handfuls (or sheaves) of corn, and one hundred and fifty Jirebratids; that he turned the a firebrand between the two ends, sheaves end to end, and

fol.

1712. p. 15." (g) Judges, xv. 20.

t

See before, p. 613.

Remarks on

Select Passages of the

Old Testament,

p. 100.

846

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

into
to the
it

[CHAP.

xvm.

them

confusion, presented a favourable opportunity for the recovery of their liberties, collected their forces on the borders of Benjamin and Judah, near the place afterwards called Eben-ezer; whence they marched against the
Philistines, who were encamped about Aphek. battle ensued, and the Israelites were driven back, with the loss of about 4000 men, slain upon the field. They then resolved to

counsel of their soothsayers, and sent back, with appropriate trespass-offerings. lls wonderful and unexpected return to Bethshemesh, occasioned universal joy to the Israelites, and a burnt-sacrifice was immediately offered
in the field where it stopped ; but the solemn festival was soon changed into a general mourning, by the irreverent curiosity of the Beth-shemites, which, prompting them to look into the interior of that sacred symbol, a great number(j) were instantly struck dead, and the survivors were impressed Avith such terror, that they dispatched messengers to the inhabitants of the neighbouring town of Kirjath-jearim, requesting they would fetch the ark away. It was accordingly removed, with due veneration, and placed in the house of Abinadab, in the most elevated part of the eity, whose son Eleazar was consecrated to

fetch the ark

carry expecting thereby to strike a terror into the hostile army, and to inspire their own warThe consequence, riors with unusual courage. however, of this imprudent project was, that they lost both the ark and the victory ; and among the 30,000 who were slain, were Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, according The old to the threatening of the Almighty. who waited impatiently for the event judge, of this battle, no sooner heard the distressing news, than he fell backward from his seat, and broke his neck and the wife of Phiuehas,
:

and

to

it

of the covenant from Shiloh, with them into their camp,

become

its keeper; and there it remained till David's time.(k) In memory of the mourning occasioned by the death of these people, the stone, or rock, on which the ark had rested,

being thrown into labour, on hearing these

dreadful tidings, called her infant son Ichabod, to signify that ike glory of Israel was departed,

and expired immediately .(h)

called ben-<tbel, or the stone of mourning, Besides the posthumous Ichabod, Phinehas had left another son, named Ahitub, who is supposed to have succeeded his grandfather,
Eli, in

was

The captive ark was carried in triumph to Ashdod, and placed in the temple of Dngon;
but
it proved such a scourge both to the Philistines and their idol,(i) that, after a detention of seven months, they unwillingly yielded

time,

the office of high-priest, because, in Saul's his son, Ahiah, enjoyed that dignity,(l) from whom it passed to his brother Ahimelech, who was killed by that jealous prince ;(m)
it

and from him

went

to his son, Abiathar,(n)

Sam. iv. For particulars, see before, p. 614. Most of the versions, our own in(j) 1 Sam. vi. 19. but there are cluded, make this number amount to 50,070 three Hebrew manuscripts, confirmed by the authority of Cornelius a Lapide was Josephus,* which read only 70. also at first of the same opinion, though he afterwards retracted in favour of the Septuagint and the Chaldee paraphrase, where they are stated at 50,070, as in our translation. Bochartf is at a loss to conceive how such a multitude could inhabit a mere village, or how it could be consonant with the goodness of God, to make such a slaughter of those men, who came with joy to receive the ark, supposing such
(h) 1
(i)
;

Another sense given by expositors to this enumeration, is, that there were slain seventy C3JQ (BaAAM) of the common
people; and D'N ff?N CDTtf'.on (CHMISHIM ELCPH ISH) the heads, or captains of the people, the word cf?N JiJ'ty of t,ELePH) signifying both a thousand, and a leader, or captain ; Junius seems to so that the whole number would be 120. have been of this opinion, though either himself, or Tremellius for him, afterwards exchanged it for the more current Dr. Kennicott|| urges several argunumber of 50,070. ments to prove that the number 50,000 is a corrupt addition,
original was only 70. the expression, 1 Sam. vii. 2, it has been thought lint that the ark remained only 20 years at Kiijath-joarim from 2 Sam. vi. and 1 Chron. xiii. it was evidently not removed till David, about the tenth year of his reign, fetched

and that the

(k)

From

a number could actually have looked into it : he therefore endeavours to prove, that the original should have been rendered fifty men of a thousand, instead ofjifty thousand, that is, in all seventy. In this, he follows the opinion <> Jerom.t who, in speaking of Daniel's seventy weeks, says, it is not usual, in the Hebrew, to place the thousands before
the inferior numbers, when they make up a total sum, bin to begin with the lesser number, and end with the greater
*
Anliq.
t
ii.

it

away
(1)

so that

it

must have been there about 70 11

18.

years.

Sam.

xiv. 3.
xxi. 1, 2. xxii.

(m) Ibid.

Some suppose Ahia and

xxx. 7.

Ahimelech to be the same. (n) 1 Sam. xxii. 2023.

1 Kings,
ii.

xxiii. C, 9.

U Sam.

xx.

'-''

22, 27.
In tlehdom. Dan. Vide Tremel. in lo. R&uarla an A'eto Passages,

lib. vi.

cap. 2.
S>i<-'

Pliuleg.

sub Beth-shemesh.

al-.o

Lc

Scene'* Essay

m a new

Version
|

part.

tliHi,.

O,M..

4.

<J-c.

p.

10*.

SECT. V.]

THE PHILISTINES OVERTHROWN AT EBEN-EZER.

their enemies, the Philisjealous of so unusual a congre-scmbled their forces to dissolve it. The Israelites beheld their approach with horror, and begged of Samuel to intercede with the Lord for them whereupon that prophet took a sucking lamb, and offered it whole, for a burnt-offering, at the same time adding his The sacrificial prayers for their deliverance. ceremonies were uot concluded, when the Philistine host drew about the Israelites, and surrounded them ; but at that moment they

the last of Eli's race that had it. But the civil government, on the death of Eli, devolu-d upon Samuel, a man of uncommon zeal and

humbling themselves,

tines,

courage, who immediately applied himself to bringing the Israelites back from their defection and idolatry. In this laudable endeavour, he was greatly assisted by the impressions made upon their minds by the disasters they had just experienced from two defeats, attended as they were with the deaths of their priests and the capture of the ark. But though they lamented after that symbol of the divine presence, they could not resolve totally to lay aside the rites and observances which they had learned from their heathen neighbours,

were themselves assailed

thunder-storm(p) as

by

such a
fly

terrific

made them

in

total

and which appear

to

have prevailed among

them, in a greater or less degree, ever since the days of Gideon, a period of at least 70 But when the ark returned, and they years. presented themselves before it, lamenting that they had not recovered their liberty, Samuel embraced the opportunity(o) earnestly to exhort

them

to

destroy their idols,

and

to

abstain

confusion: and the Israelites, becoming in their turn the assailants, pursued them with considerable slaughter as far as Beth-car, in the tribe of Dan. In memory of this signal victory, Samuel erected a great stone between Mizpeh and Shen, which he called Eben-ezer, or the stone of help; and, during the remainder of his government, the Philistines were so weakened, or disheartened, that, instead of making
,

from the impure festivals of Ashtaroth, on account of which so much misery had befallen

them

reformation, the Lord would certainly deliver them. To these representations the people gave an attentive ear, and when they had complied with the injunction, they held a solemn assembly, by
Jul. Per *3598 A Samuel's appointment, at Miz\. M. '2888. / peh, where they fasted and Post Dil. *1231. > prayed, with the most lively Ann. Exod.*37. I tokens of penitence and conl(ilj Whilst they were thus trition.

adding a promise, thorough repentance arid

;

that,

upon

their

farther attempts against Israel, they suffered them to recover all the cities and fortresses which had been taken from them,

any

between Ekron and Gath, with the dependent

territories.

At

the

same

time, the Israelites

were at peace with the Amorites,(q) so that the whole commonwealth enjoyed a profound and Samuel, for the better distranquillity
;

patch of public business,

left

his

usual

resi-

dence

arid

year, to

make

Mizpeh, (r)

at Ramah, once a a circuit to Beth-el, Gilgal, and for the ministration of justice, re-

native place,

turning regularly to
vicinity

his

own

city,

where he

See before, p. 615, note (i). See before, p. 616, note ( j). For Amorites, we should here read (q) 1 Sam. vii. 14. Ammonites. Among the various oppressors of Israel, in the clays of the Judges, we do not once meet with the Amorites, whose dominion had been completely subverted in the overthrow of Sihon and Og, before the Israelites had crossed the Jordan. The Ammonites, on the contrary, were always upon ill terms with Israel, and were continually renewing their claim to the eastern territories of the commonwealth, and endeavouring to recover them by force, as will be seen in their history.* (r) These three places, taken as they are stated in the text.t were all in the neighbourhood of each other, in the tribe of Benjamin, and would not include a circuit, from Raman and back, of more than 60 miles, which could hardly have answered any purpose we are therefore to seek places of the same name, elsewhere. Beth-el, indeed, may be retained, as a convenient place for the affairs of the south (hough its
(o)

(p)

justice,
in

to Ramah, where Samuel usually administered seems to render such a station unnecessary while, the tribe of Simeon, on the borders of the Philistines'
;

country, there was a city, called Bethul, the journey to which would give the judge a mnch more extensive observation of the affairs of the south this would take him to one extreme of the commonwealth. By Gilgal, we would rather understand the royal city, mentioned in Joshua's conquests, than the place where the Israelites first encamped, on passing the Jordan, because it is supposed to have been the capital of Galilee.f or Galilee itself, and would afford similar facilities in the north, that Bethul would in the south. Mizpeh we take to be the place so called in Gilead, the former residence of Jephtbah, and where the judge's presence would be more advantageous for the affairs of the
:

than it could be at Mizpeh in Benjamin. Such an arrangement would give him a yearly circuit through almost all the tribes; but upon the usual acceptation of the words, he would scarcely have left his own threshold.
eastern tribes,
%

* See before,

p.

629.

1 Sam.

vii.

16, 17.

See before,

p.

798.

848

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

built

[CHAP, xviii.

had

an altar unto God, and whither the people might resort to him at all other times. In this way Samuel governed Israel with
great integrity and applause, for the space, as supposed, of 20 years; when, finding his activity impaired by the infirmities of age,

is

he made judges

his

two

sons, Joel,(s)

in Beer-sheba; to

whom

and Abiah, he committed

with a servant to seek after some strayed asses but not finding them, after three days' search, he was about to return home, when the servant reminded him that they were not far from Ramathaim-zophim, the residence of a prophet, of whom they might [learn the fate of the asses. They therefore bent their course
;

towards that

the affairs of the south, which probably comprehended the tribes of Judah, Simeon, Ben-

These young men had jamin, and Dan.(t) not long exercised their magisterial functions, before they were guilty of perverting judgment, for the sake of money. Their corruption soon excited popular indignation, which, added to the circumstance that Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had begun to make incursions upon the eastern tribes,(u) and the mistrust of the people in the martial abilities of their
hoary judge, against whom also the malecontents were loud in their complaints, on account of the malversation of his sons, caused the
elders of Israel to repair to

him

at

Ramah,

where, after noticing his incapacity, on account of his advanced years, to head their armies,

and the unworthy conduct of his sons, they desired that he would appoint them a king, who might reign over them, and lead them
the surrounding nations. equally surprised and displeased at this request, upbraided them with their ingratitude towards God, who alone was their sovereign, forewarned them of their danger, and, among other dissuasives, laid before them all the mischiefs and grievances they were likely to suffer from a king. His
like

city, on his way home. When they drew towards the extremity of the city, and were about to part, Samuel desired the servant to go forward :(w) being thus left alone with Saul,

city, and arrived there on the of a solemn festival, just as Samuel morning was going to bless the sacrifice. Having been apprized by God of their coming, and that Saul was destined to be king of Israel, Samuel met them at the gate of his house, and having told them, unasked, that the asses were found, he invited Saul to the feast, where he gave him the seat of honour, and distinguished him from all the other guests by a particular dish of meat set before him. In the course of the day, they prophet hinted to Saul that he was about to be placed at the head of Israel; and having entertained and lodged him all night, he called him up early to the top of the house, to give him some private instructions ; after which he accompanied him out of the

out to battle,

Samuel,

who was

eloquence, however, was exhausted in vain; and he at length dismissed them, in compliance with a divine intimation, with a promise to gratify their desire at a convenient opportunity.^)
a

the prophet poured a vial of oil upon his head, and saluted him as " the anointed captain of Jehovah over His inheritance." During this ceremony, as well as in the conversation of the preceding day, Saul behaved with extraordinary modesty, alleging the smallness of his tribe and family, as an argument of his unfitness for so high a dignity ; but Samuel assured him, that he should find himself endowed with such a superior portion of the divine Spirit, as would give him a new heart, and render him competent to the charge that had been laid upon him. Among other things,

About the time of this defection, there was young man, of Gibeah, of comely person,

and

taller by the head arid shoulders than the ordinary size, named Saul, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who had been sent

Samuel told him, that in his way home he would be met by a company of prophets, and he would then receive the spirit of prophecy
with them.
the prophet,
(t)

came

This, with other predictions of to pass accordingly ; and

(s)

In 1 Chron.

vi.

28, Joel

is

called
is

Vashni, which the

learned

Joseph

Mede

transcriber,

who name of Samuel's who have turned

secundus, into

word ^NV (JOEL) the and of succeeding translators, the following word ';u?1 (vasuNi) et a proper name.
first-born
;

contends has omitted the

a mistake of some

Josephus* says the eldest was appointed to reside at and the other at Beer-sheba, whence they were to make yearly circuits so that each should have one half of Israel to his share but the text has nothing like it. 5. xi. 1. xii. 12. (u) Coiup. 1 Sam. viii. 1
Beth-el,
;
:

(v) 1

Sam.

\iii.passim.
*
Antiq. Ub. vi. cap. 3.

(w) Ibid.

ix.

passim.

.j

I
s
"a.

1-

i
I
s

*j 'o

O -Q

U
4
s

1
I

el
s

M
-5
JS

4^
gcd

i
I
1

1=

1 4J

OJ

.-I

2
o

O
CQ

H
1

lah.

i
O

S < H & &3 O

.H

1
|!
ITI, .SB'

3*

p
o
"s

I*
s

21

4i

SECT. V.]
the

SAUL ELECTED KING.

revived
Israel

849

with which his acquaintance beheld it, occasioned that saying, which afterwards passed into a proverb, " Js Saul also
surprise

claim upon the territory of beyond Jordan, and had laid sie<>e to

the old

fuuong the prophets ?"(x) The privacy observed in the anointing of Saul, was probably to convince him that what was a-bout to follow would be the effect of divine appointment, and not of the chance of a lot, or of the mere will of the people for,
:

The inhabitants of that Jabesh-gilead. (b) in danger of losing not only their liberty, city, but their right eyes, as a lasting reproach upon the whole nation, having obtained from their enemy a respite of seven days, sent an account of their dismal situation to the elders of
Israel at Gibeah ; upon which, Saul hewed a yoke of oxen in pieces, and sent a member of the slain beasts, with all dispatch, to every with a message, that whoever should tribe, refuse to follow him to the relief of Jabesh, should see his cattle destroyed in a similar

soon

after,

Samuel called the elders of

Israel

together at Mizpeh, to elect a king, which was done by lot, beginning with tribes, and

thence descending to families and individuals. The lot first fell upon the tribe of Benjamin, (then upon the family of Matri,(y) and lastly (Upon Saul, the son of Kish. Whilst this was .doing, Saul, who knew what would be the result, had, in the perturbation of his mind, hid himself ; but Samuel, under Jul Per 3618^ .A.M. 2o8.f the divine tuition, directed the Post Dil. 1261. > people where to seek for him, Ann. Exod.awi. I an j on ia j s b^ing brought out, r the prophet proclaimed him as the chosen of God ; and immediately the assem" bly rent the air with shouts of Long live the king!"(z) While the majority of the Israelites thus
expressed their satisfaction at Saul's elevation, was a party who were displeased at it, for what reason is not stated, though it may be .inferred that it was on account of his own youth, and the meanness of his father's
there

A general alarm was the conseand the people resorted to him at quence, Bezek, from all quarters, so that he quickly found himself at the head of 330,000 men.(d) Saul, having sent the besieged word that he would be with them on the following morning, marched all that night, with such alacrity, that at day-break he came unexpectedly upon the Ammonites, and fell upon them with such
nianner.(c)

family ; they therefore refused to acknowledge him, and contemptuously asked how should such a man save the commonwealth? Saul took no notice of the indignity, but returned to his house in Gibeah, followed by a band of men, who, under the divine inspiration, had devoted themselves to his service.(a) Here he had not long remained, before an occasion offered for his giving an earnest of his courage,,
effectually silenced his opponents, and, taught them to respect his newly acquired

impetuosity, that they flew in all directions, after loss. sustaining a very considerable Elated with their success, and fascinated with the heroic deportment of their new sovereign, the Israelites were for putting 3619 _ ^- Jul Per> all those men to death who \ A. M. 2909. had recently refused to acknow- < Post Dil. 1252. J Ann. Exod. 397. ledge his authority; but Saul i K C 1 O*)^ v generously refused his acquiescence, observing, that it would be highly criminal to stain the commencement of his reign with such a massacre, after God had wrought so great a salvation among His people. This magnanimors answer pleased the people
1

'

still

more and, on the invitation of Samuel, who had accompanied him to the battle, they
;

immediately
the

kingdom

repaired to Gilgal, to confirm to Saul, where he was again

this

which

installed with great solemnity.(e)

Samuel embraced
his administration,
(d) 1

opportunity to justify

power.
(x)
(y)

Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had

in Saul's genealogy.

which now devolved upon

1 Sam. x. 116. This name is not found

(z) 1 Sam. x. (a) Ibid. ver.

1724.

26, 27. (b) See before, p. 630.

(c) This message was rather a lively representation of the consequences to be dreaded from the Ammonites gaining the superiority, than a threat of what Saul would do, should it be treated with contempt: though it is usually taken in

8: three hundred thousand of the children thousand of the men of Judah. This is a remarkably strong instance of the distinction, already The situation of Bezek noticed, between Israel and Judah. it near the passage is very uncertain ; though Calmet places of Jordan at Scythopolis, in the half-tribe of Manasseh westward, which, indeed, would be a very convenient

of

Israel,

Sam. and

xi.

thirty

station for

the latter sense.

the expedition to go from, to Jabesh-gilead. See before, p. 781, 798. 1 Sam. xi. (e)

VOL.

I.

850
Saul
:

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

address with predictions of
selves

[CHAP, xvnr.

nor did he omit once more to convince the people of their ingratitude in demanding a king, by recapitulating the wonders which
their heavenly sovereign had wrought in their behalf, and by procuring an extraordinary storm of thunder and rain to corroborate his

excited by this unprecedented phenomenon, at a season when the air was generally serene, brought the Israelites to a confession of their wickedness in general, as well as of this particular aggravation of it in asking for a king; and, under the influence of their terrors, they would probably have deposed Saul, whom they had but just before invested with the government. Samuel, howtold them to let matters stand as they ever,
assertions.

The alarm

felicity to themmonarch, while they continued stedfast in the worship of God ; and, on the other hand, to expect the heaviest effects of divine displeasure to be the certain attendants upon defection and impiety. (f) Then, turning to Saul, the prophet charged him, in the name of the Lord, to go against the Amalekites, and to destroy the men, women, and children, of that nation, with all

and their

that respect; and after exhorting to persevere in the fear and service of the Lord, assured them that his own good offices should be continued towards them as

were

in

them

and goods, for their unjust attack the Israelites, when they came out of upon Egypt :(g) an injunction, which was not fully executed till some years afterwards. The early part of Saul's reign was a time of prosperity and martial achievements, (h) Under the peaceful administration of Samuel, the people had lost their warlike character,
their cattle

long as he lived
(f ) 1
(g)

concluding his affectionate

and their enemies, on every side, had begun to be vexatious, and to encroach upon them. But Saul, after the conquest of the Ammonites,
But, not to insist upon this, there is an almost irrefragable proof that Saul was not married, when he went to seek the asses ; for when he despaired of finding them, he was for
returning home, Jest his father should be anxious for his safety ;|| whereas, had he left a wife and family behind him, his attention would have rather been directed to them. As

Sam.

xii.

The arrangement of See before, pages 652, 683. Saul's history, as it now stands in Samuel's first book, is replete with difficulties, of which the first presents itself in this place. Chap. xii. ends very abruptly with the prophet's Cxhortatory address to the people; and chap. xv. begins equally so, with a message to Saul, where the word also (" Samuel said ALSO unto Saul") evidently indicates some preceding conversation, though none appears ; and as no time seems better suited for such an injunction, than the moment when Saul was assuming the kingly dignity, its annexation but to the popular address, as above, is at least admissible the attack upon the Amalekites must be postponed for some years, because its consequences introduce David to our notice, who, though not born when Saul was inaugurated, appears to have been anointed very soon after that expedition ;* to \\hich we may add, that the prosperity of the early part of Saul's reign, t is a strong indication of a longer perseverance in obedience to the divine will than a year or two can allow. It appears, therefore, that after chap. xii. 25, should be introduced chap. xv. 1 to 3, and these should be immediately followed by verses 47 to 52 of chap. xiv. which contain a general summary of Saul's of which are detailed in the other history, some particulars chapters, but uith a considerable hiatus both as to the transactions of the times of peace, the wars with Moab, Edom, &c. and the occasion and beginning of that Philistine servitude indicated in chap. xiii. The history of chap. xiii. and of chap. xiv. to ver. 46, is evidently out of " when he had its reigned two years," place ; for if Saul, Lad such a son as Jonathan, whom we cannot take at less than '20 years of age, when he smote the Philistines' garrison at (ieba,|; Saul must have been about 40 when called to the government, though described as a young wian at that epocha, and at his death he would have been about 82, though no notice is taken of his attaining so great an age.
:

he apprehended, so the fact turned out his father was in trouble about him, and had sent out people to look for him ;1T but no mention is made of his being sought after, or cared for, by a wife, or by a son Jonathan, though the latter, as already observed, could not have been less than 19 or 20 years of age. Besides these obstacles in the way of an immediate connection between the history of chap, xiii. xiv. and the second year of Saul's reign, a much stronger exception arises out of the circumstance of the Israelites, at least those in the south, being in chap. xiii. represented as in a very abject state of servitude to the Philistines, which it is impossible to account for, so immediately after the prosperous administration of Samuel," and while Saul was at the head of a victorious army. The allusion also to David (ver. 14) is here, equally as in the case of the Amalekite transgression, an objection to admitting Jonathan's exploit at Geba so early as it is generally placed. Amidst the confusion, however, of these fragments of Saul's history, three points evidently present themselves as closely connected; viz. 1. Saul's offence in sacrificing before the arrival of Samuel ; 2. His neglect of Samuel's injunction These have respecting Agag 3. The anointing of David. all a direction towards the close, or the latter half of his reign ; and as such they are treated in the text, and in the chronological scale laid do\\n at the beginning of this Section, where it is endeavoured to reduce them to a probable order of succession, though it would be unsafe to
; ;

assume any of the dates as demonstratively accurate. (h) Such at least is the inference to be drawn from 1 Sam, xiv. 47, 48.
<S

Ocmip.
t 1

&m.

xv.

28, 35. xvi. 1, ft

ttj.

Sam.

ix. 2.

||

Ibitl. ix.

5.

Ham.

xiv. .J7, 4u.

J Ibid.

xiii.

3.

If

Ibid. x. 2.

Comp.

1 Sam.

vii.

13, 14.

xiii.

19

St.

SECT.

V.]

SAUL'S MARRIAGE,

AND FAMILY.

turned his arms against them; and made the Moabites, the Edomites, the kings of Zobah,

and the

sword, and respect

Philistines, feel the power of his his government. Against

the Amalekites, also, he made a successful excursion ; so that at the end of two years, having secured the integrity of his kingdom,

he gave his subjects rest, by disbanding his army, with the exception of three thousand men, whom he retained as a guard about his person, with his kinsman Abner, the son of
Ner, at their head, as his chief captain. (\) Saul, about the time of his elevation, married Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz, of
;

The duration of this prosperous season is not recorded, nor is the cause of its interrup read no more of Saul and Israel, till tion. Jonathan had attained the age of manhood ; at which time the Philistines were masters of the southern tribes, and held the people in such a state of servile subjection, that, having disarmed them, they would allow them neither smith nor forge, lest they should make themselves swords or spears ; so that, for the manufacture or reparation of their implements of husbandry, they were obliged to resort to the

We

what tribe or family is uncertain by whom he had three sons, Jonathan, Ishui, or Ishbosheth.and Melchi-shua,(j) besides two daughhe had also another ters, Merab and Michal son, Abinadab,(k) whether by Ahinoam, or some other wife, is not expressed and by his
:

concubine Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, he

had Armoni and Mephibosheth.(l)

(i)

which were numerously To prevent about the country, (m) planted the encroachments of the enemy upon the north, Saul had posted two thousand of his guards in Michmash and in mount Beth-el, under his immediate command, and the other thousand, under Jonathan, were stationed in Gibi.-ah of Benjamin.(n) Things had remained thus about two years; the Philistines holding Judah in a state of bondage, and Saul reignPhilistines' garrisons,
his father's death, in which case, he must have been under 40, or have been born in the first year of Saul's reign, which would either make him the eldest son, or place the birth of Jonathan before that aera. But neither of these alternatives It is, indeed, possible, that some such change is necessary.

(j) 1

Sam. xiii. 1, 2. xiv. 50. Sam. xiv. 49, the names of Jonathan

on

and

his

brethren stand as above ; but in chap. xxxi. 2, Abinadab occupies the second place, instead of Ishui, whence the two names have been taken by commentators for the same In 1 Chroii. viii. 33, however, we find Esh-baal person. with Ish-bosheth) enumerated with Jonathan, .(the same and Melchi-shua, and Abinadab, where Ishui is omitted from the affinity of the names, Ishui, Ish-bosheth, and Eshbaal, there is greater reason for concluding that they all belonged to the same person, than for identifying Abinadab with Ishui, between which no such similitude exists. A still greater difficulty arises 'out of the ages of Jonathan and Ish-bosheth; the former being placed at the head of a thousand men, in the second year of his father's reign,* and the latter being said to be forty years of age when he was made king at Mahanaim.t In a former note, the improbability of Saul's having a son at the age of manhood, or, indeed, any son at all, when he was anointed, has been sufficiently exposed, t,> prove the necessity, either of reckoning the two years from some other aera, or of looking for some error in the text.
;

of the numeral, as that above,

the letters D, (caph)

20 ;

b,

may have taken place, because (tamed) 30; and Q, (mem) 40.

of transcribing, more easily mistaken in the hurry where especially if the original were in the Samaritan character, and iiJ, (lamed) 40, the resemblance between a, (caph) 20, that Saul's army was is still more striking: but the text says that Ish-bosheth reigned totally destroyed in Gilboa, and Now, after such an overthrow, with the Phionly two years. listines in possession of most of the cities,1T it is hardly to be

might be

||

supposed that Abner could immediately raise an adequate force to establish Ish-bosheth at Mahanaim ; some time must have elapsed before he could collect the scattered Israelites, and before the vigilance of the enemy could be so far relaxed
so. The term of two years, as given the whole reign of Ish-bosheth, is therefore it by commentators, preferable to that explanation given of who understand it to relate only to the time that elapsed in before hostilities broke out between him and David which case Ish-bosheth might be born in the sixth or seventh AH this will coincide peryear after his father's anointing. sense of Saul's history : we shall fectly well with the general h;m-' him anointed and raised to the throne, w.hJe a young man Jonathan will be his eldest son, about nine or ten

as to enable

him to do

in the text for

In the
after
his

first

it is

case, it is evident, that something is said that "Saul reigned one year;" where

wanting perhaps

wars and successes against the Moabites,! &c. with the and with regard birth of Jonathan, should be introduced to the second, the great similarity between the Hebrew D, (betli) 2, and 3, (caph) 20, warrants at least a suspicion that one has been mistaken for the other, and that 20 should be read instead of 2 or, if the present reading be insisted upon, the periods of one and two years may be both reckoned from the end of his wars with the enemies just alluded to. Either of these methods will leave the age of Jonathan where it ought to be, a few years before that of David. The other difficulty, respecting the age of Ish-bosheth, arises from chronologers supposing him to have been made king immediately
; ;

or six years will be allowed years older than David; and five for the births of Abinadab, Melchi-shua, and Ish-bosheth; the last of whom would be two-and-forty at his death, in the at Hebron. beginning of the eighth year of David's reign 1 Sam. xxxi. 2. 1 Chron. viii. 33. ix. 39.
(k)

8. (1) 2 Sam. iii. 7. xxi. xiv. 4. (m) 1 -Sam. xiii. 3, 1723.

$ 1 Sam. xxxi. 1. U

(n)

Ibid.

xiii.

2.

1 Sam.

xiii.

1, 2.

2 Sam.

ii.

10.

1 Sam. xiv. 47.

2 Sam.

ii.

10.

1 Sam. xxii. 7.

5Q2

832
ing over Israel

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

;

[CHAP, xviil.
furnished with

desirous of suddenly upon a garsignalizing himself, rison of the enemy at Geba, and slew most of the men. This was a signal to both parties to prepare for war ; and Saul blew the trumpet throughout Israel, to let them know the Philistines were coming against them, with a mighty
fell

when Jonathan,

son only
spears. (r)

being

swords and
Gibeah, the
still

Whilst

this little

army

lay

at

vanguard

of the
at

host,

he expected Samuel to meet In a short time, the foe appeared in him.(o) Michmash when the sight of the numerous war-chariots, horsemen, and foot soldiers,(p)
;

and to Gilgal, where

call

them together

to

him

in

out in three encamped to ravage the country; one detachbodies, ment going towards Ophrah, another towards Beth-horon, and a third towards the vale of

Michmash,

Philistines, sallied

who were

all

duly

caparisoned

for

war,

struck

so

univeral a terror into the unarmed Hebrews, that great numbers of them retreated to the caves and excavations of the mountains, for concealment, while others fled across the

Notwithstanding this desertion, Saul resolved to continue at Gilgal, in expectation of Samuel's arrival but, after waiting in Vain for seven days, finding his army dwindled away to a mere handful, and fearing lest he should be attacked by the enemy, before he
Jordan.
;

melancholy posture of affair?, Jonathan, accompanied only by his trusty armour-bearer, withdrew privately from the camp, and, under a divine impulse, after clambering up a rock, on the top of which was a Philistine garrison, or picquet, he killed about twenty of them, and routed the remainder the alarm of which occasioned such a consternation in the main body
;

Zeboiim.(s) In this

of the enemy,
to fall

that,

mistaking objects, they

hat implored the protection of God, in the usual way of sacrifice, he ventured, on the seventh day, to make some peace-offerings and a burnt-offering. Scarcely were the victims
1

began upon each other, and at length betook themselves to flight.(t) Saul soon perceived that something unusual had occurred in the hostile camp; and, on collecting his little band, and missing Jonathan, he readily

At this judged him to be the author of it. time, Saul had with him the ark of God, and
Ahiah
the high-priest, the great-grandson of Eli; and he had desired him to inquire of the Lord, whether he should attack the enemy; when the noise and confusion so much increased, as to assure him they were put to the He therefore bid Ahiah hold his hand, rout. and with his few men fell upon the flying Philistines, his army still increasing, as well from a number of Hebrew captives, who took that opportunity to make their escape, as from a greater number of those, who, observing from their lurking-holes the success of their brethren, went out and joined the king. The slaughter
time that Samuel had appointed ;"t but Samuel came not. Neither need we suppose there was any irregularity in the sacrifice; for Gilgal was a place long before consecrated by religious rites,* and Saul had with him the ark, and The reproof is for a breach, or Ahiah the high-priest. negligence, of some express commandment ; and as the denunciation was of a similar nature willi what he incurred for sparing Agag, &c. the opinion of Trcmellius is to be preferred, that the disobedience of Saul, here alluded to, consisted in his not having fulfilled the injunction, laid upon him ;it the beginning of his reign, to destroy Amalek; and this also appears to have brought upon Israel the oppression of the Philistines. 18. (r) 1 Sam. \i\i.passim. (s) Ibid. xiii. 16 (t) See before, p. 610.
t Joshua, v. 9, 10.

consumed, when Samuel appeared, and, after rebuking him for his impatience, severely con-

demned his disobedience(q) to the commandment of the Lord, for which he threatened him
with the loss of his kingdom, and the transfer of it to another family. The prophet then departed towards Gibeon and Saul, accompanied by his son Jonathan, followed with the poor remains of his forces, consisting of scarcely six hundred men, armed with
;

rural
flails,

implements, as slings, clubs, axes, ploughshares, &c. the king and his
direction to
Saul, to

await his arrival at immediately after he had anointed him. Whether it stands there in its proper place, or whether it has been transposed from the history immediately before us, is very questionable. Perhaps Saul now went to Gilgal, in consequence of the prophet's former direction, expecting that he would not fail to repair thither, in a time of such extremity to the nation. (p) See before, p. CM 6. (q) The act of disobedience, of which Saul was guilty, is said by the Jews to have consisted in his not waiting the full time for Samuel, and in having presumed to encroach upon the priestly office, by offering up sacrifices.* But it does not appear that he was guilty of any undue impatience, for he "tarried seven days, according to the set
(o)

Samuel's
is

Gilgal,

found 1 Sam.

x. 8,

Muiut.

In

l,,

c.

Joseph. Antiy.

lib. vi.

cap. 7.

Sam.

xiii. 8,

11.

1 Sam. x. 8.

xi.

15.

1 Sam. xi*. 3, 18.

SECT. V.]

JONATHAN'S OFFENCE. AGAG SLAIN BY SAMUEL.

;

853

of the enemy was very considerable but the victory was rendered less perfect than it might have been, by Saul imprudently adjuring his army to take no refreshment during the pursuit. This was intended to secure the victory, and to keep his men from the plunder, before the conquest was complete ; but it had nearly produced a most fatal result: for the
people, who had pursued their enemies from Michmash to Aijalon, had become so faint
for want of food, that, in the evening, regardless of all ordinances, they flew upon the spoil, and began to slay the cattle, and to eat the flesh

made

ing his

army with the bravest men he could

find in his dominions.(u) According to the computation here adopted, (v) Saul had no sooner completed his

while it was still reeking in the blood. Timely notice of this irregularity being given to Saul, he ordered an immediate feast to be prepared, sharply reproving them for their transgression ; on which occasion he built an altar to the Lord ; the first he had ever reared. The troops being refreshed, Saul was for renewing the pursuit of his enemies by night; when his intention was opposed by the high-priest, who

arrangements with respect to his army, than he determined to make amends for his former negligence, by an immediate attack upon the Amalekites an account of which has been already given ;(w) but here, by his ill-timed mercy towards Agag, and his suffering the people to preserve the best of the spoil, he incurred a sharper rebuke from the prophet Samuel, than he had experienced on the former occasion and the denunciation of the loss of
; ;

recommended him
to this to his inquiry,

first

to ask counsel of

God

kingdom was repeated in much stronger terms. This made so deep an impression upon him, that he very humbly acknowledged his error; but begged the prophet, who was turning away from him, to remain, and, for the sake of the people, to accompany him with the usual tokens of honour, whilst he went to Samuel complied and worship the Lord. when the rites were over, he ordered Agag, the
his
;

he consented; but no answer being given he had recourse to the lot, to discover wherein he or the people had offended, and it fell upon Jonathan. This brave prince had been absent from his father's camp, when
Saul uttered the imprecation against whoever should eat any food till the evening and, being wearied with the day's toil, he had taken a little honey which he found in passing through a wood this had been observed by some of his followers, who knew of his father's adjuration, and they told him of it so that when the lot fell upon him, he frankly conSaul no sooner fessed what he had done. heard his confession, than he declared he should die and he would have certainly put him to death, if the whole army had not interposed, and sworn that not a hair of his head should be hurt, in consideration of the signal deliverance his valour had produced. Finding his troops thus disaffected, Saul suffered Jonathan to go unmolested; and, relinquishing,' his design of pursuit, he returned to his usual residence, where he set about recruit;
:

Amalekitish king, whose destroying sword had bereaved so many mothers in Israel of their The children, to be instantly put to death. prophet then returned to Raman, the place of his abode, and never again saw Saul, to the day of his death but continued mourning for him, till he was reproved for it by the Almighty, and commanded to go to Beth-lehem of Judah, to anoint one of the sons of Jesse in his room.(x) Jesse, the grandson of Boaz and Ruth,(y) at this time pretty far advanced in years, was
;

father of eight sons, of whom the three elder were trained to war, and the youngest, David, kept his sheep ;(z) of the other four no particulars are related.

To conceal the intent of his journey from Saul, and to quiet the apprehensions of the elders of Beth-lehem, at his unexpected visit,
Samuel took with him a young heifer, under and, pretence of offering a sacrifice there calling Jesse and his sons to the solemnity, he made the latter pass in review before him. As soon as the prophet beheld the eldest, Eliab, whom the history shews to have been
;

Sam. xiv. 1 40, 52. (v) In the history of the Philistines, Amalekites, &c. the Usherian chronology is adopted here we follow the scheme proposed at the beginning of this Section.
(u) 1
:

hould be changed for " about the 2.3th," and the marginal lates should be corrected to correspond with it.
(x)

" the 17th year of Saul'' (w) Sec before, page 652, where

(y)
(z)

1 Sam. xv. passim, Ruth, ir. 21, 22.

xvi. 1.

1 Sam. xvi. 11, 19. xvii.

1315.

854
a
MI an

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP. xvni.

of valour, and of goodly mien, he had his being the chosen person ; till " the the Spirit of God reminded him, that Lord sees not as man seeth," and directed him In like manner, the six next to let him pass. were each rejected in his turn ; and Samuel, who was surprised at the circumstance, inquired of their father, if these were all the sons he had? Jesse replied, that he had yet one more, but he was quite a youth, and was then tendThis was David ; who, at the ing the sheep. desire, was sent for ; and as soon as prophet's he came in, Samuel, under the divine direction, anointed him in the presence of his brethren ; and from that moment the Holy Spirit came Samuel, then made a feast to upon him. Jesse's family, and to the elders of the city ; after which he returned to Ramah.(a) About six years after this event, the Philistines were in a condition to renew their attempt at the subjugation of Judah, and they assembled their armies between Shochoh and T,,I P, ir-n -\ Azekah, with a champion of

MO doubt of

opposed only to a few ; and they wished to save themselves, by putting the question of sovereignty upon the issue of a single combat between Goliath and an Israelite. In vain, however, did they call upon the Israelites to appoint a man to meet him ; arid equally vain were the proclamations of Saul to find such an one, though accompanied with promises of unusual rewards. At this conjuncture, David was sent by his father to the camp, with refreshments for his three elder brothers, who were in the army; and he no sooner saw the gigantic Goliath, and heard his blasphemous revilings, than he offered himself to the king, as willing to undertake the combat. On his first presenting himself to Saul, all who
beheld him judged him, from his youth, to be unequal to such an exploit but such was his reliance upon God, that with no other weapon than a sling, and a few pebble stones in his shepherd's pouch, he went forth against this and in a few minutes after mighty enemy brought his head and his sword, and laid them
; ;

ooou. i 2940. / gigantic PostDil. 1283. > at their Aun.Exod. 427. 1 a native 1064. J
jui. rer.
.

A. M.

strength

and

stature

head, named Goliath, of Gath ;(b) by whom

at the feet of his sovereign. The consequence was, the flight of the Philistines, and their pursuit by the Israelites, with great slaughter, to

encamped in the valley of Elah, were insulted and defied, for forty successive days,- though no material blow was struck on either side. Saul and his people were dis-spirited on account of the absence of
j

ne

i srae iites,

the very gates of Ekron.(c) The frankness of David in his

interview

with Saul, and his pious modesty in relating his success against, a lion and a bear, whom

he had

The presence at the preparatory sacrifices. the vauntings Philistines, also, notwithstanding of their champion, were not confident, for they remembered their past disasters, when
(a)

occasions of former Samuel, who on difficulty had repaired to the camp, and encouraged them by his exhortations and
all

slain, on their entering his father's sheepso wrought upon the generous Jonathan, fold, that it gave birth to a most intimate friendship

between them. But Saul, dissatisfied at seeing the triumph of the day given to a very young stranger, suffered him to return to his father's house, unrewarded, (d) though not forgotten by those who could appreciate his merit.
to be, that Saul,

1 Sam.

xvi. 1

been at

this time

13. David is by some supposed to have between 15 and 10 ;* by others, about 22

who had been most

positively assured that

||

yearst of age. By the former, his unction is placed before his combat with Goliath by tlie latter, afterwards. The taunton his arrival in the camp, and ing expressions of Eliab, David's reply,! where an allusion seems to be made to the hopes he entertained of one day obtaining the kingdom, countenance the first of these opinions, while the danger hr would have been in, had Saul known of his being anointed Josein preference to his own sons, is objected against it. was known only to David pbus, indeed, states that the secret
;

kingdom should not be established in his family, had not, when David was introduced to him, arrived to that " the pitch of impiety which would induce him to destroy
the

and
it
;

whom the prophet had secretly whispered Samuel's exclamation, on beholding Eliab, were uttered aloud, it could not but have informed the surroundThe truth seems ing company of the purport of his visit.
his father, to
if

but

Lord's anointed," even had he personally known him, which evident he did not ;11 and we may, therefore, give the preference to the earlier age of 16, without risking David's safety. This determination will also fix the destruction of Ainalek to the 25th year of Saul's reign, and the overthrow of the Philistines at Michmash to the preceding year. (b) See before, p. (516. (c) 1 Sam. xvii. (d) This will probably be objected to, as contrary to the connection of the narrative as it now stands in writ: holy but it is impossible otherwise to account for other particulars of this part of David's history. If David had been before
it is
t
||

* Uniterial Hist.
tub. A. a. C. ld?4.

vol. iv. p.

43, nole (D).

Lenglct Dufresuuy, Tab. Chron.

Usher. Blair. Tallcnts.

1 Sain, xiii, 13, 14.

} 1

Sam.

xvii. 28, 29.

Ikiti.

i. 2629.

Ibid. ivu.

5558.

SECT. V.]

DAVID PROMOTED IN SAUL'S COURT.

855

this conduct of Saul had from pride, or because he had heard merely of David's being anointed, is uncertain but the latter is most probable for he was immediately after seized with a deep melancholy. He found himself rejected by God, the prophet Samuel refused to come near him, and he beheld his military glory, which had been
;
:

Whether

friendship which he and Jonathan had conceived for each other, to such a degree, that, in the figurative language of their historian, " their souls were knit together," and they confirmed it by a covenant. Jonathan also stripped himself of his princely robe, and put it upon David, together with his sword, his

bow, and

his girdle.(h)
his

the pride of his reign, transferred to another, who was destined also to have the kingdom, to the exclusion of his own sons. His soul was therefore tilled with most poignant sensations of regret and fear, bordering upon despair so that he is said to have been terrified an evil spirit, (e) The perturbation of his
;

honour, Saul added that of putting men of war, and David acquitted himself so well, that he soon acquired the esteem of the whole nation. This popularity, however, had the effect of reviving in the gloomy mind of Saul those jealous apprehen-

To this

him over

by mind being observed by his attendants, they advised him to have recourse to music, to divert his melancholy at the same time they recommended David, who had the reputation of being an expert player on the harp, as well as a comely, discreet, and valiant man to which they added, that "the Lord was with
;
;

which had before induced him to disDavid and it was not long before were converted into absolute hatred by they the indiscretion of a company of females, who going out to welcome Saul and David, with songs of victory, on their return from some
sions,

miss

Saul, desirous of ease at any rate, yielded to their proposal, and sent for David, who accordingly left the sheepfold, with a present from his father, of an ass laden with bread, a bottle, or skin, of wine, and a kid.

him."

Arrived in the royal presence, David swept the tuneful strings with such inimitable sweetness, skill, and pathos, that the excess of the
king's distemper was quickly abated ; and Saul, looking upon him with complacency, made him his armour-bearer, and sent a

request to Jesse that he might continue with Thus David became an inmate in him.(f) Saul's family, and as often as the monarch's melancholy returned, he removed it by the melody of his harp.(g) The return of David to court revived the

successful expedition against the Philistines, ascribed to David the slaughter of ten thousands of his enemies, and to Saul that of thousands From this time the king regarded the only. son of Jesse as a dangerous rival, and his life as incompatible with his own security : he therefore resolved to make away with him ; and the next time that David was playing before him to ease him of a melancholy fit, he twice threw a javelin at him, with such force that it stuck in the wall but David dexterously avoided the intended injury, and The more David was hated escaped unhurt. by the king, the higher did he rise, by his prudent conduct, in the estimation of the people ; and Saul perceived that open persecu;

tion only

tended to destroy his

own

authority,

whilst

He
chap,

increased the influence of his rival. therefore had recourse to stratagem, and
it

at court, as Saul's minstrel and armour-bearer,* how could Saul and Abner be so ignorant of him, as they arc repreAnd sented to be, when he went out against Goliath '?) bow, on the other hand, when Saul was in want of a musician,

" could he have been recommended as amiyhty and valiant and "a man of war,"; if his prowess had never been man," tried? which we may assume it never had been, except in the affair of the lion and the bear, till his encounter with the In the former case, he is represented Philistine champion.

As to the xviii. between the first and second verses. expression, chap. xvii. l.>, if genuine, it probably should follow verse 1 of chap, xviii. but its genuineness is to be su.-pected, because it stands in a kind of episode, which,
from the 12th to the 31st verses of chap. xvii. appears to be an interpolation, omiltcd in several Greek manuscripts, and inserted in others with a mark to denote that it was not found by Origen in his copies of the Septuagint, whence it is suspected not to have been originally in the Hebrew Text.
1 Sum. \\\. 14, ct (f) Ibid. xvi. serf. (g) Ibid. xvi. 23. xviii. 10. xix. 9. (ji) Ibid, xviii. 3, 4.

unknown; ill the latter, as a man well known It appears, therefore, that the by name and by might. be introduced into '23, should history of chap. xvi. 14
as a stripling
1
t

(e)

22.

xviii. 2.

Sum.

XT'I.

1923.
08.
I.;
I :

Or
iiKu,

Ibid. xvii. .55

hi-

Knmirott's ,S>r.W Di'&ritalitm on the Hebrew Text, p. 418 dcncral Dissertation, p. 9 ; aud Dr. Chandler's l.ij'e of Daiitl,

Uid.

xvi. 18.

vol.

i.

p. til, 69,

856

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP, xvni.

put him away from about his person, by making him captain of a thousand, a post of greater danger than he had before occupied, in the hope that he would fall by the hand of the

enemy.

He

also

promised

him

his

eldest

of the prophets at Naioth. Thither he was pursued, first by the king's f Jul Per 3652 2U42. messengers, and afterwards by \ A. M. Saul himself; but the Almighty, < Post Dil. 1285. a miraculous effect on their I Aun Eltod 43
.

by

daughter, Merab, in marriage, as the reward of his next victory; an honour which David

spirits,

tunity of

upon modestly declined, but Saul though at the time appointed she was given to
insisted
;

Adriel the son of Barzillai, the Meholathite. The reason of David's declining this honour, appears to have been a secret attachment and the princess subsisting between him Saul's younger daughter; of which Michal, the king being apprised, he resolved, if possible, to make it an occasion of his destruction. With this view, Saul instructed his courtiers
to prevail on

David to demand that princess's which he declined, on account of his hand; want of riches, being but the younger son of a large family in humble circumstances. They were then desired to tell him the king would
accept of 100 foreskins of the Philistines,
lieu of
in

He then retreating unperceived. hastened to his beloved friend Jonathan, who had exposed himself to the indignation of his father, on his account, and had concerted a plan by which he might receive intelligence of what passed at court concerning him. Finding David's death to be resolved on, this generous prince, on the third day after his arrival, went to the appointed place of meeting, to inform his friend how hazardous it would be for him to remain longer within his father's reach and after exchanging the most
;

gave David an oppor-

R C

1 (!!>

V-

affectionate

dowry; an offer which David immediately accepted, and going out with his men presently slew that number(i) of the enemy, and brought back the required tokens of his victory so that Saul, having no pretext left for excusing himself from the fulfilment of his promise, gave him Michal in marriage, whose
;

regard, they took a melancholy farewel of each other.(k) An immediate flight was now indispensable; but being unprovided with arms and food, David made the best of his way to Nob, a city of the priests, where, under pretence of urgent secret business, he concealed from

vows of perpetual

sincere affection, joined

to

the

friendship of

her brother Jonathan, afterwards proved very serviceable to him, in apprising him of their
father's designs upon his life, and in protecting him from the effects of his malice.(j)

David had lived about two years in Saul's when, returning with new triumphs from a victory over the Philistines, he again
service
;

became an object of

who endeavoured
with a javelin.

to transfix

that prince's rancour, him to the wall

David, escaping from his presence, retired to his own house, whither he was pursued by the tyrant's emissaries, with orders to kill him. By the contrivance of Michal, however, he avoided the danger, by being let down from a window in the dead of the night, and flew to Samuel, at llamah, with whom he afterwards removed to a school

disgrace at court, as well as of his coming alone, in so a state, and procured a supply of unprepared consecrated bread, the only refreshment the He then asked for some arms; place afforded. but Ahimelech told him there were none there, except the sword of Goliath, which had been laid up there, in memory of his victory ; this he desired to have, and having girt it on, he went with all speed to Achish, king of Gath, hoping to find a secure refuge in his His stay, however, with that dominions. was but short ; for the officers of the prince court soon recognized him, and reminded their master that this was the David, of whom the Israelitish women had boasted that he had slain his ten thousands of the Philistines. David, therefore, changed his design of imploring protection, to the artifice ,'of counterfeiting the actions of a lunatic, in which he succeeded so well, that Achish was glad to get rid of him ; and he went and concealed himself in the cave of Adullam.(l)
his

Ahimelech

the real

cause

slain

Although in 1 Sam. xviii. 27, David is stated to have two hundred Philistines, the Greek version reads only one hundred, agreeably to the terms of the covenant, verse 25, and the words of David himself, 2 Sam. iii. 14.
(i)

( j)

Sam.

xviii.

passim, xix. 4, et

it.q.

(k) Ibid. xix. xx.

(I)

Ibid. xxi. passim, xxii. 1.

SKCT. V.]

AHIMELECH AND THE

mean

PRII2STS SLAIN
tect

BY DOEG.

8.17

time, Saul, enraged at bring of his victim, was venting most disappointed bitter reproaches against Jonathan and his own servants, charging them with being joined in conspiracy with the son of Jesse

In the

against him; when one Doeg, an Edomite, chief herdman of Saul, who had been at Nob

when

David

called

there,

came

in,

and

acquainted him with all that had passed there. This information exasperated the king so violently, that he immediately ordered the high-priest, with all his kindred and fellowpriests, to be brought into his presence, and,
after uttering many invectives against them for their supposed treason, vowed they should all be put to death. Ahimelech strove to con-

vince him that they were

sinister

all

ignorant of any

purpose

in

David, whose honourable

it.

situation

conduct had always was impossible to and respect, that the king's son-in-law had come suspect to them with any ill design. But this pleadwas all in vain Saul would give no credit ing to it, and ordered his servants, or guards, to The sercut him and his family to pieces.

and

upright

commanded

infatuated than their master, less declined obeying his orders; whereupon he turned to Doeg, and commanded him to perform the cruel office; which he immediately did, and slew fourscore and five persons wearNot content with this ing a linen ephod. execution of so many innocent sanguinary men, Saul sent a detachment to wreak his vengeance on the unoffending city of Nob; and they performed their orders with such inhuman punctuality, that none but Abiathar, one of Ahimelech's sons, had the good fortune to escape the general massacre, and he flew
vants,

as long as he was able to defend and to raise him to the high-priesthood whenever he should be in a condition to do so.(m) On tin's occasion, it is thuugnt, David composed the fifty-second Psalm. David was joined in his retreat by his brethren and other relations, who flew to him for shelter from Saul's fury, and were followed by other distressed and discontented persons, to the number of about 400,(n) among whom were three of Said's captains of thirties, and companions of David in the days of his prosAt this time the Philistines were in perity. force in the valley of Rephaim, with a garrison at Beth-lehem when David having expressed a longing desire for some water from the well of that city, those three captains broke their way through the enemy's host, and fetched him some but when he considered the hazard with which it had been obtained, lie refused to drink it, and poured it out as a libation before the Lwd.(o) This transaction made David apprehend an attack from the Philistines, and fearing that the few men he had with him would be insufficient to withstand them, he removed to
himself,
; ;

him

the other side of the Jordan, \\ here he obtained of the king of Moab,(p) permission for his father and mother to reside at Mi/peh and he
;

and

his

men

took

up their abode

in

some

immediately to David,
Sam.

who promised

to pro-

He had not strong hold in that vicinity. remained here, when he was warned by long the prophet Gad to return into the land of Judah, and he accordingly went and hid himself in the forest of Hareth ;(q) where learning that the Philistines were besieging the neighbouring city of Keilah, and ravaging the surrounding country, he resolved to attack This was a hazardous enterprise, them.
son of Agee, Ihe Hararile, who, with David, when deserted by (heir countrymen, had withstood a host of the Philistines, and c.'me off victorious.t This should probably be Ammon, instead of Moab; (p'l for iMixpeli of (iilcad was close upon the border of the former, and might, in the then unsettled state of Israel, be in the possession of the Ammonites; \vhereas the Moabites We also rind David, when dwelt considerably to the south. settled on the throne of Israel, penetrated with gratitude towards the king of Ammon, for kiiuiuos shown to him during his adversity ;t whereas he treated Moab with all llu- rigour of an indignant conqueror.
(q)
1

(m)
(o)

xxii.

(n) llnd. ver. 1, 2.

2 Sam.
is

xxiii.

1317.

Chron.

\\.

1519.

This

generally referred to a later period of David's after his elevation to the throne of Judah ;* but the life, course of the history requires it to be placed as above, for transaction

The iiaiiicreasons which the reader will readily perceive. of these three worthies were Jashoboam, the son of Hachmoni, who had distinguished himself by the slaughter of three hundred at one time, on some former occasion Klcazar. the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, who was with David at Pasdammim, when Goliath was slain, and pursued the enemy, when the Israelites had fled for fear and Shammah, the
;

Sam.
Sam.

xxii.
x. 2.

5.

Universal Hist. vol.

t Co.i.p.

iv.

]>

2 Sam.
I.

xxiii.

812.

62, 63. 1 Chren.

xi,

1014.

Ihi hid. viii. z.

1 C/iron. six. 2. 1 CAruN.xviii. 2.

See before,

p.

6S6.

VOL.

5 R

858

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

the

[CHAP. xvin.

and David's men represented to him the imprudence of thinking of offensive operations, when they were scarcely able to defend
themselves
after

hut the courageous chieftain, inquiring of the Lord, and being assured of success, instead of yielding to their fears, went out and gave the Philistines a
:

overthrow, took their cattle, and relieved the city, into which he was received
severe
willi

man who had also been anointed as king over Israel, contented himself with stealing softly near Saul, and having secretly cut off the skirt of his robe, permitted him to retire without molestation. As soon as Saul had the cave, David discovered himself, quitted and exhibiting the skirt as an evidence of his forbearance, begged, in the most humble and pathetic manner, that the king would no longer
harbour such ill-grounded suspicions against one who had thus given a convincing proof of his innocence and loyalty. This affecting
address, strengthened by the infallible testimony of the piece of his rolie, melted Saul into tears of tenderness and sorrow he called David his nun; acknowledged that his superior
:

apparent joy. AVhen Saul heard that David was in Keilah, he assembled his troops, intending to besiege him there but David having timely notice of
;

his approach, and being divinely admonished that the citizens would deliver him up, he withdrew with his men, who had increased
to about

000,

into
his

the wilderness of Ziph,

visited

where he was privately

by Jonathan

who

former vows of unalterable and obtained of David a solemn friendship, assurance, that when he should ascend the Israelitish throne, of which, he frankly told him, he was well assured, he should be rewarded for his good offices with the second
repeated
dignity in the state.

and merit, in sparing his life, rendered him truly worthy of that dignity, which he was now convinced the Almighty would bestow upon him and, in conclusion, desired him, as a farther proof of his unexampled generosity, to swear that he would never revenge the injuries he had received upon any of his children which David having
virtue
;

by sending intelligence to Saul, David again to change his station, compelled and he removed to the wilderness of Maon, but just as he whither Saul pursued him was about to surround him, he was obliged
Ziphites,
;

The

complied with, they parted, after mutually embracing Saul returning to his usual residence at Gibeah, arid David to his strong
;

hold.(s)
It

the

was not long after this reconciliation, that good old prophet Samuel ^j u p cr * 30 ,j7
j

to return in consequence of a fresh incursion of the Philistines. In memory of this deliverance, David called the mountain, which had

separated him from his enemy, Sela-kammaiilekotli, or tlie rock of division; and presently after, removing with his litlle army to En-gedi, he concealed himself among the strong holds of that place.(r)
tines,

died, in his 98th year, greatly \ A. M. *2(>47. lamented by all true Israelites, < Post oil. *1290. and was buried in his own /^ n " txoc C. ., *io7. r> u at He u had V.B.
territory

Raman.

judged

Saul, when he had repulsed the Philisfound him out again, and came against him with three thousand men but an urgent

Here

necessity obliging the king to retire into the very cave where David lay concealed, an opportunity offered of terminating, by a single blow, the unjust pursuit, to which David was David, strongly solicited by some of his men. however, detesting the crime of assassinating
xxiii. panxim. (s) Ibid. xxiv. The date of Samuel's death, as the xxv. 1. Scripture has not stated it, is variously assumed by different v ntcis By Usher and Blair, it is placed about two years before the death of Saul ; by the Editors of the Universal History, and Dr. Watkins, in the 971 h or 98th year of his
(r)
(t)

Israel about '20 years from the death of Eli, and had lived about 39 more from his anointing Saul to the regal dignity. (t) Upon the death of Samuel, David, for what reason is not stated, but probably to avoid offence to Saul, removed from En-gedi to the wilderness of Paran, whence he sent messengers to a wealthy Carmelite, named Nabal, whose shepherds and herdmen he had protected when in their neighbourhood, and who was making a feast to his sheep-shearers,

requesting him to send himself and his followers

a;;!',

some provisions
;

for

but Nabal, rightly

;

Sam.

Ibid.

about two years before Saul's death by Dufresnoy, two years before Saul's death, in his 79th year; and by
Dr. Hales,
following
the computation of Josephus, about

two years before Saul's death, in the 92d or 93d year of his the age; but Munster reckons only seven, months between death of Samuel and Saul.

SECT.

V.j

DAVID SHARES THE LIFE OF SAUL.

8/5JJ

for his churlish and covetous sent them rudely away, with such disposition, an answer as would inevitably have brought the vengeance of David upon him and his whole family, had not his wife, Abigail, prudently averted the mischief, by going in On JNabal person with the desired supply. afterwards informed of the extreme being

so called (u)

negligence in watching his master, and exhibitAs soon as Saul was ing the spear and cruse. of what had Inipprncd, he came apprised from his tent, acknowledging the generosity of his son-in-law, and having expressed his sorrow for his former injustice, promised that he would no more seek his destruction, and parted from him with many tokens of apparent
friendship.(x)

danger he had incurred, he immediately fell ill of the fright, added to his apprehensions that David might yet come and seize upon all he had; so that in about ten days he died. When David heard of this circumstance, he sent which accepting, she proposals to Abigail in due time became his wife, as did also her
;

Notwithstanding this reconciliation, David saw himself too much surrounded by dangers to be at ease where he was, and he at length
determined again to seek an asylum in the He therefore passed over Philistines' country. to Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath ; who kindly received him and his 600 followers, with their wives and families, into his capital, highly gratified at such an accession to his own strength, and such a diminution of that
of his

neighbour Ahinoam, of Jezreel, in the south of Judah; David's first wife, Michal, having been given during his exile to Phaltiel, the son
of Laish, of Gallim.(v) These marriages having brought David into his old quarters in the wilderness of Maon and Ziph, the Ziphites again sent word to Saul that he was in their neighbourhood whereupon Saul, forgetful of what had passed at their last interview, put himself at the head of 3000 chosen men, and going out in search But of him, pitched on mount Hachilah. David a fresh opportunity(w) this only gave For going with of evincing his innocency. his nephew Abishai, in the dead of only
;

enemy. AVhen Saul heard of David's

flight

to the

Philistines, he left off seeking to molest him; but by this time he had become so unpopular,

night, into Saul's camp, and finding all the troops asleep, they proceeded in search of the they at length discovered reposing king,

whom

in his tent, with his spear stuck in the ground by his bolster, and Abner, his chief captain,

with other officers, sleeping around him. Abishai urged his uncle to transfix the king to the ground with his own spear, observing that Providence had evidently delivered him but David into his hands for that purpose would hearken to no such counsel; and, referring his cause to the justice and vengeance of God, contented himself with carrying oft' the spear and the cruse of water that stood in the tent. Having reached his own camp he placed himself on an eminence, unperceived, whence he might be heard by the enemy, and began to call upon Abner, taunting him with his
:

and the heroic and generous spirit of David was so much admired, that the captains of the former began to be disaffected, and many of them went away, and joined themselves to his rival, whose pretensions to the kingdom were no longer a secret. That this accession to his forces might not give umbrage to the Gittites, David requested Achish to appoint him some place in the country for his residence; and Achish gave him Ziklag, which place was ever Here after claimed by the kings of Judah. David was joined by some of Saul's kindred, and multitudes of valiant men and commanders from the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, with some renowned Gadites, who ventured to pass the Jordan to go to him, even when it overflowed its banks ; besides sonic of the tribe of Manasseh. When David saw such numbers of the
Bcnjamites, especially of Saul's kindred,

come

to him, he was apprehensive that their design was to seize him and carry him away; till Amasai, the chief of the captains, dispelled his
fears, by assuring him that in his interest, resolved to

they were entirely share his fortune,

and

to

be under his command. (y)

(NdBaL) a fool, or madman. Sam. xxv. (w) It is remarkable that neither David nor Saul allude
(u) biJ
(v) 1

which excites suspicion that the two narratives various readings of one and the same adventure.
to
(x) 1

are but

Sam.

xxvi.

the

former transaction in the cave of En-gedi

a silence

(y)

I/iid. xxvii.

16.

1 Citron,

xii.

122.

5 R 2

800

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

then set
at
off,

[CHAP, xviii.
after

David now found himself at the head of a numerous and potent army; but having no means of supporting it, except by the sword,

and

encamping

for a

time

made excursions into the south, against litthe Geshurites, the Gezrites, or Gerzites, and the Amalekites; seizing their cattle, and putting both men and women to death, to prevent a discovery of what he had done, because he wished to secure the confidence of Achish, by making him believe that his ravages had been in the south of Judah, and that he had thereby rendered himself so obnoxious to his own people, that he could never hope to return
spent among the Philisuncertain our translation states it at tines, a " full year and four months, "(a) and so the generality of chronologers have taken it; but the original says only " days and four mouths;" which some think imply a few days above four
is
:

among them.(z) The time that David

Whatever its length, it was in this mont/is.(b) interval that Saul was reduced to the last extremity: deserted by his best genentls and
receiving no answer from God, his making daily encroachments, and threatening the subjugation of his whole kingdom, he began to feel the operation of the threat denounced against him by the prophet Samuel ; and he was doubtlessly also tilled with remorse for having, by his groundless suspicions and cruel persecution, driven so many of his brave warriors, with David at their
soldiers,

enemies

pitched in Aphek, in the valley of Jezreel, where they found the army of Saul lying on the mountains of Gilboa. Here David and his men were first observed by the Philistine princes, who expostulated with Achish on the impropriety of his being among them, as he would infallibly be led to betray them in the battle, in order to reconcile himself to his natural sovereign. Achish, on the other hand, endeavoured to persuade them that David was a firm and trusty friend ; and that he had found no reason to repent of having received him into his territories: but this only incensed them the more, and they insisted upon David being immediately sent back to Ziklag, reminding the king of that song of the Israelitish women, " Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands," which was so odious in their ears. Achish, unable to resist this clamour, called David to him, and after assuring him that he had the merit and sincerity, highest sense of his he would submit to the decision of requested the princes, who did not think so well of him, and retire quietly from the scene of action. After some expressions of resentment against
finally

Shunem,

head, into a state of exile, whence he had every reason to expect they would return with the armies of his foes. The Philistines, fully sensible of the weakened state of Israel, in consequence of David's banishment, were preparing for a renewed and when their arrangements were attack complete, Achish told David that he expected him and his men to march with him, promising at the same time to reward his services by appointing him to some high post.(c) David being in no condition to decline this invitation, and possibly looking upon it as a favourable opportunity of returning to his countrymen, by going over to them in the battle, gave an evasive answer, telling the king that he would certainly shew him what he could do. The Philistines
;

the unkind notions of the lords, and a protestation of his readiness to fight in the cause of Achish, David yielded to the king's remonstrance, and, rising at day-break the next morning, returned to Ziklag.(d) During David's absence, a company of Amalekites had made an inroad upon the south, burnt Ziklag, and carried away the wives and children of David and his warriors, with all their cattle and goods. When, therefore, they returned from the Philistines' camp,

indignant at their abrupt dismissal, and found what a terrible destruction had been made of their city, they rent the air with their cries, and began to talk of stoning David, as the cause of all the mischief. David, however, confiding in the divine protection, desired Abiathar to consult the Lord for him, whether he should pursue the spoilers and being answered in the affirmative, he set off \\ith 000 men, overtook and destroyed the Amalekitish band, recovered ;ill the spoil, with the women and children,(e) and
;

(z) 1

Sam.
j>.

xxvii.

8-12.

Respecting the Geshurites, &c.

t,b)

Munst. in

loc.

(c) 1

Sam.

xxviii. 1, 2.

se'

Wore,

052, note (w).

xxvii. 7.

(A) 1
(e)

Sam.

\\ix.

(a)

1 Sam.

See before, p. 652.

SECT.

V.]

SAUL CONSULTS THE WITCH OF EN-DOR.

aot

took from them, besides, a very considerable booty, which they had seized in other places iu the course of their excursion. Although David had begun the pursuit with 000 men, 200 of them were so fatigued when they arrived at the river Besor, that they could go no farther, and were therefore left there, whilst the remainder went after the enemy. The latter, on their return, were for excluding the others from participating in the spoil, because they

dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets. In this dilemma, he would gladly have sought counsel from witches and wizards but he had long before banished them, as he thought, out of
;

had not fought for it; telling them it was enough that they received back their wives
and children. The interposition of their leader becoming necessary to settle this question, David decided that an equal partition

dominions. At length, after much inquiry, found out a woman at En-dor, who had a familiar spirit: to her, therefore, Saul repaired, with two attendants, disguised, by night, and having overcome her scruples(g) by promises of secrecy, he prevailed upon her
liis

his servants

made to all parties whence it afterwards became an established law, that those who remained behind to watch, should partishould be
;

all the benefits accruing to those who forth to battle. The dispute being thus terminated, they all returned to Ziklag, whence David sent presents of the spoil to his friends in Judah, among whom he and his men had

cipate in

went

been sheltered and entertained. (f) e must now return to Saul, Jul Per. 3659 -\

A. M. Post Dil.

He had retreated, on the flight. approach of the Philistines, from his usual seat at Gibeah in Benjamin, into the half tribe of Manauseh west of Jordan, and had resolved to make a stand upon the mountains of Gil boa. But when he saw the enemy assembled in the valley beneath, his fears were redoubled, and he sought in vain for advice and consolation Samuel was dead, the he had slain, and to his inquiries of priests the Lord, no answer was vouchsafed, either by
graceful
:

left full of doleful apprehensions for the event of Ann.Exod.437. 1 a no battle, which he had &t> '^ means of avoiding but by a dis-

2940! / 1292. V

whom we

him up Samuel. She accordingly set about her incantation; but when the apparition, or, as the Scripture terms it, Samuel, made his appearance, either in a manner different from what she was used to,(h) or so as to give her to understand that it was Saul himself by whom she was employed, she gave a loud shriek, and complained that she had been imposed upon, for that Saul had come to take away her life. The king encouraged her to proceed, assuring her she should be safe, and asked what she had seen ? to which she answered, generally, that gods had ascended out of the earth and to a question of Saul, she replied that an old man was coming up, Saul understood this covered with a mantle. to be Samuel, and immediately bowed himto raise
;

ground, apologizing for the adopan expedient, by adverting The vision to the situation of his affairs. rejoined, that it was in vain he had applied to him for counsel, after he had alienated the love and protection of the Almighty by his disobedience and solemnly assured him that Israel was about to be given into the hands of the Philistines, and that he and his sons should on the morrow be numbered with the dead.(i) At these words, the king, who had eaten nothing all the preceding day, nor all the night, fainted away, horror-struck,
self to the

tion of so unlawful

Sam. xxx. and wizards were 'loomed to death by the Mo.iaic law;' and Saul, iu his better days, had been active
(f )
1

(g) Witclies

in

promoting the observance of il.h The Jews pretend th; 'he spirits which she raised bv enchantment, used to ribi- from Uie earth with their heels uppermost: but that Samut! i-.une u>j on his feet, by w'jrh she knew that it was Saul, who had enga^'d her to bring
1

(h)

.'

him

up.J

How

they
'

not easy to conceive.

IT Saul, nor whether ordinaiiness of tin .<p|;

came by this r <!i> ul'X's The to Ves no; say ,u> ^ann rt.-.s occasioned by
.

fancy,

it is

she knew the extra-

Saul had

t.ul\

set

the tear she was in that her to work iu order to find an occasion
t I

of putting her to death for it. Perhaps both reasons misjht operate upon her. most difficult (i) This narrative may be deemed one of the in the whole compass oi' sacred history, because it savours so much of those superstitious notions, which wore once the opprobrium of every judicial code in Europe, but are now ju-tly exploded. That 'he interview actually took tiiat she place between Saul and the woman of En-dor, and was a ri'fititfd witch, there is no reason to doubt but the nature of the interview, and the source whence tint ill fated king received the knowledge of his doom, has been ever, mid perhaps ever will be, an object of contention. Some have thought that the whole was a mere trick, by which a
;

Etad.

xxii. 18.

Lent. xx. 27.

Sam.

xiviii.

3,9.

Muust.

in

Sam.

xxviii. 12.

862

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

the bed, while
calf,

[CHAP. xvnr.
fatted
for

there falling flat upon the ground, remained for some time ; till at length, yieldspeechless to the importunities of his two

and

the latter prepared a

and

baked unleavened bread,

his

ing repeated attendants and the

self to

woman, he
laid to

suffered him-

be raised up, and

woman imposed upon
some
;

repose upon

as the repast was over, Saul and his companions took leave of the woman, and returned to Gilboa, where

entertainment.

As soon

cunning

believe that

of Samuel only heard

Saul's credulity, making him familiar spirit of her own was the ghost others, that as Saul did not see Samuel, but
it

his voice,

was an

effect of

ventriloquism.

But had

either of these

what is termed been the case, the

undoubtedly have been led to make the pretended Samuel's answer as pleasing to the king as possible, as well to save her own life, which by the law was in danger, She would have known as to procure a more liberal reward. better than to tell the king that he and his sons should be slain, and that the host of Israel should be delivered into the hands of their enemies a denunciation, which, had it been no more than the result of human sagacity, he might have avoided, either by flight, or submission to the invaders: for this reason, many critics have supposed that the apparition was really au evil angel, by whose assistance the woman

woman would

was accustomed
events.

to

work wonders, and

to foretel

future

construed to mean more than that Saul and his sons should be numbered with the dead, as Samuel was, and, like him, become inhabitants of the world of spirits, there to await their final and particular doom at the day of judgment. Something of the same kind is observable throughout the history of the kings of Judah and Israel, who are all said, at the close of their lives, to have slept with their fathers ; and yet nobody ever thought of impeaching the writers' veracity, though it is evident, from the great diversity of their characters, that they could not all enter the abodes of bliss, nor be all consigned to the darkness of despair. It was sufficient for Saul to be told of his approaching end : his conscience could The other objection testify the rest. " to-morrow thou shall be with me is, the apparition says ;" whereas the battle, according to some, was not fought on the next day, but a day or two after : now the time of the battle is not stated, nor is there any good reason for

But, although Satan does sometimes endeavour to " transform himself into an angel of light," it is quite incredible that he should be so "divided against himself" in this instance, as to upbraid Saul for applying to a sorceress, or that he should have accosted him in such words as these " Wherefore dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy ? And the LORD hath done to thec,* as He spake by ME: for the LORD hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, because thou What was here deobeyedst not the voice of the LORD." nounced against Saul was really prophetic, and soon fulfilled. Now, though there are created spirits, of penetration vastly fcuperior to that of the most enlarged human understanding; yet no finite intelligence could have ever found out the precise time of the two armies engaging, the success of the 1'hilistines, the consequences of the victory, and the very Saul and his sons persons who were to foil in the battle. were indeed men of tried bravery, and therefore likely to expose themselves to the greatest danger ; but then the Israelites had won many a more unlikely victory; and at the worst might have escaped by flight; and after the menaces Saul had received from the apparition, he would have been naturally led either to make peace with the enemy, or to retire from the field without exposing himself, his sons, and the whole army, to certain destruction. It is true, that we read of oracles among the heathen, which were incontest'ably either the effect of juggling, or of a demoniacal influence ; but they were never delivered in such explicit terms as this, now under consideration, and it was only after the event thai its connection with the prediction could be perceived. It has been urged, indeed, that even in this prophecy there were two falsehoods, worthy only of the father of lies: the lii>t is allegt-d to be contained in the words of the vision, " Thou and tliy sons shall be witlt me;" vet Saul died by his own hands, and therefore, say the objectors, could not enter the mansions of the blessed, where Samuel was. To this the answer is easy ; for the expression cannot fairly be
:

supposing a delay for the text says, Saul went by night to En-dor, (a distance of about 12 or 13 miles from Gilboa,) remained with the woman while she performed her incantation, and till she had killed and dressed a calf for his refreshment, which must have consumed the early part of the
:

following day, and returned to his camp the same night.t i. c. according to the Jewish mode of calculating, from sun-set to sun-set, at the beginning of the day after his interview with the apparition ; and the battle may, without violence,
still

be supposed to have been fought on the following morning, a continuation of the morrow alluded to. But even
it

granting the supposition that a day or between the consultation and the battle,
follows
that the

two intervened by no means

positively

word

"in/3

(MOHOR) does here

for
it

frequently signifies shortly, or hereafter, or in process of time ; as when Moses says, "When thy son asketli thee, ~inO (ManaR) in time to come, what mcaneth,"f &c. from which the objection appears to be groundless, on the very supposition of the parties urging it. Again, the apparition was not what the woman for when she saw it, she cried out for fear : expected and when the king exhorted her not to be afraid, and asked
;

imply the very next day following ;

replied, "I saw O7r?N (ELOHIM) gods " Now had she seen only her ascending out of the earth. familiar daemon, it is inconceivable that she should have been so frightened, or that she should have mistaken it for elohim. Upon the whole, the opinion of the ancient Jews, expressed in the book of Ecclesiasticus, (" after his death, he [Samuel] prophesied, and shewed the king his end,")|| seems to be

what she saw, she

preferable to all others, that it was Samuel himself, who appeared and prophesied ; not, indeed, at the instigation of the wretched woman, or of her dxmons ; but, to her confusion, and the disgrace of her art, sent by God to rebuke Saul's madness in a most mortifying way, as well as to deter all others from ever applying to magicians or daemons for assistance, or a knowledge of those secret things which belong

alone to God, IT
t

S
t

him (1 Saw. ximii. 17) should be ~P to thee, Greek and Vulgate versions. Keunicott. Cemjj. 1 Sam. nviii. 8, 20, SJ4, 25.
tv
witli the

as in three

Heb.

Rrod. xiii. 14. Devt. Sum. ixviii. 12, ij. i Dcut. xxix. 29.
1

vi.

20; see

alto J.s/p. iv.

||

ti,

21. Ecclut. xlvi.

2.

SECT.

V.]

DEATH OF SAUL AND

HIS SONS

they joined the army about the fall of night,(j) and found it busied in preparation for the

impending

conflict.

The next morning had scarcely dawned, when the Philistines began the attack, and a dreadful battle ensued. The Israelites were soon
put to the rout
;
;

of that unhappy monarch, as a confirmation of his story, and had put earth upon his lit ad and rent his clothes, in token of his grief. Although this intelligence was calculated to dissipate the fears of David as to his personal
his native country, he could not but be grieved for the misery that had befallen Israel, as well as for the death of his sovereign and early patron, but especially his for the loss of his beloved Jonathan sentiment was quickly imbibed by his men,

safety in returning to

Saul's

three

sons, Jonathan,

Abinadab and Malchi-shua, were among the slain and Saul himself, surrounded by the enemy's archers, and in danger of being taken by them, desired his armour-bearer to thrust him through, to prevent his falling into their hands this, his armour-bearer refusing- to do, he impetuously seized a sword, and throwing himself upon it, put an end to an existence that had become intolerable to him, in the
:

and they fasted and wept

evening.

all that day till the the messenger, instead of rewarding him, as he expected, David ordered

As

for

him
lift

to

be instantly

slain, for

having dared to

40th or 41st year of his reign. The armourbearer, seeing his master dead, under the impulse of a sympathetic frenzy, also rushed upon his own sword, and died with him.(k) Never since the days of Joshua had the Israelites experienced so complete an overthrow. Few escaped the sword of the enemy ; and this struck such a terror into those of the northern tribes, on both sides the Jordan, that many of them forsook their homes, and left their cities to be taken possession of by the
Philistines,
in
field

hand against the Lord's anointed. (o) The mourning of David did not end with the day the occasion of it made a deep impression on his mind, and he commemorated the deaths of the unhappy father and son in a most sublime elegy, which was afterwards
his
;

inscribed in the annals of his reign, to be transmitted to future ages.(p) While David was thus lamenting the fall of his persecutor, the Philistines were establishing themselves in the north, to accomplish

who immediately began

to

settle

them. Returning the next day to the of battle, the victors discovered the bodies of Saul and his sons, and after venting

which, they seem to have drawn away their forces from the south ; so that David, when he had finished his mourning, found himself at liberty to return unmolested into Jndah. He, however, forbore to do so till he had con-

their rage

upon them,(l) they hung them up But when the on the walls of Beth-shan. inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead, who appear to have been exempt from the general panic, heard of it, remembering with gratitude their former deliverance by Saul,(m) they sent out a detachment of their bravest men, who carried off the bodies by night, and after burning them, buried the ashes under a tree on which occasion they held a fast in Jabesh
;

Lord, when he was directed to He accordingly went Hebron. repair thither, and was soon resorted to by the elders of Judah, who saluted him as their king, and conferred upon him, Jul. Per. 3659. a second time, the royal uncA. M. 25M9.
sulted the
to
tion.(q)
five first

at

particulars of the years of David's reign Hebron are not recorded ;

little

The

Post Oil.
B. C.

T2JI2.

Ann. Exod.4:<7.
1055.

and as

do we know of the

affairs

of

tlie

of seven days.(n) News of this battle, and its disastrous consequences, were carried to David at Ziklag, on the third day after his return from the slaughter of the Amalekite plunderers, by a young man, who was himself an Amalekite, and who, with a

Philistines during that period, but they seem to have been chiefly occupied in securing their acquisitions in the north of Israel.

When David was

the
his

apprised of the

pious

respect

shewn by the people of Jabesh-giiead

remains of the deceased kin*;sons he sent them a message of
;

towards

view

to propitiate David, pretended that he given Saul his death-blow, at his own desire.

had

and

He

thanks, accompanied with the information that

also brought with

him the crown and

bracelet

he had

been

made king
6
13.

in

Judah, and an
2 Sam.
ii.
i.

(j) 1
(1)

Sam. xxvrii. 3 25. See before, p. 618.

fk) Hrid. xxxi.

15.

(n) 1 firm. xxxi.

(o)

110,

(m) See before, p. 630, 840.

(p;

2 Sam.

i.

1727.

(q) Ibid.

14.

8C4
invitation to

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

them
to join him :(r) but he found attached to Saul's family, whose

[CHAP.

xvm.

them more

son Jsh-bosheth, having, with Abner, escaped t! i." slaughter of Gilboa, was concealed in the mountains of Gilead, waiting a favourable
to the opportunity to assert his pretensions At length that opportunity arrived, crown.

Abner an opportunity to rally his forces, and the Benjamites posting themselves on the top of a hill, made demonstrations of a vigorous
resistance.

parley,

Abner, however, first demanded a and represented to Joab the folly of his

and

at

Mahanaim, Abner proclaimed

bosheth

Ish-

king of Israel, that JuLPcr. 3664.A A. M. 2954. f prmce being then forty years PostDil. 1297. > of age,(s) and his title was reAnn. lixod.442. 1 cognized, first by the tribes 1050 east of j orti anj w jth those of Galilee, and afterwards by Ephraim arid Benjamin. Soon after the elevation of Ish-bosheth, Abner passed the Jordan with a considerable force, and encamped at Gibeon, whither David sent a detachment under his kinsman Joab, The two armies took to observe his motions. on opposite sides of a pool ; but up positions as war had not been declared between the two monarchs, and as the troops of both were brethren, a difficulty appears to have arisen At length as to the measures to be taken. Abner proposed that twelve brave men should be selected from each army, to amuse the rest with a kind of tournament, or warlike exercise; but they no sooner got within reach of each other, than each man, as by simultaneous

continuing the slaughter of his brethren, whose destruction could not but cause bitterness in the end. To this Joab replied, that he had himself to thank for all the mischief; for had he not given the challenge in the morning, no battle would have taken place. He then caused the trumpets to sound a retreat, arid Abner, with the remainder of his troops, took the road towards Mahanaim, travelling all night, whilst Joab and his men returned to In this skirmish, there were but Hebron. nineteen men besides Asahel killed, of David's army ; but Abner and the Benjamites lost

30.(t)

Although this disastrous conflict arose out of the imprudence of the commanders of the respective armies, rather than any ill-will between the two kings, it was the forerunner of a war, which only ended with the life of Ishbosheth. The particulars are not slated only it is remarked that David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul daily became
;

antagonist by the head, into his body, so that were all killed on the spot. This bloody they feat, which became the signal for a general engagement, obtained for the place where it happened, the name of Hellcat k-hazzurim, or In the battle that followed, field of strong men. A brier's army was totally routed, and himself In the pursuit, obliged to fly for his life. which lasted till sun-set, Asahel, the younger brother of Joab, remarkable for his swiftness in running, followed close upon Abner's steps, when that general advised him to desist, or otherwise he would kill him, though against but young Asahel, ambitious his inclination of the honour of taking such a man prisoner, would not be persuaded ; whereupon, Abner, turning short upon him, thrust him through with his spear, and left him dead on the spot. It was not long before Joab and Abishai, his other brothers, came up, when seeing the dead body of Asahel, they halted, which gave*
his

consent, seized and thrust his

sword

weaker.(u) Abner used all his endeavours to strengthen his master's party ; and, notwithstanding his want of success, he set such a value upon his own services, that he scrupled not to entertain a criminal intercourse with Rizpah, the concubine of the deceased Saul. Being reprimanded by Ish-bosheth, for thus

dishonouring his father's memory, he insolently charged him with ingratitude towards the man who had set the crown upon his head, and vowed that he would from that moment join the cause of David, to whom he also dispatched messengers privately with a tender of his services to bring all Israel under his sway. David, though perfectly aware of the advantages he might derive from this offer, refused to listen to his proposals, unless he should first bring him his wife Michal, the daughter of Saul, who, soon after his banishment from that prince's court, had been given In this he to Phaltiel, as already noticed. was governed more by policy than delicate affection ; for by his reunion with Saul's family he was more likely to conciliate the Benjamites,
(t)

(r)

2 Sam.

ii.

67.

(s)

See before, p. 851, note(j).

2 Sam.'ii. 12

32.

(u) Ibid.

iii.

1.

SECT,

v.]

ABNER'S^REACHERY TO ISH-BOSHETH. THEIR DEATH.

to acquit

805

the main support of Ish-bosheth, it. To facilitate the measure, David sent ambassadors to Ish-bosheth, to demand the restoration of Michal ; and that her from prince, without hesitation, took and sent her to him under the care Phaltiel, of Abner, who had proposed himself for her In the interim of this negociation, escort. Abner had secretly communicated with the elders of the several tribes, particularly those of Benjamin, and after reminding them of the former services of David in securing their independence, and the desire they had once entertained that he should be their king, he urged upon them a prophecy that had been circulated among them, by whom does not appear, that by David the Lord would deliver Israel from the Philistines, and rescue them from all their enemies. These representations had their desired effect so that by the time Michal was ready for her journey to Hebron, the whole nation was ripe for revolt. Under

who were

than without

nivance

had

all suspicion of conthe elders of the tribes, who it; engaged with Abner for the transfer of

himself of

in

the kingdom, were confounded ; they were conscious that the un warlike Ish-bosheth was incapable of delivering them from the Philis-

but they had reason to doubt of their safety in going over to David, after seeing their chief so treacherously murdered within the precincts of his palace. Ish-bosheth, on the other hand,, was sensible that all his power had vanished with Abner, to whom he had been at first indebted for his crown ; no wonder therefore that he should be filled with trouble on his account, for as to his treason, he was unacquainted with it. How long this suspense continued, is not stated but it was at last ended by the death of Ish-bosheth, who was barbarously slain by two of his captains, Baanah and Rechab, while reposing himself on his bed in the heat of the day.
tines,
;

pretence of escorting Michal, Abner repaired to David, attended with only 20 men to prevent suspicion, and, after a most gracious reception, communicated to him the state of affairs in the different tribes. Having partaken of a feast which David had ordered for him and his company, he took his leave, and was returning home, in order to complete the submission of Israel, when Joab came in, laden with spoil, from the pursuit of some banditti ; and on being informed that Abner had been
there,

These two conspirators, who had probably been in Abner's secret, were instigated to this act, by a desire to obtain his place in
David's

esteem

they therefore cut off the

head of their murdered master, and fled with it unobserved to Hebron, where they presented it to David, at the same moment that they congratulated him on the removal of his Their reception, however, was competitor. far different from what they had anticipated for, instead of conferring honours upon them,
:

a fatal

and had been honourably entertained, jealousy possessed him, and he resolved,
his brother's death,

under pretence of avenging

to destroy a man who was likely to supplant him in his command of the army. there-

He

fore

sent a

; pretence to meeting him, on his return, at the gate of the city, he and Abishai stabbed him to the heart. David was highly incensed at this base deed, and after venting his resentment in imprecations on the perpetrators, ordered all his attendants to rend their clothes and put on sackcloth, himself setting the example, and attending the remains of Abner to the grave, with all the marks of unfeigned sorrow and respect.(v) The death of this general produced an universal consternation David was anxious.
:

some friendly messenger back Abner to Hebron and bring

with

the indignant chieftain turned away his eyes with horror from the sight, and, after reminding them of the punishment he had inflicted upon the young Amalekite, for barely pretending that he had killed Saul at his own request, commanded them to be immediately put to death, and their hands and feet to be cut off, and hung up over the pool of Hebron, for having profaned the sacred person of their king,

an unsuspecting and righteous which, he ordered the head of Ish-bosheth to be buried in the sepulchre of Abner, in Hebron.(w) This execution confirmed David's sincerity in mourning for Abner, and restored him to the confidence of the elders and chief men the revolution, therefore, which had been projected by Abner, but checked by his

and

slain

man

after

death,

burst forth,
(w) 2

and a general movement

Sam.
iv.

(v)

2 Sam,

iii.

639.

VOL.

I.

5s

860
in

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

That prince had now about seven years and reigned
Iribes.
i

[CHAP. XVIH.

David's favour took place throughout the

oooo. 1 2956. /
I2f>9.
I

J Ul. rtl.

...

A. M. Post nil.

V a half over Judah,

when

the

Ann. Exod. 444.

elders, captains, and warriors, 1048. J from one ex t rem ity of the

land to the other, to the number of nearly 3-27,000 men, besides almost 14,000 of Judah and .Simeon,(x) over whom David already reigned, with one consent, repaired to Hebron, and after making a solemn league with David, anointed him, for the third time, king over
Israel on which occasion, three entire days were devoted to festivity.(y) Besides Michal, David had at this time six
;

against the Geshnrites,(b) and having prevailed upon her to embrace the true religion, had married her conformably to the mode prescribed by Moses. (c) Some, indeed, add, that he forced her to become a proselyte against her will, and that he was punished for it in the evil that befel her two children Absalom

and Tamar.(d)

The

iirst

exploit that

his elevation to the

David undertook, after whole kingdom, was the

wives,

among whom was a

the

siege of Jerusalem, (e) a place of great strength, where the Jebusites had re-established themselves during the convulsions of Israel. When he appeared before their walls, the haughty Jebusites derided his pretensions, and, confiding in the strength of their fortifications, told him contemptuously, that the blind and the lame were sufficient for their protection ; for they had only to say, " David shall not

princess,

named
king of

Maacah, daughter Geshur, and each of them had borne him at His marriage with Maacah least one son.(z) is attributed by modern historians, (a) to his desire of strengthening himself by such an but as alliance against his rival Ish-bosheth David was too rigid an observer of the law, to be so early guilty of a breach of its precepts, the opinion of the Jews is preferable, that he had taken her captive in his excursion
;

of Talmai,

come

in

hither," to

prevent his

entrance. (f)

This taunt very

much provoked David, and

on his discovering a subterraneous passage, into the citadel, he proclaimed throughout his camp, that whoever should be courageous enough to force an entry that way, should be chief captain of all his forces.

which led

(\)

The

particulars

of

these

numbers are thus

1 Chron.
Judiih

xii.

2337

given,

Simeon
Levi

C
Ditto <
i

"
Je u"fd
]

6,800 armed with shields and spears. 7,100 mighty men. 4,600
3,700 of the house of Aaron.

'!{

22 captains of

his father's

household.

3,000 Benjamin 20,800 mighty men of renown. Ephraim Half oi Manasseb \ 1ftftftn 18 '
west of Jordan
5

which Mephiboshelh, the son of Jonathan, a youth between 12 and 13 years of age, was the next heir: but being divided among themselves, they soon after fell in with the other tribes, and submitted The whole force of Benjamin may therefore be to David. estimated much higher than 3000. Of Issachar, it is said that the 200 chiefs had a// (heir brethren at command and as that tribe was little inferior in extent to that of Zebuluu, its warriors were probably not far below them in numbers. The sum of Judah is quite disproportionate t its extent, and may be supposed to include only warriors of
to a prince of Saul's family, of
;

a certain description. Yet taking the list as it is, the whole force of Israel cannot be computed at less than 400,000

Issachar

200

chiefs, or

wise men, understand-

Zebulun

ing the times, who had all their brethren at command. 50,000 expert in the use of all warlike instruments, and dexterous in keeping rank, or setting the battle in array, i. e. learned
in tactics.

men, sufficient, it might be thought, to have secured their independence :iguiust an enemy who never brought an adequate number into the field;* but they were evidently not of a warlike turn, and never gained a victory but when the

..

..
'

Dan
Asher Reuben, Gad, and ~)

1,000 captains. 37,000 armed with shields and spears. 28,600 expert in war. 40,000

2 Sam. v. 15. 1 Chron. xi. 13. xii. 3840. '2 Sam. iii. 2 5. The sons here spoken of are supposed (?) to be only the first-born by each wife besides whom, it is there were others. probable, (a) Vide Usher, sub A.M. 2950.
(y)
;

Almighty interposed

in their favour.

the half of Ma- ( 120,000 armed with warlike instruments of all kinds. nasseh ca*t of f

Jordan Total

)
340,022

1013. See before, p. 750. Vide Munst. tw 2 Sam. iii. sub not. 6. Usher places the cap(e) $ee before, p. ,V72, 604, 784. ture of Jerusalem in the second year of David's enlarged but it is not likely that he remained so long inactive, reign with so large a force at his command.
(c) (d)
;

(b) See before, p. 860. Deut. xxi.

tribe of Benjamin had not at this time fully fallen in with the general enthusiasm for David ; they were looking

The

(( )

Se

Kennicott's liemarks, p. 106.

be*

bltc.

p.

616, notti (k) and

(I).

SECT, v,]

SAUL'S SONS HANGED,

TO APPEASE THE GIBEONITES.

8(i7

Joab immediately offered himself, succeeded in the attempt, aud carried by assault the which David made his fortress of Ziou,
residence

from
arid

that
fortified

day.
it

He
and

afterwards
suburbs,

enlarged

its

calling it the city of David; whilst Joab rebuilt the rest of the city, and surrounded it with

a strong wall from which time Jerusalem the metropolis of Judea.(g) Being thus settled in the kingdom, David lost no time in fulfilling his engagement to his
:

became

natural causes, David inquired of the Lord, and was informed, it was on account of Saul's bloody house, by whom the unoffending Gibeouitea had been persecuted, and .some of them slain, notwithstanding the oath by which Joshua had ensured their safety. On what occasion this massacre had happened is unknown ;(j) but as soon as David was apprized of the cause, he sent to the Gibeonites to know what restitution they demanded for the injury; to which they returned word, that

and he testified his respect memory by seeking out the remains of Saul's family, and shewing them Having discovered every token of favour. the only son of Jonathan, he Mephibosheth, took him into his palace, to be brought up with his own sons, restored to him all the lands of his grandfather Saul, and appointed Ziba, a person of some importance, who had formerly been in Saul's service, to be his
deceased friend Jonathan
to
his
;

they

required neither silver nor gold, but an act of retributive justice, to be inflicted by their own hands upon seven males of the house of the man who had contemplated their annihilation. This was a severe stroke upon David's sympathies but having no alternative, for the preservation of his people, he was forced to submit. Resolving, however, rJul Per .3^ to spare Mephibosheth, he I A. M. *2957.
;

steward. Mephibosheth was at this time about 13 years of age, and was lame in both his feet, owing to a fall he met with at five years of age, when his nurse, on hearing of the fatal battle of Gilboa, flew with him to the other side of the Jordan, to the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, of Lo-debar, in Gilead, where he found an asylum till David
sent for

ordered two of Saul's sons by *iaoo. ^PostDil. his concubine Rizpah, with I Ann.Exod. *444. B< c five sons of his daughter Me- ^ rab,(k) the widow of Adriel, to be delivered over to the Gibeonites, by whom they were hanged in the hill of Gibeah. At the game time, David had the remains of Saul and

him

to court.(h)

This generosity of David towards the descendants of his former persecutor met with a check, which could not but be grievous to him. For two years the land had been afflicted with a severe famine,(i) which also continued during
the
first

year of his reign

this

unable to
(g)

account

for

visitation

upon

Jonathan removed from Jabesh-gilead to Zelah, in Benjamin, where he buried them in the sepulchre of Kish; and the famine was stayed. (1) As soon as the Philistines i j v\ -j L j i fJul. Per. *3(567. heard XL that David had assumed I ^ M *-2!).>7 the sovereignty of all Israel, J p st Dil. "isoo. they went against him, and en- ) Ann. Exod. *445. * 1047 camped in the valley of Rewhile a party besieged him in the phaim, David having instrong hold of Zion.(m)
4. -

2 Sam. v. 69. 1 Chron. xi. 49. 2 Sam. iv. 4. ix. passim. (i) Usher places this famine towards the end of David's l>ut, all the circumstances reign, from A. M. 298:1 to 2980
(b)
;

To get rid of this difficulty, our translators have rendered the same word (HlV) which occurs twice in " the two different the same
wife was Meralt.
verse, two sons ways fiiM, rightly whom (fnV) she bore unto Saul ;" secondly, of Rizpah " wrong, the five sons of MICHAL the daughter of Saul, whom (mV) she brought tip for Adriel ;" as if Michal had been their foster-mother ; whereas the person meant as much bore
: ,

of the narrative considered,

it appears rather to belong to the very beginning. (j) The Jews* pretend that Saul, in one of his frenzies, had <ii>terinined to cut them all off, thinking thereby to fulfil the commandment of Moses for utterly destroying the ancient inhabitants of the land ;t but the more current opinion is, that they were slain with the priests of Nob, to

(i"PfV)

The first idea comes nearest to they were servants.! that of "destroying them from remaining in any of t4ie coasts of Israel. (k) In the text, 2 Sam. xxi. 8, these five are called the sons of Mn-!t<il, though it is clear from '2 Sam. vi. 23, that
Miclul
1

whom

those five sons to Adriel, as Rizpah bore (nTj ) her two sons to Saul ; and so it is In two expressed in the margin. Hebrew manuscripts the true name, Merah, is preserved ; though our translators, rather than admit what they sup|u^ed to be a corruption, have perverted the sense of a very
1

plain word.

||

2 Sam. xxi.

114.
1

'''"

it"

child,

and from

Sum.

xviii.
t

19, that Adriefi

vii. 2, t( at.

(m) Because it is said (2 Sam. v. 17 that David " went down to the hold" on this occasion, it has been supposed^
)

Munst. i loc. iub not. a. See before, p. 599, 770, 857.

Dtut.

$ i Sam. xxi. 5. U Universal Hilt. vol. iv. p. 62.

||

Se Kcjuuoott't

Remark,

Sue. p.

m.

868
quired of the Lord,
success,

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

made

[CHAP, xvntv

and being assured of a sally against them ; and after beating oft' the besiegers, gave battle to the main body at Baal-perazim, a name given to the spot on account of his victory, and put them to flight with such precipitation, that
they left their gods behind them, which David ordered to be burnt. They were not long
before
fetch

David was divinely commanded to take a circuit and fall upon their rear; this he did, put them to the rout, and pursued them with great slaughter from Geba to Gazer ;(n) from
whicli time the Philistines were never in condition to maintain any considerable warfare against him, or his successors. Thus prosperous.(o) with a numerous and

they

returned,
their

as
;

some suppose,

to

away

idols

on which occasion,

well disciplined seven-and-thirty

army, under the conduct of

worthies, (p)

who

had

all

that lie retired to the cave of Adidlam, and that it was there he longed to drink of the well of Beth-lehem, which occasioned three of his captains to break through the hostile host to procure lura water, as before related : but the reading given above, and in the former place,* is preferable : for it is not reasonable that David should quit so strong a fortress as
(p)

Zion, and run through the ranks of the Philistines, who were encamped between him and Adullam, to shelter himself in a cave. Some elucidation may be found 1 Chron. \\. 7, whcrf David is expressly said to have resided in the castle of Zion.
(n)
(o)

2 Sam.
2 Sam.

v.

1725.
10.

v.

1 Chron. xiv. 1 Chron. xiv. 17.

816.

The two

of these worthies, with a notice of some of their actions, is given 2 Sam. xxiii. 8 39, and 1 Chron. xi. 10 47. but require collating, on account of some omissions of transcribers, and the carelessness of translators happily one will correct the other, as may be seen in the subjoined illustrative catalogue, where the words in Italics are borrowed from Dr. Kennicott's Dissertation, to shew the corruptions in the respective texts.
list

lists

2 Sam.
ver.
8.

xxiii.

1 Chron. xi.
rer. 11.

Joshebbassebet.t the Tachmonite (Jashobeam, the

Jashobeam, an Hachmonite, or son of Ilachmoni.

Hacmonitc) of Dodo, (Dodi) the Ahohite 11. Shammah, son of Agee, (Aga) the Hararite 18. Abishai, brother of Joab
9. Elcazar, son

12. Eleazar, son of Dodo, (Dodi) the Ahohite. Wanting. See Kennicott's Remarks, p. 142. 20. Abishai, brother of Joab. 22. Beuaiah, (Benaihu) son of Jehoiada, of Kabzeel. 26. Asahel, brother of Joab.

20. Benaiah, (Be.naihu) son of Jehoiada, of Kabzeel.. . 24. Asahel, brother of Joab, (chief also of the follow. ing 30) Elhanan, son of Dodo, of Beth-lehem
25.

Elhanan, son of Dodo, of Beth-lehem.

27.

Shammah, (Shamhoth)
Elika, the Harodite

the Harodite
, .

He
28. 29.
30.

is

Shammoth, (Shamhoth) the Harorite, (Harodite.) supposed to have died, and to have been replaced

26. Helez, the Paltite (Pelonite) Ira, son of Ikkesh, the Tekoite 27. Abiezer, the Anethothite

Mebunnai, (Sibbeeai) the Hushathite 28. Zalmon, (Ilai)lhe Ahohite , Maharai, the Netophathite

29. Heleb, (Heled) son of Baanah, the Netophathite.. Ittai, (Mai) son of Ribai, of Gibeah 30. Benaiah, the Pirathonite Hiddai, (Hurai) of Gaash 31 Abi-albon, the Arbathite Azmaveth, the Barhumite (Bahurimite)
.

31

32.
-

33.

32. Eliahba,

(Elihaba) the Shaalbonite (Gouni) of the sons of Jashen 33. Jonathan (the son of) Shammah, the Hararite.... Aliiam, son of Sharar, (Shacar) the Hararite
34. Eliphelet, son of Ahasbai, the Maachathite.

34. 35.

36.

EliatD,

son of Ahithophel, the Gilonite

37.
38.

35. Ilezrai, (Hetzrai) the Carmelite Paarai, (NaaraiJ the Arbite (son of Azbai). 36. Igal, (Joal) son of (brother of) Nathan, of Zobah
(

by Zabad, son of Ahlai, ver. 41. Helez, (Heletz) the Pelonite. Ira, son of Ikkcsh, the Tekoite. Abi-ezer, the Antothite, ( Anathothite ) Sibbecai, the Hushathite. Ilai, the Ahohite. Maharai, the Netophathite. Heled, son of Baanah, the Netophathite. Ithai, son of Ribai, of Gibeah. Benaiah, the Pirathonite. Hurai, of Gaash. Abiel, ( Abi-albon) the Arbathitc. Azmaveth, the Bahariunite, ( Bahurimite.) Eliahba, (Elihaba) the Shaalbonite. ('Count, of) the sons of Hashem, [the Gizonite.] Jonathan, son of Shage, (Shammah) the Hararite. Ahiam, son of Sacar, (Shacar) the Hararite. ) (These two names are Eliphal, son of Ur corrupted from EtiHepher, the Mecharathitc. phelet, ion of Ahasbai, the Maachathite.) Ahijah, the Pelonite. (A corrupted versionofEtiam, son of Ahithophel, the Gilonite.} Hezro, (Hetzrai) the Carmelite. Naarai, son of Ezbai, (Azbai.) Joel, ( Joal) brother of Nathan, (of Tzobah.)
ji

Tzobah)
Mibhar, (a corruption of Tzobah, theplaee of Joel,) son (mistaken for Bani)of Haggeri.f/Ae Gadite.)
it is

Bani, the Gadite.

p. 857. is found in the margin ; in the text net most unactouutabl^ converted into " the same

See before,

This name

WM

improperly rendered
Adliio
tbii

"

that sat in Ihe seat,'

and the following words,

it.

lignifviiig

" he

lift

up

hii spttr,'

Kthite."

The

1 Chron. parallel passage,

11,

is

correct.

SECT, v.]

REMOVAL OF THE ARK TO JERUSALEM. UZZAH'S DEATH.

l>e

signalized themselves by some extraordinary alliance was courted by exploits, David's of Tyre, by whom he was furnishHiram, king ed with cedars, carpenters, and masons, to build him a palace in his newly acquired city,

where he also increased his number of wives, and had several children by them, in addition to those born to him at Hebron.(q)
Grateful to his Creator for the deliverances he had experienced, and for the universal

from the house of Abinadab,(s) whose two sons, Uzzah and Ahio, had the charge of it,(t) while a numerous concourse of priests and Levites sang,(u) and played upon various instruments, and a multitude of people from all parts of the country
cart

removed

at the solemnity. in a new

The ark was

accordingly

thronged

to

witness the procession.

They

peace which

now

prevailed through his king-

dom, David was desirous of making Jerusalem the centre of God's worship, by transporting thither the sacred ark, which had
continued about 70 years,(r) at Kirjath-jearim. Having consulted the elders Jul. Per. *36G8 "i an d chiefs of the tribes, and A.M. *2958!f Post Dil. i30i. > obtained their approbation of An 1 the measure, he dispatched Exod.^416.
46
'

had not, however, gone a fourth part of the way, when their joy was on a sudden suspended by an event, which filled the whole assemAt the thrashingbly with wonder and fear. floor of Nachon, the oxen that drew the cart stumbled, and had nearly overturned the
vehicle

f.

dom
as

messengers throughout his king-

to invite all

many

the priests and Levites, with of the people as were so disposed, to

with its sacred contents to prevent which, Uzzah clapped his hand upon the ark in a surprise, and was immediately struck dead for his presumption none but the priests being allowed to touch it.(v) David could not forbear expressing more than ordinary grief at this severity and becoming apprehensive of danger, should he carry the ark into his city,
;
;

yer. 37. Zelek, ( Tzelek) the

2 5am. xxiii. Ammonite Nahari, (Naharai) the Beerothite, (Barothite) armour-bearer to Joab

1 Chron.
ver. 39. Zelek.f Tzelek) the

xi.

Ammonite.

38. Ira, the Ithrite Gareb, the Ithrite 39. Uriah the Hittite

Naharai, the Berothite, (Barothite) armour-bearer to Joab. 40. Ira, the Ithrite.

Gareb, the Ithrite. 41. Uriah, the Hittite. Zabad, son of Ahlai.
42. Adiua, son of Shiza, the Reubenite, a captain off-he Reubenites, and 30 with him, (but the 30

Reckoned

whole at 37, which includes Joab, as captainmentioned 1 Chron. xi. 6, the same chapter that contains the catalogue ; but disjoined in Samuel.
in the

general,

In the opposite column, from Chronicles, three or four names contained in this, are wanting but three others are inserted, so that the number is the same iu both, to Uriah. The alterations introduced from Kennicott's Dissertation on the two chapters removes the difficulty, by shewing the variations to have arisen from corruptions of the Hebrew Text. Of the 16 additional names
;

were his superiors.) 43. Hanan, son of Maachah. Joshaphat the Mithnite. 44. Uzzia, the Ashterathite, (Astarothite.)
Jehiel

sons
I

^ ^otlian, (

Hotham)
. .

the Aroerite.

45. - Joha,

Jediael, ( Jedihel) the Shimrite 1

to have supplied the place died soon after his appointment; and the other lo were probably chiefs of the army on the east of the Jordan, as all their local titles in Chronicles,

Zabad appears

the Tizi.e, (Titzite) . . 46. Eliel, (Jeliel) the Malta vite.

Jeribai.
. .

sons of

,.,.

Shlmn

'

of Elikn,

who probably

Jo S haviah|

r sonsofElnaam

indicate.

Ithoiah, the Moabite. 47. Eliel, and Obed, and Jasiel,

the Mesobaite, ( Met-

xobaites.)

The number (q) 2 Sam, v. 1110. 1 Chron. iii. of David's wives and concubines, after he left Hebron, is not stated the text only says he had ten sons by them from which the Talmudists gather that he had 10 in all, besides Hence they have made a law Michal, who was barren. that a king ought to have no more than 18 wives ; and they believe that all Solomon's miscarriages were owing to his
; ;

19.

bishop Usher; reckons (hat it was in the first sabbatical year the ark was removed from Gilgal to Shiloh, and likewise in sucli another year that it was removed from Kirjathjearim to the city of "David ; also that the 08th Psalm \va*

sung by the people

(s)
(t)

in this solemn,

procession.

having exceeded that number.* Maimonidcs, however, was not of this way of thinking. t (r) See before, p. 015, note (i), and p. 840, note (k). Arch'

(u)
xiii.

vi. 3. 1 Chron. xiii. 7. See Kennicott on 2 Sam. vi. 5, compared with 1 Chrov. 8 I{cmarks, p. 100.
;

Sam. 2 Sam.
1

vii.

1.

(v)

Numb.

iii.

10.
{

iv.

15.

Vide Prac. Kegat.

ccxxii.

Sec before,

p.

751.

Annal sub A. M. 1959.

870
be ordered
it

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

to

[CHAP. xvin.

be taken aside to the house

oi

:o

his

high
for

Obed-edom, the son of Jeduthun, the Gittite, where it continued about three; inonths.(w) Jt is surprising that neither David nor the recollected the mode laid priests should have down l>y Moses for removing the ark; and that they should have placed it in a vehicle that could only remind them of its capture by the Philistines,(x) instead of its triumphant shoulders of the entry into Canaan, on the was not long before David It
priests.(y)

when she came out

d him
part of a

station of king of Israel; and to meet him, she reproach-

it, telling fool.

him

that he

had acted the

replied, that

To which David

soever he might appear in her eyes, lie had done it ia honour of that God who liad raised him to the throne in preference to all her father's house ; and that if his pious

iow

vita

humility
still

was offensive to her, she would find farther cause of complaint, as he was

became sensible of this error, and he remindAt the same time he ed the priests of it. the presence of the ark had proved learned that a blessing to the house of Obed-edom, instead

in the

resolved to persevere in that conduct, which end would certainly be most honourable to him. This arrogance of Michal brought her a visitation from God, and she remainupon ed barren all her days.(b)

of a severe judgment, as he had apprehended and he determined once more to bring it home Having to him, but in a more regular manner. therefore prepared a new and Jul-Per. 369.>> A.M. sumptuous tabernacle(z) tor its 2959.,
;

The ark being placed in its new depository, David's next care was to appoint the class* of priests and Levites who were to officiate
.-

before

it,

He

according to their several functions.

selected a

also

number

of singers and

reception within the precincts Ann.Exod.440. of his palace, he assembled the 1045. B. C. with the priests and Levites, elders of the tribes and captains of the armies,
Post
Oil.

130-J.

musicians to celebrate the praises of God in their turns, on festivals and other solemn occasions, and gave them a psalm to begin with, which must ever be admired for its sublimity

and went to Obed-edom's house to fetch away that mysterious symbol of the divine presence. As soon as those who bore the ark had moved six paces from the house, they stopped, while David made an offering of seven bullocks and as many rams, probably intended as a

and

grateful devotion. (c) after this, David hinted to the Nathan his wish to build a magnifiprophet

Not long

cent temple to the

God

of Israel

and the
his pious

prophet at intention.

where Uzzah had peace-offering, on the spot met his death. When this ceremony was over,
the procession of the people, the Levites ; and ephod of

went forward, amid the shouts and the music and singing of David himself, clad in a robe
tine linen,

going at their head, dancing and playing upon his harp. As soon as the ark had reached its destination, and was deposited in the tabernacle prepared foi offered a great number of burntit, David sacrifices and peace-offerings ; after which he made a feust to the people, and then dismissed them with a blessing. (u)
passed through the city, dancing before the ark, his wife JVlichal, who behelc the procession from her window, could not forbear despising his conduct, as derogatory
(w)
(x)
(y)
(z)
'2

warmly applauded But that same night, he was commissioned by the Lord to inform the king, that, although his design was highly acceptable yet as his hands had been so often defiled with blood, he was an improper person for such a work but he should leave a successor to his wealth and kingdom, whose reign should be blessed with profound peace, and
; ;

first

who
it

should execute his plan with the greatest

splendour.

Upon him

also

and

his posterity,

As David

promised that the throne of Israel should be settled for ever; though the prosperity they would enjoy should depend upon their obedience to the divine precept; an aberration from which would at all times incur the chastisement of the Lord, though he would, nevertheless, not withdraw his mercy altogether from them.(d) In the message, there was an
abode
(a)

was

Sam.

vi. I

11.

1 Citron,

xiii

passim.

for the ark, while

it,

See before,

614. Sri before, p. 765.

p.

plated for
(b
N

The

original
all

the altar, and

tabernacle, constructed by Moses, with its other .-acred utensils, remained a

Gibeon, till Solomon removed them into his temple. Per baps David intended his new tabernacle only as a temporary

2 Sam. vi. 1219. 1 Citron, xv. 128. xvi. 15. 2 Sam. vi. 20 23. 1 Chron. xv. 29. 43. (C) 1 Ckrun. xvi. 4 For some critical and judicious observations on (d prophecy, see Kennicott's Remarks, &c. p. 107.

he built the house he had contembut which he was obliged to relinquish.

this

SECT. V.]

DAVID'S VICTORIES

OVER VARIOUS ENEMIES.

He
also subjugated

871

prophetic allusion to the Messiah; who, David now understood, was to proceed from him penetrated, therefore, with gratitude, he went and prostrated himself before the divine presence, and in the most humble and pathetic terms, acknowledged his extreme un worthiness of such great mercies, and his reliance on the omnipotent God for the fulfilevident
:

the

Moabites, and m;ide

:i

them tributaries ;(i) and H-HM.si^,, a! del' at to Hadadezer, king of /o'>ah, which enabled him to put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and to exact tribute from those parts. (j) A
similar fate also

happened

to

Jul. Per.

3G7 J.

them.(e) this time, David began to lay up immense stores of gold, timber, precious stones, and other materials, for the use of that sou, whom God had promised to honour in so particular a manner; and this he was the more easily enabled to do by the wealth he acquired from his wars with the Philistines, Moabites, Amalekites, Syrians, and Edomites, of which an account has been given in the several histories of those people.(f) The economy of this prince was equal to his success for, observing that a numerous army, while it exhausted his treasury, occasioned too large a portion of the lands to lie uncultivated, he appointed twelve bands, of 24,000 men each, with proper officers over them, to serve each in their respective months in the year; after which they were dismissed to their own private affairs for the other eleven

ment of

From

the Edomites, who, after AbiA. M. -2!(M. Post Dil. M307. shai, the brother of Joab, had \nn.t\od. !.!. slain 18,000 of them in the valB. C. -1040. ley of salt, were obliged to receive garrisons and pay tribute. (k) Soon after these successes, David received a most scandalous insult from Hanun, king of the Ammonites, to whom he had sent a message of condolence on the demise of his father Nahash, an old friend of

David during

Jul. Per.

his

adversity. (1)

To avenge

He also appointed twelve expert over his finances, under two principals; persons and judges in every tribe, to administer justice to the people ; besides those of his great council, who had the concerns of religion and
months.
state

this affront, Joab was sent with a powerful army, and he gained a complete vicThe tory over Hanun and his confederates. who were among them, came against Syrians, David in the following year with fresh forces, but were so roughly handled by that prince, that they were glad to petition for the privilege of becoming tributaries, after thei" country had been laid waste by Joab. The Ammonites would have done the same; but David was too exasperated and too successful against

3677. 29C7. Post Dil. 1810. Ann.E.xod. 46(>. B. C. 1037.

A.M.

them, not to pursue his victory to the utmost; and Joab, after overrunning the open country,
laid

siege

to

their

capital

Rabbah,
Jul Per.
A. M. Post Dil.
B. I.

where
*3C78. "2068. '1311.
I.')U.

Hanun had

under their care.(g)

he had after year the ark to Jerusalem, brought being the 12th of his reign, David attacked the Philistines, and took Gath from them.(h)

Jul. Per.

*3670. A. M. *2960. Post Oil. *1303.

The

Ann. Exod.448.
B. C.

shut himself up. About this period four battles were fought between the Israelites and Philistines, as narrated in the history of the latter.(m) In the first of these, David nar-

Ann.Exod."

"1030.

*1044.

rowly escaped being killed by one of their

spoken of as taking the
field in person but as he had fought with Ihe Syrians the year before, it is to be presumed that the battle with Ishbi-benob, and the consequent inbibibitiou, took place in the interval; that is, behveeu the overthrow of the Syrians and the siege of Rabbah. This suggestion derives considerable force from the names of the four captains who slew the gigantic champions of the Philistines being enumerated in the list of David's worthies* along with that of Uriah the Hittite, which, us he was kUled at the siege alluded to, would hardly have happened, had not their feats of valour been performed before his dealh ; yet as this catalogue also contains the name of Asahel, the brother of Joab, who was slain before David's accession to the whole kingdom, it may have been made out before any of these transactions took place.
:

(e)
(f)
1

2 Sam.

vii. 1 Citron, xvii. See before, p. 563, G19, 626, 645

and 2 Sam.

viii.

11.

Cftron. xviii. 11. viii. (g) 2 .Sam.

1518.

Ckron. xxvii.

In the former
trans-

place, the

names of Ahiuielech and Abiathar are

(i)

posed.
(h)
(j)

See before, p. 619. IbW. p. 663. (k) Ibid,

p,

64o.

Ibid. p. 626. (1) Ibid. p. (J30.

These battles are usually placed (m) Ibid. p. G19. towards the close of David's reign, according to the order they are found in the books of Samuel and Chronicles ; but the evidence to the contrary, if not irrecusable, is of considerThe danger that David incurred in the combat able weight. with Ishbi-benob, occasioned his men to swear that he should not again run such risks and accordingly we find him at home during the siege of Kabbah, nor it he afterwards
;

Corop. 2 Sam. xxi.

1582. xxiii.

39. 1 Cftron.

xi.

10

47. xx.

48.

872

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

;

[CHAP, xviir.

gigantic champions upon which his officers bound themselves by an oath that he should no more go out to battle, lest his death should
state into confusion. From each of these conflicts the Israelites came off victori-

enjoyments,
soldiers

throw the
ous,

and David recorded his gratitude for his preservation by writing the 18th Psalm. Thus far we have had in general to admire the constancy, the valour, the prudence, and the
piety, of the Israelitish hero ; but we are now brought, in the course of his history, to a

while his general and fellowwere exposed to the fatigues of war. and sleeping on the bare ground. The king tried him a second time, on the following day, after making him eat at his table, and drink plenty of wine but with no better success. Upon this the disappointed monarch resolved
;

to

sacrifice

his
;

life,

to

preserve that of his

faithless wife

and he accordingly dispatched

melancholy proof of the weakness of human nature when men cease to depend on God and we have to relate au act, or series of actions, whose turpitude has fixed an indelible stain on his character, and tarnished all the lustre of his former noble actions ; at a time of life too, (for David was in his 50th or 51st year,) when the exuberance of youthful vivacity and inconsideration could not he referred to as a palliative. The conduct of the war with the Ammonites and their allies had been committed to J a ^ an d while that general Jiil. Per. 3679.1
;

him with a letter to Joab, desiring that general to expose him to the most dangerous situations, and to leave him to the mercy of the besieged: Joab complied with the terms of this letter so in a short time David successfully, that received news of Uriah's death SGSO xj u p cr 2970! upon which, as soon as the cere- \ A. M. PostDil. 1313. monies of an artificial mourn<^
;
j '

ing were over, he

sheba his wife, she was delivered of a son.(o)

made Bath- I Ann.Exod.4o8. B> C and in due time ^

'

While David was congratulating himself on the success of the stratagem which had saved him from exposure, and secured to him
the object of his desire, the prophet Nathan appeared before him, divinely commissioned to awaken in his breast a sense of his crime by a parabolic address to his passions, which led him to pronounce judgment upon himself. With this view, the seer related a story of a

A. M. 2969. 9 PostDil. 1312. V Ann.ExocL457. I

was engaged in the siege of Rabbah, which held out for two years against him, David,
at

loitering

home

in luxurious

became enamoured of a beautiful woman, named Bath-sheba, whom, from the terrace roof of his palace, he had observed bathing herself one evening in her garden. She was the daughter of Eliam, and the wife of Uriah, two of his bravest captains,(n) who were then with Joab at the siege. Yielding to an inordiease,

wealthy

man,

who
and

had

spared

his

own

numerous

flocks,

seized

upon an only

nate impulse and criminal desire, he sent for her, and, at the hazard of his reputation, disclosed his fatal passion. In this, however, he ran no risk ; for instead of indignantly rejecting the insult offered to her honour, Bath-sheba listened to his proposals, and in a short time She was now in proved pregnant by him. danger of being put to death as an adulteress, to prevent which, David sent for her husband from the siege, under pretence of informing himself respecting the war, in hopes of his spending a night or two with her. Uriah, however, evaded the snare, by sleeping at the gate of the palace among the king's guard, alleging that it would be derogatory to his character as a captain, to seek after domestic
(n) Comp. 2 Sam. xi. 3. xxiii. 34, 39. Joscphus says Uriah was Joab's armour-bearer. He was surnamed the Hittite, either because he was a proselyte of that nation, or,

favourite lamb of his poor neighbour, to feast a hungry guest, with such energy and pathos, that David hastily pronounced sentence of death and fourfold restitution against the person who had been guilty of such horrid
violence. But when the prophet sounded in " Thou art the his ears the awful declaration, man ;" and pointed out his enormous guilt iu

bed of a faithful captain, when he had so many wives of his own, and causing an innocent man to be killed by the enemy's sword,
defiling the

a sensuality that ought to have been to him concluding with a prediction that the murder of Uriah would be visited by endless bloodshed among his own
to gratify

abhorrent

posterity;

and that

his adultery,

though com-

mitted in private, should be punished by the open defilement of his own wives in the face of the sun ; David was at once abashed,
which
(o)
is

more

likely,
xi.

because he had achieved some warlike

exploit against them.

2 Sam.

passim,

SECT, v.]

BIRTH OF SOLOMON. A MNON'S INCEST, AND DEATH.

'

afflicted, aiul dismayed ; and he could only I huve sinned exclaim, against the Lord!" The sincere remorse, with which this penitent acknowledgment was uttered, ohtained an immediate mitigation of punishment, so far as

respected his

own

life,

against which ho had

himself pronounced;

but the infant whom Bath-sheba had borne was doomed to death,

and was struck with sickness the very moment David in vain tried that Nathan departed. to obtain a reprieve by prayers, fasting, lying all night on the bare earth, and other tokens
of repentance ; but the little victim of its parents' crimes died on the seventh day ;(p) on which occasion David composed the fiftyfirst

Psalm.

U ' Jul. Per. ! 3681.^ David was A. M. 2971.1 happy transaction, Post Dil. 1314. V sent for by Joab to finish the Ann. Exod. 459. 1 Ammonitish war: the city of **} Kabbah had been reduced to the last extremity by famine, and Joab felt it due to his sovereign to let him have the honour
fo lowi "g

The

commissioned to add that of Jedulinli, or Helovad of lite L.ord,(s) as lit- afterwards proved. David was now at the summit of his proshis dominion, widely extended on perity side, enjoyed every profound tranquillity his enemies were all prostrate at his feet; and he might have felicitated himself with the anticipation of future days and years of ease and glory, in which his only care would be the education of his darling son Solomon, bad not the denunciation of the prophet still vibrated on his ears. Nor was it long before a circumstance occurred in his /-j u p cr ~j, -JOTS! family, which proved that the % \.ivi. threatening had not been in 1 Post Dil. *1315.
: ; i

}1{

.>

of taking it in person. Collecting, therefore, all the troops in and about. Jerusalem, David repaired to the camp, stormed the city, took the crown, of immense value, from Hanun's head, who had been slain in the conflict ; and the inhabitants treated with unparalleled
severity .(q)
Jul. Per.

his eldest son, J Ann. B C-Exod.^460. the Jezreelitess, ^ entertained an ungovernable passion for his half-sister Tamar, the daughter of Da\id by the princess Maachah, the mother also of Absalom, and had for some time languished under its effects; till at length, counselled by his cousin Jonadab, he got her by stratagem into his bed-chamber, where, in spite of her remonstrances, he forced her to an incestuous act. No sooner were his desires gratitied, than
vain.

Amnon

by Ahinoam

'

he
to

conceived a
his

violent than

disgust against her, more love had been; and unable

*:M88i.-\

A. M. *2$m. I Post Dil. *1314. > Ann. Exo<L'459. 1

l3 '-'

Soon after David's return from this expedition, Bathsheba presented him with anot j, er son> w hom he called Solomon, a name significant of

the peace then prevailing in Israel, as well as of his future pacific reign ; for David had received some divine intimation that this was the son of whom the prophet Gad had spoken ;(r) and to this name, Nathan was

bear her presence any longer, yet finding a just and modest reluctancy in her to withdraw, he caused her violently to be, turned out of the house by his servants. Her grief and confusion would suffer her only to think of her misfortune, and how to express her sense of it by the most lively tokens tearing, therefore, her virgin robes, covering her head with dust, and filling the air with her cries, she repaired to the house of her brother Absalom, as the most proper person to procure her redress. That prince was immediately filled with ideas
:

of Dr. Kennicott, on the alleged inhumanity of David towards the " One Ammonites, is worth transcribing heavy charge has been urged against him [David] from this part of the sacred
p. 631.
:

(p) 2 Sam. xii. (q) See before,

123.
The
following remark

represented him sawing, and harrowing, and chopping, all the Ammonites: a savage representation! which has raised much clamour among the enemies of revelation. But a charge so severe as this, and so very unlikely to be true, .should be examined into with great care and if the original records are consulted accurately, they will, I humbly apprehend, set the matter in a different light. Here, in Samutl, the two first words signify et posvit in serra, as in the interlinear Latin version; which words are a true
history, as if
it
:

key to the following, and fairly shew, that David put them the. sou', and sentenced them to the other hard works of The whole mistake here seems to have arisen slavery. from an error in the Hebrew text of the parallel place in Chronicles, by the omission of one small part of one letter for the word, instead of OUM, et posuit, is now "KD'l, et This corruption was probably serrai-it, in 1 Chron. xx. !J. But very ancient, because expressed in the Greek version. sfill there can be little doubt, that the two words were at

TO

the same and if so, the context requires the word in Samuel ; especially as that reading is confirmed by five Hebrew manuscripts in Chronicles." Kennicott's Remarks on Select Passages in the Old Testament, p. 118. (r) 1 Chron. xxii. 9. (s) 2 Sam. xii. 24, 25.
first
;

VOL.

I.

5-B

874

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP. xvni.

of vengeance ; but, no less politic than revengeful, he desired her for the present to conceal her grief, as it was a brother who was the cause of it, and to spend the remainder of her Notwithstanding days in solitude with him. this caution, the report reached David's ears, and though exceedingly troubled at it, he could not resolve on punishing his eldest son farther than by an expression of his displeasure. (t) This forbearance still more inflamed the haughty mind of Absalom, though he did not find an opportunity to gratify his resentment, till two years after, when, the better to irA i conceal his intention, he injui. rer. 0004. -\
A. M.
*2974. / Post Dil. *1317. > Ann.Exod. *462. 1

so great, but that the news arrived before them, and word had been brought to the king that Absalom had caused the whole of his brethren to be assassinated. Jonadab only, the infamous contriver of Amnon's incest, rightly guessed how the matter was ; he told David that Absalom had determined it from the day of

disgrace and his conjecture was confirmed by the arrival of the young princes, who, scarcely recovered from their fright,
his sister's
;

father and all his brothers to a sheep-shearing festival, which he was to make
vited his
at

,,

had happened. The king some time the death of Amnon, till his attention was drawn off by intelligence, no less afflictive to him, that Absalom had gone into voluntary exile, and was fled to his
told him mourned
all

that

for

signal to his servants, whom he had previously instructed, and they immediately drew their

the neighreadily excused the king, who declined going from a principle of economy ; but being urgent that his brother Amnon should favour him with his presence, along with the rest of his brethren, he obtained David's consent to let them go. royal entertainment was accordingly prepared for them, and they were received by Absalom with every mark of fraternal affection but as soon as he perceived that the wine had put them off their guard, he gave a

30>J

Baal-hazor,

in

bourhood of mount

Ephraim.

He

He therefore remained *. Jul Per * 3687> three years at the court of his V A. M. *2J>77. grandfather, and would pro- < Post Dil. *1320. Ann.Exod.M66. bably have remained there J had not Joab interfered, V longer,
it.

maternal grandfather Talmai, king of Geshur.(u) Although David was desirous of Absalom's return, he could not with propriety recal him, and Absalom was too haughty to sue for

and by a stratagem procured an oath from

the king that he should not be punished for the murder of his brother ; upon which that general repaired to Geshur, and fetched him

swords

upon Amnon,

and slew him.

The

rest of the princes, terrified beyond measure, fled from the table, and, mounting their mules, rode away to Jerusalem. Their speed was not
(t) The Greek and Vulgate versions contain a censure upon David's conduct on this occasion, which is wanting in the present copies of the Hebrew text. It is said, 2 Sam. " But when xiii. 21, king David heard of all these things, he was very wroth ;" to which those versions add, " yet he would not grieve the soul of Amnon his son for he loved
;

home; but for two years afterwards David would not permit him to appear at court.(v) It was soon after Absalom's ^ Jul Per * 3688 that David received an \ A. M. return, *2978. embassy from Hiram II. who < Post Dil. *1321. had newly ascended the throne / Ann.Exod.' ^B c
of Tyre,(w) with fresh supplies
disgrace.
"

"

him, because he was his first-born." Josephus has something to the same effect, which he is supposed to have copied from the Hebrew text as it stood originally.
(u)

2 Sam.

xiii.

(v) Ibid. xiv. 1

28.

It

is

at this

period of Absalom's

history, that the writer of the second book of Samuel notices his having three sons and one daughter ; the names of the

former are not given, but the latter is called Tamar, and she " of a fair countenance is said to have been ;" yet the same writer afterwards* says, that Absalom reared a pillar in the king's dale, to perpetuate his name, because he had no son ; so that we must conclude the three sons first mentioned, to Lave died in their infancy, during the time of Absalom's
Comp. 3 Sam.
xiv. 27. xviii. 18.
t 1

A much greater difficulty arises as to his daughter he had but one, or Maachah, if he had two ; for the latter, who married Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, is called iu two placest the daughter of Absalom, or Abishalom ; and in a third,! where her name is altered to As Uriel is Michaiah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. nowhere else mentioned, it is impossible to discover who he really was ; but from his residence at Gibeah, he may be considered as of Saul's family, and perhaps the father of Maachah's mother, whom the ambitious Absalom married to consolidate the interests of the two families; and when Absalom was cut oft", amid the confusion of civil war, his wife might retire, with her infant daughter, to the house of her father, who thereby becoming a kind of foster-father to his grand-daughter, may have given rise to the misapplication of her parentage in the passage alluded to ; or Uriel may have been the husband of Tamar, Absalom's daughter; in which case Maachah would be the grand-daughter of
Tamar,
if

that prince.^ (w) See before, p. 672.

t

Kings, iv.

2.

2 Chrm.

xl. i'O,

21.

2 C/iron.

iiii.

L'.

$ Universal Hist. vol. iv. p. 11-t, note (Z).

SECT. V.]

ABSALOM'S REBELLION.
saries in the various tribes,

of stores for the intended temple, to complete the preparations for which, David was now most anxious.(x) In the mean time, Absalom viewed with an envious eye the exertions that

had such an
in

effect

about four mind, upon after his return from Geshur, the years(z) whole nation was ripe for revolt: even the
that
king's captains and council did not escape the general defection ; for among the former, the cause of Absalom was espoused by Amasa,(a) the son of Abigail, David's sister; as it was among the latter, by Ahithophel.(b) the grandfather of Bath-sheba, a most profound

the public

were making

to give

unprecedented splendour

to the succeeding reign ; and he was impatient at being excluded his father's presence, his admission to which, he conceived might induce

a transfer of the succession from the infant

Solomon

to himself, in

whom

were combined

the advantages of popularity, bravery, and superior birth, as being the son of a princess. Full of these ideas, he sent twice for Joab, who refused to see him resolved, however, upon an interview, he ordered his servants to 8et tire to some of Joab's adjacent corn, and
:

brought him, when, after some mutual passionate expostulations, the geneJul Per *3689 ^ ra l agreed to speak to the king A. M. *2979* / Post Oil. *i322. > and his intercession proved so
this
;

A. M. purpose, 28i. permission of his father to per- < Post Oil. 1324. form a pretended vow in He- / Ann.Exod.469. C 23 ' *bron, and he set off with a retinue of two hundred men to meet the chiefs of his party, who were there wailmg for him, whilst others, dispersed through the
'
'

and sagacious politician. Every thing being ready for fJul his Absalom obtained V

Per>

3691>

Ann. Exod.M67.

favour,

effectual, that Absalom was 2o '-' shortly reinstated in his father's and received at court with every
1

demonstration of tenderness.(y) This reconciliation could not but convince Absalom of his father's extraordinary affection towards him but finding him still determined upon Solomon's succession to the throne, he resolved to counteract that intention, and even,
:

if

necessary,

to

seize

the

crown before

his

prince's popularity was already considerable, for he was of a comely person and fascinating address ; and to infather's death.
it, he provided a sumptuous equipage of chariots, horses, and running footmen, to and by excite the admiration of the populace for the distress of those an affected compassion

The

crease

to the royal tribunal for justice, he to raise discontents at the existing contrived order of things, with a notion that his own

who came

tribes, were instructed to proclaim him k as soon as they heard the sound of the trumpet. The noise of this unnatural rebellion quickly reverberated in Jerusalem, where David was ; and, to save the city from the horrors of a sihe resolved upon an immediate flight: leaving therefore the care of his palace to ten of his concubines, he retreated with all possible speed into the open country, with the rest of his family, and such of his officers and troops as still retained their allegiance. Among the little company who resolved to share the fortunes of their injured master, were the highpriests Abiathar and Zadok, at the head of several Levites, who, unobserved by him, had brought out the ark of the covenant. As soon as David perceived them, he forbade them to proceed, but desired them to carry the ark back to the city, whence they might send him intelligence of all that passed, and occasionally assist him with their counsel, whilst

administration would be more equitable, and These the people more happy under it. added to the activity of his emispractices,

he concealed himself
of the wilderness.

in

some convenient

As soon

departed,

in

compliance

part as the priests had with this advice,

2 Sam. xiv. 2833 (z) So Josephm, Theodoret, the Syriac version, the Vulgate of Sixtus, and several Greek and Latin manuscripts. The Hebrew text (2 Sam. xv. 7,) reads " after forty years," but without stating any aera from which they are to be computed and though Usher* very ingeniously calculates them from David's first anointing by Samuel, the two events
(y)
;

(x) 1

Chron.

xxii. 5.

hi'

Geshur, remained :wo years in Jerusalem before he was admitted to his father's presence, and some time would be afterwards requisite for maturing his plans, which may be assumed at two years more, it can scarcely be doubted that the true number is 'bur years, reckoned from his return from exile. 1 Chron. ii. 16, 17. (a) 2 Sam. xvii. 25.
as
(b)
xxiii.

we

original writer had any such intention. rind Absalom, after his return from

On

the contrary,

are so totally unconnected, that

Annul, sub A.

it

is

impossible to believe

2 Sam.
34.

xv.

12, 31. xvi. 20, et seq.

Comp.

si.

3.

M.

2911.

5x2

87 6

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

that Aliithophel
lity

[CHAP.

xvm.

was gone which he prayed upon the counsel earnestly that God would confound of that celebrated statesman; and soon after he and his little troop ascended mount Olivet.
David was informed
over
to

Absalom

The

inarch was inexpressibly mournful; the venerable monarch, with his head uncovered, and his feet bare, ascended slowly ; while his evinced flowing tears and heart-rending sighs the acuteuess of his feelings ; and his sorrowful retinue, unable to offer consolation in such a concern by the trying moment, manifested their On strongest expressions of unfeigned grief. offered reaching the summit of the mount, they

so enraged some of David's captains, that hey were for seizing him, and smiting off his lead but David restrained them, by observng, that since his own son sought his life, it waa not wonderful that this Benjamite, an alien from his family, should thus vent his malice adding, that if these curses came from God, patience and resignation would more ffectually avert their effect, than an ill-timed
; :

up their humble supplications to the Almighty; and were immediately afterwards joined by Hushai the Archite, an old friend of David,
with his clothes rent, to share the dangers and afflictions of his beloved prince. At David's request, however, he consented to back, and ingratiate himself with the

resentment.(e) In the mean time, Absalom and Ahithophel lad entered Jerusalem, where Hushai, accordng to David's instructions, was the first to greet them. The young prince at first hesitated to receive him; but a little flattery soon dispersed his doubts, and Hushai was admitted into his counsels. The first act of Absalom,
after his entry into Jerusalem, was,

who came

pursuant

to the advice of Ahithophel, to

have a pavilion erected on the roof of the palace, where he

violated his father's concubines, in the face of This, as being the greatest open day.(f) that could be offered to a crowned indignity head, the subtle Ahithophel advised him to, as the most effectual means of making his

go

usurper, that he might have an opportunity

of thwarting the counsels of Ahithophel, and of giving timely notice of the resolutions and intentions of the rebels.(d)

Proceeding on his melancholy route, David

men

was met by Ziba, the treacherous servant of Mephibosheth, who brought him some seasonable refreshments and on being asked where his master was, replied that he was at Jerusa;

fight desperately, because they would then consider the breach as irreconcileable ; and Absalom, who had already been guilty of

lem, expecting to be restored to his grandThis was a falsehood ; for father's throne.

Mephibosheth, who had been lame from his youth, had desired Ziba to saddle him an ass, that he might go after the king; instead of His which, he had set off without him. credit with the exiled story, however, gained monarch, who immediately transferred the whole property of Mephibosheth to the unAt the village of Bahurim, a worthy Ziba.
of Saul's family, named Shimei, the son of Gera, came out, and in the most opprobrious terms, accompanied with bitter imprecations, accused Dav id with being the author of all Saul's misfortunes, and the usurper of his throne, which by a just retribution, he said, was now wrested from hirn by his own son. The forbearance of the these reproaches king, who patiently endured was but an encouragement to the reviler's inso-

man

and rebellion against his father, scruple to add incest and adultery to his other crimes; whereby he fulfilled, though unconsciously, one part of Nathan's threatening prediction. (g) Ahithophel next that he should be sent with 12,000 proposed chosen men, to fall upon David's little army, while it was exhausted with the fatigues of flight assuring Absalom, that as soon as the was taken off, which himself engaged to king do, all the people would gladly come over to him. This counsel was approved by the prince, and the elders in his interest; and if pursued, would probably have been fatal to the royal cause but as it was given in the absence of Hushai, Absalom was desirous of having his
fratricide,

made no

opinion, before it was carried into execution. Hushai was therefore sent for, when he argued against the measure, by representing that David

and

his officers

suffer themselves to

were too well experienced to be thus surprised that they

;

lence, and he at length began to pelt him and This indighis company with stones and dirt.

had perhaps already

caverns, or
(f )

fortified

themselves in

among
xvi.

the rocks,

whence they would

(g) Ibid. xii. 11.

(<1)

2 Ham.

xv. pastiin.

(i) Ibid. xvi.

114.

2 Sam.

1023.

SECT. V.]
sally out with

ABSALOM'S DEFEAT, AND DEATH.

such desperate fury as the few

877

troops be able to withstand, and if these should he cut off in the onset, the rest of the nation would become disheartened, and desert their cause. He, therefore, thought it best to let David alone for the present, till all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, could be collected together, when he and his handful of men might be easily surrounded, and either cut off, or forced
to surrender to such superior numbers. This plausible representation, so artfully delivered, pleased the young prince and his compa-

recommended by Ahithophel would not

conduct of Joab and his brother Abishai, and the third under Ittai the Gittite, who had
offered
capital.

his

He had

services, when the also resolved

person against his rebellious people strenuously opposed it, alleging that

king left his to appear in son; but tin-

nions much better than the less ostentatious advice of Ahithophel the idea of raising the whole nation in their favour was so dazzling, in comparison of an adventure with 12,000 men only, that they resolved to adopt Hushai's plan. Ahithophel alone saw the dangerous consequences that must result from that the cause and himself were init, and evitably lost he was also piqued at finding his counsel neglected, and a preference given to that of Hushai, who, he could easily penetrate, was in David's interests ; so that, under an accumulation of chagrin, he rode away to his house at Giloh, with all possible speed,
;
:

was of too great consequence to be hazarded at a time when his single death would be preferred by the enemy to the defeat of the whole army. David acquiescing, remained at Mahanaim, with a small reinforcement; and whilst his men marched out before him, he gave their officers a strict charge to be very tender of Absalom's life. A fierce battle was soon after fought in the forest of Ephraim, or rather of Ephron, which ended in the defeat of the rebels, with the loss of 20,000 men killed on the spot, besides many more who perished in the wood, and in their flight. Absalom himself, mounted upon a mule, was
his life

forced to rly into the forest, where the thick boughs of a large oak caught him by the head,(k) and, the mule running at full

speed, he was

and there hanged

himself.(h)

left suspended between heaven and earth, without the power to extricate himself. Joab, on being informed of this accident, ran to the place, and thrust three darts, or javelins, through his body, while ten young men,

lost no time in apprising David of his impending danger, in consequence of which, the old king crossed the Jordan at midnight, and arrived the next morning at Mahanaim, whither several of his loyal sub-

The

faithful

Hushai

jects of Gilead repaired with a supply of provisions, tents, and other necessaries.(i) \\ hat success Absalom met with, in his appeal to the people at large, is not stated, but it does not appear that he was very fortunate : collecting, however, such forces as he

acted as his armour-bearers, or aides-decamp, pierced the body in various parts with their swords. Joab then ordered the trumpet to sound a retreat, to prevent a farther effusion of blood; while Absalom's body, being taken down, was thrown into a pit, and covered with a heap of stones.

who

could depend upon, he put them under the of Amasa, and crossing the Jordan, encamped in the land of Gilead.(j) David, having refreshed his troops, and made such arrangements as the urgency of his affairs would permit, divided his army into three bodies, two of which he put under the

command

During these transactions, David remained gate of Mahanaim, impatient for the event but more solicitous for the safety of Absalom than for his own security and reestablishment insomuch that when he received intelligence of his death, he withdrew to an
at the
;
;

apartment over the gate, exclaiming in all the bitterness of paternal anguish, "O my son Would Absalom my son my son Absalom to God I had died for thee! O Absalom, my son, my son !"(!)
! ! !

(h)
(i)

2 Sam.

xvii.

114,
22,

23.

Ibid. xvii.

15-

21,2729.

24-2(5. Commentators, in general, misled by what is said of Absalom's hair in another place,* have represented him as entangled by the locks ; but the text says he was caught by the Aear/,t which is much more likely; for besides the difti(j) find. ver.

(k)

culty of conceiving how the hair could get so instantaneously entangled as to hold him suspended, it may be doubted whether his head were not covered with an helmet : but if he were caught by a forked branch under the chin, the

U Sam. xiv. 16.

Ibid, iviii. 9.

sudden shock and pressure upon the jugular veins must have rendered him insensible, if it did not quite strangle him, and so prevented him from extricating himself. 2 Sam. xviii. passim. ^1)

878

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP. xvni.

This excessive grief of David for a vanquished rebel turned the triumph of victory into mourning among the soldiers, who stole silently into the city, as if they had been beaten and fled from the enemy. Joab, a man of rough deportment, observing this, and fearing it might cause a general defection, went abruptly to the king, and in terms more urgent than respectful, roused him from his grief, and prevailed on him to present himself before the people with the semblance of a cheerful countenance. As soon as David appeared at
the gate, his subjects of every description flocked around him, and even the rebellious party resorted to him in crowds, anxious to their penitence by paying him the 'testify utmost respect and veneration. Only the tribe of Judah, which was the king's own family, seemed indifferent; this so affected David, that he sent to the two priests, Abiathar and Zadok, to remind the elders of their duty; with orders also to assure Amasa that he not only forgave him, but that he would make him captain of the host in the room of Joab, against whom David had now conceived an
utter aversion.

really not so, or that he was unwilling wholly to reverse the grant he had made to that

instead of restoring the lands to Mephihe ordered them to be divided between the two to which unjust sentence,
traitor,

bosheth,

cheerfully submitted, saying, I am blessed in all, since lord the king return in peace." seeing my Among the king's retinue was good old Barzillai, the Gileadite, who had sent provisions and other articles for David's use at Mahanaim, and who, at the age of fourscore, had left his house at Rogelim, to accompany him over the river, and to take his last fare-

" Let him take

Mephibosheth

wel of him. David would have persuaded him to proceed to Jerusalem, that he might there reward his services but this he modestly declined on account of his age, which had rendered him incapable of participating in the
;

pleasures of a court; yet, though desirous of retirement for himself, he begged that his son

Chimham might be
stead,

permitted to go in his which was immediately granted, and Chimham was numbered among the king's

message, the elders of Judah many others, to Gilgal, with repaired receive the king on his recrossing the Jordan, and to escort him to Jerusalem. Among those who went on this occasion to Gilgal were

Upon

this

to

Shimei and Mephibosheth the former, at the head of a thousand men of his own tribe,
;

household. Hitherto nothing had appeared but a general emulation to wipe away the guilt of the late defection ; but David had scarcely begun his march from Gilgal, when a dissatisfaction arose among the men of Israel, at the preference given to those of Judah ; this jealousy quickly broke out into an open quarrel between
the rival parties, and, through the obstinacy of the tribe of Judah, it increased to such a degree, that Sheba, the son of Bichri, a factious Benjamite, took advantage of it to gather the malecontents to him by sound of trumpet, declaring that they had neither part nor inheritance in the son of Jesse. new

was the

prostrate himself at the feet of his insulted sovereign, imploring forgiveness in terms as servile as his former conduct had been base. The captains, impatient at his
first

to

behaviour, were urgent to have him made an example to all Israel; but the king reproved their zeal, and pardoned Shimei, confirming his pardon with an oath. Ziba, also, the calumniator of Mephibosheth, with his 15 sons and 20 servants, had accompanied Shimei to Gilgal, but arriving there before the king, he crossed the river, and wrought so artfully,

David was deserted by the Israelitish tribes, and left to be escorted the remainder of his way by the tribe of Judah only.(m) Sheba and his adherents in the mean time
revolt

hereupon took place

retired

to

Abel-beth-maachah,

in

Naphtali,

that

himself to evident that strong suspicions prevailed in the royal mind to his prejudice. He was to adduce some evident proofs suffered, indeed, of his steady gratitude and fidelity, as well as of Ziba's perfidy, with which the king appeared to be satisfied : but whether he was

Mephibosheth presented David on the other side, it was

when

and as soon as David arrived in Jerusalem, he ordered Amasa to collect what forces he could out of Judah, and to bring them to him within three days in which interval David removed his polluted concubines from the palace, and appointed them a suitable main;

(m) 2

.S'a;. xix.

passim.

SECT, v.]

SHEBA'S REBELLION.

DAVID NUMBERS THE PEOPLE.

fldiued.
is

R7.0

tenance in a separate house, where they passed the rest of their days in a kind of widowhood. Amasa meeting with greater difficulty than had been anticipated in raising troops, outstaid the appointed time, so that David began to fear the northern insurrection would assume a more dangerous character, than the rebellion which had just been crushed he therefore desired Abishai to take his guards, with such few troops as he had about him, to go in pursuit of Sheba, and, if possible, prevent him from possession of any of the fortified cities. fettingthough disgraced, went with his brooab, ther, and when they got to Gibeon they were joined by Amasa with the army, upon whom, as chief captain, the command of the whole was to devolve; but Joab no sooner beheld him, than, approaching under the mask of a friendly salutation, he gave him a mortal stab with a sword which he held in his left hand. Joab immediately assumed the command of the army, and, with his brother Abishai, set off in pursuit of Sheba, leaving a servant by the body of Amasa, to encourage the people, if they were the friends of David, to follow them. Arrived before the walls of Abel-bethmaachah, where Sheba had shut himself up,
:

That the act itself was not unlawful, Moses having left direetions(o) respecting it; the evil must therefore have consisted in the mode of doing it. However
evident from
this

been, Joab, though in other respects not very scrupulous, foresaw that it

may have

would he a dangerous undertaking, and he represented to David the risk he ran of displeasing God by carrying such a design into execution. But the king would be obeyed; commissioners were appointed, with Joab at their head, to make the census, and they
were obliged to set about it. They travelled through the land, on either side the Jordan, and at the end of nine months and twenty days, they had numbered 800,000 warriorsin Israel, and 500,000 in Judah.(p) Joab had the business as much as he could, prolonged in the hope that the king would see his error, and put an end to it which at last he did, and the commissioners returned before they had numbered the tribes of Benjamin and This recal was in consequence of Levi.(q)
;

Joab closely invested

it,

and was preparing

to

storm the place, when a battlements exhorted him

hostilities

from the from and against a mother-city of Israel

to

woman

desist

promising at the same time, in case of his forbearance, that the head of the traitor should be thrown over the wall. Joab accepted the received Sheba's head, condition, and having returned in triumph to Jerusalem, where he was greeted with such universal applause, that David judged it expedient to stifle his resentment, and restore him to his former
post.(n)

About six years after the restoration of order, David brought a heavy calamity upon the nation, by ostentatiously numbering the His object in so doing is not known people.
;

neither
(n)
(o)

is

the
xx.

nature

of

the

transgression

affliction that befel Israel, of what nature is not recorded ; but David understood that he had been the ^ Ju Per cause of it, and he prayed that \ A. M. *298? the evil might be averted, at -cPcwtDU. "1330. the same time that he sent I Ann.Exod*47. orders to have the census dis- ^ In answer to his supplications, continued. the prophet Gad was sent to give him his choice of three(r) years' famine, three months' flight before his enemies, or three days' pestiThe humbled monarch, struck with lence. a lively sense of his folly, and bitterly lamenting his inattention to the prudent remonstrances of his counsellors, owned the choice to be but considering that the extremely hard calamities of war and famine were seldom felt so severely by the rich as by the poor, he preferred the pestilence as the more equal punishment, and more immediately under the The choice was direction of the Almighty. no sooner made, than* the plague spread throughout the land, with such awful rapidity, that before the expiration of the third day,
j
'
'

some

2 Sam.

122.

Exod. xxx. 11 16. Moses directed that every person numbered, from 20 years old and upward, should pay a ransom of half a shekel for the service of the sanctuary a provision, which, the Jews suppose, was not attended to on
;

In 1 Chron. (p) 2 Sam. xxiv. 9. differently stated. 24. (q) 1 Chron. xxi. 6. xxvii.
(r)

xxi.

5, the

number

is

this occasion.

the seven years of 2 Sam. XX!T. in 1 Chron. xxi. 12 erroneous all the ancient versions agree in the former in the latter. place, and the Greek version reads three years

So

13,

is

880
it

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

induced Adonijah, the next in birth to Absalom, who had previously

[CHAP. xvin.

It then had destroyed 70,000 persons. God was began to infect the metropolis, when to David's pleased to put a stop to it, in answer

'Jul. Per.

3(590.

made

preparations to

A. M. -2!)K!). Post Oil. 1332.

beholding the prayer, minister of divine vengeance (s) over the the thrashing-floor of Araunah, or Ornan,(t) entreated Jebusite, on mount Moriah, humbly that the innocent people might be spared, and that he might expiate the crime in his own the prophet person. Whilst making this suit, commanded him to erect an came to him, and altar on the spot over which he had seen the in doing; destroying angel this he lost no time hasted towards the thrashfor he immediately came forward to ing-floor, where Araunah a respectful meeting and as soon as give him he understood the purpose of the monarch's visit, he made him a generous offer of the floor, with the oxen for a burnt-offering, and
his palace
:

who from

seize the thronein the eventof his

Ann.Exod.47<>.
_B. C.

father's death, resolve at once to start his pretensions, and cause himself to

101 o.

be

proclaimed. Collecting therefore a sumptuous equipage of chariots, guards, and running footmen, he repaired with Joab and Abiathar to En-rogel, where he made a great feast, and invited to it all his brethren except Solomon, with a considerable number of his father's of the elders of Judah. His officers, and design being penetrated by Nathan, he communicated his suspicions to Zadok, Benaiah, and others of David's old officers, who all agreed to oppose it, and adhere to the interests of the young Solomon, conformably to his father's intentions. Nathan then went to Bathand advised her to inform the king of sheba, what was going forward, and put him in mind She did of his promise in favour of her son. so and while she was speaking, Nathan, as had been previously arranged, entered the royal presence, and confirmed what she had stated, by giving an account of the particulars of
;

the carts and wooden instruments belonging to This, David would by no means it, for fuel.
of, observing, that it would ill become him to make an offering to the Lord with what would cost him nothing and he desired Araunah to set a price, that he might purchase the floor, oxen, and other articles of him. A reared an price(u) being agreed upon, David and having prepared his burnt-offerings altar, and peace-offerings, whilst he was calling upon

accept

the Lord, he beheld a miraculous fire descending from heaven to consume the victims, as a token that God was reconciled to the land.(v) Perceiving the spot to be thus favoured, David resolved that his intended temple should be
it, and collected workmen from all of his dominion to prepare it for the quarters foundation.(w) The continued wars, fatigues, and misfortunes, in which David had been engaged, by the time he was about seventy years of age,

built

upon

Adonijah's feast, his company, and design ; asking at the same time if it were with the king's consent. Surprised at this report, to prevent the mischiefs of a disputed David, succession, immediately ordered Solomon to be set upon the royal mule, and to be taken to Gihon, accompanied by the royal guards, with Zadok and the chief of his officers, there to be anointed and proclaimed king; after which he was to make his public entry into Jerusalem, and to be seated on the throne, while the trumpets sounded his accession to
the kingdom. These orders were executed with such speed, that Adonijah and his company had not the least idea of what was passing, till they were

had materially
evidently fast

affected his health, and he was approaching to the grave. This

20,

Comparing 2 Sam. xiiv. 17, with 1 Ckron. xxi. 16, no doubt can be entertained that David, with the elders, Araunah, and bis four sons, all saw this terrific vision, which will by no means admit of an allegorical inter(s)

(u) This price is variously stated in the two accounts, at fifty shekels of silver, and six hundred shekels of gold ; but the former is said to be for the thrashing -floor,* the

pretation.
(t)

The former name

is

used

in

Samuel; the

latter in

He is supposed by both Jews and Christians Chronicles. to have been a prince of the Jebusites, because it is said, 2 Sam. xxiv. 23, " All these did Araunah the king give unto the king ;" which is the true sense of the original ; though
a different turn
is

placed If the one be taken as the price of the floor, oxen, and implements ; and the other for the inheritance of the whole spot of ground, on which David afterwards resolved to have the temple erected ; the dislatter for the

cordance will immediately disappear. 1 Chron. xxi. (v) 2 Sam. xxiv. 2 Chron. (w) 1 Chron. xxii. 1, et seq.
* t Sam. ixiv. 24.

iii.

given to

it

in

our translation.

t 1 Chron.

i-

25

SECT. V.]

SOLOMON ANOINTED
iu

KING.

881

the midst of their hilarity by acclamations of " God save king repeated Solomon !" Jonathan, the son of Abiathar, soon after brought them an exact account of the whole ceremony, which, he assured them, had been performed by king David's express orders, who had testified an uncommon degree joy at seeing his favourite son seated upon the throne of Israel. This unwelcome news struck the company with amazement resistance would have been useless they saw that they were in danger of being considered as traitors,
: ;

alarmed

proposed edifice, the order and disposition of the several branches of the divine service, the courses of the priests and Levites, of the musicians, singers, and porters, the plan for establishing judges and courts of justice, witli many other religious, civil, and military regulations,(z) lie now resigned to his son, to Iw perfected and improved. He then them to assist in so desirable a requested

work, by contributing their free-will offerings. This speech stirred up such a spirit of munificence in the rich men of Israel, that they
immediately brought in their gifts to the treasury, each endeavouring to outvie his
neighbour in the value of his contribution.(a) sight of so much wealth, brought in with such alacrity, revived the aged monarch's and he broke out into an euchaspirit,

and therefore leaving Adonijah

to

shift

for

himself, they severally slunk away, and got home as fast as they could, in hopes of being unobserved ; while the deserted and dejected prince flew to the horns of the altar for a sanctuary. As soon as the young king was informed of Adonijah's situation, he sent him word, that
future actions were upright, his person should be secure ; but that the next disloyal
if his

The

attempt
death.

would

On

nijah made ted to retire to his house.(x) David finding his dissolution fast approaching, assembled the heads of the tribes, his generals and chief officers, with the priests and Levites, and acquainted them with his

certainly be punished with the receipt of this message, Adoproper submissions, and was permit-

design to have built a magnificent repository for the ark of the covenant, had not the prophet told him that such a work was reserved for Solomon's peaceful reign.

former

rapture, full of humility and gratitude to God, and good wishes for the future prosperity of his son and of the kingdom ; which being seconded with a hearty Amen from the people, was followed by solemn sacrifices and other tokens of joy. On the next day, David ordered 1000 oxen, 1000 sheep, and the same number of lambs, to be offered up, besides the daily sacrifices, and a proportionate number of meat and drink with which the whole company offerings, were feasted all that day, in a style of magnificence worthy of so great and good a kniir.
ristical

In this assembly, Solomon, after beiiiL second time anointed by Zadok, received the

Notwithstanding which, he informed them that he had made great preparations for it,

homage of all his chiefs of Judah and

brethren,
Israel,

and of all the and was proclaimed

up immense quantities of gold, silver, copper, iron, and other materials ;(y) all which, together with the plans and models of the
and
laid
(x) 1 (y)

king through all the tribes. At the same time, Zadok was declared to be sole high-priest, for his steady adherence to Solomon, while Abiat the

Kings,

i.

passim.

same value as the

1

talent

of

silver; others

reckon a

wood, metals, and precious stones, are described as without number;* the gold.t which was that of Opliir, amounted to 3000 talents ;} and the silver, of the which sura, says Dr. Prideaux, purest sort, to 7000 talents " is so prodigious, as to induce one to think the talents whereby this sum is reckoned, were of far less value than for what is said to be given by David, the Mosaic talents and contributed by the princes, if valued by those talents, would exceed the value of eight hundred million-, of our
stones,
;

The

talent of gold at 2699. 12*. and a common talent of silver at 187. 10*. making the talent of t lie sanctuary

common

twice as much. below are given,

(z)

The calculation upon which the may be seen in the Introduction, p.

Chron.
xxiii

values

230.

For

particulars, see 1

xxviii.

money
But
it

sufficient to

may

have built the temple of solid silver."|| be remarked, that some reckon the talent of gold

These voluntary gifts amounted to 6000 talents of goldlT and 10,000 drachmas;** 10,000 talents of silver ;tt and 100,000 talents of iron ; 18,000 talents of brass besides abundance of precious stones. Respecting the modern value of these sums, see the last note.
(a)
;
||

1 C/inm. xxix. 4. lliid. ver. 4.

Prideaux's Connection*, book

4,'i?

i.

Equal Equal

to to

^'16,425,000
.

sterling, according to Arbutlmot. 2,395.31'.'. 10s. 3d. according to Arbuthnot ; or

3,150,000,

according to Pridcau.t

,875,000 sterling, according to Arbothnot. ** Ibid. 10,947. ia*. 4d. sterling. tt 5,421,875 sterling, according to Arbuthnot; or, ing to Prideaux.
*i

4,500,000, accord-

VOL,

I.

5 u

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

athar was reduced to the second rank for his recent defection to Adonijah.(b) Soon after these festivities, David sent for the young king, to give him his last advice He reminded him that all instructions. nil'
1

[CHAP,

the promises of
in

God

relative

to

his posterity
fulfilled

a stately tomb erected by himself, leaving behind him an immense treasure, exclusive of what he had destined to the use of the temple. His history was written by three contemporary prophets, Samuel, Nathan, and Gad;(g) and his zeal, piety, and repentance are likewise
in

were conditional, and would be

only

celebrated

proportion to their obedience: he recomto his

mended

favour the family of Barzillai, and of those other friends who had adhered to him in his adversity ; exhorted him to take vengeance on Joab for his disobedience in Abuer respect to Absalom, and his murder of

Testament; while, as an author and a his merits have been, and ever must be, poet, universally acknowledged. Solomon being now seated on the throne, delayed not to fulfil his father's last injunctions,
to

New

in several places of the

Old and

and Amasa; and reminded him that though the life of the rebel Shimei had been preserved under the sanction of an oath, and he was of his former not(c) to be molested on account he would require to be transgression; yet a disaffected person. (d) well watched as ended his advice to his son, David Having prayed to God for him, at the same time that he prophesied of the future prosperity, peace, and justice of Solomon's kingdom, and of
that of his great Antitype, the Messiah. (e) David died soon after he had given these directions, in the 71st year of
3700. 2990. A. M. Post Oil. 1333. Ann. Exod.478.1 B. C. 1014.
Jul. Per.
|

which he was impelled sooner than he might otherwise have been, by an application from Adonijah to Bath-sheba to use her intercession and influence with the young king, that he
might marry Abishag, the virgin concubine of the deceased monarch. Bath-sheba made no difficulty of promising her interest, not doubting of success but as soon as the request was made known to Solomon, that prince perceived in it a sinister design, aimed at the throne itself, which so enraged him, that he ordered Adonijah to be put to immediate death. Joab, who appears to have been
;

privy

tribes ;(f)

; having reigned seven and a half in Hebron over years the house of Judah, and thirtythree over the whole of the and was buried in his own city,

his age

application and purpose of Adonijah, instantly took the alarm, and flew to the sanctuary of the tabernacle in Gibeon : but the king would not suffer this to skreen
to

the

him him

to

and, on his refusing to quit it, ordered be slain on the spot. His executioner,.

1 Kings, ii. 27. (b) 1 Chron. xxix. remissness (c) The English version, by an unpardonable of the translators, represents the last act of David's life,

125.

He had as fraught with evasion, baseness, and treachery. sworn that Shimei should not be put to death, and yet is here (I Kinys, ii. 8, 9) introduced with his dying breath " bring down his hoar head recommending his successor to
blood ;" as if such a recommendation were not equally a breach of the oath, with the very act oi Such an ordering the object of it to immediate execution. idea could surely never enter into the mind of the pious David; neither was it acted upon by his son. An inattento the grave with

negative in a second part of a sentence, and to consider it as repeated, when it has been once expressed, and is followed by the connecting particle. Such is precisely the case with
the

David had admonished passage here alluded to Solomon respecting Joab, and directed htm to "let not
:

his hoar head go down to the grave in peace ;"t and then, adverting to Shimei, tells him, that he must not consider him an innocent man, and therefore to deal with him according to his discretion; yet HIS hoar head he must not bring down to the grave with blood."! This sense is also supported by the context ; for Solomon very shortly afterwards He then sent for cut off Joab, on a very slight pretext.

tion to the idiom of the original, has been the cause of this illustrious character, and of the injury done to a most and reproaches that have in consequence been cas
1

stigmas
it

has been feebly, or rather absurdly ; upon by defended by vain attempts to justify an action in itsel detestable, or to cover it with nauseous apologies for the of human nature: and all this when the royal sain! frailty ought to have been admired for his pious care to preven an infringement of his oath after he was dead. Man; instances* exist in the sacred \\ritiug:,, which prove tha in the Hebrew language to omit thi it is not uncommon
infidels

while

it

Shimei, not to put him to death ; but, knowing he ought to be well watched, to order him not o out of Jerusalem on pain of and death ; in which sent. -nee Shimei himself concurred after living three years within Ihe walls, he was at length
;

put to death for a breach of this new condition. Kennicott's Remarks, &c. p. 131,
(d)
(e)

j|

See

1 Kings, ii. This prophetic prayer forms the 72d Psalm.

19.

(f) (g)

2 Sam.

ii.

11. v. 4, 5.

1 Kings,

ii.

10, 11.

1 Chron. xxix.
t

2630.
Ibid. ver. 8, 9.

Se,
'

aaion^
<

<>tlifr<,
i

I'falm ix.

18. Uxv. 5. Proi. sxiv. 12, where th

1 King*,
Ibid.
ii.

ii.

5,

<>.

word

i'iilic.1

1C

3-1.

Jlmf.viT.:i6-4J.

8BCT. V.]

FIRST ACTS OF SOLOMON'S REIGN.

88.3

and the executioner of Adonijah, was Joab's old companion in arms, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, one of David's worthies, who was promoted
room.
athar,

is

The next in guilt, who had been one of

to the post of chief captain in his the priest Abi-

the principals in

Adonijah's conspiracy, and had been in consequence degraded in David's lifetime,(h) would perhaps have suffered with the others
;

but in consideration of his former fidelity to that king, iu the days of Saul, and during Absalom's rebellion, Solomon was content with confirming his sentence of exclusion from the

high-priesthood, and restricting him to his own territories at Anathoth ; thus completing the denunciation against Eli, delivered many years The king then sent for Shimei, and, before.
to

have permitted it; and a similar compliment paid to the second, because the notice of his marriage with her is closely followed by a declaration that " Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father :" but both these suppositions, including the age of Rehoboam, are attended with difficulties that may be deemed insuperable.(l) Indeed the evidence is very strong against the conversion of Pharaoh's daughter; for if she had embraced the true religion, why should her husband remove her from the city of David, on account of its sanctity ?(m) It has been before remarked, that the annals of these ancient times consist for the most part of
fragments of more detailed histories, loosely

keep him continually under his eye, ordered him to take up his future residence in Jerusalem, which city he was on no account to quit, on pain of death. Shimei, who, from the
late

thrown together and the account of Solomon's marriage appears to have been transposed from its original situation, before his second
;

revelation, to its present place, before thejirst appearance of the Lord to him,(n) whereby

executions, expected nothing less than instant destruction, was overjoyed at escaping so well, and thanked the king for his clemency; but venturing, about three years afterwards,

two runaway servants, it on his return.(i) Solomon was when he ascended Young as the throne, it is supposed he was married, and had a son nearly a twelvemonth old. His wife was an Ammonitess, named Naainah, and his son was called Rehoboam.( j) Shortly,
to ride out in pursuit of he was put to death for

or rather immediately after his accession to the throne, he is also said to have formed a new alliance with the king of Egypt, by marrying that prince's daughter; and Pharaoh gave her for dowry the city of Gezer, which he had taken from the Canaanites, and burnt to the

ground

but which, being rebuilt by Solomon,

became a very considerable place.Ck) The former of these wives is, by the advocates for
I

mode of reckoning, supposed to have been a proselyte to the Israelitish religion, because Solomon must have married her in
this

a prochronism of about 20 years has happened. As to the age of Rehoboam, it is evidently a mistake of the transcribers, who in copying have substituted o, or is, (mem) 40, for 3, or a, (caph) 20. The first act of Solomon's, Ju, Per , 3700 that can be depended on as to V ^ M. *2!)!>o. its order, after the executions -Jpost Dil. *i333. of Adonijah and Joab, was his ) Ann.Exod.*478. ^ repairing to Gibeon, where the tabernacle and brazen altar were: original here he offered a thousand burnt-offerings, in reply to which, the Lord appeared to him by night in a dream, and promised to grant whatever he should ask. Conscious of his tender and the great weight of the kingdom years, he had to govern, the young monarch earnestly requested that he might have such a degree of wisdom, as should enable him to govern the Israelites with suitable prudence and This modest petition was so pleassagacity.
ing to his Maker, that he was immediately endowed with a share of wisdom beyond what had ever been possessed by any mortal ; to
as an inconsiderate young man,* was one-and-twenty, instead of one-and-forty, when he began to reign ; and that the notice of Solomon's marriage with Pharaoh's daughter is anticipated by several years ; because it seems to have taken

his father's lifetime,

(h) 1

who would
His removal

not otherwise
is

Chron. xxix. 22.

implied in the

promotion of Zadok. (i) 1 Kings, ii. 1146. (j) Comp. 1 Kings, xi. 42.
xii.

xiv.

21.

2 Chron.

ix.

30.

13. (k) I Kings,

(I)

The

16. probability is, that

iii.

1.

ix.

Rehoboam, who
x. 8, 10.

is

described

place only a little before he finished his palace, which was in the 24th of his reign .f (n) Comp. 1 Kings, iii. and ix. (in) See 2 Chron. viii. 11.
t

1 Kings,

xii. 8,

10.

2 Chrm.

Comp.

1 Kings,

iii.

1. vii. 8. ix. 10, 24.

t Chrm.

iii.

11.

5u

884

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

blessings

[CHAP. xvni.

which was added, an actual promise of all those other earthly blessings he had so judiciously overlooked, so that no king should ever equal him in riches and honour, with a conditional promise of length of days, if he walked in the perfect way of his father David. (o) These assurances called forth the gratitude of Solomon, and on his return to
Jerusalem, he repeated his burnt-offerings before the ark, adding peace-offerings to them, and concluding with a feast for his officers

of Providence. Beloved by his dreaded by his enemies, and highly friends, esteemed by his allies, his treasury was constantly filled with rich presents and regular tributes ; and so great a concourse of strangers flocked to his metropolis, that riches were accumulated by his .subjects of all descriptions, till gold and silver seemed to have lost their value from their extraordinary abundance.(r)

and servants.

Of all the princes who sought his friendship, Hiram, king of Tyre,(s) the old friend and ally of David, was the first that sent ambassadors to congratulate his accession to the crown, with an ofler of his services. Solomon returned the embassy, and after acquainting him with his design of building a temple, requested him to send workmen to assist his

The
Jul

was soon
Per A. M.

exquisite discernment of this monarch exhibited to high advantage in the

'3701
^v

sen tence he pronounced relative to the pretensions of two PostDil. *1334. > women, one of whom, having Ann.Exod. *479. 1 overlaid her child in the night, l3 -' claimed that of the other as her own unable to settle the dispute between themselves, or in the ordinary court of justice, they appeared before Solomon, both contending for the living child, and disclaiming the dead one, with such equal ardour, that it was thought impossible to adjudge the infants to their right mothers but the king hit upon an expedient to make nature itself unravel what reason could not, by ordering the living child to be divided by a sword between the suitors to this decree the fictitious claimant gave her hearty concurrence ; but the real mother was so alarmed, that she chose rather to resign him to her adversary than see him thus butchered. This was the feeling that Solomon intended to excite, and he accordingly ordered the child to be delivered to its own parent.(p) The court, and in fact the nation at large, were now convinced of the wisdom of their
-299L
/
: : :

own
in

artificers

this

was agreed

to

by Hiram,

consideration of a yearly supply from Solomon of 20,000 measures of wheat, and as many barrels of fine oil, for his own use, besides similar quantities of barley, wheat, wine, and oil, for the workmen he should employ. Hiram likewise undertook to send cedars, firs, and other sorts of wood, from Lebanon, upon floats to Joppa, to be there delivered to Solomon's servants, and thence conveyed to Jerusalem. He also sent a man of his own name, the son of a widow of Naphtali, or Dan,(t) whose father was a Tyrian, an excellent artist in all kinds of
metals, stones, carving, engraving, embroidery, tapestry, and the making of fine cloths in
;

short,

he was a second Bezaleel, and Solomon appointed him to be overseer of all the workmen whom David had formerly procured from

Tyre and Sidon.(u)

young monarch ;(q) whose excellent judgment was no less conspicuous in the choice of his counsellors and officers, the institution of his laws, and the ceremony of his household while the strength of his army, and the multitude of his subjects, made him respected by his His immense wealth, also, gave neighbours. him a powerful sway so that he lived in the most profound tranquillity, encompassed with magnificence, and rejoicing in the abundant
;
;

To carry on so stupendous a work with greater ease and speed, Solomon caused an account to be taken of all the Canaauites and other foreign slaves in the land ; and they
amounted
he appointed hew timber and stone in the mountains, and the remaining 3600 to superintend their labours ;(v) themselves being overlooked by 3300 of his chief officers. lie also levied 30,000 men out of all to work in Lebanon in rotation, one Israel,
to 153,600, of

whom

70,000 to carry burdens, 80,000 to

(o)

1 Kings,

iii.

(q) According to this time.

(r) 1

Ibid. ver. 1C 15. 27. (j>) Usher, he was about 20 years of age at
ix.

(t) Comp. 1 Kings, vii. 13, 14. Naphtali bordered on the Tyrian

C/iron.

ii.

13, 14.
is

As

territories,

it

probably

the correct reading. 13, ct sey.

(u) 1 (v)

(s)

Kings, iii. 28. iv. passim, See before, p. 672.

Kings,

v.
ii.

2 Chron.
2, 17, 18.

ii.

passim.

2 Chron.

SECT. V.]

DEDICATION OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE.

month, under the began the feast of tabernacles, which also lasted .seven days so that the concourse of people, who were invited by the king, from all parts of his dominions,
:

month

in three, 10,000 every

inspection of Adoniram; who were employed in hewing of wood, marble, and other stone, to be afterwards wrought by the Tyrian then conveyed by water to artificers, and

Jul. Per.

A. M.

3710. 3000. 1'ost Oil. 1343. Ann. Exod. 488. B. C.

Joppa.(w)

White these preparations were going forward, Solomon, who had been still adding immense stores of gold, silver, precious stones, and other rich materials, to those which David had left him, put them into proper hands to be wrought into an almost infinite variety of ornaments and such was the diligence of all the parties, that he was enabled
:

Jul. Per.

2992. r vast and glorious structure, on Post Oil. 1335. > mount Moriah, the former site Ann. Exod. 4ao. I o f Araunah's thrashing-rloor,(x) 12 '^ in the fourth year of his reign,

A.M.

3702.^

av

^e

foundation of this

fourteen days in Jerusalem, the not being dismissed till the fifteenth. assembly The ceremony was performed with the great est. pomp ; the ark of the covenant was carried by the priests from its temporary tabernacle in the city of David, and deposited in the most holy place of the temple, between two golden cherubim, made by Solomon's order, as a kind of covering for it. The king, attended by all his chief officers, and the elders of Israel, marched before the ark, and were followed by a multitude of priests and Levites, some chaunting canticles suited to the occastaid
full

on the second day of the month

Zif, and

in the 480th year after the Exodus ; (y) which, according to Usher, (z) answers to Monday

the 21st of April, being the second month of the ecclesiastical, and eighth of the civil Every piece of this edifice, whether of year. of timber, stone, or metal, was formed and adapted to its place, before it was taken to the spot, so that no more tools were wanted or
heard, than what were necessary for putting them together and the work was carried on so actively, that it was completed in rather more than seven years, in a style of magnificence far surpassing every other edifice then in the world. (a)
;

JEHOVAH, good and His mercy endureth for ever:" and as soon as the ark rested in its place, and the staves were drawn out, the divine .s/ie/ciiia/i, which had formerly overshadowed the tabernacle, came visibly down, and took pusong being,
is
;

and others playing on various instruments. After the ark, went other singers and musicians, with the priests bearing the candlestick, the altar of incense, and other utensils of the While the priests sanctuary, from Gibeon. were placing the ark in the most holy place, the air was rent with the sound of 120 trumpets, accompanied by the voice of the Levites, who sang the praises of God the burden of their " Give thanks to for He
sion,
;

siori

of the

new

temple, so powerfully that the

Jul. Per.

3709.N

The tem p' e was

finished in

A.M.
Post

Solomon's eleventh year, in the eighth month, 2??</,(b) or Marchesvan, which corresponds with >J our October; but that its dedication might be celebrated with greater splendour, that ceremony was postponed till
1342. V Auii. Exod. 487. L
Oil.
'

2QQ9.f

priests could not stand to offer the sacrifices prepared for the occasion.(d)

During
his station

this time,

Solomon, who had taken on a brazen platform, three culiits

high, after commanding the attention of the people, kneeled down, and spreading his hands towards heaven, dedicated the sacred building
to

the year following, which was the jubilee.(c) It began on the eighth day of the seventh month Et/tanim, or Tisri, of the sacred year, answering to the latter end of September, and continued seven days, at the end of which

God, in an eloquent and devout prayer; in which he entreated the divine mercy to makethat edifice
to
its

residence in favour of Israel, from thence to hear the, directed thither by the people of God, prayers

and

be ready

(w) 1 Kings,
(x)

v.

1318.
2 Chron,
iii.

(b)
1.

I-

Kings,

ri.

37,38.

1 Chron. xxi. 18, 28. xxii. 1. (y) 1 Kings, vi. 1. 2 Chron. iii. 1, 2.

Comp.

z)
(a)

Annul, sub A. M. 2992, 3001. 1 Kings, vi. 7, 37, 38. For a description of the tem-

This was the ninth jubilee, which, according to Usher, opened (lie fourth chiliad of the world. See before, p. 724, and Usher. Annul, sub A. M. 3001.
(c)

ple, see before, p. 786.

(d) 1

Kings,

viii.

111.

2 Chron.

v.

passim.

886

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

;

[CHAP. xvin.

from whatever part of the world and what soever they were in, to grant their c. mdition and pardon their offences. In the requests,
interim, the priests had covered the great altar with proper victims, which, as soon as his

than the

rest, called the porch, or hall of judgsurrounded by cedar pillars, curiously ment, carved and inlaid with gold in this hall was placed the king's throne, and on each side of
;

it

prayer was ended, were consumed by a miraculous fire descending; from heaven as a token The of the divine favour and acceptance. then turning himself about, blessed the king, audience, and retired ; after which the priests offered a vast multitude of other sacrifices, sent by Solomon, and by the heads of the tribes ; insomuch that they were obliged to offer them in the area of the court, the altar On the first not being sufficient for them.

day 22,000 bullocks and 120,000 sheep, were sacrificed, which served to feast the vast assemblage of people drawn to the spot by the and on the other six days, the solemnity The feast of offerings were in full proportion. tabernacles, which immediately followed, was
;

the seats of his counsellors. The throne, in the form of a niche, was of ivory, inlaid, and intermixed with rich ornaments in gold ; the ascent to it was by six steps, each step supported on either side by a small lion, and the arms of the seat by two figures of the same animal as large as life : all these, with the steps themselves, were likewise covered with gold and ivory. The richness of the furniture of these sumptuous edifices may be partially conceived from the plate and drinking-vessels being all of the finest gold. To these he added 300 shields of the same metal, which were carried before

which was

him when he appeared in return were hung up on the

for

public,

pillars of the

likewise observed with unusual magnificence and at the conclusion, on the eighth day, or the fifteenth from the commencement of the festivities, the people were dismissed in peace, and returned to their homes with hearts full of joy, and admiration of their monarch .(e) Lest young Solomon's heart should be too much elated by these extraordinary tokens of
;

200

ornament. Besides these, targets, of a larger size, also of pure gold,

nd on his porch he likewise had

for similar purposes. (g)

is supposed to be the same that called in the Scripture the house ofthejorest of Lebanon,(\i) on account of the vast quantities of cedar and other sorts of wood, brought thence for its construction ;(i) though some conceive that the building so named was actually built in that forest, after Solomon had taken the city of Haraath-zobah ;(j) and the Chaldee paraphrast calls it a summer-house, or house of refreshment.
is

This palace

Almighty was pleased to appear to dream, on the first night of the dedicato Express His acceptanceof that sumptuous tion, edifice, and to renew His former promises to him and his posterity, on the condition that
favour, the

him

in a

they should devote themselves, with a pure heart, to His service: but, on the other hand, it was threatened, that if they ventured to pro-

voke the divine wrath by idolatry or disobedience, that glorious building, though the admiration of the world, should become a desolation, and a proverb of reproach among
all nations.(f)

These works occupied nearly thirteen years, and when they were completed, ( Jul Per 3?20 Solomon was again divinely \ \ M. 3012 admonished as to the terms J Post Dil. mr>. upon which he and his posterity I Ann.Exod.50o. B<
'

a continuance of ^ c> prosperity. (k) This seems to have been in consequence of a beginning defection on the part of Solomon, in marrying Pharaoh's daughter;

were

to ensure

As soon as Solomon had finished the temple, therefore, to remove the offence which the he set his workmen to build a house for his presence of a heathen princess gave in the city own residence, and a royal palace; in which of David, that had been consecrated to the he spared nothing that art or riches could Lord, he built her a separate residence ;(1) but furnish to raise them to a proportionable degree whether it was the same with what was afterof splendour. Among the apartments of the wards called the queens house, or that of the palace was one, more spacious and magnificent forest of Lebanon, it is impossible to determine.
1 Kingt, 2 Chron. (g) 1 Kings, (b) 1 Kinys,
(e)
viii.
vii.

12

60.
x.

2 Chron.

vi.

(f)

1222.

passim,

vii.

11.

(i)

vii.

112.

1421. 2

Chron.

ix.

1320.

vii. 2.

Munster, Calmet, et al. in Psalm xxix. xcii. 12, \3. Franc. Jim. in foe. et 2 Chron. viii. 3. 9. (k) 1 Kings, vii. 1. ix. 1 2 Chron. viii. 11. (1) Comp, 1 Kings, vii. 8. xi. 1.
(j)

SECT. V.]

OPINIONS CONCERNING THE LAND OF OPHIR.

H87

At the end of twenty years, of which seven had been occupied in erecting the temple, and thirteen in building the palaces, Solomon dismissed most of his Tyrian artificers and to
;

Jerusalem with a strong nnd stately wall, and in fortifying or building Millo, Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer, Beth-horon the nether, Eaalath, T;tdmor, or Palmyra, and other places of consequence, besides store-cities, and fortresses in Lebanon. (n) He also built a navy at Eziongeber, on the coast of the Red Sea, and put it under the care of some skilful Tyrian mariners, who, together with a number of his own subjects, sailed to Ophir, and fetched thence every year 450 talents of gold, besides choice

express his gratitude to their sovereign, he presented him with twenty cities in Galilee.

But when Hiram came to view them, he gave them the name of Cabal, or mean, and declined accepting them upon which Solomon rebuilt and planted them with colonies of Israelites.(m) The rest of his workmen, including the Canaanitish slaves, were employed in surrounding
:

woods, and precious stones.(o)

His ships

like-

(m)

Comp. 1 Kings,
Kings, Kings,
ix.

\\.

1013.

2 Chrnn.

viii. 1,

2.

2 Chron. viii. 3 11. ix. 20, 2.x. 11. 2 CAron.viii. 17, 18. ix. 10. The land of Ophir, like the garden of Eden, has been sought for by geographers in almost every climate of the and in the earth, and towards every point of the compass search, having encumbered themselves with the notion that the voyage to Ophir and the voyage to Tarshish were made conjointly, once in three years, they have in general gone to
(n) 1 (o) 1

15

23.

ivory, inasmuch as there are no elephants in Arabia, he gives into the ancient opinion that Ophir was in India. Reland, in
his Dissertation on Ophir, thinks that all the Scripture says respecting that country may be applied to the district, where Oupara, or Soupara, stood, which he takes to have been in the Indian peninsula on this side the Ganges. Calmet, seeking a route of his own, places Ophir between mount Masius and the mountains of Sephar, in the vicinity of Armenia and Media, about the sources of the Euphrates and Tigris,

the most distant parts, to suit the journey to the time. Genebrardus, Vatablus, and some others, who suppose Ophir to be in America, think it lay in Hispaniola, or St. Domingo, resting their proof upon a declaration of Columbus, when he discovered that island in 1492, that he had found
the Ophir of Solomon ; other writers, as Goropius, Postel, Arrias Montanus, &C. looking for Ophir in the same quarter, have thought it lay in Peru, and that the isthmus of Panama was the great emporium to which the gold was sent, to be received on board the ships. Among those who consider Ophir to have been in Asia, Josephus stands the foremost,
it was in India, which in his days was called the golden land, or country of gold;* he does not define what part of India he particularly alludes to, but subsequent writers have endeavoured to do it for him thus, Malabar,

which rivers he makes subservient to this commerce. Dr. Prideaux, after observing that it was the voyage to Tarshish, which took up three years, conjectures that Ophir might be much nearer Judea, so that the voyage might have been performed in much less time, had they not been obliged to go to the former for some commodities, which the latter did not afford and consequently that any place in the Indian ocean, at the distance of three years' voyage, which yielded be the ilver, gold, ivory, apes, and peacocks, might
:

Tarshish

and he says

Ceylon, Siam, Pegu, Ormus, Malacca, Sumatra, have all been named, and their pretensions supported by their several advocates. Lipenius, in an express treatise upon Ophir, pretends, on the authority of Jeroin, that a grandson of Eber, named Opbir, gave his name to a part of India beyond the Ganges and hence he gives the appellation of laud of Opklr not only to the Golden Chersonesus, which he takes for Josephus's golden land, but also to the islands of Java and Sumatra, with the kingdoms of Siam, Pegu, and
;

and any other, though much nearer, where fine ; gold, almug-trees, and precious stones, could be procured, might be the Ophir mentioned in Scripture: hence, if the southern part of Arabia produced the greatest quantities of the best gold, as he shews it did from good authorities, that The paraphrast Jonathan might be the land of Ophir. tin: spot ; places Opbir in Africa generally, without indicating and some writers have taken it for Carthage : but how the to Carthage ships could go from Ezion-geber on the Red Sea. in the Mediterranean, or by what caprice the vessels laden at
Carthage for Jerusalem, should
the port of
It is true sail for

Ezion-geber,

when

Joppa was
difficulty,

so

much

that

solve this

Goropius and by transporting Ezion-geber from

Mediterranean.

quite inexplicable. Bivarins have endeavoured to

tin-

nearer,

is

Red Sea

to the coast of the.

K/ion-ijtber,

all the same Bengal; deriving his reasons from the fact that kind of commodities brought away by Solomon's ships, are Grotius conjectures that the fleets still to be found there. of Solomon and Hirain went no farther than a seaport town of Arabia, called by Arrian, Aphur ; by Pliny, Saphar ; by Ptolemy, Sapphera, and by Slephanus, Saphirina, whither he conceives the Indians brought their merchandise, and where Solomon's ships received their cargoes, Bochait, in his Phaleg, discovers two Ophirs, one in Arabia, in the country of the Sabeans, the other in the Indies. He supposes the Arabian Ophir to be the country, whose inhabitants are called by Ptolemy, Cassanites, because he finds an

Idumea say they, according to the Scripture, was in Idumea ; reached to the Mediterranean; and upon this se;i we meet
with Gastion-gabria, in Strabo, and Beto-gabria, in Ptolemy ; and this they freely suppose to have been the port of Ezioubut as the Be togeber, from which Solomon's fleet sailed; alma stood about nine leagues from the sea-coast, a pivtiy then egKM long canal would have been necessary t give and ingress. Cornelius a Lapide believes Ophir to have in which been at Angola, on the western coast of Africa case it would have been necessary for the vessels to go
;

round that

arhnity between that word, and the Hebrew term rjj (GONOZ, treasure; but as the situation of this place would not occupy three years in sailing to and from it, and it could not aft'oru
*
Joseph.
Anliij.
lib. viii.

formidable point, long called the Cape of Huetius, whose Tempests, now the Cape of Goad Hope. Paradise has been quoted in another opinion respecting much nearer the point part of this VVork.t brings Ophir after premising that the term Ophir is au of embarkation
:

cap,

H.

See before,

p.

861.

888

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP. xvin.

wise went in company with those of Hiram to Tarshish, and returned once in three years laden with gold and silver, elephants' teeth,
apes,

and peacocks,(p) or

parrots,

besides

other rarities. The whole weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year amounted to 600 talents ;(q) besides what he derived from the traffic of spices with Arabia. As to
the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver," &c.J is an Israelitish navy, joined with that of the Tynan king at sea, under the denomination of the navy ofTamhith, on account of the place with which it traded : but in the

appellative, belonging generally to the whole eastern coast of Africa, from Cape Aromata, or Gardafui, to the southern extremity of Zanguebar, where Caifraria begins, he fixes it

came
Here

particularly

sentiment
is

we

on the country now called Sofala ; and to incline, in preference to any of the others.

this
It

objected to the reasonings of Huetius, which, on account of their length, we are obliged to omit, that Sofala yields no peacocks, and that it is not at a sufficient distance from Ezion-geber to require a three years' voyage: but neither one nor the other is concerned with the voyage to Ophir, of which a hint has been already given ; it is only essential that the country pitched upon should be capable of furnishing a large supply of fine gold, and such is the case with As to Sofala, if we may credit the testimony of Mr. Bruce. the distance, so far from occupying three years, the Scripture in the following quotations, seems to declare that the " And the servants also voyage was performed every year : of Hiram, and the servants of Solomon, which brought gold from Ophir, brought algum-trees and precious stones." " Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and threescore and six talents:"* so much for Ophir; afterwards, speaking of Tarshish, it says: " The king's ships went to Tarshish, with the servants of Hiram ; every three years once came the ships of Tarshish,
bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks."-)This is very explicit and yet most of those who have sought for Ophir, have embarrassed their researches with matters nowise related to them. Josephus, and the tradition of the the Abyssiniaus, place the queen of Sbeba in Ethiopia negus, or emperor of Abyssinia, also boasts of his descent from a son of that princess, by Solomon ; and it is remarkable that the Scripture, both in Kings and Chronicles, speaks of the visit of the queen of Sheba to Solomon's court immediately after the first voyage of his fleet to Ophir. Now if it be true that she reigned in Ethiopia, it will not appear surprising that the navigation of the king's fleet to Ophir in her neighbourhood should have given occasion to the voyage, which she undertook, almost immediately, to see a monarch, of whose magnificence and wisdom she had heard so much. This, however, is a kind of proof on which too much reliance must not be laid ; because when we come more particularly to speak of this queen, we shall find that her residence is as much disputed as the situation of Ophir and Tarshish. After the foregoing (p) 1 Kings, \. 22. 2 Chron. ix. 21. notice of the various opinions relative to the situation of Ophir, the reader will be prepared to find that of Tarshish a subject of equal contention. Many commentators have placed Ophir and Tarshish in the same route, seeking in one of those places what belonged exclusively to the other; which primitive error has led them into a multitude of others. It is generally understood that the fleet for Ophir and the fleet for Tarshish both sailed from Ezioii-geber ; but the text says nothing of the kiiid the ships bound to the former place went from Ezion-geber but of those for the latter, it is said generally, " the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram : once in three years
; ; ;
:

instance of the fleet that went to Ophir, it is expressly stated that the ships were Solomon's, and the mariners This is certainly sufficient to establish a chiefly Tyrians4 The situation of Ophir has distinction between the two.

been settled in the preceding note ; it remains, therefore, only to find out that of Tarshish ; and when it is recollected that the Hebrews, when they spoke of the sea in an absolute sense, always meant the Mediterranean, we need not go farther to seek for its direction. Leaving, therefore, the opinions of those who consider the word Tarshish to mean the sea in general, or islands, or distant places to be reached only by sea, with those who place it in Arabia, in India, and on the western coast of Africa, the preference seems to be due to that which fixes it in the island of Tartessus, in Spain, peopled by a colony from Tarshish in Cilicia, which itself derived its population from Tarshish, the fourth This place was son of Javan, and grandson of Japheth. well situated to be. the emporium for the merchandise of both Europe and Africa. Spain itself produced gold and silver; and ivory, peacocks, or parrots, and monkey*, could be readily obtained from the opposite shores of Africa. The only objections to this decision are, that the distance was not so great as to require three years for the voyage, added to the fact of king Jehoshaphat's ships of Tarshish being wrecked at Ezion-geber. To the first objection, it may be replied, that the three years allude to the periodical return of the ships with cargoes from Tarshish, and not to the time occupied in the voyage: or else, it may be supposed that
after discharging their outward cargoes at Tarshish, they sailed to other places to procure other commodities lor that mart, whither they returned to make up their homeward

Phoenicians vent as far as Britain and Thule, no reason why Solomon's fleet should not have A trading voyage of this kind might accompanied them. As to the second objection, easily occupy three years. the writer of the first book of Kir.gs\\ says, not that the but for fchips of Jchoshaphal were destined for Tarshish, Ophir; their denomination of ships of Tarshish should therecargoes. and there
is

The

be understood of their quality or construction q. d. such ships as were used in the voyage to Tarsbish.lT Eusebius, in his Chronicon, says that under the name of Tarshish, Spain was well understood and this sentiment has been adopted by most modern writers, who agree that Tartessus Nor can and Tarseion are synonymous with Tarshish.'* any one doubt that the Phoenicians were frequent visitors
lore
; ;

to Spain, when it is remembered that in sailing to Britain and Thule, they must have coasted that country, that they
several monuments as evidences of their having been there, and that Himilco the Carthaginian wrote an accouut of his tour in it.

erected

3,646,350 sterling, according to (q) 3,(>3S),214. 7s. &&,d. according to others.

Gorop. tiiipan.
lib. v. vi. vii.

Arbuthnot; or

1 Kings, i. 11, 14. t 1 A'ingj, x.

2s!.

2 Chrm, it 10, 13.

ix.

2 Chron.
||

81.
xxii.

f 1

A'in/>s, x.

22.
lac.

Reb. Sabmonis, Phaltg.

lib.
iii.

$ 1 Kingt, u. 26, 27.

Chap.

48.

Schmidt. Le Clerc in

Pineda De Grotius in 1 Kings, i. 28. Bochart, Enuuaii. Sj, in 2 Citron, ix. 21. cap. M. cap. 7, el Chanaati, lib. i. cap. 34.
lib.

iv.

SECT. V.]

SPLENDOUR OF SOLOMON'S COURT.

were in the way of a custom duty, or the value of the goods, is uncertain. The Israelites had now attained the zrnith of their prosperity, and were in full possession of all that God had promised to their ancestor Abraham the dominion of Solomon extending from the river Euphrates, or even beyond confines of Egypt and the kings it, to the of all the intermediate countries were -his
this
:

silver, it was in such abundance, that it is said to have been in Jerusalem as stones, and accounted as of little value. Cedars were transported to that capital in such numbers, that their wood became as common as that of the sycamore trees which grew in the adjacent plains ; and the curious wood called almug, or algum, from Ophir, was used in adorning tho galleries about the temple, and in making musical instruments for the celebration of divine praise. (r) The pomp and retinue of Solomon's reign was equal to its affluence ; he had fourteen hundred chariots, and twelve thousand

tributaries. (t)

horsemen, besides his ordinary guards.

also

He

established

land, yarn, for which that country had long been celebrated; the value of each chariot employed in this merchandise, being rated at b'OO shekels

Egypt by

a regular intercourse with for the purchase of linen

of

silver,

and of a horse

at 150;(s) but

whether

So powerful and splendid a court could not but attract the notice, and excite the admiration, of all who beard of it; so as to make it the resort of strangers from all quarters. Among other great persons(u) who were drawn to Jerusalem by the fame of Solomon, the most remarkable was the queen of a princess of excellent wisdom and Sheba,(v) extraordinary opulence. She had heard with astonishment of the riches and understanding or the Israelitish monarch, and of the superb
Meilik, or Menilebek, whom she sent to be brought up at the Israelitish court, and from whom they pretend 24 of their kings descended, down to Basilides, who reigned in the 17th century. H StrabolT and Pliny** acknowledge that Ethiopia was for some time governed by women; and Josephus.tt who calls her Nicaulis, says she was queen of Egypt as well as of Ethiopia; and elsewhere;; that Saba was the metropolis of the latter, till Cambyscs called it by his sister's name Meroe. In support of this scheme, Jose

(r)

Kings,

x. 11, 12,

14, 15, 22, 27.

2 Chron.

ix.

13,

14, 20, 21,27. 2 Chron. ix. 25. (s) I Kings, x. 20, 28, 29. Exod. xxiii. 31. 1 Kings, iv. 21, 24. (t) Gen. xv. 18.

2 Chron.
(u) 1

ix.

26.

Kings, iv. 34. x. 24, 25. 2 Chron. ix. 2224. (v) The Arabians and Ethiopians, or Abyssinians, both In the gospel, she is called claim this queen for their own. the queen of the south, and is said to have come from the
uttermost parts of the earth ;* a description as applicable to the country of one as of the other; and the presents she took with her are to be found in either. The ancients speak of a people in Arabia Felix, called Sabaei, who admitted women to the throne ;t and the Arabs prelend that the princess in question, whom they call Balkish, was queen of all Arabia, and had her residence in the city of Mare.b, which they make the capital of the province of Saba. They have also preserved her genealogy, with a narrative of her journey to Jerusalem, in which last, among other fables, they relate that shew as married to Solomon; and that after her return to Arabia, that prince kept up an epistolary correspondence with means of a bird, called by them hitdhud, a kind of her,

phns quotes from Herodotus and though we do not find in that author precisely what he is made to say, there can be. little doubt but the Jewish historian was guided by a national
;

tradition of

by

lapwing, or puet, which conveyed their letters from one to the other.J: The expositors in favour of the Arabian claim, are pretty numerous, including among them, of the fathers, Justin, Cyprian, Epiphanius, and Cyril of Alexandria; of the moderns, Tostat, Maldonat, Cornelius a Lapide, and several other Catholics ; with Bocbart and Le Clerc, of the Protestants ; the last of whom calls her regina Salxeomn.^ The Abyssinians, on the other hand, say she was queen of Ethiopia, and thev preserve still a list of her successors. They also add, that she had a son by Solomon, named
* Matt.
t
xii.

countrymen, in attributing the queen ot This sentiment has been followed by Origen, Angus tin, Anselm, quoted by the Cardinal Tolet; Jerom, Theodoret, Procopius of Gaza, Vatablus, the The latter declares patriarch Alfonsns Mendez, and other*. that the continuation of the civil and military regulations and charges, with many other customs of immemorial origin, which are still in full exercise, gave to him in Ethiopia a that from them lively image of the Hebrew republic, and he derived considerable elucidations of many passages of Tellez, though in general not much preposs< Scripture. in favour of the Abyssinian traditions, says nobody should be surprised at Solomon's having an Ethiopian wire, along with the other strange women whom betook, and therefore he to be descendants is inclined to admit the kings of Abyssinia of that monarch; though it does not appear from the passages quoted by Ludolph, that he thought they were by the queen of Sheba, which was essential to the proof of
his

Sheba

to

Ethiopia.

that princess having reigned in called Abyssinia.

t Herbelot. Blbtioth. Orient, x. 1. 4 Le Clerc in 1

that part of Ethiopia,

now

42.

Lukr,
in

31.
lib.
ii.

sub voc. Balkish.

lib.
ii.

Thus,

f 'laudian,

Eutmp.
:

ver.

320

Kings,

Vide Hier. Almeid.

Lib. xvi. cap. 17. Lib. fi. cap. 26.

et

Ludolph. Hilt. /Ethiop.

cap. 34,

Medis. leviouscme SaD&is Lmperat hie saxus rfginaruiuque sub anais Barbariae pars niagua jnctt.

tt Antiq. lib. viii. cap. *.

tt

!'*

{>

VOL.

I.

-5x

890
temple he
;

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

had erected
to

[CHAP, xvrir.

the

God

of the

Hebrews she doubted the reports, solved to visit his court in person, to satisfy herself of the truth. Solomon answered her questions, then shewed her the temple, entertained her with a view of his palaces and gardens, and exhibited to her all the magnificence of his court and capital: all which so overpowered her, that it is said her spirit sunk within her, and she acknowledged that although his might and fame had been so magnified by those from whom she had heard of him at home, that she could not believe what she heard ; yet now she saw that not She half of the truth had been told her. then burst out into a panegyric on the haprelive under piness of those whose lot it was to such a sovereign, and to be the continual witnesses of his wisdom and greatness and she blessed the name of Jehovah, who had placed such a king over His chosen people. In the course of her visit, she presented Solomon with 120 talents of gold, besides a great number of precious stones and rich perfumes, or spices, of a quality unknown in Israel till Solomon was too generous not to that time.
:

and

whom he added 300 concubines, or wives of the second order and his attachment to them was so great, that ;i? their desire he built
;

altars

and temples
the

to their deities, particularly

to

abomination of Moab, to or Milcom, gods of the Ammonites, Molech, and to Ashloreth, the goddess of the Zidonians ; insomuch that the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, if not the city itself, was filled
C/temos/t

her suitable returns, and she went back to her country with the strongest proofs of

make

his munificence.(w)

with idols, and high-places on which to offer incense to them, in open defiance of the God This most unaccountable and deof Israel. grading apostasy could not but incur the displeasure of the Almighty ; and Solomon was assured in a dream, that his successors should mourn the loss of the kingdom, as the result of his ingratitude, only the tribe of Judah should be left to them, in consideration of the divine promise to David.(y) What effect was produced by this awful denunciation, is not recorded in Scripture; nor is there , any farther account of this Ju) Per 3?3g> monarch, but that he died in VA.M. *302o! the 40th year of his reign *i372. -^PostDil. the 59th, as is supposed, jAnn.Exod.*5i7. (about of his age) and was buried in the sepulchre of his royal father, leaving his son Rehoboam to succeed him.(z) The transactions of Solomon's reign, like
;

Hitherto,
prince's
life

nothing

has

appeared

in

this

that does not convey the highest

;

idea of his wisdom, piety, and munificence but the latter part of his reign exhibits a

Solomon, emphatically melancholy reverse. styled the Wise, beloved of God, and admired

by

all

his

contemporaries for his numerous

virtues, slave to

in his declining years a a libidinous passion, to so great a degree, that he took to his embraces an incredible number of women, without distinction of country, faith, or family, contrary to the express command of his Creator,(x) and suffered himself to be led by them into all the gross and abominable idolatries of the The number of his wives was 700, to age.
(w) In I Kingi, x. 13, we read that Solomon gave her whatever she asked for, besides what he gave of his own is stated that he gave bounty ; but in 2 Chron. ix. 12, it " whatsoever she asked, besides what she had brought to the king;" as if he had returned the presents she 'brought him from her own country. Hut as we are not inclined to impute so uncourtly an act to so wise and prudent a king, it is better
to correct the latter reading by the former,
as suggested

became

had three historians, viz. Nathan prophet, Ahijah the Shilonife, also a prophet, and Iddo the seer ;(a) besides whom, mention is made of a work, intitled Tke Acts of Solomon ;(b) but these have all long since been lost, and the only authentic records we have of him, are contained in a few chapters of the canonical books of Kings and Chronicles.
his father's,

the

Notwithstanding that his reign is there expressly stated at 40 years, Josephus(c) gives him a reign of 80 years, and increases his age to 94, induced to it probably by a wish to
extenuate his impiety, by attributing it to the Solomon wrote a great numeffect of dotage. ber of books,(d) of which we have only part of his Proverbs, his Ecclesiastes, and his Can(x) (y)

Exod. xxxiv. 15, 10.

1 Kings,
xi.

Deut.

vii. 3,

etseq.

13.

(z) Ibid. ver. (a)

42, 43.
ix.
xi.

2 Chron.

ix.

30, 31.

2 Chron.
1

29.

(b)
(c)

Kings,

41.
cap. 3.

by

Antiq.

lib. viii.
iv.

Dr. Kennicott in his Remarks, &c. p. 143,

(d) ^

Kings,

32, 33.

ECT. v.]
tides

OPINIONS CONCERNING SOLOMON'S REPENTANCE.

him
"

the rest, consisting- of works on botany, zoology, ornithology, entomology, and ichthyology, are lost. The Talmudists affirm that Solomon heartily repented of all his extravagancies before he died ; and they affirm, that God sent Asmodeus to strip him of all his glory, and drive him from his throne ; upon which they make him Jead a strange kind of life, more in the style On this of frenzy than of true repentance. the opinions of the Christians are subject, much divided ; the advocates for his repentance, think the book of Ecclesiastes to have been the result of his penitent meditations ; and it certainly contains many expressions(e) similar to what a person would use under a sensible remorse for his past irregularities, joined with a desire to forewarn others against
;

say,
to

At
live

length

repented, and applied

;"

myself

after a better rule

though
I

in

the original he only says, that, having observed the field of a slothful man overrun \\ilh horns

and nettles

he

considered

it

well,

and

re-

ceived instruction. (j)

charity we should hope that Solomon repented, and that his repentance, like his father's, was accepted ; there is certainly nothing in proof of it in these passages, and if not in them, not in any part of Scripture. Indeed, the weakness of the arguments, though upheld by great men, in favour of it, induced many of the learned fathers positively to deny it, and

Although

in Christian

them. Another argument for his repentance is taken from the promise of God to his father, where, speaking of Solomon, as is sup" I will establish posed, the Almighty says, the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be If he his Father, and he shall be My son. commit iniquity, 1 will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men but My mercy s/iall not depart
:

they have been followed by several modern writers. Their reasons are comprised in the subjoined propositions 1 Solomon's sins of idolatry and love of strange women, are recorded in the strongest terms; but not a
:

word

is

mentioned

in

the whole

scripture,

&c.(f) but this promise, understood as belonging to though generally Solomon, really belongs to the Messiah, (g) and therefore does not apply to the question at issue. A much stronger argument, though far from conclusive, is drawn from what is said of Rehoboam and his subjects walking
au-ay
in the

from him"

about his forsaking them. 2. The Almighty, being highly offended with him, actually cut off ten tribes from his posterity, according to what He had threatened but would that threat have been so punctually executed, if Solomon had repented? 3. David, and others, who repented of their sins, not only had part of the punishment abated, but their conversion is particularly recorded why Solomon should be the only person whose repentance, if it ever took place, is omitted, can only be accounted for by supposing that very important part of the sacred history to have been lost. 4. Could he write the book of Proverbs, or of
: :

after

ways of David and Solomon three years; Solomon's which he did evil, &c. (h)

all

Ecclesiastes, after his conversion, and yet leave the monuments of his idolatry standing?

way, therefore, being put with that of David, and opposed to that of his wicked son, it is said, argues that it was right, which it could not have been had he died impenitent. Some pretend that the Proverbs were written after his repentance, and quote two places for it the one where Agur, whom they take for Solomon, complains that he was more brutish than any man, having neither understanding, wisdom, nor knowledge, of the Holy One;(i) the other is from the Septuagint, which makes
:

if he did destroy them, why was not the pious deed recorded, as well as several others of a similar nature ?(k) Instead of which, it is said they subsisted in Josiah's time,(l) about 300 years after his death. These propositions certainly outweigh the arguments on the other side; yet we would fain indulge the hope, that though the penitence of this most wonderful man is not recorded on earth, he may have found grace before the Searcher of hearts, and that it is written in heaven.

Or,

(e)

Eccles.

i.

1, et seq.

ii.

passim,

iii.

17, et seq. xi.

xii.

passim.
(f )

2 Sam.

vii.

121-5.

chasten him with the rod of (due to) men, and with the stripes of (due to) the children of Adam." (i) Prov. xxx. 2, et seq. (h) 2 Chron. xi. 17. xii. 14.
(j) (k)
(1)

Kennicott's Remarks, p. 112 ; where the. above (f) See " I will be his Father, and he quotation is thus rendered : even in. his suffering for iniquity, I shall shall be My son
:

Prov. xxiv. 3032. 2 Chron. xiv. 3. xvii. 6, ft al. 2 Kings, xxiii. 13.

5x2

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

With
all his

[CHAP. xvin.

wives,

we read

only of three

children of Solomon ; viz. one who succeeded him, and Taphath and Basmath; the to Ben-abinadab, the king's

son,

Rehoboam,

two daughters,
former married
chief officer in
latter

more dangerous enemy he had been placed by the king over the house of Joseph, for carrying on his works, and seems
was a
still
:

Dor and

its

neighbourhood; the

to

Ahimaaz, who held a similar post in NaphBefore his death, he had the mortifitali.(iu)
cation to behold the approaching dissolution of his empire, in a revolt of the Edomites, under Hadad,(n) in the hostilities of Rezon, of Damascus, (o) and in the growing

in that powerful and extena considerable degree of public sive family, esteem at the time the prophet was ordered to announce to him his intended accession, to the throne of Israel. On this promise

to

have obtained

popularity of one of his own officers, named Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, to whom the prophet Ahijah had declared the will of the Lord that he should reign over the ten tribes. The particular effects of Hadad's and Rezon's hostility are not stated, only that it occasioned Solomon considerable vexation.(p) Jeroboam
See before, p. 646.

king

reaching the king's ears, he endeavoured to put him to death but Jeroboam eluded his resentment, and fled to Egypt, where he remained till word was sent him by his adhe;

rents that

Rehoboam had ascended

the throne,

and that the nation was ripe for revolt ; upon which he returned, to watch a proper opportunity for

establishing
;

himself according to

Ahijah 's prediction and was not long before that weak and misguided prince gave him one as favourable as he could have wished. (q)
(p) 1
(q) 1

(m) 1 Kings, iv. 11, 15. (o) See before, p. 564.

(n)

Kings, Kings,

xi.

1425.
26
40.
xii.

xi.

passim.

CHAP. XIX.j

KINGS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL.

CHAPTER XIX.
CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL, FROM THE DEATH OF SOLOMON, A.M. 3029, TO THE BABYLONISH
CAPTIVITY, A.M.
Jul. Per.

3416.

At,ji'nufj>v^Aivi, the son and successor of Solomon, upon his accession to the throne of Israel, Ann.Exod.5i7. 1 with his court and 5 J repaired, the elders of the tribes, to Shechem, to receive the homage of his subjects ; but they refused to acknowledge his sove3739. ^v A. M. 3029. / PostDil. 1372. V
'

boam immediately
men,

raised an

to reduce the rest to obedience

army of 180,000 but on

;

reignty,

unless he would promise to redress some popular grievances, that had crept into

the administration during the latter part of Solomon's reign. The king took three days to consider their request, and to consult with his counsellors the old statesmen of his father recommended that the public burdens should be lightened ; but, preferring the advice of some rash youths,(r) who had been brought up with him in ease and luxury, he answered the people in a haughty tone, that he designed to rule them with greater severity than they had hitherto experienced, and threatened to chastise the slightest murmur with scorpions instead of whips. This harsh and inconsiderate reply, so unsuitable to a people who regarded themselves as the peculiar favourites of heaven, occasioned an immediate revolt and ten of the tribes immediately disclaimed all farther Adoram, allegiance to the house of David whom the king had sent to appease the tumult, was stoned to death ; and Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, to whom, as we have seen, the new sovereignty had been promised by the prophet Ahijah, was proclaimed king of Israel. Judah and Benjamin alone adhered to Rehoboam and they conducted him with all speed to Jerusalem, to skreen him from the popular Out of those two tribes, Rehoindignation.
; ;
:

the interference of the prophet Shemaiah, who declared that this separation was by divine appointment, the intended hostilities were for the moment laid aside,(s) though continual quarrels and skirmishes took place during the whole lives of the rival monarclis. Jero*boam embraced the first opportunity of the peace procured by the prophet's interference to rebuild Penuel and Shechem, which last he made his residence. He also introduced a change in the religion of his subjects, by erecting at the two extremities of his kingdom. Dan and Beth-el, two golden calves, or perhaps imitations of the cherubim on the His motives rnercy-seat in the tabernacle.
in this

were

political

sive

that the

for he was apprehencustom of going thrice in the

:

year(t) to Jerusalem, to worship, might, in time, reconcile his subjects to the house of David. Instead, therefore, of resorting to the

temple on the great festivals, Jeroboam ordered his people to repair to Dan or to Beth-el, and
to

their vows before these idols. He also some temples and altars in the high places, and appointed priests to officiate in

pay

built

them, from the dregs of the people.

The priests and Levites, who endeavoured to retain the people in their ancient religion,
and persecuted, so that they forsook their cities, and took refuge in the territories of Rehoboam, whither they were followed by all the pious Israelites; so that
were harassed
Judah, though least in extent, quickly became equal in strength with its rival kingdom. (u)

The
(s)
xii.

dedication of the calves was fixed for

xii.

(r\The

:rcuni

Mnce of

these

youny men luving been

1 Kings,

124.
2531.

xiv. 30.

2 Chron.

x.

xi.

14.

brovjlit ujj with R> iioboam, added to his own unstatesman like conduct, ar" uts to little short of pos.live proof that

15.

he was himself but a youth, and consequently under forty years of age ; see the preceding irate (1), p. 883.

(t)

See before, p. 719.

(u) 1

Kings,

xii.

2 Chron.

xi.

1317.

894

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

in this

[CHAP. xix.

the time of the feast of tabernacles at Jerusalem ; and on that occasion Jeroboam repaired with his court to Beth-el, where he appears to have intended the union in his own person of the regal dignity with the sovereign pontificate. great concourse of people was assembled to witness, or to partake in the ceremony, when a venerable prophet from the land of Judah made his appearance, and denounced the destruction of the idolatrous future period, by a king of altar, at some named Josiah ; and as an evidence of Judah, his authority, and the truth of his prediction, he told the spectators that God would at that instant give them a token of His displeasure scarcely had he uttered the words, when the altar burst asunder, and spilt the ashes that were upon it. Jeroboam was then standing near the altar, just going to offer incense, when hearing the prophet's threatening, he stretched forth his hand, ordering his attendants to seize him ; but with the bursting of the altar, he found his hand had withered, so that he could not draw it back to him. The now became a suppliant to the man, king whom, a moment before, he had commanded to be seized ; and the prophet, upon his submission, prayed that the hand might be restored, which the Almighty granted, and the king invited the prophet to his house, that he might there reward him for the cure but he, having been expressly forbidden to stay in Beth-el, even to drink a cup of water, refused the offer, and hastily withdrew. What Jeroboam failed of obtaining, however, was effected by an old prophet of Beth-el, who hearing from his sons an account of what had passed iu the city, determined, if possible, to toring back the messenger, apparently with a view to make his court to the king, by causing the man of God to transgress, and thereby to throw discredit upon his denunciation. He therefore rode after him, and soon discovered him resting under a tree; and by a false assertion

frequently go together ; and so it happened case for while the prophet sat at table, he(v) heard the Word of God denouncing a Having refreshed heavy doom upon him. himself, he mounted the ass of the old pro:

'

phet who had brought him back, and departed; but he had not long been gone, before a report was spread in Beth-el, that a lion had slain him, and was standing with the ass by the corpse in the highway. Struck with remorse, the prophet who had deceived him, repaired without delay to the spot, and brought the body to Beth-el, where he and his sons buried it, with great lamentations. (w) Notwithstanding these miraculous events, Jeroboam continued to draw away the people from the true religion, and to substitute an
idolatrous worship for that which had been established by divine appointment. At length, his son Abijah was struck with a dangerous disease, and he sent his wife, in disguise, to Ahijah the prophet, to know whether he should recover. Ahijah, though blind with knew her at her first approach, and, age, having called her by name, bid her go tell her husband, that since he had proved so ungrateful to God, who had raised him to the throne, the death of his son should be the least punishment that should bet'al him ; for the whole of his posterity should be cut, off in a miserable manner. Still, however, did this infatuated man persist in his idolatry, and on the return of his wife, the child Abijah died, according to the prophet's prediction.(x) As the beginning of Rehoboam's reign had been marked by folly, so as he proceeded,
in years, he grew in iniquity. he been even a politic prince, he would have observed the defection occasioned by Jeroboam's idolatry, and have made at least an external show of piety, to encourage and

and advanced

Had

that an angel had commanded him to fetch him back, he prevailed upon the weary, incautious traveller to return to his house and take some refreshment. Disobedience and punishment

confirm his own subjects, as well as to draw over more of those of his competitor, who had already been deserted by the Levites and
his false religion. For three indeed, the government of Rehoboam years, was equitable, if not commendable, and he employed that interval in building and fortify-

such as abhorred

(v) The true prophet: such is Josephus's conception of the passage, contrary to our translation, which represents the Word of God as coming to the false prophet, the deceiver. The original words (1 Kings, xiii. 20) will signify either

who brought him

which
(w) 1 Kings,

back, or
32, 33.

whom
xiii.

lie

had brought back;

iu

latter sense they are translated, ver. 23.

xii.

1
11).

32.

1 (x) Ibid. xiii. 33, 34. xiv.

CHAP, xrx.]
ing a great

REHOBOAM. ABIJAH. JEROBOAM I.

number
of places in Judah and garrisons in 'the frontier up stores of arms and

Benjamin, lodging towns, and laying

by Shishak; that he had 18 wives and f>O concubines, and by them 28 sons and 00 daughters. (a)
.

ammunition against hostile emergencies, (y) But when he had thus secured himself, as he thought, from outward danger, he gave himself up to a life of carelessness, which quickly led him to licentiousness and idolatry. His subjects, also, influenced by the manners of
the court, soon eclipsed their Israelitish neighbours in impiety; and before the fifth year of his reign, the land of the people of God was not to be distinguished from the heathens For these by which it was surrounded. enormities, a powerful adversary was brought against Rehoboam, in the person of Shishak ,(/) k of Egypt, who entered JuI.Pcr. 3743.-) jng A. M. 3033. / his kingdom with 1200 war
_

The succeeding monarch, Abijah, Abia, or Abijam, for by so many names is he called, was the son of Rehoboam and his best beloved
wife Maachah, the grand-daughter of Absalom. He was ;i warlike prince, and as soon as he ascended the throne, Jul. Per. 3750. took the field with 400,000 men A. M. 3040.
PostDii. 1389. who met him Ann. Exod.534. mount Ephraim with an army B. C. 958. of double that number. \Vhen the two kings were within hearing of each other, Abijah, standing upon mount /emaraim,

against Jeroboam,
in

PostDil.

137f>. 170.

Ann.Exod. 521. 21
B. C.

various African tribes. The imaginary strength of Rehoboam vanished in an instant: his fenced cities were taken one after the other, and the inhabitants were driven to Jerusalem, to seek refuge from the enemy's sword. Here the prophet Shemaiah reprehended them
fantry,

A 971

> chariots, 60,000 horsemen, and a proportionately numerous iu-

composed

of

brought them to upon which he was acknowledge directed by the Almighty, to announce to them the divine will that Jerusalem should not be destroyed but, that they might know the difference between the service of Jehovah and that of the countries around, they should become tributaries to Shishak. That prince was in the mean time advancing, and he soon entered the capital, which he pillaged of all
for their

wickedness, and
their guilt;

a long oration, expostulated with the adverse injustice of their deserting his father; upbraided his rival with the meanness of his origin, and his wickedness in introducing and exhorted the Israelitish army to idolatry return to the allegiance they owed to the house of David. Jeroboam took advantage of the time occupied by this harangue to march a part of his army round the hill to surprise his adversary in the rear, whilst he should attack him personally in front: a movement so punctually executed, that the king of Judah found himself surrounded before he was aware of it but the stratagem was not attended with the advantages expected from it; for the men of Judah, relying on the justice of their cause, and the protection of the
in

army on the

its

of

all

riches, stripping the temple and the palaces their golden shields and vessels, which

pride of Solomon's reign. reigned 12 years after this disaster, but the history of that period, written by the prophet Shemaiah and Iddo, has been long lost. only know that he substituted shields of brass for those taken away

had

been

the

Almighty, gave a general shout, and, while the priests sounded their trumpets, charged so vigorously upon their opponents, that 500,000 of them were laid dead on the field, being the greatest slaughter in the annals ot" war;(b) though there is reason to suppose that more died from the intervention of some supernatural power, than by the swords of the

Rehoboam

men of Judah.(c)

Abijah pursued

his victory,

We

retook several considerablepla('es, particularly Beth-el, and so weakened Jeroboam, that during the remainder of this reign, which lasted but three years in all, the Israelitish
Sixtus V. in 1390, where the army of Abijah is stated at 40,000, that of Jeroboam at 80,400, and the loss of iho latter at 50,000. In the doctor's Dissertations on the Hebrew Text, various authorities are quoted in support of such a rendering; and it appears that Josephus so expressed them
originally.
(c)

(y) 2 Chron. xi. .517. (z) Sir Isaac Newton

and

Sir

John Marsham suppose

See before, p. 490, he the same with Sesostris. The more general opinion is, that he was the note (e). same with Pseusennes I. 31. 2 Chron. xi. 1823. xii. pass. (a) 1 Kings, xiv. 21 (b) Dr. Kennicott (Remarks, &c. p. 148) thinks this number, and the numbers of the respective armies, excessive he therefore prefers the reading of the Vulgate edition by
Sliishak to
;

Sre 2 Chron.

xiii.

1-i,

where

it

is

said

"

Cod smote

Jeroboam aud

all Israel."

896

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

XIX.

monarch was not

in a capacity to attempt any Judah. Abijah at his death, thing against He was a powerful left 14 wives, and 22 sons. monarch ;(d) and upon the whole a good man, though he fell short of the sincere piety which his had maintained .(e) great-grandfather David Asa succeeded his father i P iiw\ A.M."' 3049. / Abijah on the throne of Judah, Post Oil. 1392. > in the 20th year of Jeroboam.
i

Jeroboam, according to the threatening prediction of Ahijah some years before. (h)

About 14 years after Asa's accession, his kingdom was attacked by an army of a million of Cushites, or Cuthaeans,

for the event, marched boldly against this mighty host, who

headed by one Zerah.(i) The \ A. M. king of Judah, trusting to God ^PostDil.

^ Ju

Per

37

_.

3003! I4oe.

J Am.Exod.661. *- B- c<

Ann.Exod.537. 1 955> '

a religious prince, and, ten years of his reign were blessed with peace, he spent most of that time in a zealous promotion of reform in the church, and even deposed his grandas the
first

He was

Maachah, for patronizing idolatry: the practice of worshipping on high places yet had become so habitual among his subjects, that he endeavoured in vain to abolish it. He also put his kingdom in a good posture of
defence, by fortifying several important places, and maintaining a standing army of 580,000 His riches also increased rapidly men.(f) so that he was enabled to adorn the temple with vessels of gold and silver, in the room of those which had been taken away by the
;

mother

were ravaging the country, and came up with them at Mareshah, in the valley of Zephathah, where he overthrew them in a pitched battle, pursued them to Gerar, sacked the cities in that quarter, seized the tents, sheep, and camels of the invaders, and returned to Jeruable

salem laden with immense spoil ;( j) a considerportion of which he devoted to the service of his heavenly Patron, in sacrifices
of thanksgiving. On this occasion, the prophet Azariah, the son of Oded, went out to meet the king, as he came back from the pursuit,

to

to congratulate him on his success, and exhort him to a firm observance of the

king of Egypt
Jul. Per.

in

3760. 3050. Post Oil. 1393.

A. M.

Ann.Exod.538.
B. C.
954.

Rehoboarn's reign.(g) In the second year of this reign, Jeroboam died, and was succeeded by his son Nadab, of whom no particulars worthy

divine institutions. The people of Israel, also, were struck with this remarkable victory, as well as with the justice and munificence of the king so that deserting the cause and government of Baasha, they resorted to Asa
;

in great

This

numbers.(k) emigration led

to

some unavailing

of notice are recorded, except his adhering to the sin of his father, and his being slain, after a reign of nearly two years, at the siege of Gibbethon, a Jul. Per. 3701.
A. M.
3051. Post Oil. 1394.
B. C.
053.

Philistine fortress, by Baasha, man of the tribe of Issachar,

Ann.Exod.539.

who

seized the kingdom, and destroyed the whole race of

on the part of Baasha; and at length, he determined to stop it by strengthening and fortifying the frontier , Ju Per 3774 town of Ramah.(l) He was then I A. M. 3064. in league with Ben-hadad I. < Post Oil. 1407. Ann.Exod.552. king of Syria; and Asa, expect- I B c ^ ing to be attacked by both monarchs, as soon as the fortress should be
hostilities
| -

2 Chron. xiii. passim. 7. (e) 1 Kln^s, XT. 1 This number the author above quoted, also thinks has undergone some alteration from llie on-rural; or why, be ask?, with so large au army in ordinary, which implies a capacity of increase in cases of emergency, should ASH have been so extremely distressed on tlie approach of the men of Israel, as t<> -trip the temple and his palaces of their
(d)
(f)

!< \\:ts treasures, to pUi-< l.ase assistance of the Syrians/ or it necessary, with so numerous an army, after the retreat ol

at Ran. ;>h
(h) 1

Baasha, to raise all Judah to assist in demote hing the works See Kennicott's Second Dissertation, p. 218. 15. 2 Chron. xiv. (g) 1 Kiugt, xv.
!

inferred from the sacred text itself: there was peace during Asa's first ten years ;* and in his 15th year, he and his subjects offered large sacrifices of the spoil they had brought, and the people rejoiced that the Lord had given them rest :t no time, therefore, in the absence of a positive date, seems so proper for introducing the overthrow of so mighty a host, as that immediately preceding a festival of t'lanksglving, such as had not been known in Judah since tlx reign of Solomon. 15. (k) Iliid. xv. 115. (j) 2 Chum, xiv.9

strongly

(I)

Kiii'/s, xv. 17, tt scq.

is

'2

(,'hron. xvi. 1.

In the latter
in

18.

place, this transaction

thirlieth year of liie third year of

said

In

hav

been

the six-and-

King*, xv. 2531. (i) This r markable invasion (in which the numbers should be viewed \v th caution) is placed by Usher in the first year of Asa's reign; but by other chronol.'gers, about the The authority tor the latter may be 16th, as above.
;

Asa: but as Baasha >eized the throne iu Asa, and re ;r,ned oni\ 21 years, the :Wth of Asa coincides with the 5tu of Omri, as sole king, or the llth of that prince, reckoning from Uaaslia's death, in
* 2 CAtvn. OUT. l.
t

Chrm.

xv.

10

15.

5,

CHAP. XIX.]

ASA.

BAASHA. ELAH. ZIMRL TIBNI. OMRI.

897

capable of hostilities, determined to buy off the Syrian, and to induce him to make a diversion in the north, while he himself assailed Israel in the south. With this view, Asa collected all the money, gold and silver, that he could find in his own treasury, and in that of the temple, and sent it to Ben-hadad, with a pressing message that he would attack

Of the remaining acts of this prince no record remains, except that in his old age, he was afflicted with a disorder in his feet, supposed to have been the gout, and, instead of
applying to God for a cure, he is reproached for having resorted to physicians. After sufunder this complaint about two years, fering he died in the 41st of his reign, and his body was embalmed, and laid in state with a degree of magnificence not related of any of his predecessors.^) Baasha, king of Israel, continued the idolatrous practices of Jeroboam, notwithstanding he had been the instrument of divine venge-

Baasha. The Syrian monarch accordingly entered the tribe of Naphtali with a wellappointed army, and soon made himself master of all its fortified cities; and Baasha

was in consequence called from his pursuits on the borders of Benjamin, to repel this The issue of this war unexpected inroad. appears to have been the retention by Benhadad, of Ihe places he had seized and as soon as Baasha had withdrawn from Ramah, Asa marched thither with a forced levy of his subjects, and after dismantling the works, had the stones carried away to Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah in Judah, which two places,
;

ance against that prince and his family. For this, the prophet Jehu, son of Hanani, was commissioned to threaten him with the heaviest effects of God's anger and the same fate that , had attended Jeroboam was de_ p
;
|

nounced against him and

his house.

all

( A.

M.

3074!

the keys of Jerusalem, he fortified with thern.(m) Asa had scarcely completed this business, when he was reproved by the prophet Hanani,

however, ^Postbil. 1417. continued impenitent, and died I Ann.Exod.562. in the 24th year of his reign. His son and successor, Elah, had not reigned quite two years when he
still,

He

seeking help from Benhadad, against the king of Israel, while his deliverance from the multitude of Zerah's host must have been fresh in his recollection.
for his
in

weakness

He was also told, that had the king of Syria attacked him, he should certainly have taken him prisoner; and for his want of reliance upon God, he was threatened with continual war to the end of his reign. Asa, unaccustomed to rebukes of this nature, spoiled by prosperity, and looking at the success which had attended his Syrian compact, as a kind of negative proof that he had not forfeited the divine favour, ordered the prophet'to be thrown into prison and at the same time he was guilty of some oppressive acts against his subjects,(n) on what account, is not stated, though it is probable he was incensed against them, either for interposing in the prophet's behalf, or for venturing to admonish him of his increasing declension in religion, which had become manifest to all.
;

Ju , Pef 37>5 assassinated, at Iirzah, the VA. M. 3075. royal city, by Zimri, a com- 1 Post Oil. 1418. manderof his chariots, who, as- / Ann.Exod. 563. suming the regal title, embraced the opportunity of destroying all the race of

was

Baasha. The reign of Zimri was of only seven days' continuance; for as soon as the army, which was then besieging Gibbethon, heard of Elah's death, they proclaimed their

commander

ing to leave Zimri

fore,

in chief, named Omri, who repairto Tirzah, so surrounded the palace, as

no way of escape; and there-

to avoid falling into their hands, the usurper set the building on fire, and consumed

himself with

it.(p)

Omri had another competitor,

ofTibni,
people,

in the

who had been

elected

person king by the

before the in opposition to Zimri, choice of the army was known ; but the party of Omri was by far the strongest, and at length the death of Tibni gave him full and undisputed possession of the throne.(q)
'

the margin of our Bibles, we are directed to read the 36th year from the division of the kingdom ; but as, in other ass. dates of events are reckoned by the years of the reigning monarch, we should rather conclude this to be an additional numeral error to those already pointed out. The 16th year of Asa appears to be near the truth.

(m) 1 Kingt, xv.

(n)

1022.

2 Chron,

xvi.

16.

2 Chron.

xvi.

710.

(o) Ibid, ver.

(p) 1

Kings,

1114. xvi. 120,

(q) Ibid. ver. 21, 22,

VOL.

I.

5 Y

698
D Jul. Per.
.

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

Oinri ascended the throne of
.
.

[CHAP. xix.
altar,

_, 3785.N _ A A.M. 3075.1 Israel in the 2 /th year ot Asas PostDil. 1418. > reign in Judah,(r) and he reigu< >

sumptuous temple, an
Html,
iii

and a grove, to

Ann.E.\od.563. 1

e(j ne arly twelve years. During the earlier part of this period, he resided at Tirzah, which had for some time been the metropolis of Israel ; but, probably owing to the conflagration of the palace by Ziinri, as soon as he was settled in the government, he began to think of signalizing his reign by the building of a new capital. With this view, he purchased the hill of Shomerou, or Samaria, of one Sheiner, for two talents of silver,(s) and built the city of

Samaria, appointed 450 priests to conduct the worship, and suffered his wife to entertain at her table 400 others, called proTo deter him from these phets of the groves.
iniquitous practices, Elijah, the Tishbite, was early sent to assure him that God would punish the land with a grievous famine, in consequence of neither dew nor rain falling for the space of three years, except at the intercession of that prophet. Threatenings to the ungodly are but too often fresh incentives to evil; and Ahab, instead of receiving the message

with a repentant
to death,

na ^ name upon it whither, in Jul. Per. 3790."\ A. M. 3080. / the 6th year of his reign, and FostDil. 1423. > the 31st of Asa, he transferred Ann.Exod.568.l tne geat of government, and J there it continued till the dissolution of the kingdom. Nothing more is recorded of Omri, except that he reigned six years in Samaria, exceeding in iniquity his and that he was succeeded predecessors by his son Ahab, who proved still more
*
; ;

spirit, would have put Elijah had he not withdrawn himself from

public
victim,

observation.

Disappointed
the land

of

this

and

finding

consumed by

wicked .(t)
Jul. Per. 37!><;.^

Ahab ascended

the throne in

A. M. 3!>o. / the 30th year Post Dil. 142U. V reigned 22

of

Asa,

and

Ann.Exod.574.

Tyre and Sidou, proved a constant source of cruel, idolatrous, and abominable actions as
;

*'-f

His maryears. (u) r age w j t h Jezebel, daughter of Ithobel, or Eth-baal, king of

j

he permitted her to introduce the Sidonian worship, which required human sacrifices, and consisted in rites of the most impure
uature.(v)

The
to

idolatry of Ahab's predecessors appears have been confined to certain corruptions

true religion,

of the

modes of worship unauthorized by

:

by the introduction

o]

the Levitical ritual ; particularly the use of images as representations of the Most High but Ahab went
far

and plunged at once into the of heathen polytheism. He reared a depths

bey oiid this,
1 Kings, xvi. 8, 15, 23, 29. The expression can only refer to the beginning of his reign ii Samaria, prior to which he had reigned five full years in Tirzah, as may be deduced from ver. 15, 10.
(T)

drought, according to his prediction, the king, at the instance of Jezebel, who had a complete command over him, wreaked his malignity upon such of his subjects as refused to join in the new religion, and ordered a general mas^ sacre of the worshippers of Jehovah, which was executed to so great an extent, that Elijah supposed he was the only one left. There were, however, no less than. 7000 who had not bowed to liaal ; and even in the royal palace, a true worshipper was found, in the person of Obadiah, the king's steward, who during the massacre hid a hundred prophets of the Lord in a cave, and preserved them from the fury of his master.(w) Elijah, in the mean time had concealed himself by the brook Cherith, where he was miraculously sustained(x) till the water there failed, and then he was directed to go to Zarcphath, or Sarepta, a small village of the Sidonians. Here the famine raged as violently as in Samaria, but he took up his abode with a poor widow, whose cruse of oil and barrel of meal afforded a supernatural supply during the whole time of his stay with her. Whilst he abode with this widow, her son was seized with a mortal distemper, and died ; but on the

Comp.

(\v)

1 Kings, xvi. 32, 33. xvii.

13.

xviii. 3,

4, 13, 19,

ver. 23,

xix. 10, 14, 18.

(x) 1

Kings,

xvii. 4, 0,

Elijah

is

said to have been fed by

(s)

084.

Is.

Gd. sterling,

according to

900.
(t)

Arbuthnot,

according to Prideaux. 1 Kings, xvi. 2333.

See before, p. 661, et seq.

(u) Ibid. ver. 29.

(v)

generally rendered ravens ; but as Jerom meutions a people called Orbim, inhabitants of Oreb, or Orljo, a small village on the con-fines of Arabia, Dr. Keniticolt thinks the best interpretation of the passage is, that Elijah's food was carried to him by those people, rather

the

dJQiy (ORBIM)

than by ravens.

CHAP, xix.]

JEHOSHAPHAT.

AIIAK.
was

ELIJAH
Ahab knew

AND

BAAL'S PROPHETS.

flo.o

Supplication of the propliet, he

to life.(y)

restored

While "'Ahab and his consort were bringing a curse upon themselves and their kingdom,
and putting
all

those to death,

who had

the

courage the son and successor of Asa, was employed in expunging all the remaining corruptions of in Judah, and in religion restoring the worof his subjects to its original purity. ship ^ e ascen ded the throne about Jul. Per. 3800.~\ A. M. 3ono! / the latter end of Ahab's fourth Post Oil. 1433. V year, and began Ms reign by
Ann. Exod. 578.1

to resist their impieties, Jehoshaphat,

scarcely a nation or kingdom, from which had not exacted an oath that they not whereto find him, but that, should he be diseo\ered within their territories, they would send him to .Samaria. Knowing thereCore the king's determination to put him to death, and feeling confident that God would not expose His servant to certain destruction, he expressed his fear, that while he was gone, the prophet should be caught away by the

Divine Spirit,
like a deceiver,

of Ahab.

He

which would make him look and bring upon him the rage farther spoke of what he had

destroying the groves and highplaces, that had been suffered to remain in his father's lifetime. He then sent some chief officers of his court, with a competent number of priests and Levites, to instruct his subjects in the divine law, which was read in public assemblies in all the cities and chief towns of his dominions. He also discovered a prudent regard for the safety of
his

done towards the Lord's prophet*, in secreting and iriaintaininv," I'M) of them during the late
persecution; and, throwing himself at Elijah's

kingdom, by fortifying his frontier towns, and by maintaining a well-appointed army of 1,100,000 men,(z) who waited about his person, besides

those

in

the

distant fortresses

The consequence of all this and garrisons. that Jehoshaphat soon became a powerwas, ful and wealthy monarch and his subjects were secure, peaceful, and happy. He was not harassed by the incursions of foreign enemies, for they raised no war against him on the contrary, many of them made him
;

besought him not to requite his good deeds, and his constant fear of God, by causing him to be put to death. Obadiah and Ahab were at this time making a circuit of the land, in different directions, in search of some fresh springs of water, to save the few cattle they had left, but without success, for the drought reigned in all its austerity. Elijah reassured the pious Obadiah that no harm should come to him, and confirmed his assertion with an oath, that he would certainly that day shew himself to Ahab. Obadiah, therefore, set off in search of the king, and before the day closed, conducted him into the presence of the prophet. The first greeting was such as be expected between a proud and might impious prince, and a man supereminently
feet,

while his tributaries, among Philistines and Arabians, transmitted their payments and his regularly alliance was sought by all his neighbours.(a) While such was the happy state of Judah, under Jehoshaphat, it was far otherwise with
valuable presents
;

whom

were

the

under Ahab, or rather under Jezebel, seems to have given the helm of governThe famine ment entirely to her direction. had raged about three years and a half,(b) when Elijah suddenly threw himself in the way of Obadiah, the king's steward, and desired him to go tell his master that he was
Israel,

for he

The good Obadiah there waiting to see him. endeavoured to excuse himself from so dangerous a commission, by observing that there
(y) 1
(z)

Ahab reproached distinguished for pious zeal. the man of God with being the troubler of Israel ; Elijah retorted the reproach, told the king that it was he, and his father's house, who had occasioned all the recent misery to Israel, and challenged him and the prophet* of Baal to come to the test, and decide who was the true God, by proposing that two bullocks should be prepared for sacrifice, one by the idolatrous priests, the other by himself; that they should call upon Bnnl, and IIP would pray to Jehovah; and that whichever of the two answered by sending down fire to consume the victim, should be acknowledged as (he true God. Ahab accepted this proposal, and summoned all Israel, with the 450 prohow can
it be supposed that so vast a number of guards should be maintained in the city of Jerusalem alone ? (b) Luke, iv. 25. (a) 2 Chron. xvii. passim.

instance of exaggerated numbers for although the Scripture offers no clue by -which to detect it,
fresli
:

Here

Kings, is a

xvii.

passim.

5Y

000

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

this

[CHAP. xix.

phets of Baal, and the 400 prophets, or priests, of the groves, to mount Carmel, to witness this unprecedented and never-repeated comAt the time appointed, Elijah from petition. an eminence addressed the people in terms indicative of considerable doubts remaining minds, as well as of a kind of mixed upon their " How long," he exclaimed, " will worship
:

favourable impression, desired them to give a proof of the sincerity of their belief, by putting the priests of Baal to death, for
their vile

between two opinions? If Jehovah ye be God, follow Him but if Baal, follow him." He then explained the nature of the ceremony for which they had been called together, with the terms of agreement between him and Ahab and as soon they had expressed their
halt
:

The and conspicuous imposture. multitude readily complied with this injunction, and haling the priests to the brook Kishon, slew the whole 850 of them. Ahab, who, in his earlier days, had heard at least of the God of Israel, was so struck at what
he had witnessed, that he offered no resistance to this execution and when it was over, he was advised by Elijah to hasten back to his city, lest the rain, which was coming in great abundance, should impede his passage.
;

approbation of the proposal,

the

Baal cut their sacrifice in pieces, upon the altar, and called upon their
noon
:

priests of laid it

idol

till

but receiving no answer to their clamorous petitions, and being stung by the sarcastic observations of Elijah, who told them to cry louder and louder, for that Baal was certainly a great god, and would attend to them, unless indeed he were asleep, in which case he must be awakened ; they cut themselves with knives till the blood flowed upon the ground, and they leaped upon the altar they had built. In this

day they consumed Per *3808 ^ A. M. *3098. f till the time of evening sacriPost Dil. *1441. > fice, when Elijah, turning from
Jul

manner

the

accordingly mounted his chariot, and the prophet ran before him to Jezreel ; the heavens, in the mean time, becoming black with clouds and wind, which were followed by a heavy and continued rain. This timely relief to the land was not sufficient to divert Jezebel from the desire of vengeance she entertained towards Elijah, for the disgrace he had brought upon the deity of her native country, and the destruction of her favourite priests ; therefore, to avoid her fury, he was again obliged to seek his safety in a precipitate flight, first to Beer-sheba, in the south of Judah, and after-

Ahab

wards

to

Ahab

Horeb, in the wilderness. (c) soon after experienced a signal in>

tnem with contempt, called the people to attend upon him, while he repaired the altar of the Lord, which The people cheerhad been broken down. fully obeyed, and when the sacrifice was prepared, and laid upon the altar, round which the prophet had ordered a deep trench to be digged, they fetched water from the sea, and poured it upon the sacrifice till the trench overflowed. This was done, to prevent all of artifice in the scene that was to suspicion follow; and when every thing was prepared, Elijah in a most fervent prayer besought God to shew Himself before the assembled people to be the only Lord of heaven and earth, and that he was His prophet. His prayer was heard ; the long-expected flame dartinstantly ed suddenly from heaven, consuming the victim, the wood, the very stones of the altar, and drying up all the water in the trench ; while the spectators unanimously exclaimed, " Jehovah is the only God !" Elijah, seizing
(c)

Ann.Exod.*586.

stance of the divine protection. , Jul Per About the 18th year of his \A. M. *3103. Post Dil. *1446. reign, as is supposed, Ben- < Ann.Exod.*591. hadad II. king of Syria, attend*901. B. C. ed by 52 of his dependent or allied princes, with an immense army, suddenly invested Samaria ; but was compelled to relinquish his design of pillaging it with the most mortifying disgrace. The next year, attempting to retrieve his credit, the Syrian army was again defeated M'ith loss, and Ben-hadad narrowly escaped being taken prisoner in the city of Aphek, where, as our translation reads, 27,000 of his troops were crushed to death by the fall of a wall, or as it might be rendered, with more probability, by the burning wind Upon his sending a submissive Samiel.(d) message, however, the conqueror received him cordially into his chariot, and instead of
destroying him, as he had been commanded, entered into an amicable alliance with and permitted him to depart without ranhim,

Ahab

1 Kings,

xviii.

paitim. xix. 1

8.

(d) See Kenuicott's

Remarks, &c.

p. 136.

CHAP, xix.]

ARAB'S CRUELTY TO N A BOTH. ELIJAH'S REPROOF.

901

As soon as Ben-hadad had departed, som.(e) one of the sons of the prophets,(f ) with his face horribly disfigured, and ashes on his head, appeared before Ahab, complaining that a
Syrian prisoner, his custody, had

who had been committed to made his escape, and himself

of
suffering
;

she ridiculed his chagrin, and promised to procure for him the desired plot of ground. She accordingly wrote letters in the king's name, sealed with the royal signet, to the elders of Jezreel, desiring them to proclaim
a fast and solemn assembly, where Nabotb was to be exalted above all the rest; to hire

was

in

danger

death

for

his

neglect.

The king without

hesitation pro-

nounced him guilty of death but the prophet, throwing off his disguise, informed him that he had passed sentence against his ow life for since he had suffered so powerful an enemy of Israel to go free, whom God had delivered into his hand, his life should be the conseAhab was struck with such quential forfeit. at the boldness and aptitude of the surprise stratagem, and so overcome by his fears, that although a conqueror, at the head of a rejoic;

to Samaria, full of nevertheless kept his covenant grief.(g) with Ben-hadad, till the detention of Ramothgilead by that prince, beyond the stipulated time, occasioned a new war about three years

ing army,

he returned

He

after.(h) It was

in

this interval

that

Ahab

suffered

there to accuse him of the king; and blasphemy against then to stone him to death, according to the The Jezreelites too punctually obeyed law.(i) these sanguinary orders ; and as soon as Jezebel was informed of the result, she sent Ahab to take possession of the vineyard. Pleased with the acquisition, and indifferent as to the means, Ahab repaired without delay to the spot, and was in the act of seizing the paternal estate of Naboth, when the prophet So unwelcome Elijah appeared before him. a visit, at such a season, could not but fill the monarch with dismal forebodings. His conscience joined issue with the aspect of the hoary sage, and condemned him ; but, unlike David, he was too proud to acknowledge his crime. In a transport of rage, therefore, at
false

two

witnesses

God and

himself to be seduced by Jezebel to an act of inhumanity, which was only atoned by the annihilation of his whole family. Jezreelite,

to the royal

named Naboth, had a vineyard contiguous palace, or gardens; and Ahab was desirous of purchasing it, either for
in

exchange for another and better His object was to convert it into vineyard. what would now be called a botanical garden and though he had plenty of land in other parts, none was so conveniently situated for It the purpose, as the vineyard of Naboth.
money, or
;

was, however, deemed scandalous among the Israelites for a man to sell his inheritance ; and Naboth not discriminating between a sale for mercenary purposes, and an exchange of In courtesy, peremptorily refused the offer. a sullen mood at this denial, Ahab entered but when his palace, and refused to eat Jezebel was made acquainted with the cause,
:

what he deemed an unseasonable intrusion, he " Hast thou found exclaimed me, O mine " I ?" have found thee," rejoined the enemy man of God; "and because thou hast sold thyself to do evil in the sight of the Lord, in the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, there shall dogs lick thine also. Him that dieth of Ahab in the city shall dogs devour; and him that dieth in the field shall fowls of the air eat. And dogs shall eat Jezebel under the wall of Jezreel." This heavy sentence had such an effect upon Ahab, that he immediately rent his clothes, returned to his palace overwhelmed with grief, and putting on sackcloth, fasting, and going barefoot, by a timely repentance, obtained a gracious assurance that the ruin of his family should not
:

till after his decease.( j) Elijah appears to have been at this time on a journey, under divine direction, from

happen

(0 See
(f)

before, p. 664.
lib. viii.

Josephus (Antiq.

Micaiah, the same whom Ahab See 1 Kings, a subsequent occasion.

(g) 1
(i)

cap. 8) calls this prophet spoke so bitterly against on

xxii. 8.

Kings, xx. passim.

(h) Ibid. xxii. 1.

to the Divine protection he (he reluctance of the Syrians tiie Almighty to bring the threatened evil on the 1m. il in his days; and the friendship and family alliance that subsisted 'between him and Jehoshapliat; induces a belief that
idolatry;

and

this,

added

received

when invaded by

From this charge, we may conclude that the worship of Baal had been destroyed with its priests. Indeed, after the appeal 011 mount Carmel, no more is read of Ahab't

in the latter part of Ahab's reign, religion was restored to a considerable degree of purity. 1 Kings, xxi. passim. ( j)

!>0-2

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

to

[CHAP. xix.

to anoint Hazael, the chief of Beu-hadad's captains, to be king

mount Horeb

Damascus,

6f Syria; John to be king of Israel; and Elislia, the son of Shaphat, of Abel-meholah, to be liis own successor in the prophetical office.(k) During Ahab's humiliation, Jehoshaphat, having left the care of his kingdom to his son Jehoram, paid him a visit at Samaria, just as he had resolved upon wresting RamothBeing invited by gilead from the Syrians. Ahab to assist in the enterprise, from -which great military glory was expected, the king of Judah readily consented but desired that the Ahab Almighty might be first consulted.
;

sounded a retreat, and the armies on both sides withdrew before nightfal. The king's was taken back to Samaria, and buried corpse in the royal sepulchre; but his bloody armour, chariot, and harness, were taken to the pool of Samaria to be washed, where the dogs licked his blood, as had been foretold by
Elijah.(m)

immediately caused 400 prophets to be assem^led at the gate of the city, Jul Per 3817 "^ A.M. 3107 !f and upon his putting the quesPostDil. 1450. > tion, they all promised that Ann. Exod.695. I j ie should prove victorious. B. C. 19T.J from Jehoshaphat, however, their manner, suspected them to be rather and he court flatterers than inspired men
;

begged that if there were there any prophet Ahab of the Lord, he might be sent for. that there was a man answering this replied, description, named Micaiah, the son of Imlah,
but he hated him, because he never prophesied good of him ; nevertheless, at Jehoshaphat's Micaiah, knowing request, he was sent "for. how the other prophets had flattered the king, at first answered the question put to him slightingly and sarcastically, saying the expedition could not fail of success but on being adjured to speak seriously, he declared that the battle would terminate in the defeat of the Israelites and the death of their king and
:

Notwithstanding the firmness and constancy of Jehoshaphat in suppressing idolatry in his own kingdom, he was induced, from political motives, to form an alliance with the impious monarch of Israel, by marrying his son, Jehoram, to Athaliah,(n) the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. Though this might, and probably did, take place when Ahab had repented, it was still displeasing to the Almighty, and was productive of important consequences; inasmuch as it involved his own family in the exterminating effects of the denunciations against that of Ahab ; and for four generations, it will be seen from the Genealogical Table at the head of this Chapter, the posterity of Jehoshaphat were, with few exceptions, cut off by untimely deaths: even Zechariah the priest, the son of Jehoiada, and grandson of Athaliah, on his mother's so fully and fatally was side, did not escape the curse(o) permitted to operate. Intermarriages naturally produce intercourse between the parents of the parties, when formed under their sanction ; and it was probably on this account that Jehoshaphat consented to ac:

Ahab's prophets to be possessed with a lying spirit, that he might go and find his destruction where he expected to meet with a victory. The king of Israel was highly provoked at this prediction ordered Micaiah to be shut up in prison till his return, when he promised to punish him still more severely and rushed into the battle, where,
that
suffered
;
;

God had

notwithstanding

his

precaution

in

changing

his clothes, and disguising himself, to deceive his enemies, he received a mortal wound

from an arrow shot " at a venture."(l) As soon as his death was known, his generals
(k) 1 Kings, xix. 9 of Hazael (2 Kings,

company Ahab in his Syrian expedition. His co&duot here was highly reprehensible ; for he went with his ally to the battle in direct opposition to the Lord's prophet, whom, unmoved, he had seen consigned to a dungeon his life was consequently exposed to imminent danger, from which he was rescued by little less than a miracle.(p) After the armies had withdrawn, the king of Judah made the best of his way to Jerusalem, and on the road was met by the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani, who, after expostulating with hirn on the impropriety of his conduct in helping the ungodly, told him that wrath had fallen upon him before the Lord, although in other respects he was highly commendable. Part of the
:

In other places, the anointing 15) and of Jehu (Ibid. ix. 1 10) is attributed to Klisha ; and so Josephus has it. (1) See before, p. 560.
21.
viii.

(m) 1 Kings, xxii. 1 (n) 2 Chron. xxi. (5.

(o)

40.
xxii. 2.

2 Chron.

xviii.

passim.

Exod.

xx. 5.
xxii.

(p) 1

Kings;

30

33.

2 Chron.
5

xviii.

31.

CHAP. XIX.]

JEHOSIIAPHAT.

All A/I A

II.

JEIIORAM.

.003

prophet's speech on this occasion, seems to be wanting- for as nothrtDg befel Jehoshapliat as a consequence of the wrath alluded to, it may be presumed, that, as in some similar
;

after ridiculing their folly and presumption in resorting to the god of a foreign stale, \\licn the God of Israel was to be found at home,

told
for

were postponed till after The reproof had a great efiect on the mind of the king, and he endeavoured to retrieve his error by a more assiduous attention to the religion and morals of his
cases, (q) its his lifetime.
effects

his

them to return, and tell their master, that contempt of the only true God, he

should never leave his bed,

it

to his grave.

till carried from prediction which was soon

people; so that in a short time he "brought them back to the worship of the God of their The regular and impartial adminisfathers." of justice also engaged his vigilant tration consideration ; for he made, himself, regular
circuits, and appointed judges and magistrates in all the cities, charging them to execute their trusts with fidelity and attention, without

accomplished in his death.(t) Leaving no children, Aha/iah A\as succeeded by his brother Jehoram, or Joram. who prevailed on Jehoshaphat to assist him iu reducing the Moabites, as already related. (u) This prince was not altogether so profan
predecessors; for he discontinued the worship of Soot, though he neglected to remove the calves set up by Jeroboam. (v) It was about this time, that rJl- ''. ":wi8. M Elijah was translated to heaven, ) .}
his
-

respect of persons, or expectation of reward. (r) Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, who seems to have been raised to the throne of Israel in the last year of his father's life, inherited all With him his vices with his dominions. was induced to form a connecJehoshaphat and they agreed to fit out a fleet between tion The ships them, to fetch gold from Ophir. were accordingly built at Ezion-geber; but
;

and was succeeded

*

in his
I

< Post
)

Dil.
r.

'

^B. C. phetical oniee by Ehsha.(w) The interference of Jehoshaphat in the reduction of the Moabites, drew upon him the vengeance of that people, who, in conjunction with their brethren the Ammonites, the inhabitants of mount Seir, and other neigh-

t\*

T^l*

pro\

A..,, 111'-

,i CJvUU.

-J.^V.

when they were duly equipped and ready

sailing,

for

a storm arose, which left nothing Ahaziah would but their wrecks remaining.

have

persuaded
:

Jehoshaphat to renew the

;

bouring nations, made an inroad upon histerritories, so sudden, that they had actually advanced to Hazazon-tamar, otherwise Engedi, before their purpose was eu-n suspected. Thus taken by surprise, the king of Judnh
strict

but that prince would not having attempt been admonished by the prophet Eliezer, that the destruction of the navy was from the Lord, because of his connection with About the same time, the king of Israel, (s) also, the Moabites, who had Jul. Per. *3817. been tributaries to Israel ever A. M. *3107. Post Dil. M450. Jeroboam's defection, since
Ann.Exod.
13.

had recourse to the Almighty, proclaimed a and general fast, and went at the head of his people, who had been summoned to

Here, having inJerusalem, 'to the temple. voked the divine assistance, in a humble and pathetic prayer, he was encouraged by the

*.*9i>.

revolted,

C.

*897.

though
in

reduced

the

they were succeeding

In the course of the next year, Aha/iah received so much injury from a fall from the upper part of his palace, that, Jul. Per.
reign.
A. M. *3io. / his life being despaired of, he PostDil. *146L > sent a deputation to Ekron, to Ann. Exod. *MG. I consult the idol Baal-zrlnil,

promised that God him from the invaders, in so extraordinary and complete a manner, that he should have only to take their spoil. The next morning, therefore, he went out at the head of a small army, singing hymns of
prophet

would speedily

Jehaziel, and deliver

*3818.^

J
'^

thanksgiving, as if shouting for the conquest. In an instant, the invaders, seized with a panic frenzy, turned their arms against each other, and engaged with the utmost fury among themselves,
till

as

to the

probability of

his

recovery. The messengers had not proceeded far, before they were met by Elijah, who,
2

they were

all

destroyed.
in

Three

days were

now devoted
it

to selecting

ing off the spoil, for

1 Kintjs,

was

and carrysuch quantity

(q) See, amoug others, 1 xxxii. 2/i, 20.

(r;

Kings,

xi.

12. \\i. 29.

Cfiron.

(s)
(t)

xxii. 48, 4<).

i.

2 Chi-on.

xix.

passim.

(v)

2 Kinijn, 2 Kings,

passim.
17.
iii.

2 Citron. \\. 3V (u) Sec before,

(w) Ibid.
ii.

p.

G2G.

i.

13.

passim.

904

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP. xix.

that they could only pick out the best; and on the fourth the Israelites returned a solemn

thanksgiving to heaven in a place, afterwards called the Valley of Berachah, or of Blessing. The fame of this miraculous victory filled all foreign nations and princes with such veneration for the sanctity and piety of Jehoshaphat, tnat tne y considered him as Jul. Per. 3825 ^ the particular favourite of the A. M. 3115! / Post Oil. 1458. > Deity; and he ended his life Ann.Exod.603. in peace, in the 26th year of his B. C. 889. reign, honoured and respected
1

their own offspring. general dearth, of seven years' continuance, had indeed spread itself throughout the kingdom ; and Elisha, who foresaw it, had advised his hostess the

by all who knew him.(x) While Judah was thus prosperous, Benhadad, king of Syria, was contriving the destruction of Jehoram, king of Israel, by planting ambuscades to cut him off secretly, or to make him prisoner. These being always discovered by the prophet Elisha, who gave
the king timely notice to avoid the snare, Benhadad was so provoked that he sent a detachment of horsemen to seize him ; but they were struck with a supernatural blindness, and suffered themselves to be led by the prophet from Dothan into the heart of Samaria. Jehoram was for putting them to death ; but Elijah, on the contrary, insisted upon having them treated with respect and attention, and then dismissed

them to their master, hoping thereby to induce him to forbearance. But Ben-hadad was of a different character the generosity shewn to his men, and the cure performed upon his
:

servant,(y) did but inflame his pride

drew indeed
long before
Jul. Per.

for

he
/

he withbut it was not laid siege to Samaria, and

;

the time

invested it so closely, that the inhabitants were quickly rePost Dil. *i455. > duced to the last extremity by Ann.Exod.*600. scarcity of provisions,(z) so that
*3822.^ A. M.

misery to which the citizens were reduced, tended to alienate the mind of Jehoram from the prophet, whose former services had procured him a good reception at court, and suspicions began to lurk in the royal breast that if Elisha had not been tampered with by the enemy, he would surely have done something to relieve the place. This sentiment burst into a flame on occasion of an appeal to the king, as he was taking a melancholy walk upon the ramparts, by a woman who begged for justice against another, whom she had admitted to eat a share of her boiled child,(b) on condition that when they had made an end of him, her own should be likewise consigned to death to supply their common necessities, but who had now hidden her child, and refused to let her partake of it. Such a story, related by a woman frantic with desperation, could not but fill the monarch with horror he rent his robes, and disclosed his flesh covered with sackcloth and, unable otherwise to vent his grief, swearing that Elisha's head should pay for the distress of the people, he immediately dispatched an officer to execute his hasty and
:

The

Shunammite to leave the kingdom till the return of plenty, and she went into the land of the Philistines; whilst he himself resided in the college of the prophets, and occasionally afforded them a miraculous supply of food, till the Syrian army forced him into the city.(a)

*3H2.

unjust decree.

B. C.

*892.

famishing
(x) 2 Chron. xx. pastim. xxi. 1. (y) See before, p. 66C, note (c). in

mothers

devoured

Elisha was at this time in his house, conferring with the elders of Israel and as soon as the officer had received his order, it was revealed
;

the Levitical

remarkable effects of this famine are rendered " an ass's head by being sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver."* Without entering largely into the various opinions that have been written on these
(z)

Two

most

translations,

subjects, suffice it to remark, with respect to the the term ats's head be used for the whole

first,

that

; as say head of cattle : and as asses were kept in greater numbers in those days, and in those countries, than other beasts of burden, they would naturally be the first object adverted to by the starving citizens; and although, under

we now

may

animal

dispensation, these animals were unclean, it can hardly be supposed that, in the then laxity of discipline, or perhaps the total want of it, in religious matters, those, whom hunger urged to devour their own children, should hesitate at making a meal of an ass. The other article, CD'JVTn (CHIRYONIM) is supposed by Bochart to signify a kind of lentils, or pulse, common in the East, and which being roasted, or parched, are used as a substitute for

bread. The price given for these articles sufficiently indicates the distress of the Samaritans.
(a)

Km(

i,

would be punished by distresses of this nature; and many similar instances occurred in the last siege of Jerusalem by Titus.
(b)

Comp. 2 Kings, iv. 38 Moses had threatened

44. viii. 1, 2. that disobedience

CHAP, xix.]

FLIGHT OF THE SYRIANS. JEHORAM, KING OF JUDAH.

;

.905

to the prophet

so that long before his arrival,

:

he had communicated what was about to happen to the elders at the same time he enjoined

them
king,

to secure the door,

who would

till the arrival of the follow his messenger's foot-

early sleep by a preternatural noise, their fears made them believe was occasioned by the approach of certain powerful auxiliaries, hired to attack them by the king
their

which

steps. ings of remorse, to stay the execution; when, after representing to him the unreasonableness

Jehoram accordingly came, under

feel-

of Israel, and they had Jehoram now saw the

fled in consequerice.(d)
full

accomplishment of

of punishing him for a calamity that was evidently from the Lord, the prophet told him that by the same hour on the morrow, there should be such plenty in Samaria, that a measure of fine flour, or two measures of A certain barley, should be sold for a shekel. nobleman present, the attendant and favourite of the king, determined to believe only what his senses could comprehend, observed, that if the Lord were to make windows in heaven, and shower down provisions, such a thing could hardly happen to which Elijah rejoined, " Thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. "(c) There were at that time four men, who were lepers, lodging on the outside of the gate of the city; and finding themselves ready to die with hunger, they resolved to go over in the
:

Elijah's prediction ; the people left the city in crowds to fetch in the spoil of the camp,

and the disbelieving nobleman, being appointed by the king to stand at the gate for the preservation of order, was, notwithstanding his care, trodden down by the anxious multitude, to rise no more.(e) The son and successor of Jehoshaphat in the kingdom of Judah, was Jehoram, who had borne a share in the government during his father's life.(f) No sooner /, jui. p __ aaxo, Tlil ,, rer. ... did this monster see himself VA.M. :n 1.5.
,
.
.

alone upon the throne, than, < Post Oil. 14.>. under the guidance of his wife / Ann.Exod.eoa. ^ Bl Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, he made every exertion to undo all

observing, that to certain death, and by throwing themselves on the humanity of the enemy, they might save their lives, or
;

night to the Syrian camp remain where they were

was

had been effected by his pious father and grandfather; and so fatally did he succeed, that it soon appeared, Jehoram king of Israel, the son of an idolatrous father, was a better character than Jehoram king of Judah, the representative of the royal house of David. Jehoshaphat had left a numerous issue, and, after assuming Jehoram into the kingdom, had
that

at

worst

death.

should only meet a more speedy They accordingly went, but were sur-

prised at finding all quiet in the camp; the tents full of provisions and baggage, horses ready harnessed, and asses tied in their stalls, but not a soldier to be seen. They lost no

time in communicating this circumstance to the sentinels on the ramparts of the city, and by them the information was forwarded to the The king, who arose in the night to palace. ascertain the truth of the story, at first suspected it to be a stratagem, to entice the people from the city, that they might be surrounded and the city taken but upon sending out a party to inquire and observe farther, he was convinced that the enemy had really fled, with such precipitation as to leave their
:

disposed of his six other sons, as governors of fortified cities in Judah, with incomes But he was scarcely suitable to their rank. laid in his grave before Jehoram ordered a general massacre of them, and of such of the nobles of the kingdom as had incurred his The worship of Baal hatred or suspicion. was introduced into all parts of the king-

and the God of his fathers was totally His wickedness did not go disregarded.

dom

unpunished; for after being threatened with a miserable end in a letter from the prophet the Edomites revolted from his government,
and, notwithstanding all his attempts to supin their press the insurrection, they persisted claims of independence, and were never again This misfortune reduced to subjection.(h) was followed by an invasion of the Philistines and Arabians, who penetrated to the capital
(g) Elijah, says the text;

tents, horses,

and richest baggage behind them.

In fact, the Syrians had been alarmed out of

(c)

2 Kings,
2 Kingt, 2 Kings,

vi.

2433.

vii.

1, 2.

(d) See before, p. 567.

(e) (f)
vii.
viii.

320.
16.

about 7 years before,

'

it

but as he had been removed should probably be read "from

JKlislia.

(h)

See before, p. C47.

VOL.

I.

5z

HISTORY

oi

'i

HI. I-H

\LLnm

vP.

of Judea, and carried off all the riches of the but not city, together with Jehorara's wives, and slew all his sons, excepting Athaliab, only the youngest. Jehoaiia/. Mtherwise Ahaziah, or Azariab, who succeeded him after Jehoram was afterwards afflicted his death. with an incurable disease in his bowels, as the prophet had threatened ; and to increase his misery, hie Mili<-' t- derided his torments, and attributed his punishment to the aggraAt length, after %ated nature of his crimes.
JnL Per 3829 "\ M. 3119! / ing8 * he died in a miserable 142. > manner, with the exec rat PottDU. AM. Eiod. 007. I O f a n Hits ho knew him. funeral was unattended with the usual ceremonies, and his body was laid in a tomb by itself, in the city of David, not being permitted to enter the royal sepulchn He had reigned eight years : four with his
.

two

suffer-

^^

occurred to his joining his forces to those of the king of Israel. The expedition at first bore a favourable aspect; but in the event it proved the source of indescribable misfortunes to Israel, by giving Hazael an occa exercising aU those cruelties upon its inhabitants, which had been foretold by Eli&hDuring the siege, Jehoram received a from an arrow; and though it was not morto retire to tbe cit tal, it obliged him Jezreel for a cure ; Ahaziah also hastened back to Jerusalem, and Jebu, a captain of Jehoram s chariots, was left in command of the army, to whom the place soon after surrendered The time was now arrived when the house of Ahab was to be rooted up, and Jezebel to be punished. During the absence of Jeboram. Elisba commissioned one of tbe young pro-

Jehoshaphat, the other four by himHis disease baring rendered him self.(j) incapable of governing, oblijred him to make his son Jehoahaz, or Ahaziab. viceroy, who succeeded him about a year after, in the 12th of Jehoram king of Israel. Ahaziah had not long ascended the throne,
father

when he was
of Israel, to

upon by Jehoram kins accompany him in an expedition

prevailed

against Ramoth-gilead, with a view to wrest it from the king of Syria, who continued to keep possession, contrary to the treaty made

between Ben-hadad II. and Ahab. Ben-hadad had by this time been assassinated by his chief captain Hazael, who had usurped the throne, with the full concurrence, it would seem, of
the people, or rather of the army.(k) Ahaziah, who was then but twi .-nty-two' years of age, was wholly under the influence of his mother Athaliah, and as she had misled his father, so she also drew him into similar abominati< Jlis counsellors, also, were in the interest of the house of Ahab, so that no difficulty
1
1

phets to repairto Ramoth-gilead, /-Jill. p< Per. 3830. and there to anoint Jehu pri- \ A. M. 3190. 1 Post DM. 146*. POM I vately, and to tell him that God mm, Rind.OQB. had exalted him to the kingdom J.Aun.I Ml. V.B. C. of Israel, for the express purpose of executing the divine vengeance against These injuncthe impious family of Ahab. tions were obeyed ; and though the interview between the prophet and Jehu was pri the latter lost no time in communicating what had passed to his brother officers, who acquiescing in the appointment, immediately proclaimed him king, with the concurrence of the whole army. Jehu, without delay, put himself at the head of a detachment, and rode with all towards Jezreel, that he expedition the wounded king there, before might surprise he could have notice of the revolution, or When he time to prepare for his defence. came within sijrht of the place, the sentinels on the battlements acquainted the court with the news of the approach of an armed force : and Jehoram sent out two successive messengers, to inquire if it came peaceably or other.
1
.

(i)

2 Ckrox.

(j)

xxii. 2, be is said to have been tico-and-forty years old but as his father was 82 when be began to reign, and reigned 8 yar>, be could this proves the error in tbe latler only \tt 40 when be died The error evidently of the former. place, and tLc truth
;
:

fxutim. 10 23 <ee before, p. &67. In 2 Chroti. 2 King*, viii. 26.

xxi.

2 King*,

viii.

from the cause spoken of in a former note;* yet Tremellius endeavours to support the reading of Chromiclet, of Judah, not from *ooing tbe age of Ahaziah king his birth, but, eapricimifrly enough, from tbe accession of Oniri to the throne of Israel, which happens to coincide with the two-and-forty years.t Vfore, p. 6C8. 2 C/iro*. \xii. 5, 0. 2 Ki*yt, viii. 28, 29.
arises
t

See

*d (*/

brfo,

in p. 851, mate (j), wberr.

coL t, fine 10,

for

(Ifme4)

TttmdL

at S Oiron. urn.

i.

CHAP, xix.]

JEHUS VENGEANCE ON THE HOUSE OF AHAB.

0ft

wise. Hut Jehu having made them both turn behind liis chariot, and the sentinel having informed the king of the circumstance, lie railed for Alia/ian. who was then on a \isit to him, and they both together, in their chariots, at the head ot' their guard, went forth to meet Jehu, who by this time was known, from sonic peculiarity in liis drixini;. Thev met in the piece of ground that had fonnerU Iteeii .Nahoth's, win-re, afler reproaching Jehoram with (lie abominations of his mother, Jehu drew a liow with his full strength, and shot him to the heart, as he was turning his rhariot about to make his escape. Aha/iah endeavoured to avoid a similar fate, by driunijofl' ihrough a private road, but Jehu ordered a part\ afler him. who poured their arrows upon him as he tied with so much exactitude, that when he gol to Megiddo, lie also expired. His servants carried his body to Jerusalem, for interment in the roval sepulchres; but Jehu ordered the corpse of Jchnram to be \\hile the thrown in the lield of Mabotli. were engaged in the pursuit of Aha/iah, party Jehu continued his way towards Je/reel. and when he arrived under its walls, Je/cbel from the \\iudo\v of a tower looked out. and taunt

lain the disposition of the capital low aids him, therefore. Jehu sent letter* to the elder- and magistrates of that city, exhorting them to elect

from amonu; those pi mces. and to hold themselves in readiness j,, defend his authority. The elder-, however, perceived the true meaning of the mi ssagc. and immediate!) resolved to avoid Jehu's vengeance by a voluntary submission. Ipon the intimation of this design beinii conveyed to him. lie sent them word to demonstrate their sincerity in his cause by putting the young princes to death.
a kin;:

and bringing their heads to him. in baskets, by the following day. This sanguinary order was also executed without hesitation, and Jehu caused the heads to be exposed to public view. in two heaps, at the gale of Je/reel. where lie slood to justify his conduct, b\ rennndmu; the people of the di\ ine anathema upon Ahab s
posterity. (p)

ingly pul

him

in

mind of

/imri's fate.

Jehu

observing some of her about her, he desired his side, to throw her did instanthis they and as soon as she lighted on the taneously, ground, Jehu and his company rode oxer her. so that her blood was sprinkled on the wall and upon the horses. Jehu then entered the royal palace, and took possession of the t;o\ eminent and after he and his troops had refreshed themselves, he sent some of the servants to lake up Je/ebel's body, and bury it. because she was the daughter of an illustrious kmu; but word was soon brought to him, that tinwhole had been devoured b\ do^s, except the skull, the palms of the hands, and the soles of the feet: so exactly had the prophet Klijah's
her no reply, but chamberlains standing them, if thev were on out of the window:

made

Having taken ample vengeance on various Other individuals of Ahab's kindred, together with that prince's idolatrous pi lest- :md counfrom Je/reel towards sellors. Jehu departed 2 princes Samaria. On his way. he met with of the house of Judali. going to pay a visit to those of the house of Ahab; but he stopped their progress l>\ commanding them to be slam on the spot, and their bodies to In% l

M'ler tins. thrown into a neighbouring pit. he met with Jehonadab. the son of lieehab, and took him into his chariot, (hat IK- mi- lit uo with him to Samaria, and w ilness his
for

the

Lord,

against

the

worshipper-

Having arrived in the capital of the kingdom, Jehu proclaimed a solemn sacrifice in honour of Itnitl, to which he ordered all the \olarie- of that This he did deilv to repair on pain of death. under a feigned /eal for the worship of Until; observing that Ahab had served him to. coldlv, but that he was determined to make

amends

for his predecessor's remissuess.

filled
all
;

'|

he

temple was soon

to

tence of exeludin.!;his
religion,

and Jehu, umh r pre who were not devetid

rertain

prediction been verified This operated as a stimulus to Jehu, who was a man of intcutperale /cal, to persevere That in the destruction of the house of Ahab. had left 7O sous, w ho w ere all brought prince To asccrup under governors in Samaria.
(o)

caused

robes of

ilis-

tinclion to be -iven to the worshippers of Haal. Having thus marked his victims, and secured a trap h\ siirroiimlim; their teui|ile w itli them an armed force,' while ihe priests \\en- s. lt n he riles w eie o\ <T. he scut as soon as liciiii;

m
:

2 Ki*g,

ix.

/><;</.

>

x.

Kfeyt,

i,

ic.

'2

508
io his men,

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

with

[CHAP. xix.

orders to destroy priests, without exception prophets, after which the building was demolished and turned into a cesspool, the images and ornaments of the abominable deity having been first taken out and publicly burned.(r) The metropolis was not the only place that had reared temples and altars to Baal; the infection had spread itself throughout the kingdom, and afforded Jehu ample scope for

and

votaries,

temple, till he was seven years of age. During the intervening six years, Athaliah tyrannized over Judah without control, filling Jerusalem with blood, and destroying the servants of Jehovah, the more effectually to establish the religion of her mother through the kingdom. At length the discontents of the people deterto make a public appeal in favour of the only remaining heir to the throne, and, by producing the young Josiah, to convince the nation that God had not forgotten nor been unmindful of His promise to it,

mined Jehoiada

as he gratifying his blood-thirsty propensity, till he had completely extirpated never stopped the devotees, and destroyed every vestige of that species of idolatry. Happy had it been for him, and for Israel, had he been equally intent upon the honour of God, and the restor-

an heir

ation of pure religion; but he was governed by human policy, and therefore suffered the golden calves of Beth-el and Dan to remain during his whole reign of 28 years, for the same reason that they had originally been set up by Jeroboam the son of Nebat. For his services, however, in removing the grosser evils, it was promised to Jehu that his posterity to the fourth generation should possess the kingdom ; though from the very beginning of his reign, Hazael was permitted to take several frontier cities from the two tribes and a half on the east of Jordan, the inhabitants of which were put to the sword in the most inhuman manner, as a punishment to both king and people for their infidelity towards the true

David,(t) having miraculously preserved him in the midst of surrounding desolation. With this view, he privately consulted with some of the chiefs and elders of Judah, upon whose valour and fidelity he could depend, and shewed the young monarch to them, after he had bound them in oaths of secrecy. The intelligence given them by Jehoiada, and the sight of the descendant of their ancient kings, so overjoyed them, that they immediately fell into the plans proposed to them, and before many days were over, Joash was anointed in the temple, and proclaimed , Jul Per 3836 3i2s! king ; at the same time that % A. M.

Athaliah,

who had been drawn

<

Post Dil.

1469.

God.(s)

\Vhile Jehu was exerting himself, in the early part of his reign, for the overthrow of

heathen superstition in his kingdom efforts, almost as powerful, were making for its revival and spread in Judah. Athaliah, the queen3830 "\ mother of Ahaziah, and daughJul Per. 3120. / ter of Ahab, no sooner heard A. M. Post Dil. 1463. V of her son's death, than she Ann. Exod. 608. 1 determined to seize the throne
;

for herself. To accomplish this, she contrived to put all the remaining princes of the royal house to death, (of whom Jehu had also slain 42,) with the exception of the infant Joash, then not quite twelve months old, who was secured from her fury by his aunt Jehoshabeath, wife to the high-priest Jehoiada, and privately brought up in the
2 Kings, x.
Ibid. ver.

Ann. Exod. 614. by the noise of the J seized by the ^ trumpets, being guards, was dragged from the temple, and put to death. Jehoiada then called an assembly of the people, and having made a covenant for them and for the king, by which they dedicated themselves to the Lord, he administered to them an oath of allegiance. The joy of the citizens on this occasion was excessive ; and they manifested their feelings by pulling down the temple of Baal, putting Mattan, the idolatrous priest, to death, at the foot of his own altar, and demolishing the images and other monuments of that impure worship. After Jehoiada purged the holy temple of this, several corruptions that had been introduced into it ; and then he and all the people conducted the young monarch to the royal palace, where Josiah was again seated on the throne, and proclaimed amidst the most joyful acclamations. (u) During the life-time of Jehoiada, the young king expressed an uncommon zeal for the to the spot
1

(r)

(s)

1727. 2833. See

(t)

before, p. 568.

(u)

Kings, ii. 4. viii. 25. 2 Kings, xi. pass. 2 Chron.

xxii.

10

12.

mm. pass.

CHAP. XIX.]

JOSIAH.

JOASH.

JEMOAHAZ.
Jul. Per.

5>0

worship of God, yet unattended by any such

violent acts as were then disgracing the govern-

ment of Jehu
Jul. Per.

in
~\

the sister kingdom.

first

One
after

*3850

A. M.

*3140. Post Oil. *1483.

Ann.Exod.*628.
B. C.

ordered the priests and Levites yearly circuits through all the cities of Judah, to obtain voluntary contributions among the people, besides the poll and redemption money. .But the priests had by this time begun to consider whatever came into the treasury of the temple, to be rather perquisites of their own, than as devoted to religious uses and they executed the royal mandate with so much indifference and supineness, that the king at length dismissed them, and committed the whole care of the collection and
to

*864.

cares, to repair the age, made in the temdilapidations ple ; for which purpose, he

Josiah's

of he

was of

was

make

*aOO. the royal sepulchres of Jerusalem. (x) With him seemed to expire the remembrance of the good that had been wrought under his auspices; for it was not long before the princes of Judah, wearied with dissembling a zeal for God that

The good old Jehoiada died about the 29th year of Joash's reign, in the 130th year of his age; and for his faithful serwas buried
in

*3864. A. M. *3154. Post Dil. '1 !)7.

Anu.Exod.642.
B. C.

vices

foreign from their hearts, persuaded Joash them to return to the mode of worship they had been used to in former reigns ;
to permit

was

and all the superstition of the groves was The Almighty expostulated, instantly revived. by His prophets, in vain ; and when Zechariah
the son, and successor in the priestly office, of Jehoiada, ventured to forewarn the king that his defection would bring upon him the vengeance of Heaven, the impious monarch, unmindful of his holy function, -. Ju Per 3& J4 as well as of the debt of grati- \ A. M. *3164. Post tude he personally owed the ^ Ann. Dil. *1507. Exod. 652. him to be J family, ordered
,

the repairs to the high-priest and other proper He likewise ordered a capacious chest, with a small hole in the lid, to be set up in some public place of the temple, where the money was deposited till it amounted to a sum sufficient for beginning the work with this it very quickly did, through the generosity of the chiefs and elders, and other principal
officers.
:

men, who poured in their gifts with such uncommon munificence, that when the work

was completed, a considerable overplus of gold

remained. This, under Jehoiada's direction, was converted into vessels for the use of the temple, to supply the place of those which Athaliah had taken from it for the service of that of Uaa/.(v) In the 23d year of Joash's Jul. Per. 3858. A. M. 3148. reign, Jehu, king of Israel, died Post Dil. 1491. at Samaria, in the 28th year of
silver

and

executed ^- B< Cwith such promptitude that he was slain in the This ungrateful very court of the temple.(y) apostasy was severely punished by Hazael, the Syrian, who committed dreadful ravages in Judea, plundered and def Ju Per stroyed Gath, and marching Jerusalem, put most of the siderable men to death
stoned,

which

was

seized their property.

To

pur-

chase exemption from the dangers that threatened his own person, Joash compounded with
the enemy, by delivering to him all the treasures of the temple and the palace.(z) The timely repentance of Jehoahaz, had procured an interval of security to Israel, and even of some advantages over their enemy ; yet that nation still persevered in the sin of the calves, and had an idolatrous grove in the Whether this obstinacy midst of Samaria. of his subjects wrought upon his mind, !>y making him dread the return of the Syrians from Jerusalem, is uncertain ; but he died the same year, in the 17th of his reign, and was succeeded by his son Joash. (a)
2 Chron. 2 Kings,
xxiv.
xiii.

his reign, and was succeeded by his son Jehoahaz, who, imitating the conduct of the most wicked of his predecessors, lived in open defiance of God and virtue. During the greater part of his reign, his dominions were exposed to the
B. C.

Ann.Exod.636.

856.

attacks of the Syrians, and he was at length reduced to so low a condition by their frequent invasions, that his whole military force consisted of only 50 horsemen, 10 chariots, and

10,000 infantry.(w)
2 Kings, xii. 1 16. 7. (w) 2 Kings, xiii. 1
(v)

2 Chron.

xxiv.

14.

(y)

1722.

(z) Ibid. ver.

23, 24.

00 2 Chron.

xxiv. 15, 16.

(a)

46, 23.

910

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

his

[CHAP. xix.

Joash, king of Jiulali, did not long enjoy the security he had purchased for although he had got rid of foreign enemies, he was still surrounded by domestic foes, instruments of divine vengeance, and avengJul. Per. 3876. ers of the blood of the murdered 3160. A. M. Post Dil. 1509. He was already Zechariah.
:

labouring under some grievous disease but this seeming too slow in its progress for the impatience of Zechariah's adherents, two of them, who were attendants upon the king's person, put him to death, in the 40th year of his reign ; and such was the abhorrence in which he was held for imbruing his hands in the blood of the son of his benefactor, that his body, though buried in the city of David, was not permitted to be laid with his ancestors in the royal tombs.(b) Soon after the accession of Joash, son of Jehoahaz, to the government of Israel, the prophet Elisha, by that time far advanced in years, was taken ill, and received a visit of condolence from that young monarch, while The tenderreclining on the bed of death. hearted prince seeing the good man almost in the last agonies, burst into tears, lamenting the approaching dissolution of so eminent a prophet and so holy a man, on whom he had rested his hopes for assistance in the management of his kingdom. The prophet, observing
B. C.
838.
;

ADO. Exod. 654.

compassionate affection, comforted him by promising that he should defeat the Syrians in repeated encounters; at the same time, he desired him to strike the ground with his arrows Joash struck the ground three times, and stopped upon which the prophet was angry, telling him that had he confidently
:

struck a number of times, it should have been a token to him of totally destroying the Syrian kingdom ; but as he had struck only thrice, three battles were the utmost he could expect to gain. After this the prophet died, about the same time that Hazael also went the way of all flesh, leaving the throne of Damascus to his son Ben-hadad II I. (c) The particulars of the war ^ *
,

^j u Per 38 8 between Joash and Ben-hadad VA.M. *3i(58.' are not recorded; only it is /Post Dil. *i5ii. said the latter was thrice de- J Ann. Exod. *656.
feated

by the king of

B. C.

*836.

who also recovered taken from his father Jehoahaz. (d)

Israel, the cities that

had been

In the mean time, Amaziah, the son and successor of Joash, king of Judah, had punished the assassins of his father with death ; yet he spared their children, not choosing to involve the innocent in the ruin of the guilty. (e) This prince, under the influence of an early pious education, and alarmed probably at the

judgments

his

father

had met

with,

corn-

2 Chron. xxiv. 20, 21. 14 20. A short time after the death of Elisha, some Israelites, going to bury a corpse in the neighbourhood of Samaria, perceived a predatory band of Moabites approaching, through fear of whom, they cast the dead man hastily into the prophet's tomb, being the nearest at hand, and fled ; but as soon as the body had touched the bones of the prophet, the man revived, and ran after
(b)

2 Kings,

xii.

2527.

(c)

2 Kings,

xiii.

to the acts of Elisha spoken of in the text above, the following are recorded by the sacred penman 1. His dividing the waters of the Jordan, in imitation of his predecessor, to
:

afford

the

him a free passage across that rivcr. 2. His healing unwholesome waters of Jericho. 3. His cursing the
||

The prophet's panegyric is given in few words, in the apocryphal book of Ecclesiaticiis : " Eliseus," says the writer, " was filled with the spirit of Elijah : whilst he lived, he was not overawed by any prince, neither could
them.*

any bring him into subjection no word could overcome him and after his death, he prophcsied."t The Jews add, that the man thus miraculously raised was named Sail um and that he afterwards begat sons and daughters. Some
:

not content with the miracles wrought by the writers, prophet during his life, and after his death, have accompanied liis birth with a remarkable one for they relate, that one of the golden calves, bellowing loud enough to be heard from Gilgal to Jerusalem, expressed itself to the fol" This is he who shall lowing effect destroy the carved In addition idols, and break the molten images in pieces."}
;
:

impious children of Beth-el, followed by their being devoured by two bears.H 4. His multiplying the poor widow's oil, to enable her to redeem her two sons from the bond they were liable to, in consequence of her late husband's 5. His promising a son to his hostess the insolvency.** Shunammite, and his afterwards raising that son from the dead, 6. His turning the poisonous pottage into wholesome food.JJ 7. His multiplying an offering of first-fruits, in a time of scarcity, sufficient for a hundred people to ;it till 8. His curing the leprosy of Naatnan, and they left. 9. His causing transferring it to his own servant Gebazi.|||| the head of an axe to swim, which one of the prophets had
i

<

dropped
(d)

into the water. 1T1F

xiii.

2 Kings,

25.

2 Chron. xxv. 3, 4. From the particular notice, in two places, of this circumstance, there is reason to believe that a contrary practice had prevailed
(e) Ibid. xiv. 5,

C.

in

former reigns.

* 2 Kings,
%

xiii.

20, 21.

Dorolh. r.pipli.,n. ct Isidor. Calmer, sub voce Kliste.

V Kingi,
ii.

Ve

Eccliis. xlviii. 12, ct seq.

f
tt
Ill)

2 Kings,
Ibid. iv.

ii.

23

25.
)} Ibid. rer.

Mart. Prophet.
j|

Chron. Pasch. Hpud

22.

837.
]msim.
7.
vi. 1

3841.

Ibid. chap. if.

tt Ibid. ver.

17.

4244.

llml. chn|>. v.

See before,

p. 566, note (c).

14.

Hid. ver. 19

iV

Mid. clmp.

CHAP. XIX.]

JO ASH.

AMAZIAH. JKKOBOAM
and successfully
;

II.

UZZIAH.

on

menced

his reign religiously

but he too soon forgot these favourable beginnings, and in the sequel made as impious and His tragical an end as his predecessor. success the signal against Jul. Per. "3887. Edomites,(f) was the occasion A. M. *3177. of his forgetting himself so Post Dil. "1520.
stupidly, that he brought home the captive gods of his conAnn.Exod.*605.
B. C.

successes, and not suffer his ambition to drivn. him into a desperate attempt, which was likely to end in the loss of his kingdom. Amaziah was only the more exasperated at this answer, and hasted out against his rival the two
:

*027.

armies met near Beth-shemesh ; totally routed ;(g) and Amaziah hands of his enemy. Joash,

Judah was
fell

into the
"3888.

quered enemies, and worshipped them. This war also gave rise to a rancorous animosity between the people of Judah and Israel, as well as between their respective sovereigns. To strengthen his army of 300,000 fighting men, Amaziah had hired 100,000 more of the king of Israel, but, after their arrival, was prevailed upon by a prophet to dismiss them,
because, it was alleged, the Lord was not with them. This occasioned great discontent

on

their part,

as they returned

which broke into hostile acts home, displayed by their

burning and ravaging all the country, as they This at once destroyed all passed through. between the monarchs, and both friendship sides began to prepare for hostilities, under circumstances of peculiar acrimony. Amaziah, indeed, had cause to resent the outrages of the disbanded Israelites, during his absence upon the Edomitish expedition; and Joash, after such victories as he had gained over the Syrians, could not but feel the affront put upon him by the dismissal of his men nor could he forbear treating a challenge sent him by Amaziah, with the utmost contempt, by returning an answer, under the figure of an allegory, wherein the king of Judah was compared to a despicable thistle, which, having aspired to an alliance with the stately cedar, had, for its ambition, been crushed under the
:

A. M. pursuing his victory, marched 3178. with the captive Amaziah to Post Dil. l.V21. Ann. Exod.*66. Jerusalem, where he obliged 826. him to purchase his freedom,' at the expense of all the gold and silver that could be found in the temple or in the royal palaces after which he demolished about 400 cubits' length of the city wall, from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, and then retired, taking with him some hostages to Samaria.(h) Of the remaining acts of these Jul. Per. 3891. princes, nothing is recorded, A. M. 3181. Post Dil. 1524. except that Joash, who is supAnn.Exod.669. posed to have outlived his vicB. C. 823. rather more than two years, tory was succeeded in Israel by his son Jeroboam II.; and that Amaziah, who survived
:

Jul. Per.

him

fifteen years,

nated

chish, fled to avoid

was by conspirators whither he had

assassi-

at

^ Jul Per La- VA.M.

3fl05

3ioV.

in vain

their fury.

His

< Post Dil. ir>:w. I Ann.Exod.R;

^- B-

body was carried back upon

horses to Jerusalem for interment; and his son Uzziah, called also Azariah,(i) a youth of 16, was proclaimed as his successor .(j) Jeroboam II. seemed ordained to restore the kingdom of Israel to its original grandeur. His long reign of 41 years, gave him time to perform that noble work ; to which he was

feet of a wild beast

and that the application he concluded with advising him to rest contented with his recent petty
:

might not be

lost,

encouraged by the prophets Jonah(k) and Hosea, who were his contemporaries, and foretold that he should complete the deliverance of Israel from its enemies, which his father had begnn. A minute detail of his
versions, as well as
St.

(f)

See before,

p.

047.

(g) Josephus* says they were panic struck at (be onset of the battle, turned their backs without striking a blow, and left their king at the mercy of the adverse array. 2 Citron, xxv. 124. 14. (h) 2 Kings, xiv. 1
(i)

in the parallel place in Chronicles ; and Matthew, in his genealogy, calls him (not Afxpia?, but, Of>. Uzziah is therefore presumed to be nearer bis real

name than any of the

(j)

others.

The name
in

of this prince

is

expressed four different

Kiinjs: rvitj; ways (OZEIOH, or AzaRiaH), Wlty (OZRIHU), n'fj;(oziaH), and The last is most prevalent in (be oldest liTtV (OZIHU). Hebrew MSS. which are supported by the Syriac and Arabic

the

printed

Hebrew Text of 2

15 21. 2 Chron. xxv. 25 28. (k] This was the same Jonah who prophesied against Nineveh, about A. M. 3142. Archbishop Usher observes that be was a native of Gatb-hepber, or Gittah-hepher, a town in the tribe of /ebulun, in Galilee of the Gentiles, contrary to that insolent and false assertion of the Jews,*
2 Kiny.t,
xiv.

that out of Galilee there never arose a prophet.

John, YU. 5?.

Antiq.

lib. ix.

cap. 10.

912

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP. xix.

is

it conquests, however, has not been preserved ; known that, leading an army into Syria, only he reduced Damascus, the capital, and restored Hamath to the kingdom of Israel; besides the establishing his authority on both sides to an extent little short of what it Jordan, \vas in the days of his predecessor of the same

Under two such princes, the kingdom might have been expected to be established once more in all the splendour it had attained under Solomon and so it undoubtedly would have been, had real piety and the fear of God been their prevailing motives. Uzziah, indeed, during the
:

lifetime

of Zechariah,
;

name.(l) In the

this respect

was irreproachable in but Jeroboam's reign was sullied

mean time, the young Uzziah, king of Judah, suffered himself to be wholly directed by a person of great wisdom and piety, named Zechariah, so that he became equally conspicuous for his zeal against idolatry, his pious
imitation of the best

among

his predecessors,

his great success against several of the neighbouring nations, particularly the PhilisHe also recovered Elath from the Sytines.

and

with idolatry, injustice, luxury, rapine, and other immoralities, notwithstanding the repeated admonitions of the prophets Hosea and Amos, who were sent to foretel the sad and total ruin that those sins would shortly bring upon the whole nation. Their endeavours to reclaim the people did but give umbrage to the

rians,

and repaired the

fortifications, as

he did

those of his own metropolis, Jerusalem, the wall of which, broken down by Joash, king of Israel,
in his father's reign, he also rebuilt, together with fortresses, magazines, and arsenals, in various parts of his kingdom, as well as in the

and Amos, who had been sent from Judah, and had been more bold than his colleague, was accused to the king by Amaziah, one of the idolatrous priests of Beth-el, by whom he was also commanded to return to Judah, and prophesy there. The prophet comcourt,

countries he had taken from the Philistines, Arabians, and Mehunim, a people supposed to have dwelt in the wilderness of Maon, in that part of Arabia Petraea which lies towards Gerar and Paran so that his name was respected to the very borders of Egypt. His army consisted
;

plied with the injunction ; but told Amaziah that his family should come to a miserable end, and he himself die in a polluted laud.(n) On the death of Jeroboam, which took place in the 41st year of his reign, an inJul. Per. 3932. 3222. A. M. years took terregnum of ll
Ann.Exod.710. not appear, nor is any intimation B. C. 782. given of it, except by deductions from the years mentioned. Indeed the chronology of this period is as confused as that of any we have passed. The successor of Jeroboam II. Jul. Per. 3943. A. M. 3233. (after the interregnum) was his Post. Dil. 1576. son Zechariah. This monarch Ann. Exod. 721. was the fourth in descent from
place,(o) on

what account does

Post. Dil. 1565.

of 307,500 brave men, commanded by two expert generals, named Maaziah and Hananiah, themselves subordinate to Jehiel, his scribe, or secretary at war. He had, besides, 2600 officers, celebrated for their valour and experience. To the offensive arms in use before his days, of which he had an uncommon stock laid up in
his store-cities, he added newly-invented engines for throwing darts, heavy stones, and other destructive missiles, from his towers and

Jehu

and

in

him was

fulfilled

B. C.

771.

bulwarks. Nor did this multiplicity of military concerns divert his attention from agricultural pursuits, of which he was always fond: he had immense herds of cattle, extensive fields and vineyards, with husbandmen and vinedressers and he built towers for watchin proportion cots for shelter, and dug wells wherever ing, they were wanted for the convenience of his
:

So that, whether consiservants and 'cattle. dered in peace or in war, Uzziah appears to have reached the pinnacle of wealth and
glory .(m)
(I)

the divine promise that the offspring of that prince should possess the government to the fourth generation. From this time the decline of the Israelitish monarchy may be dated ; for the history of the subsequent period presents only a catalogue of the most enormous crimes, murders, treasons, sacrilege, and desolation. Zechariah had scarcely enjoyed the regal dignity six months, before he was Jul. Per. 3944. A. M. 3234. publicly assassinated by Shal-

lum, one of his domestics,(p) who seized the vacant throne, but, after a reign of 30 days, was
(o) Usher.

Post. Dil. 1577. Ann. Exod. 722. B. C. 770.

/Ting's, xiv.
vii.

2329.
17.

(m) 2 Chron, *xvi.

115.

Annal. sub. A. M. 3220.

lib. ix.

(n)

Amos,

10

(p) Joseph. Antiq,

cap. 11.

CHAP. XIX.]

UZZIAH'S OFFENCE.

JOTHAM. PEKAH. AHAZ.

solitary

.01:1

himself murdered in Samaria by Menaliem, un army, and who immediately assuming the ensigns of royalty, committed the most horrid cruelties on the inhabitants of Tirzah, for refusing to open their He was soon after invaded by gates to him. Pul, king of Assyria,(q) and compelled to purchase a dishonourable peace for 1000 talents of silver. The remainder of his Jul. Per. 3954. 3-244. A. M. reign appears to have passed
officer of Zechariah'.s
Post. Oil. 1587. Ann. Excel. 732.

Jotham was 2-r> years old when his father died, and he ascended

house till the 68th year of his ago, when he died, and was buried in a tomb of his own, adjoining those of his ancestors; being laid apart, on account of his leprosy.(u)
-r

ju | Pcr

30 7
3-2

B. C.

700.
;

away quietly; and on his death, after a reign of 10 years, his son Pekahiah succeeded to the

the throne of Judah, about a liyo. Ann.Exod.735. year after Pekah had usurped J that of Israel. The characters U$ of these two princes were very opposite: Pekah was a wicked man, and followed the steps of his predecessors ; so that his reign proved

V A. M. < Post Oil.

7.

crown
Jul. Per.

but he had not reigned above two 3956. years before he was murdered

seized Ann.Exod.734,1 B.C. 758.3 the vacant throne.(r) In the mean time, the splendour of Uzzialfs reign in Judah had received a mortifying check, which had obliged that monarch to abdicate his throne. Elated at his prosperity, and misguided by a false zeal in religion, he had resolved to join the sacerdotal to the regal digWith this view, in the same year that nity. Zechariah, king of Israel, was killed, he entered the temple, with a censer in his hand, and approaching the altar, was preparing to burn

Pek

>

the
.

arm y> who ""mediately

troublesome, arid ended in his own violent death Jotham, on the other hand, was a wise and pious prince, and was blessed with extraPekah, having formed a ordinary success. with ]{e/in, king of Syria, made an atleague tempt upon Judah ; but was soon forced to re:

tire,

his own territories against Tigking of Assyria, who had invaded lath-pileser, the land of Naphtali, taken the most considerable of its towns, and carried off that whole tribe into captivity. Jotham, in the mean time, gained several important victories over his

and defend

incense upon

it.

In

this,

of course, he was

warmly opposed by Azariah(s) the high-priest, at the head of fourscore other priests, who told him that he was infringing upon an office peculiar only to the family and descendants of Aaron and earnestly desired him to quit the sanctuary, lest wrath should fall upon him from the divine presence. The infatuated king, however, would not attend to these remonstrances,
;

till he felt himself smitten with leprosy, in so sudden and extraordinary a manner as made

years, and was succeeded by V A. M. 3-203. his son Ahaz, then about 20 < Post Oil. 16<?. As for Pekah, i Ann.Exod.75i. years of age. 741 * after he had had the mortifica- *tion of seeing one whole tribe wrested from him by a foreign power, and his kingdom, during the last 10 years of his reign, _ f, p * distracted by anarchy and re- i A" M. 32fi!
.

neighbours, particularly the Ammonites, whom he laid under an annual tribute of 100 talents of silver, 10,000 measures of wheat, and as many of barley .(v) At length, having repaired and beautified the temple, fortified the city, and done many other public acts, Jotham died in peace after he had reigned 16 , Ju ,
Per
3<)73

him, though too late, sensible of his error.(t) He then hastened out of the city, resigned the sceptre to his son Jotham, and resided in a
(q) Josephus places this invasion in the latter part of Menahem's reign but Usher brings it to the beginning.
;

he was murdered by ^ Post Oil. I6o. Hoshea, the son of Elah, in the I Ann.Exod.764. 20th year of his reign, about ^- B- Ct
bellion,

(r)

2 Kings, xv.

826.

(s)
(t)

Supposed

to be the third of that name.

prophets Amos and /echariah speak of a dreadful earthquake in the days of Uzzial) and Jeroboam ;* to which Josephus is supposed to allude, when he .says, that while the

The

in threatening the priests for their opposition to his impious design, God sent a miraculous earthquake, which opening th roof of the temple, let through a ray of

king persisted

upon the king's face, which covered it with leprosy and also rent a mountain in two, which stood at a small distance from Jerus&Jem, one half of which, having rolled about tour furlongs, stopped against another mountain, choked the highway, and covered the king's garden all over with rubbish. t But as the same writer says that Uzziah died of grief soon after he was smitten with the leprosy, it is not very clear how this earthquake can be the same with that mentioned by the prophets in the days of Jeroboam. 2. (u> a Kings, xv. 57. 2 Ckron. xxvi. 16
light
;

(y)

See before, p. 631.

t

Amos,

i.

I.

Ztch. xiv. S.

Joseph, Antij. Kb. U.

op.

12.

VOL.

I.

914

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

agreed to
Syria.(z)

[CHAP. XIX,
city,

three years after Jotham's death. In those three years, however, he had been successful against Ahaz, the degenerate son of Jothatn, whose was as reign, in consequence of his impieties, as his father's had unfortunate and inglorious, been prosperous. He had scarcely taken possession of his throne, when his kingdom was invaded by the joint forces of Israel and Syria.(w) This circumstance threw him into the utmost
consternation, and he appears to have expected less than the total dissolution of the monarchy, or its transfer to another family; for the proposed object of the invaders was to and place the son of one Tabeal on the throne, In this dilemma to exclude the line of David. he was visited and encouraged by the prophet Isaiah ;(x) and, according to that prophet's assurance, he was delivered from the impending calamity; but his idolatries were so gross, and his actions so inconsistent with those of his deceased father, that God was pleased to leave him to the mercy of his formidable enemies.

had stripped both the temple and the

make a diversion

He

in his favour against accordingly marched into that

country, laid it waste with fire and sword, took the capital, Damascus, by assault, and put llezin to death. In consequence of these

achievements,

Ahaz paid a

visit to his ally at

no

Damascus, and presented him with the stipulated money; and he was so much pleased with an idol altar which he there saw, that he procured a model of it, and sent it to Jerusalem, to have one made from it, under the superintendence of Urijah, the high-priest, and which was afterwards erected in the holy temple. On
his return to his capital, Ahaz offered a vast number of sacrifices upon his new altar to the gods of Damascus. Not satisfied with this, he some time after seized the remaining vessels of

Rezin, in order to recompense himself for his lost time at Jerusalem, recovered the sea-port of Eloth, expelled the Jewish inhabitants, and peopled it with a colony of his own subjects and the Israelitish monarch had, in a single bat.tle, slaughtered 120,000 of the bravest subjects of Ahaz, besides Maaseiah the king's son,
;

the temple, ordered that building itself to be shut up, and in every corner of Jerusalem, and every city of his kingdom, he burnt incense and erected altars to the false deities of the heathen. At length, after an impious reign of lt> years, he died in the 36th of his age, and was succeeded

by

his

son Hezekiah.

His subjects were

re-

joiced at

being relieved from his tyranny,

and taken 200,000 prisoners, when the prophet Oded prevailed on him to dismiss the latter
with tokens of humanity.(y) The fatal overthrow of the king of Judah en-

couraged the Edomites and Philistines to invade his territories, and having made themselves masters of several towns of importance, they returned to their countries laden with spoil, and
carrying with them many of the inhabitants. In this extremity, Ahaz applied to the king of Assyria for succours; and Tiglath-pileser, being bribed with the gold and silver of which Ahaz
(w) See before, p. 569.
(x) I.-aiali,

though he was buried in not allow him to be laid in the sepulchres of their kings, of which he had rendered himself so unworthy.(a) The political state of Israel was, at this time, not more prosperous than that of Judah; for the revolution at the death of Pekah occasioned a kind of anarchy of nearly nineyears' continuance, during which, the regicide Hoshea found it difficult to retain his ill-gotten diadem; but towards the close of that period the tern- , Jul Per 3985 3275. per of the people became more % A. M. calm, and he began to reign peace- -^PostDil. 1018. ably; being then, it is supposed, jAnB.Exod.768. C
first

and Jerusalem, they would

acknowledged as king.(b)

'

'

called
is

from the

womb

singular courage and affirmed by the Jews, and believed by many Christians, to have been the grandson of Joash, king of His first vision was about the close of Uzziali's Judah.]; reign ; but liis prophecies relate to that prince's successors: thi' first six chapters to Jotham, the six next to his sou .\i;az,

endowed with
tant office, t

to be a prophet,* and eloquence for that impor-

and majesty of his style, and for the perspicuity of his proHe was highly respected by the good kings, espephecies. cially by Hezekiah, who sent to consult him upon all emerand as ill treated by the wicked princes, particularly gencies Manassch, by whom he is supposed to have been put to a
;

cruel death, as related elsewhere.||

and the rest to Ilezckiah; but several of the hitter are interspersed with predictions relative to the Messiah and His kingdom, as well as to the fate of various foreign nations. Me is justly esteemed the prince of the prophets, for th< loftiness
:

30. xvi. 1 (y) 2 Kings, xv. 27 15. Isaiah, vii. 1 10. xxviii. 1
(z)

6.

2 Chron.

\\\\\.

passim.

(a)

See before, p. 569. 2 Kings, xvi. 720. 2 Citron,

xxviii.

1627.

(b) Coinp.

2 Kings, xv. 27, 32.

T'I,

xvi. 1. xvii. 1. See before, p. 748.

Itaiah, xlu. 1.

t Ibid. chap.

I.

4.

J Ilieronjru. in Ejuj.

Itaiah,

1, et tfq.

CHAP, xix.]

REFORMATION UNDER HEZEKIAH. ISRAELS DESOLATION.

!)i.>

Jul. Per.

A. M. 3278. Post Oil. 1021. Ann. Exod.76fl.

Hezekiah, on his accession to the government, was in the vigour of youth, being 25 years old ; and though we cannot B. C. 726. augur favourably of his education, he began his reign as if he had been long Possessed established in religious principles. of an excellent understanding, he clearly perceived the source of Judah's calamities and lost no time in applying an adequate remedy. He began by opening the temple; and commanded the priests and Levites to renew the daily worship of the Lord, according to the Mosaic rites. This was done on the first day of the year, it being also the sabbath, and the offerings and other solemnities were continued till the second sabbath following ; that is, they occupied 16 days.(c) He then sent circular letters throughout the country, inviting his subjects of every description to present themselves before the Almighty, at the ensuing feast of the passover, which, in conformity with the provision made by Moses, he fixed for the second month ; the people not being prepared for it in He also wrote to the idolatrous the first. Israelites, pathetically representing the benefits that would result from their turning to the God
3088.
;

might interrupt the pious zeal of the moment, he overlooked it, and prayed God to forgive them. Yet for the sake of such of his own people as were also uupurified, among whom were several priests and Levites, he ordered the festival to be celebrated another seven days, that none might be excluded. The solemnity itself, of which the like had not been witnessed since the days of Solomon, so increased the public zeal, that when the people were dismissed from it, they roved through the country, destroying every relic of idolatry, the king himself encouraging them by his example, till he had utterly cleared his dominions of them.

Even the brasen

up

which Moses had set and which had been preserved till that time, Hezekiah ordered to be broken in pieces, because he found that the people made a superstitious use of it, and had burnt incense before it ; and, in contempt, he called it neliushtan, or a piece of
serpent,
in the wilderness,

brass, (e)

Hezekiah's next care was to restore all the branches of the worship of God, and the service of the temple making an exact scrutiny
;

into the genealogies of the priests, Levites,

and

of

from whom, on their thorough he hinted, they might obtain the repentance,
their fathers,

recal of their

unhappy brethren, whom the kings of Assyria had carried into captivity.(d) Whilst the king's messengers were going with these invitations, the inhabitants of Jerusalem were busied in burning and demolishing all the idols, altars, and other heathen monuments, that had been set up in that metropolis ; and this they did with such zeal, that the city was thoroughly purged before the day appointed
for the

musicians, and setting every thing according to David's model. Having effected this, and secured a complete reformation in the manners of the people, he determined upon chastising the Philistines, and was so successful, that he recovered from them all that they had acquired during the reign of his predecessor.(f) Hoshea was about the same time contriving the deliverance of his kingdom from the Assyrian bondage, under which it had for some time laboured but his measures were all frustrated
:

solemn festival. The circular letters had iso good an effect, that the city was crowded with people, not only from different parts of the kingdom of Judah, but also from that of Israel. The latter, indeed, were not in great numbers,
either not had sufficient time to themselves, or rather, from long disuse, purify the necessity of such preparations had been obliterated from their memories, and they ventured to eat the passover with the rest, without regard to the illegality of so doing. Hezekiah was informed of this, by some of his own subjects, who knew the !aw ; but, that nothing

by the vigilance and policy of Shalmaneser, who, having secured the land of the Moabites, by destroying their two chief cities, agreeably
prophecy, laid waste that country Israel, till he arrived at the of Samaria, to which he laid close siege gates for the space of three years, when it was takea
to Isaiah's

and the country of

and they had

by storm, and the most horrible cruelties were exercised upon its miserable inhabitants. The overthrow of the metropolis, ^ Ju Per 3J)fl3 which the conquerors levelled \A. M. 3283. with the ground, was the sub- -/Post Oil. 1026. E*od. I />" version of the kingdom of Israel J7|721. some of the inhabitants effected *
j
:
'

'

(c)

2 Kings,

xviii.

6.

(d) 2 Chron. xxx.

112.

2 Chron. xxix. passim.

(e)

(f)

2 Kingt, 2 Chron.

xviii. 4.

xxxi. passim.

2 Chron. xxx. 1327. xxxi. See before, p. 620.

1.

A 2

916

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP. xix.

their escape into the kingdom of Judah, where, renouncing their idolatrous practices, they became the subjects of Hezekiah; others fled into but the majority of them, with their

with them in times of adversity, though ready to claim it in seasons of prosperity. (k)
During, this period, Hezekiah had determined on asserting his IA. M. independence, and had refused -^Post. Oil.
to send the tribute to the king of Assyria, which his father had
v.B. C.

Egypt, king, were carried into captivity beyond the Euphrates, (g) acknowledging, too late, the justice of an offended God, and lamenting the melancholy effects of their disobedience. This sad and fatal end of the Israelitish kingdom took place in the 6th year of Hezekiah and 9th of Hoshea, after it had been divided from That the land might that of Judah 254 years.
not lie desolate, the Assyrian monarch transplanted into it colonies of conquered nations from the east, in whose countries he settled the
Israelites. (h)

*329i. *i634.
*713.

jAnn.Exod.*77!>.
in this

stipulated for.

Whether he had been

The people whom he

sent

were

mostly Cuthaeans, descendants of the very tribe whom the ancestors of the Israelites had formerly succeeded in the fertile province of Goshen in Egypt, but who, by a most singular interference of Providence, were now to succeed the progeny of the same Israelites in the fruitful land of Canaan, while Israel itself wa.s consigned to a second Goshen, not in Egypt, but in the dreary region of Mesopotamia. The new settlers had not been long in the territories of Samaria, whither they had taken all their idolatrous practices, before they found themselves in danger of being extirpated by the lions
or, according to Josephus,(i) from the effects of a pestilence that raged there. This was understood to be a punishment for
;

the beginning of his reign, or whether he had paid it till his successes over the Philistines gave him a respectable station, is uncertain; but his refusal was sure to bring upon him the vengeance of the Assyrian monarch. His territories were accordingly invaded in the 14th year of his reign, by a vast host, who quickly became masters of the fortified towns, and seemed to threaten the whole

mood from

kingdom with exterminating ruin. Alarmed for the safety of his capital, as well as for his personal security, Hezekiah began to think he
had carried his opposition to too great a length, and resolved to retrieve this supposed error, by a speedy submission. He accordingly stripped the temple and the palace of their richest ornaments, and sent them with a very humble message to Sennacherib, who was at Lachish, acknowledging his fault, and promising to submit to such terms as he might dictate. The costly presents with which this apology was accompanied, appeased Sennacherib so effectually, that he immediately withdrew his forces, upon condition of receiving an annual tribute of 30 talents of gold and 300 of silver :(1) but the want of confidence in God, here displayed by Hezekiah, as well as in a league he had formed with the king of Egypt, is supposed to have brought upon him, first, a memorable tit of sickness, to
which, perhaps, his great anxiety led the way; and, secondly, a message, delivered by the prophet Isaiah, forewarning him to arrange his The affaire, since he would certainly die of it. good king received the dreadful summons with inexpressible grief, not doubting but he had provoked God to shorten his days, he being then but in the 38th year of his age; and he had also another source of grief, in the coninto

who infested them

their disregard of the God of Israel, and therefore the king of Assyria sent them some of the Israelitish priests, to instruct them in the true
religion.

They accepted the priests and their precepts, so that the judgment was stayed; but as they could not be brought altogether to for-

sake the practices of their forefathers, a new kind of worship arose, consisting partly of the adoration of the true God, and partly of the worship of their former false deities. (j) Hence, in aftertime.s, sprang that mutual hatred between the Jews and Samaritans the former always abominating the very name of the latter; and the latter always disowning any kindred
:

(g) Prior to this, the tribes of Reuben and Gad, with the half tribe of Manas h beyond Jordan, had been carried away by Pul, king of Assyria, probably during the anarchy that succeeded upon the death of Jeroboam II.; and the tribe of Naphtali had been more recently removed, by Pul's Considersuccessor, Tiglaui-pilexer, in the reign of Pckab. ing this previous reduction, and allowing tor the fugitives

Judah and Egypt, with {hose

slain

during the siege, and

sent into captivity

at the sacking of the city; the

numbers

on

occasion \\ ill appear comparatively sniiill. (h) See liryant's Mythology, vol. vi. p. 2"; I.
this
(i)

Arttiq. lib. i\. cap. 1-1.

(j)

2 Kiugt,

xvii. pass.

(k)
(I)

Joseph. Aui'uj. id. super. 2 Kings, xviii. 1310.

CHAP, xix.]

HEZEKIAH'S SICKNESS.SENNACHERIB'S INVASION.

had no sou
left

.017

to succeed him. him, he turned himself to the wall, and addressed himself to God in the most humble and pathetic terms, accompanied with a flood of tears of contrition and he pleaded with such sincerity, that before the prophet had reached the middle of the city, h<' received a divine intimation to return to the king, and promise him an addition of 15 years to his life, and to assure him that God would defend both him and Jerusalem. At the same time, lest the faith of Hezekiah should waver on his beholding the vast armies, which the divine wisdom foresaw would be brought against him by Sennacherib, a miracle was wrought to confirm it, by making the shadow upon the sun-dial go back 10 degrees. (m) The assurances of divine protection which

federation that he

The prophet having

to neglect the

Hezekiah had received, probably induced him payment of the stipulated tribute:

and, taking advantage of Sennacherib's absence in Egypt, he made preparations for a resolute defence, by fortifying his capital, repairing its walls, tin-owing up a second wall, fencing it with towers, and laying in store of arms and He likewise caused provisions for the siege. all the fountains without the city to be stopped, and turned the course of the brook Gihon, to distress the enemy as much as possible for want of water. He then assembled all his chief and earnestly exhorted them to rely officers, upon God for deliverance, without suffering
11. 2 Citron, xxxii. 24. />. xxxviii. (in) 2 Kings, xx. 1 The history of Hezekiah's sickness and recovery is pass. related in the sacred writings after the second invasion of

themselves to be dismayed at the number or the strength of the bauager.(n) These preparations were scarcely completed, when the enemy made his appearance. Sennacherib, with his main army, sat down before Lachish, while he sent a detachment, under Kah-shakeh, his chief rnp-be;irer, and Tartan and Rabsaris, two of his principal captains, to summon Jerusalem. These generals accordingly presented themselves before the walls of that city, and having demanded a parley with the king, or his ministers, Hab-sliakeh addressed the latter in an insolent manner, uttering the most opprobrious language against Hezekiah, and even against the God of Israel, and threatening to reduce the kingdom to the most pitiable condition, unless they chose to avert the impending danger by a voluntary surrender. Although this speech was professedly addressed to Hezekiah, its real intention was to work upon the minds of the people, who stood in crowds on the wall, and to induce them to open the gates. It was delivered in the Hebrew tongue; and when some of Hezekiah's ministers requested Rab-shakeh to use the Syriar, he turned the request, in a most insidious way, to
excite the popular indignation, and desired the

people not to suffer Hezekiah to deceive them with vain hopes, nor to trust too confidently in their God, as they could not but have heard that the gods of all the nations conquered by Sennacherib and his father, had proved too
here alluded to, appears to have consisted of the steps leading to the gate of the palace, on the uppermost of which the sun's rays would fall at its rising, and so gradually illumine the rest us it advanced to its meridian. Long observation

Sennacherib; but as Hezekiah reigned only 20 years in atl, evident that the additional lo must have been put on in his 14lh year, the very year in which the Assyrians first overNor would the prophet, in assuring the ran his dominions. king of his speedy recovery, have promised deliverance to the city, had that deliverance been already accomplished in the destruction of the hostile array. As to the miracle of the shadow returning upon the dial 10 degrees, although archbishop Usher, and uiuny other eminent writers, have supposed that the whole frame of the sohir system inn?! have mxlergone a change to produce it, the opinion that attributes it to a simple inflection of the sun's rnjs, iu the laud of Judea, or perhaps only in and ubout Jerusalem, appears to be preferable, as we must :u't supple the Almighty to act with less economy in his supernatural than in his natural works. To suit the general understanding nf this passage the terms dial and aim-dial, have been usod above hut the instrument properly so called was then unknown, th.-- mvrution being attributed to Anaxiuiamter of Miletus, who n\.ursh.Ml almost two centuries after the days of Htzekiah. The dial
it is
1

would teach the people to reckon (heir divMons of the day by this process of illumination, and it was by bringing up the shadow upon ten of these steps, after he rays of the sun had fallen upon them, that Hezekiah is supposed to have received hi* assurance of returning health and prolonged life. The " And the Lord literal translation of the original is: brought back the shadow of the steps, which was gone down upon
I

dow of

Some prefer taking the shathe steps of Aha/, ten stop-." these steps upo-i the adjacent wall, or on the paveun:ees to

ment, where they

shew

tlie

up|K>se lines were hour of the 'lay,

;

drawn

at

proper His-

aud that the shadow

,iu-~. (irutins has a quo! itin f thont returned over ten tVo.n one rabbi Eliuh Choicer, in \\iiich this dial is described hollow lit inias a regular globe, placed in the centr- of line* wlvch diudccl .sphere, whereon were drawn \\;
l '

the <la\ into '24 parts: and, fanciful us tins -may be, .. -^rms incredible that mankind should have Invri MI lo'ig without

an instrument of tliis twture, when both their necessities and their daily observation could not but urge it upon them. (n) 2 Ckr**, xxxii.

18.

918

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

for the defence of their votaries:

[CHAP. xix.

weak

even

name with

the God of Israel had not saved Samaria, and how was it to be expected that he should interfere on behalf of Jerusalem, when Hezekiah had pulled down his high-places and altars, and confined his worship to a single spot?(o) Hezekiah had, in the interim of this blas-

those of the heathen idols. To these petitions the prophet Isaiah replied by inspiration, that the Assyrians would certainly return against the city, but that God .would be its defence for the sake of His servant

phemous speech, issued orders

on no account
to

to his people,

answer him; which was

strictly complied with ; and after waiting some time for a reply, Rab-shakeh and his companions returned to their master, who had left Lachish, probably in a state of blockade, and was then besieging Libnah : from which

induced to depart, on receiving intelligence that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, was pursuing him with a large he was also soon
after

David. (r) Sennacherib soon returned to ^ Ju Per 4004 execute his threats upon the \ A. M. 3294! citizens of Jerusalem, but before < Post Oil. 1637. he had opened a single trench, I Ann. Exod. 782. or discharged an arrow against S them, 185,000 of his troops were cut off in a single night by a blast, probably, of the destructive hot wind Samiel or, as the scripture has it, they were cut off by a destroying angel, This judgment induced the or messenger.
,
"
'

army.(p)

informed of the nature of Rab-shakeh's harangue, he rent his clothes, put on sackcloth, and repaired to the temple, whence he dispatched some of his principal officers and the elders of the priests, covered with the same emblem of mourning, to the prophet Isaiah, entreating his intercession with the Almighty on behalf of Jerusalem and the
at large to which the prophet sent an answer, encouraging the king not to fear the proud threatenings of the Assyrian, for he should quickly hear 'a rumour that would cause him to return, and he should fall by the sword in his own land. The first part of this prediction was almost immediately fulfilled, as noticed above ; but previous to his departure from Lachish, Sennacherib wrote a letter to Hezekiah, assuring him, that if he still

When Hezekiah was

haughty monarch to hasten back to his own capital, where he was soon afterwards murdered by two of his sons.(s) Thus was Isaiah's prophecy literally fulfilled upon the blaspheming tyrant, and the kingdom was extricated from imminent peril. This astonishing deliverance could not fail
to excite the admiration of surrounding nations:

they looked with the utmost veneration on the man who had been so remarkably distin-

kingdom

and they were eager to guished by heaven conciliate his regard by many valuable presents.
;

His mind became elated by these

flattering

distinctions of his fellow-creatures, as well as by the vast accession of riches, which, under

the blessing of Providence, flowed upon him from other quarters so that being transported beyond the bounds of prudence, he was induced to make an ostentatious display of his wealth before the Babylonish ambassadors,
;

persisted in his refusal of submitting to captivity, he would soon return with double fury against him, and make him repent his vain confidence in a God, who would most assuredly prove as impotent against his resistless power as those of various other nations had been.(q)
this impious than he went up to the temple, and epistle, spread it before his Creator, earnestly praying that He would fulfil His recent promise, and vindicate His honour against the blasphemous wretch, who had dared to class His adorable
(o,

whom Merodach-baladan had sent to

late

congratu-

him on

his recovery,

cularly concerning the

to inquire partisun's retrogression. (t)

and

This vain conduct, in itself very impolitic, though arising from Hezekiah's weakness and a desire to compliment the ambassadors, was
highly displeasing to God, who sent the prophet Isaiah to reprove him, and to tell him that the day would be, when those very men, who were now paying him so much respect, the

The king had no sooner perused

would seize all his boasted treasures, plunder kingdom of its ornaments, and even carry
(t) The jubilee year, according to Usher," was celebrated about the same time, which, by bringing a vast concourse of people to Jerusalem, could not but add very much to the magnificence of that metropolis and the court. Annal. sub A. M. 3195.

2 Kings,

xviii.

17

37.

2 Chron.

xxxii.

xxx vi.
(p) (q)
(r)

220.

19. Isaiah,

2 Kinyt, xix. 8, 9. Isaiah, xxxvii. 8, 9. 2 Kings, xix. 9 13. Isaiah, xxxvii. 9 13. 2 Kings, xix. 14 34. (s) Isaiah, xxxvii.

3638.

HAP. xix.]

HEZEKIAH'S DEATH.

MANASSEH'S WICKEDNESS.
accompanied
his

9J.9

away some of the royal family, as captives, This denunciation convinced to their master. the king of his error; he acknowledged the justice of the sentence, and expressed his
gratitude that the evil was not permitted to happen in his days.(u) Among other public acts of Hezekiah, he is recorded to have made a large pool, and a

their admonitions with threatening* of dreadful desolations upon himself and

kingdom

but their predictions served only

conduit, for supplying Jerusalem with water

;(v)

have been an encourager of husbandry, himself having numberless flocks and herds in his own pasture-grounds, besides vines and

and

to

lands. After a pious and equitable of 29 years, he died in peace in the reign 54th year of his age, and was buried with extraordinary pomp, in the grandest sepulchre of the sons of David. (w) Manasseh, the son of HezeJul. Per. 4016. A. M. kiah, was a minor when invest3306. PostDil. 1649. ed with the sovereignty, being Ann. Exod.794. only 12 years of age. As he B. C. 698. advanced in life, he evinced a disposition very different from that of his father, and ran into all those abominations that had formerly brought such judgments on Israel. He restored the high places, he worshipped idols, erected altars not only to Baal, but to the sun, moon, and stars ; and encouraging his subjects to devote their helpless infants to the bloody Moloch, he introduced the vilest rites into the temple, and set up a graven image of the grove, or Ashtaroth, in the most holy place: as if he desired to drive the God of Abraham from His habitation, and to disclaim all the blessings promised to humble and obedient wor-

arable

Manasseh against them, and induced him in the sequel to add the most infamous cruelties to his former wickedness. Every one who presumed to express the slightest discontent under his government was and Jerusalem instantly doomed to death was literally deluged with the mingled blood of prophets, priests, and nobles. At length, Providence put a signal stop to his tyrannical career, by delivering him into the hands of the Assyrians, who, coming suddenly upon him, loaded him with chains, .,,.,, Pnr iiiov. Jui. rer. T^ earned him 3327. away to Babylon, V A.. M. and there cast him into a dun- -< Post Dil. 1670. Ann. Exod. 815. geon.(y) This was in the reign j ^ of Esar-haddon, or Assaradinus, the son and successor of Sennacherib, who a few years before had taken Babylon, and
tu exasperate
;
, i
.

transferred thither

the

seat of the Assyrian

empire.(z)

shippers. (x)
to reprove these
(u)

Several of the prophets were commissioned abominable crimes, and they

2 Kings, xx.

This unsuspected and severe reverse produced a genuine repentance in the breast of the royal captive, (a) whose heart-rending sighs and earnest supplications for mercy, were the means of obtaining a happy deliverance from that God, " who delighteth not in the death of a sinner," and he was restored to his throne ; but by what means, and after what term of captivity, the scripture is silent, though the Jews suppose he passed two full years in the Babylonish dungeon. On his return, it was evident that adversity had wrought upon him a most beneficial change ; for, from the greatest of sinners and most flagitious of tyrants, he had become a most humble penitent, and one of the best of monarchs. His whole time was now
captive about the same time, and perhaps by the same forces that took Manasseh prisoner. This last and total captivity that prelate thinks to have been foretold by Isaiah, t about 65 years before, agaiust Israel, under the

1219.
2

2 Chron.

xxxii. 23, 25, 26.

Isaiah, xxxix. passim.

(v)

See before, p. 789.

Citron, xxxii.
xxxiii.

(w) 2 Kings, xx. 20, 21.

(x)

27

33.

no particulars nor the time when it took place the Jews affirm that it was in the 22d year of Mana*seh's reign, and most chronologers. Archbishop they have been followed by Usher* observes from the following chapters of Chronicles, that the kingdom of Israel had not been so far emptied of but that a considerable remnant was left its inhabitants,
(y) of this invasion,

2 Kings, xxi. 1 9. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 10, 11.

2 Chron.

19.
:

name of Ephraim.J
(z) It is about this time that many chronologers introduce the siege of Bethulia, and its deliverance by Judith; while others refer it to the period of the last siege of Jerusalem,

The

text gives

behind,

the

greater
t

part
vii.

of

whom
M.
5327.

were

carried

away

and some suppose it to have been subsequent to the return from the captivity: but Dr. Prideau\; fixes it to the 12th year of Saosduchiuus, or Nebuchodnosor, king of Assyria, which according; to our computation corresponds with the year of the world 3347. (a) See the Prayer attributed to him, iu the Apocrypha.
under Nebuchadnezzar
;

Annul, sub A.

Vide Calm.

Jfi'st.
i.

Vet. Test,
i.

sub

A.M.

3310. Joseph. Antiq.

fib. x.

cap. 4,

Chap.

8.

$ Connect, part

book

p. 50, ft ttq.

920

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

all

[CHAP. xix.

devoted to the removal of

satisfaction

causes of dis-

among

his subjects,

hy the restora-

tion of the law, cleansing the sanctuary and the court of the temple of the idols he had there set up, and reviving the ancient service. e a ' SO seflt etters throughout Jnl Per *4039 ^ his kingdom, exhorting his subA.M. *M-29.) Post Oil. *i72. V jects to follow his example, Ann.Exod.'8i7. 1 an d f o demolish all the groves, * 675 -J and that had been

At the time of Josiah's accession, the universal depravity that had ( Ju Pef 40?3 over-run the kingdom, and which V A. M. 3303.
,

probably increased during his <PotDiK 1706. Ann.Exod..ji. minority, appeared to require / B Ca miracle to suppress
it.

'

The

^-

'

prophet Zephaniah,

who was

his contemporary,
:

altars,

idols,

gives a most frightful account of the licentiousness arid irreligion that, then prevailed among the princes, judges, and magistrates, reigned
injustice,

reared during the former part of his reign ; a precept which was readily complied with, except that the high-plact s were left untouched. He took equal care to repair the breaches made upon the city by the Assyrians, and encompassed the city of David with a new Avail after which he enjoyed his regal dignity with little interruption, for the space of about 32 years from his emancipation, and died peaceably in the 67th year of his age. His remains
;

ance

oppression, cruelty, and intemperof the vilest description ; among the priests, pride, avarice, and a shameless traffic in religious matters ; among the people, ignorance and gross libertinism ; men swearing with the same breath by the name of the

reared

Lord and by Male ham ; altars every where to Baal and to the Avhole host of heaven the sanctuary polluted by the filthy
;

were interred
his

in

command,

his own garden, probably by as his former atrocities had

rendered him unworthy of the sepulchre of

his ancestors. (b)

supposed to be Peor, or and the court of the temple filled with Priapus; catamites and women who wove hangings and tents, for concealing the abominable rites of
idol of the grove,

those Avho

resorted

thither.(d)

Of

Josiah,

the son of Manasseh, Jul. Per. 4071 ~\ A.M. 336i!/ was 22 years of age when he Post DU. 1704. > ascended the throne, so that he Ann.Exod.84o. I C0 uld only have Avitnessed, in 4 >* his father's example, the genuine tokens of piety; the worship of God, at his accession, was performed, with the exception of the people sacrificing on high-places, with its pristine splendour and purity ; and the generality of his subjects had triumphed over the demolition of their senseless idols. But, notwithstanding these advantages, he gave early indications of an attachment to the heathen superstition, nor was it long before he openly gave himself up to all its gross In all this, he exhibited convincing impieties. proofs of his determination to surpass the early

Amon,

been predicted above 300 years before, (e) that he should Avork a greater reformation than had ever been effected in
however,
it

had

Ju] Per 4(m ot Josiah, we have no account ; 1 A. M. 3370. hut in his eighth year he began < Post DH. 1718. to have religious impressions, I Ami.Exod.asa.

the land, and therefore the earnest expectations of the true worshippers were fixed upon him Of the first seven years

and he had a son born to him,(f) ^ B

"

C>

whom, in contemplation of the great reform he was about to undertake, and the confidence
he
felt

that

God would
It

prosper his design, he

named Eliakim.(g)

was

not,

however,
,

till

despotism of his father; on which account,

some of

him in his palace, before he had reigned quite two years, and buried him in the same garden
his chief officers assassinated

the twelfth year of his reign, , Ju Per 4084 and 21st of his age, that Josiah \ \. JM. 3374. gave his orders for the destruc- -/PostDil. 171?. tion of idolatry and superstition I Ann.Exod.862. in his dominions how the inter- ^ mediate time was passed is not stated ; though
' '
:

with his father.

in

citizens, however, rose avenge his murder, and bestowed the crown upon his son Josiah, then about

The

was probably occupied in advising with pious counsellors on the most prudent method
it

arms

to

eight years of age.(c)

(b)
(c)

of accomplishing so great a design ; for when he began, he evinced a zeal, diligence, intrepidity, and method, that clearly bespoke a
(e)

2 Kingg, 2 Kinijs,

xxi.
xxi.

10

18.

2 Chron. 2 Chron.
xxiii.

xxxiii.
xxxiii.

1926.

1220. 2125.

(f )
(g)

See before, p. 894. 1 Kinys, xiii. Corap. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 1, 3. xxxvi. 5.

(d)

Zephan. passim.

2 Kings,

47.

CJ'p'W (ELIOKIM) God

thall establish, or

make

to

prosper.

CHAP. XIX.]

REFORMATION UNDER

JOSIAH.

921

well-digested and systematic previous arrangeThe groves and high-places, which his predecessors had in vain endeavoured to suppress, Josiah defiled by burying the bones of dead men in them ; the bones of the idolatrous priests were disinterred, and burnt upon their own altars, after which the ashes were thrown into the brook Kidron; and all the living priests, who had assisted at any unlawful ceremony, were for ever excluded their former functions, and from the privilege of eating any holy things ; but the more culpable

ment.

set up, together with the groves, idols, and altars; and he caused the bodies of the idolatrous priests to be dug up, and burnt upon

them. Here it was, that, having observed a kind of monumental inscription upon one of the tombs, he was informed that it was the tomb of the man of God, who had come from Judah to prophesy against Jeroboam, and to denounce to him that total destruction of

were put

to

immediate death upon

their altars.

likewise ordered all the wooden idols, altars, and other combustible materials, that had served any idolatrous purpose, together with the chariots dedicated to the sun, which stood at the entrance of the temple, the vessels, in which the perpetual fire was kept in honour of that luminary, the image of the grove, with whatever else he found of that nature in the temple, to be burnt, and their ashes to be strewed over the graves of their votaries ; and such as could not be burned, he threw into the Kidron. Having witnessed the punctual execution of his orders in Jerusalem, Josiah repaired to the mount of Olives, then called, from the idolatries that had been practised upon it, the mount oj corruption, where he demolished the altars erected by his predecessors, together with those iu the valley of Hinnom; which last he defiled, so as to prevent its ever becoming again the seat of such unhallowed cruelty, as had there been perpetrated by the worHe thence proceeded shippers of Moloch. to Beth-el, and destroyed the golden calf, which Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, had
2 Kings, xxiii. 4 20. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3 7. This book of the law is generally agreed to have been the archetype written by Moses, and by him ordered to be deposited with the ark in the most holy place ;* but which lome pious high-priest, in the days of idolatry, had thus Ahaz and Manasseh hidden, to prevent its being destroyed having been particularly intent upon the suppression of all knowledge of it. It has been, indeed, disputed, whether it were the whole Pentateuch, (emphatically called rninn (HflTHORaH) the law, or only the book of Deuteronomy, or even barely the 2th, 29th, 30th, and 31st chapters of it, which contain all the blessing* and curses, that so alarmed the pious monarch. Josephus.t by calling it the, taered BOOKS of Mo*es has declared in favour of the whole Pentateuch, which seem* to be the best method of understanding the
(h)
(i)
;

The king

which he, Josiah, was then fulfilling. hearing this, the pious monarch ordered a particular regard to be paid to his ashes, and that they should not be disturbed. After this, Josiah took a circuit through all the cities of Israel, many of which lay almost desolate, destroying every where the idols and altars that had been set up by either Israelites or Assyrians ; and putting all the idolatrous priests to death and having thoroughly purged both kingdoms from every kind of idolatry, he returned to Jerusalem to restore the regular worship of God, and the usual service of the
idolatry,

On

temple.(h)

This reform had occupied six years, but Josiah, unwearied, on returning to his capital, persevered in his designs. To ^j u) Per 4090^ ,j 38w.' put the temple in a complete \ A. M. omplete state of repair in the most expe- < Post Oil. 1723. st ditious manner, he ordered, in I Ann.Exod.8(W. ered, VD. C. 024, ,!,..., the 18th year of his reign, *U the great chest, into which the poll-money and
.

used to be deposited, to be distributed the money among opened, such faithful overseers as would carry the work forward without delay. They had scarcely begun their labours, under the superintendence of the high-priest Hilkiah, when the latter found the book of the law,(i) in a secret part
free-will offerings

and

case of their not keeping the law therein commanded From the behaviour of both the high-priest and the on finding the book of the law, Dr. Prideaux thinks it king, evident, that neither of them bad seen a copy of it before. For altliongh Hezekiah* kept scribes for the purpose of colof the holy scriptures, lecting together, and writing out copies of the times that followed, iu the yet, through the iniquity had been either so comreigns of Manasseh and Amon, they or neglected and lost, that iu the days pletely destroyed, of Josiah, none were left in the land, except in some few
2(!) in

Kings and Chronicles. The place, which on opening or unrolling the book, the king first fixed his eye upon, say the Rabbins, was that part of the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, which denounces the curses of God against Israel, and against the king iu particular (ver.
writer of the books of

them.

* Unit. uxi.

*,

tt itf.

Ami*,

lib.

x.

cp.

5.

Pnv.

M.

1.

VOL.

I.

6 B

022
of the temple,
;

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

and sent
it

[CHAP. xix.

by

Shaphan the

plied

scribe to the king. delayed not to read it when he saw what dreadful and, judgments were denounced in it against those very abominations, with which he had found the whole land over-run, he rent his clothes, with the most lively expressions of grief, not doubting but he should soon feel the effect of those

Josiah

with, the festival of the passover was celebrated in a manner unequalled since the days of Samuel the prophet. After this, the king made a second progress through his kingdom ;
expelling wizards, witches, and necromancers; instituting courts of judicature in every convenient place; and charging the magistrates, the priests, and the Levites, to enforce obedience to the divine laws, both by precept and example.(l) Notwithstanding the sincere zeal with which this pious king endeavoured to restore the of God in his dominions, the divine worship anger was not in the least abated towards the people, who had become so indifferent to vital godliness, that they fell in successively with the religion of the court, whether its object were the worship of Jehovah, or the mysteries of heathenism. The forced reformations to

threatenings.(j) At that time there lived in one of the colleges of Jerusalem, a celebrated prophetess, named Huldah ; and to her the afflicted kingdispatched some of his officers, with the highbe priest at their head, to inquire what would the fate of himself and his people by whom the prophetess returned for answer, that God would not fail to inflict all those severe punishments upon his faithless and ungrateful sub:

jects

yet the concern and remorse the king had so lately expressed for it, had so far suspended the divine vengeance, that he should be happily gathered to his fathers in peace before the nation felt its dire eflects.(k)
;

which they had submitted under Hezekiah and during the latter part of Manasseh's reign, had been proved to be merely superficial by their ready relapses to idolatry in the earlier years of the last named prince, and in the
;

By

reading

farther

in

this

sacred

book,

Josiah became sensible that he and his subjects had been culpably negligent of the three grand festivals and to retrieve the error as
;

he could, he summoned the heads of the people from all parts -of the two kingdoms, to meet him in the temple, where, having mounted the royal tribunal, he told them how happily the volume of the law had been discovered, and he read it himself before them. He then informed them of his design to celefar as

short reign of his successor Amon and from the event, it is certain that the show of penitence they made in Josiah's reign, was of no The all-seeing eye of Him better character. who knoweth the secret thoughts of men's hearts, perceived this, and therefore they continued liable to all the effects of that divine

the the approaching passover with utmost solemnity, and exhorted them to purify themselves against that grand festival. While the people were employed in observing this

brate

wrath, which was just ready to pour upon them like a deluge. Having in vain exhorted them to true repentance by Jeremiah, who began to prophesy about the 13th year of Josiah, (m) and denounced a total destruction of the land by the prophet Zephaniah and the prophetess Huldah, the divine Goodness

hasted to take to

preparatory injunction, Josiah

the to make a more strict search over the priests temple, to cast out and destroy all the profane and idolatrous lumber that might be still remaining in it, and to carry back the ark, with all the

commanded

a prince of whom the nation was unworthy, by a sudden stroke, that served at the same time as a chastisement upon its iniquities, and was only the forerunner of
itself
all its

subsequent calamities. Josiah had reisned 31 vears

sacred utensils, which in some former reign had been removed out of it, and to deposite

in

them
these

in their original place

and order.
strictly

commands having been

whom
in the temple.

All coin-

3304. profound peace, when Pha- \ A. M. raoh-necho, king of Egypt, de- < Post Oil. 1737. termined upon attacking the f Aim.Exod.882. r furB. C. 610.
i

Jul. Per.

4104.

13al>yloinans,
2 Kings,

advanced as
3
11.

tar as

private hands, by

they were kept concealed till this After this time, through the care of this religious prince, were written those copies of the law, and other holy scriptures then extant, which were preserved during the captivity, and from which Ezra made his See Prideaux's Connect, book i. p. 66. edition.

(j)

xxii.

2 Chron. xxxiv. 8

19.

copy was found

(k)
(1)

2 Kinys,
2 King*,
11).
i,

xxii.
xxiii.

1220. 2 Citron, xxxiv. 2028. 13, 2125. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 2933.

xxxv. 1

(m) Jerem,

2. xxv. 3.

CHAP. XIX.]

JOSIAH SLAIN IN BATTLE AT MEGIDDO.

923

the city of Carchemish, upon the Euphrates. Josiah, for what reason is uncertain, collected a powerful army, and inarching to the valley of Megiddo, endeavoured to hinder his progress. Here the Egyptian monarch would have dis-

suaded him from interfering in his quarrel against the Babylonians, and assured him that he had no hostile design against him or his kingdom: but Josiah would not attend to his arguments, or his promises.(n) He sallied out, in disguise, as if his chief design had
been to bring Pharaoh to a single combat
(n)
;

but before he could reach him, the Egyptian archers had so wounded him, that he was forced to be removed into another chariot, and carried out of the field of battle. His wounds were mortal, for he died as soon as he had reached Jerusalem, in the 39th year of his age, greatly lamented by all his good subjects; particularly by the prophet Jeremiah, who composed a lamentation which was performed by a number of singing men and women at his funeral, and afterwards passed into use on other mournful occasions.(o)
this
It is said, indeed (2 Chrnn. xxxv. 21) that war. Necho sent messengers to Josiah to tell him, that he was sent of God on this expedition; that God was with him in it that to meddle with him, would be to meddle with God and
' ; ;

is

" It 2 Kinys, xxiii. 29, 30. 2 Chrnn. xxxv. the notion of many," says Dr. Prideaux,* " that Josiah engaged rashly and unadvisedly in this war, upon an overconfidence in the merit of his own righteousness, as if God for this reason must necessarily have given him success in

2027.

every war he should engage in. But this would be a presumption very unworthy of so religious a person, and therefore another reason must be sought for. From the time of Manasseh's restoration, the kings of Judah were homagers to the kings of Babylon, and bound by oath to adhere to

that therefore he ought to forbear, lest God should destroy him:' and (verse 22) that 'Josiah hearkened not to the words of Necho from the month of God.' From (his, some
infer that Josiah was disobedient to the word of God But what is here said, must not be going to that war. understood of the true ,God, the Lord, Jehovah, who was the God of Israel, but of the Egyptian gods, whose oracles Josiah had no reason to pay any regard to; though Necho had consulted them, before he undertook this expedition, as was usual with heathen princes on all similar occasions.

would

in

them against all their enemies, especially against the Egyptians, and to defend that border of their empire against them. For this purpose, the Babylonians seem to have conferred on them the rest of the land" of Canaan, which had been formerly possessed by the ten tribes, till conquered by the Whatever were the other terms of this conAssyrians. cession, fidelity to the sovereign paramount, and a steady adherence to his interest against all his enemies, were always required in such cases, and an oath of God was exacted for their due performance: and it is not to be doubted that Josiah had taken such an oath to Nabopolassar the then reigning king of Babylon, as Jehoiakim and Zedekiah afterwards did to Nebuchadnezzar, his son and successor in that empire; and therefore, had 'Josiah, under such an obligation, permitted an enemy of the king of Babylon to pass through his country to make war upon that prince without any opposition, it would plainly have amounted to a breach of his oath, and a violation of that fidelity, which he had, in the name of the Lord, sworn to him, and which so good and Such just a man as Josiah could not but absolutely detest. an act was condemned by God himself in Jehoiakim and Zedekiah.t and most certainly it would have been conThe great and general mourning demned in Josiah also. of all the people for the death of this prince, and the pro-

The word God is not expressed in the Hebrew original by the word JEHOVAH, which is the proper name of the true
God, but by Elohim, which being in the plural number is equally applicable to the false gods of the heathen, as to the true God of Israel, and throughout the Old Testament it And whereas it is said is indiscriminately used for both. (ver. 22) that 'Josiah hearkened not to the words of Necho, from the mouth of God ;' it is to be observed, that the phrase here rendered from the mouth of God,' is in the Hebrew original mippi Elohim, i.e. from the mouth of Elohim. which may be interpreted of the false gods, as well as of the true God, and preferably of the former ; for wherever else,
'

through the whole Hebrew text, mention is made of any word coming from the mouth of God, he is there mentioned by
his

name JEHOVAH, and this is the only place Hebrew Bible, where, in the use of this phrase,
is,

in the
it is

whole

ed otherwise, that

expressby the term Elohim, and not by the

phet

Jeremiah's joining so pathetically with them in it, shew the great estimation he was held in by them; which he would not have deserved, had he engaged in this war contrary to the words of that prophet, spoken to him from the mouth of the Lord, as the apocryphal \vriter of the first book of Esdras says he did. For then he would have died in rebellion against God, and disobedience to his command and then neither God's prophet uor God's people could have expressed so great an esteem for him, as their mournThe mourning, ing implied, without sinning against God.
;

nor does therefore, alone, is sufficient proof to the contrary aty part of canonical Scripture give the least intimation that there was any such word from the Lord, by the prophet Jeremiah, or any other prophet, to recal Josiah from
:

But even had it been hercni/>p Jehovah, from the mouth of Jehovah, instead of mippi Elohim, Josiah would have had no reason to believe it from such a messenger: for when Sennacherib came against Judah, he sent Hezekiah wordj that Jehovah had said to him, Go up against this land, and destroy it.' But it was not reckoned a fault in Hezekiah that he believed him not, neither could it be reckoned a fault in Josiah in doing for God used not to send His Word to His serthe same vants by such messengers." Josephus says this celebrated (o) 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. ode was extant in his time but he seems to mean the same that we now have under the title of The Lamentations of Jrrrmiah, a book composed some years after, on occasion of the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, and the burnThe original epiceing of the temple, by Nebuchadnezzar.
i.

name JEHOVAH.
e.

'

diuin for Josiah,

was probably

lost during the captivity.

if. lib.

Conntct. book

i,

p. 73.

Esek

xvii.

1319.

2 Kings, xviii. 45.

lunah, xxxvi. 10.

x. cap. C,

0B

924

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

as Josiah

[CHAP. xix.

As soon

was dead, a powerful

second son Jehoa-

faction at Jerusalem haz, or Shalluin,(p) upon the throne, in the 23d year of his age, probably under the influence of the queen dowager. He very soon gave proofs that he designed to reign as wickedly as the worst of his predecessors ; on which account, the prophet Jeremiah was sent
set his

the king and people, although he had foretold, about the same time, the accession of Zedekiah to the crown of Judah, and of Nebuchadnezzar to that of Babylon, Avith the servile state to which all nations should be reduced

by the latter.(u) These denunciations were not confined to Jeremiah for Ezekiel and Habakkuk also
;

to exhort to warn

him to imitate his father's piety, and him of an awful chastisement, that
his

perseverance in was, however, iniquity. (q) and the thoughtless prince totally disregarded, till Pharaoh-necho, persisted in his folly, from his Assyrian expedition, dereturning throned him in the third month of his reign;

would assuredly follow

This intimation

in endeavouring to reclaim the infatuated people ; and a prophet named Urijah, the son of Shemaiah, of Kirjath-jearim, gave so much offence to the king by his bold declamations, that he thought it expedient to fly into Egypt for security but Jehoiakim sent
:

were busy

and having transferred the sceptre to his elder brother Eliakim, whose name he changed to Jehoiakim, on condition of receiving an annual
wretched captivity, according to the prediction of Jeremiah. (r) So signal a proof of the divine displeasure did not deter Jehoiakim from treading in the
steps of his unfortunate brother, or the people
tribute, he carried ended his days in a

him

into Egypt,

where he

messengers after him, who brought him back, and he was put to death.(v) This execution did not deter Jeremiah from pursuing his duty and in the beginning of Jehoiakim's fourth year, he >. Ju Per 4 07
;
j

from imitating his reprehensible conduct. Jeremiah was therefore commissioned to denounce the most severe judgments against the kingdom, unless they immediately acknowledged and reformed their evil practices. Among other things, he threatened the destruction of the city and temple but, instead of by his warnings, the ill-judging multiprofiting tude seized him as a sower of sedition, worthy This malicious accusation, only of death. however, was set aside by the nobles and the prophet found a powerful protector in Ahikam, the son of Shaphan,(s) who had formerly been in great authority under Josiah, (t) and who found means to skreen him from the fury of
.

3307. Babylonish cap- \ A. in. in very express terms, <PostDH. 1740. tivity(w) Ann.Exod.085. declaring that it should be for I 70 years, during which time the ^ C land should lie desolate. In the same year, being shut up in prison, he ordered Baruch, his secretary, to write from his dictation, the tenor of God's threatenings against His impenitent people, and to read them publicly in the Baruch did so ; temple, on a solemn fast. and some of the courtiers, having taken the writing from him, carried it to the king, who no sooner understood the nature of its contents than he cut it in pieces with a knife, and threw the fragments into the fire, notwithstanding the efforts of those about him to prevent it. The prophet was ordered to write 'Jul. Per 4100. ,j ul Per. the same denunciations again:(x) (A.M. and Jehoiakim's impiety was { Post Dil. 1741. Ann.Exod.HWi. almost immediately punished by I Ann.
'

foretold

the

'

the arrival ofthe Babylonish army.

(q)
(r)

'

'

600.

(p) It appears from 1 Chron. HI. 15, that Josiah left four sons, the youngest of whom is there, and by Jeremiah, called Shallum, but is the same with Jehoahaz: he was two years younger than his brother Eliakim, who was 25

Jerem.

xxii.

passim.

xix.

14.

2 Kings,

xxiii.

3034.

2 Citron, xxxvi. 1

4.

Ezek.

(s)
(t)

when he succeeded him three months after; but he was older than Mattaniah, who being only 21 when he began
to reign after Jeconiah, must have been only 8 years of age, when his father Josiah was killed.* Archbishop lisherf supposes the ruling party exchanged the name of Sliallum, because the only king of Israel of that name had been murdered in the first month of his reign, for that of Jehoaliaz, which appeared to them to bear a more pro-

(u)

Jerem. xxvi. passim. 2 Kings, xxii. 12, 14. Jerem. xxvii. 1 11.

(v) Ibid. xxvi.

2023.

The prophet IsaiahJ had long (w) Ibid. xxv. passim. before, but not in such plain terms, foretold this captivity, under the type of Tyre; and so had also Habakkuk, in a still
less

perspicuous manner.

mising omen.
*

(x)
ixiii.

Jerem. xxxvi. passim.

Comp, 2 Kings,

31, 36. nxiv. 8, 17, 18.

Anml

sub. A.

M.

3371.

Chap,

xxiii.

1518.

CHAP. XIX.]

JEHOIAKIM. JEHOIACHIN. ZEDEKIAH.

decessor,

025

Nebuchadnezzar, having defeated the king of Egypt at Carcheiuish,(y) marched directly against Jerusalem, which was soon reduced by his victorious arms. The temple was immeof its richest ornaments, the diately despoiled royal palace was rifled, the most hopeful young princes were destined to serve at Babylon, in the capacity of eunuchs, and all the choicest youths of the city, among whom were Daniel
companions, were carried off into Jehoiakim himself was at first captivity.(z) loaded with chains, and was designed to have been sent away with the rest; but, upon his submission to the conqueror, and promising to pay a yearly tribute, he was permitted to remain as a kind of viceroy in his own kingdom. At the expiration of three years, Jehoiakim rehis confe4111 'v volted, and, renewing Jul Per A. M. 340i!/ deracy with the king of Egypt, Post Dil. 1744. > refused to pay any more tribute Ami.Exod.88al t o the Babylonish monarch. S03
his three
-J

and

His conduct .being similar to that of his prea very bitter declaration of God's wrath was pronounced against him by JereThe bemiah,(e) and as punctually executed. siegers still blockaded Jerusalem, and at the end of three months Nebuchadnezzar appeared in person before its walls, and caused the siege to be so closely carried on, that Jehoiachin, finding himself unable to defend it, went out to him, with his mother, his princes, and his servants,
I

and delivered himself into the enemy's hands. But he thereby only saved his life to experience a more woeful calamity for he and his attendants were immediately laden with chains, and sent prisoners to Babylon, where Jehoiachin was shut up in a dungeon till the death of Ne;

buchadnezzar, full seven-and-thirty years afterwards. The temple, palace, treasury, and the whole city, were a second time stripped of all that was valuable in them; with the men of
valour, to the number of 10,000, Nebuchadnezzar recruited his army, and he sent 1000 of the best artists to assist in his works at Babylon ; so that scarcely any were left besides the poorest of the people to till the ground. Among

Nebuchadnezzar was not then at leisure to chastise him himself; but he sent orders to all his lieutenants and governors of provinces in those parts to make war upon him, which drew upon Jehoiakim inroads and invasions from every quarter the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Syrians, the Arabians, and all the other nations around him, who had been subjected to the yoke of Babylon, infesting him with incursions, and harassing him on every This they continued to do for three side.(a) years together, and carried off prisoners to the
;

the captives of note, were the celebrated Mordecai, and, according to the current opinion, the prophet Ezekiel. After this, Nehuchadnezzar set Mattaniah, whose name he changed to Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, and uncle to the unhappy Jehoiachin, upon the throne, laying him under a certain tribute, and taking from him an oath of fealty.(f)

number of 3023.(b) At length, in the llth year of his reign, all the parties uniting in one grand effort, they shut him up in Jerusalem, where, in the prosecution of the siege, having taken him prisoner in a sally, they slew him with the sword, and cast his body before one of the gates of the city, not allowing it the rites of sepulture, as the prophet
Jeremiah had
foretold. (c)

Zedekiah,
in

who began

to reign

JvA Per

4116t

the

21st
as

proved

year of his age, V unmindful of the <

A. M. 3400. Post Dil. 1749.

'
'

recent judgments, and as irre- I Ann. Exod.894. 8' ^ ligious, as any of his predecessors. Yet, for some years, he retained possession of his kingdom by his regular payment of the stipulated tribute; during which time he received some embassies from the kings of

Jehoiachin, called also Jeconiah and Coniah, was 18 years(d) old when his father was killed, and he immediately ascended the vacant throne.
lib. x. cap. G. (y) Joseph. Antiq. to that of Cyrus's decree for the (z) From this epocha

Moab, Ammon, Edom, Tyre, and Sidon, who These all under the same yoke with him. embassies were ostensibly to congratulate him upon his accession, but really to induce him to
were
(b) Jercm.
lii.

211.

restoration of the Jews, just 70 years are included. 8. Josephus* xxiv. 1 7. 2 Ckron. xxxvi. 5 (a) 2 Kings, Ezekiel was among the prisoners carried says the prophet off in this war ; but it is more likely that he continued at

(c) Jer. xxii. 18, 19. xxxvi. 30. (d) In 2 Chron. xxvi. 9, he is said to

but the error

stated at
(e)

is

be eight years old ; corrected 2 Kings, xxiv. 8, wiiere his age b

18

Jerusalem

till

the next reign.

*
Antiq.
lib.

(f )
xx. cap. 8,

Chap. xxii. 2430. 2 Kings, xxiv. 1017. 2 Chron. xxxvi.

years.

9, 10.

Ezek.

xvii. 11. et seq.

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

join in a general confederacy against their common tyrant. Jeremiah being informed of the

[CHAP. xix.

purport of their visit, sent chains and yokes to each of the ambassadors, desiring them to carry those emblems to their respective masters, and advising them, in the name of God, to submit themselves willingly to the king of Babylon, and not provoke him to lay a much severer yoke upon them, by giving credit to lying sooth-

the king to maintain the integrity of his agreement with Nebuchadnezzar. But his exertions were of no avail : for Zedekiah suffered himself to be persuaded to attempt the recovery of his independence, and thereby hastened the total destruction of the temple and the city. He was in the ninth vear of his --, f Jul. Per. 4124. reign, when JMebuchadnezzar, at \ A. M. 3414. the head of an immense army, Post Oil. 1757.
,
.
.

sayers and stargazers. There were at the same time in Jerusalem several false prophets, who endeavoured to persuade the youthful king that the captivity would shortly be at an end, and that the sacred vessels would be all restored to the temple; to which Jeremiah replied, that those few, on the contrary, that had been left, would be carried off, to be placed with the rest in the treasury of Babylon. Thus, for some
years, tions of victory and deliverance on the part of the false prophets, and of desolation and ruin from Jeremiah. This raised the latter many bitter enemies in Judea, and even in Babylon ; for he had availed himself of the opportunity, as often as Zedekiah sent his yearly tribute thither, to send letters to the captives, exhorting them to bear their yoke patiently, and not

^ Judea, and, after I Ann.Exod. 002. laying all the country waste, and seizing the most important fortresses, laid close siege to Jerusalem, before Zedekiah could make any provision, either for his own defence

appeared

in

or escape. The king, now it was too late, perceived the fatal consequence likely to result from his rash enterprise; and he sent to the

scarcely any thing was heard but predic-

expect a deliverance before the 70 years were expired and they, in return, instigated by two presumptuous men among them, named Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah,(g) wrote back to the magistrates of Judah, desiring he might be punished as a dangerous enemy to his country, who uttered, not what the God of Israel, but what the king of
;

prophet Jeremiah, whose counsel he had hitherto contemned, to know what he should do. At this moment, the approach of Pharaohhophra(i) compelled the besiegers to retire,(j) so that he began to think the danger was over, notwithstanding the solemn assurance of the prophet that the city and temple would certainly be destroyed, and himself and all his subjects be carried into captivity.(k) The return of the besieging army convinced the king of the truth of Jeremiah's prediction, and he sent secretly for him, in the hope of re-

Babylon dictated
;

to him.(h)

In the course of this contest, Jeremiah was but he still continued to exhort imprisoned the people to forbearance and penitence, and
Agreeably f" the prophet's threatening, chap. xxix. 22, supposed, that Nebuchadnezzar, on some occasion, ordered these two men to be thrown in the fiery furnace, where they found not that deliverance which Shadrach and his
(g)

At this ceiving some consolatory assurance. time Jeremiah was shut up in prison, on a charge of defection to the Babylonians, and was suffering most grievously; but neither this, nor the resentment shewed by the king, could induce him to return a better answer, than that Zedekiah, with his princes and people, should be carried captive to Babylon.(l) In the mean time, the siege was carried on so vigorously, that the inhabitants began to labour under a great
march to relieve the city, raised the siege, and went to meet them and so falling unexpectedly upon them, quickly put them to the rout. (k) About the same time, Ezekiel was prophesying in Babylon much the same things that Jeremiah did at Jerusalem ;
;

it is

two companions
(h)
(i)

did.

Jerem.

xxvii. xxviii.

xxix.

Josephus* says, 7lekiah had made an alliance with Pharaoh -hophra, before he ventured to throw oft the yoke; and something of the kind is implied in the prophet's mesIf so, Pharaoh was the only one who kept his treaty sage.! with him; for all the other princes who had sent ambassadors in the early part of his reign, instead of assisting him, became bis enemies and accusers. (j) Nebuchadnezzar, hearing the Egyptians were in full
lib. x.

but with this apparent difference: Ezekiel said that ZcdeHiah should never see Babylon, while Jeremiah declared he should die there in captivity. Josephus| observes, that the king's faith was staggered by assurances so apparently contradictory ; but he forgot that Ezekiel had added, that he. should Nebuchadnezzar die there, though he should not see it. reconciled the predictions by putting out that unfortunate
prince's eyes. (1) Jertoh. xxxvii.
J

cap. 10.

Jtrtm xnvii.

7.

Antiq.

lib. x.

cap. 10.

$ Ercfc.

xii.

13.

CHAP, xix.]

JERUSALEM TAKEN. NEBUCHADNEZZAR S CRUELTY.

;

9-27

and Jeremiah, who, in of his conference with the king, had consequence acquired somewhat of his liberty, exhorted them to go out and throw themselves upon the clemency of the besiegers, assuring them that their lives would be spared; whereas, if they remained in the city, they would certainly die of famine
scarcity of provisions

was broken up on the ninth day of the fourth

month,
in

the llth year of Zedekiah, answering

to our 19th June, in the year of the world 34 Hi, after a siege of IB months, during which, a de-

and

1-or this, the courtiers put him pestilence. into a loathsome dungeon, half tilled with mire,

where he must have been smothered, had it not been for the kind interference of Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian eunuch, who procured an order from the king for taking him out. Soon after this, the king again sent for Jeremiah, who warmly urged him to surrender himself to Nebuchadnezzar, as the only means of saving his
life,

and the lives of his family and princes. Zedekiah was half inclined to follow his ad;

vouring famine had raged within the walls, and, Josephns says, a grievous pestilence had swept away a v;ist number of the besieged. From what can be gathered from the inspired writers, who have been remarkably concise in their account, of this siege, it appears that the dialdamans had from the first blocked up the city with lines of circumvallation and contravallation, to prevent at once any succours being thrown into it, and the besieged from annoying them with sallies. By this means Zedekiiih was prevented from going out at the head of his forces, to join the Egyptians, who were
inarching to his assistance; and IVehnchadnezzar had sufficient opportunity to meet them, and give them a total defeat, without risking the operations of the siege. Returning from the conquest of the Egyptians, Josephus(p) adds, the Chaldaean monarch reared very high towers against the city, which commanded the town, and from whence the besieged were beaten from the walls. The besieged were no less intent in preparing against an assault, and in taking all proper means to elude the effects of the enemy's machines and stratagems, opposing one invention against another, as if the dispute had been matter of skill and art, as well as of But all these exertions were in vain; force. God had decreed the fall of the city, and it turned out accordingly. The metropolis of Judah, the ancient seat of David and Solomon, was entered by the Chaldaeans, and given up to the pillage of the soldiers. Nebuchadnezzar continued at Riblah, but he sent word to Nebuzar-adan, the commander in chief of his forces about Jerusalem, to destroy the fortifiThe walls cations, and to burn the temple.
by Joab through such a channel ;; and Dion Cassius mentions several such, through which the besieged escaped but what they during the last siege of Jerusalem by Titus add of his being discovered by a deer, which kept he same track above ground that the king did below, and which, being pursued by the Chaldaeans, brought them to the very spot where lie came out, can only be considered as a rabbi:

but ingenuously acknowledged that he was afraid of being insulted, if not assassinated, by the Jews who had fallen to the besiegers. (m) Instead, therefore, of pursuing the prophet's
vice

advice, the ill-fated

monarch endeavoured

to

escape by night, attended by his family, his nobles, and his guards ;(n) but the Chaldeans being soon apprised of it, pursued him, and carried him to their exasperated monarch, at his head-quarters at Riblah; where Nebuchadnezzar glutted his revenge upon him, by causing all his children to be massacred before him, and then ordering his eyes to be put out, that no object might afterwards obliterate the impression of that terrible scene. This hapd towards the end of the Jnl Per 4126 ^ P eue A. M. 9416. 1 eleventh year of his reign, soon Post Dil. 1759. > after which, he was sent to Ann.Exod.904. 1 Babylon loaded with chains, and there he ended his days in
his

make

^X

prison.(o)

The sacred historians have how the city was taken, they

not informed us
only state that
it

(m) Jerem. xxxviii. passim. (n) Josephus says, the Chaldaeans, having entered the city about midnight, went directly to the temple, which gave Zedekiah and his court the opportunity of escaping through some narrow passes of the adjacent mountains, and they had gained the plain of Jericho when overtaken and carried
all which is nearly to the same purport with what the sacred historians themselves say.t The Jews, however, pretend that he escaped through a long subterraneous passi which reached from the palace to the plains alluded to, which is not altogether improbable; for the city was taken

back;*

nic?.!

figment.

(o)

2 Kings, xxv.
7.
lii.

17.
11.

2 Chron. xxxvi.

1121.

Jerem.

\\xix. 1

et seq. (p) Antiq. lib. x. cap. 10,

J $

*
t

Joseph. Antiq.

lib. x.

cap. 11.

2 Kings, xxv. 4,

el seg.

Jerem. xxnix. 4,

et seq.

See before, p. 866. Dion Cass. lib. Uvi.

928

HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES.

[CHAP. xix.

were accordingly levelled with the ground, the greater part of the buildings were demolished, and on the 7th day of the 5th nionth(q) (17th July) Nebuzar-adan caused the two brazen columns, Juchin and Soaz, that stood in the court of the temple, to be broken to pieces, and all the gold, silver, and costly furniture, to be taken away; after which, on the 10th day(r) of the same month, (20th July) he ordered the temple, palace, and, in short, the whole city, to be set on fire, and reduced to a heap of rubbish.

where Gedaliah resided, under pretence of a

friendly visit, but really with the intention to assassinate him. Gedaliah had been warned of his treachery, but instead of giving credit to he entertained him with every token of it, friendship and respect ; and thereby gave Ishmael a better opportunity of effecting his purAt pose, which he did in the seventh month. the same time, he slew all the Chaldaeans whom

The unhappy Jews, down common people, were sent away

to the very to Babylon,

Gedaliah had with him; and, two days after, meeting with about fourscore Jews, clad in mourning, who were going to bewail the ruin
of the city and temple, and to offer up their devotions there, he contrived to draw them to Mizpeh, where he also murdered them, and threw their bodies into a well. He was then returning into the land of Ammon, with a number of prisoners, when he was pursued by Johauau, and some other Jews, who rescued all the captives, and forced Ishmael to fly for his life, with only eight of his men.(t) This barbarous action made the Jewish officers, and the rest of the people, so afraid of the Chaldaeans' resentment, that they began to think of fleeing to Egypt for safety. They first, however, consulted Jeremiah, who told them, that if they remained in Judea, they would be protected ; but if they went into Egypt, they would there inevitably perish. Yet bent, as they always were, upon contradiction, they affected to believe the prophet's advice to have been instigated by Baruch, rather than inspired by God ; and they determined not only to go themselves, but to force those two to go with them. As soon as they had reached the city Tahpanhes, Jeremiah began to foretel the taking of that place, and the desolation of

as prisoners, except some few of the lower order, who were left to cultivate the land. Jeremiah, however, procured his liberty, and was permitted to reside with Gedaliah, whom Nebuzar-adan left as governor over the miserable remnant of Judah.(s) Such was the dreadful end of that glorious kingdom, and of the Israelitish monarchy, after it had stood 468 years from the time that David began to reign over it ; 388 from the revolt of the ten tribes; and 134 from the excision of the Israelitish commonwealth in the 905th year of the Exodus. Gedaliah, whom Nebuzar-adan had left as governor in Judah, was son of that Ahikam who had been the protector of Jeremiah, to whose interest with the Chaldaeau commander Gedaliah He was a man probably owed his promotion. of a generous disposition: and, pitying the misfortunes of his countrymen, he endeavoured to alleviate their distresses by acts of kindness. Such conduct naturally made him popular; but his popularity excited the envy of his enemies, and too soon cost him his life. There was at that time resident in the court of Baalis, king of the Ammonites, a member of the Jewish royal family, named Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who had escaped the general ruin by a timely retreat. This man, as soon as he found the Babylonians had withdrawn, thought he had a favourable opportunity of making himself master of the country, and was promised assistance for that purpose by his royal protector. The popularity of Gedaliah, however, appeared to be an obstacle necessary to be first removed. Taking with him, there:

Egypt, by Nebuchadnezzar, which happened accordingly soon after, when the fugitive Jews were overtaken with that destruction they had vainly hoped to avoid, by an unlawful flight to a country to which God had said they should never return.(u) Thus ended this unfortunate year, in which the temple and city of Jerusalem were destroyed, and the whole land of Judah
into desolation, for the sins of its to Jeremiah, it is uncertain what people. became of him, but it is generally supposed that he died in Egypt soon after bis arrival there, he being then far advanced in years, and bowed

was brought

As

fore, ten resolute

men, he repaired to Mizpeh,

(r)
si.

(q)
(I)

2 King*, *xv. 8, et $eq. 2 King,, v. 22. Jerem.

Jerem.
Q.

Hi. 12, et tea.

(t)

(u)

2 Kings, xxv. 2325. Jerem. Dent. xvii. 10.

xl,

716.

CHAP. XIX.]

BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY.
bers, indeed,

929

down in mind by the calamities that had happened to himself and his country.(v) Nebuchadnezzar, in the 21st year of his
reign, (according lo the Jewish account, or his 19th according to the Babylonian reckoning), and the second after the destruction of Jerusalem, returned into Syria, and laid siege to

Tyre, which held out against him for 13 years. Soon after he had invested the place, he sent Nebuzar-adan with a detachment, to avenge, it and that is supposed, the death of Gedaliah executed his commiscaptain Jul. Per. 4130. sion so punctually, that he seized 3420. A. M. Post Oil. 1763. upon every individual he could Ann.Exod.908. find belonging to the race of
;

captive brethren in Babylon.(w) Their numwere small for they amounted to no more than 745 persons ;(x) the n:st having effected their escape into Egypt but this last captivity fully completed the desolation of the land, for none of its former inhabitants were now left in it; whereby the predictions of Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other prophets, and the denunciation of the Almighty himself to Solomon, were fully completed the land was brought into desolation ,-(y) its inhabitants were gone into captivity ;(z) and the house;
; : :

which God had sanctified for His oicn name, was destroyed, and had become a proverb and a by-

B. C.

584.

word among

all

nations.^)

Israel,

and sent them

xlii.
xliii.

to their
Deut.
i.

(v)

2 Kings, xxv. 26. Jerem.

lib. x.

xliv.

(z)

iv.

27. xxviii.
ix.

6267.

halah,
vii.

v. 13. xxii. 17.

(w) Joseph. Antiq. (x) Jerem. lii. 30.

(y) Lev. xxvi.

cap. 11.
xxiv. 3, 12.

Micah,
(a)
1

16.

3234.

ha.

Ezek.

xxxiii. 28,

29.

1114.

Kings,

69.

2 Chron.

1922.

Jerem.

vii.

END OF VOLUME THE

FIRST.

PRINTED BY MJTTALL, F1IHER, AND D1XON, LIVERPOOL.

VOL.

I.

6c

Page

CONTENTS OF THE INTRODUCTION.

CONTENTS OF THE INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER
Sect.
I.

I.

OF HISTORY.
Nature and Importance of History. Its Classifications and Definitions. Geography, and Genealogy Review of Ancient Historians Origin and Progress of History. Mode of Study recommended. Utility of Historical Charts
Elucidated

by

Chronology,
1

Sect. II. Sect. Ill,

8 17

CHAPTER
Sect. I. Nature, Origin, and Progress of this Science Seel. II. Division of Chronology. Objects to which it Sect. III.
Sect. IV.

II.

OF CHRONOLOGY.
19 22
Days,

Of

Mathematical Chronology. Julian Period

Historical Chronology.

applicable Division of Time by various Nations.

is

Month*,

Years,

Cycles,

25
Computations of various
5;>

Of

Assistance derived from the Testimonies of Authors.

Writers
Sect. V.
Sect. Sect.

Sect. Sect. Sect.

Of Eclipses, so far as they subserve the Purposes of Chronology VI. Of Medals and Coins, as Auxiliaries to Chronology VII. Of ancient Inscriptions. The Arundelian Marbles VIII. Of jErasand Epochas IX. Of Comparative Chronology X. Of Tabular Chronology, with a Chronological Series of Events, from

the Creation

62 63 66 74 87 OT

CHAPTER
Of

III.

Genealogical Tables, as conducive to the Elucidation of History

209

CHAPTER
Sect. I.

IV.

OF RELIGION.
Its Division into True and False Origin of religious Worship. Origin, Objects, and Progress of Idolatry. Opinions of the enlightened Heathen

Sect. II.

212 213

CHAPTER
Of
civil

V.
Mixed Forms. . 220

Government.

Origin of absolute Monarchies, and their Declension into the Republican and

CHAPTER
Of
Measures, Weights, and Coins..
,

VI.
223

CONTENTS OF PART

I.

CONTENTS OF PART

I.

CHAPTER
Sect.
I.

I.

THE COSMOGONY, OR CREATION OF THE WORLD.

Page

Opinions of the ancient

Atomists. Chinese,

The Eleatics. Stoics. Phoenicians. Egyptians. Chaldaeans. Philosophers. Platonists. Materialists. Etrurians. Magi. Brahmins. Epicureans. Pythagoreans.
233
Opinions of the

&c

Sect. II. Sect. III.

Mosaic Account of the Creation. Hypotheses of Des Cartes, Burnet, and Whiston. Pre-Adamites Of Angels and intermediate Spirits

245 252

CHAPTER
Sect. I. Sect. II.

II.

GENERAL HISTORY OF MANKIND, FROM THE CREATION TO THE DELUGE.

Adam and Eve. Their Fall. Situation of the Garden of Eden History of the Antediluvian Patriarchs Profane History before the Flood Sect. III. The Deluge. Construction of the Ark. Testimonies of the Heathen. Theories of modern Philosophers. Sect. IV. Arguments in favour of the Universality of the Deluge. Subsistence of the carnivorous Animals while in the Ark. The Rainbow unknown before the Flood Sterility of the ancient World. Sect. V. Religion, Arts, and Sciences, Polity and civil Constitutions, Population and Longevity, of the Antediluvians. Situation of the Mountains of Ararat
Creation of

255 262 270

277 287

CHAPTER

III.

GENERAL HISTORY OF MANKIND, FROM THE DELUGE TO THE CONFUSION OF LANGUAGES, AND DISPERSION OF MANKIND.
History of the Postdiluvian Patriarchs, to the Birth of Abram Removal of Mankind from Ararat to Shinar. Building of Babel, and Confusion of Tongues Sect. 111. Dispersion of Mankind, and planting of the first Nations. Population of the Earth at that Period. Settlements of the Posterity of Japheth The Canaanites. Posterity of Sliem Posterity of Ham. Conclusion
Sect.
I.

Sect. II.

295 304

307

CHAPTER
Introduction.
Sect. Sect. Sect.
Sect. Sect.
I.

IV.

ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.
History of Geography General. Divisions and Extent of the Earth, as II. General Description of Ancient Europe III. General Description of Ancient Asia. IV. General Description of Asia Minor V. General Description of Libya, or Africa

known

to the Ancients.

Meridians.

Zones.

Climates

319 322 325 328 330 332

CHAPTER
Sacred History, from the Birth of Abraham, A.

V.
Israel

M. 2008,

to the

Exodus of

from Egypt, A.

M. 2513

335

CONTENTS OF PART

I.

CHAPTER

VI.

HISTORY OF EGYPT, FEOM THE FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY, TO THE OVERTHROW OP PHARAOH IN THE RED SEA, &C.
Sect.
I.

General Description of the Country.

Name

Page
Situation and Extent.
Divisions.
Cities.

Oases.

The Delta.

Sect. II.
Sect. III.

-The Nile 389 Climate. Winds. The Samiel, or Simoom. Fertility. Inundations of the Natural History of Egypt. Gulfs. Lakes. Salt Lakes. Soil. Mountains. Nile. Animals 402 Vegetable Productions.
Artificial Curiosities.

Pyramids.

Labyrinth.
Religion,

Lake

Moeris.

Catacombs
Hieroglyphics,

409
Learning,

Sect. IV. Sect. V.

Antiquity,

Government, Laws,

Customs, Arts,

Language, Letters,

and 1'radc, of the ancient Egyptians 418 Chronology and History of the Egyptians, from the Commencement of their Monarchy, to the Overthrow of Pharaoh in the lied Sea, and the Exodus of the Israelites, A. M. 2513; and thence to the Reign of
Mycerinus, sou of Cheops

433

CHAPTER
General Description of Babylonia and Chaldrca.

VII.

HISTORY OF THE FIRST BABYLONIANS.

Sect. I.

Names.

Situation and Extent.

Cities

Rivers and Canals Soil and Fertility. Climate. Natural History of Babylonia and Cliahhra. Sect. II. Sect. III. Antiquity, Government, Laws, Punishments, Religion, Temples, Customs and Character, Tribes, Language and Learning, Arts and Sciences, Manufactures and Commerce, of the ancient Babylonians Sect. IV. Chronology and History of the Babylonians, from the Days of Nimrod to the JEn of Nabonassar, A.M. 3257

408 502 504 513

CHAPTER

VIII.

HISTORY OF THE FIRST ASSYRIANS.

Sect. 1. Sect. II. Divisions. Cities General Description of Assyria. Name. Situation and Extent. Natural History of Assyria Proper. Climate, Soil, and Produce. Rivers. Mountains Sect. III. Antiquity, Government, Laws, Religion, Customs, &c. of the Assyrians Sect. IV. Chronology and History of the Assyrians, from the Days of Asshur, A. M. 1771, to the Death of SardanA. M. 3184, according to Ctesias apalus, and the End of the First Assyrian Empire,

521 524 524

526

CHAPTER
General Description of Syria. Names. and Balbec Climate. -Natural History of Syria. Animals Lebanon. Mineralogy.
Situation
Soil,

IX.

HISTORY OF THE ARAMAEANS, OR FIRST SYRIANS.

Sect.
I.

and Extent.
and

Divisions

and
Rivers.

Cities.

Ruins of Palmyra

546
Fertility,

Sect. II. Sect. III.

Sect. IV.

Produce.

Mountains.

Cedars

of

552 Government, Religion, Idols, Oracle, Sacrifices, Festivals. Character, Learning, Arts, LanAntiquity, 556 guage, and Trade, of the ancient Syrians Chronology and History of the ancient Syrians, to the Death of Rezin, their last king, and their Captivity 562 by Tiglath-pileser, the Assyrian, A. M/3264

CHAPTER
HISTORY OF CANAAN, PRIOR TO
Sect.
I.

X.

ITS

CONQUEST BY THE ISRAELITES.

Divisions. Cities.... 570 General Desc:iption of the Country. Names. Situation, Boundaries, and Extent. Salt. Fish. Soil. Natural History of Canaan. Climate. Vegetable Production's.- Cattle. Fertility. Natural Curiositit-s 573 Rivers. Mountains. Deserts. Forests. Seas and Lakes. Valleys. Solomon'* Pools. Ruins of Acre and of Samaria - Jacob's w !! Artificial and Miraculous Curiosities. Sect. III. Selcd Fountains. Pools of Bethcsda and Gihon. Autiqui.ii.-!> of Beih-lchem and Nazareth. Sepulchres. Al>-ui,,in\ I'ill.uv -Olcflof (In; Hock. Places remarkable from Miperstitiou* Traditions 586 Field of Blood. Sect. IV. Government, Religion, Customs, die. of tlie Canaauitco Origin, Sect. V. Chronology and History of the Cauaanites

Sect. II.

CONTENTS OF PART

I.

CHAPTER
Sect.

XI.
Page
Arts, Inventions,

HISTORY OF THE PHILISTINES.

Origin, Country, Cities, Government, Customs, of the Philistines Sect. II. Chronology and History of the Philistines
I.

and Character, Language,

and Religion,

605 611

CHAPTER

XII.

HISTORY OF THE MOABITES.

Sect.
I.

Origin,

Sect. II.

Country, Cities, Government, Customs and Occupation, Language, Religion and Idols, of the 621 Moabites 622 Chronology and History of the Moabites

CHAPTER

XIII.

HISTORY OF THE AMMONITES.

Sect. I.

Origin,

Sect. II.

Country, Cities, Government, Customs and Occupations, Religion and Idols, of the Ammonites. ... 628 C29 Chronology and History of the Ammonites

CHAPTER
S ec t.
Origin, Country, Cities, Manners, Occupation, Learning, Chronology and History of the Midianites

XIV.

HISTORY OF MIDIAN, OR MADIAN.

I.

Government, and Religion, of the Midianites

Sect. II.

633 635

CHAPTER XV.
HISTORY OF THE EDOMITES.
Sect. I. Sect. II.

Origin, Country, Cities, Government, Character, Arts, Sciences, and Religion, of the Edomites Chronology and History of the Horim and Edomites

638 640

CHAPTER
Sect.
I.

XVI.

HISTORY OF THE AMALEKITES.

Origin, Country, Government, Character, Manners, Arts, Sciences, Trade, Chronology and History of the Amalekites

Sect. II.

and Religion, of the Amalekites.. 649 651

CHAPTER
Sect.
I.

XVII.

HISTORY OF THE PHtENICIANS.

654 General Description of Phrenice. Names. Situation and Extent. Cities. Antique Remains 659 Natural History of Phanice. Climate Soil. Natural Curiosities Rivers. Antiquity, Government, Religion, Customs, Arts, Language, Letters, Learning, Manufactures, and Commerce,
1 .

Sect. II.

*^ect. III.
Sect. IV.

of the Phoenicians

Chronology and History of the Phoenicians Kings of Sidon Kings of Tyre Kings of Aradus

660 667 669 672 68

CONTENDS OF PART

I.

CHAPTER
HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES, FROM THE EXODUS,
Sect.
I.

XVIII.
TO THE DEATH OF SOLOMON,
A. M. 3029.

A. M. 2513,

Of

Sect. II.

40 Years' Residence in the Wilderness Trades and Manufactures, Commerce, Dress, Religion, Government, Laws, Customs, Arts, Arms, Army, Language, Writings, Learning, Poetry, and Music, of the Israelites I. Religion and Laws of the Israelites II. Laws against Idolatry, and for the pure Worship of God III. Laws concerning the Sabbath, the Passover, and other Festivals, Holy-days, and Fasts IV. Laws relative to the Sabbatic and Jubilee Years V. Of the Expiation, or great Day of Atonement VI. Laws relative to Sacrifices and Oblations VII. Laws relative to Vows VIII. Laws of the Priests, Levites, and Nethenim IX. Of the Cities of Refuge, and other Sanctuaries X. Of the Tabernacle, the Ark and Mercy-seat, Altars, Golden Candlestick, Table of Shewbread,
the Israelites, during their

Pag*

QQ\ 714 714 717 718 723 728 731 733 734 740

Brazen Laver, &c 740 XI. Laws respecting Proselytes 744 XII. Laws of the Second Table, Judges, Courts, Punishments, and Customs 745 XIII. Diet, Diversions, Houses, Trades and Manufactures, Dress, Circumcision, Arts and Arms, Mourning, Funerals,

Sepulchres

Division of Time History of the Israelites, from the Death of Moses, A. M. 25o3, to that of Joshua, A. M. 2578 Sect. IV. Geography of Palestine ; or, Division of the Land of Canaan among the Twelve Tribes in- Nine Tribes and a Half west of Jordan I. II. Of the Two Tribes and a Half east of Jordan Sect. V. Chronology aud History of the Israelites, from the Death of Joshua, A.M. 2678, to that of Solomon,
Sect. III.
i

XIV. Synagogues, Schools, and Prophets XV. Language, Hebrew Points, Poetry and Music,

753 756 758 703 778 779 809

A. M. 3029

814

CHAPTER XIX.
Chronology and History of the Kings of Judah and Captivity, A. M. 3420
Israel,

from the Death of Solomon, A. M. 3029, to the Babylonish

893

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